Elegy

There is something especially haunting and beautiful about the Anglo-Saxon elegiac poem. Reading too many of them in a row can be terribly depressing, but at the same time, I miss reading them if I haven't done so in a long time. For History of the English Language, I'm learning how to pronounce Old English; while looking up some material related to that, I ran into a reference to Deor, one of the most impressive of the Old English elegies (in my opinion).

I think it is memorable because it is easy to sympathize with the poet. Before getting to his own problems, he tries to think of all kinds of horrible past events that others have experienced and then remarks, “As that passed away, so may this.” I too like to try to make myself think maybe this or that problem isn't quite so bad by thinking of how others have made it through worse events. The final exclamation to each stanza is a reminder that suffering is only temporary, but it also pounds in the whole sense that life is transitory. Hence, the poem is also a sobering reminder when things are going well: that passes away too.

If you're so inclined, you might want to read Deor, if you have not already had the pleasure of doing so. A fairly literal, if not wonderfully readable translation is located here.

GPS and Photos

I haven't ironed out all of the bugs, but I've started geotagging my photographs. Using the wonders of technology, I can match the date stamps hidden inside each digital photo (using JPEG's EXIF data) against my waypoint log on my new Garmin Foretrex 101 GPS unit. Doing so allows my photos to get fairly precise coordinates that can then be used to show them on Google Earth. “Say, where's that photo I took down on the Katy Trail by the Page Ave. bridge? I'll just look in Google Earth.” I also understand Apple's Spotlight search can do some geographical searching, though I've not tried it yet.

The easiest to use Mac program for the job crashes on my main computer and another one requires taking over iPhoto's job as my photo organization tool, so for the moment I'm using a Perl script to handle the geocoding process of matching the GPS's GPX log to the JPEG files. Hopefully I can get my preferred application choice to quit crashing (it doesn't crash on my Mac mini), but even with the added hassles of my current temporary solution, it is really amazing to get to look in Google Earth and see where I've walked and what photos I took along my path.

I'm sure I'll be posting more on this in the coming days. If you haven't yet figured this out, getting the data off my new GPS unit was why I was complaining about serial devices the other day. I had to buy a serial to USB adapter to get it to work on my “legacy free” computers. sigh

Do You Have a B.C.?

I heard this from my pastor this evening at Alpha:

[My friend is a rather old-fashioned lady, always quite delicate and elegant, especially in her language. She and her husband were planning a week's vacation in Florida, so she wrote to a particular campground and asked for a reservation.

She wanted to make sure the campground was fully equipped, but didn't quite know how to ask about the toilet facilities. She just couldn't bring herself to write the word “toilet” in her letter. After much deliberation she finally came up with the old-fashioned term “bathroom commode.” But when she wrote that down, she still felt that she was being too forward. So she started all over again, rewrote the entire letter, and referred to the bathroom commode merely as the B.C. “Does the campground have its own B.C.?” is what she finally wrote.

Well, the campground owner wasn't old-fashioned at all, and when he got the letter he just couldn't figure out what the woman was talking about. That B.C. business really stumped him. After worrying about it for a while, he showed the letter to several campers, but no one could imagine what the lady meant, either. He knew that the Joe-kster lived in British Columbia, but that wasn’t what the lady was referring to. So the campground owner, finally coming to the conclusion that the lady must be asking about the location of the Baptist Church, sat down and wrote the following reply…]

Dear Madam: I regret very much the delay in answering your letter, but I now take the pleasure of informing you that a B.C. is located nine miles north of the campground, and is capable of seating 250 people at one time. I admit it is quite a distance away if you are in the habit of going regularly, but no doubt you will be pleased to learn that a great number of our people take their lunches along and make a day of it. They usually arrive early and stay late. If you don't start early, you probably will not make it in time. The last time my wife and I went was six years ago, and it was so crowded we had to stand up the whole time we were there. It may interest you to know that right now, there is a supper planned to raise money to buy more seats. They're going to hold it in the basement of the B.C. I would like to say it pains me very much not being able to go more often, but it surely is no lack of desire on my part. As we grow older, it seems to be more of an effort, particularly in cold weather. If you decide to come down to our campground, perhaps I could go with you the first time you go, sit with you, and introduce you to all the other folks. Remember, this is a friendly community!”

