The first full month of blogging. I actually got to some of the issues that I wanted to cover.

July 1st, 2002 Personally I'm more inclined to be a Skeptical Environmentalist. I even like the Limbaugh phrase "environmentalist wakos". However, I have great interest in conservation technology and alternative energy generation. So while reading the article The New New Economy at the Whole Earth website I came across the New Alternatives Fund which looks like an investment I would be interested in. I also read an article on the STRAW Project which is the way I feel environmental projects should be managed. Private individuals working together for the benefit of the individuals as well as environment.

July 2nd, 2002 While reading peterme I came across a link to Rhizome and their use of spiral visualization. While using that tool I found an article on Carnivore which includes an excellent, although brief, discussion on the evolution of the word hacker.

July 3rd, 2002 I'm going to be in Norway for the next 10 days or so. I found an article about holographic projection that I hope to be able to read more about when I return. They also have an article on the drug cartels' information infrastructure, that may prove interesting.

July 18th, 2002 I wrote yesterday about my trip to Norway, including a link to a webcam in Oslo (mundane) and oldcheese (profane). However, my ftp connection to the server seems to be acting up, so I have to update by hand.

July 19th, 2002 Had to put up this link: Mathematical Lego sculptures, which I found at GirlHacker's Random Log.

I'm finally getting around to writing about Copyright issues! While reading User Friendly this morning I came across THE INTERNET DEBACLE, by Janis Ian. I feel the article does a good job of debunking the myth that file sharing is killing the music industry. The article carries the added weight of being written by someone in the industry.

July 23rd, 2002 I found ROTROPOLIS again today. Which is run by a former colleague of mine from Competitive Knowledge. I must say that she has quite an impressive amount of artwork up at her site, an excellent place to browse for an hour or two.

I finally got my automated update batch file working again. I'm using PSFTP for secure ftp.

July 24th, 2002 Seeing this link to voice enhancement (from GirlHacker's Random Log) made me think of another article I had seen where researchers had massaged a video clip to make it appear that the subject had said something different. While looking for the link (if I can track down I'll post it here) I found an old link to Natural Voices, so I wonder if the technology from the first link could be used to improve the quality of the AT&T technology.

I saw a pop-up add this morning, that told me that me that since my computer was being inundated with pop-up adds, it was insecure, and I should buy the software advertised (in this pop-up) to block pop-ups. Unfortunately I closed the window so I cannot link to it with the word morons.

July 26th, 2002 I've been looking for an aerobics program to join... Cardio Stripping will not be it.
(My buddies can now all breath a deep sigh of relief.)

Today we'll hopefully make up for yesterday's lull. First a little fun: Princeton officials should have hired a geek to fake the ips at least. Does anyone think that McDonald's is eating right? Now we get into the scary stuff... A senator (a Democrat of course) is trying to get bottled water labeled drug paraphernalia! However, the last article is the most disturbing for me. The EU is trying to get deep linking declared illegal. "So you're telling us that if we put information onto a public network, that was designed to link information from different sources around the world, that people will link to it?!?" Before you say, "Calm down it's just those wacky Europeans", I should remind you that we have treaties with them to support Copyright laws. So whatever becomes law there, through our *wonderful* International Law, will likely become law here. And they wonder why we rarely take their advice... (All news links from Blogdex.)

July 29th, 2002 An interesting article on a new angle on voice recognition using Prosody. (from GirlHacker's Random Log)
And a cell phone IM product. (from peterme)

I found the pop-up ad people! I am linking to their ad with the word morons.

July 30th, 2002 I think that the guy at Big-Headed Pygmies (Thanks Jim) has an inferiority complex. I mean who really cares how tall Juliea Roberts is? The author of the site needs to see a shrink!

I also found the following at Feedroom, which has proved to be a useful input during my workday, an excellent replacement for Real Audio channels:
Dead Cell Zones, which should prove useful in choosing a provider.
Disposable Cell Phones, which aside from their ability to potentially thwart wire taps, should be cool toys.
FingerWorks, which makes a novel and possibly useful computer input device.

I hope to be putting in a "Currently Reading" side bar and an archives section.

More evils being introduced into the Senate by Democrats: Anticounterfeiting Amendments. (from Blogdex) Now I'm all for capitalism, and I support everybody's intellectual property rights, shoot I'm an amateur author and hopefully lyricist. However, the modifications made to the bill, after it had gained support as an anti-counterfeiting bill, are disturbing. I know that clauses, and addendums and tying legislation together that seems unrelated are all political ploys commonly used in our government, but this kind of thing happens all too often with no notification to the public. This bill is not as evil as some, but it points the way to more, and greater restrictions on fair use, along with pressuring the technology industry to modify technology to support the failing business model of the entertainment industry. If this kind of thing is not an abuse of government power, using the law to support the entrenched minority, then what is?