NPR : Resistance Grows to Arab Firm's Control of Ports

This article (and voice piece) also describes how one of these ports is in New Orleans.

Tough question - money is money, and the city needs it. But is money money?

Somehow this post turned out kind of trite, but I do think there is a point to ponder here.

NPR : U.S. Gold Medalist Donates Award to Darfur Refugees

This was very cool. I'm pretty jaded about the activism of celebrities (for example, the pet rescue squads led by celebs in New Orleans). This usually smacks of self-righteousness and public relations and flies in the face of multi-million dollar divorce settlements, sex-party yachting, and mansion-swapping that will often precede or follow such actions.

This guy managed to be incredibly genuine. In part, perhaps, because he is not a celebrity. In part because of his frank assessment of the relative importance of "people sliding around in a circle on ice wearing tights" vs. world hunger. Perhaps more than that because prior to his winning the gold, he was not even close to being a celebrity. And because he really could have used the money.

I look forward to seeing what happens to this guy. Does he become a celebrity himself, appearing on Wheaties boxes, guest roles on Real World-Road Rules Challenge IV, and endorsements? Nothing wrong with that but what kind of person will he become?

Something to Ponder.

In Small Town, 'Grease' Ignites a Culture War - New York Times

Who gets to decide what is appropriate? People just don't seem to be able to think ahead, ever. We agree to the suspension of civil liberties and to censorship with the idea that it's the other guy's speech that will be limited or that we will be the censors.

We think "why would the government want to tap my phone? I'm not a terrorist?" and allow them to move forward.

But we live in an evolving society in which there is heterogeny of viewpoints, moral philosophies, political leanings, or ethnicity. What happens when the censors/speech restrictors/wiretappers don't share our viewpoint? Would the conservatives in our country be so comfortable with wiretapping (sans warrant) if Al Gore was the executive running the program?

I can just see a small town in the midwest having a population shift towards naturalized middle easterners and choosing to ban a play about King Arthur because of the way the crusaders ravaged the cities of the Ottomans that they went through.

Welcome to the Best of New Orleans! Cover Story 10 20 03

This article (click the title above) is worth reading again now that the storm waters have receded. How many of the folks on this list have left the city? How many of those since Katrina? I know that Scott Dawson is gone. He was the General Manager of the InterContinental New Orleans. Scott was a good GM, but I heard through the grapevine that managing a hotel full of FEMA-paid guests was markedly different than managing a hotel full of upper-upscale clientele. It took its toll on the staff and, apparently, on Mr. Dawson as well.

Of course the "multi-talented" leader profiled in this article who has decidedly NOT left is our very good friend, the President of the Power Courses. Thanks for staying around, Alex.

Technology stability - An Unattainable Goal?

Have you ever had to reboot your toaster? In the world of old-school electronics and gadgetry, the world is a binary equation - the thing either works or it doesn't. If it doesn't, if it is expensive you consider fixing it. If it is relatively cheap, you throw it away.

Today, Yahoo appears to be experiencing a service outage for its My Yahoo! customers. Yahoo is the most established online media outlet in the world. They serve more than 70% of Americas Internet users and a sizable chunk of the rest of the world's as well. Their entire business is their websites.

And they are broken this morning.

What does this say about technology? Its future? How it should be used?

The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle states that you can measure either the velocity of an object as it travels through space or its position, but never both at the same time. Is there a corollary for technology today? My thinking is this: stability requires static technology (no enhancements/changes); progress requires change. Therefore to remain competitive, compelling, and useful over time, you must adapt and change your technology. But this change creates instability (and is, by definition, instability) and with instability inevitably comes unreliability.

Given the competitive pressures of the world, I cannot foresee a static Yahoo. It would be marginalized in about a week. But who can trust a mission-critical function to something which may not be reliable? Would you fly a plane if every 10,000 seconds the engines cut off without warning? (that's 99.99% uptime) Would you use an oven if the voltage regulator managing the current flowing to the oven let massive bursts of energy flood your house every so often? Before you say no, consider the alternative - would you be happy cooking with the appliances used by your grandmother's grandmother? The pace of technological change (that has upped the ante for what is required in order to live) is such that this 4-generation gap occurs in about 1/10th the time now, so sticking with what you have right now will leave you obsolete within about 15 years.

This is a pretty rambly post, but my inability to access my My page today made me think of this.

Slashdot Last NTP Patent Tentatively Thrown Out

Ahhh, E-Commerce patents - the great debate. As a patent holder, I believe that they are, in principle, valid. There are some bad patents undoubtedly - the OpenMarket shopping cart patent perhaps. But there are some good ones.

My perspective - this is like what happened after the commercial viability of electricity became mainstream. Suddenly people were "electrifying" everything that had been manual before. Water pumps - add an electric motor. Toast-makers? Make 'em electric. Cars? Make them electric (and kind of slow, with a short battery life and no trunk space).

Water pumps were certainly not novel, but isn't the whole idea of patent law to incent the inventor to improve upon the original? E-Commerce certainly has its advantages over its analog predecessors, and even Luddites out there (who can't possibly be reading this) would agree that SOME people find the Internet useful for commerce purposes. Does it not make sense that patents will be written to cover inventions in this arena?