Blackmoor Vituperative

The author of Hexographer, Joe, has revised the “lifetime” license of Hexographer so that it no longer self-destructs after one year. The flaws in the “free” and “one year” versions remain, however, so those should be avoided. However, if you like the software and feel it is worth paying for (and it certainly does seem worth paying for), the “lifetime license” now appears to be what it says it is: a lifetime license. I have updated my original Hexographer article to reflect the revised license terms.

I also bought the software.

I don’t want to get bitter
I don’t want to turn cruel
I don’t want to get old before I have to

I have been feeling sorry for myself the last couple of days. This song helps.

The song starts roughly at 1:45.

In case the YouTube video disappears, here is the original music video. I do not particularly like the video.

According to Fandango, Kristen Stewart may replace Angelina Jolie as the token hot female assassin in ‘Wanted 2’, since Jolie passed on it.

First off, Angelina Jolie’s character died, messily. So how was that even an option? Did her character have a twin?

Second, Kristen Stewart makes Hayden Christensen look like a good actor by comparison. She is not a good actress, and she’s not particularly attractive.

Wanted does not need a sequel. It was a fun movie, it had closure, it’s done.

Serendipity is a strange thing.

I am working on my homework (I am in my twenty-third year of a four-year degree), and listening to music. I have a sizeable music collection, but for variety, I was listening to the “Blues” music channel on Comcast cable. “Never going back to Memphis” came on, and I thought, hey now — this is good. Who is this?

Google told me that it was Shemekia Copeland. Another quick search brought me to a lyrics page — hosted at a site called Spinetingler magazine, which is a site as much about the craft of writing fiction as it is about the fiction itself.

Which, as it happens, is something that had been much on my mind for the past few days.

Serendipity.

With the release of leaked versions of the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), opposition to the drafting process continues to grow. Recently IFLA issued a statement arguing that while it is appropriate for governments to act to stop commercial counterfeiting, the copyright and patent issues at stake in ACTA would be better addressed through the World International Property Organization (WIPO). They also object to the secrecy of the negotiations. The Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) has also been active in its opposition to ACTA, most recently joining in a letter complaining about provisions in the leaked text and issuing a statement of LCA concerns. Earlier, Janice Pilch had prepared an issue brief on ACTA for the LCA.

(from Will ACTA end the purchase of foreign titles by libraries?, LibraryLaw Blog)

As if libraries needed anything new to worry about. They already have inadequate funding for the technological demands placed on them, and inadequate space to keep classics on the shelves. Now this?

The entire concept of drafting a treaty in secret in a republic such as ours is repugnant to me — and that is assuming that the treaty itself has some merit or reasonable purpose. This treaty has no such merits. If your treaty is so hostile to the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals that even the overtly anti-freedom “World International Property Organization” (WIPO) is not invited to the table, then you have gone beyond even the everyday abuse of power and perversion of the legal system by the media robber barons to which we have become accustomed in the United States (and elsewhere).

Aaron Shaw argues that “ACTA would create unduly harsh legal standards that do not reflect contemporary principles of democratic government, free market exchange, or civil liberties. Even though the precise terms of ACTA remain undecided, the negotiants’ preliminary documents reveal many troubling aspects of the proposed agreement,” such as removing “legal safeguards that protect Internet Service Providers from liability for the actions of their subscribers” in effect giving ISPs no option but to comply with privacy invasions. Shaw further says that ACTA “would also facilitate privacy violations by trademark and copyright holders against private citizens suspected of infringement activities without any sort of legal due process”.

So, who is really to blame for the involvement of the United States in this travesty? You are. Now go do something about it.

I love the Godzilla universe. It’s a place where a boardroom full of old men in suits can watch footage of a space station being destroyed by large rocks, and then have one of them comment, “We can only speculate that it was some sort of […dramatic pause…] huge monster.”

Because in the Godzilla universe, a huge monster is a reasonable guess if you have no idea what actually happened.

I am watching You Kill Me with Ben Kingsley and Luke Wilson. This is pretty funny. I kind of wish we had a family business. It might give us a sense of belonging, of being a part of something. I am glad that it’s not the Polish mob, though.

This week, 50,000 new lawsuits have been filed against downloaders. It’s only going to get worse.”

“The history of copyright and intellectual property rights goes back to the 1700s. The free distribution of copyright works has never been impeded like it is today.”

“Surveillance methods being used are in the same league as those used by the NSA, CIA, MI5, MI6 and China. A real and genuine underground of revolt is brewing.

