Computer Solves Rubik's Cube in 26 Moves

This morning, Guardian reporter Alexandra Topping covers a record-breaking computer solution to Rubik's Cube:

It is the holy grail for puzzle-lovers around the world. A task that has thwarted the greatest minds for generations. But the ultimate solution to the Rubik's cube may be within grasp.

A supercomputer has been working without pause to provide conclusive evidence that the cube can be returned to its original state in no more than 26 moves.

The computer took 63 hours to provide the proof, which goes one better than the previous best solution.

The computer worked 63 hours without pause? It didn't even take a Minesweeper break?

Journalism · 2007/08/17 · 1 COMMENT · Link

The Ghost of Michael Arrington Past

There's some fun stuff in TechCrunch publisher Michael Arrington's old personal blog, which he published for eight months in 2005 before becoming the Ron Popeil of Web 2.0.

A Nov. 12, 2005, entry in which he raises a little capital:

Selling my copy of The Search by John Battelle. $10 obo.

An Aug. 1, 2005, post declaring that he has deleted his PayPal account and would no longer be selling items on EBay:

I broke up with PayPal today, using their handy 12-step account termination procedure. I won't go into the details, but they abused me to the point where I simply could not do business with them any longer. The core issue wasn't that big of a deal, but their customer service at first ignored me for weeks, then re-defined "condescension" to a near Platonian perfection. Sadly, this means my ebay purchases and sales have ceased

An Oct. 8, 2005, item giddy over TechCrunch being named one of the top 100 tech blogs by CNET:

I found out last night when I got home from a conference and was totally excited and overwhelmed. I'm extremely happy about this.

Today, Arrington frequently rages against CNET, once writing that it represents "everything that we bloggers are trying to kill." (Speak for yourself, dude: The only thing I'm trying to kill is the designated hitter.)

Arrington tells interviewers his goal is to beat CNET, which even by his claim of $200,000 monthly revenue is a lofty goal. CNET's a publicly traded media corporation with a market cap of $1.1 billion and $387 million in revenue last year. By comparison, Arrington fielded an offer to buy TechCrunch for $8.5 million, according to Wired.

Business · 2007/08/13 · 1 COMMENT · Link

Jerome Armstrong Settles SEC Stock-Tout Suit

I filed a story this morning on Watching the Watchers about blogger Jerome Armstrong settling his stock-tout suit with the SEC:

Influential liberal blogger Jerome Armstrong, the founder of MyDD and an originator of the netroots movement, has agreed to pay $29,000 in fines and penalties to settle a 2003 SEC suit accusing him of touting a stock on Internet message boards without disclosing his financial interest in the company.

Some of my fellow liberals threw me under the bus for digging into the allegations last year, but it's the kind of ethical transgression we'd be all too happy to expose against someone with an "R" next to his name. Shilling stocks without disclosing your interest in the companies is a big deal.

The Twenty First Century Democrats, a group that gave Armstrong the Wellstone Award for Political Organizing in April, appear to agree. The group has removed all references to Armstrong from its web site, including his photo and the announcement of his award, which was cached by Google July 20.

Politics · Business · 2007/08/09 · 4 COMMENTS · Link

Switching to FeedBurner Without Handing Over Subscribers

I recently began using FeedBurner to publish the RSS feeds for five web sites, relying on it to provide usage stats, check regularly for errors, and make the feeds more useful. Since the service was acquired by Google, there's been some concern among bloggers about whether it's a good idea to trust a third party to publish your feeds. Though FeedBurner exec Eric Lunt is one of my homies on the RSS Advisory Board and I've had good experiences with the company, I think the caution is well-placed when relying on any outside service for web publishing.

In this instance FeedBurner provides a free feature that removes the risk of using it. If you have your own domain, you can use MyBrand to create a new subdomain that hosts your feed. I created one for each of my feeds:

• http://feeds.cruel.com/cruel
• http://feeds.drudge.com/retort
• http://feeds.rssboard.org/rssboard
• http://feeds.sportsfilter.com/sportsfilter
• http://feeds.cadenhead.org/workbench

These domains redirect feed requests to FeedBurner's servers, but if Google ever shuts down the service or I decide to quit, I can host them myself or redirect them to a FeedBurner competitor. There's no lock-in at all.

