Archives for July 2010
партизанская война
19 July 2010 | Internet, Politics | No Comments
It was also the day Google announced that Chinese hackers tried to break into the Gmail accounts of dissidents. In response, Google said that it would no longer comply with China’s censorship laws and for a few months redirected Chinese users to its Hong Kong search engine. The dispute rose to a high-level diplomatic conflict, but it also gave added resonance to the 45-minute “Internet freedom” speech Secretary Clinton delivered a little more than a week later, in which she placed “the freedom to connect” squarely within the U.S. human rights and foreign policy agenda.
чем не дополнительные аргументы?
и вот, пожалуйста:
Just such an effort was under way one recent morning in Washington, where Ross and Cohen were meeting with Farah Pandith. Pandith is also the holder of a newly created position: special representative to Muslim communities for the United States Department of State. Born in Kashmir, Pandith emigrated to the U.S. at a young age. Now in her early 40s, she is a vibrant presence in a room and, since she was sworn in in September, has been to 25 countries trying to broaden the scope of U.S. interaction with Muslim communities.
<...>
“Here’s the problem we’re solving for,” Ross said. “It’s physically impossible for one office to engage 1.4 billion people across the planet in a way that involves a lot of air travel. We’ve got to work with you to build out a connection-technology strategy.”
<...>
“We don’t have to come up with that right now,” Ross said. “You have a body of great material. We ought to have somebody go through it and do grabs. Figure out over the course of whatever it is you’ve said, those things that can be encapsulated in 140 characters or less. Let’s say it’s 10 things. We then translate it into Pashto, Dari, Urdu, Arabic, Swahili, etc., etc. The next thing is we identify the ‘influencer’ Muslims on Twitter, on Facebook, on the other major social-media platforms. And we, in a soft way, using the appropriate diplomacy, reach out to them and say: Hey, we want to get across the following messages. They’re messages that we think are consistent with your values. This is a voice coming from the United States that we think you wanted to hear. So we get the imam… .”
“… the youth leader… .” Pandith said.
“We get these other people to then play the role of tweeting it, and then saying, ‘Follow this woman,’ and/or putting it on whatever dominant social-media platform they use.”
опять все та же тактика.
ближе к телу
19 July 2010 | Internet, Politics | 1 Comment
интересная статья в New York Times о повсеместном использовании сетевых технологий в соверменной дипломатии:
On Twitter, [Jared] Cohen, who is 28, and [Alec] Ross, who is 38, are among the most followed of anyone working for the U.S. government, coming in third and fourth after Barack Obama and John McCain. This didn’t happen by chance. Their Twitter posts have become an integral part of a new State Department effort to bring diplomacy into the digital age, by using widely available technologies to reach out to citizens, companies and other nonstate actors. Ross and Cohen’s style of engagement — perhaps best described as a cross between social-networking culture and foreign-policy arcana — reflects the hybrid nature of this approach.
политика тоже старается быть модной: сегодня в одном списке находятся и Леди Гага, и Барак Обама, и Ким Кардашян, и все-все-все:
Two of Cohen’s recent posts were, in order: “Guinea holds first free election since 1958” and “Yes, the season premier [sic] of Entourage is tonight, soooo excited!” This offhand mix of pop and politics has on occasion raised eyebrows and a few hackles (writing about a frappucino during a rare diplomatic mission to Syria; a trip with Ashton Kutcher to Russia in February), yet, together, Ross and Cohen have formed an unlikely and unprecedented team in the State Department. They are the public face of a cause with an important-sounding name: 21st-century statecraft.
налицо смена коммуникаций и дальнейшее ускорение (перестройка и гласность?):
Traditional forms of diplomacy still dominate, but 21st-century statecraft is not mere corporate rebranding — swapping tweets for broadcasts. It represents a shift in form and in strategy — a way to amplify traditional diplomatic efforts, develop tech-based policy solutions and encourage cyberactivism.
однако, не все так радужно:
Is this growing fascination with social media a mere sign of our desperation with other, more conventional instruments of diplomatic leverage? Perhaps so.
