Ideas & Ethics
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edgeio: Classifieds, and a hope for distributed community
You may think the previous post on my blog, in which I listed a propane fireplace for sale, was a little bit strange. In fact, there’s another reason for it besides my desire to sell the fireplace (after all, I’ve already paid to post it for sale elsewhere). The ad was also my first test…
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Idea factory: Dell, let us share our customized systems!
OLSTM (one-line summary): Dell should provide a “Send this configuration to a friend” link on the page of its website where you customize the components of your Dell system. Here’s one way it could work: If you’ve ever ordered a computer online via Dell’s website (or even browsed the site without ordering), you’ve probably seen…
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Idea factory: Save and share Your Laws
OLSTM (one line summary): It would be fun if somebody created a site called YourLaws.org (as of this writing, it’s available). The site would be a place to record and publicly share personal “laws”, such as “Clarke’s Law states that a traffic light will only be green when you don’t want it to be.” Here
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Idea factory: deliver school closings via RSS
Here in Maine, the weather is likely to turn bad any day now (possibly today) and stay that way until at least early April. Hence, we’re nearly upon the beginning of the school snow day season. One idea I’d love to see is a site where a parent (or anybody else) could grab news for…
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Is there an ideal gender mix in academia?
In which I link to Rex Hammock twice in one day: Rex reports that colleges and universities are seeing a drop in male students. As Rex quotes, from the WaPo: “Colleges and universities across the country are grappling with the case of the mysteriously vanishing male. Where men once dominated, they now make up no…
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Rex Hammock says: “You’re crazy if you take what you read in Wikipedia at face value.”
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Idea factory: integrated bittorrent search
OLSTM (one-line summary): a bittorrent client that includes an integreated search box. Here’s one way it could work: A user downloads a bittorrent client that includes an integrated torrent file search box. As the user, you can specify one, or a series, of URLs to pre-load the search with. The software’s maker could also choose…
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Shame on The New York Times
“I don