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<channel>
	<title>Sky’s Blog</title>
	<atom:link href="http://blog.red7.com/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://blog.red7.com</link>
	<description>Spreading the word in a networked world</description>
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		<title>China&#8217;s hacker army / today&#8217;s wild, wild west</title>
		<link>http://blog.red7.com/chinas-hacker-army/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.red7.com/chinas-hacker-army/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sky</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Debris]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.red7.com/?p=2693</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Throw away the image of an “army of Chinese hackers”  goose-stepping in  straight ranks and hell-bent on hacking anyone who stands in their way. Instead, substitute an image more like the wild, wild West with gunslingers taking the law into their own hands, bullying, competing, winning and defending their territories. And the Sheriff is nowhere [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-993" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 2px 12px;" title="china" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/china.jpg" alt="" width="96" height="96" />Throw away the image of an “army of Chinese hackers”  goose-stepping in  straight ranks and hell-bent on hacking anyone who stands in their way. Instead, substitute an image more like the wild, wild West with gunslingers taking the law into their own hands, bullying, competing, winning and defending their territories. And the Sheriff is nowhere in sight. This isn’t something that anybody’s going to get under control any time soon.</p>
<p>The loose end <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/03/03/china_s_hacker_army?page=0,2" target="_blank">this article, <em>China’s Hacker Army</em>, in Foreign Policy (March 3, 2009)</a> leaves open is that since the Chinese government isn’t really controlling and coordinating the hacking, there’s something else going on that we don’t understand yet. Is someone paying for the spoils the hackers bring back from their quests? Are they doing this for fame, not fortune? Is it perhaps free-enterprise with the goods being sold to the highest bidder?</p>
<blockquote><p>”There are many actors, some directed by the government and others tolerated by it&#8230;”</p>
<p>“But the fact that these hackers&#8217; interests overlap with Chinese policy does not mean they are working on behalf of Beijing, and indeed many of their activities suggest no government interference at all.” &#8230; “An unwritten rule holds that freelance hackers are left alone as long as they target foreign sites and companies. Once they go after information inside China, the government cracks down. For a hacker interested in self-preservation, the choice is clear.”</p>
<p>“Ultimately, a loose connection between Beijing intelligence operatives and patriotic hackers is more troubling than a strong one. Governments operate under constraints. Gangs of young men &#8212; as the United States has learned the hard way &#8212; don&#8217;t.”</p>
</blockquote>
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		<title>Making your own information radars</title>
		<link>http://blog.red7.com/making-your-own-information-radars/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.red7.com/making-your-own-information-radars/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:30:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sky</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Communicating]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Our networked world]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[People]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Video media]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.red7.com/?p=2685</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Howard Rheingold has a series of videos describing how journalists (particularly) can use online tools to create their own radars (seek out information), filters (remove the crap), and dashboards (display the information). You can see lots of other video on his video blog.
I have thought recently about writing an online book (downloadable) or even a [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Howard Rheingold has a <a href="http://vlog.rheingold.com/index.php/site/video/infotention-part-one-introducing-dashboards-radars-filters/" target="_blank">series of videos</a><a href="http://vlog.rheingold.com/index.php/site/video/infotention-part-one-introducing-dashboards-radars-filters/" target="_blank"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-2686" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 2px 12px;" title="Howard Rheingold's video blog" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/howard-rheingold-vlog.jpg" alt="" width="128" height="128" /></a> describing how journalists (particularly) can use online tools to create their own radars (seek out information), filters (remove the crap), and dashboards (display the information). You can see <a href="http://vlog.rheingold.com/index.php/site/archives" target="_blank">lots of other video</a> on his <a href="http://vlog.rheingold.com/" target="_blank">video blog</a>.</p>
<p>I have thought recently about writing an online book (downloadable) or even a printable book about the “plumbing” that allows bloggers to integrate lots of sources into their blogs—because most bloggers are not really technologists and it’s hard to make some of these software tools work correctly. My thought was to connect the dots and come up with a <em>Give your blog a shot of steroids</em> “book” that would be really useful to non-tech-savvy bloggers. When am I going to do that?</p>
<p>Howard’s major message right now is about <a href="http://vlog.rheingold.com/index.php/site/video/21st-century-literacies/" target="_blank"><em>21st Century Literacies</em></a> which you can view online—<a href="http://blog.red7.com/?s=howard+rheingold" target="_self">he and I were in London during July 2009</a>, where he delivered that particular talk.</p>
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		<title>Values-based education in Nigeria</title>
		<link>http://blog.red7.com/values-based-education-in-nigeria/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.red7.com/values-based-education-in-nigeria/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:00:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sky</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Debris]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.red7.com/?p=2663</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My friend Emmanuel Ande Ivorgba was a high school principal in Jos, Nigeria, when I met him electronically, by email five years ago. He connected with us at The Dalai Lama Foundation and his energy and enthusiasm so appealed to us that we immediately began working with him to find ways his students could communicate [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-233" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 2px 12px;" title="Emmanuel Ande Ivorgba" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/2007-03-28-emmanuel-tm.jpg" alt="" width="155" height="103" />My friend <strong>Emmanuel Ande Ivorgba</strong> was a high school principal in Jos, Nigeria, when I met him electronically, by email five years ago. He connected with us at <a href="http://dalailamafoundation.org/" target="_blank">The Dalai Lama Foundation</a> and his energy and enthusiasm so appealed to us that we immediately began working with him to find ways his students could communicate with other students around the world.</p>
<p>One of those ways was <a href="http://projecthappiness.com/" target="_blank">Project Happiness</a>. Emmanuel’s school became the third “leg” in the triumvirate of founding schools in that project.<span id="more-2663"></span></p>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-313" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 2px 12px;" title="The Dalai Lama with Project Happiness students" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/ph-with-hhdl-72dpi.jpg" alt="" width="240" height="152" />In 2007, <a href="http://blog.red7.com/emmanuel-ande-ivorgba-study-circles-and-transformations/" target="_blank">Emmanuel joined us in India</a>, along with Tibetan exile students and a dozen students from the US who were participating in the project. <a href="http://blog.red7.com/the-journey-to-india-and-on-into-the-world/" target="_blank">We traveled to Dharamsala</a>, where the students interviewed the Dalai Lama. This was a paradigm-altering meeting for Emmanuel.</p>
<p>He returned to Nigeria where he founded <a href="http://www.creativemindsacademy.net/" target="_blank">Creative Minds International Academy</a>, a values-based institution.</p>
<p>Oh—what prompted my writing this article right now is that some of his supporters are returning to Nigeria soon to deliver more computers and other needed supplies. The <a href="http://www.thevoicesofangels.org/" target="_blank">Voices of Angels Foundation</a> arose from the communications and activities I mentioned above, and are now providing a computer lab provisioned with <a href="http://www.widernet.org/digitallibrary/" target="_blank">eGranery</a>. Listen, watch, and then go read up (better yet—make a donation to support this work).</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3a08OgnTlw4&#038;fs=1" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3a08OgnTlw4&#038;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p>
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		<title>The pad will blow away the clamshell</title>
		<link>http://blog.red7.com/the-pad-will-blow-away-the-clamshell/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.red7.com/the-pad-will-blow-away-the-clamshell/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:00:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sky</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Debris]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.red7.com/?p=2645</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There’s a subtle user-interaction issue related to the iPad that I haven’t heard anyone talk about yet—I believe the “pad” blows away the “clamshell” in meeting environments because it changes the social dynamic. In fact, it returns us to a more “human” interactive framework.
