Archive for January, 2005
Next Entries »The Future of Internet
Pew Internet Project gave out the results of another interesting study. In September 2004 they conducted online interviews with non-random sample of 1, 286 technology experts, scholars and social analysts (from affiliations like Harvard, MIT, Yale, IBM, AOL, Intel, Oracle, Google and some more) about the future of Internet. Mostly, they agreed that by 2014 internet will increase the size of people’s social networks far beyond what has traditionally been the case. Two thirds of them agreed that at least one devastating attack will occur within next ten years on the network information infrastructure. Half of them believed in future of copying and distributing digital product freely thru anonymous peer-to-peer networks. The also pointed out the growing surveillance by democratic governments and by authoritarian regimes due to increasing number of computing devices embedded in nearly every aspect of our lives.
And according to those experts, blogs will bring a dramatic change to the news and publishing worlds as blogs supplant the public’s attention to traditional media.
I try to imagine what would happen if tomorrow I woke up and there was no internet. Hmmmm, I would rather not have this situation to deal with. That would be just awful:))). Am I net-addict? Or net-holic? Do I feel insecure while offline? Intriguing questions, which I find hard to answer honestly, even only to myself. I know am a net-addict. Whatever that includes. At home, my laptop is constantly connected to cable, whether I actually am behind it or not. But I like the possibility of … I like to have all options open. With being signed on to Skype, Gaim (IM application) and x-chat I feel like my room is not bounded only to four walls but rather has all windows open to outside world, way beyond Ljubljana and Slovenia. It is something special about maintaining relationships with friends and colleagues online by overcoming time and physical distances. Information technology is turning into relationship technology:))). The form of online communication that I prefer least is certainly email. I find it so hard to sit down and write an email. I think email, even tho it deserves all credits for what it does make possible for me, is kind of retro. It’s the old way of communication, writing letters has been always at our disposal. Well, it did take a bit more time and effort to actually get it sent and received, but I don’t see anything so new in it. I think what puts me off a bit is its non-real time nature. I prefer synchronous communication to asynchronous. I prefer to be in real time interaction with people. Of course, there are situations where email is the only suitable form of communication. But …. there is one thing I don’t fancy so much. Webcams. I hear people praising them for all their benefits and I honestly believe they are very useful but I couldn’t use one myself. I see it as some kind of distortion of reality. Ops, which reality? Online or offline? I don’t divide these two. Now I got completely carried away with all this communication blah blah. Anyway, I would have troubles to get used to live without internet. And big ones, I guess. I don’t have any problem going away for a few weeks and not get online, but for good - that would be one sad thing to get used to.
By Nana | January 12, 2005 | Topics: Research, Tech | No Comments »
Who Are They Joking With?
Today, I went to make visas for me and my mum for going to Istanbul. I must admit I was rather disappointed about the fact that I had to pay nearly 80 Euros for both visas to be staying in Istanbul from Saturday until Thursday. And Turkey seeks a membership for EU!!!! So European Union gave them a definite date for accession negotiations, they are trying hard to get in, but they wouldn’t change visa policy for EU members. Interesting.
Anyway, I haven’t even start planning anything yet, all I got are flight tickets and vouchers for the hotel. Which was of course chosen on one main criteria: whether they offer internet access to their guests or not. Apparently, the manager seems to be a net geek, he’s constantly online, so I managed to chat to him about all sorts of useful information. The hotel has a nice Turkish bath (mmmm, I love baths) and it’s very historically stylized. In fact it is an old Ottoman house, renewed and converted into a hotel. It is located in the heart of Sultanamet so we will have all historical monuments just in front of us. Am looking forward to discover all this … and since hotel is net friendly:), I will hopefully manage to blog as well.
Well, originally I was going to do this mum-bday trip to Israel (we would at least feel the temperature difference there), but heck, Slovenian airline company just withdraw their flights to Tel Aviv for safety and security reasons probably. And just as a tease, they still keep it in their flight map. I tried to find flights from abroad but was way too complicated. Then I got so much used to the idea that we were gonna go more east and not west again, that I chose Istanbul. Well, there were some tempting offers from various agencies for Egypt or Tunisia but since I prefer to organise the trip myself, Istanbul will be. And am sure will be cool:)))))
By | January 10, 2005 | Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Creative Communists? No, but …
… Creative Commonists! Who are they? A group of developers and academics who are known for working on copyright reform under the project Creative Commons. Nowadays, when appetites for putting a license on just anything that exists is growing day by day, it is quite useful to come across some actors who try to slow and calm down the intellectual property advocates a bit.
