Bitcoin press has gone through the roof in the last few weeks. So has the exchange rate between traditional currencies and bitcoins - a fact that has seen as many different explanations as I’ve seen people wrapping their heads around the Bitcoin concept and writing about it. One of the explanations is that there’s a cap on the number of bitcoins that will ever be produced - 21 million (divisible to eight decimals).
Bitcoin · Consumerism · Deflation · Economics · English · Sustainability · Uncategorized
2 minutes
Tabs - the most valuable screen real estate
As I’m writing this, I have 20 tabs open in my web browser. Of those, the five latest are newly opened and temporary part of things I’m currently researching. 15 tabs are fixed, they’re always the same. Those tabs contain the websites I visit everyday, my most important windows into the Internet. Controlling one of those tabs means you control 1/15th of the information flow I receive every day - I can’t think of a more important pathway for any company to fight for.
English · Internet · Uncategorized
1 minute
Climate variability in Northern Europe
A report from the World Bank is making rounds in media today. While portraying catastrophic scenarios, it contains no new actual research and is simply extrapolating statistical possibilities. Unfortunately the media headlines aren’t really reflecting the content - not unusual regardless of the topic. However, it does give me an opportunity to post about some actual research that has taken place since the last IPCC report, while we wait for the new one to come out next year.
Climatechange · Globalwarming · Scandinavia · Science · Uncategorized
3 minutes
An availability cascade is a self-sustaining chain of events, which may start from media reports of a relatively minor event and lead up to public panic and large-scale government action. On some occasions, a media story about a risk catches the attention of a segment of the public, which becomes aroused and worried. This emotional reaction becomes a story in itself, prompting additional coverage in the media, which in turn produces greater concern and involvement.
Book · Climatechange · Consciousness · English · Globalwarming · Science · Uncategorized
2 minutes
Creativity surplus as virtual work
In the spring of 2008 I sat in the audience at Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, watching Clay Shirky on stage. His talk about the cognitive heat sink, on how television had disrupted humanity from spending large parts of our time on being creative, on producing things we wanted to produce, to being simple receivers of information pre-packaged by someone else made a huge impact. Shirky compared the amount of hours we spend watching TV with projects like Wikipedia, and hinted at a future where instead of watching TV we would use our creativity to create other projects like it.
English · Gamification · Minecraft · Participation · Simulation
3 minutes
Följande text skrev jag den 5e september 2003 för eventuell publikation i en svensk tidning. Såvitt jag kommer ihåg skedde aldrig det, och eftersom jag nyligen oväntat stötte på den på en gammal del av hårddisken återpublicerar jag den här nu. Man kan tycka att den är väldigt aktuell med tanke på att straffskatten på inspelningsbar media - hårddiskar m.m - höjs igen den 1e april I veckan som gick annonserade Universal ut att de ska sänka priserna på CD-skivor.
Internet · Media · Pirateparty · Swedish
2 minutes
What does a digital nation state look like?
Swedish news papers are launching digital versions on Apple’s iPad - and seem to be somewhat surprised that they’re now going to have to comply with a set of rules that are very different from what they’re usually operating under. Spotify’s music library reflects a specific set of values, morality and legal system no matter where the listeners are and what they expect. Citizens used to having rights according to their chosen nation state find that when they move more and more of their lives onto the digital arena those rights are replaced with Terms of Services that reflect corporate and cultural values.
Bigbrother · Culture · English · Fascism · Internet · Newworldorder · Pirateparty · Spotify · Transhumanism
2 minutes
A few months ago I had to give up using my Mac Mini as my primary personal computer. I couldn’t put my finger on when, but looking back I realized it had gotten slower and slower to use since the day of purchase, and while I could understand that having two users logged on all the time while running a few services could tax a 3GB system I wasn’t happy with it becoming completely unresponsive for several seconds - sometimes minutes (!
2 minutes
Piratpartiet - för dig som gillar Hem och Skola?
Idag lät Sydsvenskan ungdomar bedöma valaffischer - vilket en del verkar förlöjliga eftersom ungdomspanelen så tydligt uttrycker helt andra åsikter än de politiskt rationella i sina val. Ungdomarna har dock så klart rätt, det är precis så irrationellt - emotionellt - vi bedömer den typen av korta budskap. Eftersom jag nyligen läst en alldeles utmärkt bok på området, Made to Stick, gick jag själv genom affischerna och blev lite överraskad över hur dåligt underlag några av partierna måste ha bakom sina budskap.
Forum · Internet · Participation · Pirateparty · Swedish · Val2010
4 minutes
Piratkopiering lagligt enligt polisen
Häromdagen råkade ett svenskt par ut för att någon kopierade ett fotografiskt verk de skapat och använde utan korrekt licens. När rättighetsinnehavarna, paret ifråga, kontaktade polisen fick de till svar att det inte är brottsligt att använda andras bilder på Internet. Intressant. Även om fotografier har en egen liten lagkonstruktion för att anses nå verkshöjd så skiljer inte upphovsrättslagstiftningen på huruvida saker händer via Internet eller inte, så polisens svar måste kunna anses gälla all form av kopiering av verk - och därmed även musik, filmer m.
Internet · Media · Pirateparty · Police · Swedish
1 minute