CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-04-23 17:15:17 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Today in the U.K. a fierce St. George faces off against a fearsome dragon in a doodle inspired by illuminated manuscript.

2012-05-08 15:01:36 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

One of my favorite trees on the mountain (Saddleback Mtn.), has been suffering a bit of late due to the drought conditions in the Sierras. Still glad that it's producing at least a few cones most years. You can see on the trunk a straddling wire that held an insulator where a old telephone wire was attached. At the time (30's,40's,50's), that was the only communication to the fire lookout on top....pre-radio years. I considered trying to remove it, but I suspect that would do more harm than good. I'm hoping the bark will completely encase the wire and allow the necessary growth around it, allowing it live long past my time. The oldest dead Jeffrey Pine found to date had 813 rings.
_______________
For #treetuesday curated my +Christina Lawrie & +Shannon S. Myers .
#plusphotoextract by +Jarek Klimek

2012-05-08 15:00:56 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

#treetuesday I'd like to thank Olivier Du Tré for inspiring me to make the kinds of images that speak to me. I'm still finding my "voice" but I find that the high-contrast B&W images are what speak to me the most.

2012-05-08 15:00:20 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

In the lead essay for the "Cato Unbound" symposium this month, TechFreedom's +Berin Szoka analyzes recent political movements that have been aided by Internet-based communication.

2012-04-16 13:30:35 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

2012-04-10 20:02:03 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

My first piece in Wired! Jim Dunstan and I explain why the Outer Space Treaty precludes land grants (like those given to the railroads) but not rights in satellites, moon bases, and extracted resources, or mining claims and salvage rights.

2012-01-17 21:36:06 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Great public awareness campaign about privacy & security online

2012-01-12 22:19:01 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Great write-up of this issue. My favorite part: "faith in the 'free market' is running low in parts of the tech industry. That's a really, really sad thing given that the technology industry has thrived in large part because of its ability to move faster than politicians who believe the internet is a series of tubes."

2012-01-11 23:12:07 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Check out our joint brief with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy & Technology, Public Knowledge & Cato. The Supreme Court has said: “Technology expands the capacity to choose; and it denies the potential of this revolution if we assume the Government is best positioned to make these choices for us.” Since 1978, we've been empowered to choose media appropriate for values and our children. So we're asking them to overrule their 1978 "Pacifica" decision to end FCC indecency censorship of broadcast television once and for all!

2011-12-30 19:27:05 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Beautiful use of Google Maps Street View in a short art film.

2011-12-20 01:27:46 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

Today, AT&T announced they had abandoned their planned acquisition of T-Mobile after the DOJ sued to block the deal and the FCC published a sharply critical report. The following statement can be attributed to TechFreedom Fellows Larry Downes, Geoffrey Manne and Berin Szoka:

"Nearly two years ago, the Obama FCC declared a spectrum crisis. But Congress has refused to authorize the agency to reallocate underused spectrum from television broadcasters and government agencies—which would take years anyway.

"The AT&T/T-Mobile merger would have eased this crisis and accelerated the deployment of next-generation 4G networks. Yet the government killed the deal based on formalistic and outdated measures of market concentration—even though the FCC's own data show dynamic competition, falling prices, and new entry. The disconnect is jarring.

"Thosecel... more »

2011-12-20 01:21:26 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

From Jeff Jarvis, channeling the FTC of Christmas future:
“Mr. Claus has flagrantly violated children’s privacy, collecting their consumer preferences for toys and also tracking their behavior so as to judge and maintain a data base of naughtiness and niceness,” Leibowitz said. “Worse, he has tied this data to personally identifiable information, including any child’s name, address, and age. He has solicited this information online, in some cases passing data to third parties so they may fulfill children’s wishes. According to unconfirmed reports, he has gone so far as to invade children’s homes in the dead of night. He has done this on a broad scale, unchallenged by government authorities for too long.”

Which reminds me of this Washington Post piece about the overreach of the Congress of Christmas past and the FTC of Christmas present (thanks for COPPA, y'all!):http://www.wa... more »

2011-12-08 18:42:12 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 2 +1s)

Making photo tagging easier with Find My Face

#googleplusupdate

Hi, I’m +Matt Steiner, Engineering Lead on the Google+ Photos team.

Around the holidays, many of us get together with friends and family, and if you’re like me, you take lots of photos! Tagging those photos can be a lot of work. So today we’re launching Find My Face, an easier way to tag photos of yourself and your friends.

