Stolen from E

(more…)

Back in February, we had non-sucking Garfield.

And now another craptastic comic gets some improvement. Not that the explanations can actually make the comic funny; that would be impossible. But they can allow one to gape in astonishment that anyone could possibly think they were amusing or poignant or somehow relevant social commentary.

For almost as long as the internet has been around, geeks and other enthusiasts have been using it to share and make archives of “copyrighted” material. I put the word copyright in quotes there because a lot of the time the material so copyrighted is out of print or otherwise unavailable for the general public to use because of technology changes or other issues.

Recently, the Librarian of Congress announced several classes of material that would be exempt from DMCA under fair use policies for the next 3 years (at which point the exemption has to be renewed). Included was this:

2. Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and that require the original media or hardware as a condition of access, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive. A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.

So did all those archives of game roms just get protection from prosecution for copyright infringement? It certainly became harder to do so, in any case. I also wonder how Nintendo’s efforts to collect various obsolete and OOP game makers to make such things downloadable for Wii will affect what classes of items are affected by this. You certainly can’t buy a Commodore 64 any longer, but does the Wii’s existence make those games not a part of this group? As it reads, I’m thinking it doesn’t save them.

Why is it that I can always think of things to write about when I’m not near a computer?

The world misses so much because I can’t blog mentally from the car or the shower (ha ha, you laugh). I don’t know what it is; or maybe I do: it’s the lack of distraction in those places. I’ve rarely got time to just sit and think when I’m at home or at work, there’s always something going on that is pulling my attention toward it. And somehow those mental compositions melt away like dreams by the time I get back to a computer.

I do notice that I never did write about my last trip to Pittsburgh or Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was pretty much a non-event: Bob and I drove out on Wednesday and stayed in a lovely hotel courtesy of FRU, then went over to grandma’s the next morning. The whole lot of us went out to the same buffet we’d visited last year, and then we spent the afternoon camped out in the living room, playing a board game and playing any number of mental games stemming from the presence of my cousin’s toddler. Finally, the traditional movie and then home.

Pittsburgh had more action, so will require its own entry.

This is from the Nashua Telegraph:

BROOKLINE – Privately owned land on Main Street and the town-owned ballfields on Route 130 have emerged as top contenders for a future library.

Brookline’s facilities committee has been working since spring to identify potential spots for a new library because the current library, in the former Church of Christ, is squeezed for space.

Okay, that’s fine… a lot of libraries are squeezed for space right now. There was a huge flurry of library building activity around the turn of the last century, and naturally the towns have outgrown those buildings. The one where I work certainly has.

The current library is 6,000 square feet, and in 1993, the space was ideal, she said. The library moved there from Town Hall, which was too cramped to house it.

At the time, the church was projected to accommodate library services for the next 20 years.

Between 1998 and 2000, Brookline’s population grew much faster than anticipated, Tochko said. But now, the nooks and crannies are filling fast.

A community area once roomy enough for 40 people has been slimmed to seat 20 because of a ballooning young-adult book section, she said. There’s no place to put new books, so the library uses two donated storage areas in town.

Compare to ours: storage is two houses the library owns up the street, all the fiction out in a double-wide trailer that takes up half the parking lot. No meeting space; they lost that 30 years ago when they had to put the children’s room in the basement.

In 20 years, the town’s population is anticipated to be 8,000 people, she said. It’s now estimated at 4,755, according to the N.H. Office of Energy and Planning.

A 12,000-square-foot library would best suit those numbers, Tochko said. The hope is the town will buy property big enough for a second addition in the future because in 40 years, Brookline’s population is expected to soar to 10,500 people, she said.

Le sigh. And we again compare. Our current town population is 24,000 for a library the same size as the one that’s supposedly too small for less than 5000. If we’re lucky, we may possibly be getting a 15,000 sq. ft library… three years from now. But it hasn’t even been approved to be voted on yet.

It’s going to be 70 today.

:(