18 May 2003

Quick Links about Saving the Mouse GARRINGREEN HOTSPOT -- I won't be attending the European Animation Festival this year, but will always vividly remember the two guys wearing yellow t-shirts in their "Save the Mouse" campaign. Some quick links: Eldred v Ashcroft: About us Lawrence Lessig: Lessig Blog Archives for January 2003 Wikipedia: Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act x_ref128   [Comment]

ISOC Ireland forms initial chapter ETHOS org -- Fergus Cassidy reflected on his impressions at being elected to the initial executive committee of ISOC Ireland, reminding me that everyone has to do their bit to "make the Internt for everyone." I feel like I'm trapped by poor public transport, because there's no way I can connect from an evening meeting in Dublin to my home in Kilkenny. However, I'm resolve to make a virtual contribution to the important efforts that have started already. Fergus Cassidy: History x_ref153   [Comment]

Memo to Corpex: here's a blogger dissatisfied with substandard service GARRINGREEN HOTSPOT -- As much as I enjoy the power of Radio UserLand for my primary blogging software, it irritates me when I cannot make it publish the way its Help files say it should. At the moment, I am toggling between two separate computers, running Radio into two different URLs. I am unsuccessfully porting content into distinct categories. That's problematic and leaves me feeling as though I am losing information. In actuality, I am removing information from the front page and shifting it to a category. However, sometimes I must invoke the republish command for the entire website to see the result in a manner I expect. That can take several hours, spread over several days of my Internet connectivity. Normally, I can depend on different upload zones for my work, so I can replicate important content. At the moment, most of my frequently-viewed files remain locked out of view by Corpex Ltd in London, which means I cannot back up important work. I'm more than a little frustrated. Label me a dissatisfied Corpex customer. x_ref15   [Comment]

NetNewsWire gives you a reason to switch GARRINGREEN HOTSPOT -- Tim Kirby gushes about NetNewsWire, citing it as a prominent reason why an infomaniac would be well-served in switching to Mac. I've seen NetNewsWire running side-by-side my IBM TransNote's NewzCrawler and I know it's faster. Plus, it doesn't crash. I have to recover from several news aggregator crashes a day with my current set-up. While I don't think that will push me into the realm of a Powerbook, I won't deny that NetNewsWire is a better piece of technology. Brent Simmons: NetNewsWire. More news, less junk. Faster. Tim Kirby: cuts fro the coalface of multimedia x_ref1256   [Comment]

17 May 2003

Safe and free in the realm of electronic data retention GARRINGREEN HOTSPOT -- The Irish Ministry of Justice should take a long period of reflection regarding its proposals on electronic data retention. Some salient points include: Whether the Irish government intends to pool electronic data records into one giant, centralized database, and whether there would be any limit to the number of databases to which it could connect Whether the system will be able to do true data-mining, or only more limited "query-based" searches How the Irish penchant for longitudinal data analysis is likely to evolve over time given the well-established historical tendency for such electronic surveillance fishing expeditions to expand once they are established. ACLU: Safe and Free x_ref261519   [Comment]

We need your help CYBERLAW -- Larry Lessig asks readers to complete two steps that will help rescue the public domain. I'm linking to his call-to-action (that's step 2) and writing to my US Congressman (step 1). Lessig's issued a call-to-action for a bill that would require people who want to keep their copyrights after 50 years to pay a dollar a year to keep their copyrights active. The idea is to allow Disney to keep Steamboat Willie for as long as Congress thinks they should, but not at the expense of all the movies made contemporaneously with the early Mickey cartoons, whose owners are dead, and whose film stock is decaying, such that all copies of these works will have expired long before their copyrights do. "The need for even this tiny compromise is becoming clearer each day. Stanford’s library, for example, has announced a digitization project to digitize books. They have technology that can scan 1,000 pages an hour. They are chafing for the opportunity to scan books that are no longer commercially available, but that under current law remain under copyright. If this proposal passed, 98% of books just 50 years old could be scanned and posted for free on the Internet. "Stanford is not alone. This has long been a passion of Brewster Kahle and his Internet Archive, as well as many others. Yet because of current copyright regulation, these projects — that would lower the cost of libraries dramatically, and spread knowledge broadly — cannot go forward. The costs of clearing the rights to makes these works available is extraordinarily high. "Yet the lobbyists are fighting even this tiny compromise. The public domain is competition for them. They will fight this competition. And so long as they have the lobbyists, and the rest of the world remains silent, they will win." Lawrence Lessig's call to action Cory Doctorow: Help Lessig rescue the Public Domain! x_ref128   [Comment]

Memo to Corpex: effects of domain quarantine GARRINGREEN HOTSPOT -- Ever since Corpex Ltd quarantined my Topgold domain, I have been rewiring my local Radio installation and uploading to Underway in Ireland on Userland. This was not easy because much of my code and all of my images are locked down by Corpex. I have done a lot of reading about upstreaming preferences, rendering categories, Radio macros, and components in the gutter of my blog. While I am learning a lot about Radio, the process has slowed down my normal blogging routine. Fortunately, I am able to use much of the work in revising a web development course that I teach, so my students will benefit from the long detours I've taken in the blogosphere. I also hope to have a litany of issues related to the quarantining of my domain by Corpex Ltd because in their mind, there's no detrimental effect to my business life as a result of their action. Categories FAQ Radio Macro HeadLinks Bernie Goldbach will relocate to UnderwayInIreland.com by the end of June 2003. x_ref143   [Comment]