By turning on Find My Face, Google+ can prompt people you know to tag your face when it appears in photos. Of course, you have control over which tags you accept or reject, and you can turn the feature on or off in Google+ settings. (https://plus.google.com/settings/plus)

Find My Face will be rolling out over the next few days. We hope this makes tagging your photos much easier, so try it out! And as always, keep the feedbackcomin... more »

2011-11-17 04:24:07 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

LOVE this place!

2011-11-09 16:03:55 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

TechFreedom is now on Google+. Follow us!

2011-11-02 03:11:48 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 2 +1s)

"the pessimists [insist] population growth makes us all worse off. The late economist Julian Simon devoted his life to challenging that notion. ‘Adding more people causes problems,’ he acknowledged, ‘but people are also the means to solve these problems….’ Simon would have celebrated the arrival of our 7 billionth neighbor. More people means more minds—more innovators and entrepreneurs working to improve the human condition…. [But] neither minds nor markets can flourish without freedom to experiment with new ideas, technologies and business models."

— My op/ed in Salon.com, Welcoming the 7 billionth neighbor: Why we should celebrate, not worry about, the planet’s growing population, on Julian Simon’s pragmatic optimism, best explained in his 1981 book, The Ultimate Resource II and its connection to Adam Smith’s thought.

2011-10-16 20:13:45 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

8 Principles of Open Government Data - OpenGovData.org
http://www.opengovdata.org/home/8principles

2011-10-11 15:10:23 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

While policymakers rush write new Net regulations to protect privacy, we keep suggesting the FTC use its existing authority more effectively to punish unfair and deceptive trade practices. The FTC has just sued FrostWire for designing their peer-to-peer software to trick users into oversharing....

So if the FTC already has the authority to punish such unfair software design, why does it need sweeping new powers, again? Maybe policymakers should focus on ensuring the agency has the eforcement resources it needs to punish such unfair practices. That might start, for instance, with hiring more technologists to monitor such practices.

But one thing's clear: This case will set a strong precedent to encourage companies to think about "privacy by design" much more effectively than a government mandate that they design their sites in certain ways. That's the common law of... more »

2011-10-10 02:25:15 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

"For Cavafy, art has the power to complete what is incomplete in life: brief glimpses and furtive (sometimes unconsummated) encounters are transformed through poetry into timeless, transcendent experiences…

In Cavafy’s view, then, art is not an abstract concept, but an activity, a vital creative force. Art doesn’t represent reality, or imitate life, or copy nature; instead, it imposes its will upon the art-object, removing it from the contingencies that dominate the natural and social worlds. Poems and other works of art, enshrining ideal beauty, correct the deficiencies of nature and society."

— From C.P. Cavafy, The Collected Poems (eds. Anthony Hirst & Peter Mackridge), Kindle Locations 273-274. More about Cavafy (1863-1933).

2011-10-10 02:24:25 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

"it is already far too late to prevent the invasion of cameras and databases. The genie cannot be crammed back into its bottle. No matter how many laws are passed, it will prove quite impossible to legislate away the new surveillance tools and databases. They are here to stay. Light is going to shine into nearly every corner of our lives. The real issue facing citizens of a new century will be how mature adults choose to live—how they can compete, cooperate, and thrive—in such a world. A transparent society."

— David Brin, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us To Choose Between Privacy And Freedom? (1999) at 9

2011-10-04 20:13:49 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 0 +1s)

I warn against the dangers of warrantless searches for copyright infringement:

As someone really sympathizes with the artists whose livelihoods are destroyed by wholesale copying of optical discs, I also fear this draconian action will cost copyright holders the moral high ground in the piracy debate. Among the strongest points generally made by what EFF and other copyright skeptics derisively (and unhelpfully) refer to as "Big Media" is that blatant copyright infringement undermines respect for the rule of law. They're exactly right. But no one will take that argument seriously unless copyright holders themselves obey the law—the highest law of the land—the Constitution.

2011-09-29 20:23:32 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

My comment: "What this really reveals is that (EPIC and its allies) just don't understand why people want to share information. There are lots of users who want to broadcast what movies they're watching, what music they're listening to, or what articles they're reading. Once again they're presuming to dictate what's appropriate for everyone else."

2011-09-28 18:11:01 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 0 +1s)

UPDATED

What a crappy and arguably hypocritical (see below for context) move by the Wall Street Journal, which has been running an occasionally overwrought but still extremely useful series of articles in recent months re online privacy. The WSJ is changing its own privacy policy in a way that mocks everything it's been complaining about -- giving itself the right "to connect personally identifiable information with Web browsing data without user consent."

