Google Geekiness

January 21st, 2003

The problem: the Googlebot, though a frequent visitor to my site, still trails behind this site’s daily updates.

The symptoms: users who come from Google may find the search terms Google said were on this page have been swept off to the archives.

The prescription: a nifty little bit of code now intercepts search queries from Google and more than 200 other search engines, directing those surfers to the final resting place of the query.

For a demo, go to Google and search for "dick defragging" (note quotes.) Ignore the first listing — that’s the permanent page — and click the second. Note what happens. Cool, huh? (OK. Cool [if you’re a total nerd], huh?)

The End of Eldred

January 20th, 2003

The decision has come down in Eldred v. Ashcroft, and the Supremes have ruled with Congress. The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, which prevented any copyrights from expiring through 2018, has been left in force. As a result, creative works remain under control for a period equal to an author’s life plus 70 years or, in the case of works for hire, a 95 year term. Some note Congress has extended the term of existing copyrights 11 times in the last 40 years, so there is little reason to expect that any copyrights will ever expire in the future.

Until 1976, the average copyright term in the United States was 32.2 years (the maximum term was 56 years, but 85% failed to renew their copyright after 28 years). In the last forty years, that term has tripled — every single work copyrighted today will remain copyrighted for an average of at least 90 years. — Doc’s diagnosis

That’s bad news, and it’s bad law. As much as “content owners” would have us believe that intellectual “property” is just like tangible property, it simply isn’t. If I take your chair, you have no chair. If I sing your song, you’re deprived of nothing — except perhaps license fees, which come not from anything you’ve done, but from society’s agreement to respect your work. That bargain should provide at least some benefit for the rest of us, rather than just give assignees the right to charge for public performances of “Happy Birthday” for 150 years.

As always, Larry Lessig is on the case with an excellent proposal to balance copyright owners’ needs with those of the public. It’s highly worthy of discussion — and implementation.

Livin’ La Vida Vegas

January 19th, 2003

Yes, that’s right. I spent this week’s silent period in Las Vegas with my good friend Mr. Jon Pech. Let me just summarize our three days there by saying: it rocked.

We flew in early Tuesday and got taken for a ride by cabbie Steven Schwartz. After arriving at our hotel, The Stratosphere, we checked in, dumped our stuff and wandered around the 80,000 square foot casino. We agreed it was just a little intimidating to jump right in, so we decided we would go for a cheap lunch, on the advice of my friend Jesse:

You can get a hot dog the size of your arm for a buck at Slots of Fun, but it is a trashy place.

How right he was. The mammoth ½ pound hot dog (a bit bland and salty) was $1.29 (better: the ¾ pound version next door at WeHo for 20¢ more) and the crowd was a morose bunch. Still, we were by then itching to get in some action so we started to play slots. My second machine displayed “Credit: 125” after I inserted just one coin, so I followed Pech‘s advice (“Cash out, dude! Cash out!”) and officially had my first profit in Vegas.

From S-a-F, we moved up the Strip to the better places, stopping first at Westward Ho to enjoy a 99¢ 27oz. margarita (while waiting, I found another unplayed $1.25 in the machine at the bar) and then the Stardust, where we met Kimberly, the slightly trashy dealer whose job was to teach players any game they wanted to learn (from 10-6, not counting frequent breaks.) After some craps instruction, we played with fake money — and lost. I asked Kimberly why she was doing instruction and she said she was being “punished” for her “potty mouth.” There’s a shock. But look for Kimberly in your local Blockbuster soon; she’s working to put together an instructional video. Maybe it will have an uncut version.

Soon we hit the more impressive, storied casinos that make up the southern end of the Strip. I had my first comped drink at The Venetian, my favorite casino. (Check out a QuickTime VR movie [from here] of the shops upstairs. Yes, it’s indoors.) The Venetian was also the only place I played table games. I expected to try out a little BlackJack at several other places, but it was not to be. Perhaps because I lost my ass.

On the second day, we decided that trekking the 2.4 miles from our hotel to the good casinos was just not going to stand. So we rented a 2003 Mustang GT convertible. One of the nice things about the car (which was never driven with the top up) was that it lacked a ‘rental’ marking of any kind. There were no stickers or anything, just temporary dealer plates. The resulting impression was that we not only owned the car, we’d just bought it.

Fellow drivers in two states were subjected to that illusion when we cruised out to the Hoover Dam and dipped our collective toe in Arizona by stopping at a rather freaky gift shop that sold used license plates and Ding Dongs individually wrapped in tinfoil. Then it was time to zip back to LV to cruise the glittering Strip at night, while also giving impromptu acceleration clinics (gray Hyundai, if you read this: what were you thinking?)

