Dispar

Touch Blogging

2008-07-13T19:58:00.001-04:00

Posted?

Posted with LifeCast

Touch Blogging

2008-07-13T19:55:00.001-04:00

May I publish directly?

Posted with LifeCast

Invite-Only Blogger Beta

2006-08-15T22:02:00.000-04:00

Google opts for its usual invite-only principle to generate buzz around the new version of Blogger (which has support for labels/categories along with other features). Yet, the advertised features look quite similar to WordPress.com and other free platforms. Probably not enough to make me switch.

Profiles and Comments

2006-08-04T05:06:00.000-04:00

The main problem, now that my main blog is on WordPress, is that blogging systems often link comments with profiles on their own system. For instance, Blogger blogs (whether or not they're hosted on Blogspot) let you use your Blogger profile when you leave comments. Of course, you can also manually enter your info, bypassing the profile. But using the Blogger profile is just too convenient. Which means that people who click on my name in a Blogger comment will come here instead of going to Disparate. Which might explain why comments and links often remain within the same domain. Ah, well...

Memetic Marketplace

2006-05-29T18:37:00.000-04:00

Some people must be proud! "The Memetic Marketplace"

Move to WordPress?

2006-01-31T23:31:00.000-05:00

My new blog

Been blogging on WordPress.com which offers free hosting and does import from Blogger/BlogSpot. So far so good. Might migrate to WP completely as it's open-source and well-supported. Been using WordPress software on the CriticalWorld blog. Technorati tags: blog, WordPress, free host, open-source

Right?

2006-01-24T10:26:00.000-05:00

THE TENSION: Conservatives Take Canada That's one way to put it. Others are talking about a shift to the right. Not sure about this. First, the results should not be confused with a clear victory for the Conservative Party of Canada. Sure, they have more seats than any single other party and a bigger share of the votes. But this is far from a "landslide" victory that some were predicting. Most clearly, it's a defeat for the Liberals. Apparently, many people voted not for the Tories but against the Liberals. Big difference. Oh, sure, Liberals will still be the official opposition. But they lost big. So, losers and winners, from biggest loser to biggest winner: Liberals lost a lot after being forced to hold elections. They lost important ridings, some of their key players have lost their seats, Paul Martin decided to resign... But Liberals still hold a third of the ridings and 30% of the support. They kept their seats in key locations such as Toronto. They remain much stronger than the Conservatives after Kim Campbell. The Bloc lost a few seats altogether and a significant percentage of votes. In this sense, the Bloc has lost its own fights (they wanted to increase the number of seats they held and increase the number of votes to the majority of Quebec voters). But they made significant gains in some locations, defeated many key Liberals, and held their own on average. More importantly, they gained significant mindshare. The Bloc's role of defending Quebec's interests in Ottawa has been considered quite carefully during these elections. The NDP can be considered a winner. They increased their number of seats, won several ridings in British Columbia, and campaigned effectively. In a way, they rallied many members of the so-called "left." After all, Liberals haven't been that far "left" while in power. The Tories did win. Canada now has their leader as Prime Minister. The cabinet will be formed with members of the Conservative Party. Much has been said about Harper's comments that even a majority government would be kept in check. These are not words of someone who accomplishes a clear shift to the political right, not in this context. Harper is aware that he has to work with the other parties. It's impossible to predict what will come out of this. But, in a way, it makes it possible for the three non-governing parties to come together on a lot of issues. An interesting point about all of this is that Canadian politics are much more about specific issues than about political lateralisation of the left/right kind. Often jokingly, commentators talk about "Big L Liberal and small l liberal" as well as "Big C Conservative and small c conservative." In Quebec, left/right distinctions are often irrelevant. True, Quebeckers are rather left-leaning on average. But Quebeckers will also vote "right" on some issues based on their own interests. And it shouldn't surprise so many people that Tories won 10 seats and many votes in Quebec. Some of the votes Quebeckers gave Tories might have had something to do with shifting right, at least in terms of fiscal issues. But some people may have wanted to have representatives of Quebec in the cabinet (as this is the first Prime Minister in a while who is not coming from Quebec). A certain opportunist attitude may have contributed. Hatred for the federal Liberals, whose involvement in scandals has left a negative impression on many Quebeckers. A desire for regime change. A vote against the concentration of power in Ontario. Good candidates in specific ridings. After all, Quebeckers did vote for Tories in the past (before the merge with the Reform Party) and those Tory votes did not imply a shift to the right. Then there's the issue of national identity. Some people might think that this is a victory for federalism but that would be quite misleading. After all, before the Bloc, Quebec sovereignists have had little desire to get involved in federal politics. In fact, since 1993, some sovereignists have said that a victory of the Reform Party would help their cause. If nothing else, these elections have put national issues on the table. Defining which Canada people really want. Reassess the role of different regions (BC, AlSaMa, ON, Qc, Atlantic). In some ways, the Tories did unify the country. But this unity is more layered and decentralised than it has been. To be continued.

Technorati tags: Canada, election, Canadian politics, political sides, Quebec

Virage à droite?

2006-01-24T02:35:00.000-05:00

Viens de finir de regarder la couverture télé des élections. Assez intéressante, comme situation. Pour répondre à une amie qui croit y voir un virage à droite, petite analyse à chaud. Comme le PCC est le seul représentant de la droite au Canada et qu'ils ont obtenu 36% des votes (et ont remporté 124/308 sièges), c'est assez difficile de parler d'une montée significative de la droite au Canada. Surtout que le premier ministre a beaucoup moins de pouvoir ici qu'un président américain, par exemple. En fait, la gauche canadienne a gagné du terrain, entre autres avec les Néo-Démocrates qui ont gagné des points importants. Dix sièges de plus qu'en 2004, des victoires décisives en Colombie-Britannique, un million de votes de plus, un message clair, des appuis importants... Ce qui est assez intéressant, c'est que les Canadiens ne semblent pas vraiment voter sur des questions de latéralisation sur le spectre politique habituel gauche/droite, comme dans d'autres pays (en France, qui a donné des noms à ces côtés, ou aux États-Unis, où il s'agit d'une guerre de cultures). Les électeurs ont surtout sorti le parti Libéral qui a été embourbé dans des scandales. C'est encore plus clair au Québec qu'ailleurs où les Libéraux sont à un des points les plus bas de l'histoire du pays. D'ailleurs, au Québec, les questions de latéralisation ont relativement peu d'importance en général. Et le vote des Québécois au niveau fédéral, c'est souvent un vote qui a des buts assez spécifiques. Une façon de voir tout ça, c'est un mouvement vers la décentralisation. Le PCC, qui admet représenter prioritairement les provinces de l'Ouest tout en ayant fait des gains importants dans le Centre et l'Est du pays, favorise l'unification du pays dans son ensemble mais semble prêt à donner plus de pouvoir aux provinces. En fait, certains souverainistes prévoyaient depuis 1993 que si l'ancien Reform Party (qui a fusionné avec les Progressistes-Conservateurs pour éventuellement former le PCC) remportait un jour les élections, ce serait idéal pour la souveraineté du Québec. Même si le Québec se situe généralement vers la gauche, ses votes fédéraux ont d'autres motivations. Duceppe, du Bloc québécois, insinuait même que les Conservateurs au pouvoir auraient une influence positive sur le Québec. Les Blocquistes sont probablement déçus d'avoir perdus quelques sièges aux mains des Conservateurs, mais la situation est assez bonne pour eux. Les dix sièges que le PCC a gagnés au Québec sont très importants politiquement, mais ils ne semblent vraiment pas démontrer un mouvement vers la droite au Québec. C'est difficile de connaître les idées des électeurs de ces régions (autour de la ville de Québec, entre autres), mais certains points ont pu les animer. Un dégoût pour les Libéraux fédéraux, une volonté de participer au pouvoir, un certain opportunisme, un désir de changement et une volonté de déserrer l'étau centralisateur que les Libéraux et les anciens Conservateurs ont longtemps maintenu. Faut dire aussi que le Québec votaient alternativement pour les Libéraux ou les Conservateurs selon diverses tendances internes qui n'ont jamais présagé de virage vers la droite où la gauche. Une autre façon de le dire, le Québec est la partie la plus imprévisible d'élections fédérales canadiennes. Stephen Harper et le PCC ont proposé un programme clair qui a toutes les chances de ne jamais être mis en place. Harper lui-même est explicite à propos du fait qu'un mandat clair ne lui avait pas été donné. Oui, il va pouvoir installer des gens de droite dans son cabinet. Mais il n'aura pas la possibilité de faire passer ce qu'il veut. Puisqu'il s'agit d'un système parlementaire et que son gouvernement est minoritaire, les questions les plus litigieuses feront l'objet d'énormément de négociations entre les députés élus (Conservateurs, Libéraux, Blocquistes, Néo-Démocrates et un Indépendant au Québec). Contrairement à d'autres endroits, les députés ne voteront pas nécessairement de façon strictement partisane. Pour prendre un exemple concret, on ne partirait pas en guerre par la simple volonté de M. Harper. En fin de compte, ça rend surtout la politique canadienne plus intéressante. Que ce soit un résultat décevant pour plusieurs (y compris pour des Conservateurs qui rêvaient d'un gouvernement majoritaire), c'est un fait. Mais c'est moins un mouvement clair qu'une série de transformations intéressantes. En d'autres termes, si Harper essaie de mettre sur la table des politiques trop extrêmes, ses décisions seront constamment renversées. Les Conservateurs se préparent surtout pour un deuxième mandat mais ils doivent faire leurs preuves pour l'obtenir.

