danah won't like that title, but to get an FT profile/article this long is pretty cool.
FT.com / Arts & Weekend - The high priestess of internet friendship
October 2006 Archives
This is awesome.
By now you may have heard that the makers of the two leading web browsers launched their latest totally free editions, Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 and Mozilla's Firefox 2, within a week of each other. Feature-wise, most news reports have already declared a winner: the long-awaited IE7 may be a vast improvement over its predecessors, but the new Firefox leaves it in the dust.
Of course Mozilla needs more than just better reviews than IE over the long haul, but it is quite a testament to the fact that a small team backed by a global volunteer open-source community can build a better product than Redmond.
Mark Shuttleworth, founder of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, talks about why Ubuntu is able to ship with Firefox. I'm glad that we are able to work with the Ubuntu team as I think they have the best chance at a real FOSS consumer desktop OS.
My goal in our own discussions with Mozilla has been to establish that it really is possible for a distribution that cares about free software and Mozilla to agree on a framework which gives us both what we need. The Ubuntu team went as far as preparing packages without the Firefox name in case we were unable to reach an agreement - but in the end the fact that we kept the lines of communication wide open meant that we were able to find a middle ground and ship the packages we want while still supporting the Firefox name and Mozilla’s work. Nobody sold out.
I know this is over 6 months old, but even after 6 months it astounds me.
Two Harvard Business School professors publish a "strategy" paper in 2006 about the 1996-1999 Netscape - Microsoft web browser wars.
Economic and Technical Drivers of Technology Choice: Browsers — HBS Working Knowledge
The Q&A here with this highly informed professor is just chock full of gems of expertise.
Q: So Firefox and other new browsers, no matter that they have new features and refinements that IE lacks, remain at a competitive disadvantage?
A: Game over. Firefox and the others have to get the installed base of IE users to switch to their browser, a much harder proposition than IE faced in the '90s when all it had to do was get new users to pick IE rather than Netscape as their first browser.
Either the innovations would have to be huge improvements over what IE can currently do, or a huge problem would have to arise with current IE use to create an opening for such a late second mover to make headway and lead people to go through the hassle of switching their browser.
Lessons from the Browser Wars — HBS Working Knowledge
I don't know about you but anyone who's reading HBS strategy papers about web browsers gets exactly what they deserve: information that's 10 years old and out of date.
Only funny if you know Japanese...
Softbank shamelessly uses Cameron Diaz to shill for their "new" mobile service in Japan (it's just Vodafone, with their crappy network.)
Brendan Eich, creator of Javascript and CTO at Mozilla, presented this at The Ajax Experience.
Firefox, JavaScript, and the Web
via Goodpic
Amazing find. Weird Al Yankovic on Japanese TV in the 1980.
Shimada Shinsuke is so young- it's gotta be early 80s.
"Sumo" dancers. Lobster boy. 'Nuff said.
Is Japanese comedy TV in 2006 any better? Not appreciably so.
Weird Al Yankovic Performs “Eat It” On Japanese TV at TV in Japan
Jon Cockle, one of the most all-around talented people I know , famous for his blog Yongfook, the web magazine PingMag, the sketch-sharing site Sketchplanet, the simple list manager Orchestrate, the podcast portal Zapzap, not to mention his HDR photography, and music too, is starting a new venture!
Anyone can see that Jon's very talented and prolific. I'm hoping for the best for him. Good luck Jon!
jonkenpon - Tokyo-based web application development for online business & services
Ev has acquired Odeo and is going private to start a new company. Others are moving into this space. Ev's lucky that he has had enough success so that he can fail gracefully too. Good luck Ev!
Firefox 2 is now available for download!
Official comments from Mozilla:
Firefox -- Moving the Internet Forward [Mozilla CEO, Mitchell Baker]
Mozilla Releases Major Update to Firefox and Raises the Bar for Online Experience [mozilla.com]
My favorite new extension :)
The Delicious Bookmarks extension has been renovated and is one that I use daily.
More news coverage:
Firefox 2 Officially Launches [readwriteweb.com]
Firefox 2 Officially Released [digg.com]
The New Mozilla Recommended Add-ons List: The Winners and the Losers [techcrunch.com]
With Firefox 2, Mozilla touts security and speed CNet News.com
Congratulations to everyone involved. Let's get the word out!
J. Paul Reed, Mozilla's build and release engineer has an important note for everyone who is rushing to grab Firefox 2 in advance of our launch.
So please... just remember: "Preed the Release Engineer says: friends don't let friends download Firefox before it's released."
We know everyone's excited for the 2.0 release. We are too. But give us 24 hours, so we can make sure that your first experience with Firefox 2.0 is befitting of everyone's hard work on this major release.
I promise it's worth the wait.
Long but must-read.
So is Trudeau going to play it safe in this speech and stay away from politics? I'm apparently not the only one wondering. The instant the cartoonist rises to take the mike, a large American flag behind him suddenly and inexplicably crashes to the ground. From a group of organizers near me comes a whisper, "Oh [expletive], not a good sign."
