The person who buys this is unlikely to use it, but having a typewriter that was an instrument of creation for famous works is like having a guitar played by Hendrix at Woodstock or a pen used to sign the Declaration of Independence.
This typewriter was used for every single book by the author. Pretty amazing!
Computer/typewriter/inkwell/chisel—it's not what it is, it is who used it and for making what and for how long.
I would really love to have one of these songs (I often use musically esoteric materials in my classroom). The article doesn't mention what the music was. Anyone know? From other sources?
Well, if the only way to save the world is for all of us to become Texan Vegetarians, I think I'd rather let the world devolve to Buy N Large and let WALL-E clean it up...
I think that there will always be a need for scholarly authority, which until now has been conferred by reputation of the presenter and/or publishing house and journal.
I do think that things are ripe for change, and have been very influenced and inspired by the "New Metrics of Scholarly Authority" piece from the Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/free/v53/i41/41b00601.htm
Academic journals will likely end up joining the online world, and the free vs. open model will settle down, but they are unlikely to be obsolete. I am a reviewer and author for several journals, and that is unlikely to change in my lifetime.
I do know that David Pogue uses DNS for all of his writing (NYTimes, books, etc.). He writes about Dragon often, and how he previously used to carry a Windows laptop essentially just for writing.
Many Mac folks, myself included, have installed windows via Fusion or Parallels so that we can run DNS alongside OS X. I have got it working reasonably well, and have been doing all my writing and email via speech for about 6 months. There are still some frustrations, but in general it works great and I'm happy to have it.
The big question I have is whether this version will be better than using DNS via a virtual Windows machine. Unless the implementation is horrible, I'd expect so. Well, reasonably I would expect it to be crappy until a few versions in, but I'll be watching closely for reviews.
I much prefer CC and use it in my own work frequently. I've contributed to Wikipedia many times, and think this is a great move. It will also boost CC, which deserves all the exposure it can get.
I'd rather have support for old OS versions and a new OS version that has bells and whistles than be plauged by continual support for all things past.
I have a MacBook Pro running Tiger, which I love and will upgrade. I have a G4 Cube (450 Mhz G4) that runs Panther and works more than fine. I regularly get the security updates and keep QuickTime and iTunes updated, and otherwise use it as a server/DVD player/iTunes player, etc. Let old machines keep working without wanting them to play Halo 3 or other unreasonable demands (the Cube is 7 years old).
Two points (cheating and cheating)
on
MIT's SAT Math Error
·
· Score: 4, Informative
The first thing I note is that, for an institution as brilliant as MIT to make an error that increases their ranking seems a bit suspicious. Despite the fact that many readers here see little or no purpose to these rankings, they are horribly influential, and the difference reported is substantial. MIT is good enough to be great without cheating.
The second point is that many schools are very careful when examining foriegn test scores because of cheating supported by the government. It is well-known that many countries actively encourage cheating (which helps the students get grants or acceptance). The school where I was had a watch list and would ignore scores outright from many countries. Makes me wonder whether they still reported these suspect high scores as part of their average (I expect they did).
One thing the article doesn't cover is the fact that consumers have a legal right to "make their own" ringtone from music they own. According to this article by Sasha Frere-Jones in the New Yorker, consumers can create their own ringtones from music they own legally:
"Or you can do it yourself: some new cell-phone models can be connected to a computer by a data cable, allowing you to create master tones from MP3 files at home. However it is done, transferring music that you own to your phone is legal under copyright law."
source:
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/03/07/050307crmu_music
By the way, this is one of the best articles on ringtones, covering the technical advances from monophonic MIDI to compressed audio, and the impact on the aesthetics of ringtones. I teach a class on music technology, and the first assignment is to have students compose and create their own ringtone (not by ripping from a CD, actually creating their own). I use the New Yorker article to get everyone up to speed on how big ringtones are in the world today.
Most research in the social sciences considers the threshold for statistical significance below.05. Since this is above, few would have confidence that this result is not random chance. So, reporting this result, while informative if you are trained in statistics, is likely misleading to the average reader...
