The conservatives said they were going to introduce new copyright legislation within six weeks. That was back on May 05, 2010 and true to their word, they introduced Bill C32 — the Copyright Modernization Act on June 2nd.
Tag: Technology
You Are Not A Gadget, by Jaron Lanier
Technology can be frustrating. ou may remember reading a news item from July, 2009 about a 17-year-old Kindle user named Justin Gawronski who was reading George Orwell’s 1984 for a school assignment when the book disappeared from his device.
Kobo eReader Review update – scalable font size
In my review of the Kobo eReader, I acknowledged that pre-release reviews complained about problems adjusting font sizes, but I stated that I didn’t encounter these problems myself.
Public Domain epub eBook Collections
As a convenience to my readers, I’ve lumped together some small collections from Gutenberg. Just click on the links to download relatively small zip files.
Quit Facebook Day
Facebook has taken some hits for repeated changes to its privacy policy that seem to compromise user privacy to the benefit of advertisers.
Review: Kobo eReader
Kobo, the offshoot of Canada-based Chapters/Indigo, released its eReader in Canada at the beginning of May and so I scurried out and bought myself one, reasoning that, at CDN $149, if it sucks, I won”t feel as bad as I did when I bought a Dell desktop computer.
Bill C-32, education fair use video
You know you are dealing with really conservative people when they lobby for legal provisions more stringent than those proposed by the Harper Conservatives. Bill C-32 is a case in point.
Google’s Street View Goes Live in Toronto
Google’s Street View has gone live in Toronto. As I blogged in May, Google’s cars were tearing up the streets of Toronto to capture street level images of … well … of whatever happened to be there.
Jeff Bezos Steals Sheep
The American type designer, Frederic Goudy, is reputed to have said that “[a]ny one who would letterspace lower case would steal sheep.” That is the source for the title of a wonderful book on type design by Erik Spiekermann & E.M. Ginger: Stop Stealing Sheep & find out how type works.
A Space Travellers Guide To Mars
I had myself a fun read with Dr. I. M. Levitt’s 1956 offering, A Space Traveller’s Guide to Mars, a book which consolidates all the very latest knowledge about the planet Mars – or at least all the latest knowledge in the McCarthy era, when science could promise anything, including certainty, and Buck Rogers was more real than Ho Chi Minh.
Digital Print Media and Self-Publishing
I’ve finished writing a novel (tentatively titled Clouds On Wall) and expect to complete the editing/polishing/paring by the end of the month. The looming question is: what next?
Story: Griefbot Inc.
So ya, man. Name? Hughes. Ya. Ted. So ya, man, I worked on the GB20 design team. You owe me. You owe me big time. In fact, you guys should be on your knees kissing the ground we walk on. We hit a veracity factor—nine point seven—unheard of. Most people—even the pros—most of them couldn’t tell the difference.
Andrew Sullivan and Why He Blogs
In the November issue of The Atlantic, Andrew Sullivan offers us “Why I Blog”, an extended meditation upon this still-emerging form. Although Sullivan cut his teeth in the world of print, he knows what he’s talking about. He made the leap in 2000 and is the personality behind The Daily Dish.
Chrome Blockers and Data Mining Paranoia
Google has entered the browser wars with Chrome available as a beta version for Windows – which explains why I haven’t been too excited about it. Chrome is a simple browser based on the same base code as Safari and, interestingly, it’s open source.
Google Street View Coming To Canada
Google Street View (launched on May 25, 2007 in the U.S.) continues to expand its reach, providing service in France and Italy on July 02, 2008 and in Australia and Japan on August 4th, 2008. Google has overcome privacy hurdles in the UK and photographing has begun there. While Canada’s Privacy Commissioner voiced concerns nearly…