The speech starts benignly, praising the courage of the soldiers he had met, but here's how Trudeau wraps it up:
"When I talk to wounded veterans, I usually don't ask them what they think the mission was. I don't presume, because their lives are wrenching enough without the suggestion that their sacrifices may have been without meaning. Moreover, if that is so, it will become apparent to them soon enough . . . The young men and women who we've repeatedly put in harm's way are paying the price for this misbegotten mission, and as long as it continues, I, like so many of our countrymen, must walk this strange line between hating the war but honoring the warrior. I don't know how long we can keep it up. . ."
He finishes to a standing ovation.
Eric Prideaux of the Japan Times has a fascinating multi-part series on the Japanese right wing that is must-read for anyone in Japan.
The Japan Times Online - Building 'crisis' mood
The Japan Times Online - Anti-American in name of 'respect'
The Japan Times Online - Yasukuni is a 'duty'
Journalist and author Michael Zielenziger's new book looks somewhat interesting. If you are living in Japan or read about Japan often, the topics are not anything new: falling birth rate, rising suicide, hikkikomori, gender pressures (for both men and women in all areas of society), etc.
The SF Chron has a review of the book.
Japan may be witnessing a gender eclipse, which makes it a shame that "Shutting Out the Sun" is bent on making one simple point: The country is in deep, deep trouble. In this well-researched volume, Zielenziger has taken a giant subject and flattened it into a blanket argument.
REVIEW / 'Sun' shines a light on Japan's struggles [sfgate.com]
Zielenziger has a op-ed in the LA Times this weekend as well.
Japan needs to decouple its future from the United States, resolve the challenges of its history and move vigorously to create a new and more integrated relationship with its long-term economic partners in Asia, especially China.
The leaders of Japan's multinational businesses already well understand this, and they may yet help transform the practical vision of their new prime minister. If they do not succeed, however, Abe's ascension may ultimately trigger the kind of arms race and brinksmanship that would destabilize all of Asia. In that sense, he could be the wrong man at the wrong time.
Been too busy working to blog :)
This looks to be an interesting new report on the new Japanese prime minister and policy changes that are expected:
Through the lens of Abe Shinzo’s September 26, 2006 election as Japan’s new prime minister, this report examines the fundamental changes that are redefining Japan’s foreign policy strategy.
Main Argument:
Japan is on the verge of a sea change in its foreign policy strategy. The September 26, 2006 election of Abe Shinzo as Japan’s new prime minister dramatically symbolizes three forces impelling Japan on a new course.
* Japan’s external environment is changing. The end of the cold war undermined Japan’s grand strategy of concentrating exclusively on building economic power while maintaining a minimal defense. The belligerence of North Korea, the rise of China, and increased American expectations of alliance reciprocity have given Japanese a new sense of vulnerability.
* Japan’s ruling conservative elite has historically demonstrated a pattern of adapting both its foreign policy and its domestic institutions to fit fundamental changes in the international system. Accordingly it is now loosening the self-binding restrictions on Japan’s participation in military security affairs and it is making far-reaching changes in its domestic institutions in order to support a new activist foreign policy.
* A new generation of political leadership which favors a higher international political profile for Japan and believes that Japan must assert its own identity in the global community is now rising to the forefront of Japanese politics.
Policy Implications:
* For most of the cold war, Japan showed little interest in military cooperation with the United States. However, beginning in the late 1990s, hitherto resisted military cooperation with U.S. forces was steadily increased in piecemeal ways, leading to increased reciprocity in the alliance.
* While Japan is becoming an engaged ally, the bilateral relationship will not become like that of the U.S. with the U.K. Japan is motivated by imperatives, values, traditions, and practices that differ from those of the U.K. Japan’s readiness to tighten cooperation with the U.S. is not the result of shared values, so much as it is the realist appraisal of the value of the alliance.
* Japan has a great interest in promoting multilateral institutions in Asia where it can establish its leadership, compete with China for influence, and press for solution to a wide range of purely regional problems.
as always, Chris Messina is quick to the "draw" :)
No doubt you've read about the nuclear tests North Korea purports to have completed recently.
Therefore, the most important job in the world right now is the job of the air crew of the USAF's WC-135 Constant Phoenix. It's probably right now on station above the Sea of Japan, as close as they can be to North Korea without being in North Korean airspace. The air sample sensors on the Constant Phoenix can gather radioactive debris clouds in real time. That crew knows, more than anyone else outside of North Korea, what happened.
There's only two of these aircraft in the whole USAF (or so we are told.) Let's hope they've budgeted for a few more.
Airliners.net has an older photo of a now-reclassified WC-135 (i.e. this plane is no longer a Constant Phoenix.)
UPDATE: Found a photo of the WC-135W.I'm using the Adobe Lightroom Beta 4 and really like it. I'll probably purchase it when it comes out.
That said, Gruber's newest musings on Adobe's marketing is RIGHT ON.
this reeks of a marketing decision forged by people who just don’t get it. Photoshop is one thing. Lightroom is another. Yes, they’re both apps targeted at serious photographers, but if you spend even just a few minutes looking at Lightroom from the perspective of what it does, how it works, even what it looks like, you can see that it isn’t “part of” Photoshop. Yet that’s exactly what this “Photoshop Lightroom” branding implies.
Adobe still has time to take off that "photoshop" branding from Lightroom. If they are smart, they'll do that.
