Logic

20-Year Copyright Extensions Coming To Europe — unlametheweak points out a story at Ars Technica which begins: "After a UK government-led commission said that the current 50-year term for musical copyrights was fine, and the government last year publicly agreed that there was no need to extend the term, culture minister Andy Burnham yesterday made the logical follow-up announcement that yes, the government would now push for a 20-year extension on copyright. Turns out, it's the moral thing to do. Actually, by framing the issue as a 'moral case,' Burnham gets to sidestep the entire issue of logic. Critics have already begun to charge that he is... [Tags: andy burnham, conclusions, cost benefit analysis, culture minister, europe]

FluidSurveys.com - Free Online Survey Software — In their own words“Fluid Surveys – go with the flow.”Why it might be a killerIt is a well-conceived solution with a fair number of features that cater for all kind of users. What it doesIt goes without saying that surveys and polls are one of the most effective ways of spicing user interaction and extending the amount of time visitors spend at any given site. As such, there are many tools for creating and implementing surveys, and this one is the new kid on the block. In addition to enabling you to create surveys and making polls, this particular solution... [Tags: amount of time, free online survey, free version, interaction, kid on the block]

Survival is Competitive Differentiation — We’ve read a few articles lately claiming that survival is not a strategy. The arguments in Anand Rajaraman’s article on GigaOM last month are sound, and if we understand them correctly include not prolonging a business that will never likely “win” or be healthy or have an exit resulting in wealth creation for the shareholders. It’s hard, or more appropriately put, impossible to argue with that logic. A quick death of a company that would otherwise die is a good thing for shareholders and employees. That said, we think it is very hard in these times to look into a... [Tags: anand rajaraman, crystal ball, differentiation, economic boom, economic downturn]

How to Stop Kids from Using Electronics (Phone, PDAs) to Cheat in School — My 8-year-old son asked for help putting on his calculator watch this morning. He joked that he might use it during tests, and I quietly told him it might be a big mistake. His eyes perked up. “Why, dad?” “The alarm goes off… it’s really embarrassing  when the ‘cheating alarm’ goes off.” He smiled, realizing I was quite likely joking. It didn’t help my credibility when I described the alarm’s sound as “beeep weeepp… CHEATER IN THE CLASSROOM!!!… beeeep weeeep.” Then I realized the fish was nibbling at the bait, and decided to grab for anything that might substantiate my... [Tags: algorythms, big mistake, calculator, cheater, credibility]

Stephen Hayes Offers Confusing Advice For Sarah Palin — Try to decode this logic from The Weekly Standard writer Stephen Hayes: BORGER: You just can't say no, because that won't go over with the American people. HAYES: I'm not sure, I think there's a strong part of the country -- more than 50% in a lot of polls -- that are just opposing right now, that are very skeptical of these bailouts, and I think that if you have somebody like a Sarah Palin or another Republican who can articulate that opposition by presenting alternatives... BORGER: But what are the alternatives? That's the point. You have to have 'em.... [Tags: bailout, giveaways, logic, mccain, missing something]

The Viral Garden's Top 25 Marketing & Social Media Blogs - Week 131 — Here's the standings for Week 131:1 - Duct Tape Marketing - 259,000 (+3,000)(LW - 1)2 - Church of the Customer - 247,000 (+3,000)(LW - 2)3 - CopyBlogger - 45,737 (+451)(LW - 3)4 - Web Strategy by Jeremiah - 17,142 (+268)(LW - 4)5 - Chris Brogan - 13,641 (+533)(LW - 5)6 - Search Engine Guide - 13,085 (+463)LW - 6)7 - Logic + Emotion - 11,021 (+57)(LW - 7)8 - Influential Marketing - 7,684 (+33)(LW - 8)9 - Daily Fix - 6,479 (+62)(LW - 9)10 - Jaffe Juice - 4,905 (+5)(LW - 10)11 - Converstations - 3,394 (+165)(LW - 14)12 -... [Tags: amp, chris brogan, duct tape marketing, emergence, emotion]

