To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.
- Oscar Wilde
Digital technology has done beautiful things for us news consumers. Flip open your screen, and a raft of fresh headlines is always there waiting. The Net has taken that ancient saw of newspaper culture, "The Daily Miracle," and made it literal. The new world of news is miraculous, not just daily but all the time. Computers fly our airliners and run most of the world's banking, communications, retail and manufacturing systems. Now powerful analysis tools will at last help software engineers ensure the reliability of their designs. Dependable Software by Design
The Blog, The Press, The Media: Making Media Marks
Australia's largest and most important broadcasting organisation has recruited a new managing director who has never worked in broadcasting and has never managed an organisation. The ABC board's appointment is as bizarre as BHP appointing a managing director who had never managed an organisation or worked in resources, or Telstra appointing a managing director who had never managed an organisation or worked in telecommunications.
But not to worry ... Mark Scott is bright, articulate and experienced in public organisational theory and reducing the headcount. But by what criteria did a board responsible for the management of a large and complex broadcasting corporation appoint to its top job a non-broadcaster with no experience in running an organisation?
• We wish Mark Scott well. He'll need it. And so will the ABC. [New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr.'s graduation address at SUNY New Paltz The truth is I even skipped my own graduation ; An interview with Michael Kinsley on journalism in the digital age Intellectual bartender ; A free press is wasted on us -- it is needed most where corruption is rampant Need to know basis]
• · I invented the portable hole for the good of humanity The high price of early adopting; A useless but interesting fact White heat ; While print publications have always had a code suggesting which stories are most important, in the online domain it's up to reader to decide Sweet Hierarchy
• · · Google Maps adds Australian street directory ; One of world's largest online retailers, Amazon.com, might yet live to rue the day it took an order from New Zealand actor Peter Calveley Kiwi actor v Amazon.com ; Google Australia and Yahoo! have publicly admitted that "click fraud" has arrived in Australia - but they refuse to say how prevalent it is Click fraud hits home
• · · · For political junkies in need of a fix, ColoradoPols.com is a spike to the vein. The site is a popular online rendezvous spot where folks interested in dishing about campaigns can mingle with insiders whose candor is enhanced by anonymity. Blog Bog: Should journalists lose their naming rights online? ; It is absurd to calculate human rights according to a cost-benefit analysis: Ronald Dworkin on why politicians are pandering to an irresponsible media when they invoke the balance between liberty and security People accused of crimes or terrorism may have rights
• · · · · Despite its world-saving image, open source software has not made much real revolution. But there is hope in new software "for human beings" Open source ubuntu ; Who is the most influential commentator in China? Or the most powerful voice in Iran? Or Britain? FT foreign correspondents give their picks Australia - Alan Jones
• · · · · · The Atlantic Monthly, most of management theory is inane. If you want to succeed in business, don’t get an MBA--study philosophy instead Out of the box; The Simpsons is more than a funny cartoon, it reveals truths about human nature that rival the observations of great philosophers from Plato to Kant... while Homer sets his house on fire. The Simpsons as philosophy ; Six things made the west great but now civilisation is 'drifting' towards suicide --There are two books entitled Suicide of the West. In 42 years, I'll prove that's wrong