Aggregator Overload - Good Stuff - Some Explored - Some Not
Tuesday, February 18, 2003Organizing your digital photos - I've written about Picasa and Photomeister before, but since it's Christmas time and you all are going to be taking lots of pictures, you need to know about this software. Read my write-up if you own a digital camera and don't have an Apple computer (and hence no ability to use iPhoto).
[Ernie the Attorney]If you are new to blogging....
[Seblogging News]State of the Blogs Address: Dave's "First Essay of the Year"
Dave Winer published his "First Essay of the Year". If you are new to blogging or want to know more about the current state of it, it's a good read.Jeremy Allaire, of ColdFusion fame, has posted his thoughts on this essay. He has interesting ponderings of the present and is always thinking about what's next. [Brian Fitzgerald]
Adweek posts its list of the 20 best ad campaigns over the last 20 years....
Best ad campaigns of the last 20 yearsOf the 20, two were single commercials rather than entire campaigns. One was Apple's "1984" ad. [MetaFilter] [Ye Olde Phart]
Prepare for Your Demise. It's depressing but important. [The Motley Fool]
New Photoshop targets clutter. Adobe is pushing a new consumer version of Photoshop that focuses on organizing the glut of photos that can quickly swamp the hard drive on a digital camera owner's PC. [CNET News.com]
Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day, The Wrong Galaxy, is going into my desktop wallpaper rotation. Too cool. Don't forget you can get the APOD in your aggregator (title, not the picture).
Pro Bono Advertising: In Praise of POBOX.COM. I've been a subscriber to POBOX.COM for many years now. It has solved many email headaches and is a great service that deserves some pro bono praise. So click more for the praise (and obviously, I've got no financial connection (except my annual bill) to this great company at all). [Lessig Blog]
Some good links from the most recent Neat Net Tricks newsletter:
- ANTIKEYLOGGER
A number of issues ago, NNT mentioned software that would log what others have been doing on whatever computer the software is installed on. Now, there's AntiKeyLogger at http://www.anti-keyloggers.com/ that would block installation of such software on a computer. I suppose it's only a matter of time before we see software that will block AntiKeyLogger. Are we having fun yet?
- LANGTOLANG
Ready for one more translator? Try LangToLang at http://www.langtolang.com/
- HUMAN FOR SALE
Perhaps with tongue in check, the site at http://www.humanforsale.com/ asks you 30 questions, then calculates your net worth if you can find someone who's willing to buy.
Organize your digital photos with Picasa - I've ranted about how great Picasa is before, but after having returned from a 5 day fantasy spree at DisneyWorld I can say I haven't ranted enough. Mostly, my exitement is over the advantages of digital photography. My Nikon 5000 Coolpix cost $800, but I got a $200 discount by using it at DisneyWorld. How?
In the past, I would take about 10 or 15 rolls of film and use it all (the secret to great photography is to take lots of pictures and throw out most of them). Then I would have to pay to have all of them developed. You could order a contact sheet, but like most people I usually don't. So that's at least $200 in film costs. But not with a digital camera.
I have a 128 MB Compactflash card. I use a high, but not the highest, resolution setting on the camera, and that gives me 250 pictures. If I shoot 10 or 15 rolls of film I usually only get about 25 or 30 pictures that I'm really happy with, but I usually keep about 100 of the pictures. So 250 on the memory card is plenty. But if you have a laptop with you (as I did) you can dump the day's worth of pictures on the computer hard drive each night and so you can take 250 pictures a day. Advantage: digital. Big time.
With digital, since you don't pay for development, you are free to take pictures of almost anything that you think might conceivably be interesting. If it doesn't come out you can ditch it 20 seconds after you take the picture. The Nikon has the ability to fire off several pictures in a couple of seconds. My film camera had this ability too, but I seldom used it because I knew I would be paying for pictures that I was going to throw away. Still, it is a great way to catch that elusive expression on your loved one's face. With digital you can use this feature all the time.
But what about Picasa? Well, the reason that Picasa is so great is that it let's you deal with all of the pictures that you take. You can import the pictures from your flash card right into the program and create mini-albums that keep everything straight. The program automatically takes note of the date of the photos and, over time, will organize your albums chronologically in a really stylish way.
