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December 7, 2007

The Rissington Podcast

A beautiful design that gets even better when you resize your browser window (check the layered footer!). #

Hugs

The folks at Carsonified have cooked up a neat idea in just a week: limited edition MacBook Pro and iPhone sleeves that you pass along to a friend after a month. #

IE8

Nope, we will not have to wait 5 years for the next version. Huzzah. #

How Many HTML Elements Can You Name in 5 Minutes?

I named at least three. Oh wait, <nav> is part of HTML5. Two then. #

24: The Unaired 1994 Pilot

"What would the 24 TV series have looked like if it was created some 10 years ago?" #

Fawnt

A promising free font resource. #

Nice Web Type

"One place for web typography, leveraging our collective knowledge for the betterment of typographic style and practice." #

Verizon’s Idea Of Security: We Block Spyware… Unless It’s From Our Partners

Rich Kulawiec writes in after digging a bit deeper into a well publicized study done for Verizon, claiming that most Americans have a false sense of security on their computers. Digging a little deeper, you realize that the "study" is really a marketing ploy for a new security service Verizon is offering with RadialPoint (oddly, this seems to come just two months after Verizon announced a different security service). As for this new offering, there's a free scan and then a subscription service. Of course, in order to run the security scan on your computer you need to: (1) be running windows (2) disable your pop-up blocker and (3) run IE. As Kulawiec notes, "none of which are good ideas for anyone who actually cares about security." Kulawiec then went to check out the terms of service for the subscription offering and found some questionable claims:
a. You acknowledge, agree and consent to the following: (i)
the Radialpoint Software, in its default configuration, does
not block ads from third parties or Verizon or its affiliates
and business partners, and may not identify as spyware certain
websites and applications from Verizon and its affiliates or
business partners,

and

(ii) Radialpoint Inc. and/or Verizon and
its affiliates have the right and do access and modify the
Software as well as the software (including registry settings
on your computer) and/or your hardware for various purposes
in connection with the Service (e.g. for the installation and
implementation of the Software and updates to it) as well as
to download, install and/or gather, obtain, collect and then
use, in relation to the delivery and operation of Services,
various information and data, including information necessary
to identify you and your computer to ensure that Services are
received as well as information necessary for the reporting of
these services , and (iii) use of such information and data by
Verizon will be in accordance with Verizon's privacy policy.

That certainly sounds like Verizon won't block spyware from ad partners and will also spy on you and report the data back to Verizon. Yikes. No wonder people's computers aren't as secure as they think. If they're installing Verizon's anti-spyware offering, the company's own terms of service make it clear that you're basically opening up your computer to them. As for not blocking partner company's spyware, that's the same thing that Yahoo got into trouble over years ago -- but apparently Verizon hopes people have forgotten.

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Firefly Lives - New Comics in 2008

gambit3 writes "'Serenity: Better Days' will be released as a 3 part comic in early 2008. The series is a step back in time to the early years of the Firefly crew, and the fledgling gang's turbulent attempts to cope with success after they pull off their first successful heist. It features the same creative team as Those Left Behind, with the story by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews, art by Will Conrad, and Adam Hughes providing all three covers this time." Ironic, considering today's brand-new poll.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Your Computer Thinks You’re Lazy

Anyone that watches late night television is constantly reminded of America's growing beltline. To combat our obesity epidemic, infomercials abound with the latest exercise gizmos that promise to make us all fitter. But, most of these gadgets end up gathering dust in the corner since they don't do anything to motivate us to actually use them. So, need help getting off that couch? Have your computer call you. Stanford researchers have found that an automated computer message reminding people to get out and exercise is nearly as effective as a human counselor. People who were called by the computer exercised an average of 157 minutes per week, as compared to 118 minutes for the people who weren't called. Not bad -- if only someone could figure out how to actually get the computer to do the exercising, that would truly be the killer app.

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Karlheinz Stockhausen, RIP

Stockhauskarl Pioneering avant-garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen died on Wednesday. Stockhausen's pioneering electro-acoustic music influenced everyone from John Cage to the Beatles, David Bowie to Sonic Youth. He was 79.
Link to Stockhausen.org, Link to Associated Press obituary

Graph Shows Fraud in Russian Elections

gaika writes "A graph in the best traditions of Edward Tufte shows how the voting was rigged in Russian parliament elections. Initially some regions were showing higher than 100% attendance, but later on everything was corrected, or way too much corrected, as the correlation between winning party's vote and attendance now stands at 90%. I guess the people who have rigged the vote have never heard about Correlation Cofficient."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

WiFi On Airplanes Coming. Does That Mean Airborne Skype?

The New York Times says that several airlines are testing in-flight Internet services. JetBlue will apparently be offering free, but crippled service that includes only email and instant messaging. And Crunchgear suggests it will be even more crippled than that: only Yahoo! and BlackBerry-based mail and IM will be supported. For a lot of travelers (including me) that will be completely useless, although I guess something is better than nothing. At the opposite extreme, American (along with Alaska Air) is reportedly working on full-featured Internet access that will allow you to use the applications of your choice, but it will apparently cost around $10. The Times also notes the most intriguing possibility for this service: that Internet access may mean the ability to make VoIP-based phone calls. It's not clear that the Internet connection will be good enough to make phone calls practical initially, but as technology advances, it's only a matter of time before there's enough bandwidth to make calls practical.

