and if so, how?

a case study in copyright

nobody@vox.com(highatus) — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 20:56:01 -0800

on the one hand, it's copyrighted content that has no right to be shown to the public without express written permission! on the other hand, it's a minorly significant moment in history that the copyright holder will never expressly provide consent before, because it's embarrassing to them that someone practiced freedom of speech on their air!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

green festival sf '06

nobody@vox.com(highatus) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 12:06:01 -0800

I spent all weekend at the SF Green Festival. I have all sorts of thoughts about it that are tied into work, because SustainLane.com was the main sponsor of the event and we had a pretty huge presence in front of an estimated weekend crowd of 50,000. But one feeling I had most of the weekend was that a lot of the exhibits were missing the point. One of our booths, for example, was across from invitees from the Rennaisance Fair. How you spend your free time is your business, but you're certainly diluting the idea of green pretty far there, no?

anyway these thoughts from another attendee, le, which i think are very pertinent:

on saturday it was so crowded i could't move, and was very frustrating and not fun because of that. sunday was better, i actually managed to buy a couple of things and ran into some friends.
my mixed feelings revolve around this thought: part of being "green" should be to reduce consuming items we don't need and a LOT of what was happening at the green festival was crap people just don't need for sale. that was disheartening. a lot of organizations were giving out a lot of useless paper in the form of brochures and one pagers, which will just be thrown away later.
i'd like to see the green festival give out a green festival branded pen and pad to everyone, so they can write down URLs, and then ban their participants from handing out brochures.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

office space, the thriller

nobody@vox.com(highatus) — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 22:07:28 -0800

Office Space Trailer Recut

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

red and blue and fed up all over

nobody@vox.com(highatus) — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 09:28:02 -0800

yeah, yeah, we won on tuesday. i do sincerely hope that the democrats realize this wasn't so much a vote for them aas a vote against our current leadership. there is a difference there.

anyway, i get very frustrated with red state-blue state stuff - i feel it creates a false split. here's a better take on regional identities and differences.

The regions were based on election results, demographic data and certain geographic features. Each one represents about 10% of the electorate (i.e. approximately 10,5 million votes in the 2000 presidential election).
Northeast Corridor: the richest, best-educated and most densely populated region of the US. A traditionally Democrat-leaning area, it delivered 62% of the vote to Al Gore in 2000. That’s better than any Democrat in any region since LBJ.
Upper Coasts: anchored by Boston (on the east coast) and San Francisco (on the west coast), this region is relatively affluent and well-educated. Arguably more liberal than the Northeast Corridor, it is less reliably Democratic: third-party candidates do well.
Farm Belt: has the smallest non-white population, with lower than average population growth. Ranks first in percentage of people who finish high school, but don’t get a higher education. Solidly Republican.
Big River: has been the most closely contested area in presidential elections for over 30 years. And the region isn’t easily wooed, never giving either candidate more than 55% during this period.
Appalachia: the poorest and most rural region, but catching up economically. Showed a dramatic swing towards the Republicans in 1980 and stayed that way ever since.
Sagebrush: named after the anti-bureaucratic Sagebrush Rebellion of the 1970s, this region occupies almost 50% of the US land area. The fastest growing region, it was also Al Gore’s worst region in 2000.
Great Lakes: centered around Chicago, and suffering from population loss in smaller cities, it has Democrats chasing votes in more rural areas – the suburban counties have been tilting their way, anyway.
Southern Comfort: fast-growing and average as to income and education, this was part of the ‘Solid South’ that squarely supported the Democratic party around 50 years ago. It has since turned into the most Republican region of the US.
Southern Lowlands: the largest percentage of African-American voters, who reliably vote Democratic. This voting bloc is matched by some of the most Republican areas in the US, making it a swing area.
El Norte: the youngest and most Hispanic region, it was carried by Gore in 2000. It is however not solidly Democratic, having recently sent conservative Republicans to Congress (from Florida and Texas).

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

sony must be japanese for moran

nobody@vox.com(highatus) — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 10:31:24 -0700

I'll admit (before papabean comes in here to argue the merits) that copyright is a complicated issue and if i were at the helm of any old-model business based on maintaining a dominant share of content ownership being forced to acclimate rapidly to a constantly changing technological environment which i neither appeared to understand nor have any appreciation for, I'd probably be a little terrified and prone to bad, unnerved decision making. And I have neither the knowledge nor the passion nor likely the money to ever have been a Lik-Sang customer. I don't think I would ever make the decision Sony has, and fire me the day I do. (via)

Sony assassinates amazing etailer Lik-Sang
Lik-Sang, an amazing e-tailer that specializes in importing Asian electronics to Europe and the US, has been forced out of business by legal threats from Sony Europe. Lik-Sang's customers were true technophiles -- my household got its Japanese Katamari Damacy game, a limited edition Nintendo DS, and numerous accessories from Lik-Sang -- the kind of people who are fantastic customers for the likes of Sony.

This is part of Sony's ongoing, suicidal war against its own customers -- from installing rootkits on CD-buyers' PCs to threatening hackers with lawsuits over teaching new dances to their Aibos to re-crippling the PSP to lock out homebrew software. Great companies like Lik-Sang that exist to serve an early-adopter, passionate user niche are collateral damage in the war.

Thanks, Sony. I hope you lose a shitload of money on Blu-Ray.

