Life as an Artificial Lifeform

The number one reason for going to war for Mr. Bush and his clan has been the toppling of Saddam Hussein - after they had to admit that their were no weapons of mass destruction. This case has been build to not admit to the fact that the war was about oil more then anything else. Now two years down the road it becomes more and more clear that the Americans are doing more harm in Iraq then Saddam did throughout all the years of his ruling. The World Tribunal on Iraq and 200 non goverment organisations convict the US government of war crimes far greater then anything one ruler alone could have done. Meanwhile the voices comparing Iraq to Vietnam are getting louder each month. Now even the inside Washington right wing hawk Richard Perle admits that the war was/is illegal under international law (just to say later that the laws should be adjusted to modern time needs). All this under a still escaliting violence that gets more and more sofisticated - not only against Americans but more and more against the Iraqi government who seems unable to act on the multiple hotspots opening up all around the country - at least it seems the US is backing away from the "Falludscha option" of leveling complete cities to root out insurgents - as this seemed to be uneffective - the city is still not save even there is not a house undamaged and the area around it became much more unsave and still sees scores of american dead even after one year bombardment by the american. Overall - looking at the statistics it looks like the US is slowly loosing its grip on the situation as it tries not to get more casulties and bucks down in their bases. The "new Iraqi Army" seems still like a joke and other then they posing better targets for the insurgents then the Americans it seems they have not helped out in a single part of the country to make it safer. Overall very bleak situation with less and less ways out.

Posted by fALk at 11:26 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

The OSCEs (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) Internet Conference is proclaiming that bloggers should get the same freedom and rights as the "normal" press people enjoy.

The Internet combines various types of media, and new publishing tools such as blogging are developing. Internet writers and online journalists should be legally protected under the basic principle of the right to freedom of expression and the complementary rights of privacy and protection of sources.

That goes hand in hand with a declaration that permits authorities from censor or hinder access any net content without a normal trial.

Any requirement to register websites with governmental authorities is not acceptable. Unlike licensing scarce resources such as broadcasting frequencies, an abundant infrastructure like the Internet does not justify official assignment of licenses. On the contrary, mandatory registration of online publications might stifle the free exchange of ideas, opinions, and information on the Internet.

Contrary to last years declaration that was only giving recommendations to its member countries - this years proclamation is partially binding and harsh in words.

Full declaration.

Posted by fALk at 11:47 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the creepiest things I have seen in a long while. A Madagascan cockroach is the control nerve center of a simple robot. The insect is the CPU of the robot and controls its behavior through a trackball type of device. The creepy thing is that this could be a model for a human controlled robot - where a hunam brain is attached to very capable robots as a processing unit if we can not make high capacity processing units on our own in a given timeframe that might be an approach that could happen in the future. Very creepy indeed - coupled with the recent finding that robotic prosthetics are en vouge in the US and the general population is more and more accepting of robots in live we are seeing the sci-fi future unfold in front of us.

Posted by fALk at 11:37 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From time to time I stumble across reports how TV usage is declining in comparison to internet usage. A recent study in Europe leads you to believe that this decline is on a tipping point in the advertisers darling target group - young people. 46% of all questioned people between 15 and 24 years old say they are spending more time in front of the internet then in front of TV. That means we are on the brink of seeing TV falling into irrelevance in the near future in this target group. The study needs to be taken with a grain of salt as it was sponsored by the European Interactive Advertising Association - a lobbying group for internet advertisments that is interested to see TV die but still their have been 7000 people asked and the trend is very clear - internet seems to become more interesting then TV and is already more interesting Newspapers and Printmagazins. Its only a matter of few years when the young generation will abandon TV in all its glory and once again this world has a generation of critical thinking unbrainwashed humans that interact with their knowledge rather then just consume. This trend can not go fast enough and I wish TV a painful death all around. It will be interesting to see all the advertisers run with their money - getting much cheaper adverts on the Internet - adverts that are much cheaper to produce then high gloss tv stuff - adverts that can link to a store with a mouseclick so the advertisers can take out the middle man as well - all good for advertisment - so now with all this money gone from TV how will private TV stations stay afloat? The production will get even cheaper then they are already the content even worse the viewers even fewer and soon it leads to self extinction. Interesting times ahead for sure. I would not like to be a TV station boss making decissions right now.

