Comments on: Inside / Outside Part II: Bidirectional versus Unidirectional Information

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:42:07 +0000

Really? That guy was awesome. I remember that point because it really struck a chord with me.

What’s his name, and does he have any publications targeted at laypeople like myself?

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:45:05 +0000

Haha! I was going to ask if you had seen Radiant City, especially after reading your comments about the conceptual extension of the house. That talking head you cited is my thesis supervisor/occasional employer/soccer pal.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 07:06:35 +0000

Would I be splitting hairs if I tried to differentiate between private information and confidential information? An important issue I didn’t touch on because it didn’t really apply to the subject as framed is the issue of keeping confidential information like banking information, business communiqués, etc.

While private information is just that which we don’t make public (such as our patronage of porno sites, for instance), confidential information is information that must be kept secret to avoid material harm. That is, you don’t want to publicise your credit card number — that is confidential data, not merely private.

I hope it’s obvious that while I don’t necessarily oppose corporate monitoring of our online activity, we have to have online security for certain things. Online shopping and banking require security of a different sort than that protecting your Netflix queue or the anonymity of posters in the YouTube user comments, and that is something that we can never allow to be compromised.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 06:39:42 +0000

The model of the modern suburban home as a fortress that blocks out the external world while simultaneously streaming it in via TV and Internet is not my original idea. Wish it was, but I picked it up from one of the talking head in an interesting doc about suburban sprawl (and suburban culture) called Radiant City.

It’s a queer little film. The director made some very strange choices … but there’s still a lot of interesting ideas and food for thought presented. As a look at suburban culture (such as the isolationism, the architectural homogeneity and pastiche, and the fact that you have to drive 5 miles to get a gallon of milk), it’s worth checking out.