I _Really_ Don't Know

Las Vegas, Nevada (CNN) -- The first generation of electronic readers had little more than black-and-white text. The second generation had black-and-white text, simple graphics and Web connectivity.

Glimpses of the third generation are on display this week at the International Consumer Electronics Show, where manufacturers are previewing e-readers with color screens, interactive graphics and magazine-style layouts. from Bold new e-readers grab attention at CES - CNN.com.

in reality, it's as easy as "123456". And if that doesn't work, we'd suggest trying "12345", next. from Hacking Into Your Account is as Easy as 123456.

when I think about what killed most of the startups in the e-commerce business back in the 90s, it was bad programmers. A lot of those companies were started by business guys who thought the way startups worked was that you had some clever idea and then hired programmers to implement it. That's actually much harder than it sounds—almost impossibly hard in fact—because business guys can't tell which are the good programmers. They don't even get a shot at the best ones, because no one really good wants a job implementing the vision of a business guy. from The 18 Mistakes That Kill Startups by Paul Graham.

ls | sed -e 's%^%cat /dev/null > %' | bash

• NB: Dangerous.

Tablets and multi-touch hardware are becoming more mainstream, and the release of Windows 7 will drive yet more. There hasn't been much in the way of product design going into the tablets I've seen so far, which is why so many people keep hoping for an Apple tablet.

French company Unowhy are taking a different approach though, releasing a tablet targeted at the kitchen, with the sale driven by content - recipes and training videos from top french chefs.

At TEDIndia, Pranav Mistry demos several tools that help the physical world interact with the world of data -- including a deep look at his SixthSense device and a new, paradigm-shifting paper "laptop." In an onstage Q&A, Mistry says he'll open-source the software behind SixthSense, to open its possibilities to all. from Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology | Video on TED.com.

101 Things I Learned in Interaction Design School

A set of short, easily digested learnings from the world of Interaction Design, inspired by "101 Things I Learned in Architecture School", by Matthew Frederick from 101 Things I Learned in Interaction Design School.

What P2P networks have done for distribution of digital media is phenomenal. It is possible, easy even, to get almost any TV show, movie, track or album you can think of by searching one of the many torrent sites. As fast as the media industry take down one site through legal action another has appeared to take its place.

I don't want to discuss the legal, moral or social implications of this, but discuss how the internet changes the nature of our relationship with media - and data. The internet is a great big copying machine, true enough, but it's also a fabric that allows mass co-operation. It's that mass peer-to-peer co-operation that makes so much content available for free; content that is published freely by its creator as well as infringing content.

A Taxonomy of Social Networking Data

At the Internet Governance Forum in Sharm El Sheikh this week, there was a conversation on social networking data. Someone made the point that there are several different types of data, and it would be useful to separate them. This is my taxonomy of social networking data. from Schneier on Security: A Taxonomy of Social Networking Data.

Follow the link for a useful breakdown of data in any community site or service.

Over on the UK Government Data Developers group there's been a great discussion about openness, innovation and how Government makes money from its data; and of course if it should make money. I can't link to the discussion as the group is closed - sign up, it's a great group.

Philosophically there's always the stance that Government data has already been paid for by the public through general taxation.