Bandname: Rest

2006-01-23T15:52:00.000-05:00

With a band named Rest, some possible titles for songs or even albums: _area for the _ of us cast of _ _ing ag_ arm_ ad_ c_ imp_ up_ dyg_ p_ for time long _ double whole _ whole _ half _ quarter _ eighth _ sixteenth _ thirty-second _ sixty-fourth _ under a_ d_ b_ car_ st_ @ _ _ test modest _ protest _ grey test _ _ fest best _ For a French feel: reste pause demie-pause soupir demi-soupir quart de soupir repos Etc. My favorite is probably up-rest. Oppressive regimes and uprising. Obviously, the symbol for whole rest (Unicode 1D13B) could serve as a logo. Silly? Yeah, so?

Vote!

2006-01-19T14:54:00.000-05:00

Elections Canada On-line - Élection Canada en-ligne Vive la démocratie! Hurray for democracy!

Technorati tags: elections, politics, democracy, politique, democratie

the K Chronicles: "One Day in Ye Olde White House.."

2006-01-19T12:52:00.000-05:00

Keith Knight À propos!

Technorati tags: humour, U.S. politics, war

The Chicago Archives of Alcohol: A self-guided tour

2006-01-18T08:18:00.000-05:00

David Witter:

examples of Chicago's alcohol-drenched history

Mentions the Lager Beer Riot of 1855 but focuses on bars that opened later in the 19th century and operated during the prohibition.

while a true museum will never be commissioned, several establishments still serve as de facto galleries showcasing the social, economic and political link between alcohol and Chicago's storied past

Why will a museum not be commissioned? Because of attitudes toward alcohol in the U.S.? No wonder there are so many problems with alcohol on U.S. campuses. While not obliterated, the history of alcohol in that country is merely mentioned in passing. Of course, compulsory alcohol-awareness programs on campuses focus on the issue of drunk driving (with no discussion of alternatives, such as public transportation) or the "affects" (sic!) of alcohol on the body with little or no mention of alcohol's cultural significance, its place in history, its social role, or even responsible drinking. Typical moral entrepreneur business. Ah, well...

Technorati tags: Chicago, bar, beer-riot, history

No Buy NoHo

2005-11-24T02:12:00.000-05:00

Something in which we can participate. Will it stop consumerism? Nope. Will it make a statement? Yup.

(Spoof) Business "Relationships"

2005-11-01T20:33:00.000-05:00

Night On Town Fails To Rekindle Fading Business Relationship | The Onion - America's Finest News Source Funny and may help to think about distinctions in relationships. This one is in terms of a business alliance which takes on a romantic connotation.

Technorati tags: humor, social-network, business, relationships

(Spoof) Food for Thought?

2005-10-29T01:00:00.000-04:00

Comedy Central - Media Player A Daily Show piece (video) on an attempt to sell a tofu-based product to anthropology students. They could have used the "anthropo-" prefix for something else. Actually, that product has a site too. Ah, well...

Technorati tags: humor, anthropology

(Spoof) History of Notre Dame Football

2005-10-28T16:47:00.000-04:00

Notre Dame Football Announces Improvements To Its Storied History | The Onion - America's Finest News Source Only lived in South Bend for eight months but these were the most historical five years of my life... Technorati tags: humor, sports, Notre-Dame, South-Bend, football

Textbooks and Publishing.

2005-10-24T10:44:00.000-04:00

O'Reilly Network: The Real Problem with Textbooks: A SafariU Editorial Some typical tech enthusiasm coupled with a certain dose of self-praise from O'Reilly. As O'Reilly is often perceived quite positively (as a "non-evil" in the tech publishing world), the implied marketing is relatively benign. Interesting notion about what changes in publishing imply:

A key design principle of this new publishing is remixing--putting together digital content in creative new ways. Remixing is powering new services that are shaking up traditional publishing and distribution.

Of course, other publishers are trying to adopt similar strategies by which iinstructors are able to “build” textbooks by picking and choosing textbook sections (chapters, modules, units) from a publisher's database. There's an issue of granularity but it does represent a bit more freedom than being forced to use a monolithic textbook. If the publisher's collection contains a broad range of material, this can be a solution to some people's problems with textbooks. But mix-and-match textbooks address issues of openness only obliquely. The editorial uses iTunes and Google News as examples of remixing. The world is ready for forms of remixing which are more open-ended, like blogs and wikis. Technorati tags: academia, publishing, textbooks, new-economy, technology

Bière et connexions sans-fil

2005-10-18T14:44:00.000-04:00

Le réseau sans-fil ouvert/gratuit/libre «Île Sans Fil» se fait une tournée des bars: Île Sans Fil Montréal - Québec - Canada : PubCrawl2005. Pas pire! Bière et geekitude. T-shirts pas chers, prix de présence. En passant, ISF est un des groupes montréalais qui traversent le mieux les «deux solitudes»... Technorati tags: wifi, bière, montréal

Montreal ISF: WiFi "Free as in Beer"

2005-10-18T14:40:00.000-04:00

The "Île Sans Fil" Free/Open wireless network in Montreal is having a pubcrawl: Île Sans Fil Montréal - Québec - Canada : PubCrawl2005. Pretty cool! Beer and geekness. Cheap t-shirts. Door prizes. And, BTW, ISF is one of the groups in Montreal where the "two solitudes" are most integrated. Technorati tags: wifi, beer, montreal

Podcasters Eyeing New iPod

2005-10-18T10:43:00.000-04:00

For instance, on Audio Activism (a podcast about using podcasting and other online methods for political and social engagement) is a blog entry asking Does the new iPod record audio in stero?(sic) Guess we're all still wondering. The answer to that question will come soon enough. Well, actually, we know part of the answer but we still don't know how the iPod can do "voice recordings" at 44.1kHz stereo or what the quality of those recordings might be. And let's really hope that this feature isn't crippled.

Technorati tags: podcasting, ipod, recording, field-research

Donny B.

2005-10-17T09:20:00.000-04:00

Internet Archive: Details: Day In The Death Of Donny B. Now, this is one good reason to keep archives. This one was linked from a Dailysonic episode on soundtracks from the 1970s. This one is a short anti-drug docudrama from 1969. Quite powerful. Non-moralistic, rather realistic, non-sensationalist, social... The soundtrack is haunting, the images are quite strong without being drawn out too far. As Dailysonic's Adam Varga was saying, such a movie couldn't be made nowadays. Technorati tags: movie, drugs, soundtrack, archives, 1969

Yet Another Blog

2005-10-16T04:04:00.000-04:00

Started yet another blog, this time on Opera.com (a "community" site based on the Opera browser, which is now free). It's a rather limited blogging solution but it does allow for importing from Blogger so it's now populated with entries from here. So the list now includes, as personal blogs:

As well as the academic blog on Thinking Globalization Through Music. Fun! Is it too much? Well, yes. But it's mostly about testing features. Eventually, all of the personal blogs among these could/should be merged into one reliable blogging interface.

Technorati tags: blog, opera-browser, tests

Audio Recording at 44.1kHz/16b on the New iPod?

2005-10-15T09:54:00.000-04:00

According to this iLounge discussion, it seems that the 5th generation iPod (the one with video capabilities) supports "CD-quality" audio recording (uncompressed audio at 44.1kHz, 16 bits, stereo). If true, this could be a dream come true. This is the one feature that has been on my wishlist from the start. Actually, before the original iPod was introduced, as rumors of an Apple audio device were circulating. Was in the market for an audio recording device to bring to the field (in Mali, West Africa). Ended up with a MiniDisc recorder which proved quite useful but had two major flaws: audio was compressed in the ATRAC format (which is not that suitable for audio analysis) and lossless transfer to a computer (audio "upload" as it is often called) was only available on very high-end devices. This has changed somewhat with the Hi-MD format which does allow for lossless audio "upload" to a computer and does support uncompressed formats. But there are several issues with Hi-MD devices and their audio "uploading" capabilities. The new iPod could be miles ahead of Hi-MD recorders in terms of convenience and practicality. While 1GB Hi-MD medium can be quite useful in many situations, the 60GB hard drive of the high-end iPod is quite a bit more appealing, regardless of differences between hard drive and MiniDisc technologies. Sony's SonicStage software to "upload" audio from Hi-MD devices to computers is allegedly difficult to use. Assuming that the new iPod's recordings are handled in a similar way to those recorded using the Griffin iTalk, it should be possible to automatically transfer recordings to the iTunes music jukebox software which can greatly facilitate management of recordings. Altogether, the iPod might become an amazing solution for musicians and field recorders. The iPodLinux Project does allow for even higher quality recordings to be using some older iPod models. But "out of the box" support for "CD-quality" recordings implies official support. Of course, MiniDisc recorders are meant to be used as recorders and usually have good quality analog-to-digital converters, implying good recording quality regardless of format. In terms of size and weight, the new iPod is probably more attractive than MiniDisc devices but some MD devices have long battery life for recording. So the jury is still out on the new iPod as portable audio recorders. Can't wait for that jury's sentence. Technorati tags: audio, ipod, recording, research, minidisc

Christopher Lydon Doesn't Care About Blog People

2005-10-14T13:01:00.000-04:00

Not really trying to be controversial. Just thought it was interesting. From a recent show of "Radio Open Source," which the host, Christopher Lydon, calls "a show infused with the political energy of the Internet" (0'58"). Open Source / Blog Archive / Justice Miers: A Blogosphere Scorned Christopher Lydon is defending his title as a blog-lover:

(20'32")CL: Don't mistake me. As a fan of the blogosphere, and I am one and I'm a blogger...