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/60849 (german)

Posted by fALk at 11:15 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Information Clearinghouse is reporting that the US is already on the roadmap to a war with Iran. It seems that the american military is not streched enough in Iraq as the mainstream media wants us to believe but instead focusing their efforts on how to wage a victorious war with Iran. Azerbaijan seems to be the "kurdistan" for Iran - a starting point for a ground based assault on Theran. As well as the CIA operated Mujahadeen el-Khalq (MEK) that is already carring out terrorist missions in the name of freedom inside Iran - killing already 100 person in a blast that disrupted a newly build Iranian petrol plant. So with all eyes still fixed on Iraq will the Bush administration get through with their plans to wipe out Iran and its population with newly build nuclear bunker buster bombs reducing the country to a radioactive wasteland or will the public of this world wake up before things like this happen? What will the Iranians do? Are they really so oppressed by their regime that they hate it so much that they will applaud the Americans attacking their home-turf or will they really behind the Theocracy and fight off the american occupation leaving America with a two front war? Time to be very concerned especially as I think that the further the Bush administration is pressured in Iraq the harder they will force a war with Iran so they have the distraction until the next election. "Look Iran has a Nuclear Bomb to have an insurance that America is not attacking them - now we have a reason to flatten their whole country".

Posted by fALk at 14:02 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Finally after years in the news and almost no actual products (except for one fancy Sony "e-book" that was only available in japan and with japanese characters (if you take the multiple hacks for it out of the equation) we are seeing more products based on the "eInk" technology that has tiny capsules embedded in the paper that turn their orientation and then are either black or white. Citizen puts out a bend clock - the display beeing ultra thin and based on E-Ink paper. Looks great and is probably just the opening salvo of hundrets millions of such usages of E-Ink - I still hope for the rollable wallpaper that I can use to project non-wallpaper vj work on... great stuff.

more:
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/60784 (german)

Posted by fALk at 17:12 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Through Hackaday I stumbled across a project that I find very very noteworthy. A 3D scanner that cost you only US$90 and comes with open source software is an embedded system that you can run through a webbrowser - now THAT is what I call real innovation - first it doesn´t lock you in with any OS secondly its really really cheap thirdly its made out of customizable parts and you are encouraged to roll your own. It will not replace any modelling skillz and you will still need a lot of understanding of polygons in your 3d program of choise but it makes a good resource for 3D quickies and Art Projects.

Posted by fALk at 10:28 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Now voices are raising after everyone awakes with a headache that this move from Apple to Intel processors was about more then just processor speed. Its Intel that has been pushing Palladium or Trusted Computing or whatever you want to call it since the last years and its Intel that already announced that all their processors/mobos will have a hardware side DRM system in the very short future. Now Apple was widely seen as not implementing the Trusted Computing Platform mostly because they didn´t use Intel processors and it was widely believed that IBM would not join the DRM crazyness (even thought they are a member of the Trusted Computing Group). Now if you would have asked me before the iPod if Apple would ever implement DRM on the hardware side I would have said clearly "no". Now I am not sure anymore. That must be a dream come true for all the movie and record industry executives. In less then a year they will have a homogenic hardware enabled DRM scheme on all consumer computer copy machines. Linux comes to rescue you think? Linux is also on Intel/AMD hardware (amd is also a member of the TCP forum) and the Linux community can feel lucky if they even get open access to the DRM functions to run the OS. Environments without diversity can not be a good thing - not for Apple users not for PC users not for Windows Users not for Linux Users - it leaves doors wide open for monopoly power abuse and misuse - at least you can look ahead to rent your video online in less then two years through a DRM enabled trusted computing environment.

