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Charles Arthur is an idiot—he appears to be telling people that it’s perfectly all right to violate Apple’s EULA by upgrading straight from Tiger to Snow Leopard and still only paying the $29 upgrade-from-Leopard price, and that since you can get away with purchasing just one copy of the OS and installing it on multiple computers, that you should. No, what surprises me is that this piece of “journalism” apparently got past his editor and got published on the Guardian‘s website. Last I heard, editors are supposed to pay attention to pesky things like laws, or barring that, ethics.

No, I take that back. Maybe he’s not dumb. Maybe he’s just a charlatan. Jesus. (hat tip: George)

a well-deserved spanking to the New York Times for their foot-stomping tantrum over getting scooped by the WSJ on the Steve Jobs liver transplant story. Ruthless and brilliant.

(via)

And speaking of poor journalism, here’s a piece from a couple of months ago where PressThink‘s Jay Rosen took the Times to task for more lameness.

Regarding the AP/Drudge Retort contretemps:

• The Media Bloggers Association is “a nonpartisan organization dedicated to promoting, protecting and educating its members; supporting the development of “blogging” or “citizen journalism” as a distinct form of media; and helping to extend the power of the press, with all the rights and responsibilities that entails, to every citizen.” Basically an advocacy group available to bloggers and non-bloggers alike. They also offer legal advice and help to individual bloggers like Rogers Cadenhead of Retort when they are faced with legal action.
• Here’s the actual backstory of the issue from Robert Cox of the MBA, who has been involved in this affair from the beginning. Apparently prior to the 7 takedown notices filed last week (whose validity is indeed still up for debate), the website had gotten several perfectly valid takedown notices for clear violations of the DMCA.
• Cox’s reaction to some of the misinformation promulgated by bloggers and press alike.

Howard Kurtz in his latest Media Notes column: “Taking offense has become a political art form,” referring to how in this year’s presidential campaign between an old man and a black man, the candidates’ camps have been crying foul over hurt feelings and the insensitivity of the other side. (Via InstaPundit)

Have you heard about this? It’s a doozy.

Last week, the Associated Press filed 7 DMCA takedown notices against the Drudge Retort^†, a Digg-style social news website, alleging that its users’ practice of linking AP articles and briefly quoting headlines and leads (never more than 79 words) was not fair use.

Now, apparently the AP’s official policy is that fair use of their content means use of 4 or less words. I am not kidding. Use 5 or more, and you owe them a minimum of $12.50.

The—big surprise—resulting uproar and fledgling PR nightmare has had the AP backpedaling, saying that their initial filings were “heavy-handed,” and planning to meet with representatives from a trade group (the Media Bloggers Association^*) to come up with “a more thoughtful standard.”

Sauce for the goose
Turnabout, however, is evidently fair play:

Now, in a slightly ironic twist, the AP is taking content from a blog site. Namely, mine.

In a news item about the e-mail from Judge Kozinski’s wife that I posted on this site, an AP article lifted numerous passages.

I counted 154 words quoted from my post. That’s almost twice the number of words contained in the most extensive quotation in the Drudge Retort.

Look. A huge portion of the blogosphere is all about news analysis and discussion. Hashing and rehashing, action and reaction. Take that away and all you’ve got is catblogging and what-I-ate-for-dinner-last-night—scintillating stuff indeed. Not to mention that if the purpose of quoting news articles is almost always to react to them, how is this legally any different from quoting a book in a book review, which is fair use under the DMCA?

Well, as embarrassing as this already is for the AP, it’s bound to get worse before it gets better. And they deserve it. (Via InstaPundit)

^† No, that is not a typo. I meant to type “retort” rather than “report.” The Drudge Retort started out as a left-wing parody of the conservative Drudge Report.

^* Who? Are these guys, whoever they are, really representative of the blogging community?

doctor a photo, at least do it right. (Via InstaPundit)

The Economist, which you may have heard me say before. Now, they call themselves a weekly newspaper, which is a more accurate description than the word “magazine”.

What I love about this publication is that they make no bones about including opinion with the news, something which many major newspapers do not do, instead professing to take a scrupulously just-the-facts-ma’am approach. I use the word “profess” there because the opinion is included in the news anyway, just in a more insidious manner: through how the news is reported and what indeed is chosen to be reported on, not just in what they call the Opinion section. I’d much prefer—and I know you’ve heard me say this before—that they just gave up on this weak illusion of neutrality (try reading articles on the same topic in the New York Post and the New York Times sometime and you’ll see what I mean) and came right out with what they think.

The Economist does exactly this; their articles usually take the approach of saying “this is what happened, and this is what we think”. Which is a lot more genuine and trustworthy.

What I hate about this publication is that they come out with more than 100 pages of great content per week, and I’m lucky if I can make it through 20. If The Economist was the only thing I read—and you know that’s never going to happen—I’d have trouble keeping up with it, but as it stands, weeks go by and I don’t read much more than one article, or any at all. And that makes me sad.

But you know all this already. What you may not have known, and which I discovered just recently, is that The Economist offers, in addition to their weekly podcasts (more great content which I don’t even maintain the pretense of keeping up with), an audio edition of their print magazine. That’s right; professional newscasters and actors record the magazine, word for word, and the audio is available for free to subscribers (I have an online subscription so I won’t feel bad about throwing away mostly unread print copies of the magazine). How awesome is that? These guys celebrate the International Day of Awesomeness everyday.

