Meme – Yahoo’s Improvement on Twitter
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I don’t care for the name. Meme, like gene, is supposed to represent a defining concept. Paradigm is perception. Meme is the mental construction that we can share. (A meme can be “wrong” like government. But it’s something (an idea) we can exchange and understand. I think Yahoo has muddled the pond. IMHO!
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Posted by reinkefj
Thanks for signing up for the Qipit online service, the company that specializes in high quality mobile copy solutions. We are making a change in the focus of the company toward the development of smart phone applications and technology for the enterprise. In fact, our first application Qipit White, is available now for the iPhone, with more applications and platforms to follow. Starting this past Wednesday (October 21, 2009), the Qipit online mobile copy service stopped accepting new user registrations.
What this means to you?
As an existing user, you can still use the service as normal until November 9, 2009, at which time the ability to create new copies (using Web upload, our facebook applications, Shozu, copy@qipit.com, and color@qipit.com) and to share (by sending faxes and emails) will be discontinued. On December 6, 2009, the service will be completely taken offline. We encourage users to download all of the information you would like to keep, prior to this date. After the service is taken offline, your information will no longer be available.
As we say goodbye to Qipit the online service, Qipit will live on in a series of smart phone applications and as a technology for the enterprise. Back in September we launched our first smart phone application, Qipit White, for the iPhone, it shares much of the same functionality of the online service, but works much faster! We will continue to support Qipit White and future applications based on the technology behind Qipit for the iPhone, Android and other smart phone platforms. Be sure to keep an eye on http://www.qipit.com and the Qipit Blog for the latest news on new applications.
You can read more about the changes at Qipit at our blog. Please feel free to share your thoughts and farewells to the Qipit online service.
Many thanks,
~ the Qipit team
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Leave a Comment » | SERVICE | Tagged: INNOVATION | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20091015/cm_csm/ynashweb_1
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For Japanese couples forbidden to marry, leaping from Mount Fuji used to be a common place to end their lives, but when the government erected a sign about the pain it was causing survivors, the suicide rate plummeted. Posting on Facebook could have a similar effect.
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I had a boss who committed suicide. It was said that the technology changing scared him. I hope that’s not right. He could have asked for help. THere were a lot of people who liked him for his caring and could have helped ease the transition worries. Maybe life would have been different if he had. Or if we’d known. We’ll never know.
Requiescat In Pacem, Bob, boss in my youth
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Leave a Comment » | INTERESTING | Tagged: Common Sense, Health, INNOVATION | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://pewresearch.org/politicalquiz/quiz/index.php
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I’m not surprised. I’m a wonk! It wasn’t very hard.
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Leave a Comment » | INTERESTING | Tagged: INNOVATION | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://www.dailyblogtips.com/spellchecker-drives-a-stake-through-vampire-words/
Spellchecker Drives a Stake Through Vampire Words
from Daily Blog Tips
by Mike Marshall
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3. Use Exclusion Dictionaries to Mark Them
My favorite solution, although it requires a little more energy, is to establish an “Exclusion Dictionary”. This dictionary lists words that you want to exclude from the basic spelling dictionary within MS-Word. When the word is added to the exclusion dictionary, the spell checker will no longer perceive it as a correctly spelled word, and will flag it as an error. When configured to check spelling as you type, this prevents these nasty words from creeping into your text by immediately marking them as issues.
To create an exclusion list, you need only add the word to your exclusion dictionary (a text file) under your MS-WORD application data. Each vampire word is entered on a single line in this file, and from that point forward is considered a misspelled word and highlighted by the spell checker.
What makes this method so nice is that you can consider the word’s real value, and tell the spellchecker to ignore its use, if desired.
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Here’s a great suggestion!
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Leave a Comment » | Technology | Tagged: INNOVATION | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0c1302e2-a3eb-11de-9fed-00144feabdc0.html
Google to offer hard copies of books
Financial Times [UK]
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“After five years of scanning books electronically, Google is finally entering the print publishing business for the first time. Through an arrangement with a printing company announced yesterday, Google will offer 2m out-of-copyright books that can be picked up or shipped from libraries, universities and other spots around the world. It has struck the deal with On Demand Books, makers of the Espresso Book Machine, which can print a 300-page book in less than five minutes, complete with a cover and a bound edge.” (09/17/09)
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As I know, Print On Demand makes it possible for ANYONE to publish a book!
We are truly entering the age of enlightenment.
It’s hard to imagine what this will mean to the third world countries. 8 bucks is a lot of money. But, it’s astounding to think what’s possible.
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Leave a Comment » | Technology | Tagged: INNOVATION | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/10/death-of-a-president200910?printable=true
A Clash of Camelots
Within months of J.F.K.’s death, the president’s widow asked William Manchester to write the authorized account of the assassination. He felt he couldn’t refuse her. Two years later, nearly broken by the task, Manchester found himself fighting a bitter, headline-making battle with Jackie and Bobby Kennedy over the finished book. The author chronicles the toll Manchester’s 1967 best-seller, The Death of a President, exacted—physically, emotionally, and financially—before it all but disappeared.
By Sam Kashner
October 2009
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By virtue of their original agreement with Harper & Row, the Kennedys continue to control the fate of The Death of a President. Even now, after William Manchester’s original manuscript has come home to Wesleyan, where it is held under a kind of house arrest—heavily censored, and subject to extremely restricted use—the Kennedy family has allowed the book to go out of print, according to John Manchester. Sitting in the bar at the Four Seasons Hotel in sight of Boston Common, where his father had first met Kennedy, when both men were newly home from the war, he says, “The Death of a President helped build that library, but if you go there today, there’s no mention of it or him anywhere. He was written out of their history.”