How many times a day are you in a meeting where the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-2634" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 2px 12px;" title="iPad" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/apple-ipad.png" alt="" width="85" height="109" />There’s a subtle user-interaction issue related to <a href="http://blog.red7.com/why-the-ipad-gets-a-good-grade-from-me/" target="_self">the iPad</a> that I haven’t heard anyone talk about yet—I believe the “<em>pad</em>” blows away the “<em>clamshell</em>” in meeting environments because it changes the social dynamic. In fact, it returns us to a more “human” interactive framework.</p>
<p><img class="size-full wp-image-2647 alignright" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 2px 12px;" title="pad-vs-clamshell-1" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/pad-vs-clamshell-1.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="120" />How many times a day are you in a meeting where the group sits down at some small table, opens their laptop computers (on the tiny table) and suddenly you are looking across the tops of the displays (<em>walls</em> of displays!) at the other people around the table? (Um, just think coffeeshop for instance, with several people crowded around a small table and the table filled with laptop computers, not coffee cups.) What do you notice about how the eyes are fixated on screens, and the people aren’t looking at each other over the tops of the screens. Is there more time spent looking at screens, or more time spent looking at each other?<span id="more-2645"></span></p>
<blockquote><p>When I was a kid sharing legos<sup>[1]</sup>, or other building blocks, we would sometimes build walls around our respective play-areas, like people building fences around their property. We defended our property by building these walls.</p></blockquote>
<p><em>The physical wall of flipped-up computer screens creates an artificial and dysfunctional social distance among and between members of the group.</em></p>
<p><img class="size-full wp-image-2648 alignright" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 2px 12px;" title="pad-vs-clamshell-2" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/pad-vs-clamshell-2.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="120" />The tabletPC and the “pad” could substantially change that dynamic! Much as if you were using a pencil and yellow pad, lying down out of your sightline on the surface of the table, the digital pad sits unobtrusively on the table, where you can look down when you need to, and take notes, and otherwise look up at the meeting participants and the whiteboard or screen.</p>
<p>The social distance created by a laptop with its flipped-up display has allowed you to check email and do other “secret” things stealthily and out of sight of the other meeting participants. The pad won’t allow that to the same degree! If you’re typing email, or doodling, or watching movies on your pad, everyone can see what you’re doing. (That’s why people put their blackberries and iPhones on their laps during meetings—so you can’t see what they’re working on. The pad will make that more difficult.)</p>
<p>I try, as much as possible, to use my iPhone in meetings rather than breaking out the Macbook—I find that it is less disruptive of the social interaction. And I look forward to the first meeting I’m in where the majority of people have tablets or pads instead of clamshell laptop computers!</p>
<blockquote><p><a href="http://blog.red7.com/effective-use-of-electronic-devices-in-meetings/">I encourage people to be online and connected during most business meetings</a>. And my only rule about electronic devices during meetings is they must be on the table in plain sight. You can check email if you want to, but I want to understand that this is what you’re doing so we can mutually adjust the meeting to be of more immediate interest to everyone! The <em>pad</em> will provide a greater degree of <em>transparency</em> in terms of letting meeting participants know what you’re doing.</p></blockquote>
<hr class="hr_dashed" />[1] Well, if you’re just a bit younger than me you used <a href="http://www.lego.com/" target="_blank"><em>Legos</em></a>—I actually am old enough that I had pressed-wood bricks called <a href="http://www.architoys.net/toys/toypages/ambricks.html" target="_blank">American Bricks</a><em>,</em> that had pegs and worked just like Lego bricks do, but plastic hadn’t yet come into its own.</p>
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		<title>To&#8230; eliminate people as a cost to the economic engine</title>
		<link>http://blog.red7.com/to-eliminate-people-as-a-cost-to-the-economic-engine/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.red7.com/to-eliminate-people-as-a-cost-to-the-economic-engine/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sky</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Frothy Concepts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sustainability]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.red7.com/?p=2637</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I just read a blog post by Douglass Carmichael (who I’ve known through MediaX and NextNow events for a short while, and will spend some time with this weekend) entitled Governance and economy.
The thread of his post struck me smack in the face:
Economy has become so powerful because, in the absence of the political ideas [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I just read a blog post by Douglass Carmichael (who I’ve known through <a href="http://mediax.stanford.edu/" target="_blank">MediaX</a> and <a href="http://nextnow.net/" target="_blank">NextNow</a> events for a short while, and will spend some time with this weekend) entitled <a href="http://www.dougcarmichael.com/blog/2010/01/15/5-goverenance-and-economy/" target="_blank">Governance and economy</a>.</p>
<p>The thread of his post struck me smack in the face:</p>
<blockquote><p>Economy has become so powerful because, in the absence of the political ideas to reform government to deal with the real issues of the world, economy emerges as a way to cope with 6 billion people&#8230;</p>
<p>Economy has become a form of governance&#8230;</p>
<p>The result is a way of life based on dollars and what dollars can buy, which is not so much meaningful goods but stuff&#8230;</p>
<p>The result is that we do not really have a governance of society. We have a governance of the society via economy and a governance of economics through the narrow interests of its major participants&#8230;</p>
<p>The well being of the people has been replaced by the well being of the economy, which, to make the rich yet richer, has chosen to <em><strong>eliminate people as a cost to the economic engine</strong></em>.</p>
<p>—Douglass Carmichael [excerpted by Sky from <a href="http://www.dougcarmichael.com/blog/2010/01/15/5-goverenance-and-economy/" target="_blank"><em>Governance and economy</em></a>]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For 10 years now I have wondered how we expect to both 1) reduce jobs in the US and 2) maintain a functioning economy. I so much want to see people everywhere in the world achieve a good standard of living, and I know that we in the US need to reduce the way we squander our resources, but I don’t see how we can keep eliminating people from the economic engine and expect to have a sustainable economy, let alone a sustainable world. The gears of economy need to function differently—and I firmly believe that the turmoil we see in economic systems right now signals that we will never return to “normal” but instead will have to wrestle with these kinds of questions, and solve these kinds of problems, in order to stabilize our economic and social systems.</p>
<p>Read</p>
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		<title>Why the iPad gets a good grade from me</title>
		<link>http://blog.red7.com/why-the-ipad-gets-a-good-grade-from-me/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.red7.com/why-the-ipad-gets-a-good-grade-from-me/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sky</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Cyber-nomads]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Our networked world]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology and geeky stuff]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.red7.com/?p=2625</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How could Steve/Apple ever possibly have topped all the hype the preceded the announcement of the iPad? He was up against a real challenge.
