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Category: Amusements (Page 3 of 31)

Things that are amusing

THURSDAY Carolina Innovations: Open Source Licensing: The Basics, The Benefits, The Buzz

As part of the Office of Technology Development‘s Carolina Innovations Seminars, I’ll be speaking on “Open Source Licensing: The Basics, The Benefits, The Buzz” on November 9 from 5:15 to 6:15 in 014 Sitterson Hall.

In the spirit of Openness, please dear readers and potential attendees, use the comments here to let me know any specific questions or areas that you’d like to see covered. I don’t want to talk endlessly on the differences between GPL 2 and 3, for example, unless someone cares, but then if someone does I want to be sure to be prepared and to do a good job.

Some helpful source material (pun intended) can be found at these links:
Free Software Foundation
Open Source Initiative
GNU Project
GNU Philosophy including the 4 Software Freedoms
Software Freedom Law Center
Wikipedia on Free Software
Wikipedia on Open Source Software

For non-software, see Creative Commons, iCommons (international Creative Commons movement) , and the Science Commons Project.

This is another experiment in opening the conversation like the one I just did down at Berry College where using the wiki really worked well. This time a blog post instead.

So Post at this link.

Love is all around: McGuinn/Dylan, Jones/Viscomi, Lyceum

Roger McGuinn writes to say that Bob Dylan and company have added the Folk Den as a special link from their site with this testimonial Roger McGuinn’s Folk Den: We recommend Roger McGuinn’s excellent Folk Den website, where Roger continues to chronicle some of the greatest songs in the folk tradition.”

Dr. Joe Viscomi and I get a little ink in the Durham Herald Sun about our Wilson Knowledge Trust Awards

Joseph Viscomi, a professor of English at UNC and Paul Jones, director of the ibiblio Web collection at the university, were honored as trailblazers in information and library science and information technology in the first Knowledge Trust Honors ceremony. They were among five “Knowledge Masters” honored for making a significant difference in education, exploration, innovation, next-generation leadership and lifetime achievement.

JJB writes to point out a great new Lyceum installation Libraries of the University of Queensland in OZ.

November 10: Peg Leg Sam, Possum Trot, and Pilebutts

What: Peg Leg Sam, Possum Trot, and PilebuttsFolkstreams.net at CRADLE Friday
When: noon – 1 pm Friday November 10
Where: 214 Manning Hall, UNC – Chapel Hill

Paul Jones and Kristina Spurgin will talk about preservation, digital preservation and access issues in Folkstreams.net, A National Preserve of Documentary Films about American Roots Cultures streamed with essays about the traditions and filmmaking. The site includes transcriptions, study and teaching guides, suggested readings, and links to related websites.

A recent award of a new IMLS grant will allow folkstreams.net to expand its collection of documentaries by 35 films.
Folkstreams.net will use also produce original material relating to the Folkstreams project, including:

. a guide to best practices in video digitization;
. video clips for the site’s Video Aids for Film Preservation section
. portals, guides and outreach materials for senior citizens and teachers.

Folkstreams.net

ROTFL! 1@/\/\3rz not 1337

BBC gives us the shocking news: “Geekspeak still baffles web users”.

The article tells us “So while 40% of online Britons receive news feeds, 67% did not know that the official term for this service was Really Simple Syndication.” Not that Brits need to know that but would it help if they knew that the meaning of RSS has changed with each release beginning as RDF Site Summary (for RSS 0.9 and 1.0), then becoming the more luser friendly Rich Site Summary (for RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0) before being renamed Really Simple Syndication (for RSS 2.0).

Whilst your garden variety Brits are not so 1337, those who use the net are Open savvy to the point of rejecting the iPods for more Open MP3 players:

Regular surfers are, according to the survey, gadget-hungry. Interestingly, although 68% of those interviewed possessed an MP3 player, only 20% owned iPods – the biggest selling digital music player.

The iPod may be less popular with surfers because there are fewer online music stores from which music can be purchased, said Mr Burmaster.

“The whole ethos behind the internet is about open access and for people already online, being able to access music from a variety of sources is important,” he said.

The Jingle Django Sound of the Old Ceremony

Sunday, Tucker got to play some prerelease cuts from Our One Mistake, new plastic from The Old Ceremony, on the new Teen Spirit Show on WCOM. Django Haskins and TOC are one of the bands that we both like a lot and have even gotten to see together.

