Archive for September, 2006
to use or not to use
Sep 12th
In my line of work, I’m often dealing with figuring out if something falls under the Fair Use or Copyrighted laws and how, if at all, they can be used in a classroom or in a demonstration.
As a photographer hobbyist, I’m constantly amazed at how much people don’t really care if something is copyrighted or that they ignore copyright notices.
For instance, I have this photo of the barbed wire up at Flickr. It has over 6700 views – that’s 5300 views more than any other image that I have. I’ve gone searching to see where it’s linked. I’ve tried finding out why it is getting so many views. I can’t find it. Typically when that kind of thing happens, someone has blogged it. I don’t know who or what or where so I don’t know how my photograph is being used.
If I blog someone else’s photo, I will put a note into their comments letting them know because I don’t want them to think I’m 1) stealing it; 2) using it for a a situation they may not support.
So, it’s sometimes funny when I see that people have used my photography for something and haven’t told me. Or that they are using the low-grade small versions that aren’t great for desktops. In fact, I had one person tell me that I should be proud – she was using my photograph as her desktop that day.
Woohoo!
Okay, maybe my cynicism is coming through just a bit. The thing is, I put a lot of work into these things and ASKING before using is usually nice. But not even saying anything…is that fair to the person who is doing the work?
Should I be honored that people find my work good enough for their desktops or should I be peeved that they are just taking it?
Should I be flattered?
I think it really, really bothers me when a company uses my images when they have CLEARLY been marked as either full copyrighted or Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 licensed. This company, for instance, has used at least one of my photographs and several from other Flickr users and has given very few of us credit nor have they even asked if they could. I have written to them telling them to stop using my photo. But it is still up.
Without getting into legal hassles, how does one make sure that people out there understand that the things we do require time, money, and creative process – and isn’t that at least worth a link or a mention? And in the case of a company, money? If they are charging for their design skills and if they are making money off of their site, shouldn’t they spread the wealth?
advertising
Sep 11th
This video is funny. Nevermind that it’s an advertisement for one more car on the road. Nevermind that it’s feeding into that environment of consumerism and that more is better.
The video is funny.
And guess where I found it? The crab has a MySpace account. Seriously.
And this really cracks me up:
Who I’d like to meet:
Other Actors. Invertebrates. Surfers. Honda fans. Beach Lovers. Environmentalists. People who appreciate a hearty pinch. Vegetarians. Those with seafood allergies. Other actors. Great huggers! Britons by birth, Surfers by soul. Tuners.
Seriously.
This is some good advertising.
upsetting circadian rhythms
Sep 10th
He looks docile and sweet and a bundle of cuddly joy.
But don’t let looks deceive you.
Beneath all of that sweetness lies a deceptive little hellion who delights in making the world revolve around him.
And why not? He can do it so he should.
He and his sister spent the night at my house Friday night. Everything is going according to plan. We all get to bed. Sleep is coming.
Yay!
And then…4 a.m.
Crying.
I go into the room where he is sleeping and he is probably a bit scared because it’s a different room than he’s use to. I pick him up. Bring him back to bed with Willow, Dakota and me.
So, a queen sized bed is now full of kid and doggy flesh and aunt Dawn is pushed to the very edges of the bed.
He lays down.
And starts talking.
Shhhhh. Go to sleep, Justice.
He sighs and is quiet.
Then he pops up into full-upright position. Hey! There’s a doggy in the bed who needs to be petted.
Justice. Lay down. Go back to sleep.
He lays down.
And his little pudgy adorable fingers start feeling my face, caressing me.
Then they start tugging at Willow’s hair.
Justice, leave sissy alone.
Back to caressing my face.
Back to talking.
Back to popping up.
Okay. I can sleep through this.
Until I almost fall off the bed.
And finally, around 7 a.m., I just get up, without much sleep.
And there is a big wet spot in my bed because his diaper has overflowed.
And then Dakota decides to throw up in the bed, right next to the wet spot – and all, coincidentally, where I sleep.
It’s a conspiracy.
And I complain but secretly, it was worth it because I got to cuddle with two adorable kids and a doggy I love.
construction zone
Sep 8th
I will rarely make the leap to change the style of my web site unless something really prompts me to do so.
Yesterday I was fixing something and I deleted my header. So, I took a line from one of the people who was putting down blogs (on the suggestion of a friend) and put it up for my header for now.
Didn’t I have backups, you may ask? And how did I do that, you may query.