But this defense came a while after Lydon emphasized the perceived inequalities of that same "blogosphere":

(7'32")Randy Barnett, you're a blogger but you're a grown-up, shall we say, among bloggers, a law professor too, I'm just wondering...

To which Barnett replied:

(7'52")RB: First of all, I don't want to distance myself from the rest of the blogosphere... I learn a lot on the blogosphere even though they may not be law professors...this is the premise of your whole show and I think that we law professors have a lot to learn. I always learn from the bloggers.

Lydon sees himself as a blogger and tends to have a very specific perspective on blogging. That perspective can be seen in parallel with the more individualistic dimensions of online communication. For one thing, the rule is for first-person singular pronouns on this specific "blogosphere." Which, in itself, is quite interesting. Another interesting aspect of Lydon's perspective of blogging is to see pre-Internet communication as blogging:

Thomas Paine was a blogger without the software. So was the weekly mail pamphleteer I. F. Stone, our anti-war hero of the 1960s and 70s and the only certifiable genius I ever encountered in journalism. Ralph Waldo Emerson, a fount of sturdy values (father of “the American religion,” says Harold Bloom) was a proto-blogger. And Emerson’s magazine The Dial in the 1840s, with Thoreau, Fuller, Alcott among the Concord co-conspirators, was the original group blog.

But still, the point about differentiating blogging law professors from other bloggers. There seems to be a tendency about "Old Media" people to over-emphasize prestige at every turn. Sure, it's a common trend in many dimensions of life and many parts of the world. What's strange, though, is how dissonant that emphasis is with the philosophy of democratic communication that those "Old Media" types preach once they get online. Guess equality is just unevenly distributed. Technorati tags: blog, opinionated, prestige, academics

Still Defining Art?

2005-10-11T15:19:00.000-04:00

In a rant about one of the books chosen for Oprah's book club, Salon.com's Hillary Frey attempts to define art negatively:

His story might be shocking, but it isn't art.

The piece (which looks like a negative review of the book) is littered with opinionated bits of supposedly self-evident condescension. Interesting to see that some people still clench to this view of art and criticism. No analysis of the phenomenon through which this book was chosen for Oprah's book club ("the most successful book club in the world," Frey tells us without citing any evidence outside the U.S.). A header of "Is this even writing?" introducing the second "page" of the piece (as if writing were defined by the content). Some gushing comments about the book club and its host ("Like practically everyone else in America, I love Oprah."). Much projection of attitudes and sentiments on readers of the piece ("There is something inherently creepy..."). Vacuous predictions of the phenomenon's outcome ("Readers will dissect the "rage" Frey carries like an old blanket throughout his book."). And, of course, apparent disdain for those people who "will in the end rely on their skills in pop psychology as they try to make something of this memoir." Not saying that the book deserves a better treatment. Haven't read it. But that's not the point. The piece isn't really a full-fledged review of that book about which Hillary Frey seems to have such a strong aversion (apparently, it has a lot to do with punctuation, for some reason). But it is a rant about a social phenomenon which is addressed only obliquely. Hillary Frey's disappointment is visibly about a decision taken by Oprah's almighty and benevolent book club (Frey cites a publisher's comment on book sales to show that Oprah herself "did a worthy and wonderful thing" with her club). But the crux of the matter is that, "[w]ith James Frey, the book club is losing its identity as a literary feature, morphing into yet another vehicle for self-help." This would have been a great opportunity for Frey to undertake some kind of analysis or even just a reflection on the implications of this change. Yet it's simply a way to introduce the previous quote about art. So, now, artists are not only responsible for their work but for the inclusion of their work in the reading list of a television personality. Fun! Yes, self-help books sell. Whether or not they deserve respect from a would-be literary critic, they have a large impact on U.S. society. Oprah's television show certainly connects with self-help books and the very notion of self-help. For those who mostly know Oprah Winfrey through Oprah, the connection between the book club and James Frey's A Million Little Pieces seems rather unsurprising. Self-help books and Oprah are part of the same social phenomenon. One could even talk about individualism and self-reliance in the U.S. (guests on Oprah often advocate for people finding solutions "in themselves," AFAIK). And these connections may have little to do with Oprah Winfrey herself, though it does seem to relate to her television persona. Some could analyze the phenomenon in financial terms, others in psychological terms. Yet others might see changes in the very concept of "literature," happening since at least the 1950s. It's fascinating to see how convinced some people can be of the value of their own opinions and tastes. And how unlikely it is for some people to look at the broader picture. Ah, well... Technorati tags: aesthetics, review, art, literature

The Onion AV Club on W&G

2005-10-11T12:00:00.000-04:00

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit | The A.V. Club Haven't seen this one yet but have been enjoying the other Park/Aardman creations. This review is quite useful because it describes the type of experience one is likely to go through while watching the movie without necessarily evaluating it. That way, audience members are free to enjoy the movie for themselves but know in which context the movie should be seen. Can't wait to see this one. Technorati tags: movie, review, animation, gromit

South Station Pulsepoint

2005-10-11T11:28:00.000-04:00

South Station Pulsepoint There's an open WiFi network in Boston's South Station. It's not connected to the Internet itself but it represents a neat concept for location-specific networks. It's not available from the outside world (i.e., you need to be in the South Station to access it) but it can connect people who just happen to pass by the South Station, a major hub for those traveling to and from Boston with bus lines, subway lines, Amtrak trains, and commuter rail all in the same place. Technorati tags: glocal, local network, Boston

(Spoof) Native-American Realtor Doesn't Believe In His Job | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

2005-10-11T11:16:00.000-04:00

(Spoof) Native-American Realtor Doesn't Believe In His Job | The Onion - America's Finest News Source Broadcast in late September but quite relevant in the context of Columbus Day along with the upcoming U.S. Thanksgiving Day. (Canadian Thanksgiving Day, which happened yesterday, on the same day as Columbus Day in the U.S., doesn't necessarily carry the same narrative about relations between Native Americans and European settlers.) Technorati tags: humor, native american, ownership, land

Outlining

2005-10-09T12:26:00.000-04:00

ATPM 11.10 - Outliners: TAO and OmniOutliner Pro Comparison between two approaches to outlining. Some interesting comments about outlining usage. As academics often need to write structured texts, a good outliner should really be a part of any academic's toolbox. Ted Goranson's column on outliners frequently contains insightful ideas about computer-assisted writing. This specific column could use a bit of editing, though. Technorati tags: software, workflow, outlining, note-taking

Constructed Languages

2005-10-05T11:46:00.000-04:00

Programming in Tongues The podcast has an interesting explanation of several reasons behind artificial languages. Technorati tags: language, linguistics, fiction, artificial-language

Columbian Green Coffee Beans

2005-10-04T10:35:00.000-04:00

Joe Ferrante's looking for bloggers interesting in columbian green coffee beans Thanks for the comment, Joe! I guess the reason you got here was that I do occasionally blog about coffee. Unfortunately, I haven't been tagging most of my posts here. I do have another blog where I posted a café review. I also reviewed the same café on WikiCities. Not necessarily because it's the most awesomest place in the world but they had wireless access and it seemed like a good opportunity to start reviewing cafés... Now, Columbian beans. Well, I do homeroast and often use Columbian beans as a base. What I like about them is that they're quite consistent in quality, fairly versatile and fairly flexible in terms of roast. It seems Columbian beans are the ones people use to try out roasting methods. Ken Davids said something like that in his homeroasting book... At the same time, Columbian beans aren't the most surprising beans around. Actually, some Columbian beans I've had were very aromatic, even while green. Joe: Is there a specific reason you're interested in Columbian beans rather than other beans? Are you in the coffee business? If so, what do you think of CoffeeGeek? Technorati tags: coffee, homeroasting

MIT Media Lab: $100 Laptop

2005-10-02T14:19:00.000-04:00

MIT Media Lab: $100 Laptop Let's hope this works! Technorati tags: technology, learning, development, laptop, cheap

Performance and Identity in Podcasting

2005-10-02T11:18:00.000-04:00

Duke Podcasting Symposium :: September 27 - 28, 2005 Didn't watch the fine webcast yet but it sounds interesting. Technorati tags: podcasting, academic, anthropology

Congress Abandons WikiConstitution | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

2005-09-29T14:24:00.000-04:00

(Spoof)Open Constitution Interesting concept... Technorati tags: Humor, politics, open-source

Sur la bonne voix?