(from What’s inside your home is yours, except computer files, ZDNet)

I decided to try my hand at turning a Nerf Maverick into a steampunk costume accessory. I made a lot of misteps with my first attempt, primarily by putting too many coats of paint on it. Here is how it went.

This is the Nerf Maverick as it comes out of the packaging. It doesn’t shoot more than about ten feet, but it’s a spiffy looking toy.

This is what it looks like on the inside of the frame. I have real pistols which are not this complicated.

This is the cylinder assembly, disassembled. Some people call this the “barrel”. That’s not correct. It’s the cylinder.

This is a portion of the cylinder assembly, with the air restrictors removed. To be perfectly frank, I saw no difference at all in the power of the toy after the air restrictors were removed.

The parts are washed and now drying.

Here the parts are primed, first with two lights coats of “plastic primer”, then with two lights coats of glossy black paint, then with two lights coats of stain black paint. In retrospect, this is four coats of paint too many. The “plastic primer”, in particular, is as thick as molasses, and I think the function of the toy was impaired by this.

I then painted some of the parts with glossy metallic chrome paint. This looked really spiffy, if not altogether steampunkish — a bit too shiny.

I misted the satin black with the metallic chrome, and this gave me a really neat effect. I call it “dark steel”. It’s more cyberpunk than steampunk, so I decided to paint over it with metallic brass paint (making the paint job even thicker), but it looked really neat, even though you can’t really see it in this photo.

Another coat of the metallic chrome on some parts, and another misting of the metallic chrome on the stain black slide. You can see the “dark steel” effect a bit better here.

Masking off the cylinder was the single most tedious part of this whole project.

Here the frame has been painted with the metallic brass, and everything has been given several coats of glossy clear lacquer (making the paint even thicker),and I am starting to reassemble it.

Here the cylinder has been assembled and inserted, and the frame is nearly reassembled. I had to take apart my other Nerf Maverick to see how to put everything back together, because there are a lot of very similar — but not identical — springs, and I was not sure which went where.

And here we are, all assembled and more or less functional. The failure to fire rate is something like 75%, which is horrible. I think it’s because the paint is so darn thick. Still, it’s not bad looking for a costume prop. I like most of this color scheme, and I think my “real” attempt will greatly benefit from what I learned on this prototype. For example, flat clearcoat on metallic chrome paint turns it plain old grey.

By the way, if you use lubricant, use silicone lubricant from an auto parts store. Vaseline, WD-40, etc. will eat the damage the plastic.

Never content to twist US law into pretzels, the media robber barons also attempt to use their power to make other nation’s laws as bad as those we have here….

In accordance with US trade law, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) is required to conduct an annual review of the status of foreign intellectual property laws. This review, which is referred to as Special 301, is typically used to denounce countries that have less restrictive copyright policies than the United States.

The review process is increasingly dominated by content industry lobbyists who want to subvert US trade policy and make it more favorable to their own interests. […] One of the organizations that plays a key role in influencing the Special 301 review is the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), a powerful coalition that includes the RIAA, the MPAA, and the Business Software Alliance (BSA). The IIPA, which recently published its official recommendations to the USTR for the 2010 edition of the 301 review, has managed to achieve a whole new level of absurdity.

University of Edinburgh law lecturer Andres Guadamuz wrote a blog entry this week highlighting some particularly troubling aspects of the IIPA’s 301 recommendations. The organization has condemned Indonesia and several other countries for encouraging government adoption of open source software. According to the IIPA, official government endorsements of open source software create “trade barriers” and restrict “equitable market access” for software companies.

[…]

The Indonesian government issued a statement in 2009 informing municipal governments that they had to stop using pirated software. The statement said that government agencies must either purchase legally licensed commercial software or switch to free and open source alternatives in order to comply with copyright law. This attempt by Indonesia to promote legal software procurement processes by endorsing the viability of open source software has apparently angered the IIPA.

In its 301 recommendations for Indonesia, the IIPA demands that the government rescind its 2009 statement. According to the IIPA, Indonesia’s policy “weakens the software industry and undermines its long-term competitiveness” because open source software “encourages a mindset that does not give due consideration to the value to intellectual creations [and] fails to build respect for intellectual property rights.”

The number of ways in which the IIPA’s statements regarding open source software are egregiously misleading and dishonest are too numerous to count.

(from Big Content condemns foreign governments that endorse FOSS, Ars Technica)

“The IIPA — destroying your cultural future to line our pockets today!”