Snow and Rainbows LA

From Boing Boing

What Watson might do after crushing humankind on Jeopardy

Bob Harris at 4:53 PM Fri

Bob Harris is a TV and travel writer, Kiva supporter, and dabbler.

Now that Watson has predictably used his inhuman buzzer skills to romp on non-inhumankind, what does the big lug do for a follow-up?

Stephen Baker, who has written a whole book and this blog about Watson, explains:

Consider Watson as a research assistant on a medical diagnostic team. A patient comes in with a puzzling set of symptoms. Watson launches a search through hundreds of thousands of journal articles and case studies. It returns with six possible diagnoses and its level of confidence in each one -- along with links to the evidence it studied. Let's say two of those six are far-fetched... [d]octors know enough to rule out a few others. Still, if even one of those six possibilities leads the team toward plausible answers they hadn't considered, the machine will have done its job.

I'm sure that's the rationale the maniacal cyborgs use in some sci-fi movie, too, back when they're first verging on sentience. But until the replicants destroy us all, it does sound pretty cool.

Fitting

The Computer Wore Menacing Boots

"I was hoping the people of the world might be united by something more interesting, like drugs or an armed struggle against the undead. Unfortunately, my father's team won, so computers it is." -David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day

Part of me might be a luddite or technophobe. I'm not really sure. Its strange because I enjoy studying technology and media. However, some part of me fears computers while the other reveres them. It all sounds strangely pious.

I think it all has something to do with growing up in the dust belt. As kids and teenagers my friends and I tended to focus more on blowing things up and covertly causing mayhem then playing computer games or talking to perverts in chat rooms.

I have a clear memory of my friend Drew and I liberating some elderly macintosh computer monitors from our old elementary school. We were around 14 or 15 at the time. We took the computers to Willow Creek Park, to a massive sand stone tower built in honor of the adventurer Zebulon Pike. We hauled the monitors to the top of the tower, dodging wine cooler bottles and rude stains and scrawled suggestions along the way. Then we chucked them off the top. Watching them smash was one of the highlights of my high school career. Somewhere between smoking my first real cigarette and my first crazy girlfriend. I think this story is fairly indicative of my technological love-hate relationship.

I dabbled in gaming for certain. I tended to disappoint my nerdier friends, however, by getting side tracked during all night game-a-thons. I found it more interesting to off members of my own team and sneak out of the house then to stare at a screen all night eating absurd amounts of popcorn and making inexpert sexual jokes.

In college I became the owner of a laptop. Apparently. It tended to get left in my dorm unused. I had a printer, but it was never- to my knowledge- plugged in. I was a patron of the dusty computer lab in one of the older buildings on campus. It had a certain anachronistic je ne sais quoi. Took me back to my Pike's Peak tower days.

My shiny laptop was eventually pulverized by my roommate in a skateboarding accident. How fitting is that? Computers and I seem to have this sort of a relationship.

I got interested in Free Culture. More for arts' sake than technologies'. I picked up a few techie tips along the way, though. I read Lawrence Lessig and met lots of people with hands covered in popcorn stains who wore shirts exclaiming "Show me your Wits!" I minored in media and cultural studies and spent a few thousand hours a month on Facebook. After a long fight, I'm half ashamed, half-releaved, to say...I entered the matrix.

I still suck at using Excel.

We've come a long way. Sort of. Some of us anyway. Maybe not me.

Students for FC, they have a special place in my heart

Students for Free Culture Conference, NYC this Saturday!

Cory Doctorow at 8:19 AM Wednesday, Feb 16, 2011

Kevin sez, "The Students for Free Culture Conference 2011 is a gathering of student activists, intellectuals, artists, hackers, and generally interested people to discuss the latest issues in the free cultural world, with a focus on student involvement and participation. The conference will take place in New York City from February 19-20. It will feature keynotes from the creators of Diaspora, Brazilian professor and activist Pablo Ortellado, and professor and former Obama Administration advisor Susan Crawford, as well as panels on remix culture, open education, and fashion and copyright. The second day is an unconference where anyone is invited to pose a panel, discussion, gathering, or hack session. Registration is pay-what-you-want, and travel funding is available by request. See the complete conference schedule for more detail."

