more on google-pyra

An article from the New York Times today goes into some more details on speculation surrounding the Google-Pyra deal. It seems that Google has denied ambitions to enter the portal business, as it seemed to me earlier:

Chris Sherman, associate editor of the Search Engine Watch site, said the advertising possibilities were most likely an important consideration for Google.

One worry for Google, Mr. Sherman said, is that a blogging service will make Google look more like a portal, putting it in competition with companies like Yahoo and America Online that license its search technology.

Mr. Sherman said the company has denied any ambitions to become a portal. "It's a valid concern and I think it's something Google has to be very careful to avoid," he said.

Hm. I wonder...

gibson on 9/11

Today William Gibson posted a short piece he wrote on 20/9/2001 entitled 'Mr. Buk's Window.' Must read.

i feel random

A couple of articles that I found interesting in the last couple of days: one, a 'Repress yourself', which talks about how in many extreme situations people that repress emotions do better than those that talk about them (or are forced to by psychiatrists or psychologists that assume that talking about things fixes the problem.

Meanwhile... ah, yeah, the randomness. Weird. Some movies I've wanted to see but haven't had time yet: 1) 8 Mile, 2) The Ring, 3) Daredevil... Maybe this weekend there will be some free time for that.

nigerian scam turns bloody

Chris fwded this to me through email: The infamous 419 scam has claimed more than money as a victim. Something I didn't know about this scam is that it had been going on for years before the internet arrived. Nothing's new, really... except maybe the scale. But that does change the nature of it a bit, doesn't it?

the pitfalls of computer-based text communications

An article (don't ask me how I got to this link, I have no idea!) on "An Etiquette for Computer-Based Communication". Regardless of the title, what the article really does is talk about several examples of how communication through email alone can create problems. I think they miss that distinction: the problems appear not with computer based communication, but when a single type of communication is used. With "redundancy" (email, phone, videoconferencing, and so on) misunderstandings are much less likely. In particular, reliance on email alone can be dangerous. But we knew that, right? It's not as if someone in the past would conduct their entire business only through snail-mail... but then technology has a way of shifting expectations, many times in wrong directions. Computer-based communication is not the problem. Misuse of it, or simply over-reliance on some of it forms, is.

a drug user's guide to not writing

A Salon interview with Essayist Geoff Dyer on "the difference between fiction and nonfiction (none), the usefulness of marijuana, and the importance of doing nothing" Amusing and at times insightful, with small jewels like "There's that nice line of Thomas Pynchon's: 'Marijuana -- that useful substance.'".

the purple cow

Matt posted a link and some comments to an article 'In praise of the purple cow". Interesting, if slightly repetitive. The main idea the article puts forth is that "good enough" products with good marketing just don't cut it anymore. There's just too many things to look at. I think a good example of this is the music industry: in spite of prodigious amounts of marketing, the record companies haven't had a massive hit in quite a while. They repeat proven formulas to death, and people simply don't pay attention anymore. Same thing on TV, with the concept of 'reality shows' overused to death. The tempation to stick to what's proven (many times driven by the customers themselves) is too much.

more comments on the java spaces API

Anthony has posted some comments on the spaces API (Thanks!). He points out one typo on the XML definition and mentions that the required-rights tag values as built-in parameter. This will be changed according to his suggestion, also adding in Matt's suggestion to the dev-list of providing a bit more fine-grained control for the rights assignment. Something along the lines of:


<required-rights>
   <read-write datatype="calendar"/>
   <read datatype="all"/>
   <full datatype="notes"/>
</required-rights>

The new version of the API document should be up soon, with these changes and some new material, specifically regarding Java APIs for accessing spaces functionality.