AUTHOR: Paul Miller TITLE: I want a green Apple STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/29/2006 10:40:17 AM ----- BODY: I'm a big Apple fan. I have an iPod and my last two laptops have been Apples. They've all served me very well and I like being part of the "mac fraternity'. But there are two things that worry me: firstly their growing insistence on DRM on music and video and secondly the environmental impact of their technology. They did pretty badly in a comparison of different manufacturers. Now Greenpeace have created a constructive campaign to get Apple to change. I'll be buying a new machine early next year. I'd like it to be an Apple but will make my decision based on how they respond to the campaign. It will have to be good - as the Greenpeace site puts it: "We're not asking for just "good enough." We want Apple to do that "amaze us" thing that Steve does at MacWorld: go beyond the minimum and make Apple a green leader." [via the wonderful Worldchanging] ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR: IAMBE EMAIL: 0cc5a76729fe5caf7438904a5cd482f5234473d9 IP: 86.129.107.241 URL: http://www.iambe.org DATE: 10/09/2006 12:21:58 PM I too was a big Apple fan. But it looks as if Apple is one of the worst offenders in a wasteful industry and I they will need to respond quickly to this campaign if I am going to be able to continue to partronize the brand. There are hundreds of thousands of perfectly useful Apple products which could be easily ungraded with newer technology and we could all save money and waste product if we could keep the shells + install newer components. IT is hugely wasteful and I for one would like to work towards convincing Apple to shape up. This last week Apple told me they would not fix my 2 year old laptop still under warrantee due to a dent in the shell, which invalidates the warrantee. Two years old, one little dent, and accordign to Apple it is finished. Luckily my handy boyfriend could fix it himself but if I were less lucky I would not be writing this to you now! This is a shameful lifespan for the highest value article I own! I feel I cannot claim any moral highground if a huge chuck of my cash goes to a company so uninterested in sustainability... so they will need to change, or I will need to end my relationship with them! ----- -------- AUTHOR: Paul Miller TITLE: The Good Society STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/20/2006 05:31:04 PM ----- BODY: Compass is a name that is cropping up more and more in the newspapers and on TV news. It's a pressure group set up by Neal Lawson to try and influence the Labour party's policy direction after Tony Blair leaves the helm. I've been involved a little bit and was a member of their Good Society working group, which has published its report as a short book today. It's an interesting read and will certainly get people thinking. Hetan and Jonathan who co-ordinated the process and wrote the final report have a piece in the Guardian today. Neal's blog on the way to a book is also well worth a read. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Paul Miller TITLE: Gibsonesque STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/18/2006 08:04:21 PM ----- BODY: There's no escaping the similarities between the lonelygirl15 saga and the plot of William Gibson's novel Pattern Recognition. From the Washington Post: "The plot [of Pattern Recognition] centers on mysterious bits of video posted anonymously on the Internet. The shadowy black-and-white videos, called "the footage," appear to feature a pair of lovers and hint deliciously at a larger, magnetically compelling story. The footage inspires a cultish following on the Web, including chat rooms, parodies and investigations -- just like those created around lonelygirl15 -- and the novel's hero is dispatched by an advertising wizard to track down the filmmakers so the phenomenon can be monetized." The Wikipedians have done an excellent job of telling the unfolding story of lonelygirl15. It seems to have come to an end for now with a series of public admissions that it was staged, although the scene is set for it to develop more into an ARG. Gibson blogs chaotically and confusingly, but he's noticed the Post's piece likening lonelygirl15 to his book. I had a few thoughts on Pattern Recognition the first time around, when I realised the ideas in the book wouldn't go away. I have to admit lonelygirl15 thing has creeped me out a bit. It made me realise how manipulative compelling storytelling can be in a networked environment. Perhaps it's because as Gibson himself has said, "Emergent technology is, by its very nature, out of control, and leads to unpredictable outcomes." I think we're just seeing the beginnings of a new form of art and/or business. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Paul Miller TITLE: Wikipedia v Britannica (again) STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/14/2006 11:27:01 AM ----- BODY: The Wall Street Journal has an interesting debate between Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia and Dale Hoiberg of Britannica. I'm beginning to think that it's gone beyond the point of Wikipedia using their difference from Britannica as a way of raising the profile of the project and that now Britannica must think they will sell more by keeping the debate alive. [via the excellent if:book] ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Paul Miller TITLE: Open House Weekend STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/12/2006 10:52:20 AM ----- BODY: bedzed.jpg It's Open House London this weekend and BedZED is part of the show. Must tidy up the garden before then and remember not to wander round in my underpants. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- -------- AUTHOR: Paul Miller TITLE: Would you trust Team 32? STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 09/06/2006 10:57:56 PM ----- BODY: The Department is the finest thing on radio for quite some time. Every show in this series has been brilliant but this week's installment about what to do with science and technology was a particular gem. "You can be pretty sure that a few seconds before the world ends, a scientist somewhere will have uttered the word 'oops'." is one lovely line. You can tell these things are catching on when the real Radio 4 presenters join in - this time it's Cornelius Lysaght from Today. I swear working with Demos sometimes had similarities to team 32. ----- EXTENDED BODY: ----- EXCERPT: ----- KEYWORDS: ----- --------