Hacker News Reader

merryandrewon Court: Photographer has no recourse against university copyright infringement

But states can be wrong. That's why it makes no sense.

merryandrewon Court: Photographer has no recourse against university copyright infringement

Agreed. As you realized, though, the point is that copyrighted work should not be used without compensating the creator.

merryandrewon Court: Photographer has no recourse against university copyright infringement

This makes no sense. Imagine that SpaceX took a photograph on the moon, and then a university freely used the image in its marketing materials. Would that make sense? Would it make any more sense if the university had a space program? No.

merryandrewon Ask HN: Which book have you re-read recently?

> "you guys"

I don't know what group you're imagining me to be a part of, but you have no idea who I am, clearly. That's fine.

merryandrewon Ask HN: Which book have you re-read recently?

Both you and pdog have made interesting observations, I suppose, but as I said, neither book described our reality accurately. Our reality is far more complicated. As you point out, millions have protested, but tens of millions haven’t. As pdog remarked, the world in 1984 might be described as a totalitarian hellscape, in part, but parts of our world can also be described as such; pdog needs to look outside his locale, I’m afraid. Our world really is like a combination of those two books, even if your neighborhoods aren’t. We haven’t matched the world portrayed in either book, obviously, but it feels to me like were transitioning to a world a lot like a combination of those books. Let’s review things in a decade or two and see what comes to be.

merryandrewon Ask HN: Which book have you re-read recently?

1984, followed directly by Brave New World. Our world resembles a lot from each of these books. Much like in 1984, we have devices and companies constantly monitoring us (iOS, Android, Facebook, etc.), we have “news programs” and websites seemingly modeled after the “two minutes hate”, and we clearly have some Ministry of Truth-like misinformation getting spread around while accurate information gets lost or ignored. Much like in Brave New World, we have soma-like drugs, distractions and trivialities occupying people while they accept the world as it is and even shy away from wanting to change things. Really, we live in a world that blends together much of what was described in 1984 and Brave New World. Neither book predicted the future accurately, but together the picture these books painted is pretty damn accurate, and disturbing.

merryandrewon Amazon Echo

After just now hearing about Amazon Echo, I positively, absolutely cannot be the only person who immediately thought of this show: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Humans

Also known as Äkta människor

merryandrewon Firefox Add-on Enables Web Development Across Browsers and Devices

view-source:https://news.ycombinator.com

merryandrewon Intertwingled: The Work and Influence of Ted Nelson – Starts at 9:30AM PDT

Got it streaming on the Mac now. Was not working on Win8, laughably.

merryandrewon Intertwingled: The Work and Influence of Ted Nelson – Starts at 9:30AM PDT

Thanks. Still waiting for the live broadcast online at 9:50

merryandrewon Intertwingled: The Work and Influence of Ted Nelson – Starts at 9:30AM PDT

Is anyone seeing the live broadcast? I am not, as of 9:44

merryandrewon You don't own your Kindle books, Amazon reminds customer

From the terms, here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=2...

merryandrewon You don't own your Kindle books, Amazon reminds customer

merryandrewon Amazon Unveils Delivery By Drone

If this ever actually happens, delivery theft will be rampant.

merryandrewon Why I left Google

Agreed.

merryandrewon Kindle Paperwhite

"Amazon should hire a world-class book designer to serve as product manager for the Kindle."

I think this comment is just about right. The Kindle team really needs to focus on making the Kindle as good as traditional books, when applicable, but better than books whenever possible. Currently the Kindle fails to be as good as books where it counts most (e.g., clarity/sharpness of text, page layout decisions [e.g., hyphens], font choices, display contrast, index functionality, TOC functionality), and it only does a decent job of employing some of the technological advantages it has over books (e.g., the Kindle has a great weight-to-content-offered ratio, it backs up your collection remotely). It kind of surprises me that the Kindle hasn't already surpassed traditional books in every way. Maybe my expectations are too high, or maybe Amazon is more concerned with the bottom line than responding to readers like me. I don't know.

merryandrewon Letters of Note: I think I no how to make people or animals alive

Encouraging young people is essential--even/especially when their ideas are incredible. The reply letter was just right.

merryandrewon Introducing The New Bing: Spend Less Time Searching, More Time Doing

I did the same and feel the same. Even DuckDuckGo does better than Bing when it comes to indexing my site.

merryandrewon Seriously, what’s up with old media not crediting bloggers?

