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| Notice: GeekPress is back up and running, thanks to Paul! It's still a not-so-serious tech news blog, but the format is significantly looser. Diana, having given up programming for philosophy, has her own philosophical blog NoodleFood. More of her work can be found at DianaHsieh.com. |
| Charm school for MIT geeks |
| 1:49:26 am mst / 6 February 2001 found by paul / filed in culture / source NY Times 88 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| Each year, MIT offers a one day "charm school" for awkward students on how to function more effectively in social situations. Subjects include "Flirting 101", silverware etiquette, and "How to Tell Someone Something They'd Rather Not Hear". More information is available at the Charm School web site. |
| Funniest quote from an MIT student: "Are you sure there's no math or science involved?" |
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| Pearls Before Swine |
| 3:06:11 am mst / 6 February 2001 found by diana / filed in games / source Wired 227 hits / 2 comments / 0 e-mails |
| This very visually-appealing Flash game is a bit of a math puzzle. Wired says that they know how to win. Do you? |
| If I don't figure it out tonight, I'm sure that Paul (being the MIT math geek that he is) will tease me about it tomorrow! |
| read 2 comments |
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| The Greatest Hacks of All Time |
| 8:20:09 am mst / 6 February 2001 found by paul / filed in security / source Wired 218 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| Wired lists the top technology-related security breaches of all time, including Captain Zap's AT&T phone billing crack and the $10 million electronic heist from Citibank. |
| In ten years, the list is going to be a lot longer... |
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| Slashdot story generator |
| 9:33:47 am mst / 6 February 2001 found by paul / filed in humor / source BBspot 167 hits / 0 comments / 1 e-mail |
| For those of you who think that Slashdot doesn't update often enough, BBspot offers this convenient "Slashdot story generator". Click on the "next story" button to capture that rush of seeing your opportunity to make that coveted "first post". |
| Hilarious! |
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| Computer Agents Can Evolve Their Own Language |
| 10:50:40 am mst / 6 February 2001 found by paul / filed in software / source UniSci 96 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| From the article: "A NEC Institute/Penn State study shows that computer programs known as autonomous agents not only can evolve their own language and talk with one another, but also can use communication to improve their performance in solving the classic predator-prey problem." |
| This sort of self-organizing communications and behaviour will be key to the future development of products like "smart dust". |
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| Patron saint of internet users? |
| 11:33:30 am mst / 6 February 2001 found by paul / filed in culture / source CNN 115 hits / 0 comments / 1 e-mail |
| From the article: "Pope John Paul II is considering naming Saint Isidore of Seville the patron saint of Internet users and computer programmers". (Link from MetaFilter.) |
| I want to know which of the many minor demons is in charge of spammers. |
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| Girl threatens herself on AOL |
| 1:00:48 pm mst / 6 February 2001 found by paul / filed in legal / source Washington Post 75 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| A Virginia teenager was caught trying to frame some of her fellow high school students by faking AOL chat room transcripts making it look like they were planning a Columbine-style school massacre. She even wrote fake threats against herself using false AOL accounts. One of the reasons she was caught was because (as The Register drily notes in this related article), "all the accounts were operated from her family computer". |
| I don't think we'll be seeing her on future editions of "The Greatest Hacks of All Time". |
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| Postrel on Amazon MicroPayments |
| 3:31:07 pm mst / 6 February 2001 found by diana / filed in business / source Dynamist.com 72 hits / 1 comment / 0 e-mails |
| Virginia Postrel offers her perspective on Amazon's new Honor System, which allows users to "tip" their favorite web sites. |
| I have my doubts about the system, but time will tell! |
| read 1 comment |
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| Children need violent play |
| 3:48:56 pm mst / 6 February 2001 found by paul / filed in culture / source Salon 57 hits / 0 comments / 1 e-mail |
| After studying 5 and 6-year old children playing for a year, the author concludes that a certain amount of mock-violent play is normal and perhaps even psychologically necessary. She succintly summarizes her view on violence as follows, "[T]heir playing it is the equivalent of adults conversing about it". Overall, a fascinating interview. (More information about her book is available at Amazon.com.) |
| If this is true, then it means that trying to forbid kids from playing innocent games like "Cowboys and Indians" may be futile, if not downright counterproductive. Plus, it shows the folly of those mindless "zero tolerance" policies that cause school official to over-react to healthy behaviour by kids. |
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| Should Human Cloning be Banned? Maybe |
| 9:22:37 pm mst / 6 February 2001 found by paul / filed in legal / source Reason 28 hits / 2 comments / 0 e-mails |
| This article from Reason takes the surprising position of advocating a temporary ban on human cloning for reproductive purposes. The author's main argument is that cloning has a sufficiently high risk of giving rise to serious malformations and birth defects. Hence, creating such a clone would be equivalent to negligently maiming the infant. The author is careful to make the point that the ban should only be temporary until science advances to the point that the risk of birth defects with cloning is the same as with sexual reproduction. He also has no objection to therapeutic cloning which only creates tissues (e.g. for transplantation), not babies. |
| Diana points out that the argument still doesn't make sense from a libertarian perspective. After all, parents with genetic diseases risk passing those traits onto their children through sexual reproduction, yet Reason doesn't advocate outlawing such couples from having kids. |
| read 2 comments |
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| Man hit with $4 trillion library fine |
| 10:45:40 pm mst / 6 February 2001 found by paul / filed in humor / source Modesto Bee 164 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| Due to a computer error, a California man was told that he owed nearly $4 trillion for an overdue library book. When he got the notice, he told the librarian he'd be right over with the cash. (Link via Ananova.) |
| That's not his library fine. It will be his electric bill this summer! |
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