- John Walker’s The Digital Imprimatur describes how the internet could well become less free over time. It’s a long read, but he’s a pretty smart guy (wrote AutoCAD for one). He discusses trends that have already happened, such as the Internet no longer being a true peer-to-peer network, but rather two nets, one of content producers who have servers and customers who sit behind firewalls and just suck in the content; digital certificates, which as currently implemented, can only be bought (because of the expense) by corporations; trusted computing, in which you’ll have to trust that you’re not getting screwed by the people who make your computer’s operating system; digital rights management, where you may need to get a certificate in order to publish anything on the internet; and the way access could change as we move to ipv6. It’s not an optimistic document, and I think he’s wrong in general, but I can’t point to any specific place where he goes wrong. Frustratingly pessimistic. [chaz]
- My friend Scott read my comments on wednesday about underage drinking and suggested the following:
Those fines would have made it a pretty expensive night last night for the people whooping it up last night in one of the houses on my block.I think they should have a $13 fine for underage drinking, a $130 fine for public underage drinking, and a $1300 fine for underage drinking and inconsiderate behavior in a public place … and perhaps a $13000 fine if you do it where I have to listen to your sorry shit.
- Wow. Layne made Maclean’s in an article entitled the intimacy of blogs. Layne’s response to the article is online, too.
- Layout-o-matic will build two and three-column layouts for you that will work across browsers. Just don’t try and use a percentage if you’re surfing via Safari. It won’t work. Update: Kevin has fixed the bug and it should be good to go with Safari. I got the email from him at 11pm. Not sure when he put in the fix. [zeldman]
- Style Master’s a Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) Editor. I’m playing with the 30-day demo, but it might be worth buying. I think between this and layout-o-matic, I might have the incentive I need to spend some time cleaning up the style sheets I use here. [zeldman]
- Telemarketing group advises members to abide by do-not-call list. Doesn’t seem all that strange. The list is a collection of people who don’t want to be called. Calling them, especially while the status of the list is in limbo, is unlikely to make many sales. [strib]