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Interesting. Copyright law was intended to allow ideas to spread. Shouldn’t books that are “out of print” go into the public domain? With vendors like Lulu Print On Demand, there should NEVER be a reason for books to go “out of print”!
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Leave a Comment » | Productivity | Tagged: INNOVATION | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Say what you like about the Google Books Kool-Aid, but it tastes much better than Microsoft’s sour grapes
by Paul Carr on August 22, 2009
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But one aspect of the settlement wasn’t so uncontroversial, and that was the issue of so-called ‘orphan works’ – books which are still in copyright but where the identity of the copyright owner is, for one reason or another, unclear. As part of the settlement, the book industry agreed that, with certain restrictions, Google could scan orphan works without being held liable for breach of copyright claims if the rights owner subsequently came forward. In return Google agreed to create an independent (and open to all) rights registry letting authors of orphaned stake their copyright claim.
At first glance, the deal over orphaned works seems as reasonable as the rest of the settlement – these are books for which no-one is being paid and which otherwise would be hidden away in libraries and second hand bookstores. But still Google’s competitors are crying foul.
The Internet Archive is particularly annoyed, arguing that they too are scanning millions of books for the public good, but without any blanket copyright protection for orphaned works. And so, through a group they call Open Content Alliance, they hope to pressure the Department of Justice to extend the terms of the settlement to everyone, not just Google.
For the other companies joining the Alliance – including Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon – there are more obvious and nakedly commercial reasons to oppose the settlement. But that doesn’t make their objections less valid. Back in April, Erick Schonfeld wrote a passionate – and compelling – argument for the immunity to apply to everyone so that Google wouldn’t have a monopoly position where they could effectively charge whatever they like for downloading digital copies of orphaned works.
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It would seem we need a law change. If you even believe in “imaginary property”. (It seems absurd to call what the congress critters pass “a law”. Now the Law of Gravity; that’s a LAW!)
When a book goes OOP (Out Of Print), or is otherwise “hidden” from the public, it should enter the public domain. Wasn’t the purpose of copyright law to encourage sharing of “intellectual (imaginary) property”? When that sharing ceases, shouldn’t the protection?
Seems only fair to me.
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Posted by reinkefj
Driving to a doctor’s appointment today, I missed EVERY light. Argh! Leaving aside the cop making an illegal left, that exasperates me. Almost as much as state gooferment cars. In missing every light, I had ample opportunity to observe that I was sitting at intersections, with traffic queueing up behind me, with no cross traffic. Argh!
If Stamford U can make a car that drives itself, can’t we have a “smart” traffic light?
No traffic to use the cycle, free it. Allow the direction with traffic to go. Seems obvious that a lot of gas is being wasted. No wonder folks speed up to get through on the yellow. Or even, on the edge of red. The technology is archaic.
But what would you expect from the gooferment. Roadways are essentially the same as the Fifties. Sure there’s more standardization, but that is not necessarily good. For example, NJ’s jughandles are a specific solution to the high density of traffic. But, that makes no sense in sparsely settle areas. But, even the jughandle has been eliminated or overwhelmed by volume.
See there is a fundamental flaw in the meme. Laws don’t prevent anything. Give me the good old Law of Gravity. You can’t break it if you tried. We need to privatize the roads. Like Professor Block has written. Then we’d get some innovation in roads. Wouldn’t you like to ride on the FedEx expressway or the UPS highway? Bet you the speed limit would high and enforced.
And, just maybe I wouldn’t miss every light.
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Leave a Comment » | Ranting | Tagged: INNOVATION | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Driving to a doctor’s appointment today, I missed EVERY light. Argh! Leaving aside the cop making an illegal left, that exasperates me. Almost as much as state gooferment cars. In missing every light, I had ample opportunity to observe that I was sitting at intersections, with traffic queueing up behind me, with no cross traffic. Argh!
If Stamford U can make a car that drives itself, can’t we have a “smart” traffic light?
No traffic to use the cycle, free it. Allow the direction with traffic to go. Seems obvious that a lot of gas is being wasted. No wonder folks speed up to get through on the yellow. Or even, on the edge of red. The technology is archaic.
But what would you expect from the gooferment. Roadways are essentially the same as the Fifties. Sure there’s more standardization, but that is not necessarily good. For example, NJ’s jughandles are a specific solution to the high density of traffic. But, that makes no sense in sparsely settle areas. But, even the jughandle has been eliminated or overwhelmed by volume.
See there is a fundamental flaw in the meme. Laws don’t prevent anything. Give me the good old Law of Gravity. You can’t break it if you tried. We need to privatize the roads. Like Professor Block has written. Then we’d get some innovation in roads. Wouldn’t you like to ride on the FedEx expressway or the UPS highway? Bet you the speed limit would high and enforced.
And, just maybe I wouldn’t miss every light.
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Leave a Comment » | INTERESTING | Tagged: INNOVATION | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
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FJohn Reinke
Consultant at Technology Legacies LLC
Advisor, Computer Governance Committee at Manhattan College
Editor / Publisher at Jasper Jottings
Greater New York City Area
JJ Positraction JJ Endnotes Downsize DC
Philosophy of Liberty
I have NOT received any gagged governmental information requests
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