I Like the Like

I just finished listening to The Like's are you thinking what i'm thinking?. Guitar and bass matched with a sultry voice. Good album. I never know what to say when describing music, but give them a shot sometime if you get the chance...

An idea about copyright

Disney is notorious for pushing for the extension of copyright lengths. Anybody that knows anything about intellectual property laws knows that IP rights were not meant to be indefinite. However, since copyrights were first legislated they were given a certain amount of time. Creators under that law were given that amount of time to profit from their creativity, and that's akin to a contract between the government and the creators. All this is fairly well known. What seems to get lost in the fuss is that there was also something akin to a contract between the government and the people, which is that limited amount of time.

When I entered into government employ, it was under a certain set of contractual obligations, both mine and my employer's. Of course, (ancient worker that I am) since then, terms of employment have changed, for example, retirement benefits. However, having entered employ under one set of rules, I can choose to retire by the rules I entered under rather than the new rules.

Further, for example, legislators can't make laws for past actions, and then go back and arrest people having committed those actions in the past, ex post facto.

So then, why is it that when new copyright legislation gets passed, all existing copyright holders can enjoy an extension in copyright term? Maybe the analogies aren't perfect, but I think it gets the point across. If I recall, when new copyright legislation is passed, it's worded with words like "100 years from the date of publishing" or some such, rather than "works from 1938 are protected for 100 years". Clearly, the wording of the latter concerns specific works, whereas the wording of the former is intended to be general. Either way, each time the term is extended, it is extended to cover specific works.

It seems to me that the only people pushing for copyright extensions are big companies; big companies built on creative works whose copyrights would have expired and passed into public domain long ago. If the system worked by my logic, even if they did push for copyright term extensions, it wouldn't affect existing works. That would really disincentivize such lobbying and benefit the public at large, I think.

Halo and Sprocket

Halo and Sprocket is a comedic series with a lot of philosophical and intellectual ramblings, not unlike Calvin and Hobbes. Click on the link; it goes to the first (and in my opinion, the seminal) story. Even if you never pick up the trade, be sure to read this story.

In a nutshell, it's the story of a robot discovering humanity with the help of a woman and an angel. Or it's the story of how a woman teaches a robot about humanity with the help of an angel. Or any of a number permutations thereof.

Although the art isn't quite up to a lot of mainstream standards (lacking in detail, cartoony, black and white), it's still quite good, and very excellently matched with the subject matter.

Featurephobia...

Here's an hilarious article where a guy mercilessly digs into appliance manufacturers for adding internet enabled features.

YOUR BOSS: What are you doing?

YOU (tapping computer keyboard): I'm starting my dishwasher!

YOUR BOSS: That's the kind of productivity we need around here!

YOU: Now I'm flushing the upstairs toilet!

For the most part, I agree with him. I really don't see why anyone would want an appliance that does any of the things the authoer noted. Recently, a friend of mine bought a refrigerator. Pretty much the biggest, baddest, most featureladen refrigerator that he could fit into his house. He's just that kinda guy. But he still didn't get the internet features.

The thing is, the author of the article then brought up remote controls, and how he's got 3 of them just to turn on the TV, each of which had more buttons than he knew what to do with. So I thought of Google and Apple. As great as some technology may be, the interface may be the most important part. Especially since manufacturers just seem to keep piling it on.

The success of Google had a lot to do with the strength of their search engine, but I'm sure the utilitarian interface had something to do with it, too. I hope more companies invest more heavily into developing their interfaces. I think it makes all the difference in the world.

New Nintendo Controller

Oh my freaking god, this has got to be one of the coolest game innovations I've seen in a long while. Cool enough for me to want to go out and buy it on release. The possibilities are intriguing, but really, there's only one application that I'm really interested in, and that's using it as a sword. I forget the name, but there was this arcade game that was like a shooting game (a la House of the Dead), except with a sword. Since slashing people in real life with a sword isn't very practical, this is the next best thing.

Of course there are other ways for it to be used as a controller, and I'm sure they'll contribute to the console's adoption. One other one I'm interested in is using it for first person shooters. I had to quit playing Metroid Prime because I just couldn't use the controller for aiming or moving well enough.

From what I read, the new controller is sensitive and accurate, so it should be very interesting. I for one have made my decision for my next console. I'll probably have to pick up an Xbox 360 at some point. But I won't be nearly as happy with it, I don't think.

As for Nintendo, they necessarily had a lot of great exclusives, being a games publisher as well, but I think they suffered from a dearth of third party support. Having such an innovative control option would attract necessarily exclusive third party games. Exclusive until MS and Sony rip them off, I suppose. I hope their IP is up to snuff :)

Global Warming

I never quite knew what to think about global warming. I seemed to recall reading things from our gubmint saying that there's nothing to worry about, but now I think that it's pretty real and somewhat alarming.

On the one hand, ending civilization as we know it may be fun (and bring about quite an interesting future), but on the other hand, a lot of people might not enjoy dying or having their way of life taken away.

I'm not sure I want to change my way of life either, though. I guess a few changes wouldn't hurt...

John Roberts

Being W's choice, I was inclined to dismiss him off hand, but listening to him speak, I'm reminded of why I don't like W in the first place. No, not rabidly dissonant views, but intelligence. And I say this because Roberts speaks very eloquently and very intelligently. It underscores the difference between W and the judge. Roberts is a very educated man with an enormous amount of experience. Again this is contrasted with W.

In the end I don't think I'll agree with some of his decisions if he is appointed (which seems very likely), but I have a lot of confidence that they will be reasoned and informed opinions.

Science, Christianity, Atheism

So I had a discussion with a friend of mine a while back about most things Christian in America. My friend is a doubter of evolution. I can't remember where the conversation started, but any time anyone doubts evolution, it really sets off my incredulity. One thing I asked him is how he thought science, Christianity, and atheism are related. He answered saying that atheism is the opposite of Chrisianity, and that science is the agenda of atheism (or words to that effect).

Now here's where a little semantics comes into play. I think the most popular definition/concept for "atheism" is a positive belief in the lack of a deity or deities. I don't think that's really the true spirit of atheism. For me, it's really the lack of belief in a deity of deities. I think I'm justified in that definition, though, because, etymologically speaking, I think that's really what it should mean anyway, agnosticism be damned.

At any rate, I think his response really set things straight as far as biases go. Reasonably, I think it can only be said that science is the pursuit of knowledge. Optimally, there'd be a lack of bias in any sense, not only religious, but political, personal, etc... Beyond a lack of belief in any religion, science and atheism really are separate and distinct.

As for atheism being the opposite of Christianity, by definition, I suppose the only true opposite of Christianity would have to be some kind of anti-Christianity, perhaps Satanism. If there were a Venn diagram of beliefs, atheism would have its own separate little circle away from the world's religions.

Another important topic we talked about was abiogenesis as distinguished from evolution. But that's for another time :)

Mokke

(read right to left) Mokke by Takatoshi Kumakura is another manga that I love, but for whatever reason doesn't seem to be getting a lot of attention. It's currently being fantranslated by Mangascreener, however it's listed as an inactive project, and only four chapters have been released.

Mokke follows two sisters through their experiences with Shintoist spirits. The art is effortlessly (well, good comic art looks like it's effortless to me, just natural) good from the getgo. Just follow the expressions on the girl's face from panel to panel.

It's interesting to think of the world being controlled by unseen spirits, with intercessors mediating. But as with any story, I don't think it's the topic that necessarily keeps me interested as the interactions and the characters. Mokke's got this in spades. If you get the chance, I'd highly recommend picking it up for a read.

Ipod Nano

I'm thinking about it. But I still like my old one...