Read “Unwirer” As It’s Written

The dynamic duo of Science Fiction (Cory Doctorow and Charlie Stross) are writing their next creation, “Unwirer,” using a blog to keep track of the process.
The story’s already sold. It will be published in ReVisions when it’s finished.
Here’s how they describe the story:

…is an alternate history in which the copyright industry’s 1995 bid at the National Information Infrastructure hearings to redesign the Internet was successful. Now, America labors under a kind of MiniTel hell, where every online transaction costs a few cents and you can only field a website with the phone company’s permission. Meanwhile, the French IT giant Be, Inc., has launched a global revolution with the first WiFi AP, and American guerrilla networkers are running through the hills on the US side of the Canadian and Mexican borders, establishing meshed access-points, working to provide end-to-end meshed IP from sea to shining sea.

Here’s a clip from the story itself:

He’d lost his job and spent the best part of six months inside before his attorney plea-bargained them down, from a twenty years-to-life infoterrorism stretch to second degree tarriff evasion. The judge sentenced him to time served plus two years’ probation, two years in which he wasn’t allowed to program a goddamn microwave oven, let alone admin the networks that had been his trade. Prison hadn’t been as bad for him as it could have been — unwirers got respect — but while he was inside Janice filed for divorce, and by the time he got out he’d lost everything he’d spent the last decade building — his marriage, his house, his savings, his career. Everything except for the unwiring.
It was this experience that had turned him from a fun-loving geek into what $NAME [[need credible name for Chairman of the FCC]] called “one of the information terrorists undermining our homeland’s security.” And so it was with a shudder and a glance over his shoulder that he climbed the front steps and put his key in the lock of the house he and Dan rented.

DARPA Silences, Cuts Off Funding Of Free, Secure OS After Programmer Says He Was “Uncomfortable” About His Funding Source

I’m still not sure if this is a lesson in Free Speech or HR/Public Relations…
I mean, sure, this isn’t “right,” in terms of it not being “fair” that things happen this way. But it does seem like it could be expected when you criticize or say anything that could be construed as remotely negative about your principal funder in the press.
Don’t sweat it Theo. You didn’t want any of their dirty money anyway 🙂
(It’s not like anything useful ever comes out of that DARPA place anyway…except for the Internet itself, I suppose…)
It does mean, of course, that now we’ll have to find some alternative funding so that the secure, free operating system that Theo was going to build for DARPA can still be built. Any ideas people?

Peace Talk Halts Defense OS Job

By the Associated Press, as reprinted in Wired News.

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency halted the contract less than two weeks after The Globe and Mail of Toronto published a story in which programmer Theo de Raadt was quoted as saying he was “uncomfortable” about the funding source.
“I try to convince myself that our grant means a half of a cruise missile doesn’t get built,” de Raadt told the newspaper.
Within a few days, de Raadt said he received an e-mail from Jonathan Smith, a computer science professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the grant’s lead researcher, expressing discomfort over the statements.
On Thursday, Smith notified de Raadt of the cancellation.
“A tenured professor was telling me not to exercise my freedom of speech,” de Raadt said.
Smith declined to comment on the matter, and DARPA did not return telephone messages Friday. De Raadt’s suspicions about the cancellation could not be confirmed.
The $2.3 million grant had funded security improvements to the OpenBSD operating system since 2001 as well as related projects.

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Just Uploaded Some Duplicate Copies Of The Uncompressed AIFFS From The Oscars

Some people were having trouble downloading the uncompressed AIFF files, so I’ve saved them with a .aif extension in a different directory:

Did CNN Modify Its Re-broadcast of Michael Moore’s Uppity Oscar Acceptance Speech?
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This is, of course, in reference to this earlier post (Did CNN Turn Up The Boos On Michael Moore?), which, by the way, has a wonderful discussion going on currently about the various technical explanations that could explain the discrepancies between the broadcasts.