In addition to deserving that huge apology, Dixon deserves monetary compensation from Josh Linkner. Words don't write themselves, and so Linkner had to realize he was using someone else's work without permission -- even if he didn't know who authored the work he was plagiarizing. Linkner only cares because he was caught red-handed. If I was Dixon I would seek statutory damages without question.

Read the law: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/504

merryandrewon Ask HN: more sites like HN

See "I don't have a Facebook or Twitter account."

merryandrewon Make Any Webpage Look Like It Was Made By A 13 Year-Old In 1996

Yeah, I got to hear a really sweet Alanis Morissette tune. :) :/ :(

merryandrewon Chinese Labor - watch the first 34 minutes at least

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufactured_Landscapes

Awards: Best Documentary – 2007 Genie Awards[1] Best Canadian Film – Toronto International Film Festival[1] Best Canadian Film & Best Documentary - Toronto Film Critics Association Awards[1] Nominated for Grand Jury Prize - 2007 Sundance Film Festival[1] Won the Reel Current Award (presented by Al Gore) - 2007 Nashville Film Festival

merryandrewon Request for Startups: Kill Hollywood.

nice

merryandrewon Wordpress Blacked Out

The plugins may be even more useful: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tags/sopa

merryandrewon Boing Boing blackout message

You might simply remove "503: Service Unavailable"

merryandrewon [dead]

You might need to select a specific city to see the message. For example: http://seattle.craigslist.org/

merryandrewon Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?

No. Most HN users already oppose SOPA. Better to keep HN running so we can all share information about (and apply pressure on) the big companies that are not opposing SOPA with a blackout.

merryandrewon Linus Torvalds: Locked Down Technologies Lose in the End

If you want an interesting perspective on this idea, check The Master Switch, written by Tim Wu.

http://www.amazon.com/Master-Switch-Information-Empires-Vint...

Amazon Book Description: It is easy to forget that every development in the history of the American information industry–from the telephone to radio to film–once existed in an open and chaotic marketplace inhabited by entrepreneurs and utopians, just as the Internet does today. Each of these, however, grew to be dominated by a monopolist or cartel. In this pathbreaking book, Tim Wu asks: will the Internet follow the same fate? Could the Web–the entire flow of American information–come to be ruled by a corporate leviathan in possession of "the master switch"?

Analyzing the strategic maneuvers of today’s great information powers–Apple, Google, and an eerily resurgent AT&T–Wu uncovers a time-honored pattern in which invention begets industry and industry begets empire. He shows how a battle royale for Internet’s future is brewing, and this is one war we dare not tune out.

merryandrewon Hacker News Seattle Meetup #2: Tuesday, September 6 at 6pm.

Looking forward to this. :)

merryandrewon Move over, Kindle. iriver Story HD is Google's e-Reader, $139.99

"Wifi vs 3g doesn't matter; nobody buys books often enough to really truly NEED 24/7 connectivity across the globe."

Totally agree, personally. Some people use the 3G for other stuff, but I only read books. Btw, purchased Google eBooks are not like PG, though, they are formatted like purchased Amazon and B&N eBooks.

"It's a generation behind the Nook Simple Touch, and integration with Google Books isn't enough to interest me given the awful or non-existent editorial oversight in most public-domain ebooks."

I'm interested in the new nook too. I saw it in the store, but didn't bother with checking it out. Next time I will. Integration with Google is also irrelevant to me, but access to Google eBooks (and all the other ePUB books with DRM via Adobe) totally matters to me, and this is why I won't buy a Kindle, yet.

When it comes to well-formatted public domain eBooks, I like Feedbooks.