The program lets you fix red-eye, and quickly "enhance" the photograph to correct exposure problems. After you've organized the photos, you can E-mail them to friends and family members and the program quickly and easily optimizes the photo's file size for viewing on a computer screen (that is, you probably don't want to E-mail someone a photo that is a 1 megabyte file). The program also makes it easy to order prints, which is a feature I hadn't used until a few minutes ago. I was struck by a really nice feature when I placed my order: after I selected the photo I wanted to order, the program presented various sizes to select from (i.e. 4x6, 5x7, 8x10) but the 8x10 size had a yellow caution flag that alerted me that the photo's resolution wasn't good enough for an 8x10 blow up. Not that I planned to order an 8x10. But I assume it would do that if the photo wouldn't look good at other resolutions as well.
In the past I complained that the program doesn't have the ability to crop pictures. Well, version 1.5 of the program (which I was given a copy of to test) allows cropping and is quick and easy to use. The new version will allow you to work with additional file types besides just JPEGs (i.e. TIFFs, BMPs, PSD's and even movie files, such as MPEGs and AVIs). I think if you order the current version you will be entitled to the 1.5 version when it is released in the near future. The program is a steal at $29.95. If you have a digital camera and haven't found a good way to organize your photographs then give Picasa a try. It's free to try for 15 days. It is a Windows-only program, but I'm sure the the Apple guys are happy with iPhoto so they won't cry. But me? I'm crying tears of happiness. Oh, and I'm gearing up to sell a boatload of expensive 35mm photography equipment on eBay. Anyone interested?
[Ernie the Attorney]Interesting things I found in my News Aggregator today
Mozilla = Good Blogging. "Lair is excited because he's discovered the magic of Mozilla..."
Bolivia's mobiles for hire. "You see them everywhere in Bolivia, from La Paz to Cochabamba to Santa Cruz, wandering the streets, dressed in bright company livery, mobile phones chained to their waists. They are the latest, strangest additions to the telecoms network. They are Bolivia's human phone boxes."
Recommended reading by weblog. "I know All-Consuming has been around awhile, but I just found out about it today. A very cool concept -- the site combs weblogs and searches for Amazon.com links, and then posts them on an hourly basis. You can see, at any given moment, what webloggers are reading or recommending."
Adobe Photoshop Album Review. "We have had a copy of Adobe Photoshop Album 1.0 beta for evaluation, and I have to admit it's very impressive. Photoshop Album is designed to be a total solution for the acquisition, organisation,..."
[Ernie the Attorney]Try Easy Slide Show Maker. New! Easy Slide Show Creator is a brand new program from Programming Art for your Windows PC. Turn your photos into a professional looking slide show that you can email to friends or save on a CD. Whether you are displaying baby pictures or creating a business presentation, Easy Slide... [Lockergnome's Bits and Bytes]
Propagandart from the ACLU..
via SysRick via Boing Boing:
ACLU's new online gallery of "civil liberty art": Freedom, illustrated.. The ACLU just launched an online gallery of freedom-of-expression themed art.[a klog apart]
Paperwork for Tax Preparation. What you should have on hand when you do your taxes. [The Motley Fool]
:::::Today's Pick:::::
Major NTFS Vulnerability via Knoppix. From Lockergnomie David Bott: "Hi Chris, I'm not sure if I'm the first to discover this (or maybe see the potential for some easy digital espionage), but there is an EXTREMELY easy way to bypass the security of the NTFS file system. A few weeks ago on TechTV, I saw... [Lockergnome's Bits and Bytes]
trackback. Pingback. I've just installed Simons Pingback client add-on for Radio. Does it work? Let's see if I can Pingback his article. It works! But only sends the Weblog name - what did I miss? That's cool though - great work Simon! [Matthew Langham's Radio Weblog] You're probably confusing pingback and trackback, trackback provides excerpts. Trackback is next on the list. [Simon Fell]
The Shadow knows....
Lots of information about the superhero who's darker than even Batman at ThePulp.Net, with an extensive collection of links.
"From the spring of 1931 until the summer of 1949, a slim figure cloaked in black fought mobsters, evil scientists, crazed old men and foreign invaders with two blazing automatics and a laugh that chilled the hearts of evil. The mysterious figure was The Shadow."
