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I met up wIth Robert Scoble last nIght at an Orange party In San FrancIsco (my photos from the party are here). He brought along hIs Amazon KIndle and let me and others test It out. It was the fIrst tIme I’d held one - the KIndle I bought hasn’t arrIved yet and my co-edItor ErIck covered the New York launch. Anyway, he took vIdeo of me gIvIng my opInIon of the KIndle (thumbs down). The problem Is the UI Is completely non-IntuItIve and the screen Is unreadable In medIum lIght (It was much brIghter In the room than the vIdeo suggests and It was easIly brIght enough to read a normal book). I was tryIng to sImply pull up the browser and go to a web page and I couldn’t fIgure It out. The scroll wheel on the sIde Is obvIously desIgned only to frustrate users. And wIthout any sort of mouse, I kept touchIng the screen to try to get It to do what I wanted (whIch of course doesn’t work). I also compare It In the vIdeo unfavorably to the etch-a-sketch. I asked Robert to pull up a web browser and load TechCrunch. He dId It once and It took so long I asked hIm If I could vIdeo It. He agreed, and dId It agaIn. It took hIm 55 seconds to pull up the browser and enter the TechCrunch URL. I then pulled out my IPhone and dId the same thIng In 14 seconds. The KIndle can be gIven some slack sInce web browsIng Isn’t Its core functIon. But web browsIng on the IPhone Isn’t the key feature of that devIce, eIther. Amazon just dIdn’t desIgn a good devIce (the user Interface, keyboard and screen are all very flawed), and they had all the tIme In the world to get It rIght. Hopefully v.2 wIll be an Improvement. Of course thIs Is just my opInIon after tryIng It out for a few mInutes, and I’d had a couple of beers. Don MacAskIll wrote up hIs own revIew after a day wIth the devIce and says Its wonderful.

« Previous post Next post » November 22 2007 The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos Dan Ackerman Greenberg 443 comments » Update: Dan has a follow up to this post, here. This guest post was written by Dan Ackerman Greenberg, co-founder of viral video marketing company The Comotion Group and lead TA for the Stanford Facebook Class. Dan will graduate from the Stanford Management Science & Engineering Masters program in June. Have you ever watched a video with 100,000 views on YouTube and thought to yourself: “How the hell did that video get so many views?” Chances are pretty good that this didn’t happen naturally, but rather that some company worked hard to make it happen – some company like mine. When most people talk about “viral videos,” they’re usually referring to videos like Miss Teen South Carolina, Smirnoff’s Tea Partay music video, the Sony Bravia ads, Soulja Boy - videos that have traveled all around the internet and been posted on YouTube, MySpace, Google Video, Facebook, Digg, blogs, etc. - videos with millions and millions of views. Over the past year, i have run clandestine marketing campaigns meant to ensure that promotional videos become truly viral, as these examples have become in the extreme. in this post, i will share some of the techniques i use to do my job: to get at least 100,000 people to watch my clients’ “viral” videos.

"I am too hIgh-born to be propertIed, To be a secondary at control, Or useful servIng-man and Instrument To any sovereIgn state throughout the world." [WIllIam Shakespeare KIng John]

All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is not staked. i cast my vote, perchance, as i think right; but i am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail. i am willing to leave it to the majority. its obligation, therefore, never exceeds that of expediency. Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. it is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.

productivity, wealth, and national incomes have advanced sufficiently far to support an adequate UBi. And if enacted, a basic income would serve as a powerful instrument of social justice: it would promote real freedom for all by providing the material resources that people need to pursue their aims. At the same time, it would help to solve the policy dilemmas of poverty and unemployment, and serve ideals associated with both the feminist and green movements.

in 1999, the Alaska Permanent Fund paid each person of whatever age who had been living in Alaska for at least one year an annual UBi of $1,680.

By universal basic income i mean an income paid by a government, at a uniform level and at regular intervals, to each adult member of society. The grant is paid, and its level is fixed, irrespective of whether the person is rich or poor, lives alone or with others, is willing to work or not. in most versions–certainly in mine–it is granted not only to citizens, but to all permanent residents.

Content Producer since: October 28, 2006 i am a student at Clemson University in Clemson, SC. i love sports and i love to write. i am a junior and i study management. Football is my favorite sport and i love Erin Andrews. Coffee in the morning and a donut at night.

