juliannrosizky

The Harrow: Original Works of Fantasy and Horror is back up!

It took a couple of days to realize that dreamhost.com had changed something, and either didn’t know or wouldn’t admit it. The OJS folks (thanks alec) really helped to fix things up.

Slashdot | SMS 4x More Expensive Than Data From Hubble

“Physorg has a paper comparing the cost of text messaging versus the cost of getting data from Hubble Space Telescope. From the article: ‘The maximum size for a text message is 160 characters, which takes 140 bytes because there are only 7 bits per character in the text messaging system, and we assume the average price for a text message is 5p. There are 1,048,576 bytes in a megabyte, so that’s 1 million/140 = 7490 text messages to transmit one megabyte. At 5p each, that’s £374.49 [$732.95] per MB — or about 4.4 times more expensive than the ‘most pessimistic’ estimate for Hubble Space Telescope transmission costs.” “Hubble is by no means a cheap mission — but the mobile phone text costs were pretty astronomical!”"

I’ve always thought that cellphones and SMS were a total conjob to make you pay for what has cost me nothing since the late 80s. And according to “Space scientist says texting is four times more expensive than receiving scientific data from space” it is true. All this instant messaging vs email, the whole us vs them millenials thing about old and new tech has been problematic for me. I can send a letter around the world for 0.85 euro. An email costs me nothing. An sms costs me $0.15 for whatever number of characters my local contract allows. You tell me. Is someone being conned or what? Post office is cheaper than SMS. And it doesn’t matter how fast your drivel arrives.

Stolen Mac helps nab burglary suspects | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

A remote desktop access feature found in some Macintoshes is being credited with leading police to two suspects in the burglary of an apartment in New York.

While police in White Plains, N.Y., were coming up empty with their investigation, Duplaga learned that her computer was being used on the Internet and turned on the Back to My Mac feature installed on her Mac from another Mac, according to the report.

The feature allowed Duplaga to see immediately how the computer was being used at the time, as well as operate it remotely. Recalling that she had a camera installed on the computer, the fast-thinking Duplaga snapped images of one of the burglary suspects before he realized what was happening, according to the Times. Duplaga showed the image to friends who recognized the suspect as someone who attended a party at the apartment.

Now, if that’s not going to help boost the idea of security.

I’ve set up a new blog/domain at The Complicity Theory. It is just for photography. I’ll sometimes note that there’s new stuff there, or it will be on Complicitytheory @ Flickr, but the best of the best will be on the new site. This site will be more informational, because I use it for teaching, and I don’t want to spam students with pictures.

Nice to know there is a Jason Nolan USA Black Belt Champions out there.

Second Life could sexually exploit children via Internet, Rep. Mark Kirk says — chicagotribune.com

This would be silly if it wasn’t so scary. Do people actually spend that little time doing their homework? I agree with this article below, SL’s got one of the better systems for age checking, and since it has it’s own ‘teen grid’, and people on the main grid know that it is a TOS violation to even pretend to be younger than 18 (and I know people report violations), I’d actually rather have teens on the teen grid (and children under 13 out playing in physical activities), than doing most other things on the internet. There are potential dangers everywhere. Let’s focus on the ones that present a more clear potential for danger for children. Safe and well funded early learning perhaps? Marketing of unhealthy foods to children?

Second Life a danger to children? Lawmaker trawls for votes

It’s easy to understand the mainstream media’s fascination with Second Life: on paper, it looks like a big story. All those millions of players, real money being made, people opening virtual offices… the list goes on and on. However, the number of actual players is often in question, and the “game” isn’t exactly user-friendly. Still, that doesn’t keep the hype-train from chugging along. The next story? According to Congressman Mark Kirk (R-IL), Second Life is a danger to children.

“If you ask: Do you know about MySpace? The average parent will say yes,” Kirk said, as reported by the Chicago Tribune. “But the average parent doesn’t know anything about Second Life.”

Let’s say a few things here, because Second Life has one of the most amazing PR machines in the history of gaming. Never has a product with so few actual players gotten so many people not very well versed in technology so excited. First up, Kirk is running for reelection in a hotly-contested district, and using technology as a scare tactic to get parents on your side is an easy move. Second, Second Life has age-verification technology in place that meets, and in some cases, exceeds the legal requirements. Third, and perhaps the most importantly, there are far easier ways for predators to find teens in much greater numbers. I suppose that children could be victimized in Second Life if they managed to get in, and then managed to announce their childhood without getting their account yanked, and then happened to meet a predator, but if you’re trolling for youngsters online, Second Life is arguably one of the worst places to do it.

There isn’t anyone who wouldn’t agree that children need to be protected from online predators, but it’s almost as if Rep. Kirk singled out one the least likely places for such predation to occur. Parents should be aware of what their children do online, but Second Life is the close to the least of anyone’s worries in this regard.

Here are our first salvo of shots: France 2008 - a set on Flickr. Yuka and I have a quiet time before Mom, Lars, bloof and sarah arrive, at various times.

Slashdot | Effect of Virtual Avatars On Real-Life Behavior
“The Stanford research group on virtual teams discusses how the appearance of one’s avatar in virtual worlds has an effect on real life behavior in an NPR interview. The researcher they speak with focuses on the concept of vicarious reinforcement for changing behavior. They also talk a bit about identity issues surrounding the avatar and the ‘real’ physical self.”

Learning from the Virtual You : NPR
“How you appear in the virtual world could affect your behavior in real life, according to researchers at Stanford University. Andrea Seabrook speaks with Stanford’s Jeremy Bailenson about his research into how people interact psychologically with their virtual-reality representations.”

reportonbusiness.com: globeinvestor.com - Rogers bringing iPhone to Canada

There’s very little other news on the topic, but Rogers says so now.