Vote near, Saudis push to modernize. RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Even as Saudi Arabia struggles internally with violent extremists and externally with its image as the country that produced most of the attackers of Sept. 11, 2001, the desert kingdom's rulers are moving on multiple fronts to modernize and moderate their nation. [Boston Globe -- [...]

Jumping through hoops. A while back I posted about how product designs are getting too difficult, and how the greater the number of steps it takes for someone to set up a product, or to use a service, the less successful they will… [peterme.com]

Now for the hard part. IN ALL THE BROUHAHA over the recommendations for intelligence reform contained in the 9/11 Commission Report, the commission's most important and sweeping recommendations – those on foreign policy – have been largely ignored. [Boston Globe -- Ideas Section]

An interesting hypothesis from Chris Sanders of Sanders Research. The US has chosen to address the problem that it does not make enough of what the rest of the world wants by going to war to monopolize control of the supply and distribution of what the world needs, petroleum. There are other war aims, of [...]

Longhorn readies for the Corral. This afternoon, Microsoft laid out its next-generation-Windows Longhorn roadmap, making a delivery commitment and changing how some new technologies will be delivered. Microsoft’s new approach to Longhorn is more staid than all the big bang new version excitement generated last year. I see the more subdued approach as more realistic [...]

All That Secrecy Is Expensive. Not only is the U.S. government keeping too many secrets, it's spending too much money to do it. That's the conclusion of a government watchdog group, which estimates more than $6.5 billion was spent last year keeping data under wraps. By Noah Shachtman. [Wired News]

Cambridge's Bridges. Andrew Herbert, the managing director of MSR Cambridge, has graciously provided me with pointers to two sites (here and here) that answer my question about the origin of the Cambridge name — tracking it down to the original bridge. [Kevin Schofield's Weblog]

Bush Signs Order Bolstering C.I.A. Director's Power. President Bush issued an executive order today that grants more power to the director of central intelligence. By DOUGLAS JEHL and PHILIP SHENON. [The New York Times > Home Page]

Roy Tennant's Book. I just finished Roy Tennant's latest book, Managing the Digital Library. I wish I had this book 3 years ago when I started my career in e-Services. I cannot recommend this book highly enough to anyone in e-Services, library technology, library web services, or systems. Or, heck, anyone even considering entering any [...]

Some good analysis from Frank Richter. “The reason the Islamist terrorists have not attacked America again at home is that bin Laden believes that Al Qaeda is winning the war. Because of American military responses to 9/11 in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Muslim world is nearly united in its anti-American attitudes.” [John Robb's Weblog]