Copyright Watch & Making the Secret Treaty Public

One of my favorite advocacy groups, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has launched a new website called Copyright Watch. The site allows users to see the latest news in copyright law. The effort is to inform the general public about the threat that looming copyright laws poses to individual freedom, and maintaining an open Internet.

In other related news, here’s a quote from BoingBoing for you… I can’t improve upon their words:

“Two US Senators, Bernie Sanders (I-VI) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), have written to the US Trade Representative demanding that the text of the secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement be made public. This is the treaty that allows for criminal sanctions against noncommercial file-sharers, demands border-searches of laptop hard-drives and personal media players and phones for pirated material, requires ISPs to spy on their users, and gives movie and record companies the right to take whole households off the Internet with unsubstantiated allegations of piracy.”*

This secret copyright treaty is pretty black and white to me; we must crush it. The consequences of this treaty are unimaginably dreadful.

For more information you can visit the following links:

The Geek Whisperer: Scary Secret Copyright Treaty: From Music to Purses, This is Bad News

Copyright Watch

The Electronic Frontier Foundation

* BoingBoing: Two US senators demand publication of secret copyright treaty

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson is the Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Aside from being a very knowledgeable guy, Dr. Tyson is a top-knotch communicator. He has the rare gift of being able to break the most complicated scientific concepts down into very simple language. I started following his writing and presentations because explaining the complex in digestible language is what I always strive for.

Here are some choice selections of Dr. Tyson from YouTube. The guy really is a master of explanation, and he’s funny too.

On UFO’s:

On 2012:

On Death by Meteor (this one is kind of scary):

On Intelligent Design:

Who is more pro-science, Democrats or Republicans? The answer may surprise you:

Dr. Tyson’s credentials

My favorite book of his is Death By Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries.

Future of Web Design Conference – Day 1

First, I would like to issue a very special thanks to Melissa Penta. Melissa your absence from this conference is my gain… but I think you would have gotten more out of the jQuery session that you signed up for than I am. More on that later.

The Millennium Broadway Hotel, New York

I’m here. I was able to find my way through the hotel to the conference by following the trail of dudes dressed like bums in the nice Midtown Hotel.

My first impression is annoyance. The Future of Web Design Conference doesn’t have wi-fi because the hotel charges for it.

Cheap bastards.

Seriously though, it is pretty pathetic and it reflects poorly on both the Conference and the Millennium Broadway Hotel.

Kristina Halvorson’s Content Strategy Session

Kristina Halvorson is the President of a content writing/ information architecture agency known as Brain Traffic based out of Minnesota. Coincidentally, my childhood friend Chris Farrar works for Kristina.

Kristina’s session was enlightening. I do a lot of web writing and information architecture, so this was right up my alley. I didn’t feel like I learned much that was new, but she put a lot of things I know and do into concrete terms. I found the whole presentation rather soothing.

Here are a few key takeaways about content strategy and information architecture:

• People read print differently than they read the Internet (I will be writing more on this at a later date).
• Readers of your company’s website don’t care about your company. They don’t care about your “about us” page, or all of the time and effort you put into creating everything. They want what they are looking for.
• All to often pages are designed for the company, not the reader.
• Content is often an afterthought. It should be part of information architecture and design.
• It’s very hard to make good content out of processed, legalistic, techno-babble or other forms of soulless garbage.
• Good web content doesn’t win awards. It conveys information efficiently.
• You aren’t a copywriter on the web, you’re a publisher. People expect you to take care of what you create and publish.

Like I said, I didn’t learn a lot of new things, but Kristina did point out a few things that I would like to improve in myself. So you should see some small changes and improvements in my writing.

The Group Project From Hell

Kristina broke us up into groups to redesign Quicken’s homepage. I was grouped with three designers. They were very nice, but they didn’t seem to understand information architecture (or at least their understanding was different than mine), and they especially didn’t get writing. After 16 minutes of circular debate where they never articulated anything past their initial ideas, or made any decisions we rushed to finish something… and didn’t finish much. Fortunately no one actually looked at our “finished product.”

