it almost seems a little too easy to kick m.commerce when it’s down, buuuuuut i’ll do it, anyway:
“Corporate executives can talk until they’re blue in the face about wireless Web strategies, and they can point to all manner of sophisticated technologies used in building a wireless Web infrastructure. There might even be promising applications on the horizon: wireless IP-based radio, perhaps, or less-expensive global positioning systems for your car. But so far, the wireless Web looks like a giant sinkhole, with a lot of money and talent pouring in to solve problems that don’t really exist. Right now, there’s not much evidence that “the Web on your phone” is anything but dead on arrival, just another tech bubble getting ready to burst.”
i’ve been seeing and hearing alot regarding the ‘al-gore-invented-the-internet’ fiasco [including a story on this american life that i can’t find right now]. but, until reading this, i didn’t realize the role that wired played in the whole mess:
“The overall assessment of Wired News’ performance on this story
must be negative. Its original article was harshly polemical and
misleading on several counts. Its second, short article was part
of the emerging and misleading media consensus. Its third, much
longer article was also harshly polemical, falsely asserts that Al
Gore claimed to have invented the Internet, and wraps up this false
assertion with two additional false assertions about Gore that it
recycled from the conservative press. None of these articles was
remotely balanced or fair, and none of them reported a single scrap
of positive information about Gore’s contribution, except to portray
it in a negative light. Finally, Wired News’ most recent article
is misleading about the contents of the earlier articles and grossly
disingenuous in the way that it supplies positive evaluations that
were entirely missing from the earlier articles.
Wired News’ articles about Al Gore and the Internet did not simply
contribute an urban myth to American culture. They were part and
parcel of a hysterical campaign of character assassination against
an innocent man based on lies and distortions. This campaign should
bring disgrace to Wired News and all of the other media organizations
that were part of it. It should also cause sober reflection on the
corrupt state of public discourse in this country.”
i just understand how this misunderstanding could have been perpetuated to such a degree – al is, after all, theearly adopter
sigh. i guess there’s more to the carnivore story:
“Carnivore, the FBI’s controversial email snooping
program, is part of covert surveillance triad known inside
the bureau as the “DragonWare Suite”, according to
recently declassified documents. The documents also
outline how the DragonWare Suite is more than simply an
email snooping program: it’s capable of reconstructing the
Web surfing trail of someone under investigation.
According to an analysis of the declassified documents by
SecurityFocus, a California-based computer security firm,
the DragonWare Suite can “reconstruct Web pages
exactly as a surveillance target saw them while surfing the
Web”.”
“”DragonWare suite? What were they thinking?” house
majority leader Richard Armey (Republican, Texas) asked
incredulously.”
my thoughts exactly. i’m sure it was only deployed in cases where it was really, really warranted. pun intended.
“Babies born prematurely have significantly smaller brains and may have learning problems later in life, a study suggests.”
“The risks of problems later in life increased the earlier the birth. A baby whose birth weight was less than two pounds or 1,000g was at particular risk.
“They found that children born prematurely were at risk of having lower IQs, and were more likely to need special education or have to repeat a year at school.
The risks of problems later in life increased the earlier the birth. A baby whose birth weight was less than two pounds or 1,000g was at particular risk.”
for the record, i was 3 months premature and weighed-in at just about 2 pounds. crap.
“Writing in the medical journal Chest, Dr Stephen Rennard, said that he had always found that his grandmother’s chicken soup – made in traditional Jewish style complete with matzo dumplings – had been helpful during bouts of illness.
He decided to run laboratory tests not only on his family’s own recipe, but on 13 different commercial chicken soup brands.
“They found that many of the varied ingredients of the soups helped to stop the movement of white blood cells called neutrophils, which are a key body response to the challenge of viral infections.”
