The Filter Bubble

By Eli Pariser

"On December 4, 2009," Says author Pariser, Google quietly made the decision to start "personalizing" search. What this will mean for.us peon users who were not asked our opinion, is now your search will conform more to your clickstream ie your already preconceived notions. That is the web will reinforce you stereotypes and faux news programs and further separate and isolate us. Serendipity as we know it is over. In this latest iteratiom of web 3.0 you will only find things that you already know. There will be no longer be  pesky opposing viewpoints to clog up our beautiful minds. Thanks Google.
This is the bubble that Pariser is talking about. Read all about it in this book.

57 signals which include things like where you are logging in from and what you searched last will now determine what results you will get.

Remember when you could rely on Google.to give you the most relevant sites based the eponymously named Page.rank system? Fugetaboutit! Google has gone round the bend and is now catering to the advertisers and not to the users. I can't wait for the next Google.to come along. And this from the guy who said he would always use Netscape and Alta Vista.

It was the same.story on Facebook when Pariser.realizes that his conservative friends had vanished from his Facebool feed. Again personalized, more like bowdlerized homogenized and pasturized.

You see its all about personalization and relevance. The idea of the smart.agent was pioneered by Negroponte. He invisioned a smart agent that would scour the tv chanels for you and produce a list of what it determined would be relevant to you. Today, companies like Google and Facebook wanna take this concept.to a whole new level.

Anyone remember Microsofts' Bob or Apples' Newton? Both of these mid-nineties smart agents were mega flops, therefore that whole digital butler concept went away right? Wrong says Eli Pariser. Todays smart agents act in the backround and subtly direct us most times without even our knowledge.

However Jeff Bezos seems to be making a good run at woth his personalization and recommendation service. I lile.to mess him up by searching for the.most.obscure antipodal things i can to keep him on his toes. And still now and then he gets it right and i.click on a recommendation of his. But don't do this.too much it only encourages them.

Cybernetics is the study of a self sustaining unit that tunes itself based on feedback.

The Civil War A Trilogy

By Shelby Foote

This was a re-read for me, and it was even more enjoyable this time. The last time I read this I was on fire with the Civil War and reading everything I could get  my hands on so I went through it pretty fast. It was good to take.my time this time and absorb it a little more.

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

By Doris Kearns Goodwin

I went to the.movies.to see Perfect Pitch, which by the way was excellent and I highly.recommend it. Anyway in the trailers, there it was from out of nowhere A Dreamwoks film Lincoln. "What?" says I. I sat spellbound waiting for the punchline ie Vampire Hunter or some other bizzare usage for the man, but none came. It was for.real; A movie about Abraham Lincoln, and it will be based on the book "Team Of Rivals."

So i ran home and picked up this book which i have had in the cue for.sometime and got started. It is a good.time to start as i.am.just finishing up the.Foote trilogy. Its a re-read I.read it when.i first studied the Ameican Civil War but just as great a second time.

So on to the book..

We start off by learning the back stories.of.he.four men most likely to be in the running for.the Republican nomination for president in the 1860 election. They are: Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, William H Seward and course our.Lincoln. Author Keens tells that Lincolns' generation  was full of.self-made men jusr like Lincoln, and in that.time men were very expressive of.their.friendships they made along the way. This was normal.behavior for the time. So on we go.

Chapter three: This is really in depth on the back stories, love it.

Its starting to really heat up now. The fight over the new territories, won in the mexican war, causes a tenative compromise. Henry Clay the great pacifier has all he can do to shepard the bill through. On the heels of the compromise you have Kansas-Nebraska and Mr Douglas' pop-sov. And the oppostion ie the future republicans begin to realize that this could mean slavery north of the 36/30  line of the Missouri Compromise. And with the Fugitive Slave.Law strengthened as part what was now being called the compromise of 1850, they realize that, unlile what they had always assumed, slavery may not be dying a slow extinctive death. Drop in the bomb of Uncle Tom's Cabin and now tempers really  begin to flair. And in this crucible of events around 1854 would be forged a new political party. In Syracise in late September 1855, former "conscience" Whigs, dissafected Democrats, free-ssoilers  and even some know-nothings got.together to form the Republican party.The party that  would go on to dominate  politics for many years to come.

