Any technophile with an Internet connection can now hack a Sony PS3 using a method published online by George “GeoHot” Hotz. The hack, or “jailbreak,” raises some concerns regarding certain tech-savvy corners of Sony's market, who could use it to install unpaid-for software on the devices. But, says the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Sony has crossed the line with its lawsuit against Hotz citing the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

This kind of litigation is nothing new to the United States' IP regime, and Sony fits readily into the club of companies whose legal decisions strike discord with their own histories of technological foibles.

Sony's past mishandling of digital rights issues, like the copy protection rootkit scandal sheds an ironic light on the Sony vs. Hotz case. In that particular case of shenanigans, Sony made obvious the fact that the company was actively invested in mitigating consumers' legal rights to make digital copies of purchased goods. Corporate response to complaint was slow in coming, and at times took an astonished tone. Said Sony BMG Vice President Thomas Hesse: “Most people, I think, don't even know what a Rootkit is, so why should they care about it?” Such public disregard of potential threats to digital privacy--in light of explicit attempts to control digital behavior--indicates either a genuine misunderstanding or a disingenuous understatement. As it turns out, Sony is guilty of both.

As in Sony vs. Hotz, the company made no attempt to reconcile its DRM model with consumers' rights under Fair Use. In their case against Hotz, Sony's attorneys cite legislation criminalizing any attempt at circumventing DRM protection, even in the absence of copyright infringement. They go further, says the EFF, to assert that Hotz's “alleged contract violations” can be considered “crimes.” The suit exceptionally defines certain methods of access to one's own computer as criminal. That is, it applies the language in the CFAA about “unauthorized” access of a “protected computer” to simply accessing a personal machine, for personal purposes, which Sony happens to deem unacceptable.

The prosecutors also solicited an order from the judge “that Hotz 'retrieve' the code [for jailbreaking the PS3 console] from anybody he may have forwarded it to,” an order that the judge made and later rescinded. This completely untenable request further indicates what is on Sony's par either ignorance or duplicity. Either Sony is grossly misinformed as to the distributed nature of the Internet, or it is exercising a flippant pursuit of a purely symbolic quest to tame information.

In addition to recognizing Hotz's legal right to modify his own property for personal use, the court ought to set a clear precedent delineating the DMCA's definition of illicit DRM circumvention, or, better yet, strike down the law. An ideal, long-term solution can only involve copyright legislation that does not preemptively criminalize behavior that may or may not involve any copyright violation at all.

Visualizing Worldwide Health Care Data

In 2005, several international humanitarian organizations collected a substantial data set, compiling, among other things, information about life expectancy, disease, and health care issues.

The following figure demonstrates the correlation between the number of physicians per capita and life expectancy and the frequencies of malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV across different regions of the world:


The number of physicians per capita in the typical African country is anomalous with respect to the other countries' numbers. Whereas Africa has a maximum of about 100 doctors per 100,000, and the life expectancy there barely approaches 60, most other countries in the world enjoy an average life expectancy well over 60. The trend lines for every region (aside from North America, where the data set only includes the USA and "Cada") are positive, indicating a definite, positive correlation between doctors per capita and life expectancy.

Note, also, the frequency of disease across regions. Its conspicuous absence in every region except Africa suggests a minimum threshold of doctors per capita, above which disease decreases dramatically.

What makes Africa unique? Does Africa's apparent failure to approach a minimum standard reflect a global trend? In this paired-down visualization of physicians per capita vs. life expectancy, one might expect average life expectancy to grow steadily across regions with respect to number of physicians. The actual data tells a different story: across regions, there is no discernable correlation. In fact, as doctors increase in number, life expectancy appears to fall in several cases. However, we can see Africa's life expectancy trailing well behind Asia's, the second worst number, which is more similar to other regions than to Africa's. This indicates that doctors per capita alone does not dictate life expectancy, and should be considered alongside some other factor, such as standard of living, perhaps.

