Yet another day spent in interestingness - 28 October 2007

[silveradept]

Today was spent doing what most of my Sundays are spent doing - shopping and cooking. I did find some very nice boots for my feet for when the rains come with a vengeance, but no hat, sadly. And nice gloves... but a bit expensive. Perhaps I will get a pair for the VEWPRF. Also, I find clothes shopping reprehensible, in that I can spend almost ninety dollars on three pairs of pants. They’d better last me a very long time for the money I’ve paid for them.

And I bought some books, too. With the books I already have, that should help bring my Ozy and Millie collection up to speed. But that’s pretty much it for this paycheck in terms of wanting to actually buy things for myself. I’ll have to put off my collection-restoring manga mania for another time. After all, my loans are now coming due. Which is also not good.

And there’s the dentist visits now, too. So money’s definitely going out. Sigh. I think I’m going to be staring wistfully at my bank account status for the next ten years...

Anyway, also tried out Compiz Fusion, the new window decoration and effects stuff, and it’s pretty whiz-bangy. Only problem is, it doesn’t really like my multiple-desktops thing. So we’ll see whether we stay with it or not. I think a solution can be found, though.

droewyn is seeking opinions on how much to potentially charge for an unused bridal mask. Those who are crafty or have the jeweler’s eye, go comment with your opinion on how much the mask is worth.

The Boston Red Sox won the Major League Baseball championship. After the first one in several years, easy to do again, I guess.

If one is innundated with mail that one does not wish to receive, services like The Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service or Catalog Choice may help to reduce your junk amounts.

Onward to the news.

We’ll start in Bizarro World, rather than just getting there eventually with a strange exchange of e-mail between a Salon Columnist and a Colonel in the United States Army, the first being an unsolicited diatribe supposedly from the Colonel to the columnist, questioning his research and ability. While seeking confirmation from the colonel that it is indeed a fake, there have been no definitive replies or analysis that indicates that this is the case. Perhaps a momentary fit of pique?

With slightly more armor on than the Colonel, lobsters made an escape en masse from a supermarket, to end up at an animal home. Where they may be taken care of, as opposed to getting lucky like the squirrel that gorged itself too much, becoming too fat to escape the feeder it was raiding. Said squirrel escaped when the owner of the feeder made a gap wide enough for the squirrel to make an exit with.

Staying in a bizarre would, evangelical voters continue to show cracks and fissures in their once-united front.

Diplomatic staff may have to fill posts in Iraq or be dismissed. Because people willingly volunteer for diplomatic relations and engagements in a zone where the chance of dying on any given day is pretty high.

Missile defense system's second test is successful. Waiting to see when and whether they do decide to go live with the system.

Bill Clinton gives a 9/11 theorist an earful, denying that the attacks were an inside job and taking offense even at the suggestion that they were. That someone is willing to interrupt a past President with material that is theoretically unrelated to his Presidency is in very poor taste. Plus, if it turns out to have been an inside job, we’ll only find out about it long after whatever effect was intended from it has come to pass. Kindly be silent and let the man speak.

If you’re one of the people who is under suspicion for starting fires that developed into the blazes that have been raging across California, you may want to take your chances with the Governator, who will probably only put you in jail, than with the people, who may decide that they’re not going to turn you in until after you’ve been cremated.

The winner for tonight’s SSRC quiche, while being sensible legally, is really stupid to do from any other standpoint, is Apple's legal department, sending back an "we don't accept unsolicited ideas" letter to a third grader sending in suggestions. As I said, makes sense legally, so that there aren’t any chances for suit later on, but really, Apple. I don’t think a third grader needs to be subjected tot he full legalese. Or at the very least, you could write a thank you for the letter, even if it was burnt the moment it contained unsolicited ideas.

Driftglass offers another neologism for the English lexicon - rashomonotheism, the realization that while you and another person start out with similar goals in mind, the way you each understand those goals is so different as to be alien. Kind of like how one decides whether to support Michigan or Ohio State, having family that rabidly supports one or the other.

Almost taking the winning entry of best thing seen today is a parody of "We Didn't Start the Fire" that neatly summarizes Internet fads from the last few years. Some of them I recognize, others not, some I have no intention of finding out about.

And our winner for tonight is Dragon Girl, a story on making sure that you get what you want, not what someone thinks you want, or tells you you want. Plus, it’s just got a really cool ending. Read it all the way through and enjoy it, please.

Comments

[darkpattern.livejournal.com]

I really liked the Dragon Girl story! I want to roar at people when they talk to me.

[silveradept]

Sometimes it does seem to be the most effective way of doing anything. And if you roar at them, maybe they'll shut up and listen.

