Things I’ve Seen

Just seen at the bottom of Things I’ve Seen:

Amazing science photographs from Princeton’s “First Annual” Art of Science competition.

The Australian government is seeking submissions on how copyright law might be changed to better reflect community expectations of fair use.

So, let me declare myself criminal. I make copies of music CDs that I purchase; both on CDRs and in electronic format. I do so because I consider the following to be (ethically, although not legally) fair use:

• My almost-two year old son like to put his music CDs on himself, and I wish to encourage this as part of his learning to control his environment. However, this tends to result in CDs getting scratched over a period of time. So we make copies of his CDs, store the orginals away, and put the copies in the original jewel case. When a CD is damaged, a fresh copy can be made.
• One of Jeyanth’s CDs was scratched and skipped when we purchased it. Rather than return it (at inconvenience and expense to both myself and the manufacturer), I made a copy (apparently Nero is good enough at error correction to make a copy without any noticable degredation).
• One of our cars does not have a CD player, so I have an iPod Shuffle and a tape adapter which I use to play music that I have purchased on CD.
• Similarly, on the rare occasions that I run, I like to listen to my legally purchased music without carrying around a CD player. iPod shuffle, again.
• I like to listen to a random selection of my music on my PC, but can only put one CD in at a time. So I use iTunes in shuffle mode to listen to my music collection.

All of these uses are currently illegal under Australian law, even though in every case I have purchased the music and just want to be able to listen to it…

Ross, at Less Travelled, strikes very close to the heart of things
Read the rest of this entry »

As part of cutting down drastically on my (worryingly high) caffiene intake, I’ve started drinking a lot of “Lipton Herbal Infusions”. I have to say, herbal teas have come a long way since I tried them while at university - they now actually have flavour, rather than just making the water smell nice.

So, out of curiousity, I glanced at the ingredients list for my current favourite “Lychee, Lime and & Passionfruit”.

Ingredients: Rosehips, Orange Peels, Blackberry Leaves, Hibiscus …

Australia are really getting into the swing of things …

Things just aren’t going to plan for Australia - in a nightmare week they have suffered four defeats in a row. The first was laughed off (Twenty20), the second was cause for concern (Somerset), the third was an historic shocker (Bangladesh) and this was the final loss that must cause Ricky Ponting to push that panic button he’s been talking about.

Because of the timezones I decided not to stay up until three a.m. to watch the second innings, so I missed Pietersen’s 91 off 65 balls that won the match, but I did get to see the most memorable moment of the match - Paul Collingwood’s incredible catch at point to remove Hayden.

So, when is an England cricket fan in Australia allowed to start hoping against hope that this time, the Ashes might be a contest?

Things my girlfriend and I have argued about… it’s long, and it’s very very funny. As in “don’t read in an environment where bursting out laughing and rolling on the floor is frowned upon” funny.

I’m not going to quote from it, because it’s really the cumulative effect….

Of course, we don’t take 20-20 cricket seriously yet. But I can’t resist noting the result of the Ashes warmup…

Darren Gough and Jon Lewis destroyed the Australian top order in less than six overs as England skittled Australia for 79, to complete a 100-run win in the Twenty20 international at The Rose Bowl. The match appeared to be evenly balanced at the midpoint after England had reached 179 for 8, thanks to a well-paced innings from Paul Collingwood who made 46 from 26 balls.

But even Collingwood’s boundary blitz in the final four overs was nothing compared to what came next, as the Ashes summer was launched in spectacular fashion. In an amazingly frenzied atmosphere, Australia’s top seven batsmen fell in the space of 20 balls, for eight runs.

In the comments, brainsnorkel suggests another blog meme. I like this one…

Total number of books owned:

A quick count suggests that in our house we have between 900 and 1000 books. Of those 100 or so are Jeyanth’s books, and the rest are ‘grown up’.

Last book bought:

“Difficult Gospel” by Mike Higton. I read a draft of this book, and even score a mention in the acknowledgments as someone who “tried to make me write less like a constipated academic, and more like someone who had met ordinary English”. Difficult Gospel is a very approachable introduction to the theology of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. Mike opens it with a superb description of William’s ‘one simple question’:

what difference would it have made if I let myself believe that … I was held in a wholly loving gaze? … And what difference would it have made if I had seen each face around me … as individually held in the same overwhelming, loving gaze?

Last book read:

Last book read for the first time: “Seven types of Ambiguity”, by Elliot Perlman. I don’t know if this book is well known outside Australia, but it should be; it’s brilliantly constructed around seven different perspectives moving through the same sequence of events, and manages to be tragedy, social comment, love story and introduction to criticism all in one.

Last book actually read: “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”. For the who-knows-how-many-th time. We went to see the movie the other week (which was excellent, at least in part because it didn’t follow the book) and I was inspired to return, as it were, to the source.

Five books that mean a lot to you:

• The Bible.
• Lord of the Rings. I have no idea how many times I’ve read this.
• The New Testament and the People of God, by N.T. Wright.
• Opportunity Knocks, by Ray Farley and Carol Stigger. A collection of twelve stories of people whose lives have been changed by Opportunity International, a microcredit development charity of which I am a huge fan.
• Just Java (I was snowed in one night at Keele University, and picked this up at the bookshop. Learning Java led me into my second, highly enjoyable, career, in software development).

Tag five people to continue this meme:

OK, I need to do six…

• Sureka
• Chris of Brainsnorkel, since he did it to me (done)
• Alan of Cardboard Nu (done)
• Alastair of girtby.net (done)
• Ross of Less Travelled (done but then removed?)
• Mike Higton (done)

Via Less Travelled, an interesting online quiz….