forethought: No Copyright, It's the Law. No really…

Well, if you are trying to weasel out of paying for a copyright, there is a new way to do it: get the material referenced in a law, or better yet have the material become the law.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a Fifth Circuit decision that basically says: if your standard or code is referenced in a law, then is becomes uncopyrightable, even if it was copyrightable before it was in the law.

For a better summary with more explanation, read Peter Veeck’s summary.

Posted by arfore at July 9, 2003 08:37 AM

forethought: Barry White passes on

For those who don’t already know, Barry White died on last Friday at the age of 58.

He was listed as Artist No. 78 in VH1’s 100 Sexiest Artists.

For more on Barry White and his music, visit the Barry White biography page by VH1.

Posted by arfore at July 7, 2003 10:23 AM

forethought: Are you an addict?

There is an interesting article in the New York Times about being addicted to the constant availability of information.

“It’s like a dopamine squirt to be connected,” said Dr. Ratey, who compares the sensations created by constantly being wired to those of narcotics — a hit of pleasure, stimulation and escape. “It takes the same pathway as our drugs of abuse and pleasure.”

“It’s an addiction,” he said, adding that some people cannot deal with down time or quiet moments. “Without it, we are in withdrawal.”

So for everyone out there who thought they were free of addictions because “geeks don’t do drugs” here’s your addiction.

Posted by arfore at July 7, 2003 10:50 AM

forethought: Harddrive Security

Well, just when you thought the removeable rack was great security, they went and upgraded it. Now to access the drive you have to have a crypto-key. That’s right, it look just like those USB storage keys, but it allows you to access or block access to your removeable-rackmounted HD.

Check it out here.

Posted by arfore at July 30, 2003 07:11 PM

forethought: Become a Foreign Student, Privacy Not Included

Well, this may be old news to some people, but after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, the USA Patriot Act required all U.S. colleges and universities to register all foreign students is a database.

Well, looks like the database has serious problems. According to an article in Government Executive.

So here’s a great incentive to foreign students: come to the U.S. for a great education, not only is it more expensive, but you get to pay for your own surveillance too!

Posted by arfore at July 9, 2003 08:50 AM

That really stinks they need to think about that and by they I mean the government

forethought: It's a girl!

Our system administrator is the proud papa of a baby girl! Emma June Barton was born around 7:30pm on Friday, June 27, 2003. She is 19.5″ long and weighs in at 6lbs. 12oz.

Posted by arfore at June 30, 2003 08:53 AM

forethought: Katherine Hepburn will be missed

Katherine Houghton Hepburn, died Sunday, June 29, 2003 at her home in Old Saybrook, CT.

She one the most decorated actresses in the industry. Until this year she held the record for the most Academy Award nominations.

Her credits included: “On Golden Pond” in 1981, “Lion in Winter” in 1968, and “African Queen” in 1951, co-starring with Humphrey Bogart.

The following quote typifies Hepburn’s life as well as her acting career:

“I’m a personality as well as an actress,” Hepburn once said. “Show me an actress who isn’t a personality, and you’ll show me a woman who isn’t a star.”

Posted by arfore at June 30, 2003 09:04 AM

forethought: Accessibility with CSS

At Valdosta State University we are having to redesign our site to meet the new federal accessibility guidelines.

I ran across a nice article about using accesskeys for the mobility impaired.

Now if only all browsers were standards compliant. Sigh…

Posted by arfore at July 3, 2003 09:34 PM

forethought: Freedom/Privacy Archives

Well, just when you thought the removeable rack was great security, they went and upgraded it. Now to access the drive you have to have a crypto-key. That’s right, it look just like those USB storage keys, but it allows you to access or block access to your removeable-rackmounted HD.

Check it out here.

Posted by arfore at 07:11 PM | Comments (0)

Well, this may be old news to some people, but after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, the USA Patriot Act required all U.S. colleges and universities to register all foreign students is a database.

Well, looks like the database has serious problems. According to an article in Government Executive.

So here’s a great incentive to foreign students: come to the U.S. for a great education, not only is it more expensive, but you get to pay for your own surveillance too!

Posted by arfore at 08:50 AM | Comments (2)

Well, if you are trying to weasel out of paying for a copyright, there is a new way to do it: get the material referenced in a law, or better yet have the material become the law.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a Fifth Circuit decision that basically says: if your standard or code is referenced in a law, then is becomes uncopyrightable, even if it was copyrightable before it was in the law.

For a better summary with more explanation, read Peter Veeck’s summary.

Posted by arfore at 08:37 AM | Comments (0)

forethought: Linux Archives

Well, I am once again trying my hand at something other than RedHat or Mandrake for my desktop box.

I kept thinking to myself, “Self, you are getting into a GUI-install rut with Mandrake and RedHat. You should try something else.”

So, off I went to the distribution list at Linux Online to find myself a new distribution.

At first I had settled on Debian. Then I kept running into issues with the stable tree not having enough updated components. So after some searching I found out that I could install the testing tree instead. But then I found out that KDE 3.1.2 wasn’t in the testing tree.

After some more googling[?] about Debian “sarge/testing” and KDE 3, I found a nice page that detailed a way to install it. (Don’t have the link handy, will post it tomorrow).

This failed miserably.

So now I am trying to install a distro called Gentoo Linux.

Wish me luck. 🙂

Posted by arfore at 06:59 PM | Comments (1)