I think that the online tab revolution has been wonderful for amateur musicians all over the world (of course, especially guitarists). I've used the tabs, and I think that it is possible to make the case that this is often a fair use of copyright (though, often, not).
That said, I can understand the music industry has concerns like these: 1. They do sell sheet music, and this practice cuts into their profits. I'm guessing that some revenue-sharing model could work, but that the RIAA/BMG/etc. aren't (yet) interested. In fact, I have actually seen some bands distribute their own tabs (or tabs contributed by fans), which I think is a fantastic idea. 2. The quality of most tab is fair to poor. I teach music and guitar, and I always end up correcting tabs (even chords) for students. On some level, this is OK, but the chunky and too-often incorrect chords can really make a tune sound much worse than it is. If I were an artist and thought everyone was learning some ham-handed version of my tune, I'd probably be a bit pissed. 3. In this copyright-dominated world, it does seem that you risk losing your rights if you don't defend them.
I wish it weren't so. I'm a big fan of Lawrence Lessig, and believe that the stifling of things like OLGA make us less creative as a culture. I also love that there are still amateur musicians out there who want to play music for themselves and their friends for the pleasure of making muisic. I hope a good compromise or capitulation (on part of the music industry) is in the works.
I think the 12" won't debut until the new iBook (MacBook?) is revealed. The current 12" PowerBook is engineered in a very similar way to the iBook, and there have been lots of rumors that the next version will have lots of new bells and whistles (one prominent rumor is that it will have a wide screen.
With the price of gas now (and what it may become, soon) an analysis like this makes senes. It's one thing to imagine saving 3 weeks' time, but it even sounds worse when you put it as, "if you don't change your commute time, you'll have to spend three weeks' worth of extra time driving and pay for the gas out of your own pocket."
The sociologist Howard Becker has written extensively, most clearly in his book "Art Worlds," that to understand creation the locus should be the entire world of the artist, not the artist. We're making a mistake if we try to understand Beethoven's 9th without reference to the culture of Vienna, the rising role of the publishing house, the people who let him live the unfettered (if tortured) life of a creative artist, all play a role alongside the musicians, the promoters, his students, and composers who preceeded him and worked alongside him. That Viennese world, with Beethoven in it, Becker would argue, is the actual producer of the work.
The same holds true for science and other creative endeavors. It's not an airtight thesis, by any means, but it is provocative and gets people thinking along different lines than the unitary individual acting alone as we are so prone to do in the West...
I knew there was something wrong the minute I pulled the power plug on a MacBook at MacWorld. The Apple employee kept trying to plug it back in. I wanted to read what the estimated battery life would be (it displays right on the screen). I told him that I knew this wasn't a final number, but that I wanted to see what it would estimate. I left the cord out for a minute until the reading settled...
It said 2:37 minutes on a full charge.
Then someone invited us to an iSight videoconference and it dropped to 1:50 (still on a full charge).
The employee didn't tell me that these were pre-production, but he did say the unit was still under testing, including all the thermals that control the fan, and that that would really eat battery. He also said that the screen was much brighter and that would eat more power (and he's right, I had my 1.5Ghz PowerBook with me and took it out for comparison. The MacBook looked almost two times brighter to the eye).
I feel pretty confident that they'll get good battery life in the final unit, but it was odd how they skirted the issue instead of simply announcing that these models weren't good predictors of battery life (all the forums were FILLED with just this topic, and even this story carries it forward, where if they had addressed it, the question would be settled--just wait, it will come).
I stopped by the Microsoft booth during MacWorld and asked when support for the Intel Macs would appear. They (experts at the main Office help desk) said that there wouldn't be a MacTel native version until next version of Office is released (i.e. they won't be translating Office 2004 to Universal Binary).
Office will still run on the new Macs under Rosetta, but there could be quite a performance hit. I'm having enough problems with Office running native on my PowerBook as is (strange hangs, etc.). I can only imagine how horrible it could be if, for instance, there are delays in typing.
When I asked if the next version had an expected relase date, they shrugged their shoulders and said, "A year? Maybe two?"