Well, in some ways, Apple did top it—for one, the price is really, really aggressive. In other areas, the announcement was exactly what we expected. And that, in my opinion, is why [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-2634" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 2px 12px;" title="iPad" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/apple-ipad.png" alt="" width="122" height="156" />How could Steve/Apple ever possibly have topped all the hype the preceded the announcement of the iPad? He was up against a real challenge.</p>
<p>Well, in some ways, Apple did top it—for one, the price is really, really aggressive. In other areas, the announcement was exactly what we expected. And that, in my opinion, is why the iPad is getting poor reviews from so many people, though they haven’t used it yet. Like a kid on Christmas eve, they had just gotten too overwrought in anticipation of all that candy they had hoped for!</p>
<p>I can see how the iPad could knock off the ebook readers and the netbooks all with one fell swoop. Maybe even the TabletPCs (remember, I’ve had a Toshiba TabletPC for 5 years).</p>
<p>First, here’s what I like about it:</p>
<ul>
<li>I love the glossy and <span style="text-decoration: underline;">really bright</span> screens. (I only have one “old” non-glossy screen left in my office.)</li>
<li>I love the multi-touch gestures. My iPhone is the first device I’ve been able to interact with in the way I really wanted to &#8211; touching the screen. My MacBook gets close, though, because of the multi-touch (example: two-finger wipe to scroll up or down) gestures that make it so fast to operate!</li>
<li>I love the size of the screen (and consequently the device). I read ebooks on my iPhone now, and they’re just a tad too small (that is, I’m having to swipe to turn a “pages” every 1 or 2 seconds), so having 4x the screen real-estate will be wonderful.</li>
<li>I’m impressed that they were able to put the iWork suite on the iPad. I use Pages and Keynote a lot, and from the demos I’ve seen, these will be pretty easy to use on the iPad. I love the idea of using the iPad to draft presentations and documents while I&#8217;m on a flight from here to Delhi.</li>
<li>Battery life. 10 hours sounds great and we’ll probably get 6 hours in real life, but if I can keep it charged up while I’m in that airplane, then I’m one happy camper. (More and more flights I’m on have power plugs now, and I’m starting to choose airlines and flights based on whether they have a plug under my seat so I can run the computer. One question—can I plug the iPad into the airplane charger?)</li>
<li>Did I say price? I think $499 is really good as a starting price. I just received, as a gift from its manufacturer, an electronic pictureframe that’s priced higher than that, and it only does pictures. And it’s more than a high-end Kindle, but it does a lot more than a Kindle!</li>
</ul>
<p>And what’s questionable about it:</p>
<ul>
<li>Only running one app at a time. I absolutely <span style="text-decoration: underline;">can’t stand this</span> on my iPhone. What a pain! But, I don’t think this is going to get fixed any time soon.</li>
<li>No microphone. They’d <span style="text-decoration: underline;">better</span> fix this—I want to record interviews and notes, and I want to use the iPad as a speaker phone (thru Skype if not through real 3G phone). Maybe the iPhone headset (which has a microphone) will be usable in the production models—that would be OK.</li>
</ul>
<p>Will I get one. Yes, most certainly at some point. Certainly not the first or second or even third production models, but I’ll bet you I’ll be working with an iPad before then end of 2010.</p>
<p>Read what I’ve said about my use of ebooks and ebook prices. Also read this note about <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2010/02/01/2010-02-01_amazoncom_surrenders_to_publishing_giant_macmillan_will_sell_ebooks_at_prices_it.html" target="_blank">what Amazon is saying about prices higher than $9.99</a>.</p>
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		<title>The $9.99 ebook</title>
		<link>http://blog.red7.com/the-9-99-ebook/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.red7.com/the-9-99-ebook/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:30:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sky</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Cyber-nomads]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Geeks only!]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Our networked world]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology and geeky stuff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ebooks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fictionwise.com]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iPad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kindle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[quantum tunneling]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.red7.com/?p=2627</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I have been reading ebooks for about 5 years now. Mostly I buy them from Fictionwise.com and most often I download their sci-fi short-story Nebula-award nominees series, which they publish once a year, for free. But, I’ve probably spent on the order of $200 on other books as well.
Oh, and I subscribe to Scientific American [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_tunnelling" target="_blank"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-2628" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 2px 12px;" title="tunneling" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/tunneling.png" alt="" width="172" height="92" /></a>I have been reading ebooks for about 5 years now. Mostly I buy them from <a href="http://fictionwise.com/" target="_blank">Fictionwise.com</a> and most often I download their sci-fi short-story Nebula-award nominees series, which they publish once a year, for free. But, I’ve probably spent on the order of $200 on other books as well.</p>
<p>Oh, and I subscribe to <a href="http://www.sciamdigital.com/" target="_blank"><em>Scientific American</em> <em>digital</em></a> (monthly) and read it as a PDF on the screen rather than get all that paper that just piles up before I can get to it.</p>
<p>As in quantum-tunneling<sup>[1]</sup> effects, you can get me past the initial resistance to an ebook if:</p>
<ul>
<li>The price of the ebook is 60% or less than the price of the physical book; or if</li>
<li>I don’t want the physical book hanging around anyway after I’ve read it; or if</li>
<li>It’s available in PDF so I can read it anywhere (though I do purchase prioprietary DRM formats frequently); or if</li>
<li>It’s $9.99 even if I think I could find a paperback for slightly less somewhere else.</li>
</ul>
<p>It is just so much easier to take an ebook with me and read it on my screen (or iPhone in the case of the Kindle<sup>[2]</sup> and Fictionwise readers)!</p>
<hr class="hr_dashed" />[1] I use quantum-tunneling as a metaphor all the time. Read about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_tunnelling" target="_blank">quantum-tunneling here in Wikipedia</a> where it’s a difficult article to follow, but go the the paragraph that describes Shroedinger and has the little illustration of the “tunneling” particle (see above).</p>
<p>[2] There’s a <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kindle-for-iphone/id302584613?mt=8" target="_blank"><em>Kindle book reader</em></a> iPhone app that allows you to buy and download Kindle books from Amazon to read them on your iPhone. No reason this wouldn’t also work on the iPad, since they say 140,000 apps already run on it. (I wonder who took the time to test that assumption&#8230;) Fictionwise.com also has a <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ereader/id284499993?mt=8" target="_blank">reader available in the app store</a>.</p>
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		<title>No chance for true security?</title>
		<link>http://blog.red7.com/no-chance-for-true-security/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.red7.com/no-chance-for-true-security/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:15:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sky</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Our networked world]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Software and online tools]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[malware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ngo in-a-box]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security in-a-box]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[viruses]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.red7.com/?p=2615</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Is security dead on the Internet? Yeah, it probably is—as long as we rely on software other people have written[1]. Unless you’re capable of writing all of your own software, without any errors, and keeping it isolated from software written by anyone else, you’re never going to have a secure digital life[2].
