Viridian Note 00295: JarkingBruce Sterling [bruces@well.com]Key Concepts: ubicomp, pervasive computing, spies, bugging, counterproliferation, jargon, IPO, Steve Wozniak Attention Conservation Notice: Far-out ubiquitous computation start-up action may be of dubious relevance to you, unless you have already been jarked. Links:
(((For our heroic attempts to create new jargon for
pervasive computing concepts, see Viridian Notes
00113, 00118, 00122.))) (((Our terms include: actor, agent, alert, artificer, awareware, banded, bot, butler, cloud, coadunation, coded, connected, creature, delegate, diplomat, domestic, disney, emissary, embedded, employee, enchanted, endowed, envoy, executor, factotum, functionary, galvanic, gestalt, go-between, hive, indwell, itty-bits, lackey, lucid, magic, manifest, menial, mishpocheh (it's Yiddish), mundane, operative, overmind, pimp-computing, polite, puppet, seculars, servant, swarm, symbiont, tings, transcendents, transpicuous, ubik, undermind, and wary. And now "jarking," which long pre-dates all these and comes direct from the spook underworld.)))
"Arms have to move in order to be sold. This movement can be monitored. Deals have to be brokered and this means that information must flow between the interested parties. Such information flows can also be monitored. Much of this observation can be accomplished by using the satellite and other technical capabilities available to advanced intelligence communities. "But there is also an activity that has been particularly tailored to small arms trafficking and this culd itself be broadened and deepened in order to gain a better picture of the movement of light weapons. This activity is sometimes called 'jarking' but is more often termed 'tagging.' With its origins in the work of the British Army's Special Weapons Unit in Northern Ireland, 'jarking' has received an important boost through the possibility of linking micro-miniaturization with satellite-related technologies. It could prove to be an important tool in the gaining of evidence concerning light weaons trafficking." (((A footnote indicates that the term "jarking" predates 1992. And, in Silicon Valley jarking news, there's a primal stirring in the legendary start-up garage.)))
"Wednesday January 23, 9:29 am Eastern Time "Apple Creator Wozniak Forms Start-Up "LOS GATOS, Calif. (Reuters) == Steve Wozniak, who helped usher in the personal computer era when he co-founded Apple Computer Inc., emerged from semiretirement on Wednesday with plans to create new wireless devices to help 'everyday people track everyday things.' "Wozniak, who in 1976 created the first Apple computers with high school friend Steve Jobs, said he has formed a new company called Wheels of Zeus, or wOz, a play on his nickname. "The computer industry's most famous garage tinkerer said he believes the time is right to develop a new class of consumer electronics to take advantage of advances in satellite tracking, wireless networks and more powerful computer chips. "'Recent advances in global positioning software (GPS) systems and antenna technology coupled with the declining cost of processing power and two-way networking make the possibilities for new devices and services really exciting,' Wozniak said in a statement. "A report in the New York Times on Wednesday said Wozniak would not immediately announce whatproducts he is developing. A spokesman for the company was not immediately available to comment further. "The wOz statement suggested more details on the company would be found at http://www.woz.com. But visitors to the site were redirected to Wozniak's personal site at http://www.woz.org, where no details on wOz were available. "Wozniak said wOz had secured $6 million in initial funding from well-known Silicon Valley venture capitalists Mobius Venture Capital == the former Softbank Venture Capital == along with Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Palo Alto Investors. "The Silicon Valley icon, who has shied from public attention in recent years, helped shape the computing industry with his design of Apple's first line of products, including the Apple I and II, and influenced the popular Macintosh. "Wozniak left Apple Computer in the early 1980s to organize rock festivals and several eccentric 'citizen detente' ventures between the United States and the former Soviet Union. For the past decade his public activities have been mainly as a philanthropist backing art and science institutions and local Silicon Valley schools. "Tim Draper, founder and managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, will be chairman of the company's newly formed advisory board, which will include undisclosed 'top executives and industry innovators.' Draper's firm was the original backer of Hotmail, the popular free email service now owned by Microsoft Corp." O=c=O O=c=O |
