Wednesday
Aug282002

What To Wear To DIDW?

Well, I'm likely to have a new t-shirt: "Doc Searls Moderated My Panel."

See you there. (As intriguing as this preliminary schedule already looks, Eric says there are more surprises to come...)

Wednesday
Aug282002

My God, It's Full Of Stars

Upgraded to Jaguar over the last couple of days, and used its enhanced built-in networking to (un)wire the house. Printer sharing a breeze, file sharing ditto (we need better/more signal coverage, but I take it this is a common complaint). Is it my imagination, or does Apple keep releasing stuff that you can't believe is better than last month's latest and greatest -- but you kick the tires and it turns out it is? More toys in the chest: Sherlock actually is something I'll use now, and its built in Dictionary/Thesaurus is so nifty it's making me plot how best to accomplish all my briefwriting on my non-work hardware. Says Apple: "It’s best, though, to think of Sherlock as a service provider that just happens to use your browser to fetch web pages as one of the services it provides. Need something translated from one language to another? Ask Sherlock. Want a real dictionary definition of a word alongside a real thesaurus listing of related words? Ask Sherlock." The thesaurus accesses Bartleby, which is what I already use, except it eliminates the need to go through Google (which I inevitably do: e.g., typing "thesaurus inevitably" into Google generally does the trick), and it provides a slick interface that lets you thread through the related words, and their related words, to your heart's content. This philosophy seems to permeate the native applications in Jaguar (see Evan Williams/Ken Bereskin on the calculator), all to the good.

Now, I've never sat down and played with an XP box, so for all I know the two platforms are neck and neck on this sort of end-user extravaganza. But my Win 3.1/95/98 experiences leave me needing to be convinced.

Wednesday
Aug282002

The Pieces Under The Couch

If you have not yet had some sort of epiphany about the impact of digital identity issues, it won't be long. Eric Norlin begins to crystallize this here, on his blog. My reaction oversimplifies, and identity touches so much more, but even limiting consideration to the two "RMs" ("D" and "C") is like beginning to see an intricate puzzle's solution because missing pieces fortuitously have surfaced. There's much to consider here and Eric is right that the conversation requires many voices and perspectives. The journey from back there to out there is underway, and if we care about the view from the bus and where it deposits us this discussion needs to ramp up to a dull roar. (Turning the dial: Digital ID World and Digital ID World Conference 2002.)

Tuesday
Aug272002

Evidence Of Intelligent Life

The folks at JURIST are going blawg wild: "JURIST is pleased to present Tillers on Evidence, the first of a series of new JURIST web logs offering ongoing commentary and perspective from law professors on specific areas of legal doctrine. An acclaimed evidence scholar and lately Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School, Peter Tillers is Professor of Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, New York."

Tuesday
Aug272002

Open Mouth, Insert Money

I haven't listened to a whole lot of Janis Ian since I was, well, about seventeen (that'd be an even twenty years, for those keeping score at home). Her decision to put some great tracks on her Web site for free clued me into the fact she still belts it out, with beauty and soul. Download and see.

Blogging at you for the first time over WiFi, and beginning to see what all the fuss is about! :)