Link Smorgasbord, April 29-May 5

SOPA Creator Now In Charge of NSF Grants
Because nothing could go wrong with this idea ever.  Oh wait, what are his proposed guidelines?  Grants must "benefit 'national defense', be of 'utmost importance to society,' and not be 'duplicative of other research.'"  *headdesk*

Who Has Your Back? 2013 (EFF)
The Electronic Frontier Foundation's 2013 report on how popular companies act to protect your data and respond to requests.  The EFF regularly does a fantastic job of presenting information and reports in a clear, concise, and generally comprehensible manner, something I always appreciate.  This year's report looks at Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Comcast, Dropbox, Facebook, Foursquare, Google, LinkedIn, Loopt, Microsoft, MySpace, Skype, Sonic.net, SpiderOak, Tumblr, Twitter, Verizon, WordPress, and Yahoo!.

Coursera to Offer K-12 Teacher Development Courses
Could be interesting.  I know that I use MOOCs to supplement my own professional development, however I've also found that the quality of the classes vary greatly.  I have found "introduction" courses that were highly advanced, and other courses that were so basic I was dumbfounded.

"Effective May 8, Hachette Book Group will make all its e-books available to nonprofit public and school libraries in the U.S. Under the new policy, new e-books will be released simultaneously with the print edition and sold for "an unlimited number of single-user-at-a-time circulations at an initial price three times the primary physical book price," the company said. "One year after publication, the purchase price will drop to one and a half times the primary book price. The primary book price will be defined as the highest-price edition then in print.""
It's a start, and the prices match up with the trends from the larger publishers.  Happily, there that there is no limit on the number of times the title can circulate.

International Day Against DRM
So I missed May 3rd on this one, but Defective by Design is still a great site about what is going on in the world of Digital Rights Management.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

[Book Review] Battle of the Linguist Mages

Image
Battle of the Linguist Mages   / Scotto Moore The description of this book caught my attention immediately , and a cover blurb from one of my favorite authors?  Sign me up! The book isn't quite what is promised, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just that it has so much potential.  It's like how Ready Player One  reads a lot different in a post Gamer Gate environment.  (Also, to be fair, the description I first read when looking through review copies is different than what is up  now.) Now, don't get me wrong, the premise is phenomenal.  I love a good SF that takes seeds of the here and now and goes "what if?"  It looks at where VR gaming is now, where streaming and MMOs are now, the balance between real life skills and game controls, and launches into a believable continuation.  Then we get a little seasoning of magic and more.  It made me laugh and has some neat ideas that it develops. But writing and tone wise, it feels a lot like Ready Playe
Read more

[Book Review] When Sorrows Come

Image
When Sorrows Come (October Daye #15)  / Seanan McGuire Previously reviewed: Rosemary and Rue Once Broken Faith The Brightest Fell Night and Silence The Unkindest Tide A Killing Frost After... we'll kindly say many books of dodging the inevitable, Toby's finally getting married.  In her defense, at the start of the book even she did not know the date chosen for the event.  There's a little too much significance in this marriage to allow for a simple document signing in front of the local Justice of the Peace.  A marriage between a member of the Divided Courts and a King of Cats, and of course Toby has been anything but "just" a changeling for some time now.  A hero of the realm, daughter of a First Born, king-breaker, kingdom maker, finder of lost things, and, most importantly, one of the few members of Fairie that understands crime scene investigation and procedure. This is  October Daye, of course something is going to go Horribly Wrong, likely involving blood, w
Read more

[Book Review] The Olympian Affair

Image
The Olympian Affair (Cinder Spires #2)  / Jim Butcher  Previously Reviewed: The Aeronaut's Windlass It's been a long haul waiting for book two, and one that I didn't think was going to end.  In 2016, I described book one as an "air-ship filled rollicking adventure that brings to mind a mash-up of Shakespeare and The Princess Bride.  We have heroics, tempers, swashbuckling, dastardly villains, battles of wits, revenge, and maybe a little true love on the side.  This tome drops you into the story from page one and seems much shorter than its 750 pages." So where are we in 2023? Before reading this, I strongly advise you reread book one.  The cast is large,  the book thick, and the two main warring governments are Spire Albion and Spire Aurora , so if you're like me and names blend together, remind yourself of who everyone is and the stage that has been set. The Olympian Affair  is a story of the maneuvering and politics after the war has started but before it ha
Read more