ottonomy's posterous

Thoughts and notes by Nate Otto too short or incomplete to post (yet) on http://ottonomy.net/blog

URI - It doesn't have to be protocol://server/file

I was thinking about "The Ebook of my Dreams" ( http://acrlog.org/2012/04/18/the-ebook-of-my-dreams/ ). Why is it that we cannot have intertextual linking between ebooks? I think it's mostly because we haven't built universalized an electronic language to code requests in. Instead we have APA format (et al, lol).

HTTP Universal Resource Indicators let users access information with reference to the server (IP address or domain) and by passing a coded request to that server in whatever format that server will usefully respond to. 

Circulatory System's world stores and accesses data with reference to location/time. 

I think another useful method would be producer/title

What is the most universal Resource Indicator? What matters is what can be accessed via each method. 

I like the way domains work. The DNS registries record and distribute the information about how domains should resolve. There is a built-in network of trusted authorities. We can rebuild such a network to respond to different types of requests. 

TSA

There has been a video making the viral rounds claiming that the TSA scanners will miss an item stashed at the side of your body: A techdirt story clarifies that this is old news and probably exaggerated: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120308/03020318032/slow-down-tsa-lynch-mob-that-naked-scanner-expose-video-is-exaggerated-old-news.shtml

In fact, TSA is probably unlikely to miss something at your side. In PDX last week, they double checked a bit of fabric on my outdoorsy pants side that was just 3 thin empty pockets stacked up--about three layers of pocket-liner fabric thicker than the rest of the pants.

MPAA Boss Chris Dodd slams Google over legislation (PROTECT IP & SOPA)

He suggests that companies opposing the legislation may view it differently if they were confronted with the rampant piracy facing Hollywood.

Google "recently bought Motorola, with 700 patents," Dodd says. "If you can find patents on the Internet, maybe you ought to be able to steal it. Copyright is a limited right, patent is an unlimited right. But maybe people ought to have access to those patents. Maybe that ought to happen."

via variety.com

This article details how former Senator and current MPAA Chairman Chris Dodd thinks the US should be able to censor websites like China can. He says to Google here, that if patents were so easy to exploit like the MPAA's movies, maybe Google would care enough about the piracy the MPAA suffers from to support DNS blocks, advertising cutoffs, etc.

Except, patents exist so that people do publish their innovations to (eventually) contribute them to the public good instead of hoarding them secretly. In return they get a monopoly right to exploit the detailed innovation for a limited time. What is Dodd talking about here? Exploiting a patent that is still in force is not a matter of being able to find a file on the Internet. Patents are freely published by definition. Sometimes they are infringed, but cutting off access to looking at the patent records wouldn't help in the least. Is he arguing that the law is allowing movie piracy to occur by not censoring websites that link to files at the DNS level? Today, content owners don't even need a court order to get content taken down-- just filing a DMCA takedown notice is enough to get most user-generated content taken down on Youtube or Rapidshare. Patent infringement at least still requires a court decision.

Limited vs. unlimited right? What does this even mean? As far as I can figure out, both are limited in different ways. Specifically patents are limited to far less time than copyrights, for one example.

Also see Techdirt's comment on this story: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111208/14521817014/mpaa-boss-if-chinese-ce...

HADOPI Says: Let’s Try Cutting off Nose to Spite Face | Media Piracy in Emerging Economies | A Report by the Social Science Research Council

If–as I’ll argue at more length in a subsequent post–we’re in a mostly zero-sum market in which consumers are maxed out on discretionary media expenditures, then enforcement won’t significantly expand but at best just cannibalize one media sector for another.
via piracy.ssrc.org

In a story about another study confirming people who pirate media also spend money on media.

The future of 'future of the book' articles.

http://m.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/oct/07/back-to-future-fiction?ca...

m.guardian.co.uk http://m.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/oct/07/back-to-future-fiction?ca...

One writer noticed that reading is what most people use their Kindles and tablets for. But this isn't a turning back toward books. They were always there. Now what if eBook publishers did as much price experimentation as Valve does with Steam (realizing huge real revenue increases for their digital goods at deepest markdowns).

I really appreciate technologies that are making the written word more elegantly accessible, and the Kindle is one of them. I don't need the world to make my text interactive all of the time. We haven't explored the scope of what linear text can do, so prose and all its friends aren't done yet. I also am totally satisfied with 2d movies. Kids, get off my lawn, eh? Is it significant that while I want to make revenue from selling copies ofwriting, I think the market is overpricing my trade?

The future of 'future of the book' articles.

http://m.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/oct/07/back-to-future-fiction?ca...

m.guardian.co.uk http://m.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/oct/07/back-to-future-fiction?ca...

One writer noticed that reading is what most people use their Kindles and tablets for. But this isn't a turning back toward books. They were always there. Now what if eBook publishers did as much price experimentation as Valve does with Steam (realizing huge real revenue increases for their digital goods at deepest markdowns).

I really appreciate technologies that are making the written word more elegantly accessible, and the Kindle is one of them. I don't need the world to make my text interactive all of the time. We haven't explored the scope of what linear text can do, so prose and all its friends aren't done yet. I also am totally satisfied with 2d movies. Kids, get off my lawn, eh? Is it significant that while I want to make revenue from selling copies ofwriting, I think the market is overpricing my trade?

Email your Congressman to investigate the police brutality at the Jefferson Memorial

I just sent my representative a quick message in response to the arrest of Iraq war veteran and talk show host Adam Kokesh. You could send a message to yours: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

You may have heard of an incident yesterday at the Jefferson Memorial where police violently arrested people for "dancing" without letting them know what law they were violating. I believe preventing people from assembling in a public place is a violation of their First Amendment rights. I urge you to investigate this incident and hold a hearing in an appropriate congressional committee.

You can watch video of this incident here: