Flying Shortbread

Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger -- the co-editor of Boing Boing (boingboing.net) and the author of the bestselling Tor Teens/HarperCollins UK novel Little Brother . He is the former European director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in London. Artists' problem is not poverty, but obscurity. His books are free, but they are digital - digital happens on a device on which sustained attention is difficult, so you would buy the book - you pay close attention to a book. Nerdvana  Scifi shows the anxieties we have about the technologies around us today. Technological Stalinism When you solve a problem you become a problem because you are invested in hanging around to keep solving the problem. Commercial and non-commercial rights can apply to the same work - the guy who make Transformers owns one of Doctorow's books for commercial activ...

It's problematic to ban social networking on "official" machines, which only pushes personnel to use these things on "unofficial" machines with "unofficial" ISPs, where you're less likely to detect attacks and it's harder to respond to them. Bring them in-house, in a controlled way, where you can better manage security issues and have happier personnel ( emphasis added , fetsi). Source: Dan Wallach, Freedom to Tinker

Why do They feel justified to be violent when confronted with gender and sexuality-based Otherness? It could be that people are very aware of insecurity that lies behind violence. The insecurity would only be one of the causes of violence... one of the others might be (I know I am going to get stoned for this) that They perceive an arrogance on the part of Us - how dare we flaunt (Otherness), not hide (Otherness) like 'respectable people'. Eek.

CMS I don't know what the answer is for artists who want to play on the web. It's all about learning applications... Facebook's structure was made with CMS. But then you become a developer and not an artist. MMORPG You get these things called Multiplayer role playing games MMORPG that often are just text based... it reaches a huge audience. Movie theatres have started investigating how to get these people to come play at the movie theaters... to harvest their money. I have been finding with the kids I am teaching that 25 year olds are talking to me about the role of video games in their marriages...! FUTURE OF THE WEB AND MEDIA - IPHONE The future of the computer is that it will be gone... onto an iPhone kind of a thing... like a playstation 3 but it won't be a separate unit, it will be merged into the iphone which has already merged with the ipod - and has fantabulous application books... Anni... you have to have one! I have downloaded an ebook onto m...

People don't take things on board easily, and toy with them, see what they can get out of them and spit out the things that they don't like. They resist input, resist change. I am so not like that, that when I turn from version 3 of an application to version 4, that I embrace the newness and if, ten minutes later I turn back to 3, I have to think about the old harder. I don't mind turning back, you understand, just my mind naturally goes to 'progression', to see what the new and improved version is. I desire it, I lust it, and I investigate it in seconds and can objectively evaluate if there is an improvement, but I don't resist a backwards step. A backwards step is also a forward step because it makes you aware of stepping back. All very abstract I know.... But there is a notion lurking around in feminist circles, which I naturally have toyed with, that men are necrophiliacs, that they don't want a live, warm, thinking, disagreeing, smelling, desiring, lust...

Why do we always have to stress the qualifier 'informed' before 'consent'? What's with that? Who would accept consent without being sure it was informed... ? I suggest, someone with no scruples.

Start slowly - e.g. start with a bucket and a sponge and grow into a multi-person, uniformed, formally asked for at garages, team of carwashers Opportunity coaches - a team of people who share a context and help you recognise and start a business, mentors, advisors who each have their own field of expertise Common mistakes - research first, then market research the people you are getting, open a business account, do the things you are good at and subcontract to experts (especially accountants), save and put money back into your business, network with other businesses like yours and build overflow relationships with them (then if you need something you can ask them) Money - avoid lending from banks, make partnerships (cover all details, with contract), when will you pay out the profits, what percentages, get financial advice to govern the partnership relationship Second job - keep your day job, get someone to help you with your second job and build slowly Someone may steal my idea - don...

Isn't it amazing that we all have a 9/11 memory. Yes Collosusness scares us - fear of so many eggs being in one basket. We want to find a rock to hide under because of our fear of what would happen if we were living at the top of the mountain with the most beautiful view, viscerally engaged with babeling. Another bookbit lurks here. Source: Office for Metropolitan Architecture

One of my big issues, bugbears, points of coherence is that the communication skills of [teenagers] must be improved. I think much of the work-world disaster happening in this country can be improved by improving communication skills. (How's that for oversimplification?) And I believe that Facebook can enhance communication and should be a REQUIREMENT for everyone - an allotment of half an hour compulsory Facebook time per day - is where I stand. And libraries and internet cafés should be given incentive tax cuts to issue time cards where people can get free internet access for that half hour.... oooh I see a booky element here (thanks Cory)... the logistical issues can be solved, whatever. [snaps fingers]. Sorted. I would think, therefore, that there would be less suicide because people would be better able to measure their connection with the world; have provided themselves lots of opportunities to connect; have better work environments because of improved communication; have bet...

The movie, about the coke bottle that causes trouble in a culture that has no ready-made use for the coke bottle. They use their imagination, use it for all sorts of things, and it causes trouble because it is a scarce resource. To Caroline on Facebook. We hardly ever get this kind of cultural commonality anymore, hey... The Gods must be Crazy had a profound (yes, I used the word profound about this film) effect on my attitudes about cultural diversity. Thanks for giving me back this memory-feeling-thing. Great moment. Only we can get that feeling in the same way, don't you think. The now-generation won't get it the way we did. Or did you, now-generation? Generated by Caroline: She suggested that the internet is a coke bottle. The internet is our coke bottle in that we are being introduced to an economy that is not all about managing scarcity. There are bits and bytes all over the place. What are we going to do with this coke bottle. Ooh I am getting excited now. Thanks for thi...

Call yourself Empty a word of its meaning Look in vain for \I" Make the world last twenty minutes See the stars below you See a landscape as a stretched canvas Lose something and not know what Recall where you were this morning Hurt yourself briefly Feel eternal Telephone at random Rediscover your room after a journey Drink while urinating Make a wall between your hands Walk in the dark Dream of all the places in the world Peel an apple in your head Imagine yourself high up Imagine your imminent death Try to measure existence Count to a thousand Dread the arrival of the bus Run in a graveyard Play the fool Watch a woman at her window Invent lives for yourself Look at people from a moving car Follow the movement of ants Eat a nameless substance Watch dust in the sun Resist tiredness Overeat Play the animal Contemplate a dead bird Come across a childhood toy Wait while doing nothing Try not to think Go to the hairdresser Shower with your eyes closed Sleep on your front in the sun G...