On the continuum of creative control we are very much used to copyright and a bit less so to copyleft. Whereas a copyright grants its holder the sole legal right to their original works, a copyleft tries to ensure that every person who receives a copy of an original work, can use, modify and re-distribute the work. So, basically the Creative Commons can be put in the middle of this continuum. They try to ensure creators to enjoy their freedom and at the same time prevent them from various exploitations. To quote them:
“We use private rights to create public goods: creative works set free for certain uses. Like the free software and open-source movements, our ends are cooperative and community-minded, but our means are voluntary and libertarian. We work to offer creators a best-of-both-worlds way to protect their works while encouraging certain uses of them — to declare “some rights reserved.”
I checked thru their web page and database and I must admit I was surprised. One can search for music, sounds, movies, photos, books and essays and also lesson plans, course packets and similar stuff. Of course one can also upload any of these for others to use. I found especially useful MIT OpenCourseWare, which is a free open educational resource for faculty, students and whoever might be interested. And good news: no registration required. I could go on and on …. but instead I ll encourage you to take a look and who knows, you might just find something interesting for yourself. Then digging a bit further, on Images section of Creatie Commons, I found the OpenPhoto project (a free stock photo community), I created an account and am gonna share my photos. For no specific reason really, just to see how it works:)
By Nana | January 10, 2005 | Topics: Tech | No Comments »
Skype Me, Skype You!
Skype has recently released a new edition of its magnificant talk-to-all-your-friends-for-free service. I must admit I very much appreciate the work of its developers since it allows me to stay in contact with my friends from all over. The latest 1.1 issue is introducing a new, improved chat feature, allowing us to hold multi-person conversations as much as up to 50. Wahay, we can have a virtual party on skype:). By apparence it has started to look very much like any other chat application (e.g Gaim) plus all the messeges and calls are encrypted ‘end-to-end’ by using AES. This encryption ensures you that no other party can eavesdrop on your call or read your instant messages. Which is just great, in a public space, called Internet:).
Within my 1,5 years experience with sykpe, I can only say:
- it always works just fine;
- no echo included (it could depend whether the person you talk to uses headset or a mic I think);
- sound is great;
- works all over the world;
- easy to use;
- I haven’t tried skypeout yet tho.
See also Skype Goes Hand In Hand With Logitech!
By Nana | January 8, 2005 | Topics: Tech | 1 Comment »
Kunderian Sighting and Boarding
I have always enjoyed Milan Kundera’s fiction, and especially his magnificent short stories, collected in Laughable Loves. In this piece of work, which has been first published before 1968 in Prague, he shows himself as a master of graceful illusion and illuminating surprises. All seven short stories deal with one big concern of human nature - love. Or rather with strategic and complex erotic games. Both, women and men desperately try to come to terms with their sexual and emotional needs and impulsive actions which can culminate in rather terrifying snowball-effect-like chain of reactions and consequences. In one of these stories, The Hitchhiking Game, the young couple pretend to be strangers, he picks her up, and as the story goes on, they indeed become strangers to one another.
Anyway, yesterday when I was cleaning my book shelf, I ran into this fabulous book again and I went directly to one specific piece of one story, that always made me laugh so much. The little story that got me to write this post is a story about two friends, who went on a hunt for girls. And one of them came up with a little theory about Sighting and Boarding.
Those of you who haven’t read about this little theory yet, here’s some explanation:)). Martin (the story character) came to conclusion that it is not as difficult to seduce a girl than is to know enough girls one hasn’t yet seduced. So, this sighting theory says that a guy needs always, at every opportunity, systematically to sight women. How? Well, he needs to record in a notebook (or better iPAQ or palm, lol) or even in his memory the names of girls who have attracted him in order to be able to board them one day:)). So, apparently boarding is a higher level of activity, and means actually getting in touch with a particular girl, make her acquaintance and gain access to her (sounds bit like ethnographers task of gaining access to their key informants in their field).
So, guys, according to this Martin guy’s theory, it’s not wise and perspective to boast with names of girls you have slept with before, but to have a perspective future in the field, it is necessary to have plenty of girls, being sighted and boarded.
Good that the story is so cute and funny that my feminist self couldn’t be bothered at all.
By Nana | January 6, 2005 | Topics: Books | No Comments »
Blogs Blogs Blogs (Not Spam Spam Spam:))
According to Pew/Internet report on Technology and Media Use, blogs had established themselves as a key part of online culture. Here are some latest contours for the popularity of blogsphare:
- More than 8 million of the U.S. adults who use internet, said they have created a blog or web-based diary;
- by the end of 2004, there were 32 million blog readers in U.S.;
- RSS is gaining an impressive foothold with 5% of internet users aggregate their daily deliverance of blogs and other news with RSS or XML;
- BUT only 38% U.S. internet usesr know what blog is.
