September 24, 2005 – 12:17 pm
RSF (Reporters Without Borders) Handbook for bloggers and “cyber-dissidents”
Blogs get people excited. Or else they disturb and worry them. Some people distrust them. Others see them as the vanguard of a new information revolution. Because they allow and encourage ordinary people to speak up, they’re tremendous tools of freedom of expression.
Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure. Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest.
Reporters Without Borders has produced this handbook to help them, with handy tips and technical advice on how to to remain anonymous and to get round censorship, by choosing the most suitable method for each situation. It also explains how to set up and make the most of a blog, to publicize it (getting it picked up efficiently by search-engines) and to establish its credibility through observing basic ethical and journalistic principles.
This is a pretty good resource; it contains a collection of good articles on blogging by various authors, many aimed at those who are overcoming censorship via the self-publishing model that blogging brings to the world.
September 20, 2005 – 10:18 pm
I don’t even know what to say about this article by Amanda Marcotte uncovering the sickening stories people trying to counter or ignore the race issues raised by Katrina by attacking the character of those left behind. Found this link in this post from This Modern World, referred to by Michel in her recent comment on my previous post.
September 20, 2005 – 9:30 pm
I remember Nathan recently asking for recommendations for podcasts in a blog comment, but I can’t find it right now, so I’ll make my suggestion here.
Nathan, I think you may like Alpha Rant, which is put together by the two brothers that produce the Alpha Shade web comic. I don’t actually read the comic, but I enjoy their commentary, and since you’re into the web comic scene I thought you might get a kick out of it. Then again, you may get offended too, because they have some pretty harsh opinions about the general web comic culture and most of the people involved.
They usually split the cast into two parts, one in which they talk about just their comic and the process of what went into creating it for that week, and feedback they’ve gotten, etc. Part two is more general conversation about whatever, but it’s usually also about the web comics scene, or other pop culture stuff. They attend a lot of the cons, and some of their reflections on the presentations (and presenters) are some of the best episodes.
As a side note, their site is the single site that I’ve seen that uses Flash well (it’s pretty much an all-Flash site), and makes me reconsider my strict anti-Flash opinion. Now I’m strictly anti-Flash-unless-you-do-it-this-good. One cool thing is that they do their comic in Flash as well, so all the art is vector and the pages will resize with the browser, etc.
September 20, 2005 – 3:25 pm
This post is rare because I’m highlighting something from President Bush’s most recent speech that I actually agree with:
Within the Gulf region are some of the most beautiful and historic places in America. As all of us saw on television, there’s also some deep, persistent poverty in this region, as well. That poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America. We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action. So let us restore all that we have cherished from yesterday, and let us rise above the legacy of inequality.
I expect that I may not agree with his administration’s strategy for addressing it, but at least it’s an acknowledgment of the problem.
September 20, 2005 – 11:58 am
(Thank GoodnessGod For Linksys) - and the fact that they ship their wireless access points with wide open defaults, so that if you’re sitting in the Starbucks by Barnes & Noble you can use free access instead of going through T-Mobile or over your slower cell phone data connection.
September 20, 2005 – 11:56 am
that it would rain more today.
September 19, 2005 – 2:52 pm
of Tythyl is now available for your listening pleasure. Nathan and I couldn’t make it for the recording this week, but Dan and Jason did a good job of bearing the burden on their own.
Download it at tythyl.com
September 16, 2005 – 8:23 pm
As Nathan pointed out here, the “failure” Google-bomb is pretty entertaining, but it looks like there is some counter-bombing going on here, which is the first time I’ve noticed that kind of thing.
For the unfamiliar, the definition of a “google bomb” is best illustrated by seeing it in action. In this case, open up google and type in “failure” and click “I’m feeling lucky”.
The anatomy of how this works is that the “feeling lucky” link takes you directly to the top entry in the search results. The strategy then is to get the page you want to be referenced to be bumped up into the top result. In this case, to see what the competition is trying to do, just do a regular search on “failure” and note the #2 entry.
You may be wondering how this type of result manipulation is possible, since the people performing the “bombing” do not have control over the pages themselves. The reason is the way that links factor into Google’s page rank. For example, this blog does not contain my name anywhere in its text, but if you put my first and last name into Google, this site will be the #1 result. This is because there are a lot of links to this site which have my name as the link text. If you go to Google’s cached copy of the page, it will tell you that the page in question does not contain the search words, it only appears because of referring links.
Anyway, just thought that may amuse some of you out there.
September 16, 2005 – 8:09 pm
I’ve read a lot of stuff from Richard Stallman in the past, but the other day was the first interview I’ve heard with him - on the GNU / Linux User podcast. You can download the MP3 or OGG using the appropriate links.
In this interview (just over an hour) he gives a good summary of what the Free Software Foundation is all about, and what they mean by the term “free (as in freedom) software”. Also included are his opinions on why people should call the Linux OS’s “GNU/Linux”, some thoughts on the concept of “intellectual property” (and how that term is commonly misapplied in the context of copyrights and patents), and even several comments about the Bush administration.
All in all, it’s a very informative interview. The guy is a bit of a jerk at times, and I think he takes himself and his position on some things (like the naming thing) a little too seriously, but it’s still good info nonetheless. I actually agree with a lot of his views, both technology related and otherwise, but I hope I don’t come off quite as arrogant in conversation about it.