2005-09-25T23:12:00.000-04:00

Skype se tourne vers les services vocaux. Peut-être l'avénement de cette intégration technologique autour de la voix? La voix, comme interface, a son importance. Mais elle nécessite certains traitements (reco, TTS...). Reste à voir ce qui va se passer dans le domaine. N'empêche, l'influence Skype, qui est désormais un grand nom, saurait se faire sentir.

(Spoof) Unwarranted "High Fives"

2005-09-18T22:09:00.000-04:00

Seventy-Two Percent Of High Fives Unwarranted | The Onion - America's Finest News Source Even the alternatives are often considered unwarranted. Been criticized for over-using the thumbs-up myself. Although hissed "yessss," with or without associated fist-pulling, still carries enough weight in specific situations. Could be linked to other changes in non-verbal communication.

Trends in Currency Exchange Rates

2005-09-18T02:41:00.000-04:00

FXGraph - Graphical display of currency rates Been having fun looking at trends between the Canadian Dollar (CAD), the Swiss Franc (CHF), the Euro (EUR), and the US Dollar (USD). There really are some clear patterns and it'd be illuminating to see those charts labelled with major events.

(Spoof)Petrotheism 9/14/05

2005-09-16T10:47:00.000-04:00

An animation, by Mark Fiore.

Guardian Unlimited Politics | Comment | Christopher Davis: The frontier continent

2005-09-15T11:27:00.000-04:00

Guardian Unlimited Politics | Comment | Christopher Davis: The frontier continent

To regard religion in Africa in these terms is to put their religion where our politics should be. Our error begins with the place in our imaginations that we force Africa to occupy. We are subject to 'African exceptionalism': a sense that Africa is so different, so impossible to organise, that any undertaking is practically pointless.

Strong words...

World's Newest Strongest Beer

2005-09-14T16:37:00.000-04:00

German brews world's strongest beer - Food Inc. - MSNBC.com

Schneider expects the holders of the world's strongest beer, the Boston Beer Company, to put up a fight.'I'm pretty sure the Americans have something up their sleeve.'

This is getting interesting. American and German attitudes toward beer.

(Spoof)Evolution Week on the Daily Show

2005-09-13T11:55:00.000-04:00

First Show: History of Evolution Quite anthropological, as it turns out...

Journalism and Span

2005-09-13T10:52:00.000-04:00

Listened to a podcast version of a radio show with New York Times correspondent John Burns. Though he has won the Pulitzer prize twice, he still has interesting things to say... Still displayed a few journalistic ticks, but fairly interesting. And the New York Times attracts some attention. Of course, there's been a number of major events surrounding the New York Times in the last few years. Some see the New York Times in a separate class, either a "good" newspaper or as the "straw man" what's wrong with journalism. No matter which view is taken, journalism as a whole is changing. Been maybe a bit harsh on journalists but it's more a matter of problems inherent to journalism rather than a problem with journalists themselves. On the Daily Show recently, host Jon Stewart compared journalists to eight year-old children playing soccer without knowing about positions. They all scramble for the ball and will follow it around. Maybe journalism as a game is played with those rules: go for the ball, no matter what. A fair deal has been said about the short attention span of "The Media" or "The People" (especially US citizens). Reliance on "news" («actualité») pretty much implies such a short attention span. Of course, historians work on the past and there's no way to know the future so people should focus on the present. Fair enough. But it makes for little analysis. What counts as "in-depth coverage" in journalism rarely includes any real analysis beyond conclusions taken out of context from actual analysis. The very format of a journalistic medium makes it difficult for any long-term reflection. There's an interesting relationship between academics and journalists. As "experts," academics may be interviewed by journalists. As messengers, journalists may be a source for academics. But the division of labor is fairly strict and might become stricter in some respects. In both cases, there might be a cult of personality (imagine Steven Pinker with Larry King...). There's certainly a notion of prestige associated with authority. The 'Net takes part in important changes in journalism. As a whole. Not just blogging and podcasting or the fact that newspapers and news shows have web pages. The whole Digital Revolution. For one thing, be it in instant messages, chatrooms, emails, or blogs, Internet users are writing a lot. Some might complain that it implies sloppier style on the part of most people. There will always be old curmudgeons. But, clearly, people are active at written communication. Not to be too McLuhanian here but it's a fundamental difference between communication methods. Those communication processes make people active participants as opposed to passive recipients. Some apply the concept of a generation gap to any vision of change and will say that younger people have no attention span. A number of them assign video games as either a symbol or even a cause for shorter attention spans. Thing is, those who are really involved in video games can display much longer attention span by playing for several hours straight than those who accuse them of short attention spans, who mostly remain empassive/em for long hours of time. Ah, well... Then, because there's a lot of obviously inaccurate information online, a lot of people are able to «faire la part des choses» in adopting a critical stance toward the information they receive. What's powerful is that some people apply the same critical eye to "The Media," including prestigious newspapers like the New York Times. Going back to trust and truth, people will trust themselves and trust some of the information they receive instead of simply trusting a source. Still, many online phenomena reveal even more myopia than most standard journalism. People jump on the newest trend and forget all about it within days. Oh, sure, the 'Net archives a lot of the instantaneous exchanges that are happening. But the Digital Revolution is more about "Living in the Now" than about developing long-term understanding of slow social processes. A funny exercise is to look at online discussions from 1993–1994. They sound old and quaint. But we're talking about less than a generation. Are we changing faster than our predecessors? We certainly perceive change differently.

Deep Change in the Media? (Truth and Trust, Information, Knowledge)

2005-09-11T11:51:00.000-04:00

Open Source> Blog Archive> Craigslist and Nola.com: Information as News [Disclaimer: I personally think credentials and authority hinder any quest for knowledge.] A podcast of a radio show about the aftermath of Katrina giving a jolt to deep changes in journalism and the media. Journalism might be changing but Christopher Lydon still says, perhaps jokingly, that those who read the New York Times "are the best informed people of the whole bloody universe"... Some major points were made during the discussion which tags on previous discussions (and associated buzzwords) of "hyperlocal" and "citizen" journalism. Was mostly interested in comments about trust. From an academic point of view, information cannot be trusted, no matter the source. One always needs to maintain a critical perspective on information. Even a source known to be the most "trustworthy" (say, a world famous leading expert on a specific issue) will make mistakes. Academics also define data as different from fact. In this radio show and on multiple other occasions, a very populist notion of truth and trust emerges. Information comes from the people and people are in charge of checking information. This notion is very powerful in challenging journalistic notions. It also puts information in a sociological frame. Both Marxian and American. Comments during this specific show alluded more to a journalistic version of Linus' Law: "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow." This "law" does relate to peer review and might even represent a stronger form of peer review in which peers are judged for results and not necessarily based on their credentials. In both cases, the more sociological dimension and the review by peers, the notion of truth and trust coming out of groups of people may curb the cult of personality evidenced by other attitudes towards truth and trust. There might even be a struggle between the personality-based attitude toward authority ("it must be true because so-and-so said it") and the value of "distributed computing" of information and knowledge. ("Distributed" was used in that sense during the radio show and implies decentralization.) Those very same issues on trust and truth are debated in comparing Wikipedia to Encyclopedia Britannica. Yes, really, Information Wants To Be Free (as in Speech).

Learning New Words: Monopsony (Apple v. Recording Industry)

2005-09-10T02:52:00.000-04:00

Nivi : Steve Jobs to Studios: I Got the Power! Ok, I admit, I didn't know that word.

Replacement for Nicotine?

2005-09-10T01:28:00.000-04:00

Wired News: Smoke Breaks Boost Memory As is often the case, a rather inappropriate title for a fairly interesting article. Research on the functions of nicotinic receptors in the brain and alternatives to nicotine which activate those receptors.

(Spoof) Google Purge

2005-09-07T17:29:00.000-04:00

Google Announces Plan To Destroy All Information It Can't Index | The Onion - America's Finest News Source Even The Onion is going at it. Google's reputation has certainly been changing recently.

Presentation on Blogging

2005-09-07T17:19:00.000-04:00

BlogPresentation1 and BlogPresentation2 These are the Wiki pages from the presentation at IUSB which started me on this whole blogging thing. Had wanted to blog for a while but was afraid it'd take too much time. Some parts of these Wiki pages are specific to IUSB and/or to Expression Engine, but the overall presentation could be useful to other would-be bloggers. Ken Smith is known at IUSB for his blogging activities. He integrates those with academic and community activities.

Neat and Geeky

2005-09-06T08:04:00.000-04:00

Using Wikipedia and the Yahoo API to give structure to flat lists Kind of proof-of-concept-ish, but neat nonetheless.