More insulting, the Journal couches this shift in marketing-speak, such as the notion that it's merely "streamlining" its approach. Yeah, right, as long as streamlining means betraying.

Remember: I and other Journal readers are paying real money to use that site. We are not getting something for free in return for handing over some personal information. The Journal is just greedy.... more »

2011-09-07 13:55:47 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 2 +1s)

The Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing today re updating the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act http://j.mp/oY8Vb2

Check out our Left-Right coalition letter explaining the need to fix the statute's criminalization of violations of websites' terms of service. This is over-criminalization of the worst sort, and could allow prosecution of everyday Internet users. Our letter is signed by TechFreedom, CDT, EFF, CEI, FreedomWorks, ATR's DigitalLiberty.net, ACLU, Prof. Orin Kerr., Prof. Charlie Kennedy and the Heritage Foundation's Paul Rosenzweig.

2011-09-06 14:37:41 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

2011-09-05 23:00:16 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan which moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

"Thanatopsis," William Cullen Bryant. 1794–1878

2011-09-05 02:35:29 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Beautiful flower at Ventura Beach, CA yesterday...

2011-09-04 19:08:44 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

"Praise the God of all, drink the wine, and let the world be the world."
— French Proverb

2011-09-04 18:21:35 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

I'm selling a like-new 32" 720p LCD HDTV Samsung for $300. Let me know if you're interested!

2011-09-04 14:07:42 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 1 +1s)

More for +Jeff Jarvis to consider for his SXSW talk.

2011-09-01 15:08:08 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Finally, Google rolls out a +1 button as a Chrome extension. Works great!

2011-09-01 13:59:53 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Obama, for all his sanctimonious rhetoric about moving beyond partisanship, demonstrates he's just another Mean Girl. It's as if the school's Alpha Female threw a hissy fit and scheduled her own party at the last minute to make sure no one went to the birthday party of a slightly awkward, much less pretty rival. How embarrassing—and un-Presidential.

2011-08-30 14:08:35 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

2011-08-29 21:44:42 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Architecture in Space

Hallways and touchpads. And pipes. Lots of pipes.

In Praise of the Sci Fi Corridor - http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/313130/in_praise_of_the_scifi_corridor.html

Space Trek - moments of quiet despair on the Spaceship Enterprise
http://spacetrek.tumblr.com/

2011-08-29 21:33:21 (4 comments, 5 reshares, 3 +1s)

Privacy advocates are attacking Google again, this time for requiring that field-testers of its new, invite-only Google+ social network use “the names they commonly go by in the real world.”.... Ultimately, users are best served by competing services continually innovating to find the right balance of competing interests. Google+ and Facebook’s answer to privacy-sensitive users is right, however harsh it sounds: “This isn’t the right social network for your particular needs.” Twitter is just one of many platforms available for those who feel they need online pseudonyms."

2011-08-29 20:10:12 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

2011-08-29 19:31:47 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

#KingMemorial: Clarence Page is right: new memorials always hated http://j.mp/nOe6Dl But does it have to look SO Maoist? http://j.mp/nYdlfs

2011-08-29 18:41:31 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Any recommendations on good tools for keeping track of wines one has tasted, really likes & wants to try again? Ideally, such a tool would integrate with a wine shopping comparative search.

2011-08-29 18:34:53 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

2011-08-29 19:02:50 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

2011-08-28 21:11:10 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 1 +1s)

2011-08-28 14:32:42 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

I've started cross-posting updates simultaneously on Facebook & Google+. The 420-character limit on Facebook is really starting to piss me off.

2011-08-28 14:30:21 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

"[W]hen men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct, that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas, that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out. That at any rate is the theory of our Constitution. It is an experiment, as all life is an experiment."

- Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes; Abrams v. United States; In dissent; 250 U.S. 616; 630; 1919.

2011-08-27 23:17:39 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

2011-08-27 23:00:02 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

This is pretty fantastic

2011-08-27 02:11:47 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Obama the Loser.

2011-08-12 20:42:35 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

My foreign policy is Edmund Burke's: "Among precautions against ambition, it may not be amiss to take precautions against our own. I must fairly say, I dread our own power and our own ambition: *I dread our being too much dreaded.* We may say that we shall not abuse this astonishing and hitherto unheard of power. But every other nation will think we shall abuse it. It is impossible but that, sooner or later, this state of things must produce a combination against us which may end in our ruin."

2011-07-06 01:21:58 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Kevin Lees at Tyler Cowen's book signing for The Great Stagnation