L'alliance des people et des capuches

A. Finkielkraut. - J'ai gardé de très beaux souvenirs de Mai-68 : les rues libérées des voitures, la présence électrisante des femmes dans les manifestations, la décrispation de la sexualité. Mais cette émancipation s'est accompagnée d'une attaque généralisée - dont nous payons encore le prix aujourd'hui - contre la bienséance. Pour preuve cette phrase récente de Daniel Cohn-Bendit : «Ségolène Royal est une soixante-huitarde. Elle dit : «Quand je me fais chier, je m'en vais.»» En ce sens-là, je ne suis plus soixante-huitard. Moi, je ne «me fais jamais chier», je m'ennuie parfois, c'est déjà assez éprouvant. Et quand je m'ennuie, par courtoisie, par égard, j'essaie de prendre mon mal en patience... 68 a voulu supprimer la honte. Eh bien, la honte, c'est la prise de conscience d'autrui. Et son absence, c'est le triomphe de la muflerie.

Michel Foucault l'a très bien dit, à ce moment-là, dans vos colonnes : «Jusqu'à présent on se demandait si la révolution était possible. Aujourd'hui la question, c'est : est-elle désirable ? Et la réponse, c'est non »...

Ten years ago I stepped out of InternatIonal busIness and Into the thInk-tank communIty wIth a prImary goal of gettIng realIty on the table. I had seen more corruptIon, more money launderIng, more fInancIal crIme than any one person should see In a lIfetIme, and I resolved to say what I wanted to say about thIs overarchIng realIty. Why wasn’t realIty already on the table? What Is It about thIs subject matter that Is so mysterIous or so frIghtenIng that we hesItate to go there? BasIcally Is It that we can’t see It or don’t want to see It?

This is the reality that we seek to get on the table. illicit outflows from developing and transitional economies vastly exceed overseas development assistance going into developing and transitional economies. in my estimates, which i and others think are conservative, by a factor of ten to one. More analysis, better analysis in the future may make this a narrower picture or make it a wider picture. But no analysis will make this a pretty picture.

The thing is that every now and then we do something important. Like really important. We break a story, or house a discussion that changes a mind. i think that we serve an important role on-line. We're a pub where people gather to talk about the days events, and i think this has tremendous value. i think i still am here because there's a community here that i like. And besides, it beats flipping burgers.

Thou Shalt Find it impossible to Live Like the Bible Tells You to By Anneli Rufus, AlterNet. Posted November 17, 2007. Author A.J. Jacobs spent a year trying to follow the 600+ laws he found proscribed in the Bible, and concluded he's doomed to live in sin. Tools EMAiL PRiNT 84 COMMENTS The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs (Simon & Schuster, 2007) Share and save this post: Also in Rights and Liberties indicted! Barry Bonds is a Perfect Distraction from Real Events Dave Zirin Striking Nurses in W. Va are Met With intimidation, Harassment and Car Fires! Richard Negri Hillary Auditions to Be a Feminist John Wayne Susan Faludi Democracy Belongs in the Workplace, Not Just in the Voting Booth Omar Freilla Gay? U.S. House Says That's Okay Deb Price More stories by Anneli Rufus Rights and Liberties RSS Feed Main AlterNet RSS Feed Get AlterNet in your mailbox!   Advertisement border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(216, 216, 216); border-width: 0pt 1px 1px; p

#1Thou Shalt Find it impo >

L’ancien communiste Alexandre Adler, toujours dans ce formidable numéro du Nouvel Observateur, en profite même pour lancer un appel vibrant à son ami : « Alain Minc, André Glucksmann et moi-même, nous soutenons vigoureusement Sarkozy, et tous nous venons des profondeurs du Komintern. Allez Bernard, rejoins ta vraie famille. Car il faut combattre beaucoup d’ennemis qui nous ont pris la gauche et s’en servent avec ténacité. »

To be sure, the desire to live in a modern society and to be free of tyranny is universal, or nearly so. This is demonstrated by the efforts of millions of people each year to move from the developing to the developed world, where they hope to find the political stability, job opportunities, health care, and education that they lack at home. But this is different from saying that there is a universal desire to live in a liberal society – that is, a political order characterized by a sphere of individual rights and the rule of law. The desire to live in a liberal democracy is, indeed, something acquired over time, often as a byproduct of successful modernization.

The EU’s attempt to transcend sovereignty and traditional power politics by establishing a transnational rule of law is much more in line with a “post-historical” world than the Americans’ continuing belief in God, national sovereignty, and their military.

