January 2007 Archives
Pakistan is a major nest of jihad. Now comes further evidence, via BBC News:
Taleban leader Mullah Omar is living in Pakistan under the protection of its ISI intelligence agency, a captured Taleban spokesman has said.The spokesman, Muhammad Hanif, made the apparent confession to Afghan agents who videotaped the questioning.
Mr Hanif is seen sitting in a dimly-lit room telling agents that Mullah Omar is in the city of Quetta. Correspondents confirm the voice is his. ...
Pakistan has been de facto at war with India, Afghanistan, and the West for decades. Many major terrorist attacks by jihadists in the 21st century have been masterminded in Pakistan. But our leaders say and do nothing about it.
Biting satire by a reasonable conservative.
Jon Swift: Sadly, Ledeen did not live to see his greatest scoop vindicated: his report that the Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was dead. Or if he hadn't actually died, was dying. If not right at the moment, then eventually. ...
One would expect that self-proclaimed news media companies know the basics of factual reporting. Further, such companies built on the premise that they challenge fact-deprived mainstream media companies ought to be particularly careful in their reporting — and should publish corrections, especially when obviously needed. Blogs, newspapers, televisions, radios, all media sources fall into the same traps.
When you search with Google, you are requesting the list of most important Web pages on a topic, as ranked by Google. And you hope Google's ranking matches your criteria of what "importance" is in your personal context.
Clive Thompson, for Wired: Reputation Is Everything: Google isn't a search engine. Google is a reputation-manag[e]ment system. What do we search for, anyway? Mostly people, products, ideas -- and what we want to know [is], what do other people think about this stuff? All this blogging, Flickring, MySpacing, journaling -- and, most of all, linking -- has transformed the Internet into a world where it's incredibly easy to figure out what the world thinks about you, your neighbor, the company you work for, or the stuff you were blabbing about four years ago. ...
Reading about PostSecret today reminded me of the time you laughed — and I realize now that I have been troubled, wondering ever since ... did you find me silly or cute or was it something else you saw. The laughter was soft, under your breath, then you murmured my name.
From a business point of view, the iPod was never about making yet another audio/mp3 player. It was an attack on the music industry's model of making money by selling albums (physical CDs). As I predicted when the iPod was launched, two billion songs sold on iTunes (and the end of Tower Records) confirm that there is a market for music that doesn't depend on selling entire albums or distributing physical objects around the world. Anecdote: Back in 1983 a friend asked me in high-school what would happen with music, given the launch of CDs. I described how within 20 years we'd be able to carry our entire album collection with us, in a little box about the size of a sugar-cube, plus headphones and batteries.
Apple TV incarnates a similar attack on the TV and movie industries. Why pay $50-120 per month for a cable package when one could for much less money subscribe to entire seasons of specific tv shows and download select movies on demand? Apple TV will do to cable channels and DVDs what the iPod did to CD stores and music albums. It doesn't hurt that the device also seamlessly integrates music, photos, and movie trailers.
A perfect development would be the integration of a tivo-esque DVR in it.
One thing I do find disturbing in that device is the reliance on iTunes to synchronize everything. iTunes has become everything but the kitchen sink -- and it will unfortunately get worse with the June introduction of the iPhone.