But there are things [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://security.ngoinabox.org/"><img class="size-full wp-image-2618 alignleft" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 2px 12px;" title="security-in-a-box-175" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/security-in-a-box-175.jpg" alt="" width="175" height="63" /></a>Is security dead on the Internet? Yeah, it probably is—as long as we rely on software other people have written<sup>[1]</sup>. Unless you’re capable of writing all of your own software, without any errors, and keeping it isolated from software written by anyone else, you’re never going to have a secure digital life<sup>[2]</sup>.</p>
<p>But there are things you can do to protect yourself. <a href="http://ngoinabox.org/" target="_blank">NGO-in-a-box</a> has developed <a href="http://security.ngoinabox.org/" target="_blank"><em>Security-in-a-box, a set of tools and tactics for your digital security</em></a>. Worth taking a look!</p>
<p>It’s often said that “if we can envision it, we can create it,” but in the world of computer (and network) software this is only partially true. We can attempt to create it, but it will always have bugs in it. And those bugs are the chinks in the armor that allow malware to work and cyberwarfare to succeed.</p>
<hr class="hr_dashed" />[1] That’s because I can write a perfect program with no bugs, but nobody else can. <img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2622" title="smiley wink 21x21 from skype" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/wink-21x21.jpg" alt="" width="21" height="21" /></p>
<p>[2] See also <em><a href="http://thesocialgraphofmalware.com/" target="_blank">The Social Graph of Malware</a></em>, my site where I explore ways in which social engineering is used by the bad guys to get malware onto your computer.</p>
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		<title>Goodbye &#8220;MyBlogLog&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://blog.red7.com/goodbye-mybloglog/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.red7.com/goodbye-mybloglog/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:15:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sky</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Identity & The End of Privacy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.red7.com/?p=2458</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I just realized (smack me in the face, huh!) that MyBlogLog.com, which I signed up for some months ago, is actually something I don’t want any part of! Duh.
It’s a “service” that shows my little face photo on sites that subscribe to their service, saying “Sky has been reading this page.” Given what Facebook did [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-2459" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 2px 12px;" title="MyBlogLog" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/mybloglog-shot.jpg" alt="" width="128" height="266" />I just realized (smack me in the face, huh!) that MyBlogLog.com, which I signed up for some months ago, is actually something I don’t want any part of! Duh.</p>
<p>It’s a “service” that shows my little face photo <span style="text-decoration: underline;">on sites that subscribe to their service</span>, saying “Sky has been reading this page.” Given what Facebook did to me in December, revealing who all of my friends are<sup>[1][2]</sup>, I’ve become somewhat protective of where I go and what I read.<span id="more-2458"></span> Why would I want people to see that I’ve been reading some blog that just happens to subscribe to this service? What if I arrive at a site, gag on its contents, and then leave? MyBlogLog still shows that I’ve recently been there.</p>
<p>Goodbye privacy? Nope, <em>goodbye MyBlogLog</em> — I just unregistered. And they miss me already?</p>
<table border="0" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-2460" title="MyBlogLog We Miss You" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/mybloglog-we-miss-you.jpg" alt="" width="201" height="91" /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<hr class="hr_dashed" />[1] <a href="http://blog.red7.com/the-king-facebook-has-no-clothes-and-neither-do-we/" target="_blank">The King (Facebook) has no Clothes — and Neither do we</a> [now that our friends are public information]</p>
<p>[2] <a href="http://blog.red7.com/the-king-facebook-has-no-friends-and-neither-do-we/" target="_self">The King (Facebook) has no Friends — and Neither do we</a> [any more]</p>
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		<title>Embed web page fonts using @font-face</title>
		<link>http://blog.red7.com/embed-fonts-using-font-face/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.red7.com/embed-fonts-using-font-face/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:15:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sky</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Software and online tools]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology and geeky stuff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[@font-face]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[embed fonts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[font in web page]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[web page]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://sky.dlfound.org/?p=2129</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ In searching for a solution to embed a particular font in one of my games[1] at YBCA, I spent dozens of hours experimenting with the @font-face cross-browser[2] CSS technology. It&#8217;s a technique that allows your browser (like MSIE or Firefox, right?) to read a TrueType (.TTF) or OpenType (.OTF) font file from a server [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="size-full wp-image-2474 alignleft" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 2px 12px;" title="fontbook" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/fontbook.jpg" alt="" width="128" height="128" /> In searching for a solution to embed a particular font in one of my games<sup>[1]</sup> at <a href="http://ybca.org/" target="_blank">YBCA</a>, I spent dozens of hours experimenting with the <em>@font-face</em> cross-browser<sup>[2]</sup> CSS technology. It&#8217;s a technique that allows your browser (like MSIE or Firefox, right?) to read a TrueType (.TTF) or OpenType (.OTF) font file from a server and then use it to render type on a web page. The headlines on my blog are rendered using this technology<sup>[3]</sup>. I&#8217;m really happy with the results.</p>
<p><em>The idea is to give the designer of the web page the ability to select exactly the font he or she wants to see on the finished page!</em></p>
<p>But, even with this great tech in place, Microsoft is playing its game of insisting on its own solution—they propose it as a &#8220;web standard&#8221; but in real life it’s implemented by nobody except Microsoft (using their .EOT file format). So there are two competing and incompatible ways of adding fonts to a web page—the open-source method, and the Microsoft method.</p>
<p>Initially I was able to devise a solution that works <em>except</em> for FireFox (it failed both on Mac OSX and on Windows and Firefox represents about 40% of my users so I really need it to work)&#8230; and then, by accident&#8230;<span id="more-2129"></span></p>
<style type="text/css"><!-- @font-face { font-family: "Headlines"; src: url("http://blog.red7.com/fonts/SF_Cartoonist_Hand.eot"); src: local("Headlines Web Regular"), local("Headlines Web"), url("http://blog.red7.com/fonts/SF_Cartoonist_Hand.ttf") format("truetype"); } .headlines { font-size: 15pt; text-decoration: none; letter-spacing: 1px; font-family:Headlines, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color:#3FC; } --></style>
<p>I discovered a hack that made Firefox work!</p>
<p>Look, to give Microsoft a break here, the reason they use their EOT format is to protect fonts from pirates. Each EOT file is tied to a particular domain name, though the same mechanism can be used to make the font free for use everywhere. The theory is that purchased fonts would be tied to a domain (and a license agreement) and free fonts would be freely available to all, but the EOT format would be used in all cases. I purchased a font for the YBCA game, installed it on a particular domain as an EOT, and it works great, but only in Internet Explorer.</p>
<p>Actually it feels like I spent <span style="text-decoration: underline;">days</span> figuring out @font-face. The difficulty is not just that MS has its own standard &#8211; it&#8217;s that the feature is so new that there are differences (actually they&#8217;re bugs) among how the various browsers handle it. Paul explains that the solution is to find a way to trick each browser into using only the portion of the CSS rule that applies to that specific browser. The final trick that enabled Firefox (for me &#8211; and also Opera at the same time) was figuring out when to use and when not to use quotes in the <em>src: url()</em> portion of the CSS rule that reads the fonts.</p>
