The Nexus of 2024

Category: social sciences

  • THREAT LEVEL’s year in review

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    jon
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    The group blog THREAT LEVEL is one of my favorite things about wired, and Kevin Poulsen’s year-end roundup is a great example of why: It was a year of soul searching at THREAT LEVEL, every day a fresh challenge to our fundamental beliefs and convictions: Alberto Gonzales made us pine for John Ashcroft; Google made…

  • What’s up with me

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    jon
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    The two months since I left Microsoft have been low-key recharge-and-relax time: catching up on sleep, visiting my mom, reconnecting with friends, doing some writing (blogging, poetry, the fictional The anomaly and the goddesses), and hanging out with Deborah. It’s been great. My friends consistently tell me how relaxed I look and sound (my Facebook…

  • Poisoning squirrels in the repository

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    jon
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    Slashdot’s linked to a bunch of good stories on computer security recently. Squirrelmail repository poisoned has the catchiest title, and plus it’s about squirrels, so it goes first. What happened was that an intruder got into the site where you download Squirrelmail, and introduced a very subtle change in the code that would allow somebody…

  • I love it when stuff like this happens!

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    jon
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    Recently somebody who’s interviewing around Microsoft told me that they had brought up Ad Astra in an interview context as a way of demonstrating that they understood viral marketing: “Remember all those hot pink Mashup posters around campus? Well, here’s how we approached it; this was my role; this is what I learned.” And it…

  • Did Blockbuster and Facebook violate the VPPA via Beacon?

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    jon
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    James Grimmelmann has an excellent post over at the Laboratorium. His summary: Another member of a professorial mailing list I’m on asked whether Facebook may have violated the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988. Nicknamed the “Bork Bill” (a newspaper published his video rental records during his confirmation hearings), the VPPA protects your privacy in…

  • Notes on quotes

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    jon
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    Somebody pointed out to me in email that my repeating the characterization of me as “airing dirty laundry” looks like an example of something that politicians (and persuasive communicators in general) are warned against: publicizing the attacks against you.  It’s an good point, especially since attempts to combat or defuse the attacks often reinforce them…

  • Bullies and moderation in online discussions

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    jon
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    A kerfuffle that recently went on in one of the online communities I hang out in is a nice illustration of some of the complex interaction between moderator privilege in discussion forums, power vectors and bullying. Briefly, a poster engaged in a bunch of techniques such as using loaded and admittedly-pejorative terms in a theoretically-neutral…

  • Insults, “mate retention behavior”, and gender violence

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    jon
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    Continuing the theme for the day, I was looking at a couple of abstracts from Christian Jarret’s excellent BPS Research Digest: Why do some men insult their partners? concludes “men who habitually insult their wives or girlfriends do so, somewhat paradoxically, as part of a broader strategy to prevent them from leaving for someone else…

  • Fascinating on so many levels

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    jon
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    An anonymous commenter on Mini patronizingly critiqued me for “airing dirty laundry” about Microsoft on a public forum under the guise of a “helpful” warning me that “my new employer” might have second thoughts about me because I’d presumably “do it to them as well”. (See the thread for the full language and context —…

  • Judge suggests trans exclusion from ENDA may impact Title VII protection

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    jon
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    Ann Rostow’s excellent Bay Times article gives details and context. After transwoman Diane Schroer was denied a job at Congressional Research Service when she told them she would be reporting at work as a female, Schroer sued in federal court under the aforementioned Title VII, alleging that her job was revoked due to impermissible sex…

  • I’ve got fans! Kind of.

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    jon
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    In  a comment in the Power vectors thread, Vanita said: You were useless (I met with you several times at Microsoft) and it looks like you still are. I am glad to hear you are gone – it made no sense for Microsoft to pay you a hefty salary given the “work” you were doing.…

  • So it’s not just me …

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    jon
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    In an interesting study recently published in the Journal of Applies Psychology and summarized in British Pscyhological Society’s Research Digest: Male and female employees who said they had witnessed either the sexual harassment of female staff, or uncivil, rude or condescending behaviour towards them, tended to report lower psychological well-being and job satisfaction. In turn,…