This made me really appreciate the team I work with, especially our lead designer RJay. He designs with copy and architecture, not around or over them.

Karl Swedberg – How to Use jQuery to Enhance Web Design

To pull a bit from Karl’s blog, “In the words of jQuery’s principal developer, John Resig, ‘jQuery is a simple JavaScript library that helps you to write the code that you want to write and really simplifies the interaction between JavaScript and HTML.’” Basically jQuery helps developers code cool stuff. 

I’m not a web developer. At all. My coding background was pretty much limited to desktop software, and I haven’t seriously coded in nearly a decade.

Needless to say I didn’t get much of anything out of this session. Karl seems like a very nice and knowledgeable guy. The people in the room seem like they are learning. He is making code jokes, and people are laughing… and I’m scratching my head wondering what was so funny. Everyone has limits.

At least this session is giving me a chance to write this post. Unfortunately I will have to publish tonight because of the aforementioned wi-fi situation.

Learn more:

The Future of Web Design

Kristina Halvorson & Brain Traffic

Karl Swedberg – Learning jQuery

Off to the Future of Web Design Conference in NYC

I’m off to the Future of Web Design Conference in NYC with a few of my coworkers.

I’ll write about all of the interesting happenings and misadventures I have along the way.

 

Scary Secret Copyright Treaty: From Music to Purses, This is Bad News

To followup yesterday’s post, Copyright, teh Internets & the Future, here’s a bit on the secret international copyright treaty known as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

ACTA is an international copyright treaty that is being negotiated in secret; although a lot of details have been leaked. The sections regarding the Internet are obscenely draconian; three strikes and you lose your right to connect to the Internet for a year. If this passes, I want that applied to major media conglomerates as well. Three misuses of intellectual property and the whole company loses it’s connection.

This video explains the treaty as it exists today, it’s origins, and it’s potential impact. This isn’t the best video, but it does the job. You are on the Internet, and you are reading a blog, so this treaty will harm you. You should watch the video, don’t be ignorant on this issue.

Make no mistake about it, ACTA will impact everyone. We all handle intellectual property on a daily basis, and current copyright law just doesn’t make sense in a post-Internet world (see yesterday’s post for more on that).

How can the US Government participate in secret negotiations for a treaty that will directly impact so many American’s? This isn’t some right wing thing pro business thing, this is the Obama Administration (not that I care for either side, but some of you do).

Current copyright law turns everyone into a criminal.

Kill ACTA. Reform copyright law.

Mountains Out of Molehills

My friend Laurie shared this on Facebook a few weeks ago and I almost forgot to post it. Basically it shows how much media hype surrounded a potential cataclysm… then it show’s how man deaths actually occurred as a result of this apocalyptic problem. In each case, the hype was infinitely more intense the the problem.

 

Click for a larger view

The total deaths from killer wasps, killer wifi, mobile phone cancer, Autism vaccinations, asteroid collisions, the Millennium Bug, Mad Cow Disease, video game violence, SARS, Bird Flu, and Swine Flu total somewhere in the range of 3000 people. I don’t mean to diminish the deaths of those who did die from killer wasps, Mad Cow, SARS, Bird & Swine flu, but the amount of attention we give these problems isn’t worth it.

The one in red is video game violence… I think I will be revisiting that one soon.

Data is a wonderful thing.

Copyright, teh Internets & the Future

Copyright law has fascinated me since high school. I read a lot about it, I understand it (fairly well), I have a lot of informed opinions on it, but I have never been able to articulate my ideas on the subject in the way that I am confident.

Fortunately, law professor and Creative Commons founder Larry Lessig does it for me. His presentation perfectly explains Copyright law, then he breaks it down in ways that make so much sense. So much more sense then I could ever make. Not only that, the presentation uses PowerPoint in fun ways.