Sorry to Cut You Off

2005-09-03T14:18:00.000-04:00

In my family, conversations often include overlapping interventions by different speakers. One person will start a sentence before somebody else has finished their sentence. This is a well-known phenomenon in different speech communities and studies in both ethnography of communication and conversation analysis have a lot to say about this. Oftentimes, this strategy is perceived, by those who use it, as active engagement in the discussion and/or as a way to "get the ball rolling" by bringing the interlocutor's point forward in different directions. To those whose communicative rules discourage overlap, however, this conversational style may sound rude as a way for one person to cut off somebody else. In fact, some people sound so eager to preempt the cycle of turn-taking that it might sound almost aggressive. In reverse, those of us who enjoy overlapping conversations may feel non-overlapping sequential turn-taking as "stiff" and overly formal, not to mention boring and unchallenging. Again, all of this is well-known textbook case. Some speech communities in the US are well-known for this. I'm not exactly sure my family is representative of Quebecker attitudes toward communication in this respect as the most extreme examples I've been involved often took a style more representative of European French-speakers than Quebecker but most comments I've heard about this have come from non-Quebecker and I get the impression overlapping conversations are at least tolerated by most Quebecker. One reason I've been thinking about this is that I'm often self-conscious in conversations with non-Quebeckers about not "holding the floor" for too long and about making sure other people have a chance to speak up. Usually, it works, but it can be hard and I feel relieved when I talk with people who share this conversation style so Ican just "be myself" and ride on the tail of someone else's intervention knowing that other people will do the same, without any need to apologize. As my wife comes from a community in which overlapping interventions are less favoured than in my family, these occasions don't present themselves too often. Another reason I've been thinking about this is podcasting. Yes, podcasting has been on my mind lately. In this particular case, it's the difference between "real" podcasts and podcast versions of radio broadcast in terms of time constraints. And although I don't really like to do it, I'll enter rant mode for a little bit. Feel free to react if you read this. ;-) One podcast to which I've been paying attention is taken from a live broadcast of an "international" (though US-centric and even very regional) public radio program. Roles are set in advance: professional host, prestigious guests, friendly callers, and precious listeners. As is typical of many production of the so-called "mainstream media" (yes, institutionalised public radio fits as a mainstream medium, at least in production mode), the host is positioned as not only the focal point of the conversation and the representative of the audience but as a kind of omnipotent expert on subjects mentioned on the show. In other words, the host should be (and often is) able to respond to every single intervention made on the show. An authoritative tone helps as do some quotes from classics which listeners are expected to know. Listeners are put in a position of comfort. They can correspond with the show's team through different means, including calling the show's line, at which point they gain a new status. From "anonymous generic listeners out there" (allegedly anywhere the network's affiliate may broadcast), they become someone, with a first name and a location (city and state). The host will often engage in a very brief small-talk session with a caller, as if to increase familiarity (already implied in the use of the caller's first name, rarely reciprocated by the use of the host's first name). Then, the caller is graciously allowed one intervention, expected to be a short comment or question. As can be expected, several callers try to squeeze in this intervention more than a simple comment or question and may even have no specific question or comment for the host and guests. If the intervention does conclude with a comment, the host will graciously thank the caller, reiterate the show's phone number and go to another call. If the caller asks a specific question, the host then relays that question in streamlined form to one or more of the guests. Once the guests have spoken, the host may, on occasion, ask the caller if the responses were satisfactory. In the negative, the host may say that the issue is very interesting and should be raised later in the show. Standard practice. Standard practice is also the fact that callers are very rigidly timed out to make way not only for the guests' interventions but for those "breaks" around which the show seems to be based. A recent example had the host apologize for cutting off the caller at the exact time the caller was mentioning an important issue for that specific show. It was so important, in fact, that the host reused the issue later in the show, trying to get different guests to address it (nobody did). The caller was now just a name and had allegedly hung up. The host, though open to the caller's intervention, had prevented the interaction to go further. Obviously, the host is not responsible for the time constraints of broadcast radio. At most, the show is in charge of apologizing for the time constraints. "I'm really sorry to cut you off like that but we need to go to the break. Thanks a lot for calling!" In a context in which overlaps are discouraged, the host bears the burden of the show's embedded rudeness. Given the importance of politeness in the US, the pressure of appearing rude must make hosting a radio show "tough work." Also, callers are the only ones to be cut off. Esteemed guests, frequently praised by the host (who then serves a much different role), are only allowed to make interventions which will fit in the show's rigid structure. All par for the course? Oh, probably. But "it doesn't need to be that way." A major advantage of podcasts is to be relatively unrestricted in terms of time limits. In this respect, they often resemble open-ended interviews typical of ethnographic research. The "host" of a podcast may get "guests" to talk as much or as little as they want. Granted, radio interview formats are ingrained enough in some people's habits that it might be difficult to move away from the rigid time-constrained format into the scary unregulated world of open conversations.

Canada's Angloest Cities/Villes les plus anglophones du Canada

2005-09-02T20:39:00.000-04:00

M'amusais avec ce tableau de StatCan, à trier par différentes colonnes. C'est assez notoires que les villes les plus exclusivement anglophones du Canada soient à Terre-Neuve-Labrador et en Nouvelle-Écosse. Pour les villes les plus exclusivement francophones, elles sont au Québec, comme on aurait pu le deviner. C'est ça, des statistiques arbitraires. Was shuffling this table around and noticed that the most exclusively English-speaking cities of Canada are in Newfoundland-Labrador and in Nova Scotia. Unsurprisingly, the most exclusively French-speaking cities are in Quebec. Yup. Your random stat factoid for the day.

Faire le pont

2005-08-29T18:32:00.000-04:00

Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology – A Group Blog: The Rest of the World En fait, j'avais lu une partie de l'article mais j'étais passé par-dessus ce concept de "bridge-bloggers" (décrit dans un journal de l'association américaine d'anthropologie). En tant que francophone écrivant en anglais et en français, je me sens plus ou moins concerné. Bon, bien sûr, la majorité de ce que j'écris est en anglais. En partie parce que ce que je lis est en anglais et parce que ce que j'écris dans un contexte académique est généralement en anglais. En fait, ce blogue est un peu, pour moi, une façon de pratiquer mon anglais. J'ai bien entendu l'habitude d'écrire en anglais depuis un certain temps (surtout depuis mes premiers pas en-ligne en 1993), mais j'essaie d'améliorer certains aspects de mon écriture. Ce que j'aime faire, parfois, c'est d'écrire en anglais sur des sujets qui touchent des francophones. Sans même penser à un public précis, je me dis que ça peut éventuellement servir comme «traduction culturelle» du français vers l'anglais. Je fais pas trop le contraire. Entre autres parce qu'il y a fort probablement plus de francophones qui lisent l'anglais que d'anglophones qui lisent le français. Mais aussi parce que le français est mon «code-nous» et que j'ai tendance à être plus personnel en français. Comme je veux me distancer un peu du mode personnel sur ce blogue, j'ai pas trop tendance à traduire vers le français. Justement, c'est une problématique assez personnelle, cette question de faire un pont entre différentes cultures. Quand on déménage en moyenne à tous les 4,4 mois, ç'a un effet sur notre perception de la réalité. Justement... Je vais certainement écrire plusieurs choses là-dessus mais je viens de déménager à Northampton, dans le Massachusetts. Très intéressant comme endroit. Charmante petite ville universitaire (Smith College). Bonne ambiance. Gens intéressants. Cafés sympas, terrasses agréables, restos divers. Plutôt tranquille, surtout en comparaison avec le MidWest. Nous sommes à distance de marche du centre-ville, du campus et de plusieurs services. En fait, c'est le logement que mon épouse va occuper puisque je vais enseigner à l'autre bout du Massachusetts pendant qu'elle fera des recherches post-doctorales à Smith. Pour l'instant, je compare surtout à des endroits comme Burlington (Vermont) et Provincetown (sur Cape Cod) avec quelques aspects qui me font penser à Bloomington (Indiana) et Fredericton (Nouveau-Brunswick). Contrairement à Moncton (Nouveau-Brunswick) ou South Bend (Indiana), c'est une ville qui est assez favorable aux piétons. Très important pour moi. Eh bien, quoi? J'ai dit «disparate», non?

Email vs. RSS

2005-08-29T17:54:00.000-04:00

Will RSS replace eMail? It will if I can help it. Geared toward a specific form of file-based "collaboration" for which email seems to be a less than optimal solution. Strange that one should think one technology can simply replace a different technology. Maybe email will cease to exist because of thee problems cited in this piece but it's quite unlikely that RSS would be used for everything people do with email.

iTunes Shuffle

2005-08-29T17:48:00.000-04:00

OmniNerd - Articles: How Much Does iTunes Like My Five-Star Songs? Apart from the typical comment about user perception, it's much more scientific approach to the issue than has been used in most discussions so far. Still not completely convinced about how random my iPod 2G is in all situations, I still do perceive some clustering effect at times. Not that it plays the same artists over and over again but that some randomly-generated playlists seem to bring together tracks that have something in common, possibly based on hard disk location. Still, this short test provides interesting data.

Vélos communautaires

2005-08-29T17:17:00.000-04:00

Wired News: A P2P Network for Bikes Pas mal comme principe. Bon, l'analogie avec le P2P est plutôt indirecte, mais l'implémentation elle-même semble bien pensée.