About this time, Charles Sumner, gives a speech on the senats floor denouncing slavery and in the process insulting Andrew Butler And Stephen Douglas. Douglas blows it.off as alot of hot air but Preston Brooks decides to avange his uncles' honor but committing one of the.most dishonarable and cowardly acts.of the era. He sneaks up on Sumner and beats him to near death with a cane.  This dastardly deed further inflames and separates the sections.

Next on the stage we have Dred Scott and the Supreme Court decision that rocked the nation. Chief Justice Roger Taney (pronounced tawney) claims that black men have no rights that white men are obligated to observe, essentially declaring him a non-person and therefore not eligible to see satisfaction in a court.

On to the famous Lincoln- Douglas debates.

They gathered in Chicago to nominate a presidential canidate for the 1860 election. The balloting, and public opinion, were steady for Seward. But as the the third balloting commenced the dark horse, Lincoln, was gaining on the leader. And when
"David K. Cartter of Ohio stood and announced the switch of 4 votes from Chase to Lincoln. 'A profound stillness fell upon the Wigwam.'" And with that , to the astonishment of all, Abraham Lincoln would be the Republican nominee for.the 1860 election.

Lincoln wins! After winning the election, Lincoln sets out to create his family, that is his cabinet posts. Figured promimently in the new family would.be the rivals; Seward would get state, Chase treasury, Bates would be top law man as Attorney General. This would be rounded out by "father Neptune" Wells at Navy And the ever notoriuos Cameron at Defense. Throw in Monty Blair as postmaster and it is done.

On the heels.of the announcement of Lincolns' election South Carolina votes.to seceed. And if there was any doubt as the sincerity of the threat, with the seccession it was removed.

Before Lincoln can even take office the crisis of seccession is erupting. Lincoln stands firm he'll have no compromise on the extension of slavery into the
territories stating,"The tug has to come, & better now, than any time hereafter.”

When the Marylanders threaten to cut the lines cutting off reinforcements coming from the north, Lincoln suspends habeas corpus. This contraversial move will be discussed and debated through the ages since. One thing was certain the Federal Government was taking its first steps towards what it would become. Father neptune Wells grasped the indications stating," government will, doubtless, be stronger after the conflict is over than it ever has been, and there will be less liberty.”

So we try Greeley's whole "On to Richmond" thing and are repulsed. McClellan is brought in and the first thing he does is start insulting Gen Scott. I mean here is the first soldier of the Republic, the hero of Lundy's Lane, "they're regulars by god." And here's this little pissant  McCllelan whose not fit.to shine Scott's shoes belittling him.

Louisa May Alcott was a nurse in one of the makeshift hospitals in DC.

Hit Men: Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business

By Frederic Dannen

This Machine Kills Secrets: How WikiLeakers, Cypherpunks, and Hacktivists Aim to Free the World's Information

By Andy Greenberg

This  book is shaping up wonderfully. I just love the title and the tribute to Woody Guthrie. It starts with a general history of privacy on the internet.

One of the first characters we meet is Phil Zimmerman, who explored the idea of the "one-time pad" and took it digital and named it PGP.

So Zimmrman is called.to testify for.Congress on cryptagraphy also indicted for hos PGP. And on the heels.pf all this we get the clipper chip. The chip.offer good encryption but the catch is there is a baxk door cor.the gov to check.anything encrypted with. It lead a group of cypherpunks to put "big brother inside"  stickers on the offending computers. That is until Intel got sue happy

The author meets with an early cryto-geek with the archives to a listserve for his friends. Anonynously posted to this group is a leak about the Australian government selling information to help people track down debtors. They figure.out is Julian Assange.pre-wikileaks. Riot huh?