This isn’t short, but if you have any curiosity or interest in Copyright law and how it impacts you, watch this video. If you don’t have a lot of time, watch the first twelve minutes, and the last five; you won’t regret it.

Windows 7 Inspired By Mac OS X & Other Obvious Stuff

A Microsoft official admitted that Windows 7 is inspired by Apple’s operating system (Microsoft official admits Windows 7 design inspired by Mac OS X).

In other news, the Droid is inspired by the iPhone, cigarettes lead to cancer, consuming alcohol will get you drunk, and the Pope poops (when he’s having a good day).

Reading that post gave me the urge to state the obscenely obvious.

Rupert Murdoch Pwned By Techdirt

Pwn (pronounced “p-own”)

- verb
to be owned, to have your rear kicked,  to be destroyed in a spectacularly manner.

Origin
The is word common among gamers, geeks, and nerds.

Related Forms
Pwned, Pwn3d, and Pwnage

Usage
“Did you see that? I just pwned your ass!”

After crazy Uncle Rupert (Murdoch) claimed that he was contemplating hiding all of his news sites from Google and other news aggregation services (Rupert Murdoch Threatens Seppuku), the Internet was all a-buzz. While everyone was writing about how epicly stupid the idea was, Mike Masnick of Techdirt did some research.

Masnick realized that many of Murdoch’s own sites “parasited” content in exactly the same manner that he endlessly complains about with Google and Microsoft. Prestige sites like The Wall Street Journal and Fox News “steal” stories from blogs, other sources, and even Techdirt itself. Many of Murdoch’s most successful web properties “steal” stories, or have searches powered by Google that allow users to search the broader Internet within a News Corp branded user experience (Techdirt – the original post is worth reading).

Boom head-shot!

Mr. Murdoch, you’ve just been pwned.

The Daemon Turned Back On

Earlier this year I read a novel that captivated and simultaneously scared the shit out of me. It didn’t scare me in a horror movie kind of way… It scared me in a “large portions of this could work” kind of way. The book was Daniel Suarez’s Daemon.

Daemon has it all, crime, technology, compelling characters, unexpected plot twists, and a brutal look at alternate applications of technology.

“Originally self-published, Suarez’s riveting debut would be a perfect gift for a favorite computer geek or anyone who appreciates thrills, chills and cyber suspense. Gaming genius Matthew Sobol, the 34-year-old head of CyberStorm Entertainment, has just died of brain cancer, but death doesn’t stop him from initiating an all-out Internet war against humanity. When the authorities investigate Sobol’s mansion in Thousand Oaks, Calif., they find themselves under attack from his empty house, aided by an unmanned Hummer that tears into the cops with staggering ferocity. Sobol’s weapon is a daemon, a kind of computer process that not only has taken over many of the world’s computer systems but also enlists the help of superintelligent human henchmen willing to carry out his diabolical plan. Complicated jargon abounds, but most complexities are reasonably explained. A final twist that runs counter to expectations will leave readers anxiously awaiting the promised sequel. (Jan.)”

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

To add a spoilerish piece to the description I pulled from Amazon, Sobol’s Daemon works by spidering Internet news sites and looking for events. Once those events transpire, they trigger new ones. The first event was Sobol’s own death; his obituary was published. Then the Daemon murders a couple of people; stories of their deaths trigger more events, and so on. It makes insanely good sense.

One big plus of the book is that it explains a lot of the technology, so you don’t need to be too geeky to understand it.

Most of the technology in the book is incredibly grounded, while the story takes off in fanciful directions. All-in-all, a great and compelling read that I should have written about months ago.

Why am I writing about this now?

Why did I spoil a portion of the early story?

Back when I read the book I subscribed to the Daemon Technology Feed on my Google Reader. The feed linked to interesting tech stories and other geeky things, then it went silent after February 25, 2009. For some reason I never unsubscribed, but yesterday, it started publishing new and cool things again.

