March 2002

Geek Out Brain Dump!
I’ve been collecting URLs as usual. And it’s gotten ahead of me. Time to release these into the wild.

Great tutorials on Apache and OSX from O’Reilly: Apache Web Serving with MacOS X; and an overview of Open Source Databases, from Apple.

Something on Cold Fusion:
DeDup was a cold fusion function I found useful a few weeks ago at work. cflib.org is a great resource side.

And some links on the CHI tip:
A collection of essays by Don Norman, he of The Design of Everyday Things fame. He also loves the new iMac. And on another note: The Jack Principles, guidelines for designing interactive television programs, based on the game You Don’t Know Jack! Also, local (to San Diego) discussion group SandCHI (San Diego Computer-Human Interaction).

And three on Security:
DSL and Cable Modem Security; On the Security of PHP; Results, Not Resolutions: A guide to judging Microsoft’s security progress

And on design:
A Designer’s Guide to Making Your Own Stock Photography (for non-photographers), which appears to be what Jon Sullivan is up to these days.

And on writing and pictographic systems
Omniglot: a guide to writing systems. I have always been fascinated by the written word. I used to do calligraphy. I used to try and mimic the writing of others, or the “alphabetic” systems of languages that don’t use our A to Z alphabet. Chinese characters, Cyrillic, Japanese Hiragana and Katakana. It’s fascinating that these are alien to me, but for millions of people these are as second nature as M and P are to me.

San Diego Blogger Slashdotted!
I had no idea that Jeff’s Loungespot had gotten slashdotted. I had mentioned it before that. But he’s back now, better than ever I think!

The song most on my mind in the past 96 hours is: Wild Love. Last month Flaming Moe’s suited me perfectly. Things are improving though. G-Guh!

I wonder, does CAA, Talent Agency to the stars, have the briefest home page around? I think they might even qualify for the 5k contest.

Some time ago I asked about net libel and defamation. the head lemur provided some great information:

Libel
“Libel and slander are legal claims for false statements of fact about a person that are printed, broadcast, spoken or otherwise communicated to others. Libel refers to statements in written or other permanent form, while slander refers to verbal statements and gestures. The term defamation encompasses both libel and slander.”

See: Libel FAQs
Active EFF Legal Cases and Efforts
Electronic Frontier Foundation Defends More Anonymous Critics
NY Supreme Court Rules Online Coverage Protected Speech
Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation

Jamie Zawinski has an interesting take (as a coder and as a nightclub owner) on webcasting and the music industry. I’m not certain of all the numbers he runs, but his explanations of the rules around webcasting seem like very practical advice—Webcasting Legally:

The issues of intellectual property, fair use, individual rights and the like appear to be going nuts in this country. I’m nearly at the proverbial tipping point in terms of my own activism on these issues. From the Dmitri case, DeCSS, to Scientology documents issues, the DMCA, SSSCA, and many others, I’m starting to think nobody is speaking up with effectiveness for rational public discourse on these issues.

I think if people realized what was actually happening with this stuff they’d be outraged. But we’re all so numb from other national issues that we’re missing the fact that the Entertainment business is moving to create an entirely pay-per-view culture as fast as they can.

What do you think?

In response to this, Kelly Abbott posted to websandiego a pointer to Interactive Art by way of SXSW. About it he says: The article discusses the culture of art as it pertains to the Internet. As such, it scans copyright law by way of Lawrence Lessig’s keynote address on the first day of SXSW.

Other pertinent links:
Taming the Consumer’s Computer
The Anti-Mammal Dinosaur Protection Act
a letter to your representative
ALERT: Oppose SSSCA; Support Intel’s Bravery: A Bad Law and a Sneaky Process
Anti-Copy Bill Hits D.C.
The Future of Music
digitalconsumer.org
Where Music Will Be Coming From

geek out!
this code is equivalent between postgresql and mysql:
mysql: create table crawford_addresses ( id int(10) auto_increment primary key, ); postgresql: create table “crawford_addresses” ( id serial , primary key (“id”) );

Nostagiarific
Jenny was playing The Best of Cat Stevens on the stereo last night.

“Morning has broken” inspired this post.

It sounded like the apartment when I was growing up in Alhambra, California.

Other useless musical facts about me: I bought the Sergio Mendes Brasil ‘66 CD (the one with “Waters of March”) and The Best of the Doobie Brothers for reasons I think can only be called “nostalgia” for my parents’ music. My mother tells me that my father bought all the records.

New badge at san diego bloggers. Anyone want to contribute more?

via Mark Martin: The Doings of Daffy and Dandy. Mark Martin makes me laugh.