It has been the symbol of the doctor for more than a century - but is there still a place for it in modern medicine? [BBC News | TECHNOLOGY]
5:53:55 PM    

So I've been telling this story about the birth of Mickey Mouse for some time now. See, e.g., my OSCON speech. The story goes like this: Walt Disney was a great creator in the tradition of great creativity: his creativity was to rip, mix, and burn popular culture. Even Mickey Mouse, who was born as Steamboat Willie (released in 1928), was a rip, mix, and burn take-off on Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill (released in 1928).

But I hadn't realized just how true that was until I opened my very cool set of Disney "Treasures"—a special DVD release of the early Black and White Mickey Mouse films that Disney is now selling (comes in a cool tin case, with a serial number pressed into the tin). The DVD is a great collection of the early cartoons, with some "bonus" features including the script for Steamboat Willie. Here's a screen shot of the first page of the script. Notice the direction from Walt: "Orchestra starts playing opening verses of 'Steamboat Bill.'" Try doing a cartoon take-off of one of Disney, Inc.'s latest films with an opening that copies the music, and see how far your Walt Empire gets.

[Lessig Blog]
5:51:11 PM    

Rafe reviews Charles Petzold's book Code: "It's an incredibly clear explanation of how computers work at the level of circuitry, and provides a great refresher course in all that fundamental stuff that is hidden below about 100 layers of abstraction when you're writing a SQL query or writing code using an IDE." [lawrence's notebook] This is absolutely true! I loved this book.
5:47:18 PM