Bush's Tortured Logic — Listen to Jack Balkin civilly dismember Eric Posner's purported defense of Bush. In fact, Posner was defending what Bush should have done if he were halfway honest and halfway respectful of the Constitution. There is no defense of what Bush and Cheney actually did on interrogations:... [Tags: bush and cheney, constitution, eric posner, jack balkin, logic]

Want to learn to build public web sites / web apps with Force.com? — There's a lot of value in building internal applications for specific business processes within an organization. Salesforce.com has long been a great platform for building these applications by extending the CRM system with custom objects, fields, and page layouts. Over the last little while this has expanded with the ability to write custom pages and logic using the VisualForce and Apex technologies. Now, we are working on allowing these internal applications to be opened up to prospects, customers, partners and anybody else on the web with Force.com Sites which allows public web sites and web applications to be built using... [Tags: apex, apex technologies, business processes, crm system, internal applications]

Guns N' Roses' Lawyer Says Dr. Pepper Giveaway Was Fraud... Even Though Axl Rose Liked It — Ben S. writes in to let us know that the lawyer for Guns N' Roses is now accusing Dr. Pepper of fraud for its well publicized give-away of free bottles of the soft drink along with the release of GNR's Chinese Democracy album. As you're probably aware, the album has been delayed for years, and a Dr. Pepper exec announced earlier this year that if the album actually came out in 2008, the company would give free Dr. Pepper to everyone. The complaint from GNR's lawyer seems to pick up on two points -- which somewhat contradict each other. First,... [Tags: 50 cent, axl rose, chinese democracy, consumers, exec]

The Logic Of Bushism — People who don't see a connection between Bush's fundamentalist psyche and his refusal or inability to see reality in front of him would do well to read this post from "Flopping Aces," a far right Christianist trying to absorb the facts of our time. He cannot:It may be that right now all the powers that be, the media, the educational system, etc. seem to be arrayed in favor of things that we, the minority, can see are not good. Much of what we have seen has seemed ‘rigged’ against us, and we have been ‘defeated’ like the inner and outer... [Tags: bush, educational system, enemies, flopping aces, logic]

BuzzBox’s Fast Forward Is StumbleUpon With A Train Of Thought — I like StumbleUpon, the website recommendation engine that lets me click a button whenever I’d like to view a new, potentially interesting website. But for all the hours it has helped me waste, I wouldn’t go as far as to call it useful - pages that get recommended are rarely related to each other beyond a general category, so there’s never any logical train of thought. San Francisco-based startup BuzzBox is looking to add some logic to the art of ’stumbling’ with its new Firefox plugin, Fast Forward. The service generates site recommendations based not only on their popularity,... [Tags: atrocities, buzzbox, cnn, cnn coverage, email]

Analyst: Apple set to debut a netbook in first half of '09 — Ezra Gottheil, an analyst at Technology Business Research, Inc., says Apple will have to release a lower-cost netbook competitor to deal with our "slipping economy." We're not so sure his logic is sound.Read More...... [Tags: apple, competitor, economy, ezra, logic]

The Viral Garden's Top 25 Marketing & Social Media Blogs - Week 130 — Here's the standings for Week 130:1 - Duct Tape Marketing - 256,000 (+3,000)(LW - 1)2 - Church of the Customer - 244,000 (+3,000)(LW - 2)3 - CopyBlogger - 45,286 (-449)(LW - 3)4 - Web Strategy by Jeremiah - 16,874 (-150)(LW - 4)5 - Chris Brogan - 13,108 (+273)(LW - 5)6 - Search Engine Guide - 12,622 (-91)LW - 6)7 - Logic + Emotion - 10,964 (+8)(LW - 7)8 - Influential Marketing - 7,651 (-72)(LW - 8)9 - Daily Fix - 6,417 (-25)(LW - 9)10 - Jaffe Juice - 4,900 (-2)(LW - 10)11 - Drew's Marketing Minute - 3,515 (+16)(LW -... [Tags: amp, chris brogan, duct tape marketing, emergence, emotion]