According to the survey, men are more likely to be blogging, most of them with broadband at home, most of them being online for more than 6 years. Blog readers seem to be somehow more of a mainstream group than bloggers themselves. Again, they are more likely to be men, young, more educated and with long online experience.
With only 38% (that’s only by my standards:)) of internet users, blogs are still in domain of sort of online geeks. But according to EPIC (for reference see the post on Media History Museum), this all is going to change.LOL. In his recent book, Who Let the Bloggers Out?, Biz Stone ask and answer the question on what blogs are:
Is blogging self expression, personal publishing, a diary, amateur journalism, the biggest disruptive technology since email, an online community, alternative media, curriculum for students, a customer relations strategy, knowledge management, navel gazing, a solution to boredom, a dream job, a style of writing, email to everyone, a fad, the answer to illiteracy, an online persona, social networking, resume fodder, phonecam pictures, or something you hide from your mother? It’s all of these and more.
A blog is a collection of digital content that, when examined over a period of time, exposes the intellectual soul of its author or authors is the act of creating, composing, and publishing this content; and a blogger is the person behind the curtain. Part social software and part web building, blogging is peer-to-peer publishing — the future of our connected lives (pp. 33-34).
I immediately looked at November’s RIS database to see what’s going on in Slovenia. Unfortunately, the questions about blogging were let out. I was rather disappointed. What I like about blogs best is the fact, that I find them very important sources of all sorts of information.
By Nana | January 4, 2005 | Topics: Blogging | No Comments »
Happy Birthday, Angie!!!!!!!!!!
My darling mum has turned 50 today. And I almost forgot to congratulate her. The bday party took place yesterday, and that was the reason. I rang her this morning and asked her how she felt. After a while of chatting I ended our conversation by saying: Ok mum, have fun and take care. And then: Bojana, but you haven’t congratulate on my bday yet. Ups …. Anyway, am not good at expressing long and poetic congratulations so I will keep it short and simple: I love you, mum:))). And the present? Am taking her to Istanbul next week.
By Nana | January 3, 2005 | Topics: Familiy | No Comments »
Arny Against Spyware
Styrian Governor in California made a big step towards a privacy of personal information by setting fines for sypware, which can be quite a serious privacy threat and not such a small nuisance to PC users. Read more …
If privacy in cyberspace is of any interest to you, go visit my friend’s new website (Slovenian site but has some links to interesting English stuff). Matej is the most devoted and deeply engaged advocate of privacy and surveillance issues of the information age in Slovenia. In the 2003 he published a book, titled Privacy on the Internet (Zasebnost na Internetu). It deals with an uprising problem of privacy in contemporary information and consumer society, and thus especially with the problem of privacy on the internet, which is treated in sociological, legal and also technical sense. There is also a practical aspect to the book, as it describes some concrete examples of possible privacy abuses and some protecting techniques. It was published in Slovenian and English language. But Matej is not only active in his writing. He indeed goes out to Slovenian telecommunication companies that actually violate the privacy laws and fight them. He’s just about to get his doctorate on the subject.
Anyway, the Terminator is going to terminate them all again - the sypware this time!
By | January 1, 2005 | Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Left For Venice, Right For Julian Alps
Yesterday after all, it turned out to be a lovely day. After my morning attempts to work, I spent an amazing afternoon taking photos and freezing at the local hill above Nova Gorica. Gregor took some really astonishing photos and I was trying to imitate his work.
Once, I used to go mountaineering a lot, but for the last 2 or 3 years less so. It’s one of the most unique feelings for me being up in the mountains, feeling their power and my own vulnerability at the same time. Hmmmm, I need to buy new mountaineering boots and starts climbing up again.
Tiny Venice somewhere in the distance (if you enlarge the photo, you might get the scent of it).
The Fire
This last photo was taken by Gregor, the only one he thought was nice out of some … 100 maybe? Yes, the eyes of photographers (even tho only amteur) are critical but for me, it was a splendid afternoon. I could post all 100 pictures but would be unable to mediate the happiness, joy and tranquility I experienced out there in the nature. While freezing and waiting for my photographer to finish his craft, I took a moment to think what I needed to do lees and what to practice more in the upcoming year. Absolutely less time on my laptop and more time out in the nature:))
Happy, Happy in 2005!
Srecno!
By | January 1, 2005 | Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
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