Posted by fALk at 9:29 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Sorry for the Apple flushing but I think that is overly interesting to a lot of people who don´t believe my claim that the transition will be utterly painful. Rosetta is not the "translating it all" stone that the original has given mankind. Its more a bad hack to ensure that some apps are making it over. Classic environment is what comes close to it but even that seemed to be more backwards compatible then this is. All Applications that require a G4 or G5 (and there are a lot out there) will simply not work with Rosetta on an Macintel box. The kernel extension thing we had in Classic and everyone knows that another ton of apps will be bitten by that. And no code for Altivec - given that Apple almost forced developers to use Altivec there is not much media related applications out there who have not at least a little bit of Alitvec in them.

from Apples universal binary pdf:
page 68:

What Can Be Translated?
Rosetta is designed to translate currently shipping applications that run on a PowerPC with a G3
processor and that are built for Mac OS X.

Rosetta does not run the following:
- Applications built for Mac OS 8 or 9
- Code written specifically for AltiVec
- Code that inserts preferences in the System Preferences pane
- Applications that require a G4 or G5 processor
- Applications that depend on one or more kernel extensions
- Kernel extensions
- Bundled Java applications or Java applications with JNI libraries that can’t be translated

How It Works
When an application launches on a Macintosh using an Intel microprocessor, the kernel detects whether the application has a native binary. If the binary is not native, the kernel launches the binary using Rosetta. If the application is one of those that can be translated, it launches and runs, although not as fast as it would if run as a native binary. Behind the scenes, Rosetta translates and executes the PowerPC binary code.
Rosetta runs in the same thread of control as the application. When Rosetta starts an application, it translates a block of application code and executes that block. As Rosetta encounters a call to a routine that it has not yet translated, it translates the needed routine and continues the execution. The result is a smooth and continual transitioning between translation and execution. In essence, Rosetta and your application work together in a kind of symbiotic relationship. Rosetta optimizes translated code to deliver the best possible performance on the nonnative architecture. It uses a large translation buffer and it caches code for reuse. Code that gets reused repeatedly in your application benefits the most because it needs to be translated only once. The system uses the cached translation, which is faster than translating the code again.
...

Posted by fALk at 23:28 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

cnet.com report:
After Jobs' presentation, Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller addressed the issue of running Windows on Macs, saying there are no plans to sell or support Windows on an Intel-based Mac..... However, Schiller said the company does not plan to let people run Mac OS X on other computer makers' hardware. "We will not allow running Mac OS X on anything other than an Apple Mac," he said.

www.wired.com
In the PC industry, Apple lost the productivity/office era to Microsoft, but it's trying to get the jump on the next big thing: the entertainment/creativity era, and Apple's going to drag its users, even if they're kicking and screaming, with it.

a comment on burningbird.nets entry
I’m feeling very depressed right now. I hope Apple has a lot of cash on hand to survive the inevitable Osborning of their current hardware.
I hate computers….

two comment on arstechnic.com forums
Even though I haven't owned an Apple box since a ][+, I'm sorry to see this happen. Repeatedly in college and beyond, I came to admire the details of the 68K architecture more than X86, and was happy that at there was at least one major customer for the Motorola lineage. C'est la vie.
Of course, the PC architecture itself isn't anything to write home about either; if Apple can take X86 and wrap it in a better mousetrap, I'm all for it.
- Spacemaggot.

