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Where leaping to conclusions is my primary form of forward motion.
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Orrin Hatch -
Friday, June 20, 2003
Hatch to Endorse Snipers for Cubs 'Rooftop Viewers'
AP News (www.aggravatedpress.com) is reporting this morning that Sen. Orrin "Hatchetman" Hatch, R-Utah, spoke at a DC-area Lions Club dinner Wednesday evening on the critical problem of copyright theft.
[...] Referring to the lawsuit filed by the Chicago Cubs baseball team to stop local building owners from watching games without paying a fee Hatch said "I'm all for peaceful settlements in cases like this, but there is no excuse for breaking copyright laws. These people have been warned. If the Cubs want to hire some snipers and pick these thieves off the rooftops I'm all for it. And they shouldn't be held liable. A few dozen sniper shootings and people will think twice about watching baseball games without a ticket."Hatch -- best known as a deeply religious folk music artist, a technophobe, and a fan of long underwear -- also serves in the US Senate when he's not out advocating corporate attacks on private American citizens.
[...]
Hatch, whose patriotic folk hit, America United includes the line "Those who would divide us could not realize, that from the smoke and ashes America would rise...United...United" received a standing ovation from the Lions Club crowd. "Copyright terrorists are evil-doers, striking at the heart of this country. They have no idea how far we'll go to stand against them. These baseball thieves are just the beginning. Soon we'll be destroying computers, cleaning up the Internet, and saving our children and future generations by any means necessary!"
As the crowd filed out of the crumbling auditorium to the parking lot they were met by throngs of teenagers -- all waiting to drive their aging grandparents home. Dozens of cliques had formed around users with Apple iPods and they were eagerly trading their favorite re-mixes and singles, as the beats of pirated tunes boomed from car stereo speakers.
"Look at these fine young Americans," said a clueless Hatch. "All waiting here to help their elders. These are the young people we care about, the ones we need to protect from the evil-doers. Yes sir. These young people are the future of our country." [...] [AP News]
Author's note: The above story is satire. In keeping with the spirit and antics of our political leaders it is puerile, mean-spirited, even borderline moronic. But I feel better.
Copyright laws in this country are no joke. Artists and creators deserve protection, but the paying public has rights as well. Congress has forgotten this and has allowed a tiny handful of mega-corporations to lock away our culture and our heritage. We deserve better.
Now go out and convince the good people of Utah to hit Senator Hatch with an electoral clue-by-four™.
Thursday, June 19, 2003
Don DeHart Featured on Recomendo
My friend Don Dehart at DeHarts Printing Services gets some kudos from Kevin Kelly's Recomendo. DeHart is a long-time book printer and an excellent resource for small publishers.Editing in the Browser
Here's something nice -- WYSIWYG browser-based editing for Conversant. If you're a blogger on the Mac, or use any browser other than MSIE on Windoze, WYSIWYG editing has been a pipedream. Even simple blog entries required some HTML coding for links and such -- a real nuisance for people who don't want to learn HTML. (This is a problem for all the blogging tools, not just Conversant.)Seth Dillingham at Macrobyte is preparing to release a Conversant plug-in that will give Mozilla users on any platform access to WYSIWYG editing. As Clark notes below, this is a big step forward for Conversant. HTML coding is an issue for lots of people, and tearing down that barrier is a real advantage for new users.
What You See Is What You Get--literallyAt last, I can write weblog entries right in the browser. I've been jealous of Windows users in this one regard for some time now (this, and the plethora of pop-up windows their browsers allow which give access to a rich assortment of products and services). Thanks to their suppor for Midas, either Mozilla or Internet Explorer can be used to edit entries in WYSIWYG mode.
For Conversant, this is big, as it opens the ability to do some more interesting things in weblog posts even for those who don't know hmtl (which is, like, everyone I know save three people), and is yet another reason new weblogger should consider Conversant (once Seth makes Midas-support generally available--but don't wait for that).
Can't wait to test more of this out and to see what html it actually inserts. [via Clark Venable]
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
Weblog Post Index
Wow! This is super handy. Clean, simple, straightforward. There is now a complete index of all posts to this weblog since it's inception. I can stop manually updating my archives. Woo Hoo!
Creating an index of weblog posts in RadioCreating an index of weblog posts in Radio. Inspired by Rob Henerey's suggestion, I've written a Radio script that displays an index of weblog posts for the main weblog or a category.
Looking at the output of the scripts, I wish I had started writing post titles earlier than February. [Rogers Cadenhead: Radio Userland Kick Start]
If you use Radio as your blogging tool of choice, run, don't walk to get Rogers' latest goodie here. It took me about 3 minutes to download, install, and test. I can already see how this will help me extract more value from the posts I've been making here over time.
This is also an excellent example of the extensibility built into Radio. Radio may have its warts, and its user interface leaves a bit to be desired, but that's often true for industrial strength power tools.
Thank you Rogers! [via McGee's Musings]
Orrin Hatch -
Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. I haven't checked the Congressional Record, but it appears the alleged remarks were made during a Senate hearing on copyright. (Senators routinely amend their remarks in the CR anyway.)
Orrin Hatch: clueless and malevolent. "'If we can find some way to [stop file sharing] without destroying their machines, we'd be interested in hearing about that,' Hatch said. 'If that's the only way, then I'm all for destroying their machines. If you have a few hundred thousand of those, I think people would realize' the seriousness of their actions, he said." [WashingtonPost.com] [viaalgorhythm]
This kind of outburst is what we expect from junior Congressmen who don't know any better. But it is not something that should come from the mouth of a ranking official in our government. This is pretty close to the stupidity publicly demonstrated by Trent Lott (racist laws) and Howard Coble (Japanese internment). Let's hope this gets lots of exposure and generates some serious feedback to those moral compasses inhabiting Congress.
This issue no longer affects a few kids. What Hatch is supporting is wholesale, unrestricted vigilantism against private, ordinary citizens by a tiny handful of mega-corporations. Remember that when you go to the polls.
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