McCall's patterns notoriously suck--and I'm not the only sewer who says this. I'm surprised this guy has even found a market for these things. Most JoAnne's (and other chain fabric stores) mark patterns down to $0.99 before discard (down from $6-$18) and on most regular days you can get the things for half off. Unless the store ran out of it in your size or something, there's not much reason to have to go looking for the things online.
If McCall's and Simplicity were smart, they'd hire the guy since he's obviously able to make their crap sell better than they could.
Either way, I think the DMCA is the wrong damned thing to put this under.
I'm making apologies for the AOL comment. You're exactly right, I shouldn't have made it given my own use of hotmail and that I used AOL for many years. Cheap joke. I definitely regret it. I do respect Hamilton's opinions. She's a commentator on Writ that I look forward to reading no matter what stance she takes on an issue (I don't usually disagree with her anyhow).
As for my disagreements in this case, they're minor. My summary didn't make it clear (and that's my fault) that I do agree with her for the most part. My biggest disagreement is her statement that harmonizing US copyright with the EU was a "good" reason for Congress to extend the term. It's a reason, but I don't think it's a good one. I don't think the length of the term was smart for the EU or the US, and just because the EU did it, doesn't mean we should jump of the same bridge (just as I believe that just because the US does something, doesn't mean anyone else should--or should be coerced to--do the same, but that's a commentary for another thread). I don't see the harmonization being as important as it was portrayed in the article.
I also don't agree with her argument in her previous Writ article on Eldred that though bad policy, the CTEA was still constitutional (obviously, I don't agree with the majority of the Supreme Court either). I side Breyer, Stevens and Lessig here. Doesn't do me much good, but I still disagree. Granted, this point doesn't come up in the present article.
All that said, as I posted originally, the article was interesting (so was her previous article), and had some good points. I like the "get up and do something about it if it pisses you off" tone. Even though we get that message from other Slashdotters every time stories like this get posted, it's refreshing to hear it from somewhere else.
I also appreciate the idea that because we have harmonized with the EU now and created a status quo, that it will take both side of the pond working to reduce it. Of course, since most people I know concerned about copyright are here in the US, I don't even know if there's the same desire for a shorter copyright across the pond. I'd like to think support could be drummed up on both sides, but it's already paddling upstream to enact change on this side.
Did my point of disagreement have anything to do with using AOL or not? No, not at all. Was my comment juvenile and uncalled for? Definitely. Do I regret it in light of being told I was an elitist? Yes. Should I be summarily flogged with a wet noodle and forced to edit badly written code for 3 nights with no sleep? Yeah, probably. My apologies to all I offended. I am an ass.
Point taken. It was a snide remark on my part, and yes she's more qualified to talk about legal matters than me. Actually, I've read a lot of her work commentary and think a lot of her anyone who clerked for O'Connor is like a demi-god in my Universe.
So yes, I was a jerk for making a cheap crack. Especially given that I have a hotmail address:)
Maybe I'm going out on a limb here, but the flop might have something to do with opening it in the middle of the Lord of the Rings rush.
In general, I wasn't all that happy. Next Gen was always my favorite of the series, and I really hoped to see the entire crew get some serious screen time, not just Picard and Data as per the previous movies. As it was, I was disappointed on that front--moreso knowing it was the last chance to get it right.
I also fell asleep in the middle. That's never a good sign.
I hate to see it do badly, and I hate for the Next Gen crew to go out on this note, but so it goes.
I missed it, but I don't care too much. No wonder SciFi was complaining about Farscape costing too much: they spent all their dough on a "brand name." You can't tell me something with Spielberg's name tacked to it came without a nice, hefty price tag. I guess if it's good, they'll put it on DVD like their Dune series, and if it's not, they'll play it profusely back to back with Tremors 3.
My parents went through a similar scenario with me. I wanted to be an engineer like Dad, but somewhere along the way, I decided I really liked to read more than doing math. And I completely understand about your daughter blanching at reading science fiction with only guys as the protagonists--I did the same thing.
