Archives
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Life Trumps Blogging
I thought I owed you guys an explanation for why I haven’t been really posting lately. Life hates me.
No, seriously.
First I got a roomate. Then the new apartment manager gives me a hard time because she has 3 cats even though the old apartment manager okayed it.
Then I found out that my mom has cancer. She has maybe a year and I’m too far away to see her often.
So we found a new apartment and we’re moving this weekend. Or rather I am because my roomate has to work 6:30am to 7:30pm Friday through Sunday (she’s a nurse).
I got in my car this morning to come to work and it wouldn’t start. I’m pretty sure the battery will have to be replaced, but there may be an alternator problem too.
Online stuff just doesn’t seem that important these days.
Site — laura
Friday, May 19, 2006
The importance of Privacy
Wired News: The Eternal Value of Privacy
… they accept the premise that privacy is about hiding a wrong. It’s not. Privacy is an inherent human right, and a requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect.…For if we are observed in all matters, we are constantly under threat of correction, judgment, criticism, even plagiarism of our own uniqueness. We become children, fettered under watchful eyes, constantly fearful that — either now or in the uncertain future — patterns we leave behind will be brought back to implicate us, by whatever authority has now become focused upon our once-private and innocent acts. We lose our individuality, because everything we do is observable and recordable.
…Too many wrongly characterize the debate as “security versus privacy.” The real choice is liberty versus control. Tyranny, whether it arises under threat of foreign physical attack or under constant domestic authoritative scrutiny, is still tyranny. Liberty requires security without intrusion, security plus privacy. Widespread police surveillance is the very definition of a police state. And that’s why we should champion privacy even when we have nothing to hide.
Computing News — laura
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Casey Bisson on Web Services
Information Wants To Be Free » Blog Archive » Casey Bisson speaks! We all should listen.
And while I was not particularly sad to see my stunningly inadequate description of Web services go by the wayside, I was very sad that people would not have the opportunity to read Casey’s insights into why our systems suck and what Web services could mean for libraries. So after talking with Casey last Friday night, he e-mailed me and let me know that I could blog the interview. So here it is!
Library Links — laura
Tuesday, May 9, 2006
“Unshelved Interview”
LISNews.org | No snickering in the library, unless you’re hooked on “Unshelved”
The guys behind “Unshelved” are interviewed by the Seattle Times. It’s great.
Library Links — laura
Thursday, May 4, 2006
Book Quote
Treasures, those old ones,murmured Hal in Erde’s ear.Keepers of the knowledge, scholars, librarians.
The Book of Earth, Marjorie B. Kellogg. Daw 1995.
Library Links — laura
Beginner’s guide to podcasts and podcasting
- Beginner’s guide to podcasts and podcasting (plus: how to create a basic podcast of your own) at Forever Geek
- Successful Podcasting at Forever Geek
Web Tools — laura
Wednesday, May 3, 2006
Net Neutrality
- LISNews.org | Why You Should Care About Network Neutrality
- WWdN: In Exile: why network neutrality matters, and is worth fighting for
- Boing Boing: Network neutrality - why it matters, and how do we fix it?
- Neutrality of the Net | Decentralized Information Group (DIG) Breadcrumbs
Computing News — laura
Podcasting and the law
Podcasting Legal Guide - CcWiki
I doubt I would ever do a podcast. Trying to talk in online classes was difficult enough when I knew I wasn’t talking to myself.
Web Tools — laura
Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA) of 2006
The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics: Congrats to U.S. Senators Cornyn & Lieberman!
Experience has shown that a request to deposit research articles is not enough; this led to a dismal 4% compliance rate. A clear-cut mandate to deposit is what is needed, and what the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA) of 2006 accomplishes. FRPAA also clearly sets the standard for timing of deposit of research, with immediate deposit being the ideal, and 6 months after publication the maximum delay.
Open Access — laura
Test Internet Explorer 7 Without Installing It
Google Operating System: Test Internet Explorer 7 Without Installing It
There aren’t likely to be many more changes to the rendering engine so it’s safe to make changes based on the pre-release.
Website Design — laura
Sale or License
Boing Boing: Sony screwing artists out of iTunes royalties, customers out of first-sale
Sony pays less to its artists for sales than for licensing (Sony artists reportedly earn $0.045 for each $0.99 song sold on iTunes). Naturally, Sony claims that the songs sold on iTunes are sales and not licensing deals.
This is where it gets interesting. As Brad Templeton and others have pointed out, Sony and others have long maintained that what you get when you buy an iTune is a license, not ownership of a product. That license prohibits you from doing all kinds of otherwise lawful things, like selling your music to a used-record store, loaning it to a friend, or playing it on someone else’s program.
But if Sony says that it’s selling products (and therefore only liable for 4.5 cents in royalties to its artists) and not licenses, then how can it bind us, its customers, to licensing terms?
Copyright — laura
A Barenaked guide to music copyright reform
A Barenaked guide to music copyright reform
Much of their lobbying, however, is not about protecting artists or promoting Canadian culture. It is about propping up business models in the recording industry that are quickly becoming obsolete and unsustainable. It is about preserving foreign-based power structures and further entrenching the labels’ role as industry gatekeepers. Their lobbying efforts are focused on passing laws that restrict artists’ ability to take control of their own music, reach their fans in more direct ways and earn a decent living from music without sacrificing their autonomy.
Copyright — laura
