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Entries for June 2003
Martha Stewart and her troubles with the law
With all the hubbub about Martha Stewart right now, Jeffrey Toobin’s Lunch at Martha’s from February’s New Yorker is a good look at the legal issues involved in the case and Stewart’s personal feelings about it:
When we took a lunch break, it was clear that the wounds of the past year ran deep. After I admired the silver chopsticks that had been set out, Stewart said, “You know, in China they say, ‘The thinner the chopsticks, the higher the social status.’ Of course, I got the thinnest I could find.” After a pause, she added, “That’s why people hate me.”
The article reveals Stewart to be attentive to detail and controlling, but it’s hard to see that she would be interested at all in jeopardizing her career, forture, company, and reputation over “three-hundredths of one per cent of her total net worth”. It just doesn’t make sense. The SEC is barking up the wrong tree here.
Quicktime movie of opening title sequence for
Quicktime movie of opening title sequence for Six Feet Under by Seattle-based Digital Kitchen.
NY Times executive editor resigns over Jayson Blair case
NY Times executive editor resigns over Jayson Blair case. I honestly can’t believe Blair’s personal misconduct is being treated as a company-wide crisis
Teen girls are helping the FBI catch
Teen girls are helping the FBI catch pedophiles by teaching agents how to IM properly.
Turns out it’s not women in pants after all.
Turns out it’s not women in pants after all.. Malaysia fines unmarried couples for holding hands in public. Imagine! In public!
Subscribers leaving AOL in droves.
Subscribers leaving AOL in droves.. More than one million AOLers pack it in.
It’s Official: Ken is Gay.
It’s Official: Ken is Gay.. Fashion Insider Ken (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) joins Barbie and Anna Wintour at the next Marc Jacobs show.
New! From the people who brought you
New! From the people who brought you the Internet, it’s LifeLog!. DARPA solicits bids to develop digital super diary to record everything, and they do mean everything, a person does.
J.K. Rowling will read new Harry
J.K. Rowling will read new Harry Potter book live on Internet.. June 26th webcast will include questions from the audience, like “when is Harry going to have it off?”
Britain’s Royal Mail says artwork infringes on stamp copyright.
Britain’s Royal Mail says artwork infringes on stamp copyright.. Anti-war poster shows Queen Elizabeth II in gas mask. Comes in three colors!
Spike Lee sues VIACOM over use of name ‘Spike.’
Spike Lee sues VIACOM over use of name ‘Spike.’. Also reportedly in legal discussions with the game of Volleyball, the railroad industry and that blonde vampire guy from Buffy.
San Francisco Design Museum opens.
San Francisco Design Museum opens.. Upcoming exhibits include “The New Homeless Box: Beyond Cardboard” and “The Stylish $200,000 San Francisco Home: Beyond Cardboard”
It’s a book about book covers
The word on the street is that this book by Veronique Vienne (published by Yale University Press) will be a retrospective of Chip Kidd’s work as a book jacket designer and will include many full-color illustrations of his work. I have a thing about book cover design so I’m pretty jazzed about this.
Update: Ben writes in that there was a bit about Mr. Kidd in the first issue of Radar magazine…which I unfortunately missed and is not online.
Moderating discussions on weblogs
Sam Ruby is conducting an interesting experiment with the comments left on his weblog. He’s identifying potentially inflammatory comments by changing the text color, striking the text (like so), and linking the text to an explanation of why it might be so displayed. Here’s an example of a comment that has gotten the firehose treatment. People are upset about their comments being modified, but as Sam says on his explanation page, “nobody has an inalienable right to place information on my website.” As long as he clearly states what he’s doing, isn’t modifying or adding any text (not even misspellings), and doesn’t allow anyone else to mimic his editorial functions, Sam can do anything he wants with the text on his site.
I’m happy to see Sam trying to moderate the discussions on his site to make them more useful. My only worry with his particular implementation of comment annotation is its negative nature. I’m not sure that slapping people’s hands with a ruler is the best way to keep control and might result in even more unruliness. It would interesting to see how a more positive approach (perhaps as a supplement to the flamebait annotation) would work to reinforce the good ways in which people express themselves in comments. I’ve been wanting to mark good comments on my site with a gold star or something for awhile (I could never get Movable Type to do it and was too lazy to bother whipping up my own solution), but maybe setting off good comments in a different text color or with a background color would be sufficient. Perhaps the people who are complaining about their comments being modified wouldn’t feel so unfairly persecuted if their comments had been marked as positive instead of negative.
Fuckity, fuck fuck…looks like the Field
Fuckity, fuck fuck…looks like the Field Day festival might be cancelled!.
Apple QuickTime 6.3 supports 3GPP.
Apple QuickTime 6.3 supports 3GPP.. Setting up for QT via cell phone.
Intellectual property lawyer blogs “off-the-record” conference.
Intellectual property lawyer blogs “off-the-record” conference.. And Dan Gillmor asks “Why not me, too?”
Smokin’ in Hoboken: NYC Smoking Ban a Bust.
Smokin’ in Hoboken: NYC Smoking Ban a Bust.. Bar business down 40%. Layoffs, protests, handbag thefts up.
Ice cream with a head.
Ice cream with a head.. Newcastle Brown Ale ice cream available, sadly contains less than 1% alcohol.
Greenspan sees US economic upswing in third quarter.
Greenspan sees US economic upswing in third quarter.. Calls tax cut “fortuitous,” but sees remote threat of “corrosive deflation.”
“Sims” creator in first-look deal with Fox.
“Sims” creator in first-look deal with Fox.. Has already created a puppet-animation show set in feudal Japan and reality show starring a robot.
You are officially getting more Spam than legit email.
You are officially getting more Spam than legit email.. May 2003 marks the first time that Spam accounts for 51% of email to company inboxes.
The Gotham Gazette is featuring weblogs from newcomers to NYC
The Gotham Gazette is featuring weblogs from newcomers to NYC.
US Secretary of State: “I’m not reading
US Secretary of State: “I’m not reading this. This is bullshit.”. White House and Pentagon pressured Colin “That’s Colin, like the internal organ” Powell to use shaky intelligence on Iraq; also to use someone named “Scooter” as speechwriter.
Bush touches French president.
Bush touches French president.. Also finally answers the burning question: Can President Bush actually have a conversation?
Shocker: Bust-Enhancing Pills Are Bogus!
Shocker: Bust-Enhancing Pills Are Bogus!. Next up: Spam can’t really increase penis size by three inches. It’s more like two, two-and-a-half, tops.
Women in pants “abomination before God.”
Women in pants “abomination before God.”. Swaziland’s monarch points to Bible, world points to own ear, spins finger and rolls eyes.
FCC strips away old, antiquaited anti-monopolistic rules.
FCC strips away old, antiquaited anti-monopolistic rules.. Opens up grand possibility for Fox News Everywhere All The Time Forever You Commie Pansies Network
Jonathan Ive named Designer of the Year
Jonathan Ive named Designer of the Year by London’s Design Museum.
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