Changing the World?

2005-08-29T17:11:00.000-04:00

Wired News: Shoplifting as Social Commentary One movement at a time.

WiFi Zombies?

2005-08-29T11:18:00.000-04:00

Is WiFi Good or Bad for Business The linked piece is typical journalism. Transform a social phenomenon into an "issue" and then pretend to balance advantages and disadvantages of that social phenomenon. The blog entry itself is more to the point. As can be expected, many publications discuss this same issue, usually rehashing the same opinions. The trigger was probably this Wired article, though that piece is less about the "zombie" phenomenon than about a way to get people involved in new online activities. Those are not new ideas as Italian cafés were allegedly exploring similar solutions a number of years ago (as per Wired, IIRC). Café owners were discussing this same issue recently. And the Valley Advocate's "suggestion" to Woodstar Café in Northampton is to abandon WiFi. So, what is this all about? Wireless access to the 'Net has greatly increased in recent years, notably in cafés and other public spaces. In many of these places, patrons bring their laptops to do different things online. Typically, these laptop users have limited interactions with people around them while they use their computer and consume fairly little through the extended period of time they spend in the public space. Some people even hog large tables at inopportune times and can become rude when they're disturbed by someone while using their computer. That's one way to put it. A large part of the question is simply about café culture, whether or not the public space is in fact a coffee shop. Despite the romanticized notion that people go to cafés to meet new people and start revolutions, cafés can serve many purposes. It can be a quiet place away from home where one can read a newspaper. Or it can be, as in Vienna, a place where people spend hours writing their thoughts while observing other people (tea houses are also good places for that). People might set up meetings at cafés because it doesn't matter if people are late. Some cafés are even about, gasp, drinking coffee! A common thread is that cafés are a place where people can stay for a while without bothering or being bothered by anyone. A successful café is likely to be a place where people feel welcome and can stay for a while. Quite the reverse of McDonald's where the idea is to get people in and out as efficiently as possible. Some cafés are closer to the McDonald's model and may even succeed, but many cafés are very successful in making people feel comfortable whether or not they consume a lot while there. Should follow this up at some point with personal experiences in different cafés in different places.

Speech in Business

2005-08-29T10:28:00.000-04:00

Smart Talk: Speech-enabled apps deliver bottom-line benefits - Computerworld Discusses some aspects of speech technologies (Speech Recognition and Text-to-Speech) in business contexts. Bank transactions and similar operations have been the most common applications of SR and TTS but there's room for a lot more. Speech might come of age soon.

Des Moines et des touristes

2005-08-29T01:57:00.000-04:00

DesMoinesRegister.com: Montreal is Magnifique On dirait qu'ils ont apprécié... ;-) Assez réaliste, quoique peut-être trop enthousiaste.

Utah Beer Riots?

2005-08-29T00:21:00.000-04:00

South Salt Lake drafts home-brew ban - just in case What do they expect, the Chicago Beer Riots? Actually, the situation bears some similarities as it's about laws that are not enforced.

Architecture et histoire

2005-08-23T10:27:00.000-04:00

Montreal City Weblog: L'Autre Montréal, Heritage Montreal Les visites guidées, c'est pas seulement pour les touristes...

Please Don't Pressure Monks!

2005-08-21T20:28:00.000-04:00

Celebrator Beer News : Apr/May 2005 : International : Trappist Westvleteren (Chuck Cook) Great article with an elaborate explanation of the alleged "shortages" of beer. Nice comments about the monks' goals.

Rhythm Acquisition

2005-08-17T13:32:00.000-04:00

Babies detect unfamiliar music rhythms easier than adults Some potentially fascinating ideas from this research. Mentions of language acquisition and the notion, dear to culturalists throughout the history of anthropology, that enculturation is a selection process from a large set of possibles. The latter notion runs a little bit like the fact that infants are able to reproduce any speech sound at a certain point in their development but that they then learn to restrict their production to those sounds that are present in their native languages. IMVHO, the type of research this item describes would be much more relevant to most music research than efforts to localize "music processing" in the brain.

Is Vegas Out of This World?

2005-08-17T11:28:00.000-04:00

Wired News: Move Over Pyramids, Wynn's Here

'We will keep getting bigger, keep getting bolder in Las Vegas,' he says. 'It's what makes this city great, it's why people want to come here.'

Only in Vegas.

Molson �Moncton

2005-08-17T03:22:00.000-04:00

Molson construira à Moncton l'une des brasseries les plus modernes au monde En partie grâce à l'appui du provincial. Sachant que Pumphouse et Picaroons ont gagné des prix nationaux, qu'ils sont des représentants plus adéquats du monde brassicole néo-brunswickois et que leur financement est minime, pourquoi ne pas les soutenir plutôt qu'enrichir Molson et Moosehead?

Leak as Album Preview

2005-08-17T03:07:00.000-04:00

Playlist: Fiona's Extraordinary Machine, retail rebounds?

fans and interested parties were given perhaps the most famous album preview in the history of recorded music

Actually an interesting practice, even though industry executives weren't "in on it," More clueful than most current practices...

Montreal/US Differences in Binge Drinking

2005-08-16T21:55:00.000-04:00

Drinking outside the box

"If nothing else convinced meof the counterproductive effects of American drinking laws on college life," he writes in Binge, "my experience at McGill University in Montreal did."
And McGill's probably much closer to the US model in drinking than UQÀM and UdeM or even Concordia. At least, that's the main impression you get from people. Binge drinking is a huge problem at Indiana University Bloomington and the administration is applying even stricter rules, which is exactly the strategy to make it worse. Isn't it ironic that Ruth Engs is over there at IUB?

Epigenetics

2005-08-16T21:25:00.000-04:00

Wired News: Whew! Your DNA Isn't Your Destiny As is often the case, the article sounds overly confident as to the benefits of the research. On the face of it, it does sound like an interesting direction for research. It'd be nice to have a clear explanation of what the epigenome means for interactions between biology and environment, including social environment. There certainly has been an overemphasis on genes as direct causes of anything, recently.

Baladodiffusion contre radio communautaire

2005-08-16T16:55:00.000-04:00

NPR defining new Podcast strategy [Mis à jour mardi 16 août 2005 21:26:36 pour ajuster mon ton un péremptoire.] Tristan Louis:

The second part here is that NPR is working on a downloadable and portable strategy, which goes against the core of Doug Kaye's argument that public radio is doomed.

On n'a probablement pas compris le texte de Doug Kaye de la même façon. ÀMHA, ce sont deux choses assez distinctes. D'un côté, NPR est en train de trouver une façon d'embarquer sur la vague de la baladodiffusion. Intéressant, sans doute. Pas très nouveau. Les «médias de masse» qui parlent de baladodiffusion mentionnent souvent qu'ils se prennent au bon moment pour ne pas répéter l'erreur qu'ils ont commises à ne pas comprendre les blogues. Quoique, leur «longueur d'avance» dans le podcasting demande à être analysée finement. Mais cet effort n'altère aucun des arguments de Doug Kaye par rapport au modèle de radio communautaire qui, selon lui, va s'effacer par rapport à la baladodiffusion. Et Doug Kaye ne signe pas vraiment la condamnation des radios communautaires. Tout au plus, note-t-il le manque d'adéquation entre ce vieux modèle et une prise en main de nos médias. Bien sûr, la radio communautaire risque d'exister encore longtemps. Mais elle ne peut pas rester inchangée.

Modelling Societies

2005-08-16T16:40:00.000-04:00

[Geowanking] building social modelling tools Ok, didn't RTFA, just skimmed it. Quite elaborate for a mailing-list post and it's harder to read off context. (Was mentioned by Tim O'Reilly.) The thrust seemed to be to look at causalities between social processes and environmental factors, à la Jared Diamond (of GG&S fame). As an aside, have been more of a Civilization player. Including the open-source Freeciv. Used some examples in class. Not because of the war aspect (always try to win with "culture" in Civ3). But because of the oversimplified social model. Should probably give SimCity a try at some point. Not a big gamer altogether.

WiFi as Amenity

2005-08-16T16:30:00.000-04:00

Macworld: News: US burger chain beefs up free Wi-Fi to 243 stores

When the Wi-Fi service was proposed, the company quickly chose to provide it for free, he said. "It's so simple to provide free wireless, and it's incredibly complicated to charge for it," Reid said. "We looked at it and it was just a no-brainer. It's like having a clean parking lot and clean bathrooms. It's just another amenity for our customers."

Good way to look at it!

Feed/fil Atom

2005-08-16T12:56:00.000-04:00

Oups! Le fil Atom de ce blogue n'était pas affiché... Oops! This blog's Atom feed wasn't displayed...

Getting a Clue?

