Global POV: At the Intersection of Technology and Culture

Hillary Clinton is still upset about mature themes in video games and has renewed her pledge to clamp down on the video game industry if she is elected.

Her initial reaction came about because of the infamous "Hot Coffee" easter egg sequence in Grand Theft Auto III.

She's tried to push a bill through before making it a crime to sell kids adult games. Her Family Entertainment Protection Act which failed two years ago would probably be the template.

Doesn't she have enough to worry about? Voluntary guidelines for labeling content is one thing, making any but the most abhorrent content a crime is another. I mean, has anyone actually watched a movie like Hostel or Saw? Or how about the violent content in TV shows. Hayden what's-her-name was autopsied alive in one episode of Heroes last year, for chrissakes.

Personally, I think that war is obscene.

Posted on December 24, 2007

Crossing the American public

The Bush administration was unusual for its anti-intellectualism and its deep seated hypocrisy and arrogance, wrapped up neatly in an evangelical package. Whenever things got tough, President Bush would invoke God in some way or if not the deity himself, his opinions ("These people are evil"). He's not the only politician to drape a religious toga around his shoulders and have a self-righteousness party, but he is the first President to openly identify himself with evangelicals and to invoke religion in any but the most cynically abbreviated way. I am not talking about privately held religious belief, which is to Bushism like the difference between marital sex and an orgy.

I had thought that like the baby in the bathwater, this religious crassness would drain away when the plug was finally pulled on the Bush administration, but alas it is not to be.

Religion has figured way too prominently already in the presidential campaigning where many of the candidates (at least the Republicans), instead of repudiating Bushism, are running around the Midwest, reassuring the lay deacons that they embrace it.

Huckabee is trying to persuade everyone that he speaks for all Baptists and s a ghostly cross appears in some of his television ads. McCain has been ducking the issue personally, but identifies with the values of evangelical voters. Mitt Romney is trying to convince everyone that Mormonism is just as hard-core evangelical as the loudest of the Baptists while downplaying the weirdness that lingers around the fringe of the Mormon Church. Giuliani is trying to fast talk his way out of his support for abortion rights and Fred Thompson is trying to calmly backdoor bullshit his way into the White House by hoping voters will confuse his southern accent with his religious beliefs. Ron Paul has some crazy opinions about giant ordained badgers baptizing the IRS or something equally odd.

On the Democratic side, John Edwards, who Lord knows has more of a reason to pray than his colleagues (his wife has cancer), is a Methodist but refuses to discuss much beyond that. Hillary Clinton is also has a Methodist but has been vocal about bringing religion out in the open in American public life. Obama is trying to convince everyone that he is not a closet Muslim.

Where is the candidate who will say "Religious beliefs are every American's right to hold. We are here to elect the leaders of a secular government, which no matter what their personal beliefs, will not now or ever factor into my or anyone who works for me's decision making."

The First Amendment says that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Thomas Jefferson described it as " building a wall of separation between church and state". I am willing to donate a brick if anyone knows a good builder.

Posted on December 20, 2007

Apple bug?

MacWorld Expo is next month. For those not in the loop, this is the annual, long-awaited Apple scrum where tens of thousands of crazed Apple groupies get to jump and down as Steve Jobs announces the BIG news, whatever that happens to be.

There's always an active rumor mill grinding away beforehand. This year, the smart money is on an ultralight MacBook, which presumably would be 2 lbs instead of the 6 that is currently. They could shave a lot of the weight by cutting back the battery and dropping the drive. But, as Forbes points out, ultralights account for less than 10% of laptop sales and historically have never done well.

Other rumors include an Apple tablet, a 3G iPhone and craziest of all--an Apple branded car, like a Volkswagen.

From a marketing perspective, this actually makes some sense, I think. How about a completely high-tech VW bug, with full blue-tooth support, a built-in ipod jack and enough internet connectivity to buy stuff from the iTunes store?

Posted on December 20, 2007

Business

The Bizarro President learns how to Reid

The New York Times has a story today talking about the deep animosity, almost hatred between Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader and President Bush.

