Interesting articles and thoughts

Here is a couple of random thoughts for today.

it's been a long week since I last posted, and I wanted to give a idea, kind of a roundup, of what i've been thinking all week.

First of all, there is a couple of interesting thought provoking articles that exist on the Internet, and I stumbled across one today. It's a speech from 2 years ago, on why DRM is bad. Bottom line: DRM can never be designed to be uncrackable, and it's not what consumers want. Corporation should try to find new markets instead of trying to fight the new technologies.

And while we are on the subject of thought provoking articles, here is a small list of those I found interesting enough to keep:

• Microsoft Research DRM talk by Cory Doctorow, the article I just mentioned


• "Free Culture" by Lawrence Lessig - An electronic book about the reasoning of copyright law, and how the idea behind it is loss to the modern world.


• "Cargo Cult Science" by Richard Feynman - A critic of modern scientific integrity by a well known Nobel prize American physicist.


• Space Shuttle Challenger Accident Report, Appendix F - Personal observations on the reliability of the Shuttle, again, by Richard Feynman. "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled."


• "The Mathematics of Monkeys and Shakespeare" - A Short look at the classic problem behind making Hamlet with an infinite numbers of monkey.


• The Six Dumbest Ideas in Computer Security - Title says it all...


• Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments - An ignobel winner , tell why some individuals are incompetent and will stay that way because they can't see that they are wrong.


• The Problem With Music a small article by Steve Albini about how music bands don't get much from signing deals (while the record company got a lot of revenue).


• Why Are There So Few Female Computer Scientists? a 1991 text that tries to explain why there are so few female in the tech field.


• MIT's OpenCourseWare - a free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners around the world.

I'll post more went I remember them.

Second 'topic' I gave lots of thought about is dating. I'm presently single, and in the I.T. Field, it's not easy to meet women (even harder my age). I'm preparing a complete post on this topic, so i'll just leave it at that for now.

Third concept that occupied my thought this past week is a concept i've seen in ethics. I don't know the exact term in english but it can be roughly translated to 'forbidden to think'. It is a process by which you tell people what to think instead of giving them the tolls to come to proper conclusions by themselves. I have also prepare a simple post, and I need a picture to complete the post, so more on that later.

finally the topic of MMO. I have talked with a friend of mine yesterday about the economies and the principles that makes MMO fun. One thing stuck out: for us, at least, it has to be casual, not power leveling. Thus I ask for advice from a friend who followed this industry closer than I do, and I might try out Guild Wars. The no monthly fee is a very interesting aspect, to say the least. In any rate, i'll keep you posted...