What a pain if we have to wait two years for native MacTel support for Office!
I can't believe that some folks use this as their default browser, but so many do. I constantly see people click an email link and see IE pop up as their default browser (pun intended, as there are always a bunch of pop-up ads unblocked).
I feel a bit sad for them, but it is usually more trouble to get them comfortable with a new browser. I'll make the suggestion, but some folks just don't want to deal with the change.
I don't know it IE is still shipped with Macs, but it will be nice once it is gone and folks are using a more up to date browser.
I have used this archive on archive.org of Dead music with my students. I'm interested in teaching students not only that downloading music can be illegal, but that much content is completely legal (as well as free and open source/Creative Commons, etc.).
The Dead music has one of the clearest statements that non-commercial sharing of their live recordings (save a few dates that were listed in the agreement) is legal, and I like to have my students make a mix CD of great tunes, with liner notes, etc. Fun, legal, and the music is also interesting to talk about.
I was truly disappointed in the news initially, and think that this is an acceptable compromise.
I can't imagine how people would want a device like this. However, maybe iTunes will end up having a Podcast-style interface for video. I can imagine setting preferences so that your computer will download free (maybe with commercials up front) news snippets, sports highlights, and movie trailers (music videos also come to mind, but I'd not be interested).
I'd love to be able to watch short minutes of video while commuting or waiting around. I'd love set iTunes to automatically download all the independent movie trailers, along with local showtimes, giving me a constantly up-to-date set of video clips with not effort to maintain them. I can't imagine wanting to watch a movie on such a small screen. Then again, none of the iPod innovations have made sense to me until I saw them in person (I thought the Mini was horrible, then I saw one and it made perfect sense. Same with the Nano, manufacturing issues aside).
Although MS Office is fine, I've gotten random crashes lately and the app is sluggish. Maybe it is related to Tiger issues. I have resolved all my font conflicts through FontBook.
I actually have been using TextEdit for quite a lot of writing lately. Once you get the hang of the font menu (customizible though FontBook) and set your preferences, I find it to be a really comfortable solution.
Once my drafts mature (I do a lot of rewriting), I send them over to Office (where I use EndNote), but The simplicity of TextEdit really works for me.
I think that the best thing I've read on this issue lately is an article in the New Yorker by Louis Menand. It is about the historical perspective (TV robbing movies of their dominance, the rise of the blockbuster, etc.).
My favorite quote: And what is the main cinematic experience? The tickets, including the surcharge for ordering online, cost about the same as the monthly cable bill. A medium popcorn is five dollars; the smallest bottled water is three. The show begins with twenty minutes of commercials, spots promoting the theatre chain, and previews for movies coming out next Memorial Day, sometimes a year from next Memorial Day. The feature includes any combination of the following: wizards; slinky women of few words; men of few words who can expertly drive anything, spectacularly wreck anything, and leap safely from the top of anything; characters from comic books, sixth-grade world-history textbooks, or "Bulfinch's Mythology"; explosions; phenomena unknown to science; a computer whiz with attitude; a brand-name soft drink, running shoe, or candy bar; an incarnation of pure evil; more explosions; and the voice of Robin Williams. The movie feels about twenty minutes too long; the reviews are mixed; nobody really loves it; and it grosses several hundred million dollars.
My single biggest issue these days is the horrible behavior of so many folks at the movies. I went to "The Grudge," a horror movie, and a couple brought their four-year old in, who proceeded to run around the theater for the duration. WTF!
On the other hand, I live near Palo Alto, and the Stanford Theater [stanfordtheater.org] shows old movies, usually long runs around a theme (Bogart, Hitchcock, Romantic Comedies, etc.). They even have an organist play between showings. A $6.00 ticket gets you in to both movies, popcorn and drinks start at $1.00, etc. It really is wonderful.
What is best is that the audiences are great. They're all there becuase of the movie, and they listen. Seeing "Vertigo," on such a big and beautiful screen, and having (warning: spoiler) 800 people gasp when the nun falls off the tower is something that watching at home can't bring.
