Archive for March, 2006

Circumventing Fair Use to Enrich the Rich

Published at 31 March 2006 in Politics Pisses Me Off, Society, et al and Technology. 1 Comment

CNET News.com reported today on entertainment industry resistance to any changes to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and how this impedes everyone from researchers and educators right on down to you and I.

It is scary how quickly and unwittingly we give away our rights these days. Whether it is falling for the old “Remember 9/11″ ploy to gain our acceptance of domestic spying or simply forgetting the meaning of Fair Use in Copyright law. Although, I suppose that in the latter we are actually buying away our rights.

While record companies and movie studios cry to congress about how much money piracy takes out of their pockets on a yearly basis, we continue to indulge in their mostly substandard crap. Sadly enough, congress buys into their crap, passing questionable laws that make it legal for the recording and movie industries to install potentially damaging software on your computer and illegal for you to circumvent it. Not that it stops people. The fact is, these industries lose far more money spending millions to promote complete and utter crap.

So what does this have to do with Fair Use? Well, for starters, the RIAA is now postulating that if we want a CD on our iPod, we should buy the digital format music rather than rip the CD. According to the RIAA CDs can only be ripped or copied in order to create a backup in case of loss or theft. This is an complete 180 from five years ago when then said they had no problem with people ripping music for digital players. Why? Because with the sudden boom in online music sales they realized that they would be missing out on millions in sales from people ripping previously purchased CDs. Or, in one word, greed.

The DMCA has further implications on Fair Use in research, reporting, and education- several of the widely used copy protection schemes aren’t operable with all equipment, for instance some aren’t compatible with Apple’s Mac OS which is widely used in educational and research facilities. How do teachers copy an article from The New Yorker CD-ROM when it is buried in eighteen layers of copy protection?

It is abundantly clear that once again congress has sold away our rights to enrich the rich and fill their reelection coffers.

Want a better copy protection scheme? Stop concentrating on software and hardware devices that will always be circumvented (where there is a will, there is a way) and concentrate on shutting down operations that actually profit from the sale of pirated materials.

At the beginning of every DVD and somewhere on every CD is that ever amusing FBI Anti-Piracy Warning that states “The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.” What worries me more than Sony losing a few million a year to piracy is the fact that the FBI, which as we all know failed miserably at saving two thousand Americans on 9/11, spends as much time as it does making sure that MGM gets paid. And yes, I just played the 9/11 card.

Almost Famous

Published at 22 March 2006 in All Things Art and Technology. 1 Comment

podSALADOne step closer to fame… The Toner Transfer Plate Etching podcast is now available for download on iTunes. Alright, perhaps three steps from obscurity is closer to the truth… There are, afterall, over a million podcasts on iTunes, but hell, you can’t take my sunshine from me.

You can always just download it below, but if you’ve got iTunes, why not subscribe to podSALAD? If you don’t, why not download iTunes? It beats the hell out of Windows Media Player afterall…

Moving… Three Steps Backward

Published at 22 March 2006 in Society, et al. 0 Comments

Last week, after two years in the same apartment complex, after paying rent on time- often three months in advance, I received a letter informing me that they wouldn’t be renewing my lease. Initially I thought perhaps they were finally going to just raze the property and build quality living over it. But no, really they decided that I no longer met their credit requirements.

This strikes me as further proof that business has more rights than they people who line their pockets. It also serves as a scathing indictment of landlord / tenant law in Florida. My credit now is exactly the same as it was two years ago when they accepted me, yet there are no protections for people with stellar rental records. Admittedly, I do have an eviction on my record, but the complex knew about this before I even signed my first lease, so it seems unfair that they can change their mind two years later.

During my stay at the Palms of Apalachee, my roof leaked for a year and a half and all of the window and door screens were either broken or missing altogether. I filled out over a dozen written maintenance requests. On three occaisions I was told that the roof had been repaired, numerous other times I was told they were just waiting for the home office to approve the estimate received from the roofers. But up until the day I moved, my roof leaked and my windows had no screens. Yet I continued to pay $606 a month.

