b.cognosco
Where leaping to conclusions is my primary form of forward motion.
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Physiological Effects of Display Monitors
SCO Claim Against IBM's AIX
Weblogs and Threaded Messaging
Microsoft to Cease Internet Explorer for Macintosh
FCC Says No to Independent Producers
Islam Unveiled
Tuesday, June 17, 2003
Four-Part Harmony
Straight from the horse's mouth.Tip: Click on the horse.
Physiological Effects of Display Monitors
A very small-scale Japanese study, published in the May 2003 issue of American Journal of Physiology, reports that nighttime use of a bright display terminal causes physiological changes in the body which contribute to insomnia. Among the reported effects were:-
a decrease in salivary levels of the hormone melatonin
increased body temperature
elevated heart rates
decreased sleepiness
Though small, this study supports the general conclusion of physiological variations between viewing on screen and in print. As noted previously, brain wave studies reported by Dr. Robert Restak indicate important differences in brain activity between digital and physical viewing. This particular study focused on the effects of bright monitors and "exciting" activity such as gaming, but such findings could eventually provide a scientific basis for determining the best method of delivering certain types of information.
SCO Claim Against IBM's AIX
The latest skirmish between SCO and IBM, reported via c/net News, is a real doozy. The SCO representative, Chris Sontag, is looking more and more like the Iraqi Minister of Public Information every day:
"We have terminated IBM's right to use AIX in their business, development, distribution and sales," said Chris Sontag, head of the SCOsource effort to derive more revenue from the company's Unix intellectual property. And in an amendment to the company's March complaint against IBM, SCO is "seeking a permanent injunction from IBM's continued use of our software in their business."
This sounds like something from the RIAA, or the WW<strike>F</strike>E. No sane person is going to open a can of whoopass on a 2,000 lb gorilla's favorite possession.
Tora! Tora! Tora! Die with honor!
This is a company begging for death; taunting its executioner; longing to become part of some attorney's retirement fund. This is almost as entertaining as watching Al Sharpton run for Congress.
Monday, June 16, 2003
Weblogs and Threaded Messaging
Discussion on the future of weblog comments, the migration to discussion forums, and the merger between the two. Issues to consider:-
the competitive nature of public discussion forums
the need to promote active reflection
the usefulness of bridging private, semi-private, and public discourse
JournURL. JournURL: More BBS/Blog Fusion. Another entry in the fusion of the BBS and Blog patterns, JournURL, an attempt to create a CCMS (that'd be Community Content Management System to you and me.) The focus here is improving on the model of simple comments for supporting real discussions in weblogs: "Robust threaded and linear discussion that encourages extended conversations and debate. No simplistic comment system here, folks. No anonymous spam."
JournURL recently launched a way to use its comments system from 3rd party blogging tools:
As I've said in the past, blog comment systems generally suck. They're fine for "me too" responses and the occasional one-liner, but they quickly show their limitations when put to the task of managing large, intense discussions. ... Meanwhile, here I am, sitting on what is probably the most robust, blog-friendly discussion app anywhere, and all of those people out there using Movable Type and similar apps can't take advantage of it. [...] [Corante: Social Software]Roger Benningfield has appeared on the ThreadsML list and showed us all his JournURL. I wonder if he knows that Steve Yost is about to unveil QuickTopic Pro -with QuickThread - the first implementation of ThreadsML?nbsp JournURL would be cool to be the second product to support ThreadsML.nbsp Then we could......
[Marc's Voice] [via Conversations with Dina]
Isn't all this really just moving right back to basic threaded message forums -- with the added ability of highlighting a post, binding it to its own URL, grouping it with other highlighted posts on a web page, and displaying them in reverse chronological order? (BTW, a complete implementation of this mechanism already exists in the Conversant groupware platform.) Isn't the locus of conversation going right back to threaded messages? Are weblogs now little more than HTML advertisements for discussion groups? Maybe that's what they've been all along, but it seems like we took an awfully circuitous path to get here.