Slashdot Mirror
The caliber of musician you can get to go out to a subway at 2 a.m. and play for hooligans isn't great... Now, if they could get Yo-Yo Ma...
The humans should have known their chances of getting their hands on "unobtanium" were pretty meagre to begin with... :)
The person who buys this is unlikely to use it, but having a typewriter that was an instrument of creation for famous works is like having a guitar played by Hendrix at Woodstock or a pen used to sign the Declaration of Independence.
This typewriter was used for every single book by the author. Pretty amazing!
Computer/typewriter/inkwell/chisel—it's not what it is, it is who used it and for making what and for how long.
I would really love to have one of these songs (I often use musically esoteric materials in my classroom). The article doesn't mention what the music was. Anyone know? From other sources?
Well, if the only way to save the world is for all of us to become Texan Vegetarians, I think I'd rather let the world devolve to Buy N Large and let WALL-E clean it up...
I think that there will always be a need for scholarly authority, which until now has been conferred by reputation of the presenter and/or publishing house and journal.
I do think that things are ripe for change, and have been very influenced and inspired by the "New Metrics of Scholarly Authority" piece from the Chronicle of Higher Education:
http://chronicle.com/free/v53/i41/41b00601.htm
Academic journals will likely end up joining the online world, and the free vs. open model will settle down, but they are unlikely to be obsolete. I am a reviewer and author for several journals, and that is unlikely to change in my lifetime.
I do know that David Pogue uses DNS for all of his writing (NYTimes, books, etc.). He writes about Dragon often, and how he previously used to carry a Windows laptop essentially just for writing.
Many Mac folks, myself included, have installed windows via Fusion or Parallels so that we can run DNS alongside OS X. I have got it working reasonably well, and have been doing all my writing and email via speech for about 6 months. There are still some frustrations, but in general it works great and I'm happy to have it.
The big question I have is whether this version will be better than using DNS via a virtual Windows machine. Unless the implementation is horrible, I'd expect so. Well, reasonably I would expect it to be crappy until a few versions in, but I'll be watching closely for reviews.
I hope they send copies to the Republican candidates who don't believe in evolution... :)
I much prefer CC and use it in my own work frequently. I've contributed to Wikipedia many times, and think this is a great move. It will also boost CC, which deserves all the exposure it can get.
I'd rather have support for old OS versions and a new OS version that has bells and whistles than be plauged by continual support for all things past.
I have a MacBook Pro running Tiger, which I love and will upgrade. I have a G4 Cube (450 Mhz G4) that runs Panther and works more than fine. I regularly get the security updates and keep QuickTime and iTunes updated, and otherwise use it as a server/DVD player/iTunes player, etc. Let old machines keep working without wanting them to play Halo 3 or other unreasonable demands (the Cube is 7 years old).
The first thing I note is that, for an institution as brilliant as MIT to make an error that increases their ranking seems a bit suspicious. Despite the fact that many readers here see little or no purpose to these rankings, they are horribly influential, and the difference reported is substantial. MIT is good enough to be great without cheating.
The second point is that many schools are very careful when examining foriegn test scores because of cheating supported by the government. It is well-known that many countries actively encourage cheating (which helps the students get grants or acceptance). The school where I was had a watch list and would ignore scores outright from many countries. Makes me wonder whether they still reported these suspect high scores as part of their average (I expect they did).
source: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/03/07/050307crmu_music
By the way, this is one of the best articles on ringtones, covering the technical advances from monophonic MIDI to compressed audio, and the impact on the aesthetics of ringtones. I teach a class on music technology, and the first assignment is to have students compose and create their own ringtone (not by ripping from a CD, actually creating their own). I use the New Yorker article to get everyone up to speed on how big ringtones are in the world today.
Most research in the social sciences considers the threshold for statistical significance below .05. Since this is above, few would have confidence that this result is not random chance. So, reporting this result, while informative if you are trained in statistics, is likely misleading to the average reader...
I think that the online tab revolution has been wonderful for amateur musicians all over the world (of course, especially guitarists). I've used the tabs, and I think that it is possible to make the case that this is often a fair use of copyright (though, often, not).