Well, until this month, anyway. The notice of non-renewal served as the affront that broke this camel’s back. After appealing to their sensibilities (why kick out a tenant who pays in advance?) and failing, I resigned myself to my fate of moving… But not without spitting in their eye first. After the manager wrote me a letter attesting to my impeccable two years of rental at the complex, I handed her a letter notifying the complex of their material non-compliance with the terms of the lease, and my intent to withhold my final month’s rent.

Florida statutes state that landlords must provide a sound structure with a solid roof that does not leak. It also states tenants must allow reasonable time for repairs. A year and a half is more than enough allowance for repairs. As a tenant, I was expected to pay rent in a timely manner. I also had a reasonable expectation of repairs being made in just as timely a manner. So we’ll see what happens.

Really, though, the Palms of Apalachee aren’t the only ones standing in my way of a smooth month. Sprint, my local service provider, put a stick in the wheel of progress by changing my IP address (despite assurances to the contrary) and leaving all the websites I host offline for two days while the changes propagated around the net. As you can see I’m finally back online, but it was still a rather large inconvenience, because had they informed me that they would be changing my IP, I could have allowed for a smoother migration.

Regardless, I’ve finally moved, albeit into a smaller location that lacks air conditioning. At least the roof doesn’t leak.

A New Definition of Progress

Published at 19 March 2006 in Politics Pisses Me Off, Society, et al and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Want is one only of five giants on the road of reconstruction; the others are Disease, Ignorance, Squalor, and Idleness.”-Baron William Henry Beveridge

Apparently, progress now has a new definition. Well, if you use the Bush Dictionary of American English, anyway. In the three years since “liberating” Iraq, our President today trumpeted the progress made in there.

Gone are the days of the Hussein dictatorship. Replaced, instead, by relentless sectarian violence. An insurgency that 10 months ago was in its last throes, according to Vice President Dick Cheney, has given way to the deaths of 50 - 60 Iraqis per day in tit-for-tat attacks between Sunnis and Shia. No longer to Iraqis live in fear that if they speak out against Saddam Hussein they might disappear, now their only fear is leaving the house and turning up in a mass grave somewhere outside Baghdad as a result of their religious beliefs. Now that, my friends, is progress.

Only half the country remains without electricity or potable water. Gas lines in one of the most oil rich nations in the world are down to a mere twelve hours- if a suicide bomber doesn’t muck up the works. More proof of our steady progress.

Are troops are hardly making progress, rather they seem to be treading water under the weight of a hundred pound block. Rather than increase their numbers and do the job right, we instead insist on handing more and more responsibility over to a crumbling police force awash in sectarian militias. Surely not for the benefit of anyone other than those in Washington concerned not for our troops or the Iraqi people, rather out of concern for the upcoming 2006 and 2008 elections.

No one wants to send more people into Iraq, but 60% of the American population supported entering the fray, unsupported by the world community, 3 years ago. Now in a place where much of the population lacks electricity, gas, water, and functioning schools, where business owns can’t open normal hours, violence foments. The two problems are inextricably linked. Without basic needs met, unrest, resentment, and violence increase. Without greater troop numbers to maintain security while also providing protection to contractors attempting to rebuild infrastructure destroyed during Shock and Awe, the situation will only deteriorate.

Germany, after World War II, was occupied for more than 40 years- and that was with an international contingent. So here we are, three years in with a pseudo-coalition, already calling for our troops to be brought home. The fault lies both on an administration who declared we would be welcomed and that Iraq would be a cake walk, and on an American public who has become so accustomed to microwaves and broadband that we actually believed that nation building was a one to two endeavor.

Realistically, progress takes time, even more time under periods of gross mismanagement. For us to pull out of Iraq involves international support in rebuilding and a UN Peacekeeping force, both of which are mere pipe dreams for as long as we belligerently act as though in the UN, only US opinion matters. We may be the richest and most powerful country in the world, but that only makes us shrewd, not smart. The idea of an international community is based on dialog, debate, and common ground, not US world supremacy.

The fact is, we broke Iraq. As such, we have bought it. The post-war sectarian violence is proof that Iraq is nothing more than a giant china shop, and the US is the 3 ton bull that took a detour through it on our search for terrorists.

