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Justin's Linklog Posts

Links for 2010-05-13

Published May 13, 2010

Links for 2010-05-11

Published May 11, 2010

  • The Totalitarian Buddhist Who Beat Sim City « Viceland Games : interview with the guy behind the “Magnasanti” video. [Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi] ‘presented the world in a way I never really looked at before and that captivated me. Moments like these compel me to physically express progressions in my thought, I have just happened to do that through the form of creating these cities in SimCity 3000. I could probably have done something similar – depicting the awesome regimentation and brutality of our society – with a series of paintings on a canvas, or through hideous architectural models. But it wouldn’t be the same as doing it in the game, for the reason that I wanted to magnify the unbelievably sick ambitions of egotistical political dictators, ruling elites and downright insane architects, urban planners and social engineers.’ WHOA
    (tags: whoa mental architecture culture gaming society video simcity urban vice)

Links for 2010-05-10

Published May 10, 2010

Links for 2010-05-07

Published May 7, 2010

Links for 2010-05-06

Published May 6, 2010

Links for 2010-05-05

Published May 5, 2010

Travel Insurance that works, even with ash clouds about?

Published May 5, 2010

Lazyweb request. In a few weeks I’ll be taking a flight, along with the wife and kids, for some holidays.

The trip was booked before the whole ash-cloud thing and I used Ace Travel Insurance, a typical low-cost travel insurance agency, winding up with an ‘ACE Travel Single Trip Travel HealthCover+ Insurance Policy’.

Looking at the policy doc now, it expressly excludes cover for ‘a Public Conveyance being cancelled or curtailed because of adverse weather, industrial action, or mechanical breakdown or derangement’ if ‘an aircraft, sea vessel or train is withdrawn from service on the orders of the recognised regulatory authority in any country’ — which is exactly what’s been happening in Ireland in the face of the Eyjafjallajoekull ash cloud.

That’s pretty useless, isn’t it? I’m considering booking another additional policy to cover the ‘ash case’. Anyone got any tips on single-trip policies that don’t use a similar exclusion?

Links for 2010-05-02

Published May 2, 2010

Links for 2010-04-30

Published April 30, 2010

Links for 2010-04-29

Published April 29, 2010

Links for 2010-04-27

Published April 27, 2010

  • “Child pornography is great”, according to one EU music-business lobbyist : it’s the perfect ‘gateway’ to allow anti-filesharing filtering of the internet. ‘Start with child porn, which everybody agrees is revolting, and find some politicians who want to appear like they are doing something. Never mind that the blocking as such is ridiculously easy to circumvent in less than 10 seconds. The purpose at this stage is only to get the politicians and the general public to accept the principle that censorship in the form of ”filters” is okay. Once that principle has been established, it is easy to extend it to other areas, such as illegal file sharing. And once censorship of the Internet has been accepted in principle, they can start looking at ways to make it more technically difficult to circumvent.’ Via TJ McIntyre
    (tags: via:tjmcintyre ifpi filesharing child-porn filtering internet johan-schluter anti-piracy-group sweden denmark eu)

Links for 2010-04-26

Published April 26, 2010

Links for 2010-04-22

Published April 22, 2010

Links for 2010-04-21

Published April 21, 2010

Links for 2010-04-20

Published April 20, 2010

what Colmcille really said

Published April 20, 2010

Mr. Justice Peter Charleton, in the course of his judgement on EMI Records & Ors -v- Eircom Ltd is quoted as having said the following:

‘ There is fundamental right to copyright in Irish Law. This has existed as part of Irish legal tradition since the time of Saint Colmcille. He is often quoted for his aphorism: le gach bó a buinín agus le gach leabhar a chóip (to each cow its calf and to every book its copy).’

As many have already noted, Colmcille didn’t say that at all; his opponent did. If anything, Colmcille invented copyleft.

Manus O’Donnell’s account:

Do inneis Finden a sceila art us don righ, ass ed adubhairt ris: “Do scrib C.C. mo leabhur gan fhis damh fen,”ar se, “aderim corub lim fen mac mo leabhur.”

“Aderim-se,” ar C.C., “nach mesde lebhur Findein ar scrib me ass, nach coir na neiche diadha do bi sa lebhur ud do muchadh no a bacudh dim fein no do duine eli a scribhadh no a leghadh no a siludh fan a cinedachaib; fos aderim ma do bi tarba dam-sa ina scribhadh, corb ail lium a chur a tarba do no poiplechaibh, gan dighbail Fhindein no a lebhair do techt ass, cor cedaigthe dam a scribudh.”

