How the world sees Americans. Journalist Mark Hertsgaard traveled the globe gathering opinions about the U.S. He talks about the surprising results. [Salon.com]

This is a good read:
From The Washington Post, a good analysis of why elections no longer represent populist sentiments: “We are watching the slow-motion collapse of American citizenship.” A key point being: “One of the undemocratic unmentionables of American politics is that most elected politicians are not eager to see an expansion of the electorate.” [The Paul Wall]

Halloween VII. mjh writes “ESR has reviewed the latest Microsoft leaked Linux strategy document. A very interesting read. Summary: OSS is winning some battles, but Microsoft … [Slashdot]
Actually, this isn’t really a strategy document, it’s just reviewing the impact of three of strategies that microsoft has been known to use; Shared Source, IPR and TCO. The short of it, abstract IPR arguements don’t work, Shared Source is helping, TCO helps but hasn’t been made well enough.

Tablet PCs go niche in 2003 – Gartner. Small market share [The Register]
“But why will initial take-up (beyond the verticals) be so sluggish? Spreading the quotes around, Gartner has the answer, citing “a lack of application support, clumsy hardware designs and a price premium will be barriers for most users,” through the mouth of Ken Dulaney, Gartner veep. “

Tablet PC Launch Teleconference and Webcast [Microsoft Press Releases]

Bill Gates Views What He’s Sown in Libraries. There is scant evidence that Bill Gates’s five-year philanthropic effort to put computers in rural libraries has stopped population flight. By Timothy Egan. [New York Times: Technology]

Today’s penny arcade news is showing me the immediate future of console gaming: Cats, Evil pandas with machine guns, exploding walls, extreme high kicks brought to you from the company Phantagram Interactive. Another semi intresting one is Robot Alchemic Drive.