Month: July 2000

Web Developer’s Journal: Web Site Trends
Black text, whtie backgrounds, defult link colors and apache are the winers.

The very very short tutorial about modules in Perl

This Congressional candidate is a breath of fresh air.
Michael Moore strikes again. This has to be one of the best coups he has ever launched. Ficus gets my vote for sure.

Hatch Warns Labels, Don’t Make Me Come Over There and Spank You

Facing a veritable who’s who of the music-copyright wars, Chairman Hatch threatened — in surprisingly direct terms — to force the music labels and publishers, by legislation, to make their content digitally available for a standard fee if the record business continued to ensnarl e-music with lawsuits. As a capper, Hatch suggested that Congress might even go so far as to offer its own comprehensive definition of ”fair use” to hasten the arrival of paid digital music — an action that would have implications far beyond music.

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‘Legislation is going to have to straighten this out,” Ulrich told Hatch. ”You’re dreaming if you think we can work this out between us. We can’t work this out without your involvement.”

”Fair and reasonable licensing needs to take place,” Hatch flatly told the industry as he closed the hearing. ”We’ll be watching closely.”

Tuition-free MIT, how about tuition-free undergraduate university for all?

Re: fallacies
On the music industry and MP3s and Napster.

“There has grown up in the mind of certain groups in this country that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of protecting such a profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary to public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute or common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have the right to come into court to ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back.” Robert Hienlien – Life-Line, 1939.

It is still true now. I do believe that OpenSource is the way to do software, and dropping all Intelectual Property. If that belief means that I no longer have a job writing software so be it. I can get non-programing job.

MPTrip Discman for $115. It plays normal audio CDs but also plays MP3s off a CD (ISO 9660Level 1). It is soposed to be able to read into directories. Now they need to make a model for the car that is dash mountable.
[via ScriptingNews]

fuckedcompany.com – the dot-com deadpool

Myth of the big screen

Strangely, Network Computing is seen as a failed technology which never happened. Well I would argue that it did but we call them PDAs and WAP Cell Phones, and Information Appliances.

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In order to design effective small wireless devices, you have to understand people. The devices are by their very nature Modal devices. So you are stuck with a modal design. In order to solve the puzzle you have to figure out which modes will best suit your Users. Screen size has nothing to do with it.

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The point here is that a heterogenous set of modal devices used appropriately and designed for how people live will always be better than a single general purpose device.