I really like your idea of cooking to sneak in fractions. That's really the best way to go about it--sneak it in. If you push--like my parents did to me for a short time--she might get surly and go from "math is okay" to "math sucks ass, get off my bad, Dad." That said, make sure it's still available. Have those old sci-fi books out just in case *she* wants to pick one up. Keep an old PC handy that she can tinker with if she wants (keep it old and crusty and leave a book for learning BASIC lying around--heehee). On car trips, keep a calculator around, and when she asks "how long until we get there?" you can suggest she figure it out--I became a master at the last one. "Check Dad's speedometer, check the mile marker...we'll be to Grandma's in 2 hours. 2 hours?!?! Let me do that again...."
Those sorts of things helped with my eventual turn around from detesting math. Word problems were a help (they were puzzles not just equations). Dad would also occasionally do "fun stuff" in the back yard (building rockets, that sort of thing--blowing things up is always appealing). The other help was when I got interested in Star Trek (TNG started when I was 7). Cheeze-Whiz as it is, my Dad watched it with me and would "casually" point out the math and science things. I had Dr. Crusher, so I could say, "cool, a girl, like me!" and I had Dad to point out the things "Dr. Crusher probably learned in school." I'm sure getting educational value from Trek was a pain for Dad. At some point it turned into lessons on why things on Trek weren't real.
In the end, I wound up majoring in Computer Science in college. I'll honestly say that math is not one of my favorite subjects, and I'd rather read a novel than deal with a page of integrals or something, but I don't hate it, and I know how to get some level of enjoyment from it.
Oh, and if her nitwit first grade teacher ever makes her take "timed tests" where she has to spit out addition tables from memory. Beat the teacher with a wet noodle.
Over the last few months I've wanted to buy a few new CDs, but each time I look up the label and find that they're in the RIAA, so I've refused to buy it.
I've had the same problem. I've been on a buying freeze where the RIAA is concerned for a short time, and I've come to realize that every artist or band I listen to is on a label on that damned list, with the exceptions of Eddie from Ohio and Tom Smith. I've had some success buying used, but there are a few CDs I've been wanting that are import albums or certain obscure classical pieces and you just don't find those in your average Used CD section or Thrift Store.
I'm okay with supporting independent artists like EFO, but there are days when I just want to hear Reba (or Nanci Griffith or Scarlatti or The Corrs or Jim Reeves), damnit. With crappy radio stations, I can't even listen for them there (okay, so I might get some of The Corrs, but it won't be their instrumental or live stuff, and I might get Reba, but it won't be any of her older stuff it'll be "Sweet Music Man" for the 50th time and NPR might play Scarlatti but they have a weak signal and I can't pick up their station many days)
I'm not hitting Kazaa for any of it because, honestly, they don't have what I'm looking for and even if they did, I don't want to give the RIAA any statistical/legal cannon fodder any more than I want my $$ funding their arsenal to buy my rights.
Fans of the Trek series learn character's backgrounds, and gain insight as to WHY a character would react a certain way.
This is very true...but unfortunately, I always felt that the character development with the Next Generation characters tended to stop with their backgrounds. I never got the feeling that the moments they had in one episode ever really carried over in their characters to the next episode or the ones further beyond. There are a few exceptions, but not enough. Deep Space Nine did a much better job of dealing with developing the characters beyond their original backgrounds to incorporate what the audience saw them experience. I love Next Gen, but I think they could have been even better if they'd developed more like the DS9 characters. But then, that may just be the way it goes when it comes to the highly encapsulated episode format that Next Generation had (not that I mind that, I love the B5 style continuing story, but some times I just want it all wrapped up in an hour).
