Re-reading my previous comment, I realise my statement "science and religion can't be at odds" was improperly articulated and open to misinterpretation.

The gist of my point is that theology is the study of God, while science is (mostly) the study of the physical universe. There tends not to be much overlap.

My mistake (that I make on a fairly regular basis) was to equate theology with religion. Not the same thing, despite my wishful thinking.

@brooklyntwang

Exactly.

I've always found it disappointing (though understandable) that the most high-profile "religious people" tend to be the nutjobs, leading to an inevitable but misguided backlash on the part of many atheists and agnostics.

Science and religion are not (and can not be, IMHO) at odds. And I think (or would like to think) many theists agree.

@atteSmythe

If that's the case, couldn't they just limit the license based on price? I'm pretty sure most industrial/automotive controllers are a great deal more expensive than low-cost PC's, even for similar hardware.

@Lauren O

Don't take it personally. Arguing about acronyms is what we do for fun around here. :-)

It's bigger than the one mentioned above, but this camera is a heck of a lot more affordable, and has decent image quality, too.

[I have no affiliation with the store, I'm just a satisfied customer who was impressed with the camera]

Perhaps Flickr could have capped the total number of keyframes instead, making it possible to have very long videos -- but only if very little happened in them.

That's actually a brilliant idea! The techie in me is trying to dream up some algorithm for "activity" -- related to keyframes, but decoupled from video codec issues.

I'm gonna have to think about that one. Perhaps I'll whip up a prototype if my free time allows.

Thanks for the background, chrisfrelin.

This video is a perfect example to me of the incredible potential of "long photographs," and also validation of Flickr's decision to cap the video duration at 90 seconds. The above video was beautiful, but may have had even more impact trimmed down to 60 or 90 seconds (its function as a music video notwithstanding).

@lestyoubejudged

It's interesting that you simultaneously decry the video option on Flickr as leading to its demise, yet you also complain about all the "self indulgent" and "beyond boring" photos that are already there.

Flickr has been and will continue to be an open forum for people (including captial-A Artists, capital-P Photographers and Joe Schmo who got a $30 camera for Christmas) to post their photos. You're likely to find works that move you and works that you loathe, and everything in between.

To me, that's something to be celebrated.

@cha0tic
I was just about to point that out, too. :)

The entire article read like The Onion, except slightly less believable. I actually had to look up the Jamaica Gleaner in Wikipedia to figure out that it wasn't a parody news site.

Boggles the mind.

#3 - I'm glad it's not just me! The main BB server seems to be more than adequate, but I'm always stuck waiting for the ad server(s), and Firefox won't render the rest of the page until they respond. Highly annoying.

But back on topic, congrats to BB and FM on the funding! Your web ventures are entertaining and worthwhile, and make the net a better place.

#4

One of the greatest attributes of BoingBoing is the general intelligence and civility of its discussions. On behalf of Stacyj, please cut it out.

This is awesome. I really dislike receiving greeting cards in general, as I know somebody shelled out way too much money for it and I will throw it out within weeks.

The sentiment is nice, it's just the business and environmental factors that annoy me, which is why this is so brilliant.

@Caledonian Jim
Please stop linkspamming the comments via a totally unnecessary signature. As someone else mentioned on another thread, that's what your profile is for.

I'm surprised they haven't tried to squash him via threats of IP/copyright infringement lawsuits. Seems the trendy thing for corporations to do these days.

I find it amusing that Godwin's Law was fulfilled here even before the first comment! ;-)

Kinda like this.

Jeff, the question you raise is legitimate, but has very little to do with the blatant need for copyright reform, or at least precedent-setting clarifications to existing copyright law.

@kryptik #14

You're a secret agent!
That made me laugh out loud.
Great story.

Thanks for the mirror, Kid. It's appreciated.

Not sure if this is still true, but for years, "yahoo.com" was the #1 Google search. Just because people can't tell (or don't care about) the difference between the URL bar and the search field.

I can't decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but it's definitely food-for-thought for UI designers.

This totally made my day!

The site is pretty sluggish right now, but your Friendly Neighbourhood Torrent Site is a functional workaround. Then you can swing back later in the week (when the bandwidth issues will hopefully be ironed out) and drop some cash, if that's your goal.

Damn, that deluxe set looks appealing....

@twg

That's a pretty damning analysis considering there's only 6 pages available! If the plot and style don't appeal to you, that's one thing, but I'd wait for a bit more content to appear before writing it off as just more of "the same product" with "no new ideas."

