30 Jul 2003
Micropayments for Poetry

A very interesting concept (and site). Check it out.

Publishing for the Little Folks. The RedPaper is an experimental online information exchange that blends self-publishing with micropayments. An author's success depends on how popular poetry, police files and recipes are. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

A Real Rancher

Well, I guess we're in the cattle business for real, now. They got out today.

The Gomer (a bull of Kevyn's that was over here to spare Wolfgren the grief while she was giving birth) led our two Highlands out thru a hole in the north floodgate, up thru my father-in-law's yard, back thru my sister-in-law's garden and out onto Indiana 75!

Turning south, they ended up under the new bridge - a neighbor spotted them and managed to get them coralled into his paddock. Kevyn was in South Bend trimming hooves, and as we don't have a stock trailer we were pretty much stuck waiting on him.

Of course, everybody in the western half of the country either called or came by to let us know our cows were out! It was pretty embarassing, but most of the old timers seemed to get quite a kick out it.

On his way thru the gate Gomer had done a number on the electric fence, so while we waited on Kevyn to get here, I repaired the fence, then walked the perimeter of the property with a weed eater getting all of the weeds down off the electric. Needless to say, I'm pretty exhausted.

Once Kevyn arrived, he and Kris went and fetched Gomer, and returned him to Kevyn's place, bringing back Wolfgren and her new calf. Then they went and got our two heifer calves from the neighbors paddock and brought them home. All this while I was still finishing up the fencing.

Hopefully, it's a slow news night - I don't feel like posting any more, as even the effort of lifting my fingers is pretty tiring! Ha! If I had half a brain I'd stick to writing code - this farming stuff is way too much like real work!

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

Can't BuyMusic

Having some familiarity with digital audio, I'd bet my bottom dollar that most of the problems have to do with the fact that they're using Windows Media format(s) as their prime vehicle.

Technical Glitches Plague BuyMusic.com [Slashdot]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Terrorist Game Theory

I, for one, thought this was a very innovative and potentially very useful tool. Too bad we let politics and "political correctness" stand in the way of exploring these kinds of ideas.

The Case for Terrorism Futures. The Senate wasted no time in smacking down a proposal to create a futures market that would allow people to wager on the likelihood of terrorist strikes, but supporters of the idea say lawmakers may have missed the point. By Noah Shachtman. [Wired News]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Peter Pan and the Public Domain

This is really out of the realm of believablity ... following this link from A Copyfighter's Musings I discovered that I wasn't aware of the Somma Case. I should've been. And so should you.

This has to be a prime reason why copyright extensions in general are a bad idea, and also serves as a sterling example of how the public domain is being eroded to the point of destruction.

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

Yahoo Caves In

This should be titled "Yahoo! Does the Math" .... let's see, 5 or ten million to settle, or 20 million and ten years to litigate and win ... DOH!

In another age this would be referred to as "extortion".

Yahoo! Settles Patent Dispute [Slashdot]

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link