Actually, it's not originally from Dallas. It was first created in Waco (check out the Dr. Pepper Museum) And you're definitely right about the regional stuff. I moved from the Waco area to the east coast (Virginia) and was surprised to see that nearly everything was Mr. Pibb. I was also surprised that no one there had ever really heard of Big Red except as a chewing gum....
Nope, it's not the damage done in this case. The law states:
by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000,
So they have to go by the retail value of the item. I also found a letter to the US Sentencing Commission regarding NET from the MPAA, RIAA dweebies in which they make their demands about that total retail value pretty clear:
(A) Use of Retail Value of Infringed Item. -The infringement amount is the retail value of the infringed item, multiplied by the number of infringing items, in a case involving any of the following:
(i) The quality and performance of the infringing item are identical to, or substantially indistinguishable from, or the infringing item is or comprises a digital or electronic reproduction of, the infringed item
What's really getting me the most the the _grotesque_ opening theme. Good lord. That may be the worst crap I've ever heard.
Also known as "the moment I got a really bad feeling about Enterprise." After a nice run of good to extremely awesome themes from TNG through V'ger, this was the biggest let down. Even Old School Trek had some funky personality to it's theme.
2) I like the keep my porn and my star trek separate, thank you.
Oh, you mean Brannon Braga's wet dream? Yeah, the decontamination scene just brought flashes of the 7 of 9 debacle crashing back in medicinal panty-line detail. No thanks. I stopped watching right there and haven't gone back.
I'm a long time Trek fan, and I'm not a stickler for Trek purity, but I just haven't been a real fan of what's gone on since DS9. I gave V'ger a season or two, but when the captain turned into a lizard, I gave my full attention to B5 with no regrets.
As far as teaching the test, I totaly agree with you. I've got two kids in school here in Texas and everytime that it gets even close to test time, they go into major "teach the test" mode.
Ugh. TAAS, right? I feel your pain. I went k-10 in Texas schools, and resented TAAS (and CAT and all the other ones they force on you). By the time I was in 10th grade, my class had taken TAAS more times than any other class up to that point (they kept swapping what grades would take it, and we kept getting hit--plus we'd had to beta their potential history exam). That year the superintendent came into our English class as we were being made to write yet another persuasive essay (something all of us had been doing since 3rd grade), and when he asked us how it was going, I was the first to speak up that I was insulted that I was having my time wasted being taught a test. He was shocked--even more so when the rest of the class chimed in.
Then I got to Virginia where I was forced to take beta versions of their SOL exams (like TAAS, only more subjects and implemented in an even less effective way). I hated to see another state sink to the same "teaching the test" garbage.
If I were you, I'd find a way to let it be known to the school board (and to any other educational official you might run into) exactly what you think of their methods. The tests are bad enough, but the pressure the state puts on the tests (i.e. holding it over districts in terms of funding) is what is really ridiculous. It's a waste of your children's classtime, and to the classtime of every other kid who's ever lost a lecture on something interesting/useful because he/she was forced to do remedial test-prep work. The only thing any kid could possibly get out of the TAAS experience is a few skills for standardized test taking which might make the whole SAT experience a little less obnoxious.
If I were the Librarian of Congress, I'd be pretty damned offended at that press release. I mean, they all but called the guy an easily manipulated idiot. "The Librarian's decision was based on a misguided reading of the record..."
Because a Librarian is someone who really has a problem interpreting written documents...especially a guy who's been running the Library of Congress since 1987. Give us a break.
As if the RIAA doesn't make a big enough ass of itself with everything else they pull.
Our legislative system is bogged down with bureaucracy and partisan game-playing
I'll agree that the legislative system does bog things down, but....the FCC is bureaucracy. At least when it comes through the legislature, the decision comes from elected representatives, not from appointed bureaucrats like Michael Powell.
Call me nutty, but I've always been a fan of the "representation" thing.
Slashdot Mirror
...since it's also National Library Week.