Average Betty, Snoop Dogg on Martha: NTV Station Today — Yesterday we gave you tips on turkey; today, we’re all about side dishes. First — nothing says Thanksgiving like Snoop Dogg helping Martha Stewart mash potatoes. By which I mean: Let us give thanks. And how can you truly judge a recipe unless you try it on your own? And, by the same logic, how can you truly judge a cooking video unless you try it on your own? I put the cooking web series Average Betty to the test in my own kitchen, and documented the process of making her dinner rolls on camera. Check out the video and... [Tags: camera check, dinner rolls, logic, martha stewart, mash potatoes]

"No Rational Basis" — Florida's gay adoption ban was ruled unconstitutional today:The ruling means that Martin Gill, 47, and his male partner can adopt two brothers, ages 4 and 8, whom he has cared for as foster children since December 2004. "I've never seen myself as less than anybody else," Gill said. "We're very grateful. Today, I've cried the first tears of joy in my life." He said the two boys have been practicing writing their new last names, and the older one said: "That's what's going to make us a family."What we're seeing is the confrontation between the logic of rationality and equal... [Tags: confrontation, gay adoption, homophobia, joy in my life, last names]

ABI Research sez set-top-box shipments to peak in 2012 — Filed under: Industry, DVRs, Set-top boxes Ah, the infamous 2012. The latest batch of research forecasting out to that fateful year comes from ABI, who is proudly proclaiming that global set-top-box shipments will peak in just over three years. The data includes STBs that pass along satellite, cable, or DTT signals, and the impending decrease is primarily pegged to the transition to all-digital broadcasting. To be frank, we can't say we entirely agree or even understand the logic there, but we can get along with the assertion that STB functionality is apt to become more tightly integrated in HDTVs /... [Tags: abi, assertion, boxes, digital broadcasting, dtt]

As the NFL gobbles up even more market share in the United States, it follows logic to see the next big in-home entertainment push side with it in order to garner attention. With every company and its third subsidiary twice removed trying to shove 3D into the home, we'd say starting with the NFL is a brilliant move. In a closed-to-the-public "proof of concept" demonstration, next week's matchup between the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders will air live in 3D to select theaters in Los Angeles, New York and Boston. Third-dimension mainstays 3ality Digital and RealD will... [Tags: 3ality, backers, brilliant move, broadcast, concept demonstration]

SnowWorld: Reducing Pain with Virtual Reality — Snow World is a virtual world that’s being used to help treat burn victims. The project is hosted at the University of Washington, where patients immerse themselves in the cold themed virtual game as a way to distract their minds from pain perception as they undergo treatment. The project’s website explains: “SnowWorld was specifically designed to help burn patients. Patients often report re-living their original burn experience during wound care, SnowWorld was designed to help put out the fire. “Our logic for why VR will reduce pain is as follows. Pain perception has a strong psychological component. The same... [Tags: attentional resources, conscious attention, gould, herd, illusion]

Live NFL broadcast to air in 3D as "proof of concept" — Filed under: Industry, Other formats, Sports As the NFL gobbles up even more market share in the United States, it follows logic to see the next big in-home entertainment push side with it in order to garner attention. With every company and its third subsidiary twice removed trying to shove 3D into the home, we'd say starting with the NFL is a brilliant move. In a closed-to-the-public "proof of concept" demonstration, next week's matchup between the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders will air live in 3D to select theaters in Los Angeles, New York and Boston. Third-dimension mainstays... [Tags: 3ality, backers, brilliant move, broadcast, concept demonstration]

What To Do When Your Work is Stolen Online — Stealing on the internet is easy.  It takes very little effort for someone to copy your work and slap their name on it.  Almost every month I hear of a photographer, blogger, or designer I know whose work gets used without their permission.  With all this copyright infringement going around, I’d be surprised if a majority of WWD readers claim that this has never happened to them. When it does happen, what should you do? Document first The first thing you should do is to document the act of infringement itself.  Since there are so many things for you to... [Tags: aliza sherman, blog, blogger, consequences, copyright law]