Speakers in the News »

10/21/05
AL FRANKEN

The Truth (with Jokes), the new book from 2005 SXSW Interactive Festival feature speaker Al Franken, goes on sale this coming Monday. According to Amazon's review of this new volume, "This is truly a book for everyone. If you were a Bush voter, Al wants to set aside partisan bitterness and talk about the better future Americans can build together for their children, grandchildren, and great- grandchildren. (Generations beyond that will have to fend for themselves.) But first, Al must show you how Republican leaders are, at this very moment, betraying your trust and quite possibly lighting a Cuban cigar with a burning American flag or Bible. If you're a liberal, this book is for you as well. Maybe even most of all. In these pages, you will find evidence for what you already believe: that Al Franken is among America's finest prose stylists, and that the depravity of the Bush administration is only outmatched by the rot in the heart of the Republican Congress. And finally, if you are a member of a future generation who has found this book in a pile of radioactive rubble, Al apologizes. Not because he didn't do his best to control the proliferation of nuclear weapons from rogue nations to non-state actors taking refuge in so-called 'failed' states. But because his countrymen evidently failed to listen."

1:09pm CST | +

10/20/05
JIM COUDAL

Jim Coudal

Despite the ongoing disappointment that our beloved BoSox didn't make it out of the first round of the playoffs, we are excited to watch the Houston Astros battle the Chicago White Sox in the 2006 World Series. But not nearly as excited as Coudal Partners, who have produced design work for both of these teams. As noted on the front page of the company's website today: "Over the years we have worked with lots of pro sports teams and leagues on various design and advertising projects. But we've only worked with two Major League Baseball Teams, and now they are facing each other in the World Series. Coincidence? Who knows? We created the entire logo and identity package for the Houston Astros, including the uniforms they'll be wearing next week. Previous to that, we worked for a number of years creating all the Chicago White Sox creative, most notably the 'Good Guys Wear Black' campaigns. So, we're jacked, but a bit torn." Jim Coudal (pictured above), the founder of this company, will deliver Opening Remarks (with Jason Fried of 37signals.com) at the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival.

3:35pm CST | +

10/19/05
JASON GOLDMAN

"We think by sharing what we've learned about spam on Blogger we can hopefully improve the situation for everyone," writes Jason Goldman of Blogger in a recent column on buzz.blogger.com that addresses the growing problem of spam on weblogs. Goldman says that one of the most challenging aspects of this problem is posting restrictions often scare away legitimate users, thereby diminishing the entire experience. "We can also make it more difficult for suspected spammers to create content. This includes placing challenges in front of would-be spammers to deter automation. Of course, false positives are an unavoidable risk with automatic classifiers. And it's important to remember that the majority of content being posted on Blog*Spot is not spam." The Product Manager for Blogger, Goldman participated on the "Blogging Showdown" panel at the 2005 SXSW Interactive Festival.

3:36pm CST | +

10/18/05
BRAM COHEN

The October 31 edition of Fortune magazine profiles BitTorrent founder Bram Cohen, focusing on how he has managed to stay in the good graces of anti-piracy advocates despite the capacities of the software he invented: "To understand how Cohen is managing to avoid Hollywood’s wrath, you need to get inside his head. More inventor than entrepreneur, he has never claimed to be sticking it to the Man; nor, he insists, has he ever downloaded an infringing file. Napster’s Shawn Fanning dreamed of changing the music industry. Cohen couldn’t care less. True, in 1999 (pre-BitTorrent) Cohen noted on his website that he 'build[s] systems to disseminate information, commit digital piracy, synthesize drugs, maintain untrusted contacts …' He insists it was a parody of dot-commers’ revolutionary thinking; the fact that BitTorrent operates without encryption or any attempt to hide its users’ activity—downloaders beware!—back him up. Cohen says he created the program simply to … well, he’s not sure why. “I wanted to work on something rewarding,” he says. And once he was done, he was ready to move on to something new; his father had to twist his arm to build a company out of his work. Last month venture firm DCM-Doll Capital Management bet that Cohen could indeed make BitTorrent a business, investing $8.75 million in the startup. Now Cohen has to prove himself again, showing that he can thrive not just in the programming world—a place where logic rules and theories can be proved true or false—but in the fuzzy corporate world too, where compromise reigns and intellect doesn’t always trump idiocy." Cohen spoke at the 2005 SXSW Interactive Festival.

3:37pm CST | +

10/17/05
ESME VOS

Esme Vos, who served on the "Future of Broadband Wireless Networks" panel at SXSW Interactive in 2005, writes about the growing popularity of voice-over-internet telephone services in a recent post on her blog muniwireless.com. Particularly, her essay notes the stubborn resistance of so many industry pundits to extol the virtues of this popular technology: "It seems half the world is using Skype and other Internet applications that allow people to talk to one another for free, but don’t tell that to wireless (telecom) analysts. . . At home in Amsterdam, we have a Wi-Fi network. I use Skype and iChat on that network and have spoken to people, often on conference calls, without problems. There were perhaps one or two occasions when we had to log out and log on again, but that’s no different from the mobile networks I have used. . . Perhaps it’s just my provider, T-Mobile. But my experience is this: the Internet and in particular, Wi-Fi have been much more reliable for me than mobile connections in San Francisco and Santa Cruz. And certainly cheaper."