m a small Mac developer (I make a video compositing app), so I can at least speak for myself... I'm incredibly disappointed by this news. I can't see any advantage for either developers or users.
Users will have to put up with a fractured platform - some apps will be PPC only and run only in slow emulation on x86, many other apps will be x86 only and probably won't run on PPC at all. It will be a major negative point against the "it just works" philosophy.
Many developers were relieved that the Mac's transitional period was seemingly over and OS X APIs had just become stable a month ago. Now everyone will have to buy new hardware, rewrite performance-intensive portions of their apps, and suffer for a year while Mac sales collapse - nobody wants a PPC Mac now, that's for sure.
My app uses AltiVec all over the place because Apple has been touting it for five years as a great solution and an integral part of the Mac hardware platform. I'll have to rewrite all that code. Apple has essentially lied to all their developers about their commitment to AltiVec. Yeah, that really makes me excited about a sudden architecture flip-flop, one which looks completely unnecessary to make matters worse...
Intel's roadmap certainly doesn't inspire confidence. I don't see any evidence that IBM would have been unable to make a competitive PPC chip for Apple, had Apple been willing to pay. Instead, Apple's hubris appears to be so great that they're willing to risk the entire platform.
- pavlov

comments on slashdot.org

...The rumors were only half-true.
Apple is adopting Intel, but is not "ditching" IBM.
New G5 towers will still be around for at least another year, and probably at least two. Intel is probably going to start by replacing the G4 CPUs in Powerbooks and minis.
At the Stevenote, he informed devs that they would be supporting both platforms for a long time to come. - Golias

...For Apple's actual customers, this fucking sucks....It took five years or so, but the software library has now gotten to the point where if I suddenly find myself thinking "hmm, I need an app that does blah" I can look on versiontracker and more likely than not find it.
Except now this new transition is going to make that library restart once again at zero... - mcc

....The transition was so difficult for the audio and video industry, that for many people it STILL hasn't happened. You can find workhorse macs running OS9 in nearly every recording studio and post production house in LA..... - soupdevil

...Financially, this is going to be a big bump for Apple. I'm certainly not going to order any more new Macs until the Intel systems are available. This may be one reason why they chose to do it now, when the success of the iPod will carry them through.
It may be the best decision for Apple, but I still think that it would have been better if they'd been able to reach a deal with IBM to develop the PPC further. I would much rather have seen multicore PPC's. - tgibbs

...did he say anything about a two-button mouse? - Nice2Cats

My worry is that the move to x86 will only cause stability issues for the OS. This is from Apple's own transition doc:
"The x86 C-language calling convention (application binary interface, or ABI) specifies that arguments to functions are passed on the stack. The PowerPC ABI specifies that arguments to functions are passed in registers. Also, x86 has far fewer registers, so many local variables use the stack for their storage. Thus, programming errors, or other operations that access past the end of a local variable array or otherwise incorrectly manipulate values on the stack may be more likely to crash applications on x86 systems than on PowerPC." - tu_coates

Apple posted Intel Universal Binary[apple.com] documentation to their website. It's interesting, and everyone should read it. Notable is a caveat that OpenFirmware is going away. That seems to point towards more standard hardwware. - Knytefall

