Posts by Brett Cammack

US music publishers sue online lyrics sites

Has anybody ever...

actually attempted to purchase the sheet music for a song they liked?? Something from a successful songwriter who isn't that well known outside of the industry? (like Guy Clark, fr'instance)

The industry association sounds like the little boy who dug a hole in the back yard and is crying because he can't bring it into the house with him.

If this is so egregious, why don't they come up with some sort of "iTunes" site where I can pay a dollar or two and download a pdf of the sheet music for a song for the instrument and key of my choosing? The software is certainly possible to do that.

Instead, they try to sue some people who are attempting to fill a need that they've failed miserably to satisfy themselves. If they're too clueless to successfully monetize these assets, why punish someone else?

Firefox 3.5 - it's not a 'web upgrade'

My Logitech mouse

obeys the config where the center-button maps to a double-click EXCEPT IN FIREFOX 3.5 where it insists on turning the cursor into that double-arrow-circle dohicky that irritates me.

I looked for a config setting in Firefox with no success. I really don't care for software that presumes what is best for me.

V-22 Osprey combo-copter hits fresh tech snags

A victim of requirements

The Osprey was a very good concept before they demanded that it be able to take off and fly on one engine. That added an order of magnitude more complexity to the design as well as weight, cost, fragility, etc.

Asus 8.9in Eee PC surfaces

Infatuation

"Asus Eee PC 701 and friend: bigger model imminent"

I presume that is referring to the laptop. The persistent reuse of that photo is approaching the "Generalissimo Fransisco Franco Is Still Dead!" level of abuse.

EU wants RFID tags turned off

Sheesh

Firstly, shouldn't you all have your knickers in a knot about being subjected to all the RF needed to trigger a response from an RFID tag instead of the possibility of overlooking one of the little buggers when you ready your purchases for first use? Or has all the RF from your cell phones already impaired your brain function?

Nobody is going to bother serializing the entire universe of tubes of Crest just so they can identify exactly which one you bought. The expense of creating unique RFID tags and then recording the serialized history of a product in that fashion would far outweigh any perceivable marketing benefits. It's just got the product's SKU encoded in it.

There's a whole shit-load of privacy and civil-liberty issues you really should be concerned about. Not trivial b.s. like this.

Hand-wringing by the ignorant.

What the Hell do people think an RFID tag is?? It's nothing more than a passive transmitter of a unique code, just like a UPC label is a unique code for a particular brand and type of toothpaste. You take your product with the RFID tag, remove it from the box and discard the box/wrapper/tags and the RFID tag goes with them.

People act like they're going to be running around like tagged polar bears or something with a blip on a government screen tracking their location in real-time.

"Just because you're paranoid doesn't necessarily mean that nobody's out to get you, but there's no reason to be ridiculous about it, either." - Anon

Die for Gaia, save the planet?

Are they volunteering?

Sounds like it's only a matter of time before there is a "Society For Creative Euthanasia" that takes matters into their own hands.

"GENE POLICE!! YOU!!! OUT OF THE POOL! NOW!!"