No, you aren't paranoid. Old-style businesses really are trying to stifle the Internet. Or so Lawrence Lessig argues in his book The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World. I haven't read it yet, but the Atlantic Online reviewer was impressed with Lessig's ability to make complex intellectual property issues interesting.

(Incidentally, books mentioned in this space have caught my eye for one reason or another. As in this case, though, I may not have had a chance to actually read them yet. I have read, and recommend, all items listed in the Bookstore.)

Oh boy! Arts and Letters Daily, one of my must reads, has a sister site for techies. I've just found SciTech Daily Review, but if it lives up to the family reputation it will soon become a must read as well.

Indium phosphide manufacturing is now at the point where gallium arsenide manufacturing was ten years ago. In Compound Semiconductor's May issue, Velocium president Dwight Streit looks at the path to InP production and the lessons InP manufacturers can learn from the GaAs industry.

John Hiler at Microcontent News has been doing some hard thinking about the relationship between weblogs and journalism. He writes with a foot in each world, and is one of the few commentators who doesn't talk about a "war for survival" between "New Media" and "Old Media." Instead, he views both as part of an evolving, interdependent ecosystem. Long, but worth the time to read.

(Link by way of Little Green Footballs.)

Upgraded Movable Type from version 2.0 to 2.11. The change should be invisible; please leave a comment or send email if something seems broken.

Mars has ice. Lots of it, according to the latest data from NASA's Mars Odyssey mission. The data suggests that there's enough ice on Mars to form an ocean at least 500 meters deep.

Researchers at Ohio State University claim that they've identified the 22nd amino acid. For thirty years after the discovery of the structure of DNA, scientists thought all proteins could be built from only 20 amino acids. The 21st was discovered in 1986.

This discovery is the biological equivalent of physicists finding a new fundamental particle. It should remind biochemists that they don't know nearly as much as they think they do.

One of the weblogs that I read is currently embroiled in a controversy over critical comments posted by a reader. In case the question ever comes up here, here's my policy on weblog comments:

Comments are the sole responsibility of the author. I will not edit the content or attribution of any comment, but I reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason. Obscenities, personal attacks, and irrelevance to the topic at hand are the most likely reasons, but I may add others without notice as circumstances or personal whims dictate.

I'd also like to remind anyone who objects to this policy, or to the editorial policies of any other site, that the Internet is a big place. In my corner of it, I make the rules. If you don't like them, you can very easily set up shop in your own corner and make whatever rules you like there.

Back in November, I posted a link to work on single molecule transistors at Bell Labs. Apparently other scientists have not been able to reproduce the results. One outside researcher, whose name was not revealed, alleged scientific misconduct. The lab did not release details of the allegations, but has formed an external review board to investigate.

I'm working my way through Julia Cameron's book, The Artist's Way, which is a 12-week course for unblocking creativity. Week 4, where I am now, uses reading deprivation as a tool. The idea being that if you aren't reading you'll eventually be forced into creativity out of sheer boredom.

It's harder than I thought it would be, and I'm cheating like mad. I'm also becoming more and more convinced of the value of the exercise. I'm not sure I'm being any more creative than usual, but I'm definitely clearing a lot of things off my To Do list. This Cameron person may be onto something.

Some technology disasters have become icons for engineering hubris: the Titanic sinking, the Challenger explosion, Three Mile Island. Technology Review's June issue looks at 10 less famous technology disasters and the lessons they offer.

From the mailbag:
The 2002 Electronic Materials Conference is scheduled for Santa Barbara, CA, in late June. The technical program includes molecular electronics, spintronics, and several sessions on nitrides and other non-silicon electronics. Concentrating on the sessions may be difficult, though, as late June is prime beach weather in Santa Barbara.

Some of you may have noticed that I haven't posted a word count in a few days. I'm still writing, but have dropped out of the Forward Motion Writing Dare. The reason is that I've realized that creating new words isn't my problem. I can write 1000 first draft words in about an hour. But when you add in research time (especially for non-fiction) and rewriting time (my second drafts usually grow about 50% from the first draft), productivity goes way down. I only get about 100 finished words per hour for non-fiction. I haven't analyzed my fiction productivity as closely, but it's no better than 750 second draft words per hour, and probably 500 or less when you figure in rumination time, false starts, and the need for more than two drafts.