Most of The Shadow novels are online here. [The Cartoonist] [Ye Olde Phart]
Downloadable kids' records. Here's a great gallery of artwork-scans and MP3 rips of classic kids' novelty records, including Dr. Seuss's wonderful "Gerald McBoingBoing!" Link Discuss (Thanks, Will!) [Boing Boing Blog]
Pew surveys dissembled and analyzed
Staci Kramer of Online Journalism Review has an excellent analysis of the statistical candy that is the Pew Research Center for the People & The Press and Pew Internet & American Life Project, which have a lot to say about how we use media to be informed. Summary: "They should be able to do a better job of filling in the white space."
[RatcliffeBlog: Business, Technology & Investing]DaveNet: First essay of the year. [Scripting News]
Really old ads....
are at EAA - The Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850-1920. Fabulous website. One can browse there for hours.
"The Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850 - 1920 (EAA) presents over 9,000 images, with database information, relating to the early history of advertising in the United States. The materials, drawn from the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University, provide a significant and informative perspective on the early evolution of this most ubiquitous feature of modern American business and culture." [The Cartoonist] [Ye Olde Phart]
More old American ads....
This time not that old. Ad*Access has archived over 7000 ads from 1911-1955. Again, browsing for hours is guaranteed.
"Ad*Access concentrates on five main subject areas: Radio, Television, Transportation, Beauty and Hygiene, and World War II, providing a coherent view of a number of major campaigns and companies through images preserved in one particular advertising collection available at Duke University." [The Cartoonist] [Ye Olde Phart]
H. L. Mencken. "An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup." [Quotes of the Day]
More RSS Goodness!.
You can now subscribe to Technology News from eWEEK and Ziff Davis (RSS feed) and Fresh Reviews from PC Magazine (RSS feed) in your aggregator of choice. [via NewsIsFree: Recent Additions]
[The Shifted Librarian]Ziff-Davis has two more RSS 2.0 feeds. One for PC Mag reviews, and the other for tech news from eWeek. Hey it looks like someone got the religion. Excellent stuff. [Scripting News]
Why I don't enable comments
Maybe it's a mistake, but I don't have comments on my site.
I publish most of the feedback I get and track responses on other sites (which is why we desperately need what Nick Denton describes in his Comments and Communities posting), but I don't open my site to floods of abuse, either of myself or other people. Forcing people to mail me makes them think first and the result is really good discussion.
Nick believes we'll all have blogs and we'll all use comments in dialogs that flow around the world. I think that many folks will follow along, using tools like Marc, Dave (who asked today why Halley's Comment blog doesn't allow comments) Mitch (Chandler, since it has a compound document architecture foundation will address tracking communications) and others are building, but there will be nodes where groups gather -- people do that naturally and we all know 95 percent of Web traffic is lurkers.
Every time I explain blogging, the first reaction from the listener is "sounds like information overload." This is why it's important to keep comments flowing through the author of some blogs. There are plenty that allow comments, and that's okay, but I'm with Dan Gillmor on this. My site is for structured and constructive thinking, not a free-for-all, which is why I think you'll find it valuable.
[RatcliffeBlog: Business, Technology & Investing]Boing Boing Blog writes: "William Gibson -- long gun-shy of setting up any kind of personal Internet site -- has dived into the net with both feet forward, setting up a fantastic blog." [Universal Rule]
They Buy all the Albums, but Trade Concert Bootlegs. Most music traders rationalize their actions by saying they own all their favorite band's official albums, and argue that they are documenting musical history. [New York Times: Technology]
Storage Insider: The backup mantra -- By Scott Tyler Shafer and Mario Apicella. Say it with us now: I resolve to do better backups, I resolve to do better backups... [InfoWorld: Columnists]
Enterprise Strategies: Brain dumping -- By Tom Yager. The information locked in your brain today could be invaluable in 10 years -- but will it still exist? [InfoWorld: Columnists]
The disruptive Web. If you're creating a Web service that you hope will have a disruptive impact, the lessons are clear. Support HTTP GET-style URLs. Design them carefully, matching de facto standards where they exist. Keep the URLs short, so people can easily understand, modify, and trade them. Establish a blog reputation. Use the blog network to promote the service and enable users of the service to self-organize. It all adds up to a recipe for recombinant growth. [Full story at InfoWorld.com] ... [Jon's Radio]
Five Top Ten Intellectual Property Trends in 2003
The Trademark Blog, one of my new favorites, provides this list of top IP events that will happen this year, including the notorius Victor's Little Secret case:
[RatcliffeBlog: Business, Technology & Investing]1. The Eldred decision will come down eventually. If I were smart enough to know how the Supreme Court would decide, I'd be working at Goldstein Howe. But either way, the decision will force us to confront the copyright term issue. If the Sonny Bono Act is upheld (ok, I predict it will be), then there will be added vigor to movements like Creative Commons and perhaps we will see a drive to amend the Copyright Act. And copyright owners will explore how trademark will protect in the absence of copyright.
