Archives for April 2003
it's going to be a long night
April 22, 2003 by Eric Richardson
I'm working on writing the paper I mentioned the other day. I think the public domain is going to take a larger role than I had envisioned, but I like how my outline has come together. Now the whole serious writing process starts. Eleven pages, due at 2pm tomorrow, but I've got other classes between now and then, so for me it's basically due at 10am. It'll be interesting.
research, research, research
April 20, 2003 by Eric Richardson
So tonight I find myself in the computer lab, looking for information for a research paper due Wednesday. It's for my Legal Issues in New Media class, and the topic I've chosen to tackle is copyright terms. Right now I'm working with the juxtaposition of increasing copyright terms and what I'm calling the decreasing shelf life of information. The copyright term aspect is pretty broad and straight-forward, but the fun part is trying to figure out how you reasearch the latter aspect. What metric do you use to determine how long information is useful?
S.151: The Bill to End all Bills
April 17, 2003 by Eric Richardson
On April 10 a bill was cleared for the White House that I think is one of the more dangerous bills ever to be passed. S.151, or the "Child Abduction Prevention Act" (or AMBER Alert Act), seems inocuous enough, until you look at all the provisions that have been attached to it. I first read about the bill via this Plastic article, and yesterday actually took the time to read up on it. Click the title to read more... — Continue Reading...
is it legal if you cheat off yourself?
April 08, 2003 by Eric Richardson
So today I was strolling through my access log, and noticed for the first time a referrer from turnitin.com. I had sort of been curious to see when they indexed the papers on my site. A couple of my professors require that we submit our papers through them, and I have to say that I have very mixed opinions on whether that's a good thing or not. Largely I guess it depends on the algorithms they're using, and those we'll never know. I'm just waiting for the first time I post a paper on my site at the same time I turn it in, and their site flags me for copying from myself. That would make my day.
new sandals
April 08, 2003 by Eric Richardson
Today I finally replaced the sandals I bought in December of 2001. Now, if you aren't in a position to see my feet very often, that might not seem like a big deal, but if you are you know that I wear sandals 362 days a year on average. That established, getting a pair of sandals to last 14 or 15 months is pretty impressive. My old sandals were basically these, but with a closed toe, but now on my feet are a pair of ECCO Fisherman Sandals, which Sierra Trading Post had for an insane price. A day after I was looking at these sandals for $125 in a Birkenstock store on the Santa Monica Promenade, my mom found that Sierra had them for $39 (they've since gone to $49). Needless to say, I couldn't pass up a deal like that. First impressions: They're definitely comfortable. I notice a bounce that my other sandals didn't have. I'm not sure how well they vent the insole, though... We'll have to wait and see on that.
changes in whatsplaying
April 08, 2003 by Eric Richardson
I just put the new #{node "7"}eThreads#{/node} based whatsplaying into place. It sports a few new features over the old version, including knowing about albums and allowing me to comment about artists. The UI should be nicer as well. If anything's acting screwy, feel free to let me know.
why is it always the last minute?
April 02, 2003 by Eric Richardson
I have to give a speech at 10am on the harmful effects of the DMCA, so what am I doing at 9:15? Sitting in the computer lab finding sources of course. It's funny how they always end up being a last minute thing... I really should work on that.