Perhaps, when we can say that the Iraqi people do welcome us and America is more secure, we will also be able to say we’ve made progress.

To be welcomed in Iraq, we must give the populace the basic necessities we take for granted day-to-day. Simply put, if America is to be any more secure than we were March 18, 2003, then it is incumbent upon us to leave Iraq better than we found it. And when it is, perhaps then we can whip out the classic definition of progress.

Things To Do in Tallahassee…

Published at 14 March 2006 in All Things Art and Tallahassee Events. 0 Comments

Pulled this little gem off Other End of the Tube’s Vox Populi message board. It should be a good time, so if you’re around on March 24, why not head down to the Park Avenue Diner.

Heads up, Comix Heads!

Florida State University’s Art Students League is hosting it’s first ever “24 Hour Comics Challenge” at the Park Avenue Diner on campus.

Event is Thursday, March 23 from 6pm to Friday, March 24 at 7pm-Contestants are advised this is a marathon event!

“Understanding Comics” author Scott McCloud posited that averaging 1 page per hour, an artist should be able to produce a comic in 24 hours. Results of this challenge have been varied and many. The challenge is to create 24 pages of comic narrative (any styles, mediums, or genres accepted,Digital work also accepted.) in 24 hours. The trick comes in that this is an exercise in spontaneity, no pre-work can be done before the event begins. You can only think up your ideas and gather your materials. Minimum supplies will be available (paper, pencils) so you might just follow the boy-scout credo and BE PREPARED! Lights, rulers, markers, erasers, sharpeners, pillows, toothbrush, deodorant, whatever you might need, bring it! Contestants should plan to work at a size relative to 10 3/8″ x 15 3/4″ for reproduction purposes. All work will be collected and published in a black and white volume by the Art Students League for distribution on campus and elsewhere. Proceeds to go to the Shelter on Tennessee St. Jurors will read and select the three best works out of the completed submissions, Inquiries can be made to aslfsu@gmail.com. Formal rules and regulations and posters like the one attached are available if you’re interested in spreading the word.

Contestants will be occupying a section of the Park Avenue Diner for close to 25 hours. A 10 dollar fee for students/20 for non-students is required to pay for snacks, but contestants should be prepared to buy anything extra that they wish to consume. Park Avenue Diner has agreed to close a section off expressly for this event. Late Registration begins Thursday at 6:00 pm, contestants can begin as soon as they have checked in and set up. Pencils down at 7pm on Friday. See you there!

Originally posted at Vox Populi.

On Strong Beliefs and Blind Faith

Published at 14 March 2006 in Politics Pisses Me Off, Religion and Society, et al. 1 Comment

Strong beliefs kill.

As an example, look no further than 9/11 or at the last time a doctor was killed for performing an abortion. Yes, I have picked rather glaring examples. But really, anyone can partake on a smaller scale: the 55% of the country that supported sending American troops into Iraq despite the administration’s shaky reasoning, for example.

Take for example, George Bush’s strong evangelical beliefs, on everything from abortion and gay rights to the worldwide sale of democracy, which prevent him from considering any opposing points of view. Evangelicals like George Bush and the blatantly prejudiced Jack Chick and Fred Phelps aren’t the only examples of how beliefs harm people. Three prominent American Cardinals recently pontificated about Catholic politician’s responsibility to stand against abortion, the death penalty, and gay rights. A politician is not beholden to the church, rather an electorate of vastly different ideals. It is his or her responsibility to protect the rights of the individual, not only the majority, but the under-represented.

A person has the right to control over their body, be that through abortion, drug use, or assisted suicide. The imposition of conservative Christian ideals in a melting pot only alienates those who don’t share those beliefs, anymore than the Muslim residents of France who spent the better part of the fall rioting. The responsibility of citizens, politicians, and religious leaders alike, is too show tolerance for the ideals of each other. What is right for you may not be right for me, or vice versa.

My entire point is that strong beliefs, be them under the guise of political or religious affiliation, rabid nationalism, or overt prejudice does massive harm to societies. Beliefs, primarily strong ones, don’t change- look at George Bush’s bull-headed instance on the existence of WMDs in Iraq… Or Dick Cheney’s refusal to acknowledge his daughter’s right to choose who she wants to marry (whether she personally supports her rights or not). Even the refusal of Governors to commute death sentences in the light of incomplete evidence or the mounting numbers of exonerated death row inmates.

