July 11, 2003
Matters of public record
Salon's Scott Rosenberg has something worth considering: Matters of public record, initially centering on a blogger who records Dave Winer's early postings and posts them, pre-editing, but it's really about much more than that.
Mercury News' awful op-ed pages
I've been biting my tongue, not wanting to ding my local paper since it went to a new look on its op-ed pages a month or so ago, but I've just got to say it: The San Jose Mercury News' new look for its op-ed pages is the worst redesign I've ever seen.
As a former design director, I know that readers don't like change, and more than a few of them complain every time a paper does a makeover. I'm not one of these readers. I enjoy change and welcome improvements to a publication's typography and design.
The Mercury News, under Rob Elder, who left a year or so ago to join the Santa Clara University ethics center, had what I considered the most approachable, well-designed op-ed pages in the nation. So I was horrified a few weeks back to see them trot out a new look: typography (lots of italics) that harks back to the 1970s, a mishmosh of vertical letters and columns on the opinion page, and the abandonment of photographs for awful oversized 1960s-style illustrations. But the worst thing may be the introduction of Wall Street Journal-type 1950s-era line art for its columnists. (Sorry, none of this is available online.) The content hasn't suffered, but its presentation is so uninviting that I spend much less time on these pages.
What a sad, sad descent into op-ed mediocrity.
You've got blogs! AOL readies Weblogs
From Cyberjournalist.net: You've got blogs! AOL readies Weblogs.
SF Chron critic on best beach reads
From today's Californiaauthors.com:
This morning, on a madeñforñTV beach in New York City -- shoeless and sporting a surfñmotif shirt -- San Francisco Chronicle Book Critic David Kipin did an animated ìbeach readsî segment with the Today showís Katie Couric. California authors Ellen Ullman (The Bug) and Paul Collins (Sixpence House) make his summer reading picks list, but our favorite exchange was about California readers:Kipen: ìIt often happens that a book will make the best seller list in the San Francisco Chronicle and in a few weeks it will catch on in the rest of the country.î
Couric: ìAre you saying that you set the agenda for books in America?î
Kipen: ìNot me! the readers of San Francisco!î
You can see a streaming video of the interview on MSNBC here.
Illegal music downloads boost album sales?
Scotsman.com: Illegal music downloads boosting album sales.
Digital citizens
The Guardian UK has a piece on the difficulties and challenges involved in transitioning to digital records.
Bloggers opening Western eyes
Katie Dean in Wired News: Humanitarian workers abroad use blogs to chronicle the lives of people in strife-torn societies in the hope that the West will finally comprehend, and respond.
Publisher cancels book over DMCA fears
NY Times: Behind a Hacker's Book, a Primer on Copyright Law. Excerpt:
Andrew Huang, an engineer and programmer in San Diego, has written a book called "Hacking the Xbox: An Introduction to Reverse Engineering." It has also been an introduction to copyright law in the digital age.Wiley Technology Publishing, a unit of John Wiley & Sons, agreed last year to publish the book. But after Mr. Huang delivered the manuscript five months ago, the publisher backed out over concerns that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 made it illegal to disseminate information about how to circumvent copyright protection. ...
Rejected by Wiley, Mr. Huang had the book printed himself and began selling it by mail order, shipping copies from his garage.
With help from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil-liberties group based in San Francisco, Mr. Huang recently found a new publisher, No Starch Press in San Francisco. Bill Pollock, No Starch's president and publisher, said his company expected to publish the book this month. ...
Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said in a telephone interview that he anticipated similar issues in the future. "It's a problem that more people in the computer science and security field are going to run into," he said. "Even if what they are finding is probably perfectly legal, publishers don't want to risk expensive litigation to find out."
2004 American Presidential Candidate Selector
The 2004 American Presidential Candidate Selector: Want a president who represents your views of how the country should be run? At SelectSmart.com, you answer 17 questions about your positions and the site tells you which candidate most closely matches your political views. Looks like I'm most in sync with Howard Dean, John Kerry and John Edwards, while George W. and I agree all of 19% of the time.
Thanks to Sheila for the pointer.
Meantime, of course, there's another option: Republicans for Sharpton.
John Whitley said:
I don't think that I want a candidate who puts his obligations to his elite Yale SKULL AND BONES fratmen before his obligations to the country, though.
John Kerry's particularly sensitive about his secret membership in Yale's exclusive and poweful SKULL AND BONES society for the scions of the Eastern Establishment. See the report at http://www.survivalistskills.com/kemp.htm
Think that will hurt him?
John Whitley said:
Oops! Sorry - that link doesn't work.
Try this re-coded link instead:
http://www.survivalistskills.com/kemp.htm
You'll find a wide array of other fascinating and invaluable articles on the New World Order at http://www.survivalistskills.com/sect22.htm and archived also at http://www.rarehistorybooks.com/NWOLINKS.HTM
How to rig an election
Food for thought from Truthout.org: How to Rig an Election in the United States.