That said, I can understand the music industry has concerns like these:
1. They do sell sheet music, and this practice cuts into their profits. I'm guessing that some revenue-sharing model could work, but that the RIAA/BMG/etc. aren't (yet) interested. In fact, I have actually seen some bands distribute their own tabs (or tabs contributed by fans), which I think is a fantastic idea.
2. The quality of most tab is fair to poor. I teach music and guitar, and I always end up correcting tabs (even chords) for students. On some level, this is OK, but the chunky and too-often incorrect chords can really make a tune sound much worse than it is. If I were an artist and thought everyone was learning some ham-handed version of my tune, I'd probably be a bit pissed.
3. In this copyright-dominated world, it does seem that you risk losing your rights if you don't defend them.
I wish it weren't so. I'm a big fan of Lawrence Lessig, and believe that the stifling of things like OLGA make us less creative as a culture. I also love that there are still amateur musicians out there who want to play music for themselves and their friends for the pleasure of making muisic. I hope a good compromise or capitulation (on part of the music industry) is in the works.
I think the 12" won't debut until the new iBook (MacBook?) is revealed. The current 12" PowerBook is engineered in a very similar way to the iBook, and there have been lots of rumors that the next version will have lots of new bells and whistles (one prominent rumor is that it will have a wide screen.
With the price of gas now (and what it may become, soon) an analysis like this makes senes. It's one thing to imagine saving 3 weeks' time, but it even sounds worse when you put it as, "if you don't change your commute time, you'll have to spend three weeks' worth of extra time driving and pay for the gas out of your own pocket."
Yikes!
The sociologist Howard Becker has written extensively, most clearly in his book "Art Worlds," that to understand creation the locus should be the entire world of the artist, not the artist. We're making a mistake if we try to understand Beethoven's 9th without reference to the culture of Vienna, the rising role of the publishing house, the people who let him live the unfettered (if tortured) life of a creative artist, all play a role alongside the musicians, the promoters, his students, and composers who preceeded him and worked alongside him. That Viennese world, with Beethoven in it, Becker would argue, is the actual producer of the work.
The same holds true for science and other creative endeavors. It's not an airtight thesis, by any means, but it is provocative and gets people thinking along different lines than the unitary individual acting alone as we are so prone to do in the West...
I knew there was something wrong the minute I pulled the power plug on a MacBook at MacWorld. The Apple employee kept trying to plug it back in. I wanted to read what the estimated battery life would be (it displays right on the screen). I told him that I knew this wasn't a final number, but that I wanted to see what it would estimate. I left the cord out for a minute until the reading settled...
It said 2:37 minutes on a full charge.
Then someone invited us to an iSight videoconference and it dropped to 1:50 (still on a full charge).
The employee didn't tell me that these were pre-production, but he did say the unit was still under testing, including all the thermals that control the fan, and that that would really eat battery. He also said that the screen was much brighter and that would eat more power (and he's right, I had my 1.5Ghz PowerBook with me and took it out for comparison. The MacBook looked almost two times brighter to the eye).
I feel pretty confident that they'll get good battery life in the final unit, but it was odd how they skirted the issue instead of simply announcing that these models weren't good predictors of battery life (all the forums were FILLED with just this topic, and even this story carries it forward, where if they had addressed it, the question would be settled--just wait, it will come).
I stopped by the Microsoft booth during MacWorld and asked when support for the Intel Macs would appear. They (experts at the main Office help desk) said that there wouldn't be a MacTel native version until next version of Office is released (i.e. they won't be translating Office 2004 to Universal Binary).
Office will still run on the new Macs under Rosetta, but there could be quite a performance hit. I'm having enough problems with Office running native on my PowerBook as is (strange hangs, etc.). I can only imagine how horrible it could be if, for instance, there are delays in typing.
When I asked if the next version had an expected relase date, they shrugged their shoulders and said, "A year? Maybe two?"
What a pain if we have to wait two years for native MacTel support for Office!