So here we learn about TOR (stands for the onion router). Its that super-secret program that you can.use to gain anonymity on the internet. They say it really works but personally I would not trust it.

251 We travel next to Iceland where some of the worlds most controversial websites are hosted, including WikiLeaks and PiratesBay. And when the greedy global bankimg elite crashed this economy, the people took to the internet. The author quotes Robert Marshall,"The first facebook revolution didn't happen in Tunisia or Egypt." It happened right there in Iceland. The irate Icelanders fprcex.put the currupt and inept government and replaced it. One of.the main objectives was a law to permanently ban the "so called" International Monetary Fund from the country. Just a bit a advice here in general if the IMF shows up in your country to make you rich beyond your wildest dreams, quickly put your hand on your wallet and keep walking. JS, just saying.

Pg268 Icelandic activist Jonsdottir, who, fed up with American requests for her private Twitter feed says,"The United States could also repeal the Patriot Act and try [a little] democracy instead of tyranny." This person is commenting on the.complete.disregard for privacy that the corpratocracy has inflicted on us here in America. In case there is still any doubt, nothing you do, say or write on the internet is private. Your information is bought, sold and traded all without your say so. Remember when we were free in America? Were we ever?

The author finally has a little chat with Evgeny Morrozov, whose book .Net Delusion argues that instead of the creating revolutions, it's creating a more effective surveillance system. When asked what he thinks of Wiki Leaks he says that yes they post embarrasing things about the rulers but so what. Then nothing happens, nothing changes.  Most people already know how corrupt their leaders are, they still support them. How do you fight that?

We finish up with all the excruciatong details of the breakup of Assange and Domscheit-Berg. The.subkect was covered beautifully in Bergs' memoir.

City of Scoundrels: The 12 Days of Disaster That Gave Birth to Modern Chicago

By Gary Krist

Chicago 1919, a year of disaster for those who lived it. From the firey crash of the Wingfoot Express to the murder of little Janet Wilkinson, to the transit strike, to ('dose bums) the Black Socks, the inhabitants of this western metropolis saw a little of every kind of trouble.

Their politicians (much like ours today) were ineffectual, partisan and got very little of the peoples' business accomplished. When asked of he wanted to clean up Chicago politics, Judge "Kennesaw Mountain" Landis, soon to be baseballs' first commissioner said,"i'd rather clean the shithouse."

This book gives all the sordid details of life in Chicago in that disasterous year of 1919

I give ot a 6/10 not bad.

Digital Vertigo: how today"s social revolution is dividing, diminishing and disorieting us

By Andrew Keen
Yet another book about our vanishing privacy in the digital age, this book aims to document the loss and the reasons.

Love this quote from pg 4 by German Sociologist Georg Simmel, "" living in the city "grants the individual a kind and amount of personal freedom which has no analogy whatever under any other condition."" There"s alot to be said about getting lost in the crowd of the big city. It"s pretty much complete anonymity. But with today"s technology, being just a face in the crowd is getting to be.much more difficult.

Pg 7 Here author Keen is talking with Linkedin CEO Reid Hoffman about social networks and those who, like Warren and Brandeis wish to be ''let alone.'' There remain many, who are not  ready for this digital Brave New World. @quixotic, Hoffmans" Twitter handle, counters brilliantly with Aristotle, ''that man is, by nature,
a social animal.'

I've seen the future and it is social says author Keen. Web 3.0 companies that will dominate the immidiate digital future will be social. All of the majpr players in the digital space are vying fpr position in the very lucrative social future.

Email is already out dated, i'll text you the reasons why.

"You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it." Scott Mcneally Sun Microsystems.

A super node is someone witb alot of online connections/friends. In the future these people will be sought out for their abiloty to influence others.

