Technology and culture
The only details Miller had were this: “The SMS vulnerability allows an attacker to run software code on the phone that is sent by SMS over a mobile operator’s network. The malicious code could include commands to monitor the location of the phone using GPS, turn on the phone’s microphone to eavesdrop on conversations, or make the phone join a distributed denial of service attack or a botnet.“
Yikes. Not nice.
“For example, let’s say the icon of your choice spouts pure (but entertaining) cr*p to their 50,000 followers (who then re-tweet like good little acolytes), and a few experts in the field with a few thousand followers each rebut it, the correct version will be buried in the deluge. Ignorance prevails.And it gets worse - typically, those espousing the populist cr*p can get funding from commercial entities, those resisting struggle for resources, so the field is further unbalanced. I have watched the “Free” hypothesis trumpeted in media organ after media organ , typically via journalists whose grasp of economics (or even maths) is tenuous at best. Tonight, for example, I am going to listen to Mr Anderson talk at the Royal Society of Arts - not the London School of Economics.”
“The most important question is not, “How do we become more like Steve Jobs?” The best question is, “How do we become the best version of our own company?” That might mean the kind of leadership Taylor espouses in the rest of his column, or it might mean something else. It definitely doesn’t mean replacing your wardrobe with black turtlenecks, blue jeans, and New Balance sneakers. Even when Apple eventually has to replace Steve as CEO, whether in five or, with the assistance of cybernetics, 50 years, the best thing the board of directors could do is look for someone who is nothing like Steve. You’ll never top him in a million years if you play his game, but you might do something awesome on your own terms if you figure out what makes you great.”
Pete’s bang on the money here. Jobs does a million things that would be disastrous for 99.99% of other managers to copy. He’s a one-off, and while there are lessons that other businesses can learn from Apple, there’s few lessons about management that you can learn from the personal style or Steve.
Twitter isn’t as profitable as Second Life:
- Estimated revenue of Second Life holding company, in 2008: $96 million
- Estimated revenue of Twitter holding company, in 2008: $0 million
I’ve been venturing into SL a little more lately, and it’s still an amazing achievement. And, as WJA notes, profitable.
A former civil servant who wrote an internet article imagining the kidnap and murder of the pop group Girls Aloud has been cleared of obscenity.
Darryn Walker, 35, of South Shields, South Tyneside, was charged under the Obscene Publications Act after the blog appeared on a fantasy pornography site.
He appeared at Newcastle Crown Court, but was cleared on Monday.
His defence argued that the article was not accessible, and could only be found by those looking for specific material.
This is a really interesting decision, and one that I’m very surprised at.
If you look back through my blog to the dim and distant past - otherwise known as 2002 - you’ll notice something about it. There’s lots of short bits, links, pictures and quotes with comments.
Later on, it changes. Posts become longer and more like news stories or essays. They also get more few and far between. Instead of several posts per day, you get a couple of posts per week, sometimes with much bigger gaps.
Since I discovered Posterous, though, the old style has started to come back. More clips, more short items of interest. The blog has started to feel like a scrapbook again rather than a publication. I like it.
Geoff Taylor, head of UK major label trade group BPI, wrote an op-ed piece for the BBC today in which he called Napster the “Rosetta Stone of digital music,” said it was “simple to understand and use,” and said that the music industry should have “embraced Napster rather than fighting it.”
I can’t imagine quite how much revenue the music industry has lost because it failed to embrace Napster. A deal was on the table, and the music companies turned their noses (or should that be snouts?) up at it.
His comments on how every thought that DRM was necessary at the time also ring true. They did. They were wrong, and people were telling them this at the time.
“Okay, I’m making a new rule: whenever I’m reading something online and I see the phrase “The Mainstream Media,” I’m instantly deducting 40 credibility points from the author. It’s a meaningless phrase and to use it indicates either laziness or sloppiness.
Worst, it’s often a cheap debating technique best used by con men to imply a closeness with the reader. “You know that individual or organization that you can’t stand? You know the one I’m talking about, right? Well how about that! I can’t stand it or him or her either! Why, buying an above-ground pool from me will be like buying it from your best friend!”
But chiefly let’s stick to the problem that it’s a meaningless term. I write a column for a great metropolitan newspaper. I’m part of the Mainstream Media, right? But what happens when I blog here? Whoops, no. I’m a Citizen Journalist. Damn, and then I screwed it all up by appearing on CBS. No! Wait! I think I saved it by doing a podcast.”
Andy is totally right. Am I part of the mainstream media? Am I part of it when I blog? When I post on Flickr? It’s a meaningless term.
