farlane.blog

In honor of the launch of the iPhone (which I confess to having lusted for in my heart … well, the part of my heart that can’t read price tags), I give to you this video that The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs gave to me … and this picture.

I sort of ripped this off from myself … twice … but I’d like to interrupt this blog to let you know that I stand with the many internet radio stations that will observe a national Day of Silence today. Royalty rates for webcasters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling and are due to go into effect on July 15, 2007 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006 - what the heck is up with THAT?? How about a law retroactive to the pre-cambrian era that forbids the RIAA/MPAA from hiring lawyers?). If the increased rates remain unchanged, the majority of webcasters will go bankrupt and silent on this date. Internet radio stations currently pay a fee based on revenues, something that works very well for an industry that is just getting started.

The internet has been built upon the philosophy of free exchange of information. While actions like this, current suits against YouTube and attacks on net neutrality are billed as protecting the rights of copyright holders and media producers, they also have the effect of making it fantastically more difficult to share creative commons content by attacking the networks and web services over which it is shared. YouTube is an easy target as everyone knows it’s just a haven for other people’s copyrighted content … except that it isn’t. Not always. There’s more and more original content on these services every day and I have to believe that this poses a threat to established media companies *cough* ClearChannel *cough*.

Anyway, please take a moment to contact your representatives and tell them that you support the Internet Radio Equality Act has recently been introduced in both the House and Senate to save the Internet radio industry.

Much more information at the SaveNetRadio Coalition web site.

Somehow I got subscribed to the Freepress.net daily email. For some reason, I never read it. Today I did and was treated to the innovative argument that the FCC should require broadband service providers to rifle through every internet packet to ensure that there’s no copyrighted files being transferred … apparently to protect the economic interests of John Deere and corn farmers.

Because of our nation’s interlocking economy, two-thirds of the lost earnings and lost jobs are in industries other than motion picture production. For example, in the absence of movie piracy, video retailers would sell and rent more titles. Movie theatres would sell more tickets and popcorn. Corn growers would earn greater profits and buy more farm equipment.

Read NBC’s Theatre of the Absurd Presents: The FCC Must Save Our Corn Farmers. While you’re there, read the latest on low power FM radio.

The photo is titled This town ain’t big enough for the both of us. Andrew says it’s best viewed large, and he’s right!

This photo is part of a collection of photos of Lake Michigan.

My friends in the band Song of the Lakes have a song about Lake Michigan called Pearl of America that does a better job than any words I can write expressing my love for this Great Lake (thank you YouTube for having almost everything).

No discussion of Song of the Lakes and YouTube is complete without The Benzie Rover by Anhina, an amazing World of Warcraft animation put together by the sister of one of my best friends.

salamander, frog, toad … michigan … headphones, computer, chair … boy, girl, small, large … ac/dc, back in black

Every piece or set of data we create or encounter - from basic objects to the most complex works of of the universe - has always held myriad associations. Until fairly recently, there was a limit to how you could tie those objects together in meaningful ways.

However, folksonomy and the rise of the tagged web have exploded the ways in which we can weave information together. From our own blogs and web sites to Flickr photo maps to crazily beautiful works beyond description, I feel we are all laboring over the cogs and gears of an impossibly complex machine with a form and function that none of us can forsee.

Jim aka j image took this photo. He has a lot more, and a wonderful eye for the world.

folksonomy (+wikipedia), folksonomy (+technorati), folksonomy (+evolution)

Not much I can say about this except “yeah, I was thinking about that…”

And check out an video from the Chronicle of Higher Education about the Kansas State prof Michael L. Wesch and the class that produced this and other videos at Digital Ethnography.