The weblog of Matthew Walker: MatthewWalker.net.nz, Otautahi, Aotearoa / Christchurch, New Zealand  
I believe in God,
only I spell it Nature.
— Frank Lloyd Wright

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 31

Admin

Recent comments

  • On 2006 in retrospect: "Name=http://techno-internet.blogspot.com/ all about internet,computers and last technologics,gadgets and devices=all about interneta . . ." [worrons]

SimCats

Nina is gazing at the fridge. Mitty is jumping on you. Open

Currently listening to...

Recent posts

Recent media

Today in history

Search

Categories

Months

My experiments, projects, and sites

Friends

Weblogs I read

Other interesting stuff / people

Misc.

Stats

  • Key: past three months [all time]
  • Word count: 1394 [172615]
  • Online for: 2268 days
  • Total posts: 10 [1357]
  • Posts / day: 0.12 [0.60]
  • Words / post: 139 [127]
  • Words / day: 17 [76]
  • Total comments: 5 [1050]
  • Comments / post: 0.50 [0.77]

Powered by...

  • TerraNova version 0.6

  • Tuesday, 23 March 2004

    • Sony vs. fair use

      Here in New Zealand it turns out there is no fair use provision that allows you to copy music you own for personal use. That means that you basically can't use products like Window Media Player, RealOne, Music Match, iTunes. You definitely can't use a portable MP3 player (unless you only download those sample MP3s from Amazon or record your own). Sorry New Zealand iPod owners: you're criminals.

      Some people like to load all their music onto their computer so that they can listen to it conveniently and all mixed together by mood or rating in interesting ways. Presumably this will lead to stealing cars, tax fraud, and abducting babies, which are some other examples of crimes.

      Now since some think this is a little ridiculous, the government seems to be trying to straighten things out  by making format shifting for personal use legal.

      And of course you just know what the music industry thinks, right? They prefer to keep their consumers criminalised. Sony says "At the end of the day, you're sending a message that it's okay to copy, and that is going to kill our business. It's taking away people's rights to earn a living, and that's horrendous."

      OK but at the same time Sony is selling a product called the Sony Net MD Walkman which is advertised on the Sony NZ website. Pity there's no way we can use it without breaking the law! Does Sony realise it is actually encouraging criminal behaviour with this device? Wow, the law really is confusing. Maybe we need to explain it to them.

      Fundamentally, Sony says there's no difference between loading our music into iTunes and burning it to a disc and handing out at the office or school.

      Me? I think it's brilliant. Make everybody a criminal and suddenly you have a government with ultimate power.  There's a lot of good weasel laws like this just waiting to be written. For example, the government could make wasting the country's natural resources a crime, so they could lock someone up for leaving a light on in an empty room.

       

      Posted by Matthew at 8:09:50 AM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Music | Back to top

    • All a bit disappointing really

      I can handle the fact that I take many pictures that are just plain bad. I can deal with the fact that sometimes my new second-hand camera seems to think unfocused might be a nice effect. I can manage the fact that my transparency film has a very limited exposure latitudethat must always be considered, and that simply makes some photos impossible. I live with the fact that the lab occasionally scratches a picture or even cuts it in half. But the thing I find most frustrating is when I'm holding a perfectly good slide, that my scanner (which was not cheap I might add) turns into high resolution rubbish. It achieves this by turning dark areas (such as a shadow or a blue sky) to black, and rich golden tones to a nasty reddish gunk. This is the classic problem all scanners have to some degree: the tendency to muddy up a perfectly nice picture. It just bothers me that this scanner seems to have so much of it.

      The end result is that after two evenings of scanning pictures I really wonder why I waste my time. Perhaps I should go back to using a lab.

      Posted by Matthew at 12:53:58 AM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Back to top

    • Nevis Road

      Taken Saturday, 13 March 2004


      Posted by Matthew at 12:32:40 AM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Places | Back to top

    • Nevis Road

      Taken Saturday, 13 March 2004


      The Nevis Road is a single lane dirt track behind Bannockburn at the head of Lake Dunstan.
      Posted by Matthew at 12:21:47 AM | Permanent link | Comments (0) | Email Matthew | Places | Back to top

Recent photographs

Smallness
Ocelot
Black
Stina and square
Royal spoonbills
Bachelor's button
Mimulus repens
Sea primrose
Saltmarsh ribbonwood
Eelgrass
Mudsnail
Selliera and glasswort