Rob Galbraith DPI: Complete model releases on the iPhone with Easy Release.
“Washington, DC-based photographer Robert Giroux has co-developed an app for the iPhone and iPod touch that enables model releases, with signature, to be completed right on the device.” Now THAT will encourage me to get an iPhone or Touch. Model releases are a pain in the butt, more necessary than ever. This is BRILLIANT.
Hemmings Auto Blogs: Gas-Saving Gadgets and Gimmicks, part 1.
USA Today: Toyota could face criminal charges related to safety recalls.
Guardian.UK: Libel tourism is a public health risk.
“Libel laws have good reason to exist — to stop irresponsible reporting. However, British laws so favour one side they are used to intimidate journalists in other countries — ‘libel tourism.’ A US citizen can write for a US paper and be called up before courts here.” Laws that reach beyond borders ... lovely. As if we don’t have enough libel/liability problems here in the US already.
ars technica: Plans for .xxx top-level domain pop up again.
“The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will reconsider the top-level domain during a meeting in Kenya this week, nearly three years after it was shot down and nine years after it was first introduced as a way to identify pornography sites and hopefully confine them to their own Internet red-light district.”
Slate: Apple’s multitouch lawsuit is both dumb and dangerous.
“Patents are meant to protect inventions, not ideas. This is a crucial distinction: Two inventors may have the same idea — Hey, I just came up with an automatic bagel maker! — but if one of them uses ropes and pulleys to make bagels while the other uses space-age robotics, they’ve got two different inventions. The underlying idea—a machine to make bagels — can’t be protected under the law.”
CNN: Texas police warn spring breakers: Stay out of Mexico border towns.
”Recent violent attacks have caused the U.S. Embassy to urge U.S. citizens to delay unnecessary travel to parts of Michoacan, Durango, Coahuila and Chihuahua ... and to advise U.S. citizens residing or traveling in those areas to exercise extreme caution.” The situation’s not stellar at the moment, so listen to this advice.
CNet: ‘Mission Impossible’-style heist hits N.J. Best Buy.
Apple inspires excessive enthusiasm, perhaps?
The Nation: Back Talk: Martha C. Nussbaum.
“Disgust, though, is different because it has this singular type of irrationality. It’s not noncognitive; it has an idea. But the idea repudiates some aspect of ourselves. It embodies a kind of self-loathing.”
ars technica: Why we tweaked our copyright notice.
Of interest to those concerned about meta-usage.
Gizmodo: Apple Sues HTC For Infringing On 20 iPhone Patents.
“Apple’s asking for a permanent injunction, which would bar HTC from importing or selling phones here that use these patents, along with triple damages with maximum interest (read: a lot of money). As you can see, some of the patents are fairly broad, like “unlocking a device by performing gestures on an unlock image,” which seems to cover like every touchscreen phone ever.” Here’s to open technologies, kids.
The Atlantic: Paying Taxes: So Easy, a Caveman Can Do It.
”What if paying taxes were as easy as paying your credit card statement? That would be ... well, much easier! And it would be the future if Congress took up Sens. Ron Wyden and Judd Gregg’s new tax reform plan, which in addition to dramatically changing the tax code by eliminating subsidies and tripling the standard deduction, would also give the IRS the ability the send taxpayers a one-page statement to review and sign — just like you get in the mail from your credit card company.”
The Hollywood Reporter: Studio must pay for destroying Jesus Christ.
Copyright catastrophe. Like I’ve maintained for a while, eventually all travel photography will be dead as a stone, because those picturesque nomads, compelling antiquities and ancient archaeological sites will be protected by the internet and attorneys. The Pyramids are going to be copyrighted, for instance.
Miller-McCune: Will The Past Last In The Digital Age?
“Once upon a time, news stories were entombed in newspaper “morgues” and rarely saw the dusty light of day. Now the news never dies. Millions of people can search the archives online — an amazing benefit unless, perhaps, you’re someone who was actually in the news.”
CNet: Facebook eats up patents for the ‘feed’.
