Friday, March 22, 2002

How Google, the search engine, works. 8:38:29 PM

A Concrete That Percolates, Keeping Snow and Spies at Bay. A new concrete that can conduct electricity may make it possible to construct buildings in which the basic structure does double duty as an electromagnetic shield. By Ian Austen. [New York Times: Technology] 7:58:57 PM

Downsizing Videotape, Yet Again. The world may not be ready for a new videotape format. But Sony is introducing one anyway -- the smallest yet -- along with a tiny new camcorder that uses it. By David Pogue. [New York Times: Technology] 7:58:00 PM

Historic Exchange Goes Electronic. The Pacific Exchange shuts down its 120-year-old San Francisco trading floor and moves to an all-electronic trading platform. Traders lament its passing. Joanna Glasner reports from San Francisco. [Wired News] 7:55:24 PM

Tom Matrullo asks some interesting questions about our deal with the NY Times. I have written extensively about the difference between amateurs and pros. I use the terms the same way they apply to athletics. There's no implication of higher quality on either side, but if I had to make a choice, I'd prefer to read amateur stuff, it's more honest, less conflicted. Integration means having bloggers write for the Times and having Times reporters keep blogs. I've also written about that. Tom asks some other questions that I don't think, as the CEO of a private company, I have to or want to answer. BTW, unlike Tom, I was against Third Voice. If it had caught on, there would have been no difference between the Web and mail lists. I like mail lists for what they are. And I like the Web for what it is. And I thought the Times challenge of Amazon over use of the Times Best-Seller List was tacky, but then I don't think much of Amazon either. They could have been Google, they could have been on our side, and a stupid worthless patent was enough to turn them to the dark side. I think the Pew Internet (pointer?) writeup nailed it. Someone at NYTD thinks weblogs are important. But it's a big organization, a very venerable one, and there are two sides to that. I don't want to inherit any of the Times' conflicts, I am solidly a blogger, and an amateur, but I do want to help ease them into the new practice of journalism, and at the same time help bloggers take ourselves and each other more seriously. And maybe it's just a way of returning a kindness they did for me when they helped train my mind as a kid.   [Scripting News] 7:49:31 PM

Energy Dept., IBM to unveil Science Grid. The computing giant is working with the Department of Energy to build a "grid" to interconnect numerous computers into a shared virtual supercomputing system. [CNET News.com] 8:21:47 AM

Computerworld: New services spur growth of public access Wi-Fi. Public access wireless LAN service shared the center ring here at the annual Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association trade show with third generation mobile data, and one major carrier promised to deliver combined Wi-Fi/cellular services by early next year. [Tomalak's Realm] 5:43:34 AM

Bandwidth Shortage And The Telephone Company [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters] 5:39:23 AM

Wired: "The Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act prohibits the sale or distribution of nearly any kind of electronic device -- unless that device includes copy-protection standards to be set by the federal government"   [Scripting News] 5:37:35 AM

Great links tonight on The Shifted Librarian.  [Scripting News] 5:32:15 AM

© Copyright 2002 Jim Fridenmaker.