06 Apr 2003
Innovative DRM

I stumbled across something all too rare: innovative thinking in the field of DRM and patent/copyright law. I first saw a shortened version of Harry Potter and the Prisoners of the DTV Transition in Reason Online then linked from Freedom to Tinker

Mr. Godwin makes some compelling arguments. At first blush, they seem to be rather absurd, but on further consideration there may be some merit to his "regulatory fix". It does make for a very interesting read.

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

myPictures

I wanted to try out the "myPictures" tool in Radio, and what better way than with this picture that Kris took of Hammer last Tuesday. This is in our south pasture - it needs a lot of work yet, but we'll be putting some heavy cattle (courtesy of a neighbor) on it later this week to start breaking it up and getting it into better shape.

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

Mormons and Ancestors

Us heathen folks tend to be concerned about our ancestors - some wag once called Asatru 'Norse Shinto'. While I don't think that's quite right, many, many Asafolks are into geneology, myself included. Curiously, we share this particular passion with another (much larger and better known) religious group here in the US - Mormons.

Over the years the Latter Day Saints have amassed some pretty impressive geneology resources, some public, some private. One of the latter is a small company called Everton Publishers, Inc. They sell a great many supplies and services, including some fine guides to research.

Folks who don't "do geneology" often don't realize just how time-consuming and frustrating doing basic reasearch can be. There is often no more than scraps of information available, even about relatively recent ancestors. Most of our forebearers weren't exactly packrats - in fact, quite often even basic documents have to be obtained from public records rather than family archives. Few of us pay enough attention to the fact that tomorrows history is todays event.

Anyway, Donna Brown wrote a piece for their newsletter that is a must read. Here's the link:

Donna's Diary: The Military Mom

Bear this bit of writing in mind while you edit your blog, write in your journal or clean out your attic. Maybe it'll make the furture a little brighter when you're the ancestor being researched.

00:00 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

It's Essential

Vegetation essential to balancing climate models [Science Blog]

Something us farmer types figured out a long, long time ago ...

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

God Be US

Bush puts God on his side. US President George W Bush firmly believes he has placed his country on God's side by invading Iraq, writes the BBC's Tom Carver. [BBC News | Front Page | UK Edition]

Someone should remind Mr. Bush that his is the President of all Americans. Some of us don't share his religiuos beliefs - and if he uses some of the more bizarre aspects of his faith to guide his policy decisions we could be in big trouble.

00:00 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

Phoenix is Faster

Well, maybe I bitched a little too early on Phoenix.

I've downloaded the 0.5 release, and I must admit it is substantially faster than plain vanilla Mozilla, and has a fairly spiffy interface, as well. It also looks (which, as we all know, can be deceiving) like it's based around a lot of the same core, which should maintain alot of the current functionality (it has tabbed browsing, for example). I'm not sure how addon's, or "extensions" as they call them, will integrate, but I'll try to hold my tongue in the future until I've at least seen firsthand what I'm bitching about ....

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link