On Copyrights

This is a quick run down of interesting of copyright infringement cases that can happen to you and me:

1. If you have a shared folder that contains copyritghted materials such as MP3 etc, you are liable to a lawsuit. See Elektra v. Barker and also here
2. If you have rip your DVD to view it on your PC, PSP etc. You have violated copyright law. See Digital Millemium Copyright Act (DCMA)
3. If you destroy your hardisk because you are about to be busted, this will play against you since the court might assume that the evidence would go against you. See Spoilation of evidence

Other interesting cases:

1. Sony v. Universal – VCRs are OK for in-home “time-shifting” because they have a “substantial
   non-infringing use” and would have a small effect on the market.
2. Napster – Everything you do is illegal.
3. MGM v. Grokster – If evidence “shows statements or actions directed to promoting
   infringement,” but beyond mere knowledge or potential for infringement,
   then the producer of that device may be held liable for copyright
   infringement, e.g. Morpheus.

Everything you wanted to know on Copyrights, read the $1600 volumes: Nimmer on Copyrights
References: Ask-the-greek-law

Banning Laptops in classroom

As an educator myself, i realise the problems that laptops causes in classrooms.  Arstechnica is running a very interesting article on this.
To summarize:
1. You can never solve the laptop problem in classroom by turning off wifi
2. You cannot ban laptops because students may be using them to take down notes. Since i teach computer science subjects, it makes sense not to ban laptops.

What is more interesting are the comments from fellow teachers and students.
References: arstechnica, discuss

Teenager repellant technology turned to their advantage

Like it is said, every tool can be used either for the good or for the bad.  Because of a medical condition called presbycusis, an age-related loss of hearing.  People above age 20 loses their sensitivity to high frequencies 18 to 20Khz.  This means that only teenagers would be able to hear sounds / noises in such frequency band. 

Based on this technology, security company, compoundsecurity, has developed a device to prevent / repel teenagers from anti-social gathering infront of stores.  This device emits an ultrasonic sound / noise only audible to teenagers.  Here is the video (in french) of the device in action.

Ironically, the same medical condition, used in a different context, is turning to the advantage of the teenagers.  Some teenagers in UK has recorded this ultrasonic sound on to their handphone so that they can receive calls and sms during class without their teacher knowing about it.

This is a clear example of how, technology, used differently can be to one’s advantage as well as one’s disadvantage.
Reference: textually.org, ringtone

Useful command in windows command shell

Here is a list of commands that might be useful in a windows environment:

• color (changes the color of the command shell) e.g. color bf
• date (displays or set system date) e.g. date /T 
• time (displays of set the system time) e.g. time /T
• echo (echoes the variable) e.g. echo %PATH%
• set (displays / sets an environment variable) e.g. set path, set /P PATH=c:\ 
• start (starts another shell) e.g. start
• assoc (displays / associates a file extension to a file type) e.g. assoc .pl
  
• ftype (displays / associates a file type to a program for execution) e.g. ftype perl
• subst (associates a folder to a drive letter) e.g. subst z: myfolfer

The more usual commands such as more, cd, rd, rem, move etc. are not mentioned above so as to keep the list consise.

Network commands
Some common networking commands that can be issued:

• ipconfig (displays the configuration of your ethernet ports)
• ping (test connectivity)
• tracert (trace the hops taken from your host to a destination host)
• pathping (a combination of ping and tracert)
• netstat (displays active tcp connections and ports on which the computer is listening)
• nslookup (lookup an fqdn into an ip)

I hope some of these will come in handy to anyone out there
References: command windows

Why companies release software with bugs

Came accross this article at Gurardian.co.uk, written by Eric Sink, founder of SourceGear.
For every bug fixed, there are new bugs being introduced into the software.  Every change is a risky change.  The bug that is being introduced might be worse than the bug being fixed or it might be not as bad as the previous bug.  So how do one know which bug needs to be fixed and when?
Eric suggest to consider the following factor:

• How bad is its impact? (Severity)

• How often does it happen? (Frequency)

• How much effort is required to fix it? (Cost)

• What is the risk of fixing it? (Risk)

An example cited from the article is when many potential customers asked to support Oracle besides SQL Server.

• Severity: Losing potential customers
• Frequency: None
• Cost: Very high since the original code was tailor-made for SQL Server
• Risk: Changing big portions of the code will surely introduce a lot of bugs.

So, sometimes, software just had to be delivered with some known but acceptable bugs.
Note: Although the example given is not about a bug but rather a feature of the system, but we get the point.
Reference: Guardian, Original article: Code Economist

OLPC (One Laptop per Child) – The vision of Negroponte

When i first heard about his vision of closing the gap of information age between third world countries and developed ones by the OLPC project, i shrugg it off as a vain attempt. One year later, the first step towards his vision was made: The $100 laptop by MIT is out. Negroponte will be rememebered in history for his vision, in the same league as Richard Stallman, founders of Project Guttenberg etc. Check out the pictures of the US$100 laptop Check out the video of Negroponte's vision

Welcome!

Welcome to Do no 3vil, home to my thoughts. Here be expected to find blogs in areas of computer science, technology, chrisitianity, psychology, philosophy and many more. These are my hobbies, my work, and my thoughts