May 2009
New Zealand Officials To Scrap Copyright Law;... →
There was a lot of controversy over the past few months concerning an attempt to change copyright law in New Zealand. After tremendous uproar over the fact that the law (a version of three strikes)…
Excess Omega-6 Fat Damages Infants' Livers →
A nurse friend of mine sent me an e-mail a few weeks ago with a very interesting observation:
On the unit I work on we get lots of babies who have “short gut syndrome” due to a variety of causes…
Fox Network: Obama knocked off TV for ‘Lie To Me’ →
Fox Broadcasting Company announced Monday it will not carry President Barack Obama’s prime time press conference marking his first 100 days in office, the first time a broadcast network has…
April 2009
Once Again: Patents Do Not Equal Innovation →
It’s always disappointing to see reporters who know better assume that patents are somehow a reasonable proxy for innovation. It’s pretty common, even though research has shown (many times over)…
Does Apple Own The Copyright On A File You Create... →
Last last year, the EFF publicly blasted Apple for threatening a wiki site, called BluWiki, that had been set up by a firm OdioWorks to reverse engineer interoperability with iPods and iPhones so…
Time Warner: No Metered Broadband... But We'll... →
So Time Warner Cable has supposedly backed off its metered broadband until it can figure out how to do a better job presenting it (though, it’s also threatening to delay upgrades if people don’t…
Politicians Defer To Time Warner Lobbyists Who... →
Following up on the earlier story of Time Warner Cable going the political route to try to block municipal competition in Wilson, North Carolina, Broadband Reports has a story pointing out two…
Can A Sports Organization Claim Copyright On Stuff... →
Earlier this year, we noted that with the rise of the ability to film and broadcast video directly from mobile phones, it was only a matter of time until we ran into some legal battles about fans…
The 8,000 Year Copyright? →
There’s a popular saying among copyright maximalists, that if copyright must be “for limited times,” it should be “forever minus a day.” And, in fact, part of the problem with the so-called…
Parental Trolling →
Guest Comic by Randall Munroe →
Today’s strip comes to us courtesy of Randall Munroe. If you don’t know who he is you are probably not on the internet for double-digit hours every day. Good for you!
Amazon deletes reviews that expose other reviews... →
If you claim, in a review at Amazon, that its third-party sellers attempted to bribe you to get a good write-up, what will happen? Amazon will delete your review, of course! [Consumerist]
Fructose vs. Glucose Showdown →
As you’ve probably noticed, I believe sugar is one of the primary players in the diseases of civilization. It’s one of the “big three” that I focus on: sugar, industrial vegetable oil and white…
Good News: Using A Proxy Server Isn't A Sign That... →
Some of us use proxy servers for VPN purposes, because it’s just good security. However, the US Sentencing Commission was recently considering whether or not the use of a proxy server should be…
Amazon deletes reviews that expose other reviews... →
If you claim, in a review at Amazon, that its third-party sellers attempted to bribe you to get a good write-up, what will happen? Amazon will delete your review, of course! [Consumerist]
HowMuchItCosts.us →
a little buggy, but a nice idea
NOVA | PBS Video →
$:.unshift(File.dirname(__FILE__)) →
This shit is evil. People are undecided as to how evil, but evil it is. $: is a way-too-Perl-y special variable alias for $LOAD_PATH. You could change it like this: ...
Rep. Jane Harman Changes Her Tune On Wiretapping →
Reports in Congressional Quarterly and the New York Times indicate that a National Security Agency (NSA) wiretap authorized by the FISA Court recorded Rep. Jane Harman trading political favors…
Taser Sues Second Life For Having Virtual Tasers →
Stun gun maker Taser is notoriously overprotective of its brand, even pushing judges and medical examiners never to list a Taser as a cause of death. However, this latest, as pointed out by Dave…
Fuck the foundries! →
Indeed!
In Defense of the Dark Ages →
When I was in the process of editing my new book Life Inc., my copyeditor pulled a paragraph out, in which I had explained that the so-called “Dark Ages” didn’t exist - that the ten centuries…
Comedian Louis CK Gets BitTorrent Content Removed... →
A reader, who prefers to go by the name Angry Young Man, points us to an interesting set of comments on a torrent of a recent stand up comedy performance by the comedian Louis CK, where it appears…
This is your brain on religion (or Madonna) →
See this pretty picture of a brain lit up by singing gospel songs? What if I told you those same pathways would light up for a Madonna fan at a karaoke bar yelping along with the rocker’s…
"In addition, Oracle has now obtained the MySQL... →
“In addition, Oracle has now obtained the MySQL database, which Sun acquired last year for $1 billion.” - Oracle Agrees to Acquire Sun Microsystems - NYTimes.com Shiiiiiiit.
Why I have to authenticate with itunes to download free apps baffles me.
Off to do the sainted work of the Glen Park neighborhood association provisional steering committee
On my way to dim sum … where they don’t serve coffee :/
Enjoying a single-malt
Gmail’s filter creation interface is kind of lame. I want to add multiple labels with one filter. ♫ http://blip.fm/~4k9xt
listening to "Skullcrusher Mountain - Jonathan... →
Gmail’s filter creation interface is kind of lame. I want to add multiple labels with one filter.
britt started watching sandal/korma →
korma’s description: Git based blog?
britt started watching mojombo/grit →
grit’s description: Grit gives you object oriented read/write access to Git repositories via Ruby.
No Surprise Here: NSA Abused Surveillance Powers →
This will comes as little surprise to most people, but it turns out that the NSA has been abusing its surveillance powers, collecting significantly more information than they are allowed to by…
Texas City Councilman Arrested After Opposing Red... →
There’s been plenty of debate about traffic cameras lately, with many cities and states rushing to implement them as revenue generators rather than out of any sense of safety. Reader Brad points us…
GitHub Issue Tracker! - GitHub →
These guys just don’t stop making good stuff.
Redcar →
Priit Haamer > Blog > Ruby dictionary for Mac OS X →
Add rails documentation to the Mac OS X dictionary
haddock-0.2.0 Documentation →
Report: Amazon flipping the DRM kill-switch on... →
Amazon can, at its pleasure, suspend your account: for example, if you return too many books or other purchases. This also means that your Kindle can no longer get virtual books and subscriptions…
The Failure of #amazonfail →
In 1987, a teenage girl in suburban New York was discovered dazed and wrapped in a garbage bag, smeared with feces, with racial epithets scrawled on her torso. She had been attacked by half a dozen…
News Station Falls For April Fool's Prank, Turns... →
Improv Everywhere, a comedic performance art group based in New York, has a history of pulling off hilarious and impressive “scenes of chaos and joy.” Running “missions” such as the annual “No…
Want To Know Why Newspapers Are Dying? Maureen... →
In her recent New York Times op-ed, Maureen Dowd takes aim at Google, blaming it for the sorry state of the newspaper industry. Perhaps in hopes of winning people over to the newspapers’ side in…
“Sometimes I suspect the real function of communications technology is to...”
– Wired UK Columnist Warren Ellis: ‘We’re living in the last days of the Roman empire’
Lots of people tweet at me in a some northern European language I don’t understand. I wonder if they are offended when I don’t reply.