Kindle for Mac Finally!

Finally!

This will allow me to enjoy a couple books that have images that are too small to get any of the details out of.

Although, I was now tempted by the possibility of getting technical books in the Amazon Kindle format, I was immediately disappointed that there is no way to copy text or search!

Below are some features to be added in the near future:

  • Create notes and highlights
    Along with viewing the notes and highlights you created on other Kindle devices, you will be able to create and edit notes and highlights.
  • Search
    You will be able to search to find a word or a sentence in the book you are currently reading.
  • Zoom and rotate images
    Click on an image to see an expanded view and rotate it if desired.
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Great Artists Still Steal

Young great artists still steal.
Old great artists litigate?

I missed the news about the Apple-HTC Patent Lawsuit (Google Android) until tonight when I found out about it on Mark Jaquith’s blog.

I’m happy that these cards of Apple are finally on the table. I think Apple’s Multi-touch related patents have been hanging over the heads of other hardware and software developers.

I don’t think I’ve ever found myself agreeing with John Gruber more:

“No doubt some of you are nodding your heads and see this as justification for Apple’s suit. But life isn’t fair. Great ideas make the world better. Apple can rightly expect to benefit greatly from the ideas embodied by the iPhone, but they can’t expect to reap all of the benefits from those ideas.

That’s the nature of implementing insanely great ideas. The bar has been raised, and, yes, Apple did most of the lifting. That’s how it goes.”

John Gruber, “Daring Fireball: This Apple-HTC Patent Thing“, Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Right now people are in their venting phase. What comes next?

Is there an effective protest against the Apple-HTC patent lawsuit? Particularly something that Apple customers should do?

I can’t see enough people caring, particularly on the eve of the iPad.

May 5th quotes from the comments:

Ian wrote “I think Apple customers should use one finger at a time in protest.”

Mark wrote “Apple has to operate in the system as it exists.”

Terry — how can I just choose one — wrote “I do think that holders of software patents should be forced to do some sort of licensing because of the chilling effect they’re having on innovation.”

Posted in Computing, Consuming, Free Culture, Opinion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Spoon? Where do you put your bottom arm?

Illustration of Spooning (couple sleeping on their side, front to back)

Christoph Niemann's illustration of spooning

I don’t remember who gave me the link to Christoph Niemann’s brilliant illustrations in “Good Night and Tough Luck”, but often at night this image comes to mind.

It expresses so well my nightly ritual of trying to find a mutually comfortable place for my bottom arm.

My old standard was trying to weave it under her pillow above her head. The trouble with that move was the cold wall my wrist invariably is up against.

The challenges are currently heightened by my wife being pregnant.  The slightest variation to her pillow position affects her comfort.

Most recently I’ve been straight arming it at my side, but my arm tends to fall asleep, accelerating my turning over to actually fall asleep.

Where do you put the arm under you?

Posted in Opinion | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Government for the People Makes You Special

“It turns out that the International Intellectual Property Alliance, an umbrella group for organisations including the MPAA and RIAA, has requested with the US Trade Representative to consider countries like Indonesia, Brazil and India for its “Special 301 watchlist” because they use open source software.”

By Bobbie Johnson, “When using open source makes you an enemy of the state“, guardian.co.uk, Feb 23rd, 2010.

Canada is already “special”. We, Canadians, welcome these innovative countries!

Posted in Free Culture, Open Source | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

WordPress 3 Coming Together

The delirious pace of WordPress 3 development has been delicious!

I’ve enjoyed not being able to keep up at all.

The sprint is on to feature freeze!

There’s going to be a patch sprint of sorts for 3.0 this week. Please grab a ticket, triage, patch or test:http://core.trac.wordpress.org/report/32. The feature freeze is March 1, so everything still on that report in 7 days from now will be punted to a future release.

There are a few incomplete tasks out there that need to get done to finish implementing new features (both small ones on that report, and the major 3.0 features). If you’re interested in helping but aren’t sure where you can, venture over to #wordpress-dev.

Andrew Nacin on wpdevel, Feb 22th, 2010

Jane Wells puts up a “Patches Welcome” sign on a “a handful of small UI enhancement tickets that are low priority for the hardcore devs, but that I’d still like to see make it into 3.0.” Jane will “try to post a couple of pet tickets each day throughout the sprint week that is coming up.”

Better, stronger, faster blog network creation and management will be huge!

Mostly I can’t wait for the twenty ten theme, and the slow death of the (poorly) justified text that may have been the Kubrick themes only shortcoming.

PS. Emphasis above and below (bold) is all mine.

PPS. WordPress 3 will look so good in the title of the next technical book you write ;-)

Wednesday, Feb 23, 2010 Update: Jane has posted “Menus, the Merge, and a Patch Sprint!“ with details on the WordPress Development Blog, including the tidbit that WordPress 3 will have much improved menu management.

Posted in WordPress | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Insuring an Unborn Travelling Canadian

Will Your Baby By Covered in an Emergency?

If you are pregnant, it is important to check with your doctor for advice on traveling. However, finding insurance can be a problem, since travel insurance companies see pregnant travelers as high risk group. Most travel insurance providers will insure up to 9 weeks before expected date of delivery , beyond this, it becomes more difficult. Therefore it is important to look at the insurance policy fine prints to understand what is not covered in their exclusions.

