Posted by on under wall street journal wsj, free speech groups, east coast time, initial signatories, human rights in china, china human rights, network initiative, wall street journal, figleaf, new york times, quite some time, launch, hkt, first news, generalities, investm | 
Rebecca McKinnon has a piece up about the "Global Network Initiative," which launches this week. That's the corporate code of conduct on free speech and privacy I've been talking about in generalities for quite some time. By midnight Tuesday U.S. East Coast time, the full set of documents and list of initial signatories will be made publicly available at globalnetworkinitiative.org. On that website you'll be able to read the full text of the Principles on free expression and privacy. A group of companies, human rights organizations, socially responsible investment funds, academics, and free speech groups spent the last two-plus years reaching agreement on what should go into that document. There will also be a Governance Charter and a set of Implementation Guidelines giving more detail on how companies should adhere to the core principles. There will be an FAQ, list of participants, and contact people for the organizations that have joined the Global Network Initiative so far. The hope is that many more companies, NGOs, investment funds, and academic institutions around the world will join in the coming months. The initial plan was to release the news so that the first news reports about the initiative would come out closer to the website's unveiling at 12:01am Wednesday EDT or 12:01pm HKT. But the story leaked early and the San Francisco Chronicle reported it on Monday without any comment from the participants who had all agreed not to talk until the official launch. Since then, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, WSJ China Blog, the AP, AFP and others have reported the story with remarks from some of the participants. We can expect more coverage in the next 24 hours. A few people have called me asking "does this thing have any teeth" or "is this thing more than just a figleaf for companies to get congress off their backs?" Organizations like Human Rights Watch, Human Rights in China, Human Rights First, and the Committee to Protect Journalists would not be putting their reputations behind this thing if they didn't think it was meaningful. Link to her piece on rconversation.blogs.com....
Tagi: wall street journal wsj, free speech groups, east coast time, initial signatories, human rights in china, china human rights, network initiative, wall street journal, figleaf, new york times, quite some time, launch, hkt, first news, generalities, investm
Posted by jason@kottke.org on under envirment, accelerometer, iphone, iphe, sgs, kottke, sg, real time, hell |
Here's how to use the RJDJ iPhone app. You install the app, plug your headphones in, launch it, and press "Now Playing". A song plays, the app starts to sample the sounds in your environment, and those sounds are remixed in real time and played back to you. It might be the coolest thing ever. Check out this video and this other video for a quick look at how RJDJ works. The first video shows some songs that use the iPhone's accelerometer to modify and scratch the beat. (via waxy)
PS. It might only be the coolest app in theory...it's also flaky as hell. It was working fine for me and then crapped out...there's no music now, only sound sampling and it's really quiet. Maybe you need to use the Apple headphones with the mic?
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link)
Tagi: envirment, accelerometer, iphone, iphe, sgs, kottke, sg, real time, hell
Posted by Jason Kottke on under bezu fache, wide shoulders, da vinci code, danbrown, prow, good writing, dark eyes, dan brown, dark hair, seven times, adverb, kottke, dav, brow, battleship, severity, passages, ox, sentences, clarity |
Brian Joseph Davis takes a crack at editing some passages from the first two chapters of The Da Vinci Code.
Maybe using the adverb "slowly" seven times in your first 10 pages is the secret to good writing. That would make it 11,428,571 copies sold for every "slowly."
See also Dan Brown's worst sentences.
Captain Bezu Fache carried himself like an angry ox, with his wide shoulders thrown back and his chin tucked hard into his chest. His dark hair was slicked back with oil, accentuating an arrow-like widow's peak that divided his jutting brow and preceded him like the prow of a battleship. As he advanced, his dark eyes seemed to scorch the earth before him, radiating a fiery clarity that forecast his reputation for unblinking severity in all matters.
Tags: books Brian Joseph Davis danbrown The Da Vinci Code
Tagi: bezu fache, wide shoulders, da vinci code, danbrown, prow, good writing, dark eyes, dan brown, dark hair, seven times, adverb, kottke, dav, brow, battleship, severity, passages, ox, sentences, clarity
Posted by Jason Kottke on under nintendo emulator, dr mario, super mario bros, modern computers, cnor, google, kottke, canvas, safari, high performance, video games, nbsp, element |
This Javascript Nintendo emulator works amazingly well in Google Chrome. You can play Dr. Mario, Super Mario Bros., Tetris, The Legend of Zelda, etc.
I highly recommend you use Google Chrome to play JSNES. Thanks to its high performance canvas element, and a clever optimisation by Connor Dunn, it runs at full speed on modern computers. Mac builds are also available. Otherwise, it just about runs on Firefox 3.5 or Safari 4, but it's hardly playable.
We've come a long way from the days of the 5K Awards.
Tags: Javascript Nintendo video games
Tagi: nintendo emulator, dr mario, super mario bros, modern computers, cnor, google, kottke, canvas, safari, high performance, video games, nbsp, element
Posted by Jason Kottke on under mehmet murat, pastrami, olive groves, clerkenwell, ravioli, pho, lem, kottke, best food, olive oil, ld, katz, sucker, guardian, cyprus, turkey |
The Guardian lists the best 50 foods to eat and where to get them. I've had a few of these (ravioli at Babbo, pork at Gramercy, pho at Pho 24, pastrami at Katz's, etc.) but, sucker that I am for such things, I particularly enjoyed reading about the Turkish olive oil available at an electrical supply shop in London:
At his electrical supply shop in London's Clerkenwell, Mehmet Murat sells wonderful, intensely fruity oil from his family's olive groves in Cyprus and south-west Turkey. Now he imports more than a 1,000 litres per year. His lemon-flavoured oil is good enough to drink on its own.
Tags: best of food lists
Tagi: mehmet murat, pastrami, olive groves, clerkenwell, ravioli, pho, lem, kottke, best food, olive oil, ld, katz, sucker, guardian, cyprus, turkey
