First, the links:
Knowing When to Log Off by Jeffrey Young
Chronicle of Hgher Ed 4.22.5
Donald Knuth versus email
Again, there’s all this jibber-jabber about kids today and how much info is getting pumped into their heads. Maybe this is true, but internet surfing is not all that different than channel surfing and, as I’m sure a […]
All too often I read someone hyping blogs and, particularly in the online librarian world, saying that it’s a choice between blogging and digital death. One of the great things about the past 10 years is that the world has shrunk dramatically and information is now so completely accessible. Particularly in the case […]
House OKs Family Copyright Bill by Katie Dean
Wired 4.19.5
More details on the criminal penalties from news.com.com.com:
File-swappers who distribute a single copy of a prerelease movie on the Internet can be imprisoned for up to three years, under a bill that’s slated to become the most dramatic expansion of online piracy penalties in years.
Prison terms […]
Battelle on Google Keyhole Integration Update
Memorymaps
myGmaps enables you to create, save and host custom data files and display them with Google Maps.
Google Maps Hacking and Bookmarklets
Google Maps Standalone Mode
housingmaps.com powered by craigslist and google maps
Over at IBM’s developerWorks Peter Seebach writes about Naturally occurring standards. (4.12.5)
Sanger has written a detailed history of Wikipedia in an effort to clarify how it became what it is today, and it’s a must-read for a number of reasons:
The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia part I
The Early History of Nupedia and Wikipedia part II
One very interesting higher-level point:
Wikipedia became what it is today because, […]
A quick pointer to two interesteing articles on the subject:
Piercing the peer–to–peer myths: An examination of the Canadian experience by Michael Geist
First Monday 10:4
Nielsen Rating System At Odds With RIAA’s Claim Of “Lost Sales” by Moses Avalon
MusicDish 4.24.4
And while I’m at it, here’s one of the most well-known articles on the RIAA:
RIAA’s Statistics Don’t Add […]
Open-Access Journals Flourish by Randy Dotinga
Wired 4.11.5
Directory of Open Access Journals
Yet another article on the disconnect between libraries and today’s youth (bugmenot probably required). Being in my late 20’s myself, it’s really difficult for me to figure out why librarians have such a problem understanding the information needs of young folks. This is a demographic that has the most mallible tastes. This […]
Steven Cohen posts critically about authors tagging their own work.
I’ve noticed that quite a few bloggers have been tagging their own blog posts on del.icio.us. My belly barometer goes off when I see this. It just doesn’t seem right to me. I find it counter-intuitive to the collective knowledge base. It also seems a bit […]
The BBC has launched a pilot project to work out the details of releasing the BBC archives DRM-free. It’s pretty nice to see the tagline “Find it. Rip it. Mix it. Share it.”
- link to site
NPR ran a story the other day on the use of comic books in the classroom. Educators are starting to look to them for help with everything from reading to science, but the old debate continues. While comic books certainly can’t fill every role, there are some jobs they do exceeding well. […]
Google has introduced a new Q&A service that puts facts related to searches in OneBox instertions. In an example noted in the Macworld article, a search for Portugal population returns the answer mined from the CIA’s World Factbook. More details on the service and how it fits into the world of search can […]
It’s real spooky when CIOs advocate locking down the internet and greatly restricting access and the freedom to make even little scripts:
Let’s make all end user devices nonprogrammable. No one can connect to the Internet on a machine that creates code. If you want a computer to do programming, you would have to be licensed. […]
Timothy K. Armstrong sat in and has a long post detailing the argument. SCOTUSblog also has good info, including:
Several members of the Court — but especially Justices Antonin Scalia, Stephen G. Breyer and David H. Souter — seemed troubled about the potential impact of a tightening of copyright law on small inventors — “the […]
Via BB, a c-span segment with a debate between EFF’s Fred von Lohmann and Solcitor General Theodore Olson (in the RIAA/MPAA ring) on Grokster. Some callers make very good points, including one who notes that indie musicians rely on P2P for exposure. As Cory Doctorow points out, Fred von Lohmann totally schools Olson.
It’s a decent length and covers many of the competing interests and issues. Music file-sharing case before high court. Ruling could have major effect on future of entertainment industry, consumer rights. Benny Evangelista, 3.28.5
Copyfight’s Alan Wexelblat comments on P2P FUD and cites a japanese study (PDF) that didn’t find any negative effect on CD sales due to p2p and, in fact, found evidence that using p2p may increase CD purchases. That’s not the only study to find similar results, and just the other day I mentioned the […]
The Economist is running a story on tomorrow’s Grokster v MGM hearing that gives a short overview of the case and the history of attacks on the tech industry by the content industry.
The conclusion (also cited by BB):
But even if the entertainment business manages to coax more users into paying for legal downloads and succeeds […]
And he makes some important points in his blog post on it:
It wont be a good day when high school entrepreneurs have to get a fairness opinion from a technology oriented law firm to confirm that big music or movie studios wont sue you because they can come up with an angle that makes a […]