...will he ever win?
Find out the details on this huge event.
January 06, 2009 02:07 AM
So, I had so much very, very rich food last night, that I was exhausted. The more chemical energy in food, the more it makes you tired. Because our bodies are oppositeland.
Anyway, while I was tired, I thought of this trick: write down everything that comes to mind when you're exhausted, or depressed, or otherwise not at your best. Every subject matter that remains interesting at those times.
Then, when you're feeling better, go through that same list. Are those thoughts that are so native to you that you just fall into them easily? Do they represent you at your laziest? Or are they just very familiar and comforting to you?
Consider whether you want to keep those thoughts in your life.
But I haven't actually done this, because apparently that was one of those thoughts.
January 06, 2009 02:06 AM
Download | Play Download | Play It probably goes without saying that I avidly support appointing Latinos to key positions within the Obama administration, but I've always been hesitant about Bill Richardson. Not only is it well known behind the Democratic scenes that he has certain horndoggy vulnerabilities in his personal life, but he's always carried a certain air of corruptibility peculiar to Western politicians. I know that scent well and it always made me leery. So I can't say I'm sorry to see him bow out, because my gut instinct was that he spelled T-R-O-U-B-L-E for Democrats generally and the Obama Administration in particular. His press conference today did nothing to alter that impression, especially when he flatly refused to discuss the investigation into the influence-peddling matter and wouldn't even say whether or not he had lawyered up. It all smells very fishy to me. Note that Richardson wants us to think he had been perfectly forthcoming with the Obama transition team about the case. Turns out that's not true either. I'm just glad all this happened before confirmation hearings arrived.
January 06, 2009 02:00 AM
I'm excited to announce that I'll be lecturing at the Rice University School of Architecture in Houston, Texas, in only two days' time, kicking off their Spring 2009 lecture series.
[Image: View larger].
I've clearly got some very large shoes to fill with this series, however, as I've been lined up with everyone from Beatriz Colomina and Cynthia Davidson to Reinhold Martin and Felicity D. Scott. Stan Allen, Juan Herreros, Richard Ingersoll, Pier Vittorio Aureli, Michael Weinstock, Peter Trummer – it looks like a fantastic series.
For my own part, I think I've got a great talk planned – called "Cities Gone Wild" – expanding from the lecture I gave back in November, sponsored by the Complex Terrain Laboratory, at University College, London.
This talk begins at 5pm on Wednesday, January 7; it's free and open to the public; and it will take place in Anderson Hall.
I don't know how many readers BLDGBLOG has in Houston – or, for that matter, at Rice – but I'd love to see some of you there. And please introduce yourselves, too, as I love meeting new people.
Also, at the end of my talk I hope to address the more general subject of blogging, if for no other reason than I can guarantee that there are students enrolled at Rice right now – and people living in Houston – who have something interesting to say and simply need a new platform from which to say it. I'd be happy to talk about establishing a blog and so on, as that's not a topic I've much addressed throughout all of these talks.
Finally, I'll be doing thesis reviews at the architecture department all day on Thursday and Friday, so if you happen to be enrolled in the courses I'll be visiting, then cool. I look forward to meeting you!
And come out to the talk – it should be fun.
January 06, 2009 01:34 AM
hey, nobody told me the GHC peopel switched to git
January 06, 2009 01:31 AM
Over the holidays, video hosting site Veoh won another victory under the DMCA safe harbors, this time against Universal Music Group (UMG). The ruling should put to rest the argument that transcoding and other activities necessary for making content accessible on the web are not covered by the DMCA's Section 512(c) safe harbor for storing material on behalf of users (i.e., hosting user-generated content). This is good news not just for Veoh, but also for YouTube and every other site that hosts material uploaded by users.
Like many other companies that host content on behalf of users, Veoh has been bedeviled by copyright lawsuits. The copyright owners make the same argument in each of these suits: the hosting service should be liable for every infringing bit uploaded by naughty users and responsible for the full cost of policing for infringement. Fortunately, Congress enacted the DMCA's safe harbor provisions back in 1998 to protect service providers from exactly these risks, offering immunity from copyright damages to those who implement a notice-and-takedown system. In August 2008, Veoh won a big victory against adult video purveyor Io Group, relying on these provisions.