2005-08-16T10:54:00.001-04:00

Playlist: Sexohol sells:

Apparently when you're issued your membership to the RIAA, you receive not only an ID card, glow-in-the-dark lapel pin, and mystic watch fob, but a pamphlet titled "Ways to Resist the Inevitability of Change," which begins: 1. Whenever the subject of improving the marketing and distribution of music through technology is introduced, jam your fingers into your ears and belt out –with Mermanesque verve–"There's No Business Like Show Business." 2 - 10. See 1. Okay, so maybe it's not that bad. The fact that outfits like the iTunes Music Store exist at all indicates that the music industry gets part of the equation. However the promotion of copy protected CDs and the continued existence of radio payola demonstrates that the industry still has a foot in the Stone Age.

Fun-ny! :) Too bad he didn't expand on numbers 2–10...

Homebrewers Going Pro

2005-08-15T16:25:00.000-04:00

This podcast episode had a few things about homebrewers going pro, including a comment, by Brewers Association director Paul Gatza, that 90% of professional craft brewers started as homebrewers. IIRC, the same statistic was mentioned by Ken Wells, of Travels with Barley fame on the July 16, 2005 episode of The Beer Show. This statistic must be listed somewhere on the Brewers Association website.

Language Ideology in France

2005-08-15T16:09:00.000-04:00

Pod Mag #12 Part II interview Melting Pod Among other things, some interesting comments about language ideology in France, its effects on the perception of French-speakers who podcast in English and even a hypothesis on the role of the French language in UN diplomacy.

Measure Happiness

2005-08-15T11:07:00.000-04:00

Money can buy you happiness but only relative to your peer's income

Happiness was measured using a self-report response of 'very happy,' 'pretty happy,' or 'not too happy.'

Gender Differences in Computer Science

2005-08-15T11:06:00.000-04:00

Why aren't more girls 'geeks'? With special emphasis on differences between "countries." Wonder what Summers has to say about this...

How to Choose Good Friends for Teenagers

2005-08-15T11:00:00.000-04:00

Parents can help teens choose 'good' friends, study finds Describes a U.S. model of friendship and the impact parents may have in their teenage children choosing "the right friends."

The results showed teens are more likely to have good friends – ones who don't fight and who have plans for college, for instance – if they have a warm relationship with their parents and if their parents choose to live in a neighborhood with high-quality schools.

Wonder what Penny Eckert has to say about this. As for of how parents and their children should interact:

A good-quality relationship is one in which parents and teens participate in activities together, communicate frequently, and express affection for one another.

Wonder what they would say about family relations in, say, Mali or the Philippines.

Podcasting Tips

2005-08-15T10:49:00.000-04:00

oreilly.com: Ten Tips for Improving Your Podcasts From Jack Herrington, author of Podcasting Hacks. Part part teaser, sample chapter, part summary, part discussion. Emphasis on the audio portion of podcasting. Mostly from the context of "citizen radio," with few ideas that are really specific to podcasting. Alludes to the diversity of viewpoints in podcasting. Still some notion of what a successful podcast might be like. Format, schedule, and script are probably the ones which warrant the most discussion. Herrington's tone is non-authoritative enough that discussion would be possible. Maybe in the Comments section. One major advantage of podcasting in contrast to radio is that duration isn't so much of an issue. Of course, a show shouldn't be so long as to discourage download or listening. But if a good discussion is happening in a podcast, there's little reason to cut it short. At worse, it could be split into shorter pieces. This is rather similar to the open-ended interviews we do in ethnographic research: getting people to talk. Herrington's tips still allow for this type of freedom but seem to make little difference between a radio show and a podcast. Granted, podcasting is still emerging and much of its development does relate to radio shows. Yet the advantages of podcasts over commercial or public radio can also be discussed lest we reproduce the mistakes of "Old Media" mimicking their regular content in online form. Podcasting differs from radio as web pages differ from print pages. With the added dimension that podcasts can in fact include video, text, and images.

"Open Source" Radio?

2005-08-14T03:26:00.000-04:00

Blogarithms: The Future of Public Radio An insightful piece on challenges facing public radios. Well, insightful to one who has been thinking some of the same thoughts. Been meaning to send some ramblings on podcasting so this is as good a time as any. Was pretty much raised with «CBF Bonjour», the "morning show" on the AM station for Radio-Canada (CBC). All the same, have never been a big fan of radio. Recently started to listen to podcasts with iTunes 4.9. Been observing some trends. And in fact listened to several episodes of "podcasted public radio." One thing public radio does that podcasting cannot do is to receive live calls from the audience. For instance, Open Source, the program mentioned by this blog entry, gets calls from both guests and audience members. One thing that's really easy to notice, though, is that those live shows are very directly controlled, including the calls. Not necessarily for content, though there's some responsibility in the host's reaction to calls, but certainly in timing. As can be expected, this often means that no actual conversation can take place because the show is constantly "running out of time" (especially with all those "breaks" which, thankfully, aren't included in the podcast version). With podcast versions of live shows, there's no way to interact with the guests directly. In the case of Open Source, most calls come from Massachusetts (for practical reasons). So we end up with static content controlled by a small group of people. As recording engineers know, "live" rarely translates into good recordings. Where's the community here? The local community for the specific station? Not quite as these shows are supposed to be made available to a wider audience. Those whose views correspond to those of the host? Maybe, but angles aren't typically acknowledged. Thing is, podcasting do encourage conversations. Some of them live (thanks to Skype, among other things) but many of them "time-shifted" which permits reflection, preparation. Those do encourage community building.

Google v. Publishers

2005-08-14T02:54:00.000-04:00

O'Reilly Radar > Google Library vs. Publishers Yes, BZ time for Google... Interesting debates with, as with most debates, valid points on both sides. For an end-user, academic, and wannabe-geek, it's hard not to side with Google (and Tim O'Reilly). Here's a nice quote:

another case where old line publishers are being dragged kicking and screaming towards a future that is actually going to be good for them.

The same could be applied to many in the recording industry and other "Old Media" players. It's quite possible that those who resist so much (the "old line publishers" and music industry executives) simply haven't been able to look any further than the tip of their collective nose. Some associate it with the typical reactionary attitude of the Old Guard while others might see it as pure myopic greed. Who knows? Still, it must be said that the arguments mentioned on the publishing side aren't absurd, though they do center on control and finance (instead of the greater good).

Word Use

2005-08-14T02:12:00.000-04:00

O'Reilly Radar > "Hacker" Term misused again

the end, a word means whatever the white rabbit of popular usage says it means.

Not sure what the "white rabbit" reference is (is it a common idiom in English?) but the sentence is quite similar to the classic Humpty Dumpty quote:

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone,' it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less'

Still, the general idea is quite on the target. Words mean by "convention" in that people agree on different meanings for different words. This type of agreement can and does change quite frequently. Some words are more typical of these transformations, especially those words that come to be associated with strong connotations (such as "cool," "hip," "queer," "fresh"...). This runs contrary to the idea some people seem to have that a given word "really means" something very specific and that "improper use," even in normal conversation, is an error on the speaker's part. These are people who take a dictionary definition as a fixed association of word and meaning. Thing is, in many cases, the "error" is as much that of the listener who interprets specific words from a specific framework. And that's staying at the lexical (word-based) level of language, which is rather fluid and only constitutes a fraction of verbal communication. But still... Contrary to most arguments of "they stole our word," this piece is much more subtle. Despite the misleading title, Tim O'Reilly seems to accept that journalists and geeks simply have different uses for the same term. What's particularly interesting is that, as the editor of a book series with "Hacks" in the title ("Google Hacks," "Podcasting Hacks"...), O'Reilly is actively pushing the geeky acception of the term. As more people buy those "Hacks" books, it's quite possible that the positive/neutral connotation of "hacker" in geek culture will be more widely understood. Well, as these books are primarily oriented toward the geekier crowd, chances that the propagation would be minimal. On the other hand, as one commenter mentions, the risk is that would-be buyers for these books are put off by the word hack and will likely not benefit from this "campaign" to "clear the word" from negative connotations. Another interesting thing seems to be that the word "meme" is finding its way in different publications these days. Sure, it's been popular in some circles for a while, with or without references to The Selfish Gene. It's just always funny to notice how some words suddenly become part of a micro-trend. Sometimes, it surfaces for a couple of days and then goes back in our passive vocabulary for a while. In some cases, the origin of the micro-trend is very obvious as when one can see everyone has read the same text. And, as everyone knows so well, it's pretty much impossible to push the propagation of a given word. If it were, marketers and advertisers would have a rather easy job. Well, to combine these last two things. It does seem like Tim O'Reilly and other participants in the Web 2.0 conference use "meme" to refer to word use in a type of "viral marketing." A term which takes a life of its own. Or some such. So, it sounds as if word use, memes, and "hacker" were discussed at Web 2.0. Was Penenberg at Web 2.0?

Google v. Journalism

2005-08-14T01:36:00.000-04:00

Wired News: Google's Boycott Misses the Mark Penenberg often has insightful things to say about journalism though he does seem to be, perhaps appropriately, "on the side of journalists" in many respects. In this case, it's hard to take Google's side, despite all the favourable light shining on Google. Plus, it's probably quite true that the privacy concerns won't go away and that Google needs to address them. Given the importance of privacy for most members of the geek/hacker culture with which Google plays so well, one would think that very clear and explicit statements about privacy would be a priority for Google as a tech company. Maybe they're just clumsy with public relations...