The fear that FeedBurner might throw its weight around and try to knock off RSS 2.0 in favor of Atom seems far-fetched to me. One reason FeedBurner grew to 866,000 feeds was because of the confusion caused by multiple feed formats. Publishers and readers don't want to mess with that stuff or figure out which format to choose. Any site that makes potential subscribers choose between an Atom and RSS feed, as I did for the last year on the Drudge Retort, is going to scare people off.

FeedBurner makes a publisher's choice of format irrelevant because it works with all of them. There's even a SmartFeed service that converts feeds on-the-fly based on the formats supported by a subscriber's software, making it possible for an RSS-only client like Amphetadesk to get an RSS feed while an Atom-only client gets an Atom feed. All of this happens behind the scenes.

Considering how much FeedBurner has gained by shielding users from the technical aspects of syndication, it would be crazy for the service to pick sides.

Rss · Atom · 2007/08/08 · 5 COMMENTS · Link

Notre Dame Coach Loses Malpractice Suit

Notre Dame football Coach Charlie Weis nearly died after gastric bypass surgery a few years ago due to internal bleeding, so he sued surgeons Charles Ferguson and Richard Hodin for negligence. I love this detail from the first time they faced off in court:

The first trial ended in a mistrial in February after Ferguson and Hodin rushed to the aid of a juror who collapsed in the courtroom.

It can't be good for your malpractice suit when the defendants save a juror.

Law · 2007/07/25 · 6 COMMENTS · Link

Blogger Files FEC Complaint Calling Daily Kos a PAC

I wrote a story for Watching the Watchers this afternoon about an FEC complaint that's been filed against Daily Kos -- a conservative blogger alleges that the liberal site functions as a political action committee and therefore should disclose its sources of income and expenditures.

Conservative blogger John Bambenek's complaint doesn't seem like it will get far, given a 2005 FEC advisory opinion that supports the "media exemption" for political activist blogs. Daily Kos functions like a media site and is neither created nor controlled by political entities. Declaring that you want Democrats to win and working toward that goal doesn't make you a PAC.

But there's one aspect of Daily Kos that makes a lot different than the media -- the site directly raises funds for specific Democratic candidates and PACs. During the current and preceding two campaigns, Daily Kos has raised nearly $2 million for Democratic candidates and BlogPAC, a Democratic PAC founded by site founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga.

For the 2008 election, a Blue Majority fundraising campaign run by Daily Kos and three other liberal sites has raised $72,232 from 1,456 donors for two candidates and BlogPAC, a political action committee cofounded by Moulitsas in 2004. ...

In 2006, Daily Kos and two other sites raised $1,544,089 from 14,443 donors for 17 candidates, including Senate victors James Webb and Jon Tester, and BlogPAC.

In 2004, Daily Kos raised $366,947 from 2,235 donors for the "Kos Dozen," 12 Democratic Congressional challengers including Jeff Seeman in Ohio.

That's a lot of political action.

Politics · 2007/07/24 · 9 COMMENTS · Link

Journalist Defends Misquoting Her Sources

I'm running this quote from syndicated newspaper columnist Penelope Trunk to make my wife -- and every other journalist I know -- cringe:

As a journalist I hear all the time from people in business that they are misquoted. And you know what? People need to get over that, and I'm going to tell you why. ...

If you do an interview with a journalist, don't expect the journalist to be there to tell your story. The journalist gets paid to tell her own stories which you might or might not be a part of. And journalists, don't be so arrogant to think you are not "one of those" who misquotes everyone. Because that is to say that your story is the right story. But it's not. We each have a story. And whether or not someone actually said what you said they said, they will probably still feel misquoted.

Trunk doesn't appear to have a formal journalism background -- her bio and a puff-piece Wikipedia entry reveal that she's a former dot-com exec and pro beach volleyball player who became a successful pundit on career-related subjects.

I'm not clear on how the existence of subjective truth makes it OK to put quote marks around something an interview subject did not say. The best way a reporter can win someone's confidence is to take the time to quote the person accurately, even if it means a follow-up call just to recheck the quotes. I developed a much stronger appreciation for this fact when I switched from being an interviewer to an interviewee.

Journalism · 2007/07/23 · 20 COMMENTS · Link

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