So since I moved recently, I’ve had decorating on the brain, as I decided to dip into my savings a bit in an attempt to de-Ikea my place and invest in some furniture I’d like to keep long-term. So in addition to poring over the Crate & Barrel, Room & Board, Design Within Reach (whose reach?!), etc. catalogs, I’ve been getting various home magazines and in general seeking out design resources on the web and in print to try and get inspiration for how to put my space together.

And as a result, I’ve become a bit more conversant with design trends and big names in the industry, specifically having to do with the mid-century modern aesthetic (think the Jetsons’ living room) that’s enjoying a powerful, pervasive resurgence these days. If you’d asked me a month ago who Charles and Ray Eames, Alexander Girard, George Nelson and Eero Saarinen were, I wouldn’t have had the faintest idea. Now, I not only know who they all are, I can also identify pieces they’re known for (the Eames molded plywood chair, the Saarinen Tulip table).

Now, I like mid-century modern, but I prefer a more timeless look in my own place, so what I’ve cobbled together, while it’s definitely modern in feel, has touches of mid-century modern, deco, and the nameless aesthetic popular in recent years that I will call American modern, which puts an emphasis on rich textures and colors combined with clean lines.

One unexpected outcome of all this research is that I have a new favorite magazine: dwell^*. While it’s concerned less with interior design and more with architecture and trends in building technologies, it’s a very well put-together publication and holds my attention cover to cover. So now I have a subscription.

I have to say I really enjoy reading these more obscure magazines, the ones that assume a certain knowledge that laypeople may not have, because it opens up a whole new world of concepts I’d never previously thought about. Fascinating stuff!

^*I would have said Blueprint, hands down the best lifestyle magazine I’ve ever read, but I found out after I picked up the January issue that it would be the last one ever published, as Martha Stewart Living (its parent company) was going to stop publication in order to focus more on their Weddings magazine. I think that sucks.

I am nevertheless (perhaps hypocritically?) a staunch proletarian. As you may have realized if you read my recent rant about pretension and snobbery. Much of the snobbery I’ve been exposed to lately has been in print, and moreover in snooty East coast publications, usually of the New York variety. Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks so, though:

I HAVE long been amazed by the television spots here that urge you to buy the New York Times, with appeals to snobbery so blatant that I keep expecting snobs to rebel. The ads did everything they could to say “Read this paper because the sight of it on your doorstep will fool other people (and you) into thinking that you are clever and sophisticated” . . . except actually have dancing girls spell it out with rhinestone letters pasted to their bums.

I never finished watching one without at least considering cancelling my subscription. I should hate for the my neighbours to think that I am the kind of dullwitted arriviste herd-beast so heart-rendingly portrayed in those dreadful commercials.

(sic) Heh. Read the whole thing for some beautifully delivered snark.

why are people so flaming stupid? According to this story on Fox News:

In his email, dated Jan. 16, 2007, [Army Sgt. Jason Hess, stationed in Taji, Iraq, with the 1st Cavalry Division] asked the Web-based company, registered to Faisal Khetani, an American Muslim of Pakistani descent:

Do you ship to APO (military) addresses? I’m in the 1st Cavalry Division stationed in Iraq and we are trying to order some mats but we are looking for ships to APO first.

On the same day, Hess received this reply:

SGT Hess,

We do not ship to APO addresses, and even if we did, we would NEVER ship to Iraq. If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq.

Bargain Suppliers
Discount-Mats.com

Khetani on Monday told FOX News that the person responsible for the email reply had been fired. The Web site, meanwhile, has been temporarily taken down.

Gotta few problems with this one (a magnificent understatement), and I can’t decide which one bothers me most.

First, Fox didn’t even bother to get their facts straight before they published this story (I know, surprising, right?). Earlier on in the article, Fox said that Hess was looking for mats for his soldiers to sleep on, since the ground is “cold” and “bug-infested”. In fact, according to an email sent by Sgt. Hess,

Fox got fax wrong but the company did say what fox said. I was looking for flooring for a conference room and not for soldiers to sleep on. If you don’t mind creating a draft email that says thank you for you support and everything is under control that would be great. I’m trying to email about 100 people in regards to what fox said but every time I get 5 out 3 come, fox is going to do a followup hopefully to make things straight. Thank you.

I can’t decide which is more alarming (though not, as I said, surprising): Fox getting the basics of the story wrong, or else playing fast and loose with the facts to make more of an emotional impact. I mean, come on. You expect me to believe that the best equipped soldiers in the world don’t get bedrolls? I don’t think so. I’m no expert, but I think even SEALs, who arguably have to deal with tougher conditions than any other soldiers, get a sleeping mat as part of their standard equipment.

Secondly, why did Fox make a point of mentioning that the company is owned by a Pakistani-American? Does this have any bearing on the story? It certainly seems Fox would like you to think so. In my experience, if these things can be said to have anything to do with race, the most vehement anti-war protesters tend to be white or otherwise not middle-eastern.

Thirdly, and most obviously, what’s the point in taking your anger at the war out on the soldier who’s actually there risking his life? It’s not like, because of that email, he’s going to pack up and come back. Jesus. (Via InstaPundit)