Lik-Sang.com, the popular gaming retailer from Hong Kong, has today announced that it is forced to close down due to multiple legal actions brought against it by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Sony claimed that Lik-Sang infringed its trade marks, copyright and registered design rights by selling Sony PSP consoles from Asia to European customers, and have recently obtained a judgment in the High Court of London (England) rendering Lik-Sang's sales of PSP consoles unlawful...
A Sony spokesperson declined to comment directly on the lawsuit against Lik-Sang, but recently went on to tell Gamesindustry.biz that "ultimately, we're trying to protect consumers from being sold hardware that does not conform to strict EU or UK consumer safety standards, due to voltage supply differences et cetera; is not - in PS3's case - backwards compatible with either PS1 or PS2 software; will not play European Blu-Ray movies or DVDs; and will not be covered by warranty".
Lik Sang strongly disagrees with Sony's opinion that their customers need this kind of protection and pointed out that PSP consoles shipped from Lik-Sang contained genuine Sony 100V-240V AC Adapters that carry CE and other safety marks and are compatible world wide. All PSP consoles were in conformity with all EU and UK consumer safety regulations.

Christ, it's hilarious to see Sony wringing its hands over its poor customers! These are the people who compromised 500,000 computer networks with their rootkits and spyware!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

i'm just saying is all

nobody@vox.com(highatus) — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 16:23:11 -0700

Getting Out: Your Guide to Leaving America (Process Self-reliance Series)

Mark Ehrman

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

QotD: My First Gig

nobody@vox.com(highatus) — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 10:00:29 -0700

What was your very first job?
Submitted by Laurel.

I was a stockboy at some upscale clothier in my hometown. After school I would go and sort shirts, count inventory, make sure everything on the floor was in order.

Only two interesting things about that job: one, that I was such a goober when I applied for it -- I was a fifteen year old trying to stock shelves -- that I wore a tie and borrowed my dad's cell phone for the interview (in 1991). Two, that I eventually grew to hate it, and straight out of Office Space just stopped going. That lasted a week or two before I got busted.

Oh well.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

QotD: The Day I Met My BFF(s)

nobody@vox.com(highatus) — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 12:23:06 -0700

i can say almost universally that i went to school with them. there are two people from high school and before whom i suppose i met more through church, and otherwise they are all from school connections.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

with a month to spare

nobody@vox.com(highatus) — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 11:12:21 -0700

selected advice about "what's so great about thirty?" emphasis mine on all counts.

Age is meaningless; it's neither great nor bad to turn 30.
When I turned 25 I freaked out a bit because it was so close to 30 which seemed so old. However, actually turning 30 was no big deal, and my 30s have been considerably better than my 20s. I've heard that when they ask progressively older people which decade has been best, it's generally whatever decade they're in at that moment. So, don't worry about it.
I just care less what my friends (or others) think, and more about what I actually want and how I want to achieve that. Long-range planning's a little easier. I don't get as freaked out about minor things because I know what will blow over.
My friends have really interesting lives and jobs and my life is enriched by knowing them. My 20's friends (some of them are the same, natch) had fun lives and quirky jobs, but there is something to be said for being a bit established in a field/profession doing something you love.
I agree, the world starts taking you seriously. When I hit 30 I got a big promotion at work, for no reason. I easily could have done the job at 25, but no one thought I was a grownup.
Apparently, at 30 you get a free pass on chatfilter questions.
It's a magic number that can slash the cost of your car insurance.
No point stressing out about 30. It's just an accident of the number system. Did you know when you hit 28 you had your last birthday that was a perfect number? That's never gonna happen again. You're prime now, and will be in a year and two weeks or so, but not again till 37. In two and a bit years you'll be 20 in hex. These so called "round numbers" are nothing to worry about and just an accident due largely to (most of us) having 10 fingers.
You still have all the energy of your twenties but more experience and wisdom to channel those energies productively. You've already made most of the big dumb mistakes that everyone makes at least once. You are still attractive tot he opposite sex, but now you know what you want from relationships, and how to close the deal. You know a lot more, you have a fuller intellectual life and more varied interests. The thirties is the best of all worlds.
Bottom line: people in their thirties are cooler than people in their twenties. Would someone in their thirties say something as asinine as "don't trust anyone over 30"? No. Because they are not nitwits.
Turning 30 sucked because, despite talking about how it didn't bug me, it did. It wasn't the age as much as where my life was, where I was headed and what I hadn't accomplished yet.
Being 30 was stressful and triumphant and wonderful and tumultous because I decided to do something about that unsettled malaise and become who I wanted to be, despite that not being what other people wanted me to be.
Now I'm a boring 31 year old person who has her dream life that I built myself. Yep, happy as hell.
I'm excited about turning 30. I feel like it's a reward for all the hard work of my 20s. Some people call your 20s the Decade of Terror. Your 30s are when you get to use all those lessons learned.
If 30 still seems really old to you, go make some older friends who will scoff appropriately. I have a good mix of older and younger friends, and it definitely helps me feel comfortable with my own age.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

QotD: An Unforgettable Home

nobody@vox.com(highatus) — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 10:44:43 -0700

What's the most memorable building you've lived in?
Submitted by Shelly.

That would have to be the Barn, an actual barn that my dad redid into a house. I lived there until I was about 7 1/2. It was a huge, open space and had an amazing amount of property around it, including a lake.

I'm trying to get back to posting here, since it's been a little while. I had mad computer issues but I think they've been resolved permanently, so now I just need to get a routine working and I can begin posting here again. But the A's are in the playoffs and all the games start at ten in the morning, so it's hard to get into the flow when I have to help my team.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend