Monthly Archives: May 2007

Antidisestablishmentarianism at the Department of Defense

It seems that the 'the USA is a Christian nation' types have been helping the Defense Dept. write textbooks for Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC). So at least argues Talk To Action | Reclaiming Citizenship, History, and Faith, The Department of Defense — Bringing Historical Revisionism to a High School Near You.

It sounds convincing, although I haven't sought to do original research to check it out. [Update: I should add that the part about Jefferson is consistent with what I've read elsewhere — it's the DoD part that I'm taking on faith.]

(And, yes, I know that “antidisestablishmentarianism” originally referred to the reaction against British proposals to disestablish the Church of England, not to the disestablishment of the churches in colonial and post-revolutionary America, but I'm assured it now has a more general meaning also.)

Posted in Law: Constitutional Law | Comments Off on Antidisestablishmentarianism at the Department of Defense

Waldmann’s Rules

Robert's Stochastic thoughts:

He who knows and knows that he knows is a Teacher. Learn from him.
He who knows not and knows that he knows not is a student. Teach him.
He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is a menace. Avoid him.
He who knows and knows not that he knows is our Attorney General. Impeach him.

Posted in Politics: US: GW Bush Scandals | Comments Off on Waldmann’s Rules

Google Patents Method to Do Real-Time Psych Profiling of Online Gamers

The Guardian reports Google may use games to analyse net users:

Internet giant Google has drawn up plans to compile psychological profiles of millions of web users by covertly monitoring the way they play online games.

The company thinks it can glean information about an individual's preferences and personality type by tracking their online behaviour, which could then be sold to advertisers. Details such as whether a person is more likely to be aggressive, hostile or dishonest could be obtained and stored for future use, it says.

The move is intended to customise adverts shown to players of online video games by tailoring them to specific tastes and interests. But it has worried privacy campaigners, who said the implications of compiling and storing such detailed information were “alarming”.

The plans are detailed in a patent filed by Google in Europe and the US last month. It says people playing online role playing games such as Second Life and World of Warcraft would be particularly good to target, because they interact with other players and make decisions that probably reflect their behaviour in real life.

The patent says: “User dialogue (eg from role playing games, simulation games, etc) may be used to characterise the user (eg literate, profane, blunt or polite, quiet etc). Also, user play may be used to characterise the user (eg cautious, risk-taker, aggressive, non-confrontational, stealthy, honest, cooperative, uncooperative, etc).”

The information could be used to make adverts that appear inside the game more “relevant to the user”, Google says.

Players who spend a lot of time exploring “may be interested in vacations, so the system may show ads for vacations”. And those who spend more time talking to other characters will see adverts for mobile phones.

The article doesn't really explain, however, exactly how Google plans to collect the information. Is it real-time, via the toolbar? Would the info be provided by the game or by the desktop?

Meanwhile, however, Google assures us that it's all theoretical.

When contacted by the Guardian, Google said it did not have any plans to roll out the technology in the near future, and that it was just one of a large number of patents that it has filed in recent months. A spokesman said: “Google registers different patents irrespective of whether we actually intend to use them.”

Sure, sure, nothing to worry about…

Posted in Virtual Worlds | Comments Off on Google Patents Method to Do Real-Time Psych Profiling of Online Gamers

A General Takes a Strong Stand on Torture

Gen. David H. Petraeus, the US military commander/viceroy in Iraq may be “overrated”, but he's done at least one thing right: taking a strong stand against torture.

Posted in Iraq, Torture | Comments Off on A General Takes a Strong Stand on Torture

Chicken!

It is clear that I don't go the the right conferences. No one at any conference I've attended has ever given a presentation even remotely like Chicken, Chicken, Chicken, presented by Doug Zongker at the AAAS humor session, February 16, 2007.

Posted in Talks & Conferences | Comments Off on Chicken!

The Real Problem with USB Flash Drives

Someone should write about the REAL problem with flash drives: they break too easily at the connection between the usb male plug and the body of the drive. The otherwise wonderful Flash Voyager is by far the most vulnerable I've encountered, but many others share the same Achilles Heel too.

Reviewers always seem to write about running a car over the drive. That mean putting pressure on the case. This isn't, in my experience, a common real-life scenario. In contrast, the real-life damage case is torque when your laptop bumps into something with that drive sticking out. It snaps easily. And no one ever talks about that.

The best drives I've had for performance (I want to be able to copy lots of small files quickly; reported tests usually concentrate on large file transfer, so my preferences may not be your preferences) were also the most delicate at that critical point: the Corsair Flash Voyagers. I've broken two. Second-fastest, the OCZ Rally2, were not as fragile, but were not exactly tough either. I bent one. It still works, but I don't trust it.

I've currently moved to a Cruzer Titanium, which not only looks a bit stronger, but has a nice retractable head so I don't have to worry about losing the little cap. The performance is good, although I don't think it is quite as good as the other two.

Unfortunately, the Cruzer came with the dreaded U3 software. I used the control panel to disable it, but haven't had the heart to delete it on the theory that this might be irrevocable (online opinions vary), and anyway it didn't take much space. But I may delete it soon, as it seems my Asus motherboard absolutely won't boot up with the drive plugged in, even though the BIOS is set to boot from the hard drive first.

Posted in Shopping, Sufficiently Advanced Technology | 4 Comments