Anyone wanna own some of Cory Doctorow’s stuff? Well, you’re in luck. He’s selling off a ton of things before jetting to the UK. Pickup in San Fran only, though (too bad, really…that’s a nice skull.
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Live Pelt
Oh my. Originally seen on Jason Kottke’s blog. This is both brilliant and disturbing…the artist Kelly Heaton skinned 64 Tickle Me Elmos and made a vibrating fur coat from them.
Even more interesting…she’s a local girl. She has ties to the MIT Media Lab but is the current Artist in Residence in the Computer Science Department at Duke.
Does anyone have any idea if she’s done any local exhibitions? I’d love to see some of her stuff.
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Every time a bell rings…
For those of us who have been caught up in the Joss Whedon universe for the last 6 or 7 years, the last of his surviving shows, Angel, is being cancelled at the end of this season. First Buffy (which admittedly had a pretty great run on TV), Firefly (which got NO LOVE while it was on, but is a great show…the DVD’s are amazing), now Angel. Next season the airwaves will be Jossless for the first time in nearly a decade. Guess the DVD’s will have to keep me company.
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Turtles all the way down…
Someone has now written a plugin for the game The Sims called SliceCity which lets the your Sims play something akin to SimCity.
So you’ve now got real people in the real world, directing simulated people in the simulated world, creating simulated worlds with simulated people.
*boggle*
Sitting in said Best Western in Boone, NC, while Betsy gets ready for dinner. Tonight = dinner with the chair of the Spanish Department. Tomorrow = all day grueling marathon o’ interviews and presentations. While she does that, I’m meeting with different people from the library system.
This whole job search thing is about to cause us both to spontaneously combust. But rest assured, dear readers, that as soon as we have an answer, you’ll hear it here first.
In doing some research on The University of the South I happened to run into a link to an interview by our very own Catherine Pellegrino.
Who knew that Catherine was at one time an articles editor for a sci-fi web journal?
Very, very cool. Color me jealous.
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Some fun from the TSA
Just an example of the fine, fine work our TSA employees are delivering to the American public. This was a someone’s suitcase at RDU which had been searched, then taped back together…evidently there was some difficulty in re-sealing it.
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Check it out
Pictures from the 2004 Betsy College Tour.
So today, Stephen Wolfram put his book A New Kind of Science online, accessible to whomever.
However.
It is in an atrocious format (terrible “one page image at a time” thing). It’s horribly difficult to read in this format, and can’t be taken with you on a device (downloaded to a laptop, thrown on a PDA) with any ease. In addition, the Online Terms of Use would choke a horse. Here are some outtakes:
“The terms, conditions and notices below (“Terms of Use”) govern your use of this Site. Your use of this Site constitutes your agreement to these Terms of Use. If you do not agree with these Terms of Use, please do not use this site. Wolfram reserves the right to change, modify, add, or remove portions of these Terms of Use at any time. It is recommended that you refer to these Terms of Use on a regular basis.”
Gee, thanks Stephen…you’re allowed to change the rules in the middle of the game, if you wish.
“Visitors are encouraged to peruse this Site, but must recognize that its content is protected by international copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws and may not be mirrored, redistributed, printed, publicly performed or displayed, reproduced in bulk, or archived without advance written permission.”
Then later in the page, you find this:
“Personal use is not restricted. Restrictions apply only to material you wish to present publicly or use commercially.”
Umm….one of these things is not like the other…can I mirror the site for personal use? Can I print it for myself?
I suppose in one sense, it’s nice that this is available electronically at all. But how much nicer is Cory Doctorow’s newest book “Eastern Standard Tribe.” It’s available in no fewer than 15 different formats, downloadable, changeable, and licensed under the Creative Commons License.
This, to me, is the difference between “Open Access” and what I’m calling “Open Information.” One gives you what they want, the others gives you the ability to make what you want. There’s a huge difference in the two.
For a particularly bizarre example, check out Cut’n’Paste”n”Rock’n’Roll a site which takes the text of Cory’s two books (Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom and Eastern Standard Tribe), Alice in Wonderland, and the BBC new feed, and allows you to “mix” them as you might mix music. Very, very cool, and not possible with overtly restrictive IP controls.
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Sitting in Sewanee…
So, I am currently sitting in the Jessie Ball duPont Library in Sewanee, TN. Outside is an impenetrable wall of fog left over from the thunderstorms last night, but the interior of the library is silent as a tomb. Handfuls of students, maybe 2 or 3, wander about the stacks, but are absolutely silent.
What a difference from the vibrancy of the UL, or even the frenetic energy of Davis. Small campus, small library…I suppose that’s what you get. The funny thing is, I think I could get used to it. The library feels…manageable. Like maybe you could make a difference. That’s kind of a nice thing to consider when thinking about moving somewhere, isn’t it?