McCall's patterns notoriously suck--and I'm not the only sewer who says this. I'm surprised this guy has even found a market for these things. Most JoAnne's (and other chain fabric stores) mark patterns down to $0.99 before discard (down from $6-$18) and on most regular days you can get the things for half off. Unless the store ran out of it in your size or something, there's not much reason to have to go looking for the things online.
If McCall's and Simplicity were smart, they'd hire the guy since he's obviously able to make their crap sell better than they could.
Either way, I think the DMCA is the wrong damned thing to put this under.
I'm making apologies for the AOL comment. You're exactly right, I shouldn't have made it given my own use of hotmail and that I used AOL for many years. Cheap joke. I definitely regret it. I do respect Hamilton's opinions. She's a commentator on Writ that I look forward to reading no matter what stance she takes on an issue (I don't usually disagree with her anyhow).
As for my disagreements in this case, they're minor. My summary didn't make it clear (and that's my fault) that I do agree with her for the most part. My biggest disagreement is her statement that harmonizing US copyright with the EU was a "good" reason for Congress to extend the term. It's a reason, but I don't think it's a good one. I don't think the length of the term was smart for the EU or the US, and just because the EU did it, doesn't mean we should jump of the same bridge (just as I believe that just because the US does something, doesn't mean anyone else should--or should be coerced to--do the same, but that's a commentary for another thread). I don't see the harmonization being as important as it was portrayed in the article.
I also don't agree with her argument in her previous Writ article on Eldred that though bad policy, the CTEA was still constitutional (obviously, I don't agree with the majority of the Supreme Court either). I side Breyer, Stevens and Lessig here. Doesn't do me much good, but I still disagree. Granted, this point doesn't come up in the present article.
All that said, as I posted originally, the article was interesting (so was her previous article), and had some good points. I like the "get up and do something about it if it pisses you off" tone. Even though we get that message from other Slashdotters every time stories like this get posted, it's refreshing to hear it from somewhere else.
I also appreciate the idea that because we have harmonized with the EU now and created a status quo, that it will take both side of the pond working to reduce it. Of course, since most people I know concerned about copyright are here in the US, I don't even know if there's the same desire for a shorter copyright across the pond. I'd like to think support could be drummed up on both sides, but it's already paddling upstream to enact change on this side.
Did my point of disagreement have anything to do with using AOL or not? No, not at all. Was my comment juvenile and uncalled for? Definitely. Do I regret it in light of being told I was an elitist? Yes. Should I be summarily flogged with a wet noodle and forced to edit badly written code for 3 nights with no sleep? Yeah, probably. My apologies to all I offended. I am an ass.
Point taken. It was a snide remark on my part, and yes she's more qualified to talk about legal matters than me. Actually, I've read a lot of her work commentary and think a lot of her anyone who clerked for O'Connor is like a demi-god in my Universe.
:)
So yes, I was a jerk for making a cheap crack. Especially given that I have a hotmail address
Maybe I'm going out on a limb here, but the flop might have something to do with opening it in the middle of the Lord of the Rings rush.
In general, I wasn't all that happy. Next Gen was always my favorite of the series, and I really hoped to see the entire crew get some serious screen time, not just Picard and Data as per the previous movies. As it was, I was disappointed on that front--moreso knowing it was the last chance to get it right.
I also fell asleep in the middle. That's never a good sign.
I hate to see it do badly, and I hate for the Next Gen crew to go out on this note, but so it goes.
I missed it, but I don't care too much. No wonder SciFi was complaining about Farscape costing too much: they spent all their dough on a "brand name." You can't tell me something with Spielberg's name tacked to it came without a nice, hefty price tag. I guess if it's good, they'll put it on DVD like their Dune series, and if it's not, they'll play it profusely back to back with Tremors 3.
My parents went through a similar scenario with me. I wanted to be an engineer like Dad, but somewhere along the way, I decided I really liked to read more than doing math. And I completely understand about your daughter blanching at reading science fiction with only guys as the protagonists--I did the same thing.
