think or thwim

From Wikipedia:

Cuttlefish are sometimes called the chameleon of the sea because of their remarkable ability to rapidly alter their skin color at will. Their skin flashes a fast-changing pattern as communication to other cuttlefish and to camouflage them from predators. This color-changing function is produced by groups of red, yellow, brown, and black pigmented chromatophores above a layer of reflective iridophores and leucophores, with up to 200 of these specialized pigment cells per square millimeter. The pigmented chromatophores have a sac of pigment and a large membrane that is folded when retracted. There are 6-20 small muscle cells on the sides which can contract to squash the elastic sac into a disc against the skin.

amazing things, animals, camouflage, cuttlefish

Next time you’re at the book store, check out the acknowledgements in John Walkenbach’s new 2007 Excel Bible. Besides writing the best Excel books in the universe he’s also ringmaster of the J-Walk Blog. In September he asked his readers to put whatever they wanted him to say in the blog comments. I don’t know if these made the cut, but here are some samples:

• To Rory, for not being a troll.

• I would like to thank Greg P. in Fairfield for showing me that Excel can actually be more useful than I would have ever imagined.

• I would like to thank TimS, who patrols the bookstores and neatens the Excel area and then hides the other, inferior, Exel books in the Stephen King section.

• I would like to thank Mark Coles who showed his wife how to do a household budget in Excel, rather than writing it like a story in notepad.

• Thanks to Christians everywhere who have been tolerant of my use of the word ‘Bible’. If I’d called it the Excel Koran I’d be dead now.

• I would especially like to thank Bloopy for teaching me that “I’ve got a squirrel peekin’” is an even better euphemism than “I’ve gotta go drop the kids off at the pool.”

• Special thanks to Jon Anderson, who showed me how to use conditional formatting to make a delicious cheese spread.

Sadly, Walkenbach has said that this will probably be his last Excel book, but I guess that will free him up for more valuable things like this, this, and this.

RadioLab is a science documentary series, but it won’t put you to sleep. This is utterly captivating stuff.

On RadioLab, science bumps into culture… information sounds like music.

The subjects are great. For example, the “Where Am I” episode explores:

• Why amputees feel missing limbs, and how to fix it using mirrors to trick the brain.

• The story of a man who lost control of his body (although he’s apparently not physically paralyzed). He relearned how to use each limb by looking at it and consciously thinking about moving it. His sight has become a critical link to his muscles. If the lights go out or he sees a pretty girl, he loses control and falls down, paralyzed.

• Experiments that used a centrifuge to successfully create out-of-body experiences and visions of the white tunnel reported by people who have had near death experiences.

They present the science using a fascinating and often funny mix of intertwined voices and sounds which would be worth listening to even if the information were not.

Every episode is available on-line. The only bad thing to say is that it’s a limited edition program. Trust me on this. Listen to one. Use headphones.

:: Radio Lab at WNYC

Yeltsin’s translator is telling the press that he said mass media is a disaster.

:: Presentation Zen

When this plexiglass ring spins at 1600 RPM,

and the LEDs flash in the right sequence it does this:

and that is pretty cool.

:: James N. Sears :: Core77

As I understand it, copyright exists to encourage creativity by granting the creator a temporary monopoly allowing them to profit from their work. That makes good sense. However, in the US copyright laws are nearly as convoluted as the tax code, and the duration is insane.

The basic rules in the US:

• If you invent something, you can patent it for 20 years, but you have to apply for a patent.

• Any written work or performance is automatically copyrighted, but you have the option to formally register the copyright. You have to register before you can sue someone for plagiarizing you, and if you didn’t register at the time of creation it can be difficult to prove who created the work first.

• If you perform a song, it is copyrighted for 95 years.

• If you write something, including a song, it is protected for your lifetime + 70 years.

• Companies automatically hold the copyright to works produced by employees for 95 years.

For more details there’s a good summary at Cornell.edu.

So, what’s wrong with that?