2. The Victor's Little Secret case will be decided and the old jazz standard "What Is This Thing Called Dilution?" will have some new words to go with its ambiguous melody. At issue: whether the plaintiff has to prove actual damage from dilution as opposed to likelihood of damage.
3. Madrid Protocol - Good thing for US trademark owners, as one application will suffice to cover trademark applications in numerous countries. We are likely to see implemnation this year (Don't worry - I'll keep you informed). Bad thing for non-US trademark lawyers as they won't get paid to file non-US applications by US companies. Bad thing for US trademark owners as they won't get paid to file US trademark applications by non-US applications.
4. Digitization of the Trademark Procedures: My international trademark metasearch couldn't exist four years ago. I couldn't have handled the number of applications I did this year without electronic online filing. The real cost of portfolio management (should) come down every year as digit-pushing replaces paper pushing.
5. Erosion of Western Brand Power - First, there is a something of an anti-brand intellectual current, as exemplified by Rev. Billy's Church of Stop-Shopping and Naomi Klein's No Logo book. Then there is the fact that we are in a consumer-spending downturn when people are a little less likely to pay for a name. Finally, there is the mainfestiation of anti-Western sentiment as local brand loyalty - case in point MECCA COLA.
walt's creativity. 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]
Gizmodo's gadget picks for 2002. There were so many great new gadgets this year, but here are my faves of the past year: Toshiba e740 There are more powerful handhelds out there, but the e740 packs the most punch for its price. Toshiba's flagship PDA comes with 64MB of RAM, a 400MHz processor, Secure Digital and Compact Flash slots, a 64,000 color screen, and best of all, integrated 802.11b. Amazon vpr Matrix 200A5 Regular readers will know that I've been lusting after the widescreen vpr Matrix 200A5 laptop from Best Buy, and I finally got my hands on one a few weeks ago. The 200A5 does not disappoint. It's designed by F.A. Porsche Design of Austria, has a 15.2-inch widescreen display (like the PowerBook G4), a 2.0GHz Pentium processor, 40GB hard drive, 512MB of RAM, DVD/CD-RW drive, 32MB video card, two FireWire and two USB 2.0 ports, and built-in 802.11b. It has a couple of... [Gizmodo]
More gadget picks. Some more gadget picks for 2002. Phillip M. Torrone, of Fallon Worldwide, FlashEnabled, and who is just generally a phenom of the gadget world, sends us his picks, already laid out with pictures. You can check out his picks here. And reader Adam Kalsey of Kalsey Consulting Group sends us his picks for some of the best of 2002: Battery-operated milk frother Authentic lattes without the steamer. Several companies ship these, with variations available from Restoration Hardware, Crate and Barrel, and most kitchen stores. Mini RC cars 2.5 inch long radio controlled cars are great fun at your desk or between meetings. From ThinkGeek, Radio Shack, and elsewhere. Logitech MX700 Mouse Optical. Wireless. Rechargeable. Ergonomic.... [Gizmodo]
Gadget Picks: the Best of 2002. We've asked a few of our favorite gadget fanatics to contribute a list of their favorite gadgets from the past year. More gadget lists, including my picks of the year, are on their way. If you'd like to contribute your own list, email it to me at peter@gizmodo.com, and we'll try and post it. Glenn Reynolds - Instapundit I'm not sure if it counts as a 'gadget' -- but the Korg Micro-Korg synthesizer/vocoder rules. It's cheap ($399.95), runs off AC power or AA batteries, and has absolutely great analog synth sounds and a vocoder. It serves as a MIDI controller, and it'll just about fit in a briefcase, so with it and a laptop you're good to go. Micro-Korg Also, this air-pump wine saver really works, and it's good for me since otherwise undrunk wine would go to waste. Vacu Vin Concerto 3-Piece Wine Saver Set Fred Wilson - Flatiron... [Gizmodo]
Wintertime QTVR panoramas from near and far. Danish photographer and QTVR enthusiast Hans Nyberg, whose Times Square feature was included in last Friday's edition of Web Zen, sends these links to stunningly beautiful full-screen panoramas.
