the art of writing is discovering what you believe
The NEW Hype Machine is getting ready to launch…:
The Hype Machine [is at 2800 and change right now]
The NEW Hype Machine wants to see 10,000 of you before it comes out to play. Leave this page open and it’ll reload when everyone’s here.
Sick of waiting? Tell your friends
Last I looked there were more viewers than there are people on this planet: that might explain this message đŸ˜‰
Dying DRM Means More Freedom for Music Fans:
In a DRM-free environment, software developers that [who — ed] have wasted time trying to lock down audio files will undoubtedly create the fabled celestial jukebox that lets users listen to their music whenever, and wherever, they want.
did someone say Celestial Jukebox?
How well do you understand 12 tone composition?
Anyone have any good instructions on cracking open a 3G iPod? I have a replacement battery for it but getting it open seems to be trickier than advertised. The tools that came with it are too soft to really get in that almost invisible groove. Maybe I got one that was really finished well? I’ve hunted around on the Google: anyone ever done this or have any tips to <literally> crack it open?
Cory Doctorow offers an apology to Ursula K Le Guin.
After reading his piece and hers, it’s just a mess. He posts a very short work of hers in it entirety, and I think legally, though given his association with the volatile area of copyright and Fair Use, it may not have been all that well thought out (maybe one of the other principals at BB could have done it?). In reply, does she or her various representatives use any of the commonly accepted methods of communication, like registered/certified mail? No, she uses an intermediary who is an antagonist of Doctorow’s and whose email is discarded unread, programmatically. Some other of her peers and allies get their licks in, via their websites, but I don’t see any effort to contact the offender directly.
The discussion seems to be all about open letters and intermediaries. Don’t these people have telephones? Or mutual friends?
In my time at The Worst Job I Ever Had, the most antagonistic person I dealt with had a gift for epigrams, if not for self-awareness: the one I remember best was that people who are secure can be gracious. In other words, most of the petty squabbling we run into is all about power and status. Why, then, is someone like Le Guin being so mean-spirited about this to someone who is an avowed fan? Is it more about his positions on rights and usage than about his use of her work? Does she feel threatened by his public statements?
I’m not a huge fan of the pugnacious Mr Doctorow, though I agree with most of what he says on the issues of copyright: I have to take his side on this one, though.
Gruber quotes Fraser Speirs: Ă¢â‚¬ËœThe Second Step in Photography’:
[C]onsider making heavy use of your camera’s Program mode. Then, all you have is your camera position and your sense of timing to play with. That’s really stripping photography back to its beating heart.
How is using Program mode — the camera makes all the exposure decisions, little details like depth of field and shutter speed — “stripping photography back to its beating heart?” The great photographs I have enjoyed — the likes of Adams, Weston, Cartier-Bresson, Capa — were all made with a complete understanding their equipment, their media, and their subject.
You wanna strip it down? Stop by your local Goodwill or Value Village and grab one of the throwaway 35mm cameras you’ll find there, fixed focal length and f/stop, no preview, and run a roll of off the shelf drugstore film through it.
I don’t say there is no place for fully-automatic cameras — I’d love a D50 or the like — but to say that surrendering the decision-making process to the camera is somehow getting back to basics is just silly.
see if you can guess the place thus described:
The [_______] government under [_______] has amassed so much central authority that the power-grab may undermine [_______]’s commitment to democracy . . . .
“In any country, if you don’t have countervailing institutions, the power of any one president is problematic for democratic development,” [_______] told reporters after meeting with human-rights activists.
“I think there is too much concentration of power in the [_______]. [….] Everybody has doubts about the full independence of the judiciary. There are clearly questions about the independence of the electronic media and there are, I think, questions about the strength of the [_______],” said [_______], referring to the [legislature]
That’s what I paid in Nov 2003 for the iBook on my lap, with an 800 MHz G4, 30 Gb drive, 256Mb RAM, no camera.
The 60 Gb drive I put in not all that long ago is 95% full, the 640 Mb RAM is inadequate, and 800 MHz is just glacial for the almost-Leopard OS it’s running.
Any wonder why I’m trying to find some income? đŸ˜‰ If I could afford it, I would replace the G4 mini with a Core Duo and the iMac G5 likewise. But me first: this is the oldest system I have and the one that gets used the most.