так и есть — достаточно вспомнить прошлогодние иранские выборы, помноженные на беспомощную официальную позицию США:
Most of the news that reached the West from Iran came via YouTube and Twitter. In June of last year, three days into the postelection protests, a Twitter post by the opposition candidate Mir Hussein Moussavi alerted Cohen that Twitter was scheduled to go down for maintenance. Cohen sent an e-mail message to Dorsey, the site’s 33-year-old chairman, without running it up the chain of command. Dorsey went to work — “I was definitely raising my voice” trying to find a way for the service to stay up, Dorsey told me. The New York Times broke the story of Cohen’s e-mail message. A flurry of public speculation ensued as to whether keeping Twitter up contradicted the president’s stated policy of nonintervention in the Iranian election.
и что случилось? ровным счетом ничего:
Will the oppressed masses in authoritarian states join the barricades once they get unfettered access to Wikipedia and Twitter?
This seems quite unlikely. In fact, our debate about the Internet’s role in democratization—increasingly dominated by techno-utopianism—is in dire need of moderation, for there are at least as many reasons to be skeptical. Ironically, the role that the Internet played in the recent events in Iran shows us why: Revolutionary change that can topple strong authoritarian regimes requires a high degree of centralization among their opponents. The Internet does not always help here. One can have “organizing without organizations”—the phrase is in the subtitle of “Here Comes Everybody,” Clay Shirky’s best-selling 2008 book about the power of social media—but one can’t have revolutions without revolutionaries.
можно, впрочем, и по-другому — так, в Российской Федерации, например, авторитарный двухглавый орел использует Твиттер для манипулирования балансом власти между “головами” — на первый взгляд смотрится потешно, однако, что это, как не тот же поход в массы, что был озвучен выше?
самое, то есть, интересное:
According to data compiled by the East German government, East Germans who watched West German television were paradoxically more satisfied with life in their country and the communist regime. Speaking in 1990, the East German writer Christoph Hein spoke of the difficulties of mobilizing his fellow citizens, pointing out that “the whole people could leave the country and move to the West…at 8 p.m.—via television.” Ironically, the fact that Dresden—where the 1989 protests started—lies too far and too low to have received Western broadcasts may partly explain the rebellious spirit of the city’s inhabitants.
The parallels to the Internet with its endless supply of online entertainment are obvious: Twitter and Facebook might make political mobilization of the kind that is required to topple dictators harder, not easier.
все понятно?
на дороге
19 July 2010 | Geography, Lifeform, Literature | No Comments
отличный план.
цирк уехал, клоуны остались
18 July 2010 | Apple, Journalism | 1 Comment
еще раз про яблоки — не то, чтобы меня так уж волновала эта тема (скорее, как раз наоборот), но слишком много замечательного с ней связано.
итак, знаменитая пресс-конференция открылась шуточной песней, сатирический посыл которой был бы тем сильнее, если бы высмеивал не покупателей, купивших недоработанный продукт, а компанию, что не в состоянии обуздать собственное детище. впрочем, зато не осталось никаких вопросов — посмотрите, оно того стоит:
The media loves a failure in a string of successes.
Тhe facts won’t ever matter if they can make their bigger messes.
Sure, I can make it happen, but in terms of daily usage
I’ve yet to drop a call.
So, this whole damn thing is stupid.
коротко и ясно о прессе и о своих покупателях. ничего удивительного, что многие оказались недовольны тем, что и как было сказано:
The approach taken in the press conference today was incredibly defensive, and it’ll probably leave customers having real issues with the iPhone 4 feeling belittled and talked down to.
ну да, Джобс всегда реагировал на критику исключительно болезненно — напомню хотя бы из надавнего:
By the way, what have you done that’s so great? Do you create anything, or just criticize others work and belittle their motivations?
впрочем, если вернуться к нашим баранам, то вот еще две заметки (1 + 2) о том, что на самом деле происходит с антенной и о чем не было произнесено ни слова в пятницу:
Something about Apple’s press conference yesterday just didn’t sit right with me. Apple has put up a page with videos of various other smart phones displaying the same type of behavior when griped in a certain way. It also has put up a page where its explains its $100 million dollar testing facilities it uses for testing reception and signal in various conditions, just to let us know how much the company cares. Steve Jobs said that they love us. They seem to be doing the right thing by giving out the free bumper cases, but how they explained why the cases are needed in some instances didn’t quite cover everything. Attenuation is only half the story.
да и вообще:
If, on the other models they compared the iPhone 4 against, they had shown the actual dBm (the generally-accepted measure of signal strength) lost by “holding it wrong,” we could have fairly compared their issues to the iPhone 4’s. But instead of having a debate about signal lost — the real issue for users — Apple has consistently tried to distract people with the issue of bars shown.
именно, Research In Motion сразу же ответили:
Apple’s attempt to draw RIM into Apple’s self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple’s claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public’s understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple’s difficult situation.
и так далее, и тому подобное. в конце концов, в ситуации действительно нет ничего ужасного — да и качество приема в зонах с хорошим покрытием улучшилось, и батарея увеличилась (поскольку антенна внутри больше не занимает места). но почему бы тогда не перестать лгать, и не начать для разнообразия называть вещи своими именами?
именно поэтому — потому что лучше просто работать исключительно на фанбоев:
Bring it back.
Back to the Apple store.
But you know you won’t.
так что остается только секретный дневник. хоть там пока не врут.
мнимая легкость
18 July 2010 | Culturology, History, Lifeform | 3 Comments
хорошая 
kdm17 напомнила о письме Джорджа Оруэлла в защиту Пэлема Грэнвила Вудхауза от обивинений в коллаборационизме.
примечателен там, впрочем, не столько анализ мотивов самого Вудхауза, сколько трактовка Берти Вустера, как фундаментальный камень одного из аргументов Оруэлла:
But there is another important point about Bertie Wooster: his out-of-dateness. Conceived in 1917 or thereabouts, Bertie really belongs to an epoch earlier than that. <...> A humorous writer is not obliged to keep up to date, and having struck one or two good veins, Wodehouse continued to exploit them with a regularity that was no doubt all the easier because he did not set foot in England during the sixteen years that preceded his internment. His picture of English society had been formed before 1914, and it was a naive, traditional and, at bottom, admiring picture. <...> In his radio interview with Flannery, Wodehouse wondered whether “the kind of people and the kind of England I write about will live after the war,” not realising that they were ghosts already. “He was still living in the period about which he wrote,” says Flannery, meaning, probably, the nineteen-twenties. But the period was really the Edwardian age, and Bertie Wooster, if he ever existed, was killed round about 1915.
так и есть: он просто не мог существовать, об этом в полной мере рассказали Олдингтон, Во, и другие.
ложки нашлись, а осадок остался
17 July 2010 | Apple, Hardware, Journalism | 1 Comment
очевидно, что антенна iPhone 4 беспокоит Apple сильнее, чем кого-либо еще. и самое интересное, похоже, заключается в том, что они действительно не знают, что делать — не убивать же телефон в самом деле? хотя остановить волну уже не получается, все-таки реальных жалоб практически нет:
<...> we looked at the statistics, we asked what’s the percentage of all iPhone 4 users that have called AppleCare about the antenna or reception, or anything near reception problems. Because you would have thought ‘Jesus, it must be a lot of users complaining about this’ — So what percentage have called AppleCare? 0.55% Just one half of one percent.
такова, выходит, плата за популярность — и за излишнюю секретность.
вообще, самое смешное в истории с антенной заключается в том, как ее дуалистичность (лучше работает, но если теряет сигнал, тот сильнее предыдущих) отражается в реакции окружающих на происходящее: казалось бы, никто и не ждет отзыва модели, но, вместе с тем, то, как реагирует Apple на случившееся, тоже не может вызывать ничего, кроме усмешки:
There were two key messages from the event. The first message is that there is no iPhone 4 antenna problem. All phones suffer from this, and the iPhone is a superior phone. The second message is that even though there is no problem Apple is going to give everyone a free bumper that will make the non existent problem go away.
а пользователи тем временем страдают в безвестности. плюс, wow-factor исчез:
Again, the iPhone 4 has lost its cachet. It’s no longer the coolest gadget in town. People won’t swoon over your new iPhone, they’ll ask if you’re having signal problems.
да и акции падают.
мой инвентарь
16 July 2010 | Apple, Facebook, Google, Internet, Lifeform, The Great Game | 1 Comment
несмотря на то, что Google Buzz, кажется, начинает в конце концов работать[1], понятно все же, что ничего, кроме очередного провала, он создателям не принес. как и все предыдущие социальные проекты Google. как и Lively. как и Orkut. как и Wave. как и что-нибудь еще.
скорее всего, случилось это по целому ряду причин, зачастую, возможно, даже противоложных друг другу. интересны, впрочем, не отдельные какие-то аспекты, но срез вцелом: почему большие игроки провалились на рынке социальных услуг?
What’s the main difference between successful Google applications (search, maps, news, email) and a successful social applications? With Google applications we return to the app to do something specific and then go on to something else, whereas great social applications are designed to lure us back and make us never want to leave.