I’m sure the Feed turned back on because the Daemon sequel, Freedom is hitting bookstore shelves on January 7, 2010… but after reading the book, I have to admit there was something mildly frightening about seeing it become active again.

You can purchase Daemon, and pre-order Freedom on Amazon.

Happy Belated Birthday Firefox

I missed my favorite browser, Mozilla Firefox’s fifth birthday by one day. I hope it forgives me.

Firefox isn’t perfect, but what is? I’ve been using it for probably 4.5 years because it’s open source, it has tons of fun plug-ins, it doesn’t share my user-data, and it is generally stable (although it certainly has it’s quirks and problems).

Firefox is a model of what the Internet should be, not what media moguls, record producers, and other proponents of dying business models want to make it.

Apple Fixes Snow Leopard “Guest” Bug

About a month ago I wrote about a bug in Apple’s Snow Leopard OS that has the potential to delete everything on your computer if you use the “Guest” account.

Got Snow Leopard? Don’t Use Your “Guest” Account

I’m pleased to inform you that the latest patch fixes that (Mac OS X 10.6.2). So update you Mac to inoculate your computer.

Practice safe computer by installing software updates.

Rupert Murdoch Threatens Seppuku

Seppuku – a ritualized disemboweling that originated among the Japanese Samauri.

Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul chairman and majority shareholder of News Corp (The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, and pile of other news outlets) wants to force his business model back into relevance. According to this recent interview, he wants to put pay-walls up around most of his content, sue fair-use into oblivion, and make his sites invisible to search engines like Google (mUmBRELLA).

I was going to write a full response to Mr. Murdoch’s ideas, but Perry de Havilland of Samizdata really hit the nail on the head:

“Not only will people not be motivated to pay Rupert Murdoch for content if they cannot find it via google, they will not even be aware of the content Murdoch is hiding from them. In short, Murdoch will become completely irreverent irrelevant on-line almost overnight and I am not sure why he thinks all too many people will care one way or the other. This is a bit like threatening someone that if they do not give him their money, Murdoch will cut his own throat. Er, sure Rupert, whatever. I suspect folks at the Guardian (who may not be my favourites ideologically but they certainly ‘get’ the internet better than most) and elsewhere can hardly believe their good luck (From Samizdata Murdoch’s suicide threat).”

Rupert, Rupert, Rupert, Rupert… your plan will fall to pieces if a single online news outlet keeps their content free. No one with half a brain will pay for it. Your best years are behind you. Long behind you.

Ruperts words made me think of a line from last night’s Mad Men Season Finale when Don snapped at his fellow partner Bert Cooper saying, ”And you old men love building golden tombs and sealing the rest of us in with you.” Mr. Murdoch is an old, rich, proud man, the people who will suffer from his decisions are his employees, and their families.

Droid and an iPhone Cake

I picked my Droid on Friday, and so far I’m very happy with it. I will write a full review in a day or so after I’ve really played, and gotten to know it.

Immediately after getting my Droid, I went to my friend Eric’s wedding. His wife baked a special cake for him, so I took a picture of it with my Droid.

Eric, you chose wisely.

Pre-Ordered My Droid & Clarifying Data Plan Confusion

I’m still hard at work fixing up my computer, but I did drive over to Best Buy to pre-order my Droid. I should be getting it on Friday!!!

If you are going to get a Droid, you should purchase it at Best Buy. All Droids come with a $100 rebate, however Best Buy gives you the $100 back in gift cards immediately. Then you can use the gift cards towards the purchase of the phone, as opposed to mailing the rebate in and getting a check sometime in the future.

One final point about the Droid. There has been a lot of misinformation circling around teh Internets regarding the Droid’s data plan price. I checked, and the data plan costs $30.

Back to work & the Yankee game.

I should have another post up in a few hours.