"My Christmas show has some new QTVR -- for example, this one (shown at left) made last Sunday in New York by Jook Leung, who recently won the Fujifilm Masterpiece Award for his Tribute in Light panorama which I featured in April.DiscussAnd if you want a real 'White Christmas,' look at this image by Kjell Are Refsvik."
[Boing Boing Blog]
:::::Today's Pick:::::
As we cherish memories of childhood Christmases, let us whisper a thanks to our parents and grandparents who gave us families so richly textured across generations....
Generations of Christmases Past [Ye Olde Phart]
Wired News has a story about British Pathe's posting of 3,500 hours of old newsreels without any copy protection. Found an odd line included in their online "electronic" Terms & Conditions page considering how they posted their videos minus the DRM. "You may not provide a link to this website from any other website without British Pathe's prior written consent." [lawrence's notebook]
Scientific American: Fair Use and Abuse. The divisions that pit the entertainment industry against fair-use advocates should lay the groundwork for a roiling intellectual-property debate this year. Enough momentum exists for some of these opposing bills to be reintroduced in the new Congress. [Tomalak's Realm]
Movie industry thrives, "piracy problem" notably nonexistent. What piracy problem? The LA Times reports that "more Americans went to movies this year than anytime since 1959," despite what Jack Valenti characterizes as "the choices technology now provides, including VCRs, cable television, satellite dishes and the Internet."
Remember, Jack Valenti is the man who predicted, on behalf of the film industry, that Hollywood would collapse if the gub'ment didn't outlaw the VCR, and is pushing for outrageous restrictions on the Internet to keep Hollywood afloat.
Box office revenues continue to climb, as they have every year since the Supreme Court told Valenti to get bent -- which one is it, Jack? Is Hollywood sinking or flying higher than ever before? Link Discuss [Boing Boing Blog]
Best Inventions of 2002. Mind you this list is written by Time Magazine and frankly if these are the best invention of the last year... well, I really shouldn't say that many of these inventions are based on really incredible technology. Always easier to criticize than create, but still I have to wonder what... [Lockergnome's Bits and Bytes]
The book the Bells don't want you to read. Bruce Kushnick's 475-page damnation of the telecom industry, "The Unauthorized Biography of the Baby Bells & Info-Scandal" has been published as a free downloadble text. I've just skimmed it now, paying particular attention to the ringing endorsement given in the introduction by Bob "Ethernet" Metcalfe and it looks very tasty indeed. Kushnick tears the lumbering telco dinosaurs entire new digestive tracts -- and documents the hell out of their failures, rip-offs and rottenness. Jason calls this "the book the Bells don't want you to read." Link Discuss (via JOHO the blog) [Boing Boing Blog]
A performance, expressed in text, data, and code. The 115 columns I wrote for BYTE.com are now restored to the public Web. I took this step reluctantly, and would have preferred that the original namespace remain intact, but so be it. Those columns that have continuing value can now weave themselves back into the fabric of the Web. ... [Jon's Radio]
CNET's Top 100 of 2002. CNET has come out with its list of the 100 best products of the past year. Read... [Gizmodo]
Disruptive Technologies For Next 5 Years
"America's Network magazine, the publication serving to telecom industry, takes a look at the disruptive technologies over the next five years. Disruptive, naturally, for telecom industry. Virtual keyboards, DWDM, broadband connections using powerlines, wearable computers, free-space optics, low-power devices, UltraWideBand, voice over 802.11b and numerous others are discussed, as well as their potential for development over the next five years." [Slashdot]
My whole blog is about how these technologies will be disruptive for libraries and how we need to start preparing and adapting now.
[The Shifted Librarian]We, the developers of the Web.... In her newest column at O'Reilly, Meg discusses her online usage patterns while we were in Paris last month. For companies that value their customer relationships, what follows from this article is an easy plan for Web development: focus on serving the customer and everything else will take care of itself. This is like a Declaration of Independence for Web developers. All the difficult decision... [kottke.org]
85 Big Ideas that Changed the World [Slashdot]
BIOS Optimization Guide. For anyone who is interested and/or remembers, I wrote about the BIOS optimization guide on Adrian Rojak's site several weeks ago. He continues to updated it regularly; the last time on the 19th. Although I have not had the time to read it with the thoroughness I want to, what... [Lockergnome's Bits and Bytes]
The Wireless Networking Starter Kit - Glenn Fleishman and Adam Engst's book looks to be a great resource for learning about wireless networking. They've posted a 60-page excerpt from the book which I just finished reading in its entirety. It is very well-written and interesting, and I can't wait for my full version to arrive. The book is shipping now from several booksellers, and you can also buy directly from the publisher at 30 percent off retail with free UPS ground shipping in the US through this special link. Enter coupon code PE-Y2AK-TIDF at checkout to receive the discount.