Well, Dawn, being the very smart woman that she is, uses that little box in Dreamweaver to upload to the server and sync the local files upon save.
Ahem.
That means that not only did I overwrite on my server but also on my local drive.
So, this is the thing. I can create a new banner or I can redo the entire site.
I’d like feedback from you first, though.
Are the colors okay for you? Can you read the site okay? Is there a difficulty seeing anything?
How about the width of the blog? Is it wide enough or would you like to see it wider? Would you prefer that it line up to the right or is centered fine?
Any feedback is welcome. I may not take the suggestions but I do want to know what y’all think because I want this to be an enjoyable experience for all of us.
Thanks!
pfffft
Sep 7th
I’m going along, minding my own business when I come across this:
“Blogs are like spam in Google searches. I heard the figure of 32 million blogs the other day. Does anyone read these?
I look at the writer. It’s my professor! Okay, granted, it’s in my class – but it’s my professor!
He’s an instigator. You make a comment like “blogs. . . bah humbug!!” as one of my classmates did, he’s going to capitalize on it.
But it went further. People started jumping on the bandwagon.
“My own opinion is that blogs are a bit like examining one’s navel in public. I believe I’ve said this before, but any idiot with a computer and an opinion can suddenly have a global forum. Annoying, and a bit dangerous. Do I read them? Never.”
Huh.
“”Annoying, and a bit dangerous.” I agree. Keeping a journal is great, but leave it near your bedside. I have a few friends who ask if I ever look at their blogs. They seem offended that I’m just not interested, but I prefer either a personal conversation or a good book. A blog is neither to me.”
Wow. We’re now dangerous. Who woulda thunk I had so much power?
“I have to agree with the majority here — I find that people that have extensive blogs have way too much time on their hands. I myself have tried to maintain two blogs in the past and I never have time to maintain them.
Now I’m just getting annoyed and offended. So it’s time for me to weigh in.
“As one of those “navel-gazing” bloggers, I guess I take umbrage with the “majority” here. I have 7 different blogs that I keep up on a regular basis…in addition to going to school full-time and working full-time.
Do I have too much time on my hands? On the contrary.
However, I enjoy doing writing, photography, reviews, tracking my master’s degree program, keeping up with widespread family and friends, and sharing information.
Is some of my blogging personal? By all means. Some of it is used to encourage others to speak out. Some of it is used to externalize some of my internalized feelings. Some of it is used as a memoir type medium to record interesting things in my life.
Great things have come of it. I’ve sold some photography. Long lost friends have found me and we’ve rekindled relationships. I now do blog trainings at work. My master’s focus is on social software and how it can be used in teaching literacy.
I read a lot of blogs. I have an RSS feed to over 100 blogs. I comment on many of them. I see it as a social avenue – a network.”
And they just come back with argument after argument about why blogs are bad (most of them centering around an elitist attitude that the masses just aren’t intelligent enough to discern truth from fiction and authority from joe-shmoe writing a blog).
Bah.
I’ve heard it before (and, actually, from someone who used to read my blog – not sure if he does anymore).
Blogs aren’t for everyone. They are a tool. One tool works better for one person, another tool for someone else. It’s not beneficial to anyone to discount the benefits of a tool solely on dislike of that tool.
I’m not a huge MySpace or Facebook fan. Why? I think the design of them is atrocious. But, I think they are great socializing tools and appreciate them for that.
To each his or her own, I say.
tagged – food stuff
Sep 6th
This doesn’t happen to me often but I’ve been tagged. Geraldine has tagged me to list the 5 foods that I want to eat before I go to the great restaurant beyond.
I’ve been thinkng about this and haven’t come up with really exciting things but here goes.
- Fresh picked blueberries, raspberries, and huckleberries from the forests in Montana. When I was a kid, we’d go out and pick these (eating way more than we collected, I’m sure). It was some of the best fruit I’ve ever had.
- Choke cherries from the orchards around Flathead Lake in Montana. See a trend here? Succulent, juicy, and the best cherries I’ve ever had.
- Gelato in Italy. Enough said.
- Pad Thai in Thailand. I want the real stuff.
- Tapas in Spain. We Americanize everything. I want to try them in their original forms.
I like good food. I like it even better when I’m traveling and trying new things. Food always tastes better on the road.
I also want to thank Geraldine for naming my site as her blog of the week. I’m honored and delighted.
the things we do
Sep 5th
Why oh why oh why did I say I’d ride a ride with her?
