Author: Carl Setzer

I’ve been messing around with Powne lately. It has some interesting elements, particularly the ability to file share. I also like how it ties different services, but Friendfeed does that way better. It seems to be a slightly expanded Twitter, and I am trying to figure out how I can use this. Anyone else using this heavily? What do you think?

I guess Scoble’s comment sums it up: “I can’t take many more social networks.”

Apparently, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal, Microsoft is looking at Facebook now that the Microhoo deal is dead. (For the record, I thought the Microhoo concept was flawed. Different systems, different cultures…a painful M&A with the best execution) It’s probably not any better an idea, from Microsoft’s angle, though. Facebook is built on many of the same principles as Yahoo: a commitment to Open Source, Apache vs. Microsoft IIS, PHP vs. ASP, blah blah. Integrating Facebook would be just as clunky, just not as big a mouthful as Yahoo!.  Well, it’s really speculation at this point; we’ll see what comes.

As if I needed another reason to loathe RIAA.

Copyright Scholar Kicked Out Of Canadian Copyright Panel

Thanks to Casetta for the video. Oh, the Banana Splits, and other the other cheesy kid’s shows of the 1970’s. ‘Twas a much simpler time, I guess. Or dumber, I’m not really sure.

Border Patrol "spot checks" on ferries provoke outrage in San Juan Islands

It’s a shame that, since the Border Patrol can’t fulfill it’s obligations under the Constitution, they’ve just chucked the thing. All those checks and balances were just a nuisance, anyways. Why do the terrorists hate us again? Oh yes, that “freedom” thing. I guess the best way to get that under control is to get rid of the freedom.

I just saw a piece about “mobilizing” your campaign, and it wasn’t about initializing a group of volunteers. Nope, it’s now how to utilize mobile communications for grassroots organizing. The world has changed. The ability to organize large groups of like-minded individuals is now simply amazing. With cell phones, et al, we can link to people in an incredibly rapid manner. What groups can do with basic tools, such as Myspace and Facebook is compelling enough, but add to that any knowledge of platform development and one becomes powerful, or at least loud, indeed.

From the Nextweb folks.

Interesting law, don’t know where French law stands of free speech, though. This caught my eye, though. “’In France, we know how to punish, we know how to treat, but we don’t seem to know much about prevention,’ said psychiatrist Sophie Criquillion-Doublet to AFP.” The same can be said for the US, as well as any government that I’m familiar with. Basically, there are limits to society’s effectiveness in controlling the behavior of individuals, thus policy is always a blunt instrument. It does pose an interesting question about how a government, and by extrapolation, society, control the destructive behaviors of its dysfunctional individuals. Is there any other method besides coercion? How much of an investment is considered worthwhile? Where do we draw the line? Do we want to have a society full of like-minded borgs?