The car gave us the chance to view at street level what we saw from 1,100 feet on the Strat‘s roller coaster. Even better, having the top down meant we could hear when some (fairly attractive, fully drunk) girls yelled out to us: “Hey guys! Stop, stop!” (Pech: “What a day for you to be gay.”)

It also of course allowed us to drop top and roll out to any casino, since all of them had free parking. So that we did, and often. In fact, when all was said and done, we visited some 23 casinos (Bally’s; Bellagio; Caesar’s Palace; Casino Royale; Circus Circus; Excalibur; Flamingo; Harrah’s; The Luxor; Mandalay Bay; MGM Grand; Mirage; Monte Carlo; New York, New York; Paris; Rio; Riviera; Slots-A-Fun; Stardust; Stratosphere; Treasure Island; The Venetian; Westward Ho.)

Thursday morning, following our Vegas-is-better-at-night theory, we eschewed the city to drive out to Mt. Charleston and marvel at the contrast between the scraggly-ass pseudo vegetation at the base and the fragrant pines and cold snow that covered the ground more than a mile up. Who thought that a trip to the Vegas would include this?

We (Pech in particular) hustled back from the mountain in order to give back the GT in time. For our 24 hours of rental, we put on a hair over 200 miles. Some of those were even under the speed limit.

Anyway, all in all it was a very good time. Pech and I make good traveling partners and have found our mutual unemployment makes scheduling (if not paying) a breeze. Who knows where we’ll go next, but I hope it’s soon.

And as for the gambling: I won $400, so all of the above was effectively free for me, and I came back to Chicago with a couple more dollars in my wallet than when I left. Yes!

Thought for the Week

January 18th, 2003

Any week that begins and ends with Giordano’s can’t be all bad.

Movie Moment: Chicago

January 17th, 2003

Unlike Moulin Rouge!, where the editing and camerawork never let you forget it was there, Chicago sometimes felt like a “legit” musical performed with smoothly varied perspective.

It’s more than just a musical on film, but not so much that you shouldn’t see it live instead, without the safety net of multiple takes. Of course, I still haven’t seen the Broadway version, so who knows what the hell I’m talking about.

Back in the Saddle Again

January 17th, 2003

I have returned; hail the conquering hero. Casting about for just the right words to capture the experience of the last few days. So until I find them, you’ll just have to bear with me. Oh yeah. And I’m seeing a movie now. Later.

A Brief Respite

January 13th, 2003

I’ll be away until sometime Friday, so don’t expect any updates until then. Have a good week.

S-11

January 13th, 2003

If you have QuickTime installed and ten minutes free, watch this. It’s amazing how cheap news slogans and motion graphics look when you edit them together. Layered on top of endlessly gabbing pundits, they have this hyperactive, desperate need to command more and more of your attention even as they actually say less and less. (The word “evil,” for example, has never been used more broadly.)

I find this piece (a Sundance Online Film Festival entry) especially interesting in light of the questions I noted in yesterday’s entry.

One Day in September. One Conflict Never Ending.

January 12th, 2003

Just a few minutes ago, I completed watching the documentary One Day in September, concerning the 1972 kidnapping of male Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the Olympic Games in Munich. I’ve long intended to watch the film, as I knew little about the events that took place more than three decades ago.

The documentary took my breath away.

It revealed the shocking ineptitude of the German security forces. Though they refused an offer for an Israeli commando team, the Germans had no storm team of their own. When they considered rushing the apartment where the men were held, they picked police officers seemingly at random. That attack plan was called off because East German TV was broadcasting the preparations live, including to the terrorists. Later in the day, only 5 German snipers (there were 8 hostage takers) were positioned at the airport, some without sniper rifles, all without armor, helmets or even radios.

This lack of communication would take a tragic turn later when some of the police would turn on themselves and armored cars, supposed to be in place early, were not requested until 20 minutes after the final shoot-out began. They arrived forty minutes later. (A similar communications problem [PDF; part of this report] also hampered FDNY response to the WTC attacks.)

The film revealed the harrowing brutality of the terrorists, who emptied a full clip into a helicopter full of bound hostages, one just 18. When it was all over, all of the 11 Israelis were dead and five of the terrorists had been killed. The bodies of the terrorists killed were taken to Libya, where the coffins were carried through huge, cheering crowds. The remaining three hostage-takers were held in prison for a short while until being released on the demands of a hijacker who took over a Lufthansa flight. It was later discovered that the German government had colluded to arrange the “hijacking” to rid themselves of the terrorists. They would never stand trial.