The Times calls this a "pitfall" and says that American won't permit Internet-based phone calls. But I have trouble imagining that ban sticking. Once it becomes technologically feasible to make calls, it will be extremely difficult for airlines to enforce a no-calls rule. There's no automated way to block phone calls, and stewardesses will have a difficult time policing the activities of dozens of passengers. The only way it would work is if the caller's neighbor was willing to rat him out, and I suspect that fellow passengers are a lot more opposed to the idea of cell phones on airplanes in the abstract than they would be about an actual cell phone caller in the seat next to them. After all, cell phone calls are commonplace on buses and trains, and while they're occasionally annoying, they're no more annoying than a loud real-life conversation or a crying baby. There's no groundswell of support for banning cell phone calls on public transit, despite the fact that the annoyance factor is exactly the same. One possibility is that we'd see different airlines cater to different customers, with some airlines aggressively prohibiting airplane-based phone calls and others allowing them. My guess is that business travelers, who generate a disproportionate share of airline revenues, will find the ability to get work done on the airplane to be worth the minor inconvenience of occasionally having to listen to a neighbor's phone call, and so airlines that permit calls will be more profitable.

Tim Lee is an expert at the Techdirt Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Tim Lee and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.



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Los Angeles: Snow Angels show at Thinkspace gallery

Brokeeee Anderskulll
Tonight is the opening of the Snow Angels group show at Thinkspace Art Gallery in Los Angeles. It's a wonderfully eclectic mix of female painters: Caia Koopman, Nouar, Jeaneen Carlino, Lilly Piri, Kelly Vivanco, Angelina Wrona, Catherine Brooks, Tina Anderson, and Sophia Pottish. Seen here at left, "Foregone Broken" (oil and ink on tea-stained paper, 18 x 24") by the incredible Stella Im Hultberg. At right is Tina Anderson's "Nature of the Beast" (pen and ink on paper, 15 3/4 x 20"). I wasn't familiar with Anderson before but I love the nouveau feel of her work. The gallery is also issuing two new limited edition prints, Ekundayo's “Too Much Of Anything" and Hultberg's magnificent "Hearbeats." I'm so fond of Heartbeats that I bought the original when Hultberg showed at Thinkspace earlier this year. Link to online gallery, Link to show information

Why Would A DRM Company Buy TV Guide?

Macrovision, a company that's well known for its DRM products, made quite a splash today with its announced plans to buy Gemstar-TV Guide for $2.8 billion. The rationale for the deal seems to be that the folks at Macrovision may actually believe the commonly stated myth that DRM "opens new business models." Macrovision talks about how combining its DRM with Gemstar listings and content could enable a bunch of new offerings -- but it's difficult to believe those new offerings will be particularly compelling. DRM has never been about enabling new business models, but about making any content less valuable by limiting its usefulness in the hopes of being able to charge separately for each use. Perhaps that's what they mean by "new business models" but it's hardly a business model if it's simply pissing off consumers. As Saul Hansell at the NY Times notes, the direction Macrovision seems to be moving in is (along with the recent story of hard drives that block MP3 sharing) one where technology companies feel that they need to be policing how people use content. That's a very anti-consumer position to be in -- and it's generally not a good business proposition to be focused on limiting consumers. Apparently, investors agree -- as they've sent the stock price of both companies way down in reaction to the deal.

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Canadian DMCA Won’t Include Consumer Rights

An anonymous reader writes "As protests mount over the Canadian DMCA, law professor Michael Geist is now reporting that the government plans to delay addressing fair use and consumer copyright concerns such as the blank media tax for years. While the U.S. copyright lobby gets their DMCA, consumers will get a panel to eventually consider possible changes to the law. Many Canadians are responding today with a mass phone-in to Industry Minister Jim Prentice to protest the policy plans."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

11 slaughterhouse workers ill, inhaled pig-brain matter suspected

Inhaling aerosolized pig brains could be hazardous to your health.
In the slaughterhouse floor at Quality Pork Processors Inc. is an area known as the "head table," but not because it is the place of honor. It is where workers cut up pigs' heads and then shoot compressed air into the skulls until the brains come spilling out.

But now the grisly practice has come under suspicion from health authorities.

Over eight months from last December through July, 11 workers at the plant in Austin, Minn. — all of them employed at the head table — developed numbness, tingling or other neurological symptoms, and some scientists suspect inhaled airborne brain matter may have somehow triggered the illnesses.

Link

Facebook Removes Firewall from Applications

NewsCloud writes "Last week, Facebook quietly removed sign-in restrictions that previously hid third party applications from the public Web. In other words, Facebook now allows its third party applications to be viewable on the Web by anonymous visitors and indexable by search engines. Web developers can now build an application using Facebook's platform usable by anyone on the Internet — not just Facebook members (e.g. the Lending Library). In doing so, developers can leverage Facebook's login and registration as well its other platform services, which are becoming increasingly substantial. Facebook may be trying to gain advantage as a universal authentication gateway for public Web applications. If successful, it could further hamper efforts to establish OpenID. This will also help the company break out of its earlier AOL-like walled-garden strategy."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

So Why Did Canada Need A Special Extra Law For Camcording Movies?

Back during the big debate over the need for new laws against "camcording" a movie in Canada, Michael Geist pointed out that existing laws were already perfectly fine in dealing with the problem. Of course, despite all of that, the power of the movie industry lobbyists was too strong and the bill still became law. So, isn't interesting to find out (via Geist again) that a recent arrest for camcording in a movie theater didn't even happen under the new law, but under the old copyright law. So, once again, can someone explain why the MPAA needed that new law and why Canadian politicians agreed to it?

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Rails 2.0

We’ve been working with and on Rails for the past four and half years here at 37signals. The sum of those efforts just got a new label today: Rails 2.0.

It contains a ton of good stuff. Lots of things regarding our love of all things HTTP. The RESTful angle. Multiviews. Security improvements. Lots of speed tweaks.

It’s been a joy extracting all these features from their origins in Highrise, Basecamp, and the rest of our applications. Deriving frameworks from production code really is a pleasant way of arriving at something useful.