I was really sad when I heard about Steve's death. I didn't know him well, but when I first got involved in online communities in 92-93 he was already very influential, and he, Rheingold, and Doug Schuler were all people who became kind of mentors to a whole generation of online community leaders and participants.

His loss is particularly poignant in that it seems that very few leaders of the newer/web2 style communities (save for people like Heather Champ and of course... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 5:28 PM on May 29, 2008

The government is making laws that line up with how the citizens, by and large, approach the issue.

Not so fast. To date, the combination of law, practice, law enforcement priorities, and judicial decision has worked pretty well to keep things in line with what real people do and want to do... but that doesn't mean the current government wants to keep it that way.

In fact there are several issues in the hopper right now that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 12:45 PM on May 7, 2008

I'm sure there are many here who know more about their relationship than I do, but they certainly know each other at least a little bit - likely much more. They're both from the same 'hood and some of Arcade Fire's first shows were in clubs owned by GSYBE alums.
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 5:19 PM on February 12, 2008

I think that there's been a lot of mis-reading of the article.

It isn't about WWIII in the abstract - the article is about a recent change in US Exec office language about ongoing conflicts, which is coincident with a lot of nuclear-weapons-related "slips" and such. His suggestion is that the development of these two trends aren't simply coincidence, and what might that mean. There's a lot of instability out there - which the author describes at length - but... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 4:28 PM on December 1, 2007

I'm going to install it on my Win machine at work, but I don't think regular internet browser users are the target market for this - the real target is iPhone developers. Safari is the iPhone API, and by putting Safari on Windows, Apple just made sure that everyone who wants to develop for the iPhone has a full dev environment.

Everything else is gravy, I suspect.
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 12:37 PM on June 11, 2007

I can't imagine that there's anywhere that I could use the Foleo where I couldn't equally easily and conveniently open up my laptop. I really can't imagine paying more for the data plan that would make this in any way reasonable.
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 4:10 PM on May 30, 2007

I think that at least for now, entirely new lines have been drawn in Quebec politics. Voters seem to have said, "we certainly don't want any kiss-ass federalists like Charest, but that doesn't mean we need to separate. We just need solid lines drawn between us and Ottawa and an aggressive posture towards the feds. And, by the way, the first preoccupation of all policy must be mainstream Quebeckers - quit with all the heavy-duty social liberal stuff. We want our daycare, but mostly we want... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 8:01 AM on March 27, 2007

bonehead, I think the opposite has happened - the results last night are a rejection of the distance that the PQ has tried to put between it and Parizeau since 1995. They've always tried to finesse the point, but I think the big reason the PQ was rejected is that they are too identified with Montreal (though ironically they don't elect that many people in the city). Montreal is really the only place in Quebec where civic, not ethnic, nationalism is really relevant or important.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 10:09 AM on March 27, 2007

The idea that a global or multinational company that has its nominal headquarters in the US is in some way an "American company" that will act as if it owes special allegiance to the US is laughable. Global companies are just that - global, and they do what they need to do in every jurisdiction that they operate. Not for the benefit of or to further American policy or interests, but to achieve corporate goals.

Companies operating in the US - wherever they are... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 3:21 PM on March 12, 2007

This is going to be a tough product to bring to Canada, because data plans are so freaking expensive here, and there's no end in sight to that. This thing without a full data plan looks pretty limited at that price, but if the data plan is $60 or $100 a month (what it costs on Rogers for 25Mb or 200Mb plans), it pretty much takes this phone off the market.

But if they can do some kind of deal with Rogers, I think it would be them for sure.
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 11:07 AM on January 9, 2007

I think the party has underestimated how much Dion is hated in Quebec. More than Trudeau or Chretien ever were. At least they were doing their part from a position of power - Dion was just the hired pen brought in to obfuscate everything against them. Even Federalist Quebecers seem to hate him.