Veoh's latest victory was against UMG, which sued Veoh because Veoh users allegedly uploaded UMG music videos without authorization. The issue before the court was whether the DMCA safe harbor for hosting only covers the actual act of storing bits on a server, or whether it also covers related activities, such as:
- automatically transcoding video files uploaded by users into Flash format;
- automatically creating copies of uploaded video files that are comprised of smaller “chunks” of the original file;
- allowing users to access uploaded videos via streaming;
- allowing users to access uploaded videos by downloading whole video files.
Relying on the statutory language, as well as the legislative history, the court concluded that all of these activities are covered by the DMCA Section 512(c) safe harbor. Lots of online service providers will greet this ruling with relief. If the court had accepted UMG's arguments, every web host would lose the safe harbor as soon as it made web pages available to the public. The ruling should also help YouTube in its ongoing battle with Viacom, which also turns on the continuing strength of the DMCA safe harbors.
But the Veoh ruling also points out a surprising irony: while YouTube and Viacom are fighting their interminable litigation trench war, many interesting DMCA legal questions are being resolved in smaller, faster-moving cases involving companies like Veoh. At this rate, the highly-anticipated Viacom v. YouTube lawsuit may end up a footnote in the legal fights that define the rules governing user-generated content.
January 06, 2009 01:29 AM
Today, Chief Judge Vaughn Walker of the United States District Court in San Francisco denied the government's third motion to dismiss the Al-Haramain v. Bush litigation. The ruling means that the case can proceed and the court also set up a process to allow the Al Haramain plaintiffs to prosecute the case while protecting classified information.
Al-Harmain Islamic Foundation, the Oregon chapter of an Islamic charity, sued the Bush Administration for the illegal surveillance of the organization and its attorneys as part of the NSA warrantless wiretapping program. The case was based on a secret document that was inadvertently disclosed by the government that, according to the plaintiffs, demonstrates that they were subjected to unlawful electronic surveillance outside the scope of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
In late 2007, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that despite the disclosure, the "Sealed Document" itself was a state secret, but sent the case back to the District Court to determine whether the FISA law nonetheless allowed the case to go forward, under a doctrine called "preemption." Last summer, the Court had ruled that FISA does preempts the state secrets privilege, and gave Al-Haramain the right to amend its complaint to show that they were "aggrieved persons" within the meaning of FISA through evidence other than the Sealed Document. If they could do so, the case could proceed.
In today's ruling, the Court held that in their amended complaint the Al-Haramain plaintiffs had presented sufficient evidence that they were "aggrieved persons" and rejected the Government's claims to the contrary, saying: "Without a doubt, plaintiffs have alleged enough to plead 'aggrieved persons' status so as to proceed to the next step in proceedings . . ."
In order to allow litigation to proceed while keeping the secrets under wraps, the Court ordered the government to arrange security clearances for Al-Haramain's attorneys. The Court also ordered the government to allow Judge Walker to review the Sealed Document in his chambers by January 19th. Finally, the Court required the government to review the classified submissions in the case, and declassify as much as possible. The Court will schedule a hearing later this month to plan next steps.
January 06, 2009 01:23 AM
Ryan over at GamerBytes has a pretty awesome pair of articles on the top selling games on XBLA (here) and PSN (here).
I recommend them. Here's a quote I particularly liked:
From various sources we can see that despite some quality games coming out from smaller developers, like RooGoo and Shred Nebula, they're not selling. They can't get their name out there, and nobody is taking the time to give these games a go. Go and have a look at the US PlayStation blog - they have done a fantastic job allowing smaller developers, like the people behind high Velocity Bowling, PAIN, SuperSonic Automatic Rocket Powered Battle Cars and NovaStrike to speak directly to the community and give them a chance to convince the people. Interviews with Major Nelson are nice, but that's not enough.
Of all the stuff Sony's screwed up in the past couple of years, the PS Blog is one of their triumphs. I don't read it a lot, but they do a decent job of keeping true exclusive announcements for themselves. That increases visibility and readership tremendously, I'd imagine.
Anyway, the articles are a decent read.
Disclosure: I have written pro bono for GamerBytes and the parent company (Think Services) also owns Gamasutra, for whom I write monthly.
January 06, 2009 01:22 AM
This may be a case of unintended consequences. The NRK, Norway's national broadcasting service has scored permission from the country's music rights holders to release podcasts of any programs that it's done that are less than 70 percent music. A notable component of the NRK's collection is a series of broadcasts that includes the entire Beatles catalog.
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January 06, 2009 01:16 AM
