Cox Crow

School Papers

I realize that this may be somewhat embarrassing, but I'm beginning to bring my undergraduate papers online. Most of these will be from Hampden-Sydney College, but the long ones are from Fordham College. Today's entries include
The Permanance of Federal Unity (1991)
The International Legal Position of Secession (1993)
and The Adventures of a Simpleton as a Primer for Princes (1993).

4:46:37 PM # Google It!

Bush Signs Campaign Bill and N.R.A. Challenges New Law. President Bush signed campaign finance legislation today as he opened a two-state, multimillion-dollar fund-raising swing. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: Politics]

2:57:48 PM #
categories: Law

Dear Mr. Eisner,

The Internet is a wonderful place. Not only can we read your enlightening commentary on one of the grevious sins of our age, but we can easily find the words of our great President Lincoln.

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. ... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.
— U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 (letter to Col. William F. Elkins) Ref: "The Lincoln Encyclopedia", Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY)

We can even cite our sources.

Please have someone maintain Splash Mountain at DisneyWorld. It stopped five times for over 30 minutes while we were on the ride, once at the top of the hill. It was not fun.

Yours sincerely,

2:45:14 PM # Google It!
categories: Law, Media

"We felt that the public, and especially the children, like animals that are cute and little. I think we are rather indebted to Charlie Chaplin for the idea. We wanted something appealing, and we thought of a tiny bit of a mouse that would have something of the wistfulness of Chaplin- a little fellow trying to do the best he could." — Walt Disney

2:19:15 PM #
categories: Law, Media

Do they implement copyright controls?

Content Management Nightmares [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]

An interesting discussion on /. about <buzzword> Content Management Systems </buzzword>.

2:14:42 PM # Google It!
categories: Writing Online

I just read "Sony shows off new handhelds" as "Sony shows off new handcuffs"

1:14:30 PM #
categories: Language

Uh-oh. We have a new product approval process. Does this mean that changes will actually need to be approved, or merely that we have to wade through sixteen layers of administrivia before applying patches to defend against a quickly replicating worm?

12:42:59 PM #
categories: Security, System Administration

WARNING: This post makes extensive use of the ACRONYM tag

We bought a new VCR because the tracking on the old one was on the fritz. While connecting it into the chain of devices connected to my TV, I was excited to find that I didn't need the RF converter for the multizone DVD player we received for Christmas; I could connect the DVD player directly to the VCR.

Then we sat down to watch a DVD, a Hitchcock film.

WTF! Every few seconds the MPAA's gremlins in the VCR would flash some blue frames on the screen, and the contrast wouldn't remain stable. This is the great advance in quality of DVDs?

So I spent five minutes restoring the RF converter to the chain.

Yeah, I'm going to copy your precious DVD using a $40 POS VCR that we bought just so our daughter wouldn't be disturbed by the bad tracking on her VHS tapes.

Have a nice day.

12:18:22 PM # Google It!
categories: Language, Law, Media

The more things change

I had a good conversation yesterday with Jenny about the rapidity of technical change. It started from her question: "How long will it be until we start seeing judges who have at least some passing knowledge about technology?" I had a similar discussion the day before with Mulher that turned into a consideration of the requirements for judges who sit on patent issues.

Jenny linked to Jeremy Bowers's consideration of the What-the-hell-is-that-acronym-again Act. I'm not sure he's aware he joined this particular discussion:

Unfortunately, this ability to be rational is critically dependent on domain knowlege. Enter the computer, the modern-day magic, understood by a modern day class of wizards. The people proposing and supporting the bill know little-to-nothing about computers. .... Most people do not have instinct-level knowlege about computers. What's the result?

11:47:30 AM # Google It!
categories: Language, Law, Media

I am, to an extent, a product of St. John's College. Books hold a conversation across time with each other.

We carry on that conversation.

11:11:03 AM #
categories: Language, Law, Media

I'm feeling lucky

I'm looking for an e-book publisher that Jerry Pournelle mentioned, but haven't found the mention yet, or the publisher. Along the way I ran across some posts on Republic v. Empire where Jerry mentioned "The Conquest of the United States by Spain," by William Graham Sumner. Jerry didn't have a link, so I googled it using a right-click menu I picked up from somewhere.

When I first encountered Google I was amazed at how often the "I'm feeling lucky" button turned up exactly the result I was looking for. I haven't lost that sense of wonder.

10:30:22 AM # Google It!

A Canticle for Leibowitz

"Another question: if they agree that someday a work could fall out of copyright (100+ years), how would your locked-down machines know its rights had changed?" — The Shifted Librarian

That's a good question. Unfortunately, at that point the work will no longer exist. It would not have been copied to other media, and so would perish from the record.

10:11:22 AM # Google It!
categories: Law, Media