Chalk that up as a danger of being too proper!

What is it?

This has been a long time coming… but it isn't quite here yet. What is it?

Twenty asisaid points are waiting for those who guess correctly.

Update (2006.10.01): I've fixed a problem that kept my mystery image from showing up in some scenarios.

Serial devices...

…are so much more trouble than USB devices.

License to (Not) Call

About eight weeks ago, I ordered some new license plates. Specifically Missouri Conservation plates — they have a nice picture of the state bird on them and the money goes to support Missouri's wonderful system of parks operated by the Conservation Department.

To get the plates, you must fill out a form, send it to the right people in Jeff City, wait, receive a form back, and then send that form back to Jeff City (this time to the Department of Revenue). This was much more of a project than I originally anticipated — I doubt I would have even bothered had know precisely how long it would all take to get organized.

At any rate, I sent the second batch of stuff in about eight weeks ago. The idea is that you hear from your local licenses bureau when the plates come in. So I waited. I figured it might take a couple of weeks. Or maybe a month. Or maybe six weeks. Finally, at the eight week point, I decided to call. I get ahold of a the bureau and the staffer goes and looks in the plates that they've received. Sure enough, the plate was there. It seems they forgot to tell me the plate came in. Just a minor detail, eh?

Tomorrow, I shall get my plates.

TQ: Relaxing

Below is this week's Thursday Question from Mark.

1.After a rough day at the office what is the first thing you do to help unwind?
I'm not consistent, but often times, I'll sit down and check my e-mail. That's a nice break before I start on whatever I need to accomplish at home.

2.If your day has been particularly rough, do you change something about your normal schedule to help ease the stress?
Maybe I will do less when I get home.

3.Do you find that working out helps you to deal with stress better?
No, not really.

4. What do you consider a nice stress free thing to do? Like on a day off or maybe right before going to bed.
Reading a good book. As time permits, I always have some book I'm in the middle of to read before bed (usually fairly fluffy fiction). For a break during the day (or on a “stress free” kind of day), I'll have something else I'd like to read, but requires me to be sharper than something I'd read before bed, that I'll read. The latter may be fiction or non-fiction — I switch back and forth.

Photography is another stress free kind of activity on a day off.

Note: The questions on this page written by Mark are governed by the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.5 license. I believe my responses are allowed under fair use and therefore are not licensed under the Creative Commons license (I don't want people messing with adapting my personal opinions, thank you very much).

iSee iPod iNfringement

Point 1: Acronyms and Revisionism. My friend Mark countered my earlier arguments with the suggestion that the “pod” in Podcasting refers to “portable on demand.” I'd never heard it in that sense, except for in reference to the storage units, but that doesn't mean it isn't true. The Wikipedia had someone add this reference to the beginning of the podcasting article the other day, however it was removed, which makes me suspect that the editors saw it as a suggestion of questionable quality, just as I do. That does not seem to be what people typically mean when they use the term. Is this really anything other than a revisionist change in defense of fears that Apple would cry foul? The Guardian, the publication that first used the term “podcast” has this to say on the matter:

According to Creative Labs, it stands for “Personal On Demand broadCAST” (from www.zencast.com/about). However, that interpretation differs significantly from that intended by web developer Ben Hammersley. He first used the phrase in an article in the Guardian on February 12, 2004, as a synonym for the unwieldy “audioblogging”. He meant it as a contraction of “broadcasting” (because the content is sent over the net) and “iPod” (as a byword for MP3 players).

The article continues with some serious support for the assertion that podcast usually doesn't mean “portable on demand audiocast.”

Says Hammersely [the coiner of the term]: “Creative are talking rot. The pod in 'podcast' was obviously and blatantly meant to refer to the iPod. The accusation that I'd use such a clumsy acronym invites another one: […censored…].” We're sure Creative will spell out what that means.”

Now, there is no denying Creative and just about anyone else can say “but wait, now when we use the term we mean this, that, and the other thing.” What must be recognized however is that in this case such a claim is revisionist. If people could get away with such claims, I could start using Cokemachine to refer to my fancy new soda dispensing system and, when Coca-Cola tried to sue me, say, “I'm not referring to Coca-Cola, I'm referring to 'Cola Out of a Kool Electronic MACHINE.'” I think everyone knows that we'd have something other than “podcast” as the name of audio/video blogging if not for the fact that the iPod name has become synonymous with the MP3 player. If such a weak defense was accepted in cases of trademark infringement, virtually anyone could weasel out of trademark infringement.