An Interesting take on Clintons Approach via Timothy Karr

Here is a response to Clinton's net stance from Timothy Karr of SavetheInternet.com

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/no-double-standard-for-cl_b_823614.html

Clinton calls for global recognition of Internet freedom- CNN

Though this might interest some of you

By Michael Martinez for CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/02/15/clinton.internet/index.html?iref=allsearch

Ramadan and Zizek on Egypt

Controversial Groupon Ad

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/06/groupon-tibet-super-bowl_n_819353.html

Sarah Palin copyrighting her name

From BoingBoing.net

Sarah Palin Circle-R wants a trademark on her name

Cory Doctorow at 9:01 AM Sun

Some details on Sarah Palin's crazed attempt to register a trademark in her name; apart from making stupid errors in her application, there's the curious business that she considers "running for election" to be the same as using her name in commerce. Also, turns out Bristol Palin also wants a trademark on her name, for "motivational speaking services in the field of life choices."

On November 29, the application was rejected for two reasons. First, the examiner pointed out, the fact that your name appears in a news article or on your Facebook page is not evidence that you are "providing a website" featuring political information. Second, Palin did not sign the application.

The examiner pointed out that if a mark is the name of a particular living individual, it can't be registered unless that individual has signed or there is some other record of consent. (The examiner cited cases involving "Little Debbie," who is in fact a real person, and "Prince Charles," who arguably is too.) Because Palin hadn't signed, the application could not be granted.

It seems like signing your name is not something you would forget when your name is what you're trying to trademark, but she's a busy woman.

An explanation, per the superbowl

Meet Asmaa Mahfouz and the vlog that Helped Spark the Revolution

Out the Window Call!

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Freewaves invites you to submit your work for our latest project.... OUT THE WINDOW About/By/In Los Angeles What do you know about Los Angeles? Want to share your knowledge on TV? Submission deadline March 1, 2011 Freewaves is seeking two-minute artists-activists-storytellers' videos about places in Los Angeles (home, street, hood) to show to I million riders per day on all 2,200 Metro buses in L.A. County in June and September-October, 2011. On Transit TV we will show animations, documentaries, narratives and experimental videos about, by and in Los Angeles. Riders include more women, more people of color, and more low income Angelenos. Demographics are linked at transitv. In a mobile environment with competing sounds, visuals are more important. Accepted videos will be included in a one-hour program of news, ads, cooking and quizzes. Videos will be shown for approximately 2 days as part of the June or September-October screening periods. Freewaves will post accepted videos on our web site (if you agree) for at least two years with a GPS location tag on our L.A. map. Freewaves will pay $100 - $300 per video. ($100 for pre-existing, $200 for custom editing, $300 for newly commissioned works). Freewaves will ask bus riders to text us in response to geo-tagged messages appearing on Transit TV about places in L.A. Curators: - Maryam Hosseinzadeh, a writer, collaborator and cultural planner - Karen Mack, Director of L.A. Commons, a public art organization - Adrian Rivas, Director and co-founder of g727 in Los Angeles - Jenn Su, artist and organizer - Paul Young, a writer, critic and video art curator at Young Projects OUT THE WINDOW is a multi-phase project. The first phase involves videos made by L.A. youth with Echo Park Film Center and Public Matters. UCLA REMAP is producing the technical interface. A Youtube video shows the youth phase: Transit TV prohibits nudity, sex, violence, alcohol, tobacco and weapons in its programming. Please fill in Entry form and send us a URL on your entry form or a DVD to: Freewaves 6522 Hollywood Blvd Los Angeles CA 90028 We will accept preview videos of any length and will ask that final selections be 2 minutes long. Application materials will not be returned. IMPORTANT DATES: Due date: 3/1/11 Notice of Acceptance: 4/15/11 Screening dates: June and September-October 2011 Click here to fill out the ENTRY FORM 6522 Hollywood Boulevard | Los Angeles, CA 90028 US

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