[Ernie the Attorney]Neal Stephenson - In the beginning was the command line.
I keep forgetting to post this link... Something good to read every now and then, from the master of SF: Neal Stephenson's In the beginning there was the command line..., the best history of computers you can read in forty pages or so.
You have to love the collective memory of the blogosphere. Definitely worth reading as an overview of computing history.
[McGee's Musings]Writing for the intranet. Martin White has written a very to-the-point weblog entry on the importance of writing for the intranet. In this, he highlights there is more to intranet training that just ensuring that authors can use the tool. To quote: The more... [Column Two]
Max Headroom resurgent. Matt Frewer, creator of Max Headroom, is working to resurrect his cult-favorite character.
"We're putting together a deal on a new Max Headroom project," Frewer told fans. "Then I'm doing a film with my brother. The Headroom project is still in the deal-making process, so I can't say anything about it."Link Discuss (via JWZ's Livejournal) [Boing Boing Blog]
Oustanding collection of digitized 78s. Fantastic collection of blues and country 78s, converted to MP3, on this page. I can't get enough of it. Just the artist and track names are poetry, like "Dr. Humphrey Bates' Possum Hunters" performing "My Wife Died Saturday." Link Discuss (Thanks, Heath!) [Boing Boing Blog]
The Riskiness of Stocks. Keep money you'll need in the next few years out of the stock market. [The Motley Fool]
The Big Third.
Until now we've had two source documents that are essential to arguing against the entertainment industry's anti-Internet FUD: Courtney Love's speech, and Janis Ian's essay.
Now we have a third: Tim O'Reilly's seven-lesson essay, Piracy is Progressive Taxation, and Other Thoughts on the Evolution of Online Distribution.
Like Courtney and Janis, Tim speaks from his own success. Unlike the other two, Tim lives and works in the world of technology. He may make his money in a dead tree medium, but his habitat is the Net, which is under sustained attack by Hollywood.
I'd say more, but I'd rather you read the piece. It's important.
[The Doc Searls Weblog]Netting Capital Gains and Losses. Will you owe taxes, or can you deduct any losses? [The Motley Fool]
Utterly hypnotic Java-toy. SodaPlay is an incredibly fun Java-toy -- sketch out skeletal, jointed constructions, tweak the physics of gravity and friction, and set it in motion. It jiggles and clatters and bounces in a way that I find utterly hypnotic. Link Discuss (Thanks, John!) [Boing Boing Blog]
Good online comics....
Some of the best comics ever are online. Some independent, some ubiquitous, and all too cool for syndication. [MetaFilter] [Ye Olde Phart]
The Price of Aging. An AARP study shows most Americans underestimate the cost of long-term care. [The Motley Fool]
The Waypath Project is "an attempt to network the weblog community, connecting weblogs that share common themes, ideas, and topics." [Scripting News]
Forget the Files and the Folders: Let Your Screen Reflect Life. With the end of the Microsoft trial, a computer scientist argues, it is time to move beyond operating systems. [New York Times: Technology]
Year-End Tax-Planning Tips. The time to make tax-saving moves is right now. [The Motley Fool]
What Retirement Will Cost. The rule of thumb says you can retire on 70%-80% of your current income. Fact or fiction? [The Motley Fool]
Make Your Kids Millionaires. Slowly and steadily, they'll grow rich. [The Motley Fool]
Three Roadblocks to Retirement. Turn your retirement plan into retirement action. [The Motley Fool]
Voice of sanity.
Janis Ian comes through again, with a brilliant L.A. Times op-ed inveighing against the suicidal insanities of the record industry:
The Internet means exposure, and these days, unless you're in the Top 40, you're not getting on the radio. The Internet is the only outlet for many artists to be heard by an audience bigger than whoever shows up at a local coffeehouse. The Internet allows people like me to gain new fans; if only 10% of those downloading my music buy my records or come to my shows, I've just gained enough fans to fill Carnegie Hall twice over.
