Capitalism 3.0
I agree with Purpleslog’s stance, Barnes has no idea what is going on:
So if we want to bring capitalism into the 21st century, Barnes explains — if we want to make it responsive to future generations, ecological constraints, and issues of fairness — then we need to turn pieces of our incredibly valuable commons into common property.
We need to “propertize” (not “privatize”) parts of the commons and, where necessary, attach “valves” to it (i.e., charge entities for its use) so we don’t run it into the ground . . . and so we can all benefit from its use.
This kind of maximalist thinking will not work, especially as capitalism marches on. It’s bizarre and does not mesh with the social context.
Lockpicking On Youtube
Hundreds of videos are available on the site showing users how to pick locks, which experts fear will result in a spate of burglaries.
The films were uncovered in an investigation by Which? magazine and sparked calls for YouTube to remove them from the site.
This kind of transparency is good. It encourages innovation in specific areas (in this case the lock and key industry). A maxim: you can not prevent the flow of information, you can only make it irrelevant or obsolete.
On Web Annotation
I am not a fan of the “stickies” model of web annotation. While it works to some degree in a collaborative environment it does not offer the full breadth of annotation tools required to actually mark up any given document.
I like to use Scrapbook for Firefox because I can highlight, insert sticky notes, remove content and it keeps a copy of that marked-up page on my machine. It falls short on the sharing however.
There’s market space for full annotation capabilities with server syncing. Maybe in a future version of Scrapbook.
Georgian Counterfeiting
Missed this a couple days ago – WaPo –
From a printing press in South Ossetia, a sliver of land with no formally recognized government, more than $20 million in the fake bills has been transported to Israel and the United States, according to investigators. The counterfeit $100 notes have also surfaced in Georgia and Russia, officials said.
Destabilizing a state currency undermines one of the most critical pillars of state legitimacy. (Although the security mechanisms understand this imperative and have been working more or less effectively for a long time.)
“Going Native”
Chester, at his TCS home, outlines (another) recipe for failure in Iraq: he thinks the solution involves scaling up forces, a large scale Arabic linguist program, and US control of the Iraqi military.
The problem is now that primary loyalties are progressively reverting to tribes the number of Iraqis who care about the nation-state of Iraq is exponentially decreasing.