If you invent a cure for cancer in your basement and you patent it, you will profit from your invention for 20 years. But, say a 20 year old guy writes a song about how you cured cancer. If he lives to be 70, he and his family profit from that song for 120 years: 6 times as long. Obviously the system is out of whack.

That is messed up. How did we get this system?

Copyright has been evolving since it was created. Here’s a brief history of the duration for material written by an individual in the US:

1790 - 14 years
1831 - 28 + 14 year optional extension
1909 - 28 + 28 year optional extension
1976 - Life + 50 years
1998 - Life + 70 years

The duration has been extended every time, but that may reverse. With an unexpected burst of common sense, the UK voted to not extend their performance protection from 50 years to 95 to match the US. It’s not a reversal of trend, but it is encouraging.

Should patent protection should be extended to match?

I have not been able to find with a sane reason for copyright to extend past the lifetime of one person, and there are good arguments that it should be shorter. For the first 186 years copyright existed, people produced great works with significantly shorter protection. If copyright expires relatively quickly, the artist is encouraged to keep producing, adding to the public good, and others are free to build on that original work. Everybody wins. The longer artificial monopolies are extended the more we retard our collective evolution. I’m not sure what the sweet spot is, but the 20 year patent duration seems to work pretty well.

Why hasn’t patent protection increased like copyright?

My guess is that the system has evolved in the interest of large corporations with political power in both cases. I think the majority of true innovation in physical stuff comes from individual tinkerers and small startup companies who get the patents. Therefore, on balance, the large established companies that usually manufacture and distribute that stuff are better served by shorter patent protection. Drug development is the exception that proves the rule. New drugs tend to be discovered by large companies because the development and testing costs are so high, and the big drug companies are always pushing for longer patent protection.

With copyright, the opposite has been true. Large companies with distribution systems in place have been able to force individual creators to give up their rights because they have had so much more power in the negotiations. It’s in the interest of the large companies to keep extending copyright.

So, what’s going to happen?

Scott McCloud points out that two things have been happening at the same time: 1) protection for intellectual property has been growing to lengths that are overextended and 2) the cost of mass distribution of that property has dropped to zero.

To me that means these trends will continue:

1. The decision about what is worthy of publishing is becoming more democratic. Anyone can publish whatever they dream up, and the stuff that is really good tends to rise to the top. A guy with skills like Erik Mongrain can get popular on YouTube before he ever produces a CD. Hopefully we’re already to the point that he won’t need a record company contract. He’ll at least be in a better position to negotiate the terms.
2. Because of free publishing and distribution, even if you’re just OK, it will be possible to make a little money in the long tail.
3. Copyright protection will slowly come back to reasonable durations as large companies lose their power over creators.

However, for that to happen, we need to keep the current free market of ideas. If the big corporations and lunatic/senator Ted Stevens can defeat net neutrality, expect this silliness to continue.

:: Greg London | Bounty Hunters, Map Makers & Gold Miners: Metaphors for Designing Fair Intellectual Property Laws

Micheal Arrington explains why he switched from Netflix to Blockbuster. He also provides some insight into how Netflix operates:

For the business to work, the average has to be less than five movies per customer per month. If customers return movies too quickly, your only real choice is to slow down their shipments. Netflix and all of the competing services have complicated algorithms that add a day or two here and there to the “received date” when customers return DVDs. One way or another, high velocity customers are slowed down. And if they leave, that’s fine. They weren’t profitable anyway.

Very nice. I like the horses at 55 seconds.

If you need a videographer/editor, Ollie Larkin is close to finishing school and looking for a job.

:: Ollie Larkin

I love open source software and use it whenever I can.

The Simple Dollar posted a pretty good list of 30 free open source programs. He pointed out some that I didn’t know about. Mostly to keep track of it for myself, I edited his list and divided it into two groups:
• Software I already use and recommend.
• Stuff he recommended that I plan to try.

The list is under Recommended Works in the sidebar.

applications, open source, software