Mr. Reid seems to feel that the President is less than competent, not so bright and fundamentally dishonest. Mr. Bush has not publicly expressed negative feelings about Mr. Reid, "He so not so bad person", said the President, "I him like we be buddies, like Georgie and Condie. Go skinny-dipping in White House pool."

Mr. Reid has apparently harbored ill feelings about the President's decision five years ago to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain 100 miles north of Las Vegas, in Mr. Reid's home state of Nevada. In defense, the President said "Glowey bomb stuff fun, but Dick say is bad for George, bad to play with, slap Georgies hands and send green poo-poo away to bad men Democrat gambling town, before it hurt Georgie, me get oldtimers disease like Uncle Ronnie, make Georgie's meat stick fall off."

Mr. Reid has continually dueled with the President in the media, most recently over the President's expanded use of his veto powers. Mr. Bush explained away the conflict as politics as usual. "Me no have Harry Ass for Senate Menagerie Leader Reid. "

Posted on December 19, 2007

View from an airplane

I fly a lot, both domestic and international and I thoughtfully read articles talking about trends today which might be a pain in the kiester tomorrow. I hear a lot of talk about the degradation of airline services lately and I think it's mostly deserved, although it not clear who the villains are: the execs, the unions, Dick Cheney (I always include him on a bad guy list.)

There have been some outrageously bad cases in the last year, such as the notorious Jet Blue meltdown that left some passengers stranded for up to ten hours with no facilities. Some states are starting to do something about it...New York has just passed a law that takes effect after New Years that forces the airlines to provide a minimum amount of services such as bathrooms, clean air, food and water to passengers stuck on a plane for more than 3 hours. The state can levy up to $1000 per person if this rule is violated.

Naturally the airlines are going to court to block the law.

I understand their concern. Many of them are in bankruptcy or heading there. The last thing that they need is another unanticipated expense. As corporate officers, they need to protect the shareholders' value.

However, as corporate officers, they have an ethical obligation to "do the right thing", even if it costs them. Bathroom breaks every 3 hours? Come on.

It's not just the money, it's also an attitude. Employees of this industry (and I mean ALL of them), from baggage handlers to flight stewards are rarely friendly, often discourteous and frequently bullying and rude. Of course I'm talking about North American airlines. The European and Asian ones are mostly pretty good on the service front and they usually serve some food even on a quick flight.

What other industry would invent the munchkin can of coke with less liquid in it than a zit?

Perhaps the solution is for the government to nationalize the industry, fire all of the untrained service people like the aging barmaids-in-the-sky, pull the customer service business back from India and clean house. First priority is safety. Second priority is fiscal responsibility. Third should be customer satisfaction.

(And how about some freaking food on five hour flights!!)

Posted on December 18, 2007

Bitches

cryptofascists

A federal judge in Vermont has ruled against the government in a child porn case that hinges on forcing a defendant to divulge his PGP password phrase. While one ruling does not make a precedent, this case will be referenced in the future, I suspect.

What's at stake here is bigger than it may appear. The future of digital identity, content and privacy may very well hinge on the outcome of this controversy. Since government cannot effectively shield our personal information or protect our intellectual property, we must protect ourselves, ourselves, whether we are individuals or corporations. To do this, we need encryption. Crypto tools are only as useful as our ability to keep others out. IMHO, the 5th Amendment gives us the right to protect ourselves from self-incrimination and in the digital world--that means crypto.

Posted on December 17, 2007

Security

Being entertained by Cisco

Cisco is adding social networking colors to its palette. Their newly-announced EOS (Entertainment Operating System) is a service play aimed at media companies. Although details are sketchy, the technology appears to be have the capability of building communities with social-networking tools as well as presumably, some kind of load-balancing capabilty, since that's a core area of the company's expertise.

It will be interesting to see if they build specialized hardware boxes that are optimized for this kind of social traffic.

Posted on December 14, 2007

Media

Big Mac Attack

British McDonald's restaurants are using surveillance technology in an unusual way; they have installed license-plate cameras in their parking lots hooked up to a computer which ticks off how long you've been in the burger joint. If you've been there for more than 45 minutes, the contracting company that manages their parking lots automatically send a $250 bill to your home.