That said, he's not actually dangerous for Canada, and I think Ignatieff was deeply dangerous. What's the saying? A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Docgonzo and I (and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 8:54 PM on December 2, 2006

jb, I have deep issues with sovereigntists, but you're totally wrong to call say that racism is a legitimate political movement. It's that kind of ignorance on both sides that will sink Canada in the end.

In fact Quebec is the destination for many many Haitian and Algerian immigrants, and they have taken their place in society quite well, including in the famous Quebec star system and the more literary cultural world, among other segments of society.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 8:13 AM on December 4, 2006

Waterloo has never placed first overall in Canada - it has only placed first overall among non-law-school/non-Med-School Universities. McGill and UofT have always been at the top of that (higher tier) list.

Waterloo is probably the most interesting university in Canada and has been for some time, and David Johnston taking the top job there is a huge validation of its importance (he was principle of McGill for almost 20 years), but there is a distinction between... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 8:50 AM on October 19, 2006

The comments here are ridiculous. No Canadian or provincial governments have EVER acted in anything even resembling good faith where the Indians are concerned in Canadian territory, and for a people like the Mohawks and other Iroquois who have been in close contact for over 400 years, this is painfully obvious and must be addressed before any progress can be made. The US, by the way, has a much better (though not stellar) record in this regard - in the US they actually respect, nominally, the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 6:42 AM on April 22, 2006

I posted about this story on my blog in 2001 using a different link than the ones I've seen here.
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 1:00 PM on April 17, 2006

I like Rae and think he's among the smartest people that could be considered, but I don't know if memories are short enough for him to be a viable candidate.

the problem with the Liberal party - or ONE of the problems - at the moment is that they seem really in the thrall of the back-room teams. There are cliques of organizers and bagmen who should probably have been thoroughly discredited in the Martin era but who are still kicking around.

I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 6:13 AM on March 31, 2006

Maybe they should just for a minute consider the demand side of the low-wage-employment stuff before doing even more to take out frustrations on the supply side. When a few agribusiness owners and hotel managers go to jail for chronic illegal alien employment I'll start to take the rest of it seriously. Short of that it's all posturing and scapegoating.
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 8:16 PM on February 26, 2006

Tess isn't bitter, she's actually quite nice and a very good writer.
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 8:54 PM on February 14, 2006

I checked a house that I know is being sold right now and the estimate (this is on the East coast) was at least 25% too high. The other information seemed OK, but as someone said I think it might not work as well in mixed markets.
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 7:54 AM on February 10, 2006

Yeah - awesome find, both the link to post here and the content of the link itself! BTW as the beaches were divided by invading force, I believe this particular gun placement would have only been useful for fooling/killing US soldiers - Canadians were over on Juno.
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 10:14 AM on February 7, 2006

Interesting cabinet. Funny that Stockwell Day is still in such a junior post. I think there's good potential for this cabinet to hold off any Western triumphalism, and I really like the age range represented with 3 Ministers in their 30s.
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 12:23 PM on February 6, 2006

I think Emerson's crossing is MUCH worse than Stronach's. Say what you will about her supposedly power-hungry motives, she at least had the opportunity to make her decision based on something other than a $70k raise and a cushy cabinet post before you go back to make your millions (more) in the private sector. Even if you don't believe her reasons, she at least could pay lip service to some idea behind it.

From what I heard on the CBC tonight the locals are furious, BTW,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 8:12 PM on February 6, 2006

squeak: at a $250 a plate dinner? Rubber chicken. Expensive rubber chicken.
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 5:01 AM on February 7, 2006

I think it's a mistake to assume that this spying stuff is mostly about finding information to protect the US. Rather, I think that's the pretense they're using to pursue their true aim - which is simply to carve out additional executive privilege for its own purposes. IOW they're not doing this to catch terrorists, they're doing it to restore executive privilege, period.
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 11:47 AM on February 6, 2006

I think we have to compare apples with apples. This has nothing whatsoever to do with a comparison between "Christian" parts of the world and Islamic parts of the world. In fact the last time major sections of the world were both formally and practically Christian - things were far worse for people who stepped out of line that they are now in the Islamic world.

