Monthly Archives: March 2002

Information Sharing at Work is Harder Than You Think

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Tommy’s Thoughts: SharePoint vs. Radio Community Server. I have a similar problem. We use a weird mix of Domino (for discussions) and a webdav-enabled Apache (with Perl) for publishing. However, there’s still something that’s too rigid. Unlike Tommy, we don’t use Office docs — our docs are mostly text, PNG, visio-generated html, and vanilla html. Perhaps because you have to use log in to Lotus Notes? Perhaps because creating html docs in FrontPage is too painful?

A lot of our work still happens through email. And I worry about the ideas that are getting lost in all those private inboxes too. And no, don’t talk to me about mailing lists.

TBTF Gone for Good?

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The TBTF Log was one of the earliest Blogger-based blogs around and was (c. 1995-2000) famous for incisive coverage, great commentary, and rifle-shot links. It was also about the only newsletter I actually looked forward to. But it hasn’t been updated for ages now (last entry 2001-07-29). Pity — I miss Keith Dawson‘s always readable coverage. Here’s hoping he considers coming back online, although his company page has this to say: From 1994 to 2001, TBTF brought a worldwide readership timely news … There was nothing else quite like it on the Net. The past tense does suggest that TBTF may be gone for good.

No Oscar for Lagaan, Good Riddance

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The Times Of India: Oscar eludes Lagaan. Good. Lagaan was a pathetic PoS with delusions of grandeur. It doesn’t matter whether it won or lost, it would have remained a bad movie nevertheless. Overacting, melodrama, excessive musical sequences — all the hallmarks of Bollywood excess were present in it. The wonder of it is that it was even nominated.

Sensible Report from Court-Appointed Committee

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Report Of The Committee Appointed By The Bombay High Court [...] To Recommend Measures To Protect And Shield Minors From Pornographic And Obscene Material On The Internet (PDF). Pretty good reading. Rather sensible and keeps a reasonable — though not great — balance between the technically possible and the ‘demands’ of society — at least without killing off the medium altogether. The bottom line recommendation seems to be: better logging of publicly accessible internet connections, such as those at public cybercafes. Some good quotes:

The argument seemed to proceed on a theory that all users of the Internet are irresponsible, uneducated, highly impressionable and need to have their intake of Internet material regulated by some undefined person or persons supposed to possess greater clarity, maturity and familiarity with the Internet, its hazards and benefits. The Committee felt this argument was totally bereft of merit and undeserving of further attention.

The Internet is a new medium and, while it brings its own set of issues and problems, equally it is not necessarily amenable to restrictions applied to earlier ( ‘legacy’ ) technologies and media. Inherent in the New Age of the Internet is an expanded freedom, flexibility and malleability. To strike at these is to strike at the very foundation of the medium.

Gameboy Users Have Dextrous Thumbs

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Reuters: Thumbs Are the New Fingers for GameBoy Youth. The use of gadgets such as mobile phones and GameBoys has caused a physical mutation in young people’s hands, according to a British Sunday newspaper. I wouldn’t believe everything a Sunday newspaper says, but there’s no doubting the way young people adapt to technology. MTV brought us two minute attention spans, now the Gameboy and Nokia bring us the dextrous thumb. (btw, this post on Slashdot notes that the use of the word mutation is incorrect — there is nothing happening here on the genetic level. This is a bit like typists developing pudgier fingers or piano-players having more dextrous hands.)