As surveillance technology gets cheaper, we'll see more of these applications; whereby companies figure out some clever way to capitalize on a new source of income that they might not have gotten otherwise.

Posted on December 13, 2007

Business

Retro television replication

The writer's strike is still on--yawn. Television has gotten progressively worse over the last few decades. Why were the TV series from the '60s so memorable even when they were horrible than today's shows? Comedies like Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies and the Munsters were silly, not really very funny and had some memorable characters that were complete and utter stereotypes. Yet, Gen X and Gen Y are just as familiar with the shows as were their parents. By contrast, today's network television content is completely unmemorable. Even the most popular shows like Everyone Likes Raymond has become a joke where the punchline is that no intelligent person admits to having ever watched it.

Were the 60's shows "better" because the actors were accomplished stage and screen personalities like Buddy Ebsen, Yvonne DeCarlo and Eddie Albert as opposed to underwear ad children who get the job first, then take acting classes? Is it because the '60s was the era of nostalgia where every shirt, song and show is constantly mined by Gen Y for fashion trendiness?

The content was different, for one thing. The comedies were played straight up, absent the self-referential sniggering that's common to today's shows. Today's dramas are perhaps too serious and seek to emulate big ticket movies instead of the simple escapist fare that was the Fugitive, Mission Impossible or God forbid, Hawaii 5-0.

IMHO, there are only two decent hunks of programming on television. Witty animated series like the Simpsons, Family Guy, Robot Chicken and the Venture Brothers and anything from HBO. HBO has consistently provided the best programming for a decade. The Sopranos and Deadwood rank with the best drama that has ever appeared on TV.

So, what does the future hold for television? Collaborative content and reality programming seem faddish, but I could be wrong. Will the Internet become more than a distribution mechanism and become an alternative entertainment media for full-length, big budget entertainment? Enquiring minds want to know. I expect to see high-quality programming move into pay channels sans advertising, following the HBO example, but surprisingly, it hasn't happened yet.

Posted on December 12, 2007

Media

Binary bitch slapping

Do computers work for us or do we work for them? It seems that we spend a disproportionate amount of time complying with requests made to us by automated processes. Demon dialers call us at home and most of us blithely hold the line and answer the programming with key pressing. We call companies and are confronted with the dialer's cousin--the dreaded voice mail box system ("Press 1 if you're calling about timber wolves, Press 2 if you're calling about wolverines.)

Websites were supposed to make things easier for us, but in many ways they have not. They also try to force us into a rat maze of deterministic choices. Commercial websites do not relate to us by our problems, they force us to constantly choose from their navigation menu, which is another variant of the voice mail menu.

There must be a new paradigm for how to interact with computer systems. We should be able to just blather to a gadget and get a rational response. I'm not sure that this is completely AI in a conventional sense--the software doesn't have to know much about the world, just how to translate our problems with a company into a quality solution. I hope that they don't turn out to be the same thing.

Humans free-form their problems, mixing fact, feeling and opinion along with a little dose of anecdotes ("my car used to act the same way, except that is an ipod. God, it makes me mad when it locks up like that!") Computers need to deal with that somehow. One of the biggest problems with digital thinking is that is presumes that someone smarter than you has thought through all the permutations of what could go wrong. This is why you often go to a product help site and get a lot of "did you turn on the box?" kind of questions, but nowhere can you find a mention of what appears to you to be demonic possession of your Tivo.

Posted on December 11, 2007

Bitches

The thought border police

Wake up consumers and smell the DRMs before it's too late. The big media companies and their toadies are very clearly broadcasting their intentions and it's our own fault if they get away with it. Yesterday, Dan Glickman, the head of the MPAA, discussed the vicious idea of ISP filtering. The idea behind this concept is that the Internet Service Providers would have to use software to spot and expunge copyrighted material that is passing through their network. In other words, the company that you pay for your email and web access would watch everything that you send across the network and if it thought something infringed, remove it before you saw it coming in or sent it going out. And charge you for it. And slow down your bandwidth because of it.

