How to make quotes more deep and meaningful

Use Googles translation services to translate the sentence into German, which you then translate into french, which you then translate back into english. Thus:

A stitch in time saves nine becomes
A fixing in time stores nine

Look before you leap! becomes
Look at, before you do not jump!

...and David Weinberger's pithy quote
"We get to kick in the teeth the idealized and constricted set of behaviors known as professionalism" becomes

We receive to take a step the teeth in the idealised and narrowed sentence behaviour which as professionalism is known

which sounds quite profound.

Must. stop. doing. this. in. public.

What makes the web real

David Weinberger has been giving lectures at MIT in Boston on the reality of the web. This post inspired me to respond in the comments section, which I've repeated here for the reader.

Perhaps what is real is also what we are familiar with. When we discover something new and amazing, we have the expression "unreal!" (perhaps followed by "man!" if you are old enough). Does anyone think a bank account is not real anymore - or money is not real, for that matter?

These certainly fail the reality test as described by David. We end up with bits of paper and coins and cards and passbooks to provide a physical connection to money and accounts, which helps make them real - that is, helps make it possible to become familiar with them. On the Web, the physical connection might be the computer screen and keyboard, which will help to make it real (at least if we are already comfortable with using a computer). But David is saying that the "Web's reality has to do with connection, meaning and passion"; but I think only after we feel more familiar with it, and start to realise that there is are "real people" on the other end of those connections - which is something we are familiar with.

Well, something like that anyway.

Preserving Languages, the Semantic Web and DRM

There is a project called the Open Language Archives Community (OLAC) whose aim is to create " a worldwide virtual library of language resources by: (i) developing consensus on best current practice for the digital archiving of language resources, and (ii) developing a network of interoperating repositories and services for housing and accessing such resources. ".

Basically, they want to keep a record of all the fast disappearing human languages on the planet. There are links to various articles about it here. They recognise there are many informal records and comments, and see the need to create a more structured approach - hence the use of XML.

One of the issues in making such information freely available on the web is that for some information, the culture concerned has rules about who should know certain things - eg, in Australian Aboriginal cultures, many have "secret men's business" and similarly "secret women's business". That is, not everyone is supposed to see or know the stuff (some words, some practices, presumably).

In an interview I heard on ABC Radio National this morning, with one of the key people in this intiative, Steven Bird, he noted that they are looking at using Digital Rights Management software to ensure only the right people can see the sensitive material in question.

This is an interesting idea - a non-commercial use of DRM - although I am not sure how this would work in practice. I presume I could still somehow pretend to be a woman and attempt to view the secret women's material?

This whole project embodies the issue of keeping the web free and open, yet balancing that with the need for restricting access in some cases, and keeping some of the advantages of a centralised database, by using distributed, but well structured data.

Safari Browser

The new browser from Apple, Safari (Beta 1.0) is definitely the fastest I've tried, which is nice. I like the way bookmarks are handled. The snapback feature is convenient. Some sites don't work quite as expected, but nothing too serious. My Internet Banking site works, but the Bank detects the browser as an old mac version of some old browser and loads an old version of the java applet used by the bank as a client, which is a pity. (IE5.2 for OSX completely wrecked the banking app, so I can't even use any version of it, whereas IE5.1 under OS9 works well!) As usual for the Mac platform, the javascript errors prevent many menu drop-down menu implementations from working. It would be a good idea to put it through all the CSS tests - no doubt various people are doing that and feeding results back to Apple.

It does look good too - with the brushed metal style. Looking forward to the final release.

New: I note that Doc Searls likes it but has a few issues. Some of which he now retracts!

Welcome to Charlotte

Charlotte Kathryn Meekings is my newest niece, born 10th January 2003. Congratulations and warmest wishes to Kathryn and Garnet.

You can view her pics here

Put your best foot forward here

This is a wonderful site - The History of Footware - where Cameron Crippen, of Curtin University has put together what he calls his ebook, documenting the history of all manner of footware down through the ages. It covers absolutely everything from celtic shoes to fetish. This is what journalist and radio presenter Philip Adams had to say here about the book.

Will the Internet be a casualty of the "War on Terror"

An interesting comment from the Common Dreams site.

Get what you need to be a villain here

This link was provided by one of the contributors to the Moles philosphical discussion group (a list server) that I subscribe to: Villain Supply. It has everything you could possibly need to be a fully professional villian, evil-doer, dictator, meglomaniac etc. Get your orders in early!

Land of the Free

David Weinberger put this link in his blog: here

It reminds me of when my father returned to Romania in the 70s, the place of his birth, and found all kinds of helpful citzens tracking, watching, spying on him. Bush's USA will be the equal of the old communist states if this sort of behaviour increases and is rewarded. And we are happily emulating the same thing down under.

First web log for the new year

Well we've just seen in the new year. As usual, there was a magnificent fireworks display in Sydney Habour, centering around the Harbour Bridge. This year the animation in lights after the fireworks was a peace dove, carring its olive branch, followed by the words "PEACE".

We can only hope so. I don't know whether to take this as a statement of hope, or a pathetic example of new-speak - since I am sure that the son-of-a-Bush (followed eagerly by Prime Minister Howard) will invade Iraq sometime in February. This will probably lead to a "victory", just like in Afghanistan, but will likely herald a year of escalating terrorism around the world like we've never seen. As long as we keep trying to solve these problems by treating the results instead of the causes, I can't see any other outcome. I truly hope I have got it completely wrong.