Blog Research Gone Native

2005-08-13T13:07:00.000-04:00

[As a disclaimer of sorts. Been interested in cultural and social aspects of online activities for a while (since 1993). Never really did in-depth research on any of these issues. Started this blog for fun. Haven't been trying very actively to attract readership to this blog. Haven't been involved in the "community" as much more than a casual observer. Can't really be called an "outsider" but haven't really tried to become an insider.] Many-to-Many: the biases of links Interesting piece of trendspotting on blogging. Many assumptions. Some are explicitly acknowledged (looking for the gender angle). Some are quite general ("bias" is a bad word). Some define a framework (seeing "power" as measure). And yet some, perhaps the most interesting, come from "blogger culture" itself. In terms of ethnography, some would say that danah has "gone native" in the blogger world. Some comments to the blog entry allude to something similar. Interesting embedded evaluations of blogs (not necessarily as good or bad but as successful and unsuccessful). An effect of these assumptions and the inside-looking perspective is that blogging is restricted to one specific model. In that model, one's reasons for blogging are assumed to be "the same as everyone else's," namely to attract readership. Other bloggers seem to make similar assumptions in giving advice to would-be bloggers. A large part of those assumptions can be seen in concepts and ideas that are left undefined. For instance, the "blogroll." Anyone involved in blogging is familiar with the concept and it's definitely an essential part of many blogging practices. To some people, it might in fact distinguish "real" blogging from things like corporate weblogs or blog-like "content management systems" which are not to be confused with real blogs. A real blogger is one who reads other blogs, links to other blogs, knows other bloggers, sends links to Technorati and Del.icio.us, lives in the blogosphere. There's a large number of these in different parts of the world. It does seem that the links between blogs in a given language are stronger than across languages but there are very dense networks of bloggers who seem to represent "The Blogosphere." Still, most people are outside this sphere. It includes people without Internet connections, of course, but it also includes people who write blog entries once in a while. Danah's entry is meant for the members of the 'sphere, not for the occasional weblog writer or reader. This isn't meant as critique or criticism. Just noticed that part of another trend. A trend in blogger identity. The "us/them" of blogging isn't necessarily between reader and writer (as there's a large overlap between the two). It seems to be mostly between "real bloggers" and "mainstream media" along with pseudo-bloggers (like corporate blogs).

(Spoof) Podcast and Self-Support

2005-08-12T01:52:00.000-04:00

The Onion | Podcast A Cry For Help

BOZEMAN, MT—The few people close to Mitch Delomme say that he doesn't realize the implications of his new podcast, an agonizingly personal 40-minute digitally recorded capsule of news, information, and trivia about the chronically lonely pizza-delivery man. 'I wanted to share something about myself,' said Delomme, 48, who in the course of his life has been heavily involved in ham and CB radio, personal home-page construction, and participation in late-night community-access cable. Delomme's podcast is currently available on all major subscription links, where it has attracted no attention.

Well, considering some aspects of podcasting, this spoof isn't completely devoid of clue.

(Spoof) Einstein's Performance

2005-08-10T15:17:00.000-04:00

'05 Annual Performance Review: Albert Einstein The obvious question: would Albert Einstein be given tenure? It might depend on the location of his appointment. Swiss universities are rather strict in terms of faculty positions.

Science Education

2005-08-10T14:57:00.000-04:00

Wired News: Science Labs Don't Measure Up

The review amounts to the latest warning over the state of U.S. science. Business groups representing tens of millions of workers recently announced a campaign to prod the nation into improving its math and science education, wary of slipping U.S. competitiveness.

Do schools in, say, Eastern Europe and South Asia need a tv-show like CSI to motivate students toward sciences?

But the Levy Was Dry

2005-08-10T14:47:00.000-04:00

CBC Arts: Apple to give levy back to iPod owners The levy still applies to cassette tapes and blank CDs, right?

Journalism Gone "Glocal"

2005-08-10T14:36:00.000-04:00

Open Source: Blog Archive: Hyperlocal Journalism Some interesting ideas from the show, especially on social issues, the power of the local, connections between local and global spheres, changes in mainstream journalism.

"My Search is Bigger than Yours"

2005-08-10T13:28:00.000-04:00

Yahoo Announces Total Size Count Also here. Bragging rights, information overload, needle in haystack.

Beer Riot and Sunday Opening

2005-08-10T10:57:00.000-04:00

Sunday and evening hours: You can bank on it

Chicago -- the town Billy Sunday couldn't shut down -- always had a tough time keeping the Christian sabbath free of trade. An 1845 Chicago law prohibited taverns from opening on Sundays, but the ban was unpopular with Irish and German immigrants, according to the Encyclopedia of Chicago. When Mayor Levi Boone tried to enforce the law in 1855, it led to the Lager Beer Riot.

Well, there was more to the riot than the schedule issue, but it's interesting to see this take on it.

Respecter la jeunesse acadienne

2005-08-09T14:50:00.000-04:00

La planète païenne Texte très optimiste de Gérald Leblanc, artiste acadien qui nous a quitté récemment. Se lit dans ce texte l'optimisme de ceux qui comprennent la force et la beauté d'une génération en plein essor. C'est ça, aussi, se prendre en main.

(Spoof) Ethnic-Sounding Filler

2005-08-08T16:34:00.000-04:00

Comedy Central: Radio Billed The Radio Star:

strike fear into the hearts of the Brazilian rainforest musicians that have been blackmailing NPR to be their exclusive provider of ethnic-sounding filler music.

Brasil!

Fair and Balanced Education

2005-08-06T13:43:00.000-04:00

Science vs. Norse Mythology Interesting curriculum.

Podcasting and Music Rights

2005-08-06T13:39:00.000-04:00

ABC News: Podcasting Spurs a Media 'Land Grab' The main insight in this piece, and the reason it was mentioned in a page about WordPress support for podcasting, is that podcasting can expand greatly if mechanisms for obtaining rights to music broadcasting are facilitated. Thing is, there might be wishful thinking involved as the recording industry has been very reluctant to see the long-term possibilities in changes to their practices.

Searching for Sound

2005-08-05T18:46:00.000-04:00

Playlist: Yahoo! Audio Search: It's a start We're pretty much agreed. Will probably not find much use for this search engine in its current form but the concept isn't completely ill-advised. We need good search engines for sound recordings. It might also show that sound files have become quite commonplace outside of unauthorized file sharing. Surprising there's no similar tool in Google Labs...

Acadian Verbal Art

2005-08-05T18:35:00.000-04:00

Le Festival de la parole stimule l'intérêt envers l'expression orale Not that it's necessarily unique but it seems to be targeted at a wide audience. A "Speech Festival" bringing verbal art and oral folklore to the fore.

Magritte et droits d'auteur

2005-08-05T18:33:00.000-04:00

Ceci n'est pas une pub Situation légèrement touffue au sujet de l'utilisation non-autorisée d'une image de Magritte pour une publicité. On pourrait se demander ce que Magritte lui-même penserait de tout ça.

Disambiguation

2005-08-05T18:30:00.000-04:00

Two studies in Psychological Science on disambiguation and related phenomena in speech communication. Which it is it? Say again? Much work has also been done in relation to Sperber and Wilson's "Relevance Theory" which brings together cognition and communication to a broad frame. Sperber and Wilson's Relevance also helps situate some classic research in pragmatics. For those of us who work on the more creative/expressive uses of language, there's this possibility of turning all of these ideas upside-down: ambiguity is a powerful feature of semiotic systems that creators can use to generate heightened significance. In other words, a rapper or a politician may consciously utter ambiguous statements in order to create a more complex "image" in the minds of audience members. And, as per the garden path theory, ambiguous statements require more effort to be understood which, in the case of artful uses of language, might be quite appropriate. Of course, researchers who seek to understand how listeners can make sense of ambiguous messages may treat us as heretic. But, hey, who's afraid of the Spanish Inquisition?

Diet Research

2005-08-05T18:18:00.000-04:00

Educational Podcasting

2005-08-05T18:16:00.000-04:00

Educational Weblogs: Podcasting for Education Some educational uses for podcasting. For anyone whose work relates to sound (through music, speech, natural sounds...), podcasting can become a very elegant delivery method. Interviews, which are quite important for ethnographers, are a very wide domain in and of themselves. For lectures, it might be interesting in some cases to use methods to artificially accelerate the speech rate for some people who have better concentration this way. Of course, many instructors would disagree with exclusive use of recorded lectures yet the idea might be that students come to class after listening to the lectures and use class time for deeper discussions. In some cases, it might just work. Again, podcasting is only the convergence of existing technologies, each of which being rather commonplace. It's an interesting intersection of syndication (which may help realize the dreams of '90s "push" technology), compressed audio (especially MP3), "logs" (blogs, etc.), radio (for overall structure), and asynchronous downloads (as opposed to streaming). Some instructors have already made use of podcasting and there's room for exploration. Universities' available bandwidth (especially on-campus) and the pre-targeted content make the most difficult aspects of podcasting relatively unimportant.