Lets look at how Canadian travel insurance companies have their exclusions on pregnancy.

Pregnancy Travel Insurance :: Travel Insurance Quotes

The list they provide seems to be incomplete.

Of course, coverage is important for:

  1. The mother
  2. The unborn baby

Most of the Canadian travel insurance companies I checked seem not to cover (1) the mother if within the last 9 weeks, and will not cover (2) the unborn baby at all.

Are we civilized?

Won’t Cover the Baby

Here is the language TD CanadaTrust Insurance uses:

Exclusion: If a Dependent Child is born while the child’s mother is outside of her province of residence, the Dependent Child will not be insured with respect to that trip.

and

Pregnancy

  • pregnancy or childbirths within 9 weeks of expected delivery date;
  • any complication relating to pregnancy that occurs in the last 9 weeks leading up to the expected delivery date, or after the expected delivery date;
  • any child born during a Covered Trip;

TD Visa Travel Center sells another company’s insurance– ironic and confusing right — Canada Life:

16 a) Routine pre-natal care,

b) a child born during your trip,

c) in the 9 weeks before or after the expected date of delivery, complications of pregnancy and/or childbirth.

CoverMe (Manulife Financial – The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company) FAQ:

Unless otherwise stated in the policy, in order to be covered under this plan, children have to be at least 31 days old.

Might?

TIC Travel Insurance Coordinators Ltd:

EHM13 Routine or elective treatment for pregnancy within the first 32 weeks of the pregnancy.

EHM14 Pregnancy, childbirth or complications thereof after the 32nd week of pregnancy.

Will!

Pacific Blue Crossbenefits“:

2. Other exclusions
f. Pregnancy of the Covered person and complications arising from the pregnancy within 8 weeks preceding the expected date of delivery.
g. Premature birth of a child if the anticipated trip is scheduled to take place during the last 8 weeks of pregnancy or during the first 8 weeks following the expected delivery date.

My wife phoned and confirmed the coverage with Pacific Blue Cross.

Posted in Consuming | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Diversity Depends on Individuality

2. You should write your own biography, not delegate it to invisible masses on Wikipedia.

3. You should write other people’s biographies, from your point of view. Or at least tell true stories about them, which can be assembled by others into alternate views.

4. Sign your name to all your writing. Use your real name, the one on your driver’s license, tax returns, passport, draft card.

5. If you care about a subject, write a definitive piece on it that reflects your point of view,. Don’t settle for a compromise, group-think sanitized version in the form of a Wikipedia page.

Dave Winer, “Corporate media is the problem“, Jan 17th, 2010

Posted in Collaborating, Community, Consuming | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

WordPress Declaration of Independence

The WordPress Foundation is a charitable organization founded by Matt Mullenweg to further the mission of the WordPress open source project: to democratize publishing through Open Source, GPL software.

The point of the foundation is to ensure free access, in perpetuity, to the projects we support. People and businesses may come and go, so it is important to ensure that the source code for these projects will survive beyond the current contributor base, that we may create a stable platform for web publishing for generations to come. As part of this mission, the Foundation will be responsible for protecting the WordPress, WordCamp, and related trademarks. A 501(c)3 non-profit organization, the WordPress Foundation will also pursue a charter to educate the public about WordPress and related open source software.

We hope to gather broad community support to make sure we can continue to serve the public good through freely accessible software.

About Web page, WordPress Foundation

There are already a lot of great comments on the welcome post “Getting off the ground“. Here is a one of the many juicy comments made by Matt in response to a question posted there:

Sure, as a quick summary: [Wordpress.com and the Wordpress Foundation] completely separate, but share a similar name and my involvement. One is for-profit, the other non-profit. They both have similar goals in terms, but the Foundation can take a long-term multi-decade approach to solving these problems without regard for short term profit, market conditions, or shareholders. I’ve always had a vision for two simultaneous approaches to the WordPress way, the heart and the mind, but it’s just now coming together.

Posted in Free Culture, Open Source, WordPress | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Decision Making

If you want better communication, clarify the following:

  • Who is the single person who has decision making authority for decision X
  • Who should have input into that decision
  • Who should be informed when the decision has been made

This sets everyone’s expectations for who needs to know what.  It reduces endless forwarding of fyi material on the hopes someone might need it.

Scott Berkun, “How to stop overcommunication“, Jan 21, 2010

Posted in Collaborating, Communicating | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

No More Crunches For Me

While there are lots of ways to injure a back, the sit-up is an easily preventable one. According to his research, a crunch or traditional sit-up generates at least 3,350 newtons (the equivalent of 340 kg) of compressive force on the spine. The U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health states that anything above 3,300 newtons is unsafe.

So McGill suggests replacing sit-ups with exercises to strengthen the core while not bending the spine: bridges, planks, leg extensions, bird dogs, and “stir the pot.” The bird dog, for instance, simply involves getting on all fours and, while keeping the core muscles tight, extending the opposite arm and leg, then switching limbs. “Stir the pot” is a more complex movement: moving shoulders in a small circle while in a prone push-up position with forearms balanced on an exercise ball.

Patricia Treble, The man who wants to kill crunches, Macleans.ca, Jan 19th, 2010

Posted in Opinion | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments
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