<p>The most-often-quoted solution page is <a href="http://paulirish.com/2009/bulletproof-font-face-implementation-syntax/" target="_blank">Paul Irish&#8217;s page on @font-face</a>. His solution worked for me, except for FireFox, so you can start with his solution if you wish.</p>
<p>Here’s what worked for me. I just added this to my CSS file for the site, then use class=&#8217;headlines&#8217; to style whatever headline element I want the font used in.</p>
<blockquote><p>@font-face {<br />
font-family: &#8216;Headlines&#8217;;<br />
src: url(&#8216;http://blog.red7.com/fonts/SF_Cartoonist_Hand.eot&#8217;);<br />
src: local(&#8216;Headlines Web Regular&#8217;), local(&#8216;Headlines Web&#8217;),<br />
url(&#8216;http://blog.red7.com/fonts/SF_Cartoonist_Hand.ttf&#8217;) format(&#8216;truetype&#8217;);<br />
}<br />
.headlines h2.headlines {<br />
font-size: 15pt;<br />
text-decoration: none;<br />
letter-spacing: 1px;<br />
font-family:Headlines, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;<br />
color:#3FC;<br />
}</p></blockquote>
<p>The key components are the “@font-face {}” declaration, which points to the EOT file for MSIE, and the TTF file for other browsers, and then the use of the “font-family:Headlines” within the definition of the style “headlines” which style can then be used within HTML pages. You just use it like this:</p>
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="160px" align="left">
<h2 class="headlines">This is a headline</h2>
</td>
<td align="left">(Code below)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<blockquote><p>&lt;h2 class=&#8221;headlines&#8221;&gt;This is a headline&lt;/h2&gt;</p></blockquote>
<p>Ranked from most useful to least useful:</p>
<p><a href="http://hacks.mozilla.org/2009/06/beautiful-fonts-with-font-face/" target="_blank">Beautiful fonts with @font-face</a> {hacks.mozilla.org} a thorough discussion to get you started</p>
<p><a href="http://inspectelement.com/tutorials/go-beyond-web-safe-fonts-with-css3/" target="_blank">Go Beyond Web-Safe Fonts with CSS3</a> has a few screen shots showing nice uses of fonts {copies a lot of what’s in the others}</p>
<p>Tools:</p>
<p>Microsoft Typography <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/typography/web/embedding/weft3/download.aspx" target="_blank">WEFT tool</a> {download this tool (a Windows EXE) that creates the required EOT file for MSIE if you are starting with only a TrueType font}</p>
<hr class="hr_dashed" />[1] Pink Yourself at YBCA {revisiting Gran Fury&#8217;s SILENCE=DEATH from the 1980s}</p>
<p>[2] @font-face works (with the various hacks described above) in Internet Explorer 8 {MSIE}, Firefox, Safari, Opera. It does not work in Flock. Google has turned it off in Chrome &#8211; it&#8217;s expected to work at a future date.</p>
<p>[3] The headline font I chose is <span style="font-family: Headlines; font-size: 32px;">SF Cartoonist Hand</span>, downloaded from <a href="http://www.fontsquirrel.com/" target="_blank">FontSquirrel.com </a>- they have a flurry of <a href="http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fontface" target="_blank">@font-face compatible fonts</a> and &lt;whew!&gt; they provide both the TTF TrueType and the EOT Microsoft-compatible files for each font they offer. This is a great source of dozens of free fonts that are ready to download and install, once you have the CSS syntax worked out.</p>
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		<title>Previously, on Mixed-Reality Games</title>
		<link>http://blog.red7.com/previously-on-mixed-reality-games/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.red7.com/previously-on-mixed-reality-games/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:15:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sky</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Art in Public Places]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Entertainment and Places]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Learning and eLearning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[games]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gaming]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mixed reality]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[YBCA]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.red7.com/?p=2595</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I just completed a new page at Red7.com that describes the major mixed-reality games I’ve run since 2004 — take a look.
Since I speculated (a few years ago) that we could create really great mixed-reality[1] games (or learning experiences, for that matter) that would utilize all sorts of real-world media including SMS[2], video, telephones[3], FAX, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://web.red7.com/mixed-reality.html" target="_blank"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-2602" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 2px 12px;" title="haring" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/haring1.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="148" /></a>I just completed a new page at <a href="http://web.red7.com/mixed-reality.html" target="_blank"><strong>Red7.com</strong> that describes the major mixed-reality games</a> I’ve run since 2004 — take a look.</p>
<p>Since I speculated (a few years ago) that we could <a href="http://web.red7.com/fits.html" target="_blank">create really great <em>mixed-reality</em><sup>[1]</sup> games</a> (or learning experiences, for that matter) that would utilize all sorts of real-world media including SMS<sup>[2]</sup>, video, telephones<sup>[3]</sup>, FAX, email and web, I’ve been working to develop more of these games and get them played. I started by developing a <em>scenario-operating-system</em> that could run on a server, “listen” to incoming SMS and email messages, and react appropriately to move “players” through the game. This system is in place today, and listening for certain key words in incoming messages the set players off on a chase through the game of their choosing.</p>
<p>While experimenting with the <em>scenario</em> system, the team and I learned a lot. We learned that people have trouble with SMS messaging. We learned that email works (now that smartphones support email) better. We learned they’ll call a phone number, but they’ll hesitate because they don’t know for sure that the number is in-game. We learned that they like certainty more than experimentation. And we learned they ultimately will be creative if given the right opportunity.</p>
<p>Oh, and there’s a new game being planned right now.</p>
<hr class="hr_dashed" />[1] <em>Mixed-reality</em> means combining game play in such a way that it plays out in real life but uses digital media either in or to control parts of the game.</p>
<p>[2] <em>SMS</em> (also called TEXT or TXT in the US) messaging is the first method we used to get messages to and from the players. To avoid certain technical difficulties with SMS, including charges, we used email gateways, which are provided by mobile system operators. These did not work well because many people were unfamiliar with the ways they could send and receive email from their phones.</p>
<p>[3] We used call-in phone messages in almost all of the games. These are answer-only phone numbers where a simple message is played for each caller. Each message describes the next step in the game. I thought it would be fun to customize those messages for the players, but we haven’t gotten around to doing it&#8230; it’s a technology challenge that involves call-director, voice-response, XML-controlled systems.</p>
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		<title>Improved my Cable Broadband speed 3x (DOCSIS)</title>
		<link>http://blog.red7.com/improved-broadband-speed-3x/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.red7.com/improved-broadband-speed-3x/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:15:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sky</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology and geeky stuff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[broadband]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cable modem]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DOCSIS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[modem]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.red7.com/?p=2503</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sound like spam? “Improved my cable broadband speed 3x?”
