March 2005 – Screenshot

On the Internet, Everybody Knows You’re a Cheat

It’s always fun to start the morning with an object lesson in not trusting internet sources, particularly followed up with a side dish of a plagiarist getting slammed. The writer of the above site shares a series of chat sessions in which he was solicited to write a college student’s essay over IM, which he proceeded to do as poorly and factually inaccurately as possible, and then reported her to her school as well as posting the story (and her full name) on his website. Particularly interesting is the long thread of comments, enough to spill over onto the next … Continue reading On the Internet, Everybody Knows You’re a Cheat

Internet Poetry

By AMH

A little bit like communal fridge poetry, Just Letters allows up to fifty users at a time drag colorful “magentic” letters around the screen. With the tagline, “Someone keeps stealing my letters…”, there is a tension between writing out your message and having others take the letters you need to do so. It’s the type of thing that is fun until you realize that even one or two immature people can ruin everyone’s fun. The profanity is predictable, “I like ur moms” is dumb, but the people who band together to drag all of the letters into one pile so … Continue reading Internet Poetry

Public Domain cheat sheet

By AMH

For reference, there’s a really nice reference sheet on the public domain in the United States available as a pdf at the Cornell Copyright Information Center. I particularly like that, in addition to describing what the relevant term is for different types of works, it spells out what is currently in the public domain for each type of work.

Martha! Martha! Martha!

By AMH

Friday, March fourth, a CNN article opens with the line “Wearing blue jeans and a knitted poncho, U.S. domestic icon Martha Stewart smiled and waved early Friday as she boarded a private plane following her release from federal prison.” and the photo we’ve all seen of her boarding the plane. Thursday, March tenth, I get a special announcement in my inbox for Martha’s Poncho Pack, allowing you to create your own copy of the “free-flowing poncho” that was “featured when Martha Stewart left prison”. On sale now!