I really like your idea of cooking to sneak in fractions. That's really the best way to go about it--sneak it in. If you push--like my parents did to me for a short time--she might get surly and go from "math is okay" to "math sucks ass, get off my bad, Dad." That said, make sure it's still available. Have those old sci-fi books out just in case *she* wants to pick one up. Keep an old PC handy that she can tinker with if she wants (keep it old and crusty and leave a book for learning BASIC lying around--heehee). On car trips, keep a calculator around, and when she asks "how long until we get there?" you can suggest she figure it out--I became a master at the last one. "Check Dad's speedometer, check the mile marker...we'll be to Grandma's in 2 hours. 2 hours?!?! Let me do that again...."
Those sorts of things helped with my eventual turn around from detesting math. Word problems were a help (they were puzzles not just equations). Dad would also occasionally do "fun stuff" in the back yard (building rockets, that sort of thing--blowing things up is always appealing). The other help was when I got interested in Star Trek (TNG started when I was 7). Cheeze-Whiz as it is, my Dad watched it with me and would "casually" point out the math and science things. I had Dr. Crusher, so I could say, "cool, a girl, like me!" and I had Dad to point out the things "Dr. Crusher probably learned in school." I'm sure getting educational value from Trek was a pain for Dad. At some point it turned into lessons on why things on Trek weren't real.
In the end, I wound up majoring in Computer Science in college. I'll honestly say that math is not one of my favorite subjects, and I'd rather read a novel than deal with a page of integrals or something, but I don't hate it, and I know how to get some level of enjoyment from it.
Oh, and if her nitwit first grade teacher ever makes her take "timed tests" where she has to spit out addition tables from memory. Beat the teacher with a wet noodle.
Good luck!
Over the last few months I've wanted to buy a few new CDs, but each time I look up the label and find that they're in the RIAA, so I've refused to buy it.
I've had the same problem. I've been on a buying freeze where the RIAA is concerned for a short time, and I've come to realize that every artist or band I listen to is on a label on that damned list, with the exceptions of Eddie from Ohio and Tom Smith. I've had some success buying used, but there are a few CDs I've been wanting that are import albums or certain obscure classical pieces and you just don't find those in your average Used CD section or Thrift Store.
I'm okay with supporting independent artists like EFO, but there are days when I just want to hear Reba (or Nanci Griffith or Scarlatti or The Corrs or Jim Reeves), damnit. With crappy radio stations, I can't even listen for them there (okay, so I might get some of The Corrs, but it won't be their instrumental or live stuff, and I might get Reba, but it won't be any of her older stuff it'll be "Sweet Music Man" for the 50th time and NPR might play Scarlatti but they have a weak signal and I can't pick up their station many days)
I'm not hitting Kazaa for any of it because, honestly, they don't have what I'm looking for and even if they did, I don't want to give the RIAA any statistical/legal cannon fodder any more than I want my $$ funding their arsenal to buy my rights.
It's a pain in the ass.
Fans of the Trek series learn character's backgrounds, and gain insight as to WHY a character would react a certain way.
This is very true...but unfortunately, I always felt that the character development with the Next Generation characters tended to stop with their backgrounds. I never got the feeling that the moments they had in one episode ever really carried over in their characters to the next episode or the ones further beyond. There are a few exceptions, but not enough. Deep Space Nine did a much better job of dealing with developing the characters beyond their original backgrounds to incorporate what the audience saw them experience. I love Next Gen, but I think they could have been even better if they'd developed more like the DS9 characters. But then, that may just be the way it goes when it comes to the highly encapsulated episode format that Next Generation had (not that I mind that, I love the B5 style continuing story, but some times I just want it all wrapped up in an hour).
Anyhow. That's just my thoughts on the subject.
...if Paramount never let Berman/Braga write ANY plot again.
