Thursday was the end of my five-week project at the Institute for the Future of the Book, helping them get ready for the next big alpha release of Sophie. It was a pleasure working with them and I hope to do so again. If you havenrsquo;t heard, check out the call for visualizations of Gamer Theory 2.0, which Irsquo;m happy to say I had a hand in formulating. It looks like wersquo;ll be seeing some really nifty visualizations in the next couple weeks.

Also, if yoursquo;ve come here looking for info about my work in webcasting, please check out WebcastNYC.com for info about what we can do for you in the telepresent realm.

pretty

more pretty

look at ldquo;Sight and Sound with VJ Suryardquo; on Friday, March 16th

canrsquo;t even manage proper braindump mdash; too tired. sigh. fiyght the good fight, peepuls.

The Grassroots Media Conference, at which Irsquo;ll be to talk to people about Kids Connect.

• 2 weeks into teaching VJ-U at UAMA.




• 1 week into new job at the institute for the future of the book




• 26 days away from going to Budapest to teach workshops and host/facilitate a jam in share

All is well.

The Mac News Network is reporting that Apple has declined to to appeal its loss in last yearrsquo;s Apple v. Does decision. MacNN says that Apple has paid nearly $700,000 to cover the sitesrsquo; legal fees.

As previously reported here at Ars, last summerrsquo;s decision by a California appeals court was a major victory for free speech online. Apple had asked the courts to compel two Mac rumor sites, Apple Insider and Orsquo;Gradyrsquo;s PowerPage, to disclose the names of their sources for a series of stories on an an unreleased Apple audio device. In its lawsuit, Apple argued that amateur websites are not eligible for the legal protections afforded to professional journalists under the First Amendment and Californiarsquo;s shield law. But the court rejected this argument, ruling that ldquo;We can think of no workable test or principle that would distinguish lsquo;legitimatersquo; from lsquo;illegitimatersquo; news,rdquo; and that the the rumor sites appear ldquo;conceptually indistinguishable from publishing a newspaper, and we see no theoretical basis for treating it differently.rdquo;

In an email interview with MacNN, EFF staff attorney Kurt Opsahl wrote that like their print counterparts, online journalists ldquo;must be able to promise confidentiality in order to maintain the free flow of information. Without legal protection, informants will refuse to talk to reporters, diminishing the power of the open press that is the cornerstone of a free society.rdquo;

The court awarded the two sites more than twice their actual legal expenses in order to deter companies like Apple from harrassing journalists with lawsuits. Not only does the decision set an important precedent regarding freedom of the press online, but the financial award will also enhance EFFrsquo;s ability to defend free speech online.

The case was widely, and somewhat inaccurately, reported as being focused on the rights of bloggers. One of the sites, Apple Insider, resembles an online magazine like Slate more than a blog. And the court specifically declined to use the term ldquo;blogrdquo; in its decision, noting in a footnote that the concept was still too amorphous to form the basis for legal precedent. Instead, the court broadly affirmed that online reporters—bloggers or otherwise—were entitled to the same legal protections as their dead-tree counterparts, without regard to a sitersquo;s format or level of professionalism.

I especially like that last bit about the amorphous definition of ldquo;blogrdquo;. I dug into the decision to read the surrounding text and found the following:

In a decade or two, a traveler may pull a sheet from his briefcase and use it to retrieve and read that morning’s news, then mark up a draft agenda for an upcoming meeting, then work on a crossword puzzle, then resume a novel he was reading the night before. Only a sophist could relish the question whether content so displayed is “printed” matter.

Judge, yoursquo;re blowing my mind! You mean, he wonrsquo;t use his computer to do all that? Wait. Yoursquo;re saying that wersquo;ll have computers as small as a sheet of paper? And in only twenty years? My mind is blown, your Honor.

Also, I love that he worked in ldquo;sophist.rdquo;

via bOINGbOING > Ars Technica > EFF news

The director of public prosecutions, Sir Ken Macdonald, put himself at odds with the home secretary and Downing Street last night by denying that Britain is caught up in a ldquo;war on terrorrdquo; and calling for a ldquo;culture of legislative restraintrdquo; in passing laws to deal with terrorism.

Sir Ken warned of the pernicious risk that a ldquo;fear-driven and inappropriaterdquo; response to the threat could lead Britain to abandon respect for fair trials and the due process of law.

Read ldquo;There is no war on terrorrdquo;.

• Super Mario War - awesome free and open source game for Mac, Linux and Windows


• ldquo;Irsquo;m Talinrdquo; - music from a cardboard box being destroyed by a two-year old- beautiful and inspiring limited-sampling electronica


• Franklin Furnace fund - grant money for projects by emerging performance artists.


• Hit the Air Running - an open audio/visual jam led by Benton-C Bainbridge at Eyebeam on January 23rd. For those who know SHARE jams, this will be a more performative jam structured to keep the energy up, i.e., a nice change of pace, I think. Free and open to the public for particiment and enjoymenpation.