Nimble Code: Category Short TakesJacob Harris' Weblogtag:www.nimblecode.com,2005:TypoTypo2008-11-17T23:01:31-08:00Jacob Harrisharrisj@nimblecode.comurn:uuid:a5c9b202-a765-4c41-bb00-5529591e3ad42006-03-09T15:24:00-08:002008-11-17T23:01:31-08:00Short Takes: Data Mining and the Attention Economy<p>Okay, I won’t deny that this is a new category of postings inspired directly by Slashdot’s notion of <a href="http://slashdot.org/search.pl?tid=167">Slashbacks</a>, short little postings that track followups to previous postings as well as miscellaneous tiny bits that don’t warrant their own postings, but are still above the level of <a href="http://ma.gnolia.com/people/harrisj/bookmarks">bookmarks</a> or Kottke’s <a href="http://kottke.org/remainder/">remaindered links</a>. I still am a firm adherent of <a href="http://www.nimblecode.com/articles/2006/02/16/original-blogging-content">Slow Bloggging</a>, but I like to update notable developments to previous postings too.</p>
<h4><a href="http://www.nimblecode.com/articles/2006/03/01/the-myth-of-total-information-awareness">The Myth of Total Information Awareness</a></h4>
<p>Impressive computer security expert Bruce Schneier has posted his own similar analysis on the excessive confidence being placed on data mining as a counterterrorism tool (<a href="http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/03/data_mining_for.html">Data Mining For Terrorists</a>) that’s worth a read. Not only is it smart, it’s well-written to boot.</p>
<p>Of course, Congress did have a chance this week to assert some oversight over domestic spying and the like. And what action it was, as they <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/09/opinion/09thur1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin">promptly rolled over to avoid any possible political embarrasment for the <span class="caps">GOP</span></a>. The Roman Emperor Tiberius’ comment to the Senate of his day is as apt today: “<a href="http://www.truthdig.com/dig/item/20060124_president_jonah/">how eager you are to be slaves</a>”.</p>
<h4><a href="http://www.nimblecode.com/articles/2006/01/24/the-future-of-feeds">The Future of Feeds</a></h4>
<p>The Emerging Technology conference has concluded and there have been several nice talks posted. One of the major themes this year was discussion about the <strong>Attention Economy</strong>, how to cope with information overload and rise to the top. O’Reilly has some summaries of talks on this subject by <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/03/etech_clay_shirky.html">Clay Shirky</a>, <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/03/etech_seth_goldstein.html">Seth Goldstein</a>, <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/03/etech_felix.html">Felix Miller</a>, and <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/03/etech_ray_ozzie.html">Ray Ozzie</a>. <a href="http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2006/03/09/Etech-Attention">Tim Bray’s summary</a> is also good too.
. While you’re at it, be sure to check out <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/03/entrepreneurial_proverbs.html">Entrepeneurial Proverbs</a> as well.</p>
<p>If you were intrigued by future business of <span class="caps">RSS</span>, all of these should be worthwhile reads for you.</p>
<h4><a href="http://www.nimblecode.com/articles/2006/01/09/good-and-bad-customer-service">Good And Bad Customer Service</a></h4>
<p>I brought my Canon camera back to life last weekend. All it took was removing the outer case, extracting an internal hidden battery and replacing it after an hour to reset some internal component. That’s it. Luckily I’m not scared of opening up electronics, but it still galls me that Canon charges $175 to do this very thing, The disposable mentality behind consumer electronics still mystifies me.</p>