Posted by fALk at 22:59 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I can´t really describe my feeling about this. Just yesterday I wasn´t sure anymore if Steve wouldn´t do it. I didn´t call the rumor completely off this time even though I hated most thoughts about it. Apple moves their complete platform over to Intel processors and starts selling the first machines on 06/06/06 (that is June 6th 2006). That means if you are having an Apple computer and was thinking about selling it to replace it by a new PPC based Apple computer you are out of luck for two reasons. No more PPC based Apple hardware after 2007 and your old computer just lost about 50% of its resale price. It also means most of those wanting/needing a new laptop or a new Desktop will probably want to wait until this switch has gone over - just to have a box that runs 95% of all their apps in emulation mode and the rest as 1.0 beta versions for the next 3 years. As said it took Apple and its customers 5 years from 680x0 to PPC it took Apple 5 years at least to switch from OS9 to OSX it will take Apple and its customers at least 5 years to be at the point where we are today - a almost stable OS with TONS of software that is finally also getting more and more stable and optimized for current hardware. It took some developers 8 years to finally implement Altivec what do you think how long it will take small mac only developers - and there are MANY out there - to port their heavily optimized applications to an Intel architecture? I think this is a bad move for all long term Apple customers and mac/ppc only developers it will kill all Mac hardware sales in the next 2 years and it will feel very very bad to be on the mac platform that will just stagnate the next 5 years. Future is far now.... I still have to make up my mind if I want to help apple at all anymore through betatesting program - they burned me alive.
What should I do with the powerbook now? there is no way in hell I am buying a powerbook now - even my old 400Mhz just died and desperately needs replacement. Will I wait until the prices drop for current G4 powerbooks on ebay? Will they actually drop and not even rise because everyone wants a G4 Powerbook for their bookshelf? Will Apple come to my help with that decision? Its fucking 12 month before they start to ship the first boxes... Likely those will be consumer boxes as they are the people who are running the least amount of software. The pros/powerbook will then another 1.5 years off in the future??? Are you kidding me? This company just kills all high profit margin sales for 2 years that is suicide?! Also EVERY other computer maker that has tried to move from 680x0/PPC/Custom (alpha) hardware to Intel has died or has been bought up shortly before bankruptcy or at least lossing all profit. Be, Commodore, NeXT, Sun, SGI are the most prominent examples for that. Apple has OSX and the hardware lockin will probably remain to ensure great compatibility and the "ease of use". The ease of use just has gone out the door: "you have a Intel mac or a PPC mac? What? Your processor? Oh I have an iMac..." All companies especially in the entainment bussiness have to buy ALL of there software anew... There is simply no way to run a video application or a 3d application in emulation mode that would cost you the speed gain the Intel hardware would have brought with it in the first place. Thats a lot of money down the drain for a lot people. I am starting to just bitch around sorry. I am really sad - its an era over for me - 16 years on 680x0/PPC processors in a 19 year computer life is not something you brush off easely. I ALWAYS liked the systems. I never felt "left out" or "on slow hardware" even through the 400Mhz disaster it was all still feeling ok for what I did at the time. I am sad to see these times go - I guess I have to gripe with another change in my life and will probably survive it. I feel sad for all the VJs out there that hoped to get a fullrez capable machine in the short future - I guess we all have to wait 2-3 more years for that. That is why I put this under category "Future is Far" - that is how I feel today.

Picture are taking on June 06 2005 from http://www.apple.com/powermac/performance/

Posted by fALk at 22:09 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Simulation of the human brain has been predicted by my favorite future prophet Ray Kurzweil to come at around 2010. While he has been on the spot with other predictions (like eye implants etc) there was no sign that anyone would attempt to use a huge mainframe computer for brain simulation just yet. This has changed. IBM together with a swiss research team is attempting to simulate 10.000 neurons. Officially they hope to find a cure to Alzheimer or other brain diseases but you can´t overlook the fact that this is a project aimed to simulate the human brain and have artificial intelligence. They will simulate this on a 22,8 Terraflop BlueGene IBM supercomputer. The team hopes to have one part of the brain functioning by 2008 - when there is more processing power available. So a fully functioning brain by 2010-2012 like Kurzweil predicted in his book "Age of the spiritual machines" might not be out of the question after all. Lets see how they fare with this experiment.

Posted by fALk at 12:06 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

An article in the FAZ (german) talks about Howard Rheingold and how he sees the world changing through technology. How open source and peer to peer changes the politics of big corporation. He refers to the phenomena as SmartMobs or intelligent swarms. He talks about what all people connected for some time know - groups of people constantly organize reorganize make voices heard and all that completely without a top down control without a clear simple universal structure.
There is one quote that kind a struck me as this is the essence of what I believe in so I try to translate:

"Through the success of the peer to peer production of said swarms we see a fundamental change in business politics and therefore in the structure of capitalism."

„Wir erleben hier durch den Erfolg der peer-to-peer-production solcher Schwärme einen fundamentalen Wechsel in der Geschäftspolitik und damit in der Struktur des Kapitalismus.”