@mujadaddy

Yep, 6 pages for now. Updated weekly.

@ad

The Creative Commons FAQ is probably what you're looking for.

In short, as long as you abide by the terms of the license, asking the artist is unneccesary.

In this case, the artist has specified a No-Derivatives (ND) license, and I believe that prevents you from using it as soundtrack for a film (which is classified as a derivative work).

@bcsizemo

And cars are not a form of transportation (real transportation involves riding an animal).

It seems to me (as a distant and only casual observer) that Metaplace is more about offering a web-enabled gaming/social platform than a game-enabled web interface.

I've had an alpha invite sitting in my inbox for a few weeks, but work has been keeping me too busy to register. I've been reading "My Tiny Life" since the free PDF was referenced here on BB recently, and the story of LambdaMOO is making me want to make the time to check out Metaplace.

This book has been on my "Must Read" list for years, but for some reason or another, I've never managed to actually grab a copy.

Can't wait to read it now that it's easily accessible, and I'll pick up the dead-trees version if I like it (which I expect to, thoroughly!)

I know it's often counterintuitive for authors/artists, but giving things away free will often stimulate sales (at least amongst people like me).

Hats off to Mr. Dibbell!

@jeff (and cpt tim #1)

It's been said many times here on BB, but I'd like to reiterate:

Stealing is not copyright infringement.
Copyright infringement is not theft.

They are two different things.

@om

I strongly disagree with your point #4, though I'm curious about your reasoning...?

My (admittedly limited) understanding of the WGA strike situation is that the studios are:

- Paying the writers some absurdly small royalty on each DVD sale (I want to say 0.0003% but I'd have to look it up)

- Claiming that they don't yet know if this whole "internet" thing is really going to take off, and therefore they shouldn't have to give writers any royalties for digitally-distributed content

I'm sure there's more to the issue than I've stated, and I recognize there are two sides to every coin, etc, but I'm inclined to think the writers are more likely to be victimized by the studios than vice-versa.

Your thoughts?

@mhotel

The funny thing is set painters are paid up-front, and do not receive any residuals or royalties or profit-sharing from the film's release. So-called 'piracy' doesn't affect them in the least.

This looks great -- can't wait for the release.

Since I haven't seen it mentioned above, you may want to check out Google Sketchup which does exactly the same thing, though it's limited to still images rather than video. (But it does support multiple images, IIRC).

Hi-res quicktime here:
http://www.fortaxreasons.com/objects/media/IIUMKUS_720x540_h264.mov

Also check out "She She She She's A Bombshell" under the "Animation" page at fortaxreasons.com -- it's pretty funny!

Now someone just needs to build a knitting robot that can process this! :-)

Penny Arcade took some shots at this game a while ago:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/10/24
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/05/25

"Somewhat Witchier than I expected" always makes me laugh.

Is "neutrability" actually a word?

How long before some confused thief breaks in, only to be greatly disappointed?

He lost me at "orientate"...

In the first paragraph, I assume you meant "win a Neuros OSD..." not "with" ?

@phenom

Assuming a ban were enforceable, wouldn't that be a little hypocritical?

Also, please stop spamming the comments.

"blog on the Internet" ???

IIRC, blog is short for weblog, which implies the World Wide Web, which is most certainly on the Internet.

Where else would the blog be?!

Also, thanks for moving the "discuss" link to the bottom of each post. It's much more convenient this way!

Great work on the first episode! I caught the link a few hours ago via Warren Ellis' blog, and felt all special inside. ;-)

I agree with #7 on the need for intros and transitions -- I think it'd really help pull the whole thing together.

@jacobdavis

I can see your points -- the infrastructure certainly isn't free -- but I still think the profits from one or two successful indie artists would more than cover the costs for the rest.

Then again, I tend to see the internet as fundamentally egalitarian in nature, and I always hope corporations will embrace that when they have the opportunity.

Quality-control is still an issue (as you noted), but in my mind it's not an insurmountable one.

@jacobdavis

Why pick-and-choose at all? It's not like the MP3's are competing for physical shelf-space.

Nice redesign.

I was going to suggest that the font size should be bigger, but I see that an Anonymous commenter above wanted it smaller, so maybe it's a happy medium.

I'd also echo the comments above that suggest moving the "Discuss" link to the bottom of each post.

Also, comments are great!