Inside View

Dave Winer does Europe

SCRIPTING -- Dave Winer, the most important voice in syndicating Web log information, has spun off a travelogue that uses the familiar Radio Userland widgets. It will be interesting to read his travels throughout the short break he has planned on the European mainland. Although my Newzcrawler picked up the RSS feed on the new site, Winer didn't list a traditional orange RSS button on his first iteration of the site, although he listed it directly as a hyperlink on his first post.

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Dave Winer -- "Europe 2004" with comments and RSS feed here.
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Digital Cluelessness

DUBLIN -- While walking around the ICT Expo in Ballsbridge, I discovered few techies who understood and appreciated the level of digital cluelessness embedded to the Irish presidency of the EU. The deft (pronounced "daft" in Irish) Irish presidency passed the "IPR Enforcement Directive" to deal with "IPR infringement." This measure was championed by Janelly Fourtou, the wife of the CEO of Vivendi Universal. It has now been approved by the EU Council. It ranks as one of the lowest moments of European politics this year.

Top Tech for 2005

ACM -- Enterprise technology will become more pervasive and useful for businesses through 2005, says Gartner. The Gartner analysts identify 10 technologies expected to make the biggest impact in 2005. Gartner's trend identifications are helpful in my college classrooms as they focus the attention of a Watch List exercise for our first year multimedia degree students. These "top 10 tech items" are useful when walking the flow of the ICT Expo in Dublin this week.

Blocking discussion of censorship

UNDERWAY -- Isn't it interesting that required third level revision notes are "scanned by ScanMail for Lotus Notes 2.6 with scanengine 7.000-1004 and patternfile lpt$vpn.865" then automatically relegated to the trash heap before reading? IT should not direct academic discussion. But since much of my academic discussion occurs electronically, it's being snarled by IT. Time to educate the IT support structures.

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Achieving business value

SHANNONSOFT -- Tony Murphy (Gartner) addressed a Shannonsoft event and offered ways to improve the positive correlation between IT spending and business value. His presentation stems from a Gartner IT Expo event in 2003. His recommendations involve process and governance structures. Specific value metrics are derived from value standards for each individual project.

Take a chill pill

KILKENNY -- I am becoming way too wound up lately. It's a condition that could be tamed through a fitness programme. Lacking that, there are 10 points below that help reduce the boiling point after reading another stupid e-mail.

StarGeek groks Memory Stick

STAR GEEK -- If you want a broad-brushed explanation of the devices using the Sony Memory Stick, start with Star Geek's Grok of the technology.

• Wi-Fi Memory Stick
• TV Tuner Memory Stick
• Micro Vaults
• Burn CD-Rs directly from memory cards

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Star Geek -- "Grok Memory Stick"
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May Day Unrest in Dublin

DUBLIN --Much talk revolves around the May Day events in Dublin, including some late night chat show snippets that reveal the depth to which the non-event is being spun. Justin Mason points out how eminent talk show host Pat Kenny mistakes "agent provocateur" for "rabble-rouser."

Agents provocateurs are also used in the investigation of political crimes. Here, it has been claimed that the provocateurs deliberately seek to incite ineffective radical acts, in order to foster public disdain for the political group being investigated; and to worsen the punishments its members are liable for. Within the United States the COINTELPRO program of the Federal Bureau of Investigation had FBI agents posing as political radicals in order to disrupt the activities of political groups the U.S. government found unacceptably radical. The activities of agents provocateurs against political dissidents in Imperial Russia was one of the grievances that led to the Russian Revolution.

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Justin Mason -- "Pat Kenny tangles with Aileen"
Aileen O'Carroll -- "No to Fortress Europe"
Indy Media -- "Dublin Grassroots Network seeks clarification on Mayday powers for police and army"
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Handy euro converter

SYSMOD -- Patrick O'Beirne has a handy online calculator, so those in the tourism business or those traveling to Europe now have a quick way of calculating equivalents of euro. I've just set it in my Clie. It pulls data automatically from the ECB exchange rates.

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Patrick O'Beirne -- "Euro currency converter"
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They follow you back

CLONMMEL HOTSPOT -- John Robb rephrases David Halberstam and explains concisely why the American invasion of Iraq differs considerably from the Vietnam War.

In Vietnam, our enemy was essentially a nationalist movement. When we left, the victors focused their efforts on running their newly won country. In Iraq it is different. It's worse. Islam is aflame. By going into Iraq, we have turned ourselves into the lightning rod for everything that is wrong in the Middle East. The focus is on us, reinforced in real-time by global non-western media. At some point in the near future, we will leave Iraq. However it won't end there like Vietnam. This time, they will follow us back.

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