“Can I start screaming loudly about patent reform now?” Seems a little late, if you ask me.
The Nation: Big Tobacco and the Historians
“On the stand Proctor began to explain racism in tobacco marketing. He started to say that the companies had marketed products called Nigger-Head Tobacco and Nigger-Hair Tobacco — brands that existed as late as the 1960s. But a Philip Morris attorney, objecting that Proctor had injected racial slurs into the courtroom, demanded a mistrial — and got it. The judge ruled that Proctor’s utterance of those words was ‘prejudicial.’” Revisionist history through litigation. Disgusting.
CommonDreams.org: Cracking Down on Fracking.
“There is virtually no federal oversight of fracking, leaving the budget-strapped states to do the job with a patchwork of disparate regulations. They are no match for the major, multinational drilling and energy companies that are exploiting the political goal of ‘energy independence.’” Demand real Federal oversight of fracking fluids. Otherwise you’ll be able to light up your tap water, too. Thanks, Linda!
Creep me out.
New Scientist: Newborns’ blood used to build secret DNA database.
Discover Magazine: Augmented Reality iPhone App Can Identify Strangers on the Street.
Mashable: Google Adds Facebook Pages to Real-time Search. That’s not the bad part; read the last paragraph: “Still, Google’s stream doesn’t include public Facebook profiles, something only rival search engine Bing can access.” A lot of people still can’t figure out Facebook’s privacy settings. Time to walk your friends, relatives and children through it.
IEEE Spectrum: Toyota Says It Is No Longer Sure Of All The Causes of Runaway Cars.
Guardian.UK: Thousands of authors opt out of Google book settlement.
“Authors who did not wish their books to be part of Google’s revised settlement needed to opt out before 28 January, in advance of last week’s ruling from Judge Denny Chin over whether to allow Google to go ahead with its divisive plans to digitise millions of books. The judge ended up delaying his ruling, after receiving more than 500 written submissions, but court documents related to the case show that more than 6,500 authors, publishers and literary agents have opted out of the settlement.” It’s all about control, and who has it.
Atlantic/Business: What You Need to Know About Today’s Credit Card Rule Changes.
“Remember way back last spring when Congress changed the rules that credit card companies must follow? Most of those changes take effect today.”
Missoulian: Law allowing guns in national parks takes effect Monday
“If you are armed, use a firearm only as a last resort. Wounding a bear, even with a large-caliber gun, can put you in far greater danger.” Even a black bear can soak up an entire revolver load of .357 Magnum and keep on coming, when it’s angry. The griz rescue shelter folks I met up in Montana said two generous cans of pepper spray. One on the belt, one on the chest for quick grabbing. Know the range of the spray, and immolate the grizz.
Rob Galbraith DPI: PhotoShelter to add PicScout IRC image licensing technology.
“PicScout, the worldwide standard for image credit, information, and commerce, and PhotoShelter, the leader in websites and online tools for serious photographers, today announced a partnership to automatically include PhotoShelter photographers’ images in the PicScout ImageIRC™ (index, registry and connection platform). This partnership gives individual photographers access to the same powerful PicScout technology used by major image libraries worldwide, enabling them to connect with more image buyers and ensure critical metadata remains accessible to image users anywhere online.”
Maximum PC: Apple Files Patent for OS Embedded Advertising.
“The operating system is configured to present one or more of the advertisements to users of the computer device. In some implementations, the operating system can disable one or more functions during the presentation of the advertisements and then enable the function(s) in response to the advertisements ending. That is, the operating system can disable some aspect of its operation to prompt the operator to pay attention to the advertisement.” Turn it around, perhaps Apple doesn’t want *anyone* doing it? Taking the rather ugly option off the table? Trying to be optimistic, here.
NewWest.Net: New Rules Put Organic Dairy Cows Out to Pasture.
“… it’s not just dairies that will have to change their ways. Organic meat producers will have to do the same—120 days of pasture and at least 30 percent of the animals’ diets coming from pasture during the grazing season. The new rules go into effect in June and producers have a year to comply.”