I can't believe that some folks use this as their default browser, but so many do. I constantly see people click an email link and see IE pop up as their default browser (pun intended, as there are always a bunch of pop-up ads unblocked).
I feel a bit sad for them, but it is usually more trouble to get them comfortable with a new browser. I'll make the suggestion, but some folks just don't want to deal with the change.
I don't know it IE is still shipped with Macs, but it will be nice once it is gone and folks are using a more up to date browser.
I have used this archive on archive.org of Dead music with my students. I'm interested in teaching students not only that downloading music can be illegal, but that much content is completely legal (as well as free and open source/Creative Commons, etc.).
The Dead music has one of the clearest statements that non-commercial sharing of their live recordings (save a few dates that were listed in the agreement) is legal, and I like to have my students make a mix CD of great tunes, with liner notes, etc. Fun, legal, and the music is also interesting to talk about.
I was truly disappointed in the news initially, and think that this is an acceptable compromise.
I can't imagine how people would want a device like this. However, maybe iTunes will end up having a Podcast-style interface for video. I can imagine setting preferences so that your computer will download free (maybe with commercials up front) news snippets, sports highlights, and movie trailers (music videos also come to mind, but I'd not be interested).
I'd love to be able to watch short minutes of video while commuting or waiting around. I'd love set iTunes to automatically download all the independent movie trailers, along with local showtimes, giving me a constantly up-to-date set of video clips with not effort to maintain them. I can't imagine wanting to watch a movie on such a small screen. Then again, none of the iPod innovations have made sense to me until I saw them in person (I thought the Mini was horrible, then I saw one and it made perfect sense. Same with the Nano, manufacturing issues aside).
What else would play well on a video iPod?
Although MS Office is fine, I've gotten random crashes lately and the app is sluggish. Maybe it is related to Tiger issues. I have resolved all my font conflicts through FontBook.
I actually have been using TextEdit for quite a lot of writing lately. Once you get the hang of the font menu (customizible though FontBook) and set your preferences, I find it to be a really comfortable solution.
Once my drafts mature (I do a lot of rewriting), I send them over to Office (where I use EndNote), but The simplicity of TextEdit really works for me.
I think that the best thing I've read on this issue lately is an article in the New Yorker by Louis Menand. It is about the historical perspective (TV robbing movies of their dominance, the rise of the blockbuster, etc.).
r at_atlarge
Here's the url:
http://www.newyorker.com/critics/atlarge/?050207c
My favorite quote:
And what is the main cinematic experience? The tickets, including the surcharge for ordering online, cost about the same as the monthly cable bill. A medium popcorn is five dollars; the smallest bottled water is three. The show begins with twenty minutes of commercials, spots promoting the theatre chain, and previews for movies coming out next Memorial Day, sometimes a year from next Memorial Day. The feature includes any combination of the following: wizards; slinky women of few words; men of few words who can expertly drive anything, spectacularly wreck anything, and leap safely from the top of anything; characters from comic books, sixth-grade world-history textbooks, or "Bulfinch's Mythology"; explosions; phenomena unknown to science; a computer whiz with attitude; a brand-name soft drink, running shoe, or candy bar; an incarnation of pure evil; more explosions; and the voice of Robin Williams. The movie feels about twenty minutes too long; the reviews are mixed; nobody really loves it; and it grosses several hundred million dollars.
My single biggest issue these days is the horrible behavior of so many folks at the movies. I went to "The Grudge," a horror movie, and a couple brought their four-year old in, who proceeded to run around the theater for the duration. WTF!
On the other hand, I live near Palo Alto, and the Stanford Theater [stanfordtheater.org] shows old movies, usually long runs around a theme (Bogart, Hitchcock, Romantic Comedies, etc.). They even have an organist play between showings. A $6.00 ticket gets you in to both movies, popcorn and drinks start at $1.00, etc. It really is wonderful.
What is best is that the audiences are great. They're all there becuase of the movie, and they listen. Seeing "Vertigo," on such a big and beautiful screen, and having (warning: spoiler) 800 people gasp when the nun falls off the tower is something that watching at home can't bring.