This Academy Award-winning documentary raises many questions. What is the media’s role in these situations? Did the East German news crew have any responsibility to assist the police? Was it appropriate for the modern-day filmmakers to provide Jamal Al Gashey, the sole surviving terrorist, the chance to appear, his face obscured, and say “I’m proud of what we did in Munich”? Were the Israeli assassination squads who eventually took the lives of the other two Palestinians acting appropriately? Most of all, will we ever find resolution in this conflict that has defined Israel since its establishment more than 50 years ago?

Movie Moment: Adaptation.

January 11th, 2003

I came to this movie with mixed feelings. True, it was another collaboration between Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman, who brought us the weird and interesting Being John Malkovich. On the other hand, the trailer seemed so weird, and it had Nicolas Cage, unattractive and annoying to begin with, playing a fatter, sweatier version of himself as twins.

But that’s all okay. As it turns out, the movie is twisted, weird, funny (and a tad long.) It doesn’t succed at everything it tries, but the story is inventive and different. If you like your movies off the beaten path, go see it.

Unintellectual Property

January 11th, 2003

This post was supposed to be about the Creative Commons, a new organization dedicated to finding innovative ways to allow others to use your creations without committing to the full restrictions of copyright or to the wild frontier of public domain. See the explanation animation (in Flash) for more about the CC concept.

I say “supposed to” because as I was about to begin typing, my eye glanced across a bill from my telephone company, Qwest. On that document — just a phone bill — the footer reads “This bill is protected by one or more of the following U.S. Patents: Des. 385,298; 390,599; 5,845,942; and 5,951,052.”

There was nothing remarkable about the bill, so I looked up the ‘052 patent to see what was invented. The innovation is apparently perpendicular text. Yes, you read right. “Information (e.g., text) in the information panels is oriented in a first direction, and information in the remittance panel (e.g., text) is oriented in a second direction, perpendicular to the first direction.”

I’m impressed with what the Creative Commons is doing, and I wish them luck. But if this Qwest junk is an example of what’s getting intellectual property protection these days, we’re going to need far-reaching, legislative changes. Starting with the patent office.

Go My Sister

January 10th, 2003

A year ago today, this piece ran in the St. Joseph News-Press:

Sarah Vollertsen tried. So did Kristen Anderson. A series of zone defenses, double-teams — all tried it, but all found the same result.

Nothing Northwest Missouri State tried on Wednesday night could slow Truman State center Jennifer Perkins.

The 6-foot-1 Perkins grabbed 18 rebounds and scored 27 points as she led the Bulldogs to a 73-64 come-from-behind road victory over the Bearcats.

“We tried adjusting during the game, but nothing seemed to work,” said Northwest coach Gene Steinmeyer. [FULL ARTICLE]

I love my sister very much (as I do all my family.) Watching her powerful and yet graceful play during college was something I enjoyed very much, and miss today. Now that the basketball phase of her life is over, I know she will find something else she excels at that will bring her joy. Whatever that turns out to be, I’m still rooting for her.

I Thought It Was a Ladle

January 9th, 2003

vibrator attachment  drugstore.com recommended by amazon.com

That thing on the left there? That’s a G-Spotter from Vibratex. It’s an attachment for the Hitachi Magic Wand Vibrator (or similar.) “A customer” from USA notes it really “inhances” her sex with her husband, while Michigan resident Amanda Downer lives up to her name by commenting that the “Magic Wand Vibrator was so bulky that my coworkers could see the shaft’s buldge in by pants. I would not recomend sporting this device at work.”

Just goes to show that Amazon and its drugstore.com affiliate are really hard at work — at their goal of providing everything you can imagine at their store, that is. (Now if they could just get someone to proofread that graphic.)

For Your Consideration

January 8th, 2003

As I read through this month’s American Cinematographer, I couldn’t help but notice that awards season is upon us. OK, that’s actually a genteel understatement, because I was truly hit over the head with it: there were 20 “for your consideration” ads for the Oscar in cinematography. Seventeen of them were full-page, and 15 of those occurred in the first 32 pages. When every odd-numbered page at the front of the book is a full-page plea for votes, it’s difficult to miss.

This inspired an idea: why not make a weekly for Academy voters? I’m thinking of a Awards Season Weekly, published only from 1 Jan through to voting day, with each issue devoted to a major category (to allow everyone the chance to buy full-page ads.) Of course, to qualify for magazine postage it must contain a certain percentage of editorial. This could present a problem when you have no reporters and no insights. (Hmm, Fox News?) But no problem: there’s always polls! Yes, pretend it’s primary season and stuff each issue with the latest standings. Get some USC film students to write “analysis” (you so know they’d do it for free) but put the byline as “Staff” and you’ve got a paper.

Speaks for Itself

January 8th, 2003

editorial cartoon showing privacy sacrified for security

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