Is ansin ruc Diarmaid an breth oirrdearc .i. “le gach boin a boinin” .i. laugh “le gach lebhur a leabrán.”

Or, translated to English by A. O’ Kelleher and G. Schoepperle:

Finnen first told [High King Diarmaid] his story and he said “Colmcille hath copied my book without my knowing,” saith he “and I contend that the son of the book belongs to me.”

“I contend,” saith Colmcille, “that the book of Finnen is none the worse for my copying it, and it is not right that the divine words in that book should perish, or that I or any other should be hindered from writing them or reading them or spreading them among the tribes. And further I declare that it was right for me to copy it, seeing there was profit to me from doing in this wise, and seeing it was my desire to give the profit thereof to all peoples, with no harm therefore to Finnen or his book.”

Then it was that Diarmaid gave the famous judgement: “To every cow her young cow, that is, her calf, and to every book its transcript. And therefore to Finnen belongeth the book thou hast written, O Colmcille.”

Soon thereafter, of course, 3000 died in the Battle of the Book at Cooldrumman, bringing a rather literal meaning to the modern term “copyfight”. ‘Colmcille and the Battle of the Book: Technology, Law and Access to Knowledge in 6th Century Ireland’ is recommended for more background.

Links for 2010-04-16

Published April 16, 2010

Links for 2010-04-14

Published April 14, 2010

Links for 2010-04-05

Published April 5, 2010

Links for 2010-03-31

Published March 31, 2010

Links for 2010-03-30

Published March 30, 2010

Links for 2010-03-26

Published March 26, 2010

Guinness vs independent breweries

Published March 26, 2010

Guinness‘ latest product, Guinness Black Lager, gets a panning in the Irish Times today.

I’m not a fan of Guinness. It’s a good beer, but monotonous when it’s the only thing available. This, from the old Dublin Brewing Company website, makes some interesting allegations as to why that may be the case:

In 1996 the Dublin Brewing Company was set up in Smithfield, in the old James Crean soap factory. As the only other brewery in Dublin to Guiness, Dublin Brewing Company represented a small but real challenge to the Guinness monopoly. Initially [Guinness’] reaction was “it won’t work because, Irish people were brand loyal” and wouldn’t change to anything new.” However by November 1997 Guinness could see an increasing threat from a number of new microbreweries which were opening up around Ireland; it built its own microbrewery called St. James’s Gate Beers. In the words of their Weekly News No: 44 “the four unique and distinctive draught beers are designed to meet perceived demand amongst ale and lager drinkers over the age of 28 for a wider choice of tastier draught beers.”

The project team had spent 18 months conducting exhaustive R & D into the Irish drinking palette before the launch. This research included taking samples of Beckett’s and D’Arcy’s from public houses in Temple Bar and returning it to their citadel of brewing science for further analysis. Just exactly how do those “Fun Lovin Brewers” in Smithfield make beer? The code word for this return to basic brewing was affectionately known among company staff as “Operation Wolf”.

The Dublin Brewing Company, amongst other small breweries was going to be lambs for slaughter. Of course, when you have a virtual monopoly on tap space in most bars, it’s no problem launching no less than four beers in twenty pubs in Dublin overnight. Luckily drinkers in this country know what they want, and if they want a real beer they support the increasing number of microbreweries in Ireland, not a monopoly brewer masquerading as a small producer. The attempt at what was called “full taste” beers turned out to be a disaster. By October 1998 the operation was quietly closed down. However, now that St. James Gate is no more (£3-5m expenditure), we have its latest treat, Breo, being launched with the usual bravado Guinness display on these occasions – 10/15 kegs of beer free for every publican that takes it in. The pub gets the higher number of kegs if they take something else out. As the only other brewery in town, the Dublin Brewing Company is back on the firing line. The Dublin Brewing Company would like to dedicate D’Arcy’s Dublin Stout to the memory of those old Dublin breweries.

Sadly, whether due to Guinness’ tactics or not, the DBC appears to be no more. There are a few microbreweries around Ireland, but generally, the pub taps in this country are dominated by low-quality lagers, and Guinness. At least Paulaner is becoming widely available on tap, imported by Heineken…

Links for 2010-03-25

Published March 25, 2010