If we rule out the “but, but, but, I don't mean iPod!” defense, we still have to deal with two other parts of my premise. First, that perhaps podcasting and iPods are so different the trademark is not an issue and, second, perhaps Apple wasn't first to use the term (unlike my earlier claim).

Point 2: Different Sectors. Apple argues that it is not infringing on the Apple Corp. trademark on the principle that no one is confusing Apple Computer with the Beatle's Apple Corp. record label. They are two companies in very different markets, and even now that Apple sells music, it doesn't do so in a way likely to confuse consumers. Does this apply to the iPod versus “podcasting”? This is admittedly somewhat subjective, but I would say no. “iPod” refers to a “digital audio player” (DAP), “podcasting” refers to an audio-blog that is typically could be played back on a DAP. Note that while the two are not the same thing, podcasting is something that is directly related to the iPod in such a way that it seems logical that “I have an iPod, so something broadcast from it would be a “podcast.” Just because my Cokemachine isn't a soda in and of itself does not clear it of infringement.

That leaves us with one point, and this is the one I think you'll want to challenge if you want to show that “podcasting” isn't infringement.

Point 3: Prior Art. If “podcasting” or “pod” existed as references to DAPs and activities involving DAPs prior to the iPod, this would clear “podcasting” from infringement. For example, I used the name SAFARI for my CMS before Apple used it for its web browser. If Apple decided to sue me for “infringing” on its common law trademark claims to “Safari,” I could easily (albeit expensively) counter that I used it first. I have plenty of archived proof showing I used the name as early as 2000 on the web and even earlier — 1999 — in private correspondence. Can anyone show that “pod” was associated with a DAP prior to the Fall 2001 launch of the iPod? Better yet, prior to the development of the iPod?

I have tried to be fair with the points listed above. I challenge anyone to show that any of them (or all of them) are unreasonable. If you cannot, I would suggest it is disingenuous to continue to insist Apple is legally wrong to do what it is doing. This doesn't mean you can't continue to argue that Apple is making a bad business decision in suing over this term, of course. I'd find myself in agreement with such a view, but that is a story for another post.

Twain on Cats

I heard this last night and thought it worth posting:

Of all God's creatures there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.

I certainly was right about the first part. My cat woke me up several times last night as he tried to take more and more of the bed. But, he isn't spoiled or anything like that.

Apple and the Podcasting Trademark

I posted a comment on the Apple/Podcasting trademark controversy earlier today on Mark's blog. While I was going to write something more extensive here, I don't have time, so I'll just repost the text of my comment here:

Changing the name would make a lot of sense. Not to sound like the Apple apologist I am, but I expected this to happen for legal reasons. I don't think anyone can deny that the Pod in Podcasting comes from iPod. No one referred to MP3 players as *pod until Apple came around with the iPod. Like any sensible trademark holder, Apple has looked down on derivative trademarks, because those weaken the trademark holder's claim to their own name (failure to defend a trademark will destroy the trademark holder's claim to the name per U.S. law –– this isn't Apple's peculiarity, it is our government's).

Note that with Linux, for a company to use Linux in their product name (e.g. Red Hat Linux), one must obtain a derivative trademark agreement from, IIRC, Linux International, Linus Torvalds's designated authority for the matter.

In the end, they did help to create it [Mark suggests they are freeloading on the podcast phenomenon], because 1/2 of the name is from their product. It would be like calling a subscription to a non–Kleenex brand “tissue of the month club” 'Leenexcasting. I'd bet a lawsuit would transpire in no time. :–)

The big point, I'd say is this: anyone who didn't see this coming was far too naive. I thought it was kind of a stupid thing to name it to begin with for this very reason. Something that played off the name blog would have made a lot more sense than Podcast, and not only from a legal perspective but descriptive one too. Moreover, Apple doesn't want the “iPod halo effect” to go over other devices like the Zune, and since a lot of podcasters are outside of the whole iPod ecosystem, I can see why they would be concerned that very thing is happening.