Ideas are open to change. Ideas save. Call them flip-floppers, say they lack clarity and resolution if you like, but I always considered it a hallmark of an intelligent person to be able to reevaluate information and change course based upon new information. Tunnel vision and resolute stubbornness seem indicative of ignorance… Blind faith will lead you over off the edge of a cliff before it will deliver you to heaven. If indeed a superior being is responsible for the Big Bang, we evolved with free will and the capacity for thought, and surely it wouldn’t want us to waste that?

Toner Transfer Plate Etching

Published at 12 March 2006 in All Things Art. 2 Comments

I enjoy printmaking. Be it etching, silkscreen, or woodcut, I enjoy most every traditional method of printmaking. I also value the tools that technology has bestowed upon our modern world, despite the fact that technology will destroy us all. To that end, SJ Roberts and I began working with Press ‘n Peel laser transfer film. At $1.00 per sheet the film is far more affordable than Imagon or similar techniques. The transfer film allows you to print using a copy machine or laser printer, and acts as a resist during the etching process. Ths method works on both copper and zinc plates; however, my results have been consistently superior on copper.

If you want to try out this method, feel free to download the Instructions or the video demo. If you have any questions, make use of the Contact link above, and I’ll try and answer your questions if I can.

Toner Transfer Plate Etching Instructional PDF

Toner Transfer Instructional Video

  • Download AVI (10.6 MB)
    Download the AVI if you are using Windows Media Player.
  • Download Podcast (25.2 MB)
    Mac and iTunes users download the podcast.

Toner Transfer Plate Etching Method
Materials:

  • Press-n-Peel Blue Image Transfer Film (available from www.techniks.com)
  • Copper or Zinc Plate
  • Clothes Iron
  • Newsprint
  • Packaging tape and Paint Pen / Sharpie for touch-ups
  • Contact Paper

Preparation:

  • Use a photocopy machine or laser printer to print your image onto the dull side (emulsion) of Press-n-Peel Image Transfer Film. After printing, trim Press-n-Peel so it is about 1⁄4” larger than the printed image.
    • Line Art and Halftone images work best with this process, large areas of black will make it hard to clean the plate before printing.
    • Your transfer should be a negative image. The areas on the plate where the toner is transferred will not be affected by the acid and will thus become the areas of the print that will not receive ink.
  • Cut your plate so that it is about a half-inch larger on all sides than the image to be transferred. File the corners of the plate to round them. Be sure to remove all burrs left on the edge from cutting as they tend to prevent even contact between the heated surfaces and the transfer film.
  • Clean the plate and dry it with a lint free cloth.
  • Heat the iron to the “polyester” setting. Heat the hotplate to 325°, it is recommended that you put an extra piece of copper plate larger than the piece you will be transferring to on the hot plate so the plate will receive more even heat.

    • Transfer Method:

  • Place the copper plate you are transferring to on top of the heated plate on the hotplate. Allow the plate to heat for a minute or two.
  • Spray a light misting of water onto the dull side of the transfer film and lay the film onto the copper plate with the dull side facing down.
  • Place a piece of newsprint over the top and move the iron over the top to transfer the image.
    • Apply light pressure; too much pressure can damage the transfer.
    • It can take from 1 1/2 to 10 minutes for a complete transfer depending upon the thickness of copper you are using and the type of toner used by the laser printer or photocopy machine.
    • Lift the newsprint frequently to check the progress of the transfer; areas that have transferred appear as a darker blue than areas that have not been transferred.
  • Once the image has transferred remove the plate from the heat and immediately quench the backside (the side of the plate without the transfer film) with cold running water, this will help to prevent any remaining bubbles from affecting the image quality.
  • Gently peel the film from the copper plate while running cold water over the front of the plate, allowing water to run between the film and the copper speeds removal.

    • Touch-ups:

  • To remove small filled areas, cover the area with packaging tape, and remove. This will pull all unwanted filled areas off of the plate.
  • Blank spots that need to be protected from the acid during the etching process can be covered using a paint pen. The paint pen will resist acid like any other ground.