Here’s the punchline: I got a 3x improvement in speed on my cable broadband service, but had to find and avoid a technical problems that is probably a security feature. And the DOCSIS 3 standard and modem is great. Read on&#8230;
For months now, my Comcast broadband (delivered [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1722" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 2px 12px;" title="Comcast speed visualization" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/comcast-visualization.jpg" alt="" width="96" height="92" />Sound like spam? “Improved my cable broadband speed 3x?”</p>
<p>Here’s the punchline: I got a 3x improvement in speed on my cable broadband service, but had to find and avoid a technical problems that is probably a security feature. And the <a href="http://docsis.org/" target="_blank">DOCSIS</a> 3 standard and modem is great. Read on&#8230;<span id="more-2503"></span></p>
<p>For months now, my Comcast broadband (delivered by cable, and very pricey here in the US—my French friends pay 1/3 what I pay for essentially the same service) has been flaky. It has been dropping out for a couple of hours at a time, at other times getting really slow. Comcast customer service was nice about it—they were happy to talk to me and to ‘reset’ the modem remotely each time I called, but the fix only lasted an hour or two.</p>
<p>Two nights ago, right at midnight, the cable modem stopped working entirely. I called Comcast and they said ”we can ’see’ the modem and it looks fine” but the indicator light was off and it just wasn’t transmitting any data. So they agreed I could swap it out for another modem.</p>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-2511" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 2px 12px;" title="Motorola SB6120 Cable Modem" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/sb61201.jpg" alt="" width="141" height="157" />The next afternoon I went to a local electronics store (Fry’s in Palo Alto) and bought a Motorola “SurfBoard” SB6120 modem. I’m not favoring Motorola here, although I used their mobile phones for over 15 years, and as a child in Illinois a good family friends were the brother and sister of Paul Galvin, founder of Motorola. It was just the one DOCSIS 3 modem that Fry’s had on the shelf. And the price was OK—higher than a DOCSIS 2, but the performance was supposed to be better.</p>
<p>And, well, it <span style="text-decoration: underline;">was</span> better! A lot better.</p>
<p><a href="http://docsis.org/" target="_blank">DOCSIS</a><sup>[1]</sup> 3 provides multiple channels, which it gangs together (called <em>bonding</em>) to give you higher speed from one cable connection. The cable operates at a bandwidth/frequency around 650mHz so it has plenty of bandwidth available (which is, of course, shared across users down the street from me, but <span style="text-decoration: underline;">sometimes</span> it’s all mine!).</p>
<p>So when I plugged in the new modem (and after calling Comcast tech support, who <em>provisioned</em> it for me in about 5 minutes) I was up and running. I plugged my MacBook into the modem, got an IP address, tested, and found i was running at over 20mbs. Fantastic! A solid 20mbs.<sup>[2]</sup></p>
<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-2509" title="lightning-left" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/lightning-left.jpg" alt="" width="74" height="71" />Oh, and what was the surprise? Well, it turns out that the first device that you plug into “your” side of the modem is registered by that modem as its <span style="text-decoration: underline;">one and only router</span>. Nothing else that you plug in after that is even recognized by the modem. (It apparently uses the MAC address of the Ethernet interface on the device to recognize which device is the one it will talk to.) So you have to be careful to power-cycle the modem if you plug in a new router (I was doing my testing using a MacBook plugged directly into the modem, but then plugged in a Linksys router, which couldn’t talk to the Internet through the modem until I power-cycled the modem). I guess this is a good security procedure, but if you encounter it when you’re installing a new modem, it could waste hours of your time—it took me 4 hours of my time, and an hour on the phone with Comcast, to figure it out.)</p>
<hr class="hr_dashed" />
<p style="text-align: left;">[1] The best source I found for <a href="http://bradyvolpe.com/2009/10/12/docsis30-tutorial-introduction/" target="_blank">DOCSIS 3 information was the Brady Volpe site</a>. The actual <a href="http://www.cablelabs.com/cablemodem/specifications/index.html" target="_blank">DOCSIS spec</a> is online in the <a href="http://www.cablelabs.com/cablemodem/" target="_blank">DOCSIS section of the Cable Labs web site</a> (warning: the DOCSIS site seems only to work in MSIE on Windows &#8211; Firefox doesn’t browse this particular page very well at all). This is probably more than you wanted to know?</p>
<p>[2] I use <a href="http://speedtest.net/" target="_blank">speedtest.net</a> to check channel bandwidths.</p>
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		<title>Google.cn in again out again</title>
		<link>http://blog.red7.com/google-cn-in-again-out-again/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.red7.com/google-cn-in-again-out-again/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:15:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sky</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Human Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Our networked world]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Security]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.red7.com/?p=2572</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I pulled together a page of references on the Google China issues, beginning with their 2006 announcement that they would begin providing filtered search results at google.cn and ending “today” with speculation about exactly what has been going on that caused them to announce they would stop filtering results and see whether they could reach [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://thesocialgraphofmalware.com/the-life-and-times-of-google-cn/" target="_blank"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-993" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 2px 12px;" title="china" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/china.jpg" alt="" width="96" height="96" /></a>I pulled together a <a href="http://thesocialgraphofmalware.com/the-life-and-times-of-google-cn/" target="_blank">page of references on the Google China issues</a>, beginning with their 2006 announcement that they would begin providing filtered search results at google.cn and ending “today” with speculation about exactly what has been going on that caused them to announce they would stop filtering results and see whether they could reach an accommodation with the Chinese government about providing unfiltered results in China. The summary page is <a href="http://thesocialgraphofmalware.com/the-life-and-times-of-google-cn/" target="_blank">at <em>The Social Graph of Malware</em></a>, not here. Go read it. And I’ll try to keep it up to date.</p>
<p>Its clear that the decision to filter was tough. And it probably took less to get them to reverse the decision than if the original decision had been clear cut. The issues that I see are involved include these:</p>
<ul>
<li>Censorship &#8211; even if mandated by local laws;</li>
<li>Censorship &#8211; on more universal grounds (such as censorship of hate speech, etc.);</li>
<li>Increasing Chinese cyberaggression &#8211; hacking servers, looking for industrial secrets (supposed Chinese, because it&#8217;s almost impossible to really know);</li>
<li>Aggressive attacks against <a href="http://www.infowar-monitor.net/2009/09/tracking-ghostnet-investigating-a-cyber-espionage-network/" target="_blank">minority communities and free speech advocates</a> (cited by Google, but I&#8217;ve seen them personally);</li>
<li>Drive-by malware insertions in free-speech web sites, and whether this is targeted or not;</li>
<li>Whether an equivalent of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Protocol" target="_blank">Geneva Protocol</a> (which deals with weapons as opposed to prisoners) can be developed for cyberwarfare.</li>
</ul>
<p><em>The Social Graph of Malware</em> is a site I started a few months ago, and sporadically contribute to, that describes how social engineering contributes so much to the spread of malware. The Google incident that sparked their “reversal” decision to stop filtering (just a week ago) was largely a piece of social engineering. We have been seeing targeted attacks on the Tibetan exile community (and others) recently, utilizing social engineering tactics to get people to open poisoned files that then infect their computers. So I’ll continue to track the Google.cn issue on <em>The Social Graph of Malware</em> because of this connection.</p>
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		<title>Chris Pirillo&#8217;s &#8220;Pillars of Community&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://blog.red7.com/pillars-of-community/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.red7.com/pillars-of-community/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:15:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sky</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Communicating]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Frothy Concepts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Identity & The End of Privacy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Making organizations work]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Organizations and Sociology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Our networked world]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Entrepreneurs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology and geeky stuff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Videos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chris Pirillo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Community]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.red7.com/?p=2417</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[At LeWeb in Paris (December 2009) Chris Pirillo articulated some underlying principles for creating true (virtual) community. Matt Buckland[1] recorded Chris’ points in text form. I’m going to make some comments on them now.