With the court's decision, the RIAA didn't just defeat Verizon, the Internet service provider that the RIAA sued. It damaged the viability of recording artists who don't conform to the mainstream musical tastes of the moment.
Do you like '50s-style acoustic folk? Big band music? European synth? If the decision stands, you'll have to rely on word of mouth to find it -- not the Internet. Because if you get hold of an "infringing" file, you may find yourself on the receiving end of a record company lawsuit too expensive for any individual to fight...
The RIAA says it is doing all this to make more money for me and other artists like me, but don't be fooled. Many musicians would lose money, many fans would be denied a universe of new choices and the possibilities of Internet music would be cut off before the revolution even begins.
Thanks to Archipelago for the link.
[The Doc Searls Weblog]Filesharing is good for the music industry - first we had Janis Ian, a famous songwriter, tell us what we already knew. Now we have a record executive speaking truthfully about this issue. And quoting John Berry Barlow no less. Still, let's not kid ourselves: this is not the kind of truth that is going to win the day just because it makes sense. In Washington you have to put money in the tip jar if you want to be understood.
Doc Searls is right that the record companies have the edge because they've convinced the media that the key buzzword is "piracy". As if this is the main feature of online file-sharing. Why can't we make similar headway in branding the music industry as a haven for crooks, and predators of people with artistic talent? What other industy has a more storied history of payola? And how about regular old anti-competitive behavior? Recently, the five largest music companies settled a price-fixing case over the prices charged for CDs.
And who is better at exploiting artists? Ask Don Henley about how the RIAA hosed the artists. Oh, and remember when Fantasy Records sued John Fogerty for producing songs that sounded too much like the songs that he had written early in his career (and Fantasy held the rights because Fogerty had been convinced, as so many artists are, to naively sign them away early on in his career)? At least he won the right to collect the attorneys' fees he had to pay to defend himself all the way to the Supreme Court.
The record companies all say that they have to drive a hard bargain with the artists so they can make money, but I don't see many record companies going broke. But you see a lot of artists that wind up dirt poor in nursing homes. Read Courtney Love's account of how record companies profit handsomely, while the artists (whose careers they exploit) do not, is worth reading. Sounds a lot like the boxing industry corruption that was portrayed in the 1956 Bogart film "The Harder They Fall."
So I say forget file-sharing. There's a bigger problem here that Congress should tackle. Here we have an industry that has a demonstrated history of massive greed leading to repeated illegal and highly exploitative behavior. They have worked to extend the terms of copyrights to an unimaginable length. They have managed to get Congress to pass the freedom-rending DMCA, and now seek to further solidify their gains by obtaining digital rights management, which would obliterate fair use as we know it. Why? Answer: $$$$$$$$$$$
We need a Kefauver investigation. And we need more people to use their common sense. These guys aren't losing money. They just aren't making enough to support the outrageously lavish lifestyles to which they have grown accustomed.
[Ernie the Attorney]Fair Use is not the Law - noted legal scholar, and MPAA President, Jack Valenti, is now on the record stating that there is no such thing as fair use. Here's an excerpt from the Q&A interview with the Harvard Political Review, as reported by Copyfighter's Musings:
HPR: The MPAA has backed several bills mandating copy prevention technologies. Critics have lambasted these bills for curbing consumer's 'fair use' rights, including the ability to make back-up copies. How can we balance the interests of consumers and the movie industry?
JV: What is fair use? Fair use is not a law. There's nothing in law.
Now I see why he has taken such preposterous positions (i.e. VCRs will destroy the Entertainment Industry and should be declared illegal). Jack has somehow not been alerted to the presence of 17 U.S.C. 107. Could someone see that he reads it before his next trip to Washington?
[Ernie the Attorney]On this wonderful web page you start out viewing the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then you move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. After that, you'll begin to move from the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe ....
Molecular Expressions: Science, Optics and You - Powers Of 10: Interactive Java Tutorial [Ye Olde Phart]
The 25th Anniversary of the BBS. Jason Scott writes "25 years ago today, Ward Christensen and Randy Suess officially announced the creation of a little project they threw together with a 300 baud Hayes modem, a Z-80 based S-100 computer, and a phone line. They called it "Chicago Bulletin Board System" (CBBS) and it was the... [Lockergnome's Bits and Bytes]
Joe Millionaire's New Million. Advice for the new couple on what to do with their sudden windfall. [The Motley Fool]