Come See Me And The Internet Bookmobile At Emerging Technologies 2003

I will be presenting with Brewster Khale this Wednesday afternoon from 3:45-4:30 in the Lafayette/San Tomas/Lawrence room at Emerging Technologies Conference going on all week in Santa Clara.
Here’s a short film I’ve just put together of the Internet Bookmobile‘s first stop of its first voyage.
This was shot on Monday, September 30, 2002, approximately two weeks before the Eldred Argument on October 11, 2002.
Bookmobile Launch (Low-res – 35 MB)
Bookmobile Launch (Hi-res – 72 MB)





More On Madonna’s Removing Her Video From U.S. Distribution – Courtesy Of The Daily Show

The thing I don’t get is, if it’s so potentially offensive, why not pull it from international distribution? Are Americans the only ones who might be offended?
(It didn’t sound very offensive anyway, from Stewart’s description of it.)
The Ex-Queen Of Controversy Gets Material (Small – 4 MB)
The Ex-Queen Of Controversy Gets Material (Hi-Res – 57 MB)

Open Letter to Madonna,
What happened Madonna? Were you pressured into this? Are there things going on we’ll never get a chance to understand? Well maybe so. But on the outside, it sure looks like you cracked under the pressure. You censored yourself.
Somehow, you were able to express yourself just a few months ago in a certain way, and now, for whatever reason, you don’t feel comfortable doing so.
How sad indeed. How completely sad that artists no longer feel like they can express themselves in the U.S. without worrying about the backlash.
I hope you can talk about the experience publicly someday so we can all learn from it.
Sincerely,
Lisa Rein




The Daily Show — the best news on television.

Martha Burk On The Daily Show

Martha Burk, chair of the National Council Of Women’s Organizations, was on the Daily Show a few weeks ago. Martha has been protesting and speaking out against the
Male-only policy at the Augusta Golf Club (owned by Augusta National, Inc.).
According to Burk, Augusta members such as Bill Gates and the CEOs of General Electric and Bank of America won’t stand up for women’s rights because they don’t want to cross “Hootie”, the President of the Club.
Burk also explains how the Klu Klux Klan have stepped up to support the Club’s discriminatory poilcy, saying “This civil rights stuff has gone too far. We support the club. Keep the women out.”
She also explains why this battle is one worth fighting.
Audio – Martha Burk On The Daily Show – All (MP3 – 10 MB)
Martha Burk On The Daily Show Part 1 of 2 (Small – 7 MB)
Martha Burk On The Daily Show Part 2 of 2 (Small – 8 MB)
Martha Burk On The Daily Show Part 1 of 2 (Hi-res – 93 MB)
Martha Burk On The Daily Show Part 2 of 2 (Hi-res – 113 MB)

The Daily Show — the best news on television.

Chairman Of Shrub’s Cultural Advisory Committee Steps Down In Protest Over Baghdad Museum Looting

Bush’s top cultural adviser steps down over looting of Iraqi museum

“The reports in recent days about the looting of Iraq (news – web sites)’s National Museum of Antiquities and the destruction of countless artifacts that document the cradle of Western civilization have troubled me deeply, a feeling that is shared by many other Americans,” he wrote.
Calling the looting a “tragedy,” Sullivan said that it was not prevented “due to our nation’s inaction.

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NBC News On Supreme Court Affirmative Action Case

Update June 23, 2003, the Supreme Court has handed down it’s decision on this case upholding Affirmative Action.
Here’s a clip from an NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw on April 1, 2003.
I’ve also collected together a bunch of links on that go with these clips here.
NBC News On Supreme Court Affirmative Action Case (Small – 6 MB)
NBC News On Supreme Court Affirmative Action Case (Hi-res 79 MB)

“At the U.S. Supreme court today, one of the most important civil rights cases in a generation…” — Tom Brokaw.







Update June 23, 2003, the Supreme Court has handed down it’s decision on this case upholding Affirmative Action.

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