What delivered "The West" from that barbarism was the ascent of secularism in the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 7:17 PM on February 5, 2006

If you take away the actual burning of the embassies, what's the difference between the cartoons and the demonstrations and flag-burnings. Calling for another's death in the context of a demonstration (where no real threat is posed) is free speech too, no? Isn't that what's meant by "the only antidote to speech you dislike is more speech?"

The double standards in here are amazing. If you support the right of the Danish newspaper to publish inflammatory comics -... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 11:21 AM on February 5, 2006

This can't be taken seriously if he left off "Jack my dog" from The Weight. Just cause there's no photo doesn't mean he's not important in pup culture.

;->
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 10:18 AM on February 4, 2006

Hey where's Dagget from Battlestar Galactica? Wiki wiki wiki.
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 3:48 PM on February 4, 2006

I'm with Pryde - the only real solution is both lid and seat down except when engaged in a specific operation. And in any kind of argument about this issue - good-humoured or not - it's the nuclear option, there can be no real discussion after that.
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 2:22 PM on February 4, 2006

You can't forget Doug Henning, one of Lynch's predecessors in this area. He was also married to Barbara DeAngelis, who was later married to John Gray, another prominent adherent of TM and yogic flying. The connections are strange among talented people who have altogether too much time on their hands.
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 6:13 AM on February 4, 2006

Chuckles is bang on here - the Liberal party has actually done reasonably well considering polling last week. But Martin's cronies have been hammered except for Lapierre, but Outremont is one of the safest seats in the country.

The biggest story of all might be the breakthrough for the Conservatives in Quebec. I had heard through the grapevine here in Ottawa that the party was hoping in private for 8-10 seats, but in public they said that they thought the polls were... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 9:10 PM on January 23, 2006

Loquax, I think the place to look for movement is not on the right-left spectrum but on the centralist/provinces spectrum. It remains to be seen if the Conservatives will be yet another strong-center federalist party as the Liberals have been of course but even Mulroney was. As the party changed names and moderated some positions, have they become a strong-center/strong-Ottawa party too? If not, how far will they go?

The Liberals can't do much in that area - they... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 9:14 PM on January 23, 2006

The geniuses who brought us Paul Martin have been soundly discredited for some time. If it is THEM who want McKenna, well he's still got a decent shot but he has less of a shot than if he were to get his own gang together independent of both Chretien and Martin loyalists. I think that's one of the things he's done well, actually, is recognizing that he should stay very clear of the Liberal party in the past few years, at least in public.

I don't think Ignatieff or... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 6:36 AM on January 24, 2006

IOW I think the upcoming Liberal battle will only be useful to the party if it allows them to get out of the Trudeau/Turner dichotomy, which they have been in all this time. Martin was simply a variation on a theme. They have to break the mold altogether.
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 6:38 AM on January 24, 2006

I'm not suggesting that Copps is so smart, just that her family has controlled Hamilton for several generations and that it's important that the Liberals can use those kinds of power levers as they have for most of their history.
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 7:00 AM on January 24, 2006

They tried to finesse the Ontario/Quebec Franco/Anglo thing with Martin forever. His dad always represented a riding in Windsor, and he grew up pretty much an anglo but when he went to work it was in Montreal where the Desmarais family took him under their wing in the Power Corp.

No matter how you slice it, Martin screwed up the tradition.

And he was no more than marginally competent as the leader.

(my sources tell me... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 9:20 PM on January 24, 2006

I think Western companies are rolling over too easily on this.

But I also think that Google has the right to do business and should pursue that, and much as I dislike it, I think China has the right to impose it's policies. In the case of Germany, I actually agree with their policies.

the thing is the governments always try and offload the cost and implementation of their laws on the foreign companies. I think that a company who wishes to do... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 9:02 PM on January 24, 2006

The ideal is to have everyone vote on an equivalent set of information across the country. I think it's a valid goal to try to achieve, but whether or not it might be a defensible idea (I think not), I don't think it's practical to even consider banning the publication of results at this point.

