My new fave writer: Warren Ellis: On real versus digital experiences (Wired UK)

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Excerpt:

From the March issue of WiredUK:

"...The last bastion of civilisation has fallen. My London hotel of choice has banned smoking in all its rooms, a week before I specifically requested and apparently secured a smoking room. I arrived with an elegantly yellowed netbook, a gentlemanly seven or eight packets of cigarettes, lighters and spare pair of lungs, only to be told that, no, sir, you may not partake of vaporous refreshments in the paid-for privacy of your not-inexpensive human hutch...."

Excellent post by Russell M Davies: On ubiquitous computing & the 'debasement of technology' wiked uk (Wired UK)

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Excerpt from an excellent post:

"....Matt Jones, of the mighty design studio BERG (which wired appears legally bound to mention in every issue), has conjured up an idea he calls "MujiComp" -- the notion that we won't get Ubiquitous Computing from mighty technology behemoths or centrally planned civic infrastructure, but rather it will come from tastefully designed middle-class bits and bobs. We'll buy a nice storage thing with some smarts and connectivity, and that will talk to our other nice storage things and tell us where our nice pencil-case or that chic key-chain have got to...."

Read the full post:

http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2011/02/start/russell-m-davies

Hey Canadians! My Fave Story Today!: Ottawa to reverse CRTC Internet billing decision

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Toronto Star article by Richard J. Brennan

Ottawa Bureau

"OTTAWA—A controversial CRTC decision that effectively imposed usage-based Internet billing on small service providers will be reversed, the Toronto Star has learned.

“The CRTC should be under no illusion — the Prime Minister and minister of Industry will reverse this decision unless the CRTC does it itself,” a senior Conservative government official said Wednesday.

“If they don’t reconsider we will reverse their decision.”

The promise to reverse the ruling comes as CRTC Chair Konrad von Finckenstein is scheduled to explain the decision Thursday before the House of Commons industry committee.

While the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is an independent agency, its decision can be overturned by cabinet. The Star was told that could happen as early as next week...."

3 years on from Radiohead's House of Cards: Kinect hack creates 'Echo Lake - Young Silence'

A recent article by Russell M Davies in WiredUk commented that ubiquitous computing will be realized through the 'debasement of technology' -- where expensive computing technologies become ubiquitous through their rapid transformation into cheap available ubiquitous devices. Welcome the Kinect....

See the WiredUK post here:

http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2011/02/start/russell-m-davies