Chris started by saying “I don’t have an agenda; I don’t have an announcement&#8230;” referring, of course, to the number of companies [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-2450" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 12px;" title="Chris Pirillo" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/chris-pirillo.jpg" alt="" width="36" height="36" /></a>At LeWeb in Paris (December 2009) <strong><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/" target="_blank">Chris Pirillo</a></strong> articulated some underlying principles for creating true (virtual) community. <strong><a href="http://www.matthewbuckland.com/" target="_blank">Matt Buckland</a></strong><sup>[1]</sup> <a href="http://www.matthewbuckland.com/?p=1231" target="_blank">recorded Chris’ points</a> in text form. I’m going to make some comments on them now.</p>
<p>Chris started by saying “I don’t have an agenda; I don’t have an announcement&#8230;” referring, of course, to the number of companies that had been making announcements on the stage. Probably not unusual, since you want to make product announcements where they will be heard, but it was certainly being noticed this time around.</p>
<p>The full video of Chris’ talk appears at the bottom of this article. I’m going to pick and choose from the points that Matt jotted down.</p>
<p><strong>So, what is the essence of community? Community…<span id="more-2417"></span></strong></p>
<p><strong>[Chris says] Community… lives inside us.</strong> Where I go, community goes. We create it based on our preferences, likes, dislikes and the people we link up with;</p>
<blockquote><p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-1238" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 2px 12px;" title="The Social Graph" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/the-social-graph-of-malware.jpg" alt="" width="96" height="96" />Sky sez: <em>Community</em> is a construct composed of our connections and interactions — to that extent, wherever we go we bring those connections with us. Because we are becoming highly-linked through electronic media (and <em>social media</em>), our communities may in fact be available to us almost everywhere we go! <em>Communities of interest</em> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_practice" target="_blank"><em>Communities of practice</em></a> are examples of these kinds of virtual communities (unlike our <em>neighborhood</em>, which is a physical community). We all participate in many communities, sometimes interacting in a number of them at the same time.</p></blockquote>
<p><strong>… is becoming increasingly distributed</strong>, as we distribute our ideas and thoughts across social networks;</p>
<blockquote><p>I have already made a comment on this (prior to hearing Chris), in remarking that <a href="http://blog.red7.com/blogger-ghost-town/">bloggers are beginning to spread out beyond blogging and take their communities with them into Twitter, Facebook, and so forth</a>. But, of course you’ve noticed that too. You probably started tweeting a long time ago, added a Facebook or Linked-in profile, and put more of your photos on Facebook now than on your old photo-sharing site. So <a href="http://drakedirect.blogspot.com/2009/10/draft-facebook-article.html" target="_blank">if it’s true that 25% of Web traffic is to Facebook</a><sup>[2][3]</sup>, then this certainly means that some of the social behavior that motivated blogging has moved, with many of us, to Facebook.</p></blockquote>
<p><strong>… is a commodity, but people [themselves] aren’t.</strong> It’s easy to set up a website or blog, but the people and voices behind it are what makes it unique, special;</p>
<blockquote><p>I’ve been promoting this idea for years—and I still have to remind clients that they can set up an online community <span style="text-decoration: underline;">web site</span>, but they still need people to staff it, and they still need <span style="text-decoration: underline;">customers’ voices to make it really happen</span>. And when you inject people into the equation, it forces things to scale more <em>linearly</em> and it costs more for upkeep and maintenance of the human community members.<span style="color: #800000;"> </span></p></blockquote>
<p><strong>… cannot be controlled</strong>, but can be “guided”;</p>
<blockquote><p><a href="http://peterblock.com/" target="_blank"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-2453" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 2px 12px;" title="Peter Block" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/peter-block.jpg" alt="" width="38" height="53" /></a>That’s the essence, isn’t it? You have to <span style="text-decoration: underline;">listen</span> to what your friends, community, customers, are saying. I’m reading <a href="http://www.peterblock.com/" target="_blank">Peter Block</a> now, and he’s one of the masters of using transformational change to solve community issues. [Photo is from <a href="http://peterblock.com/" target="_blank">peterblock.com</a>.]</p></blockquote>
<p><strong>… is no longer defined by physical boundaries.</strong> You probably have more in common with a geek living on another continent than your next door neighbour;</p>
<blockquote><p>About a year ago someone asked me whether <a href="http://dalailamafoundation.org/" target="_blank">The Dalai Lama Foundation</a> wasn’t just “a big web site with a small organization&#8230;” At first the question offended me, but that didn’t last long as I realized and even pointed out that the organization in fact did do much of its work online. So it is indeed a large web site with a (smaller human) organization behind it. The organization was and is <span style="text-decoration: underline;">distributed</span> geographically. It uses network communications to get people going and then local groups of people may begin working on their own. There is little planned organization of this process, and it grows entirely organically.</p></blockquote>
<p><strong>… grows its own leaders.</strong> the best leaders come organically out of a community, and is not an appointed one. It’s crucial that communities grow it’s own leaders for credibility and respect reasons;</p>
<blockquote><p>Leaders arise organically from within communities. Leaders arise when a cause needs someone to carry it forward. At the Foundation we have had six years of growing in response to leaders who arise organically and naturally from our communities. This is reflected in the many projects that the Foundation has incubated or supported. This leaves the central organization small, but promotes the growth of new organizations that respond to the immediate needs of the constituent communities.]</p></blockquote>
<p><strong>… is the antithesis of ego.</strong> Community is myself and everyone else, not just me or my Twitter stream;</p>
<blockquote><p>Yes, community is looking outward to see and to listen to what those in the community want. And that’s why leaders develop and grow organically within healthy communities.</p></blockquote>
<p><strong>… is everywhere, inside you.</strong> It’s what you share, your passions — and it’s this that will spell success.</p>
<blockquote><p>Focus on these points: 1) look for people who share your needs, desires and motivations; 2) connect with them; 3) expand that connection by listening to the needs of those in the communities you form or join; 4) help foster organic growth of leaders within your communities; 5) continue looking outward at all times!</p></blockquote>
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<hr class="hr_dashed" />[1] Matt is one of the <a href="http://travelinggeeks.com/" target="_blank">Traveling Geeks</a>, having been involved most recently in the Paris LeWeb trip, and before that having been part of the South Africa trip (which I was not).</p>
<p>[2] Could 25% of page-views on the Web really be attributed to Facebook? <a href="http://drakedirect.blogspot.com/2009/10/draft-facebook-article.html" target="_blank">Drake Direct says so</a>. Their source for the stats is compete.com, which uses a sampling methodology (they have a sample set of people who “represent” the Internet user population) and projects their results to a large population (all Web users). They are not directly measuring real traffic to any web site—they are estimating. I have done statistical work of this sort, and for certain kinds of probability distributions it is problematic&#8230;particularly <em>long-tail</em> distributions. So don’t believe the 25% statistic, but <span style="text-decoration: underline;">do</span> believe that traffic to Facebook really is quite high!</p>
