Monday  2002-07-29   World

Who are the pirates now?

Several congressmen are introducing a bill that lets the entertainment industry take over people's computers to prevent "piracy".

Or maybe instead of breaking into people's computers, how about hiring deliverymen, utility meter readers, real-estate agents, and so on to enter people's houses and look for ill-gotten copyright material?

And if there is widespread "piracy", shouldn't Coast Guard and Navy respond? Can we have Marine detachments guard our houses and Internet connections?

As for the Congressmen sponsoring this bill, one wonders if they would be happier as highly paid full-time lobbyists for the industry? At the very least they wouldn't be sailing under a false flag of "people's representatives".

Monday  2002-07-29   Software

Contours' book recommendation

Contours' book recommendation is for serious students of computer science.

Monday  2002-07-29   Software

RISKS

RISKS digest - or how computers amplify human follies.

Monday  2002-07-29   Software

ALICE and SHRDLU

ALICE is a natural language artificial intelligence chat robot. Its creator Richard Wallace is also famous for his fallout with much of AI academia (see New York Times Magazine's profile on 2002-07-07). Slashdot is carrying a long interview with Dr Wallace.

SHRDLU was an earlier AI natural language program from 1968-1970 that is enjoying a revival. Its classic demo dialog is most instructive.

Tuesday  2002-07-23   Web of Services

Jini presentations

Presentations from Sixth Jini Community Meeting [Boston] held on June 17-20, 2002 are available.

Saturday  2002-07-20   Software

XML and Semantic Transparency

"XML and Semantic Transparency" by Robin Cover is one of the most important papers on XML and its applications.

Friday  2002-07-19   Web of Services

Digital ID week: XNS, Liberty and spam

This week saw two important milestones for digital identity.

First XNS. Two years after initial announcement, OneName has finally released its initial specs of XNS or Extensible Name Service. As "Digital Identity" (a blog on the subject) point out, OneName has been trying to become ICANN of digital identity in vain. How much traction will XNS enjoy?

Second Liberty Alliance ("Say No to Microsoft Passport"). It also released its 1.0 specs. As can be expected the 1.0 specs are not without problems but they have supports from many technology companies and, more importantly, many of their large corporate users.

To be blunt about it, current drive for digital identity is led by corporations wishing to herd their customers by tagging them. However digital identity can be a force for the common good: John Patrick (a former IBM executive) envisions spam free world thanks to authentication provided by digital identity.