By pushing word count, I found that I was spending too little time on equally necessary but more time-consuming tasks. I was falling short on my ultimate goal: increase the number of publishable words out there with my name attached to them. Ergo, time to shift priorities.

As I've said before, I think Hynix's financial difficulties are almost entirely self-inflicted, a result of overly aggressive capacity building due to overly optimistic market forecasts. Still, I was impressed by the company president's decision to go without pay for six months while Hynix attempts to restructure itself. In contrast, Polaroid's CEO asked a bankruptcy court judge for an enormous retention bonus, even as Polaroid laid off thousands of workers without medical insurance or severance pay.

Does yelling at your computer really make it work better, or does it just make you feel better? Where do random "glitches" come from? The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research group has built an impressive body of data suggesting that human consciousness has a measurable impact on statistical fluctuations like those that cause unrepeatable system glitches.

Think about it long enough, and this is pretty disturbing to science's typically mechanistic world view. It suggests the possibility that emotions and other purely subjective aspects of consciousness might contribute to the behavior of physical systems. The Princeton group argues that without a new "Science of the Subjective" (PDF file, Adobe Acrobat Reader required), scientific inquiry will ultimately fall short of a full understanding of physical phenomena.

One of the lessons of the information age is that cheap technology finds its own applications. Now that accurate Global Positioning System data is available to the general public and GPS receivers are inexpensive and portable, artists are finding all sorts of uses for it, turning the Earth itself into a sort of giant sketchbook.

(New York Times link. Free registration required.)

I had a larger than usual collection of press releases in my email today, about half of which arrived in the form of an attached Word file with little or no cover information.

Don't do that!

If you want me to read your press release, make it easy. Usually that means including either the entire release or a synopsis in the body of your email. Also, note that I maintain a separate email address for press releases. Please use it.

Stephen Wolfram's book, A New Kind of Science, is coming out this week. Wolfram believes that he has figured out how to model complex natural forms like trees using extremely simple mathematical tools. From the little bit of his work that I've read, he may be onto something.

Wolfram is a bit of a controversial figure in scientific circles. He funds his research independently of academia, is promoting the current book to the public at large rather than submitting to peer review, and claims to explain his ideas in non-technical language. Attacks from the scientific establishment are inevitable. It'll be interesting to see whether they focus on his science or his methods.

I spent the weekend at an aikido seminar. It gave me lots of things to think about, many of them too technical to interest people other than aikido students. But it also got me thinking about power, compassion, and responsibility.

In aikido, students spend a lot of time tossing each other around, taking and causing falls that would inflict a lot of damage on an untrained person with a hard landing surface. Very few people get hurt doing those falls, partly because we use mats and partly because we spend a lot of time learning how to land safely. It's easy to forget that the potential for damage is there.

I didn't hurt anyone this weekend, but I did have a few close calls. Close enough to remind me that my power exceeds my control. Which is true for most people, in and out of martial arts: your car will probably go faster than your ability to control it, too.

Issues of power and control, freedom and responsibility come up in many contexts other than martial arts. Aikido is interesting in part because it offers a relatively safe way to study questions that go far beyond self defense.

Dave Winer added this page to his list of professional journalists with blogs. Doing so apparently inspired a flurry of new visitors, and also a link from John Robb, president and COO of Userland Software. Many thanks for the links, gentlemen. Greatly appreciated!

John also asked about an XML subscription to the site. I'm a technology journalist, not a software journalist, so my first response was a blank stare. My second response was to RTFM and discover that yes, Movable Type quietly creates XML as it updates the site. The contents of the file may be invisible to some browsers, but everything you need to syndicate the site should be there. Newsisfree has done exactly that, so I know it works. I'll put one of those nifty "XML here" buttons into the template when I get a chance. Update: button added.