I like how Django draws from Elvis Costello and REM and Leonard Cohen. The last LC is the source of the band name — from “New Skin for the Old Ceremony.” In “Radio Religion,” we get a nice homage to Elvis C’s “Radio Radio” in a couple of places even tho the tone of the song is much sweeter than LC’s. A bit of John Lennon vocals in another song. And witty Costello-ish, rather than overheavy Cohen-ish, writing throughout. (Yes, I’ve managed to hear the new collection a few times now).

Over on his News and Observer Music Blog, David Menconi writes about the band name, tells a quick story from Django and lets us know about the plastic release party on Saturday, Oct. 7 at Cat’s Cradle, which will be followed by a Sunday matinee performance at the Shakori Hills Grassroots Fall Festival.

This YouTube Live TOC Show from NYC this summer features these new songs: “Poison Pen,” “Papers in Order,” “Radio Religion,” and interview with Django and two other Ceremonials.

Paul Muldoon – October 9 at UNC

Muldoon as Rocker
Paul Muldoon is a wonderful and witty writer. One of the best and most unique to come from Ireland in a long time. He can be deep complex historical and completely wacky all within the same poem. More Joyceian than Yeatsian in many ways. I was lucky enough to be one of the Wake Forest Press readers for some of his early books and it’s been a delight to see his work mature.

You will not be disappointed.

When: 6 pm Oct 9
Where: Pleasant’s Family Room, Wilson Library

Official announcement with misspelling in tact:

Please join us for the opening of a special exhibit at UNC’s Rare Book Collection in Wilson Library: “Nobel Times Four: Yates, Shaw, Beckett, and Heaney.” Pulitzer Prize-Winning poet Paul Muldoon will read from and sign copies of his works at the opening:
October 9, 6PM
Pleasants Family Assembly Room, Wilson Library

The exhibit will run from Oct 9-Dec 31, 2006–but you will really enjoy hearing Paul Muldoon, so try to make the opening! Please invite your friends, students and colleagues as well. (a printable flyer is attached,
and more information is available at: http://www.lib.unc.edu/spotlight/nobelopening.html)

Creative Future?

Driving around Delhi — okay being driven around Delhi — when I saw a large poster with a “copyright” symbol on it and the words “Creative Future.” Turns out to be an advert for a contest sponsored by the Creative Future School of the the British Council; the award is a scholarship for creative business people under 35 in the fields of : advertising, architecture, crafts, designer fashion, film and video, interactive leisure software including computer games, music, performing arts – comedy, dance, theatre and the like, photography, publishing, radio, software, television, traditional Indian art forms, and visual arts.

Twenty young people with a business idea in the creative sector will be selected to take part in the Creative Future School at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore in August. There they’ll learn how to structure their business proposition, develop their networking skills, understand what an investor is looking for and hear from successful creative entrepreneurs about how they have built their businesses. The faculty will include senior academics from IIMB, leading figures from creative businesses in India and the UK and other experts.

The contest is a sort of RockStar/Idol competition for young Indian entrepreneurs. Whilst all of the pursuits are creative, all of them are somehow restricted in their creativity by broad restrictive intellectual property laws. You will need Windows Media to appreciate part of the Creative Future site.

Remember I’m here for the “Owning the Future: Ideas and Their Role in the Digital Age” symposium.

In an additional irony, The Hindu announced that “The Government will take the lead in popularising free software, Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said on Monday. Free software emerged as a force which could be used for growth and development” while reporting on `Free software for Kerala’s development,’ organised by the IT Mission and the Society for Promotion of Alternate Computing and Employment (SPACE) here which featured a talk by FSF’s Richard Stallman.

Tucker to DJ Sunday on WCOM-LP

Readers of this blog who seem to be too shy to comment have stopped me and asked “When will Tucker be DJing again.” Fear not, o shy ones! Tucker and his friend Henry G will DJing the DanceJam on Sunday August 20 from 2 pm to 4 pm on WCOM-LP Community Radio 103.5. Yes you can listen online

As someone who plays a lot of 2 Tone music: Specials, English Beat, Selector and Madness, Tucker is disappointed that the upcoming Beat/Specials/Selector show at the Cat’s Cradle on September 26 isn’t an all ages show.

YouTube killed the net.Radio star?

YouTube will have “every music video ever made” [if they don’t already ;->] “in 18 months” founder Steve Chen tells Reuters news agency (as reported by BBC).

Already I look for music on YouTube before I look anywhere else. I can’t find a listening copy of “Urban Spaceman” by the Bonzo Do Dah Dog Band, but I can find about 10 videos on YouTube, promos, TV appearances, and live shows!
I can even explain how and where Death Cab for Cutie got their name. [note George Harrison and John Lennon in the audience].

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