SuBBrilliant Blog

I’m a little behind on this one, but at the end of 2007 President Bush signed into law the Open Government Act of 2007.

According to the EFF this law will make it easier to access government information in ways like:

* Ensuring that freelance and alternative journalists are considered representatives of the media, making it less expensive for them to get information from the government.
* Providing for attorney fees when a requester’s lawsuit prompts an agency to change its position on a request, even if a court doesn’t order it.

* Creating a tracking system to help make sure that FOIA requests don’t become hopelessly tangled in red tape.
* Establishing the Office of Government Information Services, which will be tasked with helping to resolve conflicts between agencies and requesters.
* Penalizing agencies that don’t process FOIA requests on time.
* Making it clear that requesters can get government records maintained by private contractors, not just the agencies themselves.
* Imposing greater reporting requirements to let Congress and the public know more about how agencies handle requests.

Read the full release from the EFF here and the text of the legislation is available here.

In honor of the idea that copyright should expire after 14 years, I’ve dedicated the 1993 articles of the SuBBrilliant News archive into the public domain.

The 1993 issues were printed and distributed on paper, originally in Champaign-Urbana and then after July in Austin, Texas. They were also sold as a collection in the late 1990s at the FringeWare Book Store in Austin. (Ahh FringeWare. How I miss you.)

Anyway, 14 years is what the old copyright law used to be and what one study says the optimal term of copyright should be. In support of that notion, I’m making the text of the original 1993 issues public domain. I’d make the images PD too, except they were all clip artIstole, so I probably don’t have the right to do so.

You can find the archive here.

I probably won’t make 1994 Public Domain, as I can’t freakin’ find any of those stories. They were written up in email and distributed from my CCSI email account. That account is long gone as are the stories sent through it.But if you do find any of them, (One was about Santa and Jerry Garcia as I recall) by all means consider them yours to do with what you will. Just drop me a line if you would. I’d love to see them again.

Give me enough time off and I’ll go off and do something silly. Like attempt to re-write A Christmas Carol in a modern-day setting.

But if there is enough time after that, I’ll circle back to doing something halfway more reasonable.

And so, I present to you the Buzz Town Wiki

This is our own Wiki for the people of Buzz Town. Here we can create bios for the various citizens of Buzz Town (without risk of violating notability standards), document organizations like TM Analysts, Buzz Air and Space Command, etc.

I’ve seeded it with a few articles, but I encourage you to jump in and add your own. Even add yourself. If we get more than 20 active editors we can graduate from a scratchpad mini wiki to real full-fledged Wikia Wiki just like Wookiepedia. And isn’t that what every Wiki dreams of?

So what do you say Shalin? Dave the psychologist? Tripp? (Are you alive Tripp?) Let’s get some articles on DRM, Perception of difficulty, the chance we’re a simulation, and anything else that strikes your fancy — and relates to Buzz Town.

Maybe even a map!

Russ Pitts, former Half Price Books Computer Section Manager, Head of Insomnia Productions, Producer of SuBBrilliant TV, writer for SuBBrilliant News, and one-time Line Producer of The Screen Savers, wrote a long, involved, insightful reminscence of his years at TechTV.

This paragraph sums it up:

I laugh now when I hear the phrase Web 2.0, not because I think it’s an inherently stupid concept (it isn’t), but because back when Web 1.0 was barely in its adolescence, The Screen Savers was already pushing the envelope, stretching that bitch at the seams and wanting more. So we created TV 2.0, in which you were part of the show, and even if you never called in, never logged in or sent in an email, watching other people do so, you knew that you could. You knew that we cared. Because we did. It was all for you. Yes, we were having the fucking time of our lives, but we were doing it for you, because we’d been there on the other end of that TV screen thinking nobody understood why these things were so important to us, and we knew how lonely it could be. And we wanted you to know you weren’t alone.

Thanks for that Russ. I mean it. It makes me even more proud to have worked there to have it expressed that way.

Read the whole thing at FalseGravity.com.

I started playing around with Ancestry.com, which is a fascinating site for genealogical research. They have tons of primary sources from several countries, including census reports, marriage records, etc. I even found a scan of my Great Grandfather’s World War I draft registration card, in his own handwriting.

One cool feature is the ability to import other people’s trees if you share an ancestor. This can make quick work of tracing some lines. I was able to trace a line form my Father’s Mother back to King Edward of England. In fact, once you can do a neat trick like that, you can take advantage of some enterprising folks tress that include the genealogies of the middle ages.

Back then, any noble worth his salt tried to trace his line back to Roman Emperors. And of course Roman Emperors traced THEIR lines through Alexander the Great to Hercules and thus to the gods.

All of this means, I’m descended from Zeus, and here’s the breadcrumb trail to prove it. Click on the thumbnail to get the full image.

OK.  Everybody seems to be back on the Flock bandwagon, so I’m giving it a whirl. I wish they had a wizard for setting up all your accounts, though the setup is pretty easy.  Let’s see how this blog posting works.

Blogged with Flock

Tags: browser

Veronica Belmont has graciously allowed me to help her start a science fictiona and fantasy book club called The Sword and Laser. Our first book will be ‘The Golden Compass’ by Philip Pullman (also known as Northern Lights outside the US… why do they do that?). So if you’re into swords and/or lasers, pop on by and join us.

The American Freedom Agenda caught my eye today. They are fighting for legislation returning the rights and freedoms that the current President has either eroded or removed. These include issues like habeus corpus, the right of journalists to report, a ban on torture, an end to the practice of signing statements to exempt yourself from the law, and more. This is essential to whatever candidate next holds the Presidency. If we are to avoid a dictatorship, the erosion of liberties must stop.

I purchased a Deep Space Nine video a long time ago as part of the Google Video store. Today I got this email stating that Google was ending its program and I would no longer be able to watch my video after August 15. Google was nice enough to give me a credit of $2 towards other stuff, but still. This is going to bring another round of people around to the understanding of why DRM is crap, and we need a better way.

Here’s the email:

Hello,

As a valued Google user, we're contacting you with some important
information about the videos you've purchased or rented from Google Video.
In an effort to improve all Google services, we will no longer offer the
ability to buy or rent videos for download from Google Video, ending the
DTO/DTR (download-to-own/rent) program. This change will be effective
August 15, 2007.

To fully account for the video purchases you made before July 18, 2007, we
are providing you with a Google Checkout bonus for $2.00. Your bonus
expires in 60 days, and you can use it at the stores listed here:
http://www.google.com/checkout/signupwelcome.html. The minimum purchase
amount must be equal to or greater than your bonus amount, before shipping
and tax.

After August 15, 2007, you will no longer be able to view your purchased
or rented videos.

If you have further questions or requests, please do not hesitate to
contact us. Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

The Google Video Team

This is the final part of the novel Boiling Point, a novel, read on MP3.You can purchase a print copy of Boiling Point at LuLu.com.