Journal: News & Comment

Links of interest (2004-03-11):

Permalinks to this entry: individual page or in monthly context. For more material from my journal, visit my home page or the archive.

• "And so if we don't... purchase a licence to your excrement... you're going to sue us." (The best analogy yet for the SCO lawsuit against IBM and others over the Linux operating system—thanks, Barc.)
  
  
• "A lithium-ion battery provides 300-500 discharge/charge cycles. The battery prefers a partial rather than a full discharge. Frequent full discharges should be avoided when possible. Instead, charge the battery more often or use a larger battery." (Via MNJ—and see my post from a year ago.)
  
  
• "For fat opera singers, much of the 20th century was a golden age when voice was everything."
  
  
• Disneyland hires professional signpainters for almost all the park's signs (via Dave Shea). Here in Vancouver, some businesses continue to see benefits of this handcrafted approach—if you look closely at the trolleys used in Stanley Park's horse tours, for instance, you can see that they have been exquisitely hand-decorated. My friend Tara and her father did most of the work, although their main income now comes from painting movie sets. Since many signs are unique to their locations, hand-painted signage is one area where mass production still doesn't rule.
  
  
• "...curiously, there's [...] a deafening cultural silence around the Beatles. Despite being one of the most influential recording acts in history, the Beatles do not allow their music to be sampled. Even if they did, the largesse that licensing and other fees demands would make their music far too pricey for most artists to use, a trend that has mirrored in licensing for film and television. (Ever wonder why there's so much indie rock in commercials and movies? You've got your answer.) And the Beatles aren't the only act; the collusion of exorbinant fees and copyright censure has made many of the musicians with the loudest cultural resonance into those whose music is only heard today as an echo from the past." (Via Creative Commons.)

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