Rheingold goes on to say that of course big corporation try to hijack the new media forms but that this is seen by the communities and mostly dies of as quickly as it came. That is a point that I find debatable. I have seen big corporation taking over whole communities and outright killed them. Also there are multiple instances of corporate influence in existing big communities (I bet there are lot of links in wikipedia for example that are put there by hired personal). I think this is a real threat to the overall infoculture and can not be brushed off so easily.
As a futurist Mr Rheingold also looks into the future and has another thought he share that I agree with and hope for: China. A country with a communist government trying to give their people capitalistic standards. A country with 400 Million Mobile phones - popping up in the last 5 years. A country 1.5 billion people. Where does this country go? A democratic route? a pure capitilistic route? Mr. Rheingold thinks - like me - that this is the country where a new form for society could be born - and the world is rife for that and it could act as a role model. I surely hope that the peoples power will make this into something beautiful something that is not based on greed and hate.

Posted by fALk at 11:41 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For the 50th times in the last 10 years the web is a buzz with the theory of apple switching to Intel processors. Well I don´t like to chime in but: if Apple switches platforms again I am seriously thinking switching to something that has not been invented - or maybe even Linux. I have been through two conversions with apple and each one took 5 years to complete. 680xx to PPC OS9 to OSx. If you like me have been through that you just whole heartily feel that this can not be true. Finally Apple has an Operating System that does not suck big time (it still sucks but much less then anything else out there) Apple is finally on a processor platform that has a future - even though the platform has its pitfalls but we have been through worse times (G4 400Mhz anyone?). To make another switch I do not have the time nor the energy.
I am testing OSX for Apple under the Appleseed program and I know that there are programmers out there who are very relieved that their code is finally working the way they expect this to work. To port this OS to a new platform AND make it run as smooth as it is today on the PPC hardware will take Apple at LEAST 3 years if not the same 5 years it has always took them to make a transition - only to be again at the mercy of a different processor supplier that they have no business experience with - top that off that finally Apple will loose a lot of the faithful souls that have stuck with them because they believed that one day Apple would give them a computing experience that is not getting in their way of working or creating. Not only Zealots but also technology and community leaders - people that also paved the way for successes like the iPod in the first place.
I personally would have a total let down - not because I don´t like Apple having the best processor in their machine - because for another 5 years it will be uncertainty, bugs, crashes, looking for all the cool small apps that haven´t been ported, setting up a new production pipeline, getting new software updates in general, loosing compatibility to a lot of loved tools where there are no developers anymore, loosing a lot of small developers in general, having to optimize the OS to get the speed that is expected - I clearly still can not see why Apple would do that EXCEPT:
They get HUGE amount of cash buy in from Intel because Intel needs a new image. They partner with Intel against the Sonys and Microsofts of this world. Still this would be the last sell out of the Apple soul - if it ever existed.
Again I doubt it. I might see Apple bringing out a super hot settop box that uses some lowpower Intel processor that acts like a wireless (WiMax) external harddrive with some brain or some similar consumer shit but I do not believe with the experience of 12 years on Apples platform now that this switch will happen - ever.
I shouldn´t call the night when its not even day yet. Let us see what the mighty Steve has for its faithful developers tomorrow. A switch to Intel would give him a lot of "buhs" in the audience that he faces tomorrow and he likes handclapping more I think. 7 p.m. CET we will start to know more.

Posted by fALk at 21:09 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

After so much serious content on here the last days I thought I would bring to your attention that a Vijay is now declared worlds best golfer. I had to read three articles to find out that this is the first name of Mr. Singh a serious professional golfer and not Talvin Singh in form of a VJ.

Posted by fALk at 14:33 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Information Clearinghouse has an article that sheds light on the impeachment movement that is slowly forming in the US right now. This movement faces a huge obstacles of succeeding:

Five months into 2005, the movement to impeach Bush is very small. And three enormous factors weigh against it: 1) Republicans control Congress. 2) Most congressional Democrats are routinely gutless. 3) Big media outlets shun the idea that the president might really be a war criminal.