If you'd like to syndicate the site, feel free to do so provided that your links point back to my page, not yours. (Please read the copyright notice.) I don't update more than a few times a day; no need to check for updates more than once every few hours.

If the previous two paragraphs were utter gibberish to you, don't worry about it. Very briefly, XML is a markup language for structured documents. Other computers can use the XML version of this page to build a list of links to individual entries.

XML is also relevant to semiconductor manufacturing. It's one possible solution to the problem of data exchange among tools and data analysis software.

Yesterday's words: 1050. Since April 1: 29,550.

Dave Winer, author of the Radio Userland weblog package and other software, posted a nice piece on "How To Start a Weblog (For Professional Journalists)". Short and sweet, covering both the "how" and "why" questions.

The World Wide Web, designed to help people collaborate, may have succeeded too well. "Collaborating" with video games, message boards, and email is much more interesting than actually doing work.

"We plunk ourselves in front of computers and expect tasks to be accomplished. Are we insane? We're trying to work on the world's largest shopping-centre-slash-video-arcade-slash-red-light-district -- I could go on. The networked computer is a fantastic tool for many things, but getting work done isn't one of them. "

Uh oh, better quit surfing and get back to work...

(Link by way of Metafilter.)

Taiwan's semiconductor industry is implementing water conservation measures in the face of strict water rationing in Taipei. Though the Taiwanese government has promised the industry priority access to water, companies are pursuing other contingency plans as well.

The SEC is closing the barn door after the horse is gone, proposing new rules to prevent stock analysts from promoting stocks they don't believe in. Among other things, the rules would force firms to disclose what percent of companies received what investment ratings.

The Korean government is cutting off the funding spigot for Hynix Semiconductor. Creditors could use convertible bonds to take control of the company, or the government could force it into receivership.

Yesterday's words: 1200. Since April 1: 28,500.

Lost a few days over the weekend thanks to a trip to do some network wiring for my father-in-law. We lucked out, had absolutely gorgeous weather, and got the first sunburns of the season while driving our convertible with the top down.

Spent Friday afternoon at the New England Aquarium, which was also very cool. Since I was there by myself, I had time to pay attention to little details like the way penguins hop from one rock to the next, or how the tentacles of an anemone pass food particles around.

Wrote 900 words yesterday, dealing with the very warped character I mentioned in Friday's entry. If I finish this one, it'll definitely end up as horror. That gives me 27,300 words since April 1, which is rather behind where I need to be. Especially since I'll probably lose a few more days to a vacation later on.

(Penguin cam requires Real Player.)

1050 words and done for the day. 26,400 words since April 1. About half on the Venice project and half on a new short story that, well, the protagonist is starting out as a pretty sick puppy. I'll need to sleep on that one and decide if I want to finish it.

Semiconductor Magazine article done and shipped. For those interested, this one is about construction of semiconductor manufacturing facilities. There will be a link on the publications page in a month or so, once it appears in the magazine.

Wow.

Chris Locke, more commonly known on the web as Rageboy, writes, "For better or worse, I said, I am trying to live my life in public. Online. We've never had any channel for this. No models. And the models we need are not "model" lives but real ones. Uncertain and afraid, crippled, broken. Trying to make sense of our minds and our hearts and the world we encounter out here. Telling each other what it's like to be human. Making what we can with all we've got. "

Yesterday's words: 750. Since April 1: 25,350.

As usual, the Semiconductor Magazine article expanded about 50% from the first to the second draft. First goal for the day is to finish that up and ship it out.

Elsewhere on the site, there's a new article on spintronics, devices which rely on changes in electron spin. Many thanks to the good folks at IMEC for their contribution.

The Hubble Space Telescope has a new camera, and it's delivering spectacular photos of infant stars, colliding galaxies, and other stellar wonders.

(Caution: slow site, with lots of images and lots of traffic. Even broadband users will need some patience.)

Okay, now what? Hynix's creditors approved Micron's proposed acquistion of the Korean company's memory operations. Then the board of directors rejected the deal, claiming that Hynix can survive on its own. Few outside observers agree. The board did not supply details of its further plans for the company.