Pg 62 "Wealth equals connectivity in the web 3.0 world."

Those days when we could just move away and reinvent ourselves may no longer be possible. The web has a long memory.

Can we really trust industry to respect our privacy? I think that would be a little naive to believe. I mean it's bogus and if we dont adopt some cool rules now, then we'll just be bogus too.

Poor Prince Albert, instead of his Crystal Palace leading to the clanking together of crystal goblets in a celebration of internationlal brotherhood, it lead to Kristallnact. Technology, however seductive, will never unite us.

148 Here we hear about the Oxford Mal, the former prison turned into a luxury hotel. The peepholes have been reversed to allow us to see out at all times but not view our neighbors. This is the metaphor for this book and  for us in this digital age. Im reminded of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer gets some to reverse their peepholes so everyone can see in at all times, hilarity ensues. The video is on Youtube.

162 So who will protect our privacy online. In a sort of e-G8, a summit was held.to discuss these very questions. The big-wigs of Web 3.0, i.e. Zuckerberg and Schmidt say no to government regulation. That position does not surprise me at all. They have had it theie own way for a long time now and the smug attitude that no one could.possibly grasp whats going on digitally but them is really starting to get old.

Do i want "hands-off" my internet from government? Yes, mostly, but unrestrained entrepreneurism is never a good thing.

168 We have lived through Big Coal, Big Oil, Big Food and Big Pharma and now we are heading for the world of Big Data. This will be the next oppressor of the poor and plaything of the rich.

173 At last we ask the question.  "how many complex relationships can one person maintain?" anyway. Is it ten, 50,  or ten thousand?

175 this number, dubbed Dunbar's number is 150. That is how many we can manage. So if you have 5000 friends on facebook 4850 of them are not your friends.

Good book, covrered the sudject well. No fire though just smoke.

The Real Mad Men: The Renegades of Madison Avenue and the Golden Age of Advertising

by Andrew Cracknell

Ahh we go back to the golden years of Madison Avenue. DDB was teaching America to "think Small" and others were teaching us not to "eat the whole thing" Later we would ask the ultimate question, "Where's the Beef/" These are those creative souls who sold us the stuff we did not need and we loved them for it. 

Ever since (saucy old) Bernays we have been tricked and cudgeled and cajoled into parting with our hard earned. And these are the people that make it happen.

I picked this up in deference to the AMC series Mad Men which I was just barely able to watch. Like most "historical" pieces, i love watching the history but usually am repelled by the spectacle. When they start adding stuff that wasn't "correct" just to make the story into something that it wasn't I usually turn it off. 

This was a good look at a great place in time in American history.

I give it a 5/10

The Mobile Wave: How Mobile Intelligence Will Change Everything

The Mobile Wave: How Mobile Intelligence Will Change Everything by Michael Saylor

The first revolution was agricultural and it took thousands of years. On the second revolution, the industrial, the time was speed up to just a few hundred years to remake society and makes its changes felt. Well now this third revolution Mobile Intelligence, will cut it down to "tens of years". according to the author Michael Saytlor.

Desktops were more mobile than mainframes, laptops were very mobile, but boil all that off and the vapor is mobile intelligence with tablets ans smartphones. This is what Mr Saylor speaks of in this book.

I recommend it for anyone who follows technology and the changes it brings.  

500 Days by Kurt Eichenwald

This book is about the "behinds the scenes" machinations of the Bush team just after 9/11. These are the people at the very center of power who will shape the policies that will guide America's response to the tragedy. The players are all listed from Addington, (Cheney's Cheney), to Yoo,  to the principals the cabinet members to Potus himself. I mean here is where it all originated wireless phone taps, torture memo's, Gitmo, to all else in the war on terror.

I read this because I love Eichenwald. If you have not yet read conspiracy of fools yet check that out its the definitive Enron book.

3 Stars.... Got the job done but certainly no fires were lit.