The REMIX Culture

This is one of Lawrence Lessig's classic speeches. I'm sure most people who read this already hold the viewpoint that copyright law needs a major overhaul, so this video will just be a friendly and clear reminder of why that is true. For those of you who believe that copyright law needs no change, hopefully this video will explain why so many people believe firmly that the current system is broken.



The highly ironic part of this is that Warner Music has issued a DMCA take-down notice on the presentation.

Really?

Wolfram Sets the Timer, Will Blow Away Factual Search in May

Go take a look at Wolfram Alpha.



It's a "computational knowledge engine." Sounds impressive, doesn't it? It definitely has the potential to completely blow away any factual search engine that has come previously, of which the most prominent example may be Powerset.

The brains behind this, Stephen Wolfram, is an acclaimed computer scientist that has had many incredible creations already, including the heavily used software package Mathematica, which adds jaw-dropping features in every release, and the stunning if controversial book A New Kind of Science, so he definitely has the background and the resources to create a good factual search engine. In fact, Wolfram has frequently posited, both in A New Kind of Science, and other sources, that he believes computation can be a valid representation of knowledge and science. Hence, Wolfram Alpha is based on what VentureBeat describes well as "terabytes of curated data and millions of lines of algorithms" to create a representation of computable human knowledge.

While I can't say anything to the efficacy of this--it may blow all of us away come May, or it could be the next Cuil--it will definitely be a step forward in the problem of factual search. With Wolfram's entire focus behind this project, and with the concession that this is still a work in progress, I do hope that this will actually work much better than Powerset (which is not to say anything bad about Powerset--they were a little underwhelming, but technically, I can see the incredible technology and useful research that went into building it).

If anyone can get me early access to Wolfram Alpha, I would owe you a big one.

Minority Report Comes to Life

A clip from Minority Report? No. It's real.

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

Oblong is apparently the company that advised the production staff of Minority Report on the technology of the film, with much of their expertise derived from the founders' research at the MIT Media Lab. Oblong promises to "fundamentally chnage the way people use machines at work, in the living room, in conference rooms, in vehicles."

Keyboard Shortcutting

If you're on your computer or online a few hours each day, and you go to a wide variety of web sites, or use lots of different programs, you have probably realized that using the mouse is a slow endeavor, and that keyboard shortcuts rock.

Here are two that rock the hardest, in my opinion.

1. Launchy (http://www.launchy.net)





Launchy is a text launcher that will revolutionize the way you use your computer. After installing, just press Alt-Space to pop up the launcher, and start typing the name of the program you want to launch, or even non-continuous letters of the program you would like to launch. Then, select from the list using the arrow keys the one that matches. Launchy quickly learns the programs you launch the most, so after a day or two, you'll be amazing everyone with your program-launching skills.


2. Firefox keywords
What if you can search something on google by typing "g something" on your web browser? Or search Wikipedia by typing "wp something"? Or UrbanDictionary, or YouTube search, or hundreds of other possibilities? Well, here's a quick guide on how to set those address bar searches up in Firefox.

A. Go the the page with the search box. I used Wikipedia below as an example. Then, right click in the search field, and click "Add a Keyword for this Search..."




















B.
The following dialog should pop up:












C.
Type in a name for your bookmark, and a short, easy to remember keyword with which you can use your search. In my Wikipedia example, I used "wp".











D.
Then, in the address bar, just type "[your keyword] [your search]" and you're good to go! (Hint: to quickly go the the address bar, just press F6!)

The RIAA is Suing My Printer

There is an interesting study out by the University of Washington's Computer Science department revealing flaws in the detection of copyright infringers online. In the study, it was found that enforcement agencies sometimes used merely the fact that an IP address was seen in connection with a certain file online in implicating a user, without verification that the owner of the IP address did actually download anything, or that the owner of the IP is even a person. With IP spoofing tactics, they managed, hilariously, to get three printers in the CS department to receive DMCA takedown complaints from the MPAA. Is this result likely to get noticed in the next wave of countersuits against the RIAA and MPAA? Probably. Are universities going to change their policies because of this? No comment.

See the official page for the paper, an FAQ, and more details.


(Image courtesy of the Washington University CS Department.)

Making Hardy Heron Even Hardier

Thie great article from Lifehacker details how to ease the transition into the newest distribution of Ubuntu, especially if you're giving up Windows or Mac OSX for the first time, and are wondering how you can do all the stuff you used to.

And of course, Ubuntu Hardy Heron is a Longterm Support Release (LTS), so you will be able to get online support for it for at least the next three years if you have the desktop version, and at least the next five years if you have the server version.

Congress Preempting Genetic Discrimination

An interesting article in the NYT about genetic discrimination:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/business/23gene.html?_r=1&ref=health&oref=slogin

Gattica, anyone?