натурально, так оно и есть:
Consider this example: Google Answers focused on answers and failed; Yahoo! Answers focused on social and succeeded. The primary purpose of a social application is connecting with others, seeing what they’re up to, and maybe even having some small, fun interactions that though not utilitarian are entertaining and help us connect with our own humanity. Google apps are for working and getting things done; social apps are for interacting and having fun.
хорошая статья, в общем. собственно, во многом именно поэтому я и не использую Facebook. а количество тех, за кем пытаюсь следить в Twitter, застряло на 12 — и никакой социальной цепи мы не создаем, поскольку вращаемся по разным орбитам, и, следовательно, непрерывно свободны.
но кроме разницы в целях, налицо, как пишет Адам Рифкин, так же разница в подходах:
Social apps are whimsical and fun; Google apps are whittled and functional.
и вот как раз отголоски этих различий можно увидеть не только на примере социальных задач, но куда шире. скажем, прошлогоднее наблюдение о дизайне:
Without a person at (or near) the helm who thoroughly understands the principles and elements of Design, a company eventually runs out of reasons for design decisions. With every new design decision, critics cry foul. Without conviction, doubt creeps in. Instincts fail. “Is this the right move?” When a company is filled with engineers, it turns to engineering to solve problems. Reduce each decision to a simple logic problem. Remove all subjectivity and just look at the data. Data in your favor? Ok, launch it. Data shows negative effects? Back to the drawing board. And that data eventually becomes a crutch for every decision, paralyzing the company and preventing it from making any daring design decisions.
или свежевыпущенный App Inventor для Android:
I won’t even begin to argue about whether App Inventor’s UI components are as elegant as Cocoa’s. They aren’t. But Google has taken another direction altogether: the user’s experience isn’t going to be perfect, but the user’s experience will be the experience he or she wants.
замечательная платформа — там же, сразу в рекламном ролике и видно, что на самом деле хочет пользователь. но как бы ни было, Google в самом деле старается решать пользовательские задачи.
однако, многие ли понимают разницу между обычным молтоком, киянкой и скальным? да что там, хотя бы между столярным и геологическим? кто знает об инструментах и разбирается в них, кроме специалистов? хочет ли корпорация и дальше оставаться зажатой в своей нише? или все-таки стремится стать чем-то еще?
им решать.
—
[1] — как выяснилось, я погорячился. он все так же с пятого на десятое, как и раньше.
запах координат
15 July 2010 | Geography | No Comments
и еще про географию, замечательный термин[1]:
Psychogeography: a beginner’s guide. Unfold a street map of London, place a glass, rim down, anywhere on the map, and draw round its edge. Pick up the map, go out into the city, and walk the circle, keeping as close as you can to the curve. Record the experience as you go, in whatever medium you favour: film, photography, manuscript, tape. Catch the textual run-off of the streets; the graffiti, the branded litter, the snatches of conversation. Cut for sign. Log the data-stream. Be alert to the happenstance of metaphors, watch for visual rhymes, coincidences, analogies, family resemblance, the changing moods of the street. Complete the circle, and the record ends. Walking makes for content; footage for footage.
MacFarlane, Robert. ‘A Road of One’s Own’, Times Literary Supplement, October 07, 2005.
ага:
Psychogeography was defined in 1955 by Guy Debord as “the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals.”
этим и займусь — пойду в ночной лес гулять.
фотоснимки эпох
15 July 2010 | Geography | 1 Comment
старые карты.
находиться в поисках
14 July 2010 | Literature | No Comments
и вот еще одна цитата, раз уж зашла речь:
She could, at this stage of things, recognize signals like that, as the epileptic is said toan odor, color, pure piercing grace note announcing his seizure. Afterward it is only this signal, really dross, this secular announcement, and never what is revealed during the attack, that he remembers. Oedipa wondered whether, at the end of this (if it were supposed to end), she too might not be left with only compiled memories of clues, announcements, intimations, but never the central truth itself, which must somehow each time be too bright for her memory to hold; which must always blaze out, destroying its own message irreversibly, leaving an overexposed blank when the ordinary world came back. In the space of a sip of dandelion wine it came to her that she would never know how many times such a seizure may already have visited, or how to grasp it should it visit again. Perhaps even in this last secondbut there was no way to tell. She glanced down the corridor of Cohen’s rooms in the rain and saw, for the very first time, how far it might be possible to get lost in this.
так и есть.