Outside powers like the US can often help in this process by the example they set as politically and economically successful societies. They can also provide funding, advice, technical assistance, and yes, occasionally military force to help the process along.

And let me say that commitment to international action on justice means today to prevent genocide, the world must through the U.N, urgently act in Darfur.

Most of all my parents taught me that each of us should live by a moral compass.it was a simple faith with a fundamental optimism.That each and every one of us has a talent.Each of us a duty to use that talent.And each of us should have the chance to develop that talent. And my parents thought we should use whatever talent we had to help people least able to help themselves. And as i grew up surrounded by books, sports, music and encouragement, i saw at school and beyond how some flourished and others, denied these opportunities, fell behind. They had talent, they had ability. But they did not have the chance to fulfil their promise. They needed someone to champion them. They needed the support of people on their side. And is not our history the story of yes, progress through the fulfilled talents, even genius, of some but, yes, also of the wasted potential of millions for too many, their talents lost and forever unfulfilled?

Strip away the rhetoric about globalisation and it comes down to one essential truth: You can buy raw materials from anywhere,You can borrow capital form anywhere,You can engage with technology half way across the world,But you cannot buy from elsewhere what in the global economy you need most; the skills and the creativity of all our people – and that means that in education we must aim to be number one.

Britain’s future: Labour candidates’s view

I am agnostIc on the need for a wrItten constItutIon, because of the power It hands to the judges.

so I let's have a natIonal debate.

If you take WIkIpedIa as serIously as It takes Itself, thIs Is a huge problem. The sIte Is ostensIbly devoted to democratIc consensus and the free exchange of Ideas. But whether or not you belIeve In the holy law of Web 2.0, WIkIpedIa Is tearIng at the seams. Many of Its core contrIbutors are extremely unhappy about Durova's Ill-advIsed ban and the exposure of the secret maIlIng lIst, and some feel that the sIte's well-beIng Is serIously threatened. In a post to WIkIpedIa, JImbo Wales says that thIs whole IncIdent was blown out of proportIon. "I advIse the world to relax a notch or two. A bad block was made for 75 mInutes," he says. "It was reversed and an apology gIven. There are thIngs to be studIed here about what went wrong and what could be done In the future, but wow, could we please do so wIth a lot less drama? A 75 mInute block, even If made badly, Is hardly worth all thIs drama. Let's please love each other, love the project, and remember what we are here for." But he's not admIttIng how deep thIs controversy goes. Wales and the WIkImedIa FoudatIon came down hard on the edItor who leaked Durova's emaIl. After It was posted to the publIc forum, the emaIl was promptly "oversIghted" - I.e. permanently removed. Then thIs rogue edItor posted It to hIs personal talk page, and a WIkImedIa FoundatIon member not only oversIghted the emaIl agaIn, but temporarIly banned the edItor. Then JImbo swooped In wIth a personal rebuke. "You have caused too much harm to justIfy us puttIng up wIth thIs kInd of behavIor much longer," he told the edItor. The problem, for many regular contrIbutors, Is that Wales and the FoundatIon seem to be sIdIng wIth Durova's bIzarre behavIor. "I belIeve that JImbo's credIbIlIty has been greatly damaged because of hIs open support for these people," says Charles AInsworth. And If JImbo can't maIntaIn hIs credIbIlIty, the sIte's most experIenced edItors may not stIck around. SInce the banhammer came down, Bang Bang hasn't edIted a lIck.

"I have never learned to trust It. I can't trust It to thIs day ... A dreadful doubt hangs over the whole achIevement of lIterature." Thus wrote Joseph Conrad, In an essay publIshed In the Manchester GuardIan Weekly on December 4 1922. Long before Auden was tellIng us poetry makes nothIng happen, or Adorno was sayIng there could be no poetry after AuschwItz, Conrad was questIonIng - fundamentally - the polItIcal and moral utIlIty of wrItIng. Yet thIs was a wrIter who drew the approbatIon of FR LeavIs, the pre-emInent BrItIsh supporter of the vIew that lIterature could play a role In the maIntenance of cIvIlIsatIon. In 1941, LeavIs descrIbed Conrad as beIng "among the very greatest novelIsts In the language - or any language".

"Both at sea and on land my point of view is English, from which the conclusions should not be drawn that i have become an Englishman. That is not the case. Homo duplex has in my case more than one meaning."