And what of the cultural and personal barriers that exist for many people when it comes to speaking in a competitive environment. Make no mistake -- public discussion forums are comptetitive. Is that what we want from weblogs?
What of privacy? Many discussions can, and should, occur within private communities. But often one or more of the emerging ideas needs to go public. Can those ideas be made public without a wholesale rebuilding of the discussion?
Below, George Siemens and Jim McGee emphasize the need for active reflection in order to fully absorb, understand, and learn.
Active reflection, managed learning, and organizational changeOrganizational learning.Organizational Learning is No Accident makes an important point: effective learning requires time to reflect...and our "right now" form of communication (email, IM, etc.) doesn't allow reflection time...making it difficult for people and organizations to change (time being an important component to acclimate to changes).
[elearnspace blog]Excellent material on the challenges of building in the necessary time for reflection to power organizational learning and change. One interesting aspect to this line of thought is that reflection has to become an explicit process for it to work at the operating pace of today's economy.
It's a bit of a paradox. When we had time for reflection to work at its natural pace, we didn't have to depend on learning to keep our organizations aligned with their environment. Now that we need the learning, we can't rely on unaided reflection. [...] [via McGee's Musings]
Dumping everything into a publicly indexed, unrestricted message forum does not necessarily promote active reflection, or provide an opportunity to learn it. Weblogs were interesting because they limited the amount of feedback -- people had to be very motivated to institute a conversation on a weblog. Lowering that barrier might be a good thing, but it might also take away the insulative quality that allows participation by some who would never speak up in a forum.
The need for a private-public interchange point -- or some structured release mechanism where messages can be gradually be released to broader and broader audiences by using the same tools/systems -- might also be significant. Active reflection requires a sense of safety, and safety is the last thing one gets from public forums.
Saturday, June 14, 2003
Microsoft to Cease Internet Explorer for Macintosh
This announcement from Microsoft via WSJ Online (subscription required) regarding:
Microsoft to Cease Making Versions Of Explorer Browser for Macintosh[...] It makes more sense for Mac users to use Apple's Safari Web-browser, she said. Although still in beta testing, the browser has already gained attention for its speed and some of its features. [...]
FCC Says No to Independent Producers
There is something profoundly disturbing about the following phrase from FCC Rebuffs Bid by Producers On Independent TV Programs via WSJ Online (subscription required):
[...] As gatekeepers to the airwaves, the FCC said, the networks decide what goes on the air no matter who produces it. [...]
Whether or not the http://www.fcc.gov/">FCC ruling on requiring source-diversity in programming would have benefited the public or not is moot. What is important, at least to me, is the idea that the FCC has apparently decided that four commercial entities are rightly and justly entitled to act as "gatekeepers to the airwaves".
This is absurd. Ludicrous. Breathtakingly stupid at a scale rarely seen in human history. Gateway to the airwaves? The public airwaves? The radio spectrum that nature provided to all mankind? The FCC thinks that spectrum belongs -- lock, stock, and barrel -- to the four television networks?!
Who the hell is in charge up there?! How can they say that with a straight face? I feel like I'm back in the 1890's when John D. Rockefeller was running rampant over an ignorant populace of laborers.
Islam Unveiled
I am about one-third of the way through Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions about the World's Fastest-Growing Faith, by Robert Spencer.
The book is both enlightening in its detail and frightening in its implications. It has made explicit things which I suspected but had never bothered to study. I did not grasp the magnitude of the cultural battle that is brewing. It really is an East vs. West global conflict, and among my friends, family, and associates only the military historians actually seem to understand the full scope of the problem and what is at stake.
This book has just gone onto my gift list for friends and family. Anyone looking to understand what is in store for the next 30 years should take the time to read this book. Its exploration of Islamic culture exposes a fascinating problem and a potentially disastrous future.
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