Dan Brown's Digital Fortress – 50 Book Challenge

Digital Fortress : A Thriller
Brown, Dan

I thought The Da Vinci Code was ok but ultimately implausible and I thought the ending was pulled out of a hat. On the other hand, there’s no question that Dan Brown can write a good page turner, so I went looking for his earlier books (what can I say, when it comes to reading I am a gourmand not a gourmet). Digital Fortress was Brown’s first book, I believe, and I found it much more satisfying than the Da Vinci Code. What I found particularly interesting is how he explores how technical plausibility collides with the human dimensions of fear and paranoia in large organizations. His canvas here is the NSA, but the lessons are worth thinking about in more mundane contexts. So you get a nice thriller that moves and some food for thought about how digital technology affects big organizations. A nice twofer.

Mark Hurst on bit literacy

I continue to track Mark Hurst's thoughts about bit literacy with interest. I came across this originally reading Richard Saul Wurman's Information Anxiety 2, which should definitely be on your reading list if you haven't read it already.

Good Experience: Bit literacy: an overview. Obviously, bits have become more important to the average technology user since then. In fact, I find that the essay – although it predates those developments – is even more relevant in 2004. Thus I plan to write more about bit literacy this year. [Tomalak's Realm]

Here's the key graf:

To have a chance to survive the infinite bits in the future, we'll need a lot of bit literacy: in our behavior (letting go of bits), in our beliefs (searching for the meaning behind the bits), and in our technology — with simpler tools granting us control over the bits, and working with bits in their simplest formats. And as we shift to becoming not just consumers but *creators* of bits, the discipline of bit literacy will show us how to *create* bits differently: mindfully, meaningfully, and with an acceptance of their essential emptiness.

In a world where information is carried in physical containers (e.g., books, reports, papers), the containers set limits for us. With bits, we need to exercise explicit managerial control.

PDASmart offers superior iPod battery replacement

Another tidbit to keep handy for that not too distant day when I will need it.

PDASmart offers superior iPod battery replacement. PDASmart.com is offering an iPod battery replacement kit that’s much better than the Apple original, offering 35 percent better battery life than the stock iPod, and a decent price. ” The Do-It-Yourself kit comes complete with very detailed instructions and all the right tools to do the job without damaging your iPod (please don’t pry open that case with a flat-tipped screwdriver!). We had this battery developed with the same lithium-ion polymer battery technology as the original and it is rated at 3.7 volts and 850mAh.” Looks good. [Paul Thurrott’s Internet Nexus]

Playfair forced offline by Apple, reappears on Indian site.

It must be frustrating to be a corporate lawyer with a technological clue. You know that sending a cease and desist letter will immediately trigger the proliferation of copies across the net and around the world, as well as generating all sorts of unwanted publicity. On the other hand, if you don’t you violate your responsibilities to your shareholders. I think “bullied” is a bit inflamatory. IANAL, but this strikes me as yet one more piece of evidence that the DMCA is bad law.

Playfair bullied offline by Apple, reappears on Indian site. PlayFair, the free software project that allowed you to strip the copy-restriction wrapper off of your iTunes Music Store tracks, has been removed from SourceForge in response to a threatening letter, apparently from Apple. It has been relocated to a server in India, and development continues apace. Link (Thanks, Jonathan!) [Boing Boing]

You are your references

If you’ve been paying attention, this is in the “well, duh?” category, but it’s worth having handy for those who haven’t. You might also want to take a look at David Brin’s The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy & Freedom? for a longer take on the same question.

First Impression. “You are your references.”

–Seth Godin , Author, “Purple Cow“

[Fast Company]

Key paragraph:

One thing is becoming crystal clear: You are your references. If a friend tells me a play is no good, I don’t go. A friend’s recommendation will also determine my choice of lawn-care service or an island to vacation on. My publisher just sent me an email asking about a potential author–and if I don’t back up the author’s version of our relationship, he won’t get the contract.

No person or company can escape their past. You can no longer change your prices with impunity, because the old price lists may be cached at The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine (www.archive.org ), which regularly takes snapshots of Web sites and stores them forever. With a little care, you won’t hire a manager with a history of abusing his employees, because the lawsuits are all in the public record.

Agility and adaptiveness. Ray Ozzie

I suspect that this has always been the case. What is happening now is a growing appreciation for the truth of this observation and more effort directed toward understanding and shaping the adaptation as it occurs.

Agility and adaptiveness. Ray Ozzie:

“We should distrust any elaborately planned, centrally deployed, and carefully developed business system or process. Successful systems and processes will be agile and dynamically adaptive; they’ll grow and evolve as needed over time.”

[Seb’s Open Research]

Freely copy iTunes Music Store files

Something to have handy.

Freely copy iTunes Music Store files. PlayFair is an open source app that strips Apple’s DRM out of iTunes Music Store singles, allowing you to freely copy the music you pay for.

It takes one of the iTMS Protected AAC Audio Files, decodes it using a key obtained from your iPod or Microsoft Windows system and then writes the new, decoded version to disk as a regular AAC Audio File. It then optionally copies the metadata tags that describe the song, including the cover art, to the new file.

Link (Thanks, Rod!) [Boing Boing]

'Perfect' Corporate Weblogging 'Elevator Pitch' Competition

This is shaping up to be an interesting effort.

You might want to take a look at Blogging's Three Cores: Discover, Read, and Write, which contains some excellent ideas from fellow judge Phil Wolff. You might also want to look at Shel Israel's 12 tips on Giving Great Presentations and Doc Searls It's the Story Stupid for good advice on distilling messages.

Perfect Pitch – Corporate Blogging.

Judith reminds us of the 'Perfect' Corporate Weblogging 'Elevator Pitch' Competition.  Go on, take that ride :

Don't Forget The 'Perfect Pitch' Competition…. 

Have you submitted your ‘Perfect Pitch’ entry yet?

The rules of engagement for this contest are listed in: The ‘Perfect’ Corporate Weblogging ‘Elevator Pitch’ Competition, which was posted on March 29, 2004.

We have the honor of hosting this competition with an awesome group of internationally respected judging panelists:

danah boyd, Dave Pollard, Dina Mehta, Don Park, Elizabeth Lane Lawley, Flemming Funch, Jason Shellen, Jim McGee, Lilia Efimova, Martin Dugage, Phil Wolff, Ross Mayfield, Scott Allen, and Ton Zijlstra.

So submit your entries soon as the deadline is Midnight [EST] April 15, 2004!

Please submit your entry to: pitch at weblogsinc dot com. Thanks! (-:=

 [The Social Software Weblog]

 

[Conversations with Dina]