idea: URIs that reflect how you found an item

Are traditional web URLs becoming obsolete? With increasingly dynamic content (that if not making content impossible to relocate, at least makes it difficult to remember the address), disappearing content from small servers or being moved within a site, would it not make more sense to index pages by how you found them. I’ve already seen this take hold in some company’s internal documentation, e.g.:

http://www.companywebsite.com -> Human Resources -> Payroll -> Direct Deposit

to describe a series of links to click.

Often, instead of bookmarking a page or sending a link to a friend, I’ll try to tell them how I got there, e.g:

“Google for ‘belkin wireless solder’ and look on the first page of results to find that article about attaching an external antenna to a Belkin device with a non-removable antenna.

Maybe there should be some kind of standard nomenclature for these sort of descriptions. Would it be possible for a browser to interpret these instructions?

idea: debates

Watching the presidential debate last night, I thought of something that might be interesting as performance or political spectacle. The basic principle is to meld electoral/mainstream politics with the politics of real people. The idea is to make a fake debate between a real person and video footage of a political figure. The footage coud be from a real debate or pieced from past press footage of the politician. A human moderator would offer the question. The video footage of the politician would play and then the human debater would give a response. One humerous piece that comes to mind would be a real person debating issues of anti-terrorism or problems with the US’ criminal justice system against John Ashcroft singing the creepy Let the Eagles Soar.

idea: punks win wireless network project

What I think I’ll need:

chipping humans

Brian Deller pointed me at this:

FDA approves computer chip for humans

Devices could help doctors with stored medical information
The VeriChip, the size of a grain of rice, is inserted under the skin with a
needle in a procedure that takes less than 20 minutes.

The Associated Press

Updated: 1:55 p.m. ET Oct. 13, 2004

WASHINGTON –

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved an implantable
computer chip that can pass a patient’s medical details to doctors, speeding
care.

VeriChips, radio frequency microchips the size of a grain of rice, have
already been used to identify wayward pets and livestock. And nearly 200
people working in Mexico’s attorney general’s office have been implanted
with chips to access secure areas containing sensitive documents.

Delray Beach, Fla.-based Applied Digital Solutions in July asked the FDA for
approval to use the implantable chip for medical uses in the United States.
The agency had 60 days to reply to the “de novo” application.

It’s the first time the FDA has approved the use of the device, though in
Mexico, more than 1,000 scannable chips have been implanted in patients. The
chip’s serial number pulls up the patients’ blood type and other medical
information.

With the pinch of a syringe, the microchip is inserted under the skin in a
procedure that takes less than 20 minutes and leaves no stitches.

Silently and invisibly, the dormant chip stores a code — similar to the
identifying UPC code on products sold in retail stores — that releases
patient-specific information when a scanner passes over the chip.

At the doctor’s office those codes stamped onto chips, once scanned, would
reveal such information as a patient’s allergies and prior treatments.

The FDA in October 2002 said that the agency would regulate health care
applications possible through VeriChip. Meanwhile, the chip has been used
for a number of security-related tasks as well as for pure whimsy: Club
hoppers in Barcelona, Spain, now use the microchip much like a smartcard to
speed drink orders and payment.

Part of me is like, sweet, I’ll never have to remember all kinds of information again. I won’t have to carry credit cards, or IDs, or wallets ever again. But, the other, more realistic, part of me realizes that the draconian implications of this are terrifying. If these ever become mandatory, or people become too apathetic about this, the ability to maintain any kind of anonymity or privacy is pretty much out the window. The fact that people are installing these things whimsically is both frightening and heartening. If this becomes very accessible and common place, the technology will become easily hackable and people will be able to decide for themselves the functionality of these devices – taking advantage of some of the convenience maybe while protecting some shred of privacy.

109761330111834548

WUSB54GS — Wireless-G USB Network Adapter with Speedbooster
http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?prid=654&scid=36

WUSB11 — Instant Wireless USB Network Adapter – Version 2.6
http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?prid=435&scid=36

WUSB12 — Wireless Compact USB Adapter
http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?prid=519&scid=36

WUSB54G — Wireless-G USB Network Adapter
http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?prid=578&scid=36

WUSB54GP — Wireless-G Portable USB Adapter v1.0
http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?prid=612&scid=36

There is a link on each of these pages which will describe how to use the Linksys utility to configure the connection.

Or it could be one of these issues:

Loss of wireless connectivity after applying Windows XP WPA Update
http://linksys.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/linksys.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=712&p_created=1084220000&p_sid=roxu_Nnh&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MTI1JnBfc2VhcmNoX3R5cGU9c2VhcmNoX25sJnBfcHJvZF9sdmwxPTgmcF9wcm9kX2x2bDI9JnBfc2NmX2xhbmc9MSZwX3BhZ2U9MQ**&p_li=

Jose also talked about an issue that is symptomatic of frequent disconnection. The access point views authentication failures as attack. Installing SP2 fixes this. Need to download “Windows XP Service Pack 2 Network Installation Package for IT Professionals and Developers”
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=049c9dbe-3b8e-4f30-8245-9e368d3cdb5a&displaylang=en