[unspeakablevorn.livejournal.com]

I once sent a letter to Nintendo talking about a video game I wanted to see. They sent back a very nice letter explaining why wouldn't make it. They did mention that they did not take unsolicited ideas, but most of the talk was about the amount of work to go from even the most detailed plan to an actual game. Which, now that I do this sort of thing all day, I can certainly appreciate.

Vorn

[silveradept]

That would be a much better way of going about it, saying that while they don't take unsolicited ideas, the process of adding things and features requires lots of work and testing and time to get right, and encouraging them that if they want to continue coming up with ideas like that, they might want to look into certain career avenues that would help with that. Yeah, it's a third grader, but you never know - they might have found their calling at an early age.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Do you want me to re-make that huge hat I accidentally made last year and make it smaller so it matches the scarf and arm warmers?

[silveradept]

No, no thank you. I'd rather have a hat that shook off rain, rather than just sort of absorbing it with no effects on my head.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Yeah. that would be sort of pointless. What about scotchguarding your old fleece hat?

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

I was just leafing through the LL Bean catalog, and I saw a hat that might work for you -

http://www.llbean.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?storeId=1&catalogId=1&langId=-1&categoryId=42301&sc1=Search&feat=sr

It's $19, but it looks like it would really do the job you want, and it's a style of cap you'd probably wear.

I don't know if you might be able to find a similar style for less at a sporting goods store or camping store?

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

I am way more happy about the lobsters than is probably necessary :D

Like I said, try buying girl clothes. I've paid over $30 for a skirt, which has considerably LESS fabric than a pair of pants. This is also why I try to make a lot of stuff, but I'm not sure I'd be up to making men's pants - at least, I'm not familiar with making things with a zippered fly. Pajama pants though, no problem ;)

Poor squirrel. But better than the squirrel who committed suicide by chewing on wires!

I wish I had been there to see Clinton tell people to shut up :). The thing is, even if things were an inside job, Clinton might not have any knowledge of that. He wasn't the president at the time, Bush was....ad yet we still elected that arse to another term.

I don't see why Apple wouldn't want suggestions. Now, here's the question - if the girl still has a copy of her original letter with the suggestion, and their "we don't take unsolicited suggestions" letter, if Apple comes out in a few years with something that WOULD allow you to see lyrics of your song as it's playing, would her family have a reason to sue?

I loved the dragon story. :)

[silveradept]

If you send Apple a suggestion, and they use it, then they either have to credit you, and most likely pay you a licensing/royalty/hush fee to use it themselves, or you can possibly sue them for taking your idea and not acknolwedging you for it. At least, that's how I think it works out. By saying you don't take unsolicited suggestions, you can ensure that they don't reach the creative types, where they could be contaminated and such. Apple will be able to prove that it came up with the idea in-house, and that their implementation thereof is in-house, so they don't have to worry about being hammered by an outside suit or something.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Really? I mean, *someone* at apple read the kid's letter. They had to, or they wouldn't have been able to send a reply. Even if it was just some mail room flunkie who's job it is to open random mail....someone at the company saw her suggestion. All they have to do is randomly pass it off to someone - even just while chattering at the coffee pot for it to get into development and become part of a new product. Sure, they can say that so-and-so got the idea from so-and-so who was standing around the coffee pot with mail room guy who suggested it, but it's still that little girl's suggestion, isn't it?

Or does this go back to that whole "you can't copyright an idea" thing?

[silveradept]

J. Random Mail-room d00dette is not likely to end up working in the circles where the creative talents are without serendipity.

You can't copyright ideas. Implementations, however, can be patented.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

True. And even if Apple does create some kind of sing-a-long feature, I guess it would be hard to prove that someone else thought of it first, unless they had already somehow modified their iPod to do it before Apple's release of the feature and had tried to sell the idea to Apple.

[2dlife.livejournal.com]

Ok, let's be fair to Apple. It was probably a standard form letter, they must get hundreds of suggestion letters and e-mails a day. Plus, if the third grader didn't actually say she was a third grader, it would have come across as a very immature sounding suggestion letter. It's hard enough writing a suggestion letter that doesn't sound like a child's Christmas list, and you can't expect each one to get serious treatment.

[silveradept]

True enough. Assuming that everyone knew what was going on is good fodder for angry blog posts, but probably doesn't reflect reality. While it would be nice to receive a more personal letter, Apple probably gets enough correspondence a day to render that idea impossible.

I would think, though, tha a third grader would be more likely to identify themselves as such, so that might be part of why it seems so harsh.