Does this anomaly present itself in other figures? What about health care spending per capita? Again, we see no correlation between national healthcare spending and life expectancy across regions here:


However, within each region, the correlation becomes a bit clearer.


Again, Africa is an anomaly. There is actually a negative correlation there. This can probably be attributed to a couple outliers, along with the narrow range of health care spending. In every other region, the positive correlation is clear, especially in countries where the range in health care is widest.

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Data pulled from: http://stat.pugetsound.edu/hoard/projectDetails.aspx?id=5
Data source citation: World Resources Institute. 2006. EarthTrends: Environmental Information. Available at http://earthtrends.wri.org. Washington, D.C.: World Resources Institute. (Accessed 9/29/2009)

Interactive Election Maps

The Good:

http://elections.nytimes.com/2010/results/house

This map shows a number of geopolitical statistics regarding districts' representation in the House of Representatives. Hue is used as the measure of the political dimension, in the conventional scheme of blue = democrat, red = republican. Green is used to represent other parties (few, if any, such districts are visible). Here, value and saturation are used together to convey different qualitative measures of the given party candidate's lead. Light, faded colors mean the candidate has the lead; a solid, darker color means the candidate has won; and a shaded color means the candidate has recently gained a lead over other party in the polls.

This map succeeds as an interactive visualization on two fronts: data density and intuitive use. The use of color is extremely effective in conveying the current political transformation. The map conveys efficiently how many districts have seen a recent republican gain. The scrollbar on the lower left allows for a more contextual understanding of the timeline of these victories. For example, the transition from 2008 to 2010 shows a dramatic shift from blue to red. The alternate views do well to frame the same phenomenon in a slightly different way: In "District Bubbles" view, the bubble in each district denotes quantitatively (radius of the bubble) the extent to which the leading party (hue) is ahead. Using the "Electorate Explorer" view is easy, too. One can specify a range or some other criteria using the scroll bar above the map, easily filtering the map by party spending, population demographics, or even whether or not there is a tea party candidate on the ballot. Interaction with this map allows the user to ask a large number of questions with minimal effort.

The Bad:

http://vote.sos.ca.gov/maps/ballot-measures/19/
found in:
http://laist.com/2010/11/03/map_which_counties_voted_yes_on_pro.php

This map manages to convey the main idea behind the article in which it was featured: that only a handful of counties in California voted for Prop 19. The graphic is simple enough, illustrating that only 11 of California's 58 counties voted in favor, all of them in more liberal areas along the coast and near Lake Tahoe. Although this geographic depiction might make the vote look like a landslide, the article notes, the vote was split by a narrow margin: about 54% to 46%. Links to the side of the graphic allow the user to view similar maps reporting on other propositions.

Although it is effective in conveying the two pieces of information it is intended to, this visualization's interactivity has some problems. More specifically, it is not as powerful as it could be if it made full use of interactive possibilities. First of all, there is the minor problem that without the clarifying article, the small figures along the side are too understated; the power of this figure comes from the very fact that it is spatially at odds with the statistics, which convey a much narrower margin. A simple solution of bigger text might solve this problem. The broader problem, however, is that it fails to take advantage of small multiples. A reasonable question one might want to ask of the web page featuring this graphic is: "How do the districts who voted for Prop X compare to those who voted for Prop Y?" Currently, the best way to answer such a question is to toggle back and forth between links, requiring lots of short-term memory and attention to disparate detail from the user. The user can also click on a county to see a data table for that county, and compare numerical figures on the county level, which also has its drawbacks. What if the user wants to see a visible correlation?

A better solution would be to have a comparison tool, using two (or perhaps even more) maps side by side, each illustrating the results for a different proposition. Yet another potential solution would combine results for two different propositions (three or more might get cluttered) in one map, using hue to denote different permutations of results (yes on both, no on both, yes only on one, yes only on the other).

How to annoy people named molly who look at your internet history

1) write a blog entry that talks about people named molly

2) people named molly suck

PS. This is the first blog entry. Please don't take it seriously.