Blackmoor Vituperative

Just leave bad enough alone, will you? Please?

George Lucas plans to rerelease the entire Star Wars saga in 3D starting in 2012. First up: Episode 1: The Phantom Menace.

According to a report in industry newspaper The Hollywood Reporter, Lucas has held off on releasing 3D versions of the films until there were enough screens available to make Star Wars 3D a sizeable event.

(from Star Wars 3D Release, Coming Soon to a Theater Near You, FoxNews)

I received some unfortunate news this morning.

Xmarks will be shutting down our free browser synchronization services on January 10, 2011. For details on how to transition to recommended alternatives, consult this page.

For the full story behind the Xmarks shutdown, please read our blog post.

Thank you for being a part of the Xmarks community; we apologize for any inconvenience this step may cause you. We believe we have the best users in the world, and we hope your bookmarks find a new and happy home soon.

This is really too bad. Xmarks has been one of the first add-ons I install when I get a new computer, for several years. I think it’s unfortunate that they did not try selling the service. There are people (like me) who pay for Fastmail.fm, despite the existence of Gmail. There are people (like me) who would pay for Xmarks.

Happy trails, Xmarks.

I am all alone in Sterling, VA, so I am treating myself to dinner and a movie. Dinner is spicy pork at a Thai restaurant which was highly recommended by the cashier at the theatre, and the movie is Resident Evil Somethingorother 3D, which is (amazingly) still playing.

My favorite part of Glee is when they sing and dance, because it pads out the show so I do not have to listen to as much of the annoying dialogue. Actually, my favorite parts are the brief moments of black-screened silence just before they go to a commercial.

I am curious what the police officer thought he was doing. Did he think he was enforcing the law? Which law? The law against taking photos of people in a public place? The law against standing quietly on public property?

And really: “I can do whatever I want”? Is that what they teach police officers in new Jersey?

Where is the horizontal scrollbar in the left (navigation) pane? This annoys me no end.

Some disappointing news from the Ninth Circuit Court.

On Friday, 10 September, three judges in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, covering the nine western states of the US, handed down a decision that effectively means the end of the doctrine of first sale for commercial software. Speaking of the limited monopoly power granted by copyright law to a copyright holder, the 9th Circuit decision reads:

The exclusive distribution right is limited by the first sale doctrine, an affirmative defense to copyright infringement that allows owners of copies of copyrighted works to resell those copies. The exclusive reproduction right is limited within the software context by the essential step defense, another affirmative defense to copyright infringement that is discussed further infra. Both of these affirmative defenses are unavailable to those who are only licensed to use their copies of copyrighted works.

A fair bit of a fuss is being made over the restrictions imposed by this interpretation of the applicability of the first sale doctrine. Wired offers an article that focuses quite a bit of attention on the subject: Guess What, You Don’t Own That Software You Bought.

(from Court decision clamps down on our rights to software that we ‘own’, TechRepublic)

Woke up sad today. Worked on my car and fixed something, and that made me feel better.

You might or might not know that Green Ronin’s DC Adventures book (published in August) uses the same ruleset that Mutants & Masterminds 3e will.

This demo session might give folks an idea what the game is like in play (more or less — they explain things that wouldn’t be explained if no one were recording it, and the role-playing is very sparse for the same reason).

“Vigilance Press Podcast has DC freelancer Jack Norris and artists extraordinaire James Dawsey and Dan Houser join them for a game of DC Adventures to see how it plays (and Jack gets to play Green Lantern). Check it out!”

http://mikelaff.podbean.com/2010/09/08/dc-adventures-actual-play-demo/

Today was my first day on the new job. This is the first time I have been an actual employee, rather than a consultant, contractor, or freelancer, in over a decade. Not being able to set my own hours is a bit of an adjustment, but having a reliable, consistent paycheck is something I eagerly anticipate getting used to. Not to mention that I love what I am doing.

Six months ago I was completely serious about getting out of IT entirely. I was beyond burned out. I was bitter. It’s amazing how things can turn around.