So I think that staggering the poll closing times is an important addition to the way elections are run in Canada, and I would go further and prevent any votes from being counted... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 11:44 AM on January 23, 2006

ROU, by your reckoning they should count and publicize the results from each box at each polling place as they go, no? So that everyone will know how things are going so far and make their judgement based on that?

If not, what's the difference between that and what you are suggesting?
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 11:56 AM on January 23, 2006

Right - I don't think the overnight hold is a good idea, but between staggering the poll closing time and then ensuring that the information is released at the same time across the country (the poll closing stagger will make up for most of the difference) would accomplish fairness without the silly media bans and blackouts, which are unsustainable.
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 12:58 PM on January 23, 2006

I thought Kobe paid her off, simple as that.

So in answer to the question:

No.
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 8:41 AM on January 23, 2006

Any kind of PR system in Canada would have to do a few things:

1. Not reduce the relative political importance of Quebec.
2. Not give PEI a single additional seat - in fact, reducing representation would be fair.
3. Be administered on a province-by-province basis, which is problematic because any redistribution would not simply a federal issue but a provincial issue to be negotiated.
4. Retain the local-representation character of the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 9:22 PM on January 21, 2006

Does it have lasers attached to its head? A razor-sharp fin?

Could be a secret military conspiracy.
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 6:44 AM on January 20, 2006

No one has ever made the case that it's too onerous for companies that wish to republish articles in their entirety to simply ask permission before doing so. Figuring out the permission problem - which is as much a matter of courtesy as it is of copyright - should be as prominent an issue in the business model as any technical or promotion or cashflow issues.

So - why NOT simply ask?

I don't think "because it's hard" is a reasonable answer.
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 10:10 AM on January 19, 2006

Delmoi, the use of the term syndication is more of a metaphor for something that was recognizable than a definition of what was acceptible or not.

So it's your opinion that this is the point of offering RSS feeds, but do you have any evidence to support this?

What if I only offer Atom feeds, which are not described as "Syndication" anywhere and are not just about that? Same thing?

I provide... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 10:49 AM on January 19, 2006

They publish whatever is in the feed, full or excerpt.

Let me clarify that I don't think it's necessarily true that there is a copyright problem, just that there might be and it's worthwhile to consider the issue completely.

As well, I think in a commercial context there is a responsibility beyond the legalities. Common courtesy dictates giving people a heads-up before sucking up their material and getting permission. What's the point in even... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 10:56 AM on January 19, 2006

I wonder if Top Ten Sources reprints ads that appear in feeds? If they strip them out, I think that would be a problem. If they choose not to include such feeds, their premise ("the best ten sources on a subject") is clearly untrue and the whole product loses credibility.
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 11:37 AM on January 19, 2006

So you're suggesting that there should be no more copyright of any kind for anyone in any medium? Because just as I can copy and paste from a website I can also transcribe or scan and OCR a book.

Sorry nixerman but that doesn't really have much to do with the issue at hand.
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 12:50 PM on January 19, 2006

Yeah, you're right that that is what they were developed for, among other things, but I think that practice and common usage have led to people having different expectations. That's why I think it's not precisely a copyright issue necessarily, but an issue of keeping the people who provide the information that you publish as happy as possible.

I also question whether Top Ten Sources would happily allow you and I to put up a site and simply re-publish the feeds they... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 5:13 PM on January 19, 2006

The amazing thing about this is that the Conservatives really SHOULD have wrapped this whole thing up months ago.

It was a tough thing they tried to do. The Reform and its following incarnations seriously skeeved out anyone east of Brandon, while the Progressive Conservatives were widely considered as no more ethical or "clean" than the sitting Liberals. Nevertheless, they put them together and it started to work - they elected some members in Ontario, they got... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikel at 9:49 PM on November 23, 2005