Actually, it's not originally from Dallas. It was first created in Waco (check out the Dr. Pepper Museum) And you're definitely right about the regional stuff. I moved from the Waco area to the east coast (Virginia) and was surprised to see that nearly everything was Mr. Pibb. I was also surprised that no one there had ever really heard of Big Red except as a chewing gum....
Nope, it's not the damage done in this case. The law states :
by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000,
So they have to go by the retail value of the item. I also found a letter to the US Sentencing Commission regarding NET from the MPAA, RIAA dweebies in which they make their demands about that total retail value pretty clear:
(A) Use of Retail Value of Infringed Item. -The infringement amount is the retail value of the infringed item, multiplied by the number of infringing items, in a case involving any of the following:
(i) The quality and performance of the infringing item are identical to, or substantially indistinguishable from, or the infringing item is or comprises a digital or electronic reproduction of, the infringed item
What's really getting me the most the the _grotesque_ opening theme. Good lord. That may be the worst crap I've ever heard.
Also known as "the moment I got a really bad feeling about Enterprise." After a nice run of good to extremely awesome themes from TNG through V'ger, this was the biggest let down. Even Old School Trek had some funky personality to it's theme.
2) I like the keep my porn and my star trek separate, thank you.
Oh, you mean Brannon Braga's wet dream? Yeah, the decontamination scene just brought flashes of the 7 of 9 debacle crashing back in medicinal panty-line detail. No thanks. I stopped watching right there and haven't gone back.
I'm a long time Trek fan, and I'm not a stickler for Trek purity, but I just haven't been a real fan of what's gone on since DS9. I gave V'ger a season or two, but when the captain turned into a lizard, I gave my full attention to B5 with no regrets.
As far as teaching the test, I totaly agree with you. I've got two kids in school here in Texas and everytime that it gets even close to test time, they go into major "teach the test" mode.
Ugh. TAAS, right? I feel your pain. I went k-10 in Texas schools, and resented TAAS (and CAT and all the other ones they force on you). By the time I was in 10th grade, my class had taken TAAS more times than any other class up to that point (they kept swapping what grades would take it, and we kept getting hit--plus we'd had to beta their potential history exam). That year the superintendent came into our English class as we were being made to write yet another persuasive essay (something all of us had been doing since 3rd grade), and when he asked us how it was going, I was the first to speak up that I was insulted that I was having my time wasted being taught a test. He was shocked--even more so when the rest of the class chimed in.
Then I got to Virginia where I was forced to take beta versions of their SOL exams (like TAAS, only more subjects and implemented in an even less effective way). I hated to see another state sink to the same "teaching the test" garbage.
If I were you, I'd find a way to let it be known to the school board (and to any other educational official you might run into) exactly what you think of their methods. The tests are bad enough, but the pressure the state puts on the tests (i.e. holding it over districts in terms of funding) is what is really ridiculous. It's a waste of your children's classtime, and to the classtime of every other kid who's ever lost a lecture on something interesting/useful because he/she was forced to do remedial test-prep work. The only thing any kid could possibly get out of the TAAS experience is a few skills for standardized test taking which might make the whole SAT experience a little less obnoxious.
Good luck to you and your kids!
If I were the Librarian of Congress, I'd be pretty damned offended at that press release. I mean, they all but called the guy an easily manipulated idiot.
"The Librarian's decision was based on a misguided reading of the record..." Because a Librarian is someone who really has a problem interpreting written documents...especially a guy who's been running the Library of Congress since 1987. Give us a break. As if the RIAA doesn't make a big enough ass of itself with everything else they pull.
gets this one? Most bills die in committee. Target the members of that committee--especially if you're a voter in his/her district.
SC
Our legislative system is bogged down with bureaucracy and partisan game-playing
I'll agree that the legislative system does bog things down, but....the FCC is bureaucracy. At least when it comes through the legislature, the decision comes from elected representatives, not from appointed bureaucrats like Michael Powell.
Call me nutty, but I've always been a fan of the "representation" thing.