<p>[3] Remember not to confuse <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>the Web</em></span> with <em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">the </span><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Internet</span></em>. It is only a subset of overall traffic on the net. Email probably still accounts for far more traffic than web pages, and video is coming into its own rapidly.</p>
<p align="left"><a class="tt" href="http://twitter.com/home/?status=Chris+Pirillo%E2%80%99s+%E2%80%9CPillars+of+Community%E2%80%9D+http://mrgew.th8.us" title="Post to Twitter"><img class="nothumb" src="http://blog.red7.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter.png" alt="Post to Twitter" /></a> <a class="tt" href="http://twitter.com/home/?status=Chris+Pirillo%E2%80%99s+%E2%80%9CPillars+of+Community%E2%80%9D+http://mrgew.th8.us" title="Post to Twitter">Tweet This Post</a></p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>WordPress iPhone &#8220;Theme&#8221; is Fantastic!</title>
		<link>http://blog.red7.com/wordpress-iphone-theme-is-fantastic/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.red7.com/wordpress-iphone-theme-is-fantastic/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 17 Jan 2010 21:30:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sky</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Software and online tools]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology and geeky stuff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[smartphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wordpress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WordPress pluging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WordPress themes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.red7.com/?p=2543</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[About the WPtouch Mobile Plugin— I ran across this in the news sidebar on a blog I was editing this morning. It’s a WordPress plug-in (yes, it’s not actually a theme even though they refer to it that way sometimes) that converts a regular WP blog so that it reads nicely on a small/narrow screen [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-2545" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 2px 12px;" title="WPtouch WordPress smartphone plug-in 01" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/2010-01-17-11-00-01-IMG_1090.png" alt="" width="115" height="173" /><a href="http://bravenewcode.com/wptouch/" target="_blank"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-2552" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 2px 12px;" title="Brave New Code" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/brave-new-code.jpg" alt="" width="136" height="95" /></a>About the <a href="http://www.bravenewcode.com/wptouch/" target="_blank"><strong>WPtouch Mobile Plugin</strong></a>— I ran across this in the news sidebar on a blog I was editing this morning. It’s a <strong>WordPress</strong> plug-in (yes, it’s not actually a theme even though they refer to it that way sometimes) that converts a regular WP blog so that it reads nicely on a small/narrow screen (like that of an iPhone or iPodTouch). Using javascript (which does work on iPhones, unlike Flash) it lets you see first the titles of articles<sup>[1]</sup>, then you can click a triangle to expand and see the short description, and click a triangle again to read the entire article. I had one problem<sup>[2]</sup> (so far) but I love what it does.</p>
<p>[If you’re reading this on an iPhone you’re already seeing how it works, if not you should feel free to pull out whatever your smartphone is and go to <a href="http://blog.red7.com/">my blog home page</a> to see how it works.]</p>
<p>When you visit a blog that has this plug-in enabled, if you’re on an iPhone (or some other smartphones) you’ll see a concise display of the most recent entries in the blog. It includes titles, dates, and categories only. [Illustration left.] My blog theme is white type against a black background, but the plug-in takes just the pertinent information and displays that using a substitute theme that looks fine on the iPhone screen.</p>
<p>Then&#8230; <span id="more-2543"></span><a href="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/2010-01-17-11-00-02-IMG_1091.png"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-2547" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 2px 12px;" title="WPtouch WordPress smartphone plug-in 02" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/2010-01-17-11-00-02-IMG_1091.png" alt="" width="115" height="173" /></a>Then, if you tap the title of an article, it opens up to show you a short excerpt. [Illustration right, where I’ve selected <em>Phonebooth 2.0</em> to expand.] It’s javascript, so the “opening up” is a smooth sliding open motion. Notice that my white-on-black theme has been replaced by a gray-on-white theme, which is easier to read on the small smartphone screen. It’s still using the body copy of my article, but re-theming it so it looks good.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, and if you don’t like the look on your smartphone, there’s a slider at the bottom of every page that lets you return to your regular site rather than use the WPtouch framework! And when you’re in the regular view, the slider is also at the bottom of every page so you can return to the WPtouch theme.</p>
<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-2548" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 2px 12px;" title="WPtouch WordPress smartphone plug-in 03" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/2010-01-17-11-00-03-IMG_1092.png" alt="" width="115" height="173" /><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-2549" style="border: 0pt none; margin: 2px 12px;" title="WPtouch WordPress smartphone plug-in 04" src="http://blog.red7.com:8000/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/2010-01-17-11-00-04-IMG_1093.png" alt="" width="115" height="173" />If you like the preview of the article, you can tap to open the entire article. [Illustration left] Again, it’s in the WPtheme format, colors, backgrounds, and looks the way you’d expect an iPhone app to look, and I was surprised and happy that my white-on-black theme still looks great when translated this way!</p>
<p>Photos look OK, and embedded YouTube videos look OK, and on an iPhone they play (unlike many other video streams). Photo “alignment” doesn’t work, but I think I can fix that&#8230; This is really slick.</p>
<p>As I said, the only shortcoming right now<sup>[2]</sup> is that I can’t get to a <em>page</em> on my site if it’s only listed in the menus. (The top menus/tabs don’t appear.) If it’s linked within an article, then it’s OK and you can reach the page, and it in general looks fine (there are a few glitches), so I hope this will be fixed up in the near future. Meanwhile, it’s still a great idea and a great implementation.</p>
<p>The plug-in’s creators also show graphs proving that their plug-in reduces the loading time of sites, probably because it eliminates a lot of the heavy code overload that most WordPress sites carry with them.</p>
<hr class="hr_dashed" />[1] In case you hadn’t noticed, I prefer to call blog <em>post </em>an<em> article</em> instead. Probably because it’s more traditional-sounding, but using the word <em>post</em> sounds like I tacked it up on a telephone pole. “Posting a notice” as opposed to researching and writing an article.</p>
<p>[2] The problem is that there is no easy way to get to a <em>page</em> rather than just the <em>posts</em> on your blog. I’ll contact the developers and see if there’s anything I can do to help them enable this feature. Here’s a page that works— <a href="http://blog.red7.com/the-social-graph-of-malware/" target="_self">The Social Graph of Malware</a>. Here’s a page that doesn’t— <a href="http://blog.red7.com/about-the-photos/" target="_self">About the Photos</a>.</p>
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