    • Etching:

  • Wash the board before etching to remove any surface oxidization. Cover the backside with contact paper to prevent the acid from etching it.
  • Etch with Ferric Chloride.
  • After etching the transfer film can be removed using a soap-free steel wool pad.

    • I Wonder Why?!?

    Published at 9 March 2006 in Society, et al. 0 Comments

    Found this in the Washington Post today…

    As the war in Iraq grinds into its fourth year, a growing proportion of Americans are expressing unfavorable views of Islam, and a majority now say that Muslims are disproportionately prone to violence, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

    The poll found that nearly half of Americans — 46 percent — have a negative view of Islam, seven percentage points higher than in the tense months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, when Muslims were often targeted for violence.

    So is this any wonder given the rabid nationalism American media?

    In the months leading up to the Iraq war, all the cable news channels beat the drums for war, with barely any scrutiny of the evidence presented. Since 9/11, television and movie studios are constantly pushing out more terrorism and combat related shows; a vast majority of them portraying Arabs and Muslims as terrorists. What sort of an example does our own Congress set when it throws more attention into blocking an Arab firm from managing our ports than it does into vetting Supreme Court nominees?

    I could understand resistance to allowing foreign firms to manage ports if the reason was to create more opportunity for American businesses, but lets face it, the ports have been managed up until now by a British company. The reasoning for Congress’s latest moves can be summed up by the word prejudice.

    Additionally, a growing trend in evangelical America is a growing, unwavering support for Israel- under the notion that they are “God’s chosen people.” Thus building the impression that the Palestinians, and by association Arabs in general, are nothing more than a bunch of savage thugs. Little concern is given to the fact that the Palestinians live in fetid conditions and have been living in occupied territories for nearly 40 years. While I do not support attacks on civilian targets, people do have the right to defend themselves against a vastly superior military force.

    Little has been done to underscore to the American populous that Islam is an scholarly religion, whose image has been hijacked by a small number of extremists. There have been Public Service Announcements encouraging vigilance, but none educating the ignorant among us to the dangers of these prejudices.

    The past few years may have damaged the image of America throughout the world, but sadder still, we have damaged the already fragile image our own citizens have of the Arab world.

    The Fall of Rome

    Published at 3 March 2006 in Politics Pisses Me Off and Society, et al. 0 Comments

    As history goes, Rome fell as the citizens became apathetic, concerned only with themselves- their pleasures and profits- blind to the outside world.

    Witnessing six years of gross negligence on the part of the Bush administration- from distorted intelligence to stoke public opinion in favor of an ill-prepared war to the President lying on national television as to the extent of his knowledge prior to the breach of New Orleans’ levees- leaves me wondering what our President can’t get away with.

    Lets face it, our country wasted $50-million investigating Presidential hanky-panky under the guise of the Whitewater land deal. Congress tried its hardest to impeach a President for perjuring himself about an extra-marital affair, because it offended out WASP-ish sensibilities.

    Yet there has been little, if any, investigation into fabricated evidence leading to an illegal war, the violation of civil liberties through warrantless wiretaps, or the award of billions of dollars in no-bid military contracts in a blatant show of cronyism.

    The government continues to cut spending to entitlement and social programs to finance wars we cannot afford because of fiscally irresponsible tax cuts. Education grants are on the chopping block, because America’s youth don’t need education as much as business needs tax breaks- even as they export jobs to countries without wage protections.

    The issues that matter most to U.S. citizens currently are abortion and gay marriage. Where are our priorities? Over two thousand young men and women are dead. An American city sits a shell of its former self, with reconstruction occurring at a snail’s pace, without the threat of suicide bombings hanging over the effort as it does in Iraq. We can spend billions on bombs, but balk at spending equally on reconstructing a city in our own country.

    We have truly become an apathetic country, we are screwed on a daily basis, and most of us could care less. We decry the flip-floppers, yet ignore the constant shifting of our Commander in Chief. So long as we have Big Macs, bling, and Mtv, we are content to watch our civilization follow the trail blazed by the Romans.