Still the movements has high hopes to at least spark a debate in the media about this president and its shadowy cabinet. The article sheds some light on past attempts to get rid of US presidents on charge of warcrimes - examples are Nixon bombing of Cambodia and Reagons Iran-Contra scandal and even the old Bush faced an impeachment charge from Rep. Henry Gonzalez in the days before the first Iraqi war.

In the past, attempts to impeach presidents for war crimes have sunk like a stone in the Potomac. If this time is going to be different, we need to get to work -- organizing around the country -- making the case for a thorough public inquiry and creating a groundswell that emerges as a powerful force from the grassroots. Only a massive movement will be strong enough to push over the media obstacles and drag politicians into a real debate about presidential war crimes and the appropriate constitutional punishment.

Posted by fALk at 12:04 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Some voices that try to analyze the closed door meetings between Apple and Intel in the past week are now pointing to a commitment to WiMax - the new wireless technology that is spearheaded by Intels development of an integrated chip - by Apple. Apple was one of the first vendors who shipped WiFi - aons ago it seems - in form of the Ufo like Basestations and as an add in option to all of their Powerbooks and iBooks. Now every portable Apple ships has Wifi build in and using it is as easy as opening up you portable. So its not surprising that Apple wants to retain that lead and WiMax - which promises long distance wireless at much higher speeds then todays WiFi - seems to be the right fit. Yes please more radiation to the computers to fry the rest of my wave-bombarded brain.
Generally I think WiMax promises to be a great development but I can already see it beeing regulated down as it would basically mean every person with 200 bucks to spare could have a multiple-mile transmitter and that this could provoke a true uncontrolled "citizens" net - which is never gonna happen with our powerhungry ruling and rich corporation class. Just look how they try to fight open WiFi networks by making everything open = evil because they could be used for terroristic or child pornography activities.
I would LOVE to have a WiMax antenna on my house and be able to directly connect to a few friends in town without the need of the telkos spying and offering me a modest 1 MBit down and 128k up. Now before everyone jumps and says that this would be used for pirating or other terroristic activities - what about the simple desire to BROADCAST - something that I feel I have as much right to do as the mega corpos or the government - something that should be affordable and easy so a lot of people could do this - something that I see as the real reason for limiting my DSL upload bandwidth. Now lets hope Jobs has this little liberal rebel left in him and that he has this vision to empower the ordinary to free their thoughts.

Posted by fALk at 11:14 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A lot seems to go around the press these days about the double "no" from french and dutch citizens against the European Constitution. The first shrug was met with a shrug by most of the people I know around here - the second went with a kind of enlightenment not only for the ordinary people but also for the ruling class. It seems that the "no" was not against the constitution - which I guess only 1% of the voters understand or even have read (a 500 page political/legal document) the "no" is a clear sign of rejection of a ruling class detached from the normal people. The media push to make the comeout a "yes" was suspicious - all the rulers of this Europe tried to persuade the ordinary citizen that it is a step forward and that it is a good thing to vote for. That just raised the suspicion even more and since noone really understood why this constitution should make life better in a Europe that got more expensive since the introduction of the Euro and that has seen millions of jobs vanish. The "no" seems now more a warning to the rulers that the citizens are alive and that they are thinking different and that they have a voice that once it gets some decision making power will be used against the "elected" in the parliaments. Its an early sign of the power struggles - not only in Europe - to come between the rich, the powerful and the people who just happen to live here on this earth. Its a sign of problems far greater then "globalization" its a sign of class warfare right now inside the bounds of democracy - if the "democratic" rights of the masses will be eradicated even more - a thing we see with the "war on terror" already - then this will surely be the single biggest threat to our future but maybe also the biggest hope to our future.

Posted by fALk at 10:44 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)