Maybe it was that cute face looking up at me expectantly.
Maybe it was because I adore her and I’d do almost anything for her.
Maybe it was the way she clung to my hand from the moment we stepped out of the car and headed toward the fairgrounds.
She was bouncing.
Sure she wanted to see how her photograph had done in the fair. Sure she was excited for all of us to see it.
And she had fun seeing the “magic beads” turn to different colors in the sunlight.
And she had a great time racing a solar powered car against my own.
And she temporarily forgot to ask about going on the rides as we walked through the fine arts and looked at other photography and her stomach started growling.
And she took a moment’s reprieve to eat lunch, ride a pony, ride in Louie’s train, and then bounce back to say, “When are we going to the RIDES?”
Dad, Mom, brother, and aunt followed her bouncing form through the crowds.
She did the fun houses (all 4 of them). She did the kid’s roller coaster. She did the big slide. She even rode one of those fast twirly rides and the high-flying swings.
But she wanted more.
And she wanted me to go with her.
So we did the umbrella ride.
Up and down, around and round, tilting and moving.
It’s enough to make a grown woman sick.
I stumbled off.
“Let’s go again!”
Uhhh. I don’t think so.
“Daddy, can we go on the ferris wheel?”
Oh, sure. Take Daddy on the benign ride. Throw aunt Dawn to the wolves.
I see where I stand.
But I wouldn’t have traded it for anything in the world.
wiki$
Sep 4th
What happens when wikis start to become for-profit? Do we lose some of the basic integrity of a communal ventures? Do people then start adding wiki entries that are geared toward commerce?
I first read about this new wiki venture in the Kairosnews.
Tomorrow’s New York Times runs a piece by Robert Levine about the commericalization of wikis. Quick, jump over that sleeping dog, all you long-time Hawaiian internet users. Recognize the type of argument, keyed to the loss of all things fox-like. Recall when, ca. 1994 (seems eons ago), those Arizona immigration lawyers invented spam (or should that be treet?)? So, it would appear, go the wikis, and Jimbo with ‘em.
The NYT’s article reports
Mr. Herrick is hardly the only entrepreneur inspired by the efficiency and low cost of what has become known as the wiki model. Although Wikipedia is operated by a nonprofit foundation, ideas for advertising-based wiki sites are beginning to take their place alongside blogs and social networking sites as a staple of Silicon Valley business plans.
What worries me is that, like for-profit blogs, these take away from the ideal of social networking. They remove the inspiration and altruism.
being yourself
Sep 4th
Don’t you love having those friends that you can be you around – whoever that may be?
I love the kinds of friendships where you can talk for hours about nothing or about everything and at the end of it, you wish you had more time for all of it.
I’m thinking about friendship again because the same topic has come up with two different people. Both men have talked about being friends with women (namely me) and how a lot of other people don’t think it’s possible to be “just friends” with a woman.
I’m here to say that not only is it possible but those relationships can turn out to be some of the most rewarding.
I’ve recently invited a friend to come live with me if some other opportunities don’t pan out for him. He loves Flagstaff and he knows that he would be happy coming back here.
We’ve been friends for a long time and it would be nice to have him back in town.
There hasn’t ever been anything but friendship between us and, yet, we have an incredibly intimate friendship. We talk about all kinds of things. Actually, we’re very honest with one another and can talk about anything.
I cherish that friendship. It is special to me because it is one of a kind.
And creating new friendships with other men is just as fun. There isn’t any pressure to deal with all of that “relationship” stuff. We can just be us and have fun. Or disagree. Or tease relentlessly. Or even flirt. Because we know it won’t go any further and it’s all done with the best of intentions.
When I can talk with someone for hours on end, about language usage or movies or food or travel or our love for the outdoors, that is special. It means something to me.
I treasure those moments.
no internet for you
Sep 3rd
The 75-year-old Greening-Jackson was told she could not obtain service unless she had a younger person with her to read her all of the fine print on the forms.
Said a company spokesperson (as reported in the Daily Mail), “..anyone over 70 might not understand the contract. She said, ‘If you would be prepared to go to the shop in town and take a younger member of your family we might give you a contract.’”
What a backlash this could be. This implies that the Queen of the nation in question could also be denied access through their policies.
I wonder how that would go down.
Carphone Warehouse: F-
(image courtesy of Carphone Warehouse)
