Thursday, September 19, 2002

Wired: Lawrence Lessig's Supreme Showdown. To Lessig it is both an opportunity to make up for losing the prize that was snatched from him some four years ago, and a giant step in his crusade to stop a trend he fears may be inevitable: big-media dinosaurs controlling the Internet. That's why the law professor has declared war on Mickey Mouse. [Tomalak's Realm] I heard Lessig speak at O'Reilly's 2002 Open Source Conference and he is certainly a persuasive speaker. Smart, eloquent, prim and proper and a geek. He did have a very captive audience of strong supporters and I'm sure he fed off the adulation of all the Napsterites. The Supreme Court is another kind audience. It'll take more than eloquence to sway them. Are the Justices going to accept Lessig's firm belief that our Constitutional fathers didn't intend for copyrights to extend into perpetuity? They stated clearly that it was only for 7 years. Now it's 75 years after the death of the owner. We'll see. 10:15:33 PM

Fog-guns!. Great new toy guns shoot fog-rings! The Zero Launcher and the Zero Blaster launch 2 to 6 inch diameter non-toxic fog rings that sail up to fourteen feet. Easy to use, they are great stress busters and with practice you'll be able to create bigger and better rings. Link  Discuss (via Wired) [Boing Boing Blog] I would love one of these. Hmmmm. Even cherry scented. 2:32:03 PM

Programmers: "If you're good, don't worry." [From the Desktop of Dane Carlson] Joel's writing is usually right on. And so isn't Dane's!. In Joel's discussion forums, Bill Carlson listed 12 reasons why good programmers don't have to worry about these down times. They'll always be employable. Being a good person is part of that too. Tech skills matter. Real tech skills. In closing, he says "The glory days of the programmer are growing dim. The days of the software engineer are just beginning.". 2:14:14 PM

© Copyright 2002 Paul Leclerc.

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