What a good deal for consumers.

Of course, there're plenty of ways around this anyway, such as encrypting streams, hiding the pictures or video inside larger files, etc. So what will the ISPs be made to do then--ban encryption for their customers? This isn't as far-fetched as it might sound, I expect that the day is coming when use of personal encryption will be a crime.

Whenever draconian measures such as this are imposed on the public in an attempt to shore up a dilapidated and depressed institutional structure, it is a social inequity and more importantly, it never works.

Posted on December 10, 2007

Intellectual Property

Losing Face, book

I was actually hoping this would blow over, but sigh. Another arrogant, young, venture-funded social networking company has done something counter-consumer, caused a furor and backed down, apologizing with a hearty "my bad." Yes, it's Facebook and their notorious Beacon program, which monitors things that members buy on 3rd party affiliated sites and broadcasts these purchases to the member's network, regardless of whether he/she wants them to or not. Originally Beacon was a compulsory "feature"--now it is kinda opt-out. It should have been opt-in all along, but I guess Facebook doesn't see it that way.

Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg (who is by the way, younger than most of my dental work), has apologized to the user community. In an interview, he said: "I'm not proud of the way we've handled this situation and I know we can do better." I believe Mr. Zuckerberg has completely missed the point--it's not a problem of how he reacted, it's the fact that they rolled out an evil f**king system to begin with.

Even now, the opt-out is transactional, you have to say no each time. The fact these bastards are tracking people at all on 3rd party sites is highly creepy and invasive anyway.

However as most of the critics have said, you don't have to use Facebook.

Good idea. Let's not.

Posted on December 06, 2007

Privacy

Forgetting maps

An interesting fall-out of the GPS world is that some small cities are having too much traffic routed through them because the algorithmic calculation concludes that that is the shortest path. The NY Times has an article about a small town in the UK called Wedmore who has a novel solution to this problem: They want to be taken off the map (or at least out of GPS systems).

Wedmore is an old English town with old English streets, narrow, windy, cobblestone-covered streets that are not suitable for the procession of tractor trailers and trucks that they've been seeing since the GPS systems started recommending them as a shortcut.

This brings up an interesting question about whether reference material should reflect reality or a convenient reality. The answer is applicable to many areas, not just maps. Should Wikipedia not have articles about dangerous things like bomb-making? Should musicians be able to eradicate music that they're ashamed of, hunting down every digital copy and killing it? Should politicians be able to retroactively change the history, modifying what they actually said to what they wish they said? (Actually they can already do this on the Congressional Record).

My vote is that painful or not, data is data. When you start screwing around with it, data becomes too reflective of cultural bias and less about facts. So leave Wedmore on the map and put up more signs or better yet, have towns feed data to the GPS companies.

Posted on December 05, 2007

1 Comment

Technology

Lying, liars and damn liars

In a not-so-surprising revelation yesterday, a declassified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran was released that concluded that Iran is not, in fact, building a nuclear weapon, and had probably stopped any such program four years ago.

Even more interesting is the fact that President Bush knew about this two months before he made a speech a couple of months ago warning that a nuclear armed Iran was a menace to the world and could start another World War.

He lied.

If he lied about this, doesn't that lend some credence to the idea that he lied about invading Iraq?

By "lied", I mean that he announced something as a fact when he had good reason to believe otherwise. Many people suggest that George Bush does this, not because he's a liar, but because he's stupid. I respectfully submit that he could be both.

There are times when a trusted leader needs to hold things back when talking to the public...for national security reasons, for instance, or to preserve the lives of military, intelligence professionals or others that are doing their jobs. But holding things back is a very different proposition than deliberately changing the facts to get the public to support what you want them to support. I realize that other Presidents have done this too (the Gulf of Tonkin, for example), but this administration must have trademarked the technique.

What America needs most of all in our next President is a sense of decency and honesty. I want someone in power that at least feels guilty when he/she lies.

Posted on December 04, 2007

Coke's the real thing--Facebook just sucks