STFU && RTFM

As a FotoWare Customer Support Engineer, one of the issues I see on a somewhat regular basis, is that users have installed the most recent version of FotoStation, without having a valid license for that version. Simply put, if so, they will not be able to run FotoStation. On Windows, you simply uninstall the new version, install the version for which you have a license, and, as they say, Bob’s your uncle. On a Mac, however, you need to also remove the .bom and .plist files before you can install the version. Here’s how:
 

1. Delete FotoStation from the application folder
2. In Finder, click Cmd+Shift+G
3. In the dialog box, enter /var/db/receipts
4. Scroll down until you come to the entries starting with com.fotoware...
5. Delete the files called com.fotoware.pkg.FotoStation7Installer.bom and com.fotoware.pkg.FotoStation7Installer.plist

 

 
That’s it, you are now ready to install the version of FotoStation for which you have a license.
 
Caveat lector: I work with support at FotoWare. This blog is my own space, I am not paid to write it. I write about FotoWare and FotoWare products because I believe in them.

In Sense, you can reference a list to control what your program does. By default, the [line X from_file "file.txt"] references the Sense project folder, but it can reference one of many locations. How this works differs on Windows and Mac, but the approach is much the same.
 

 
The way you do it, as you can see in the screenshot above, is that you simply enter the path you want to reference. On Windows, that would look like this:c:\result.txt, while on Mac OS X, it would look like this: /Users/Example/Desktop/Sources/results.txt. Keep in mind that you can address any mounted share on either platform.

As part of my studies, I have been “programming” in Sense, a version of Scratch, the graphic programming environment developed at MIT. The programs developed in Sense are stored as .sb-files. Now, the problem is that these files are only readable by the program that made them (and Sense programs are apparently not readable by Scratch). The problem this poses is that I can’t be assured of being able to read the files when, at some point in the future, I might want to.
 
Luckily, Sense, and presumably Scratch, too, has an export facility, allowing you to export the program you’ve made to clear text. Here’s how:
 

• Open Sense
• Open the project you want to export
• Click the “Extras” button, then click “Copy project summary to clipboard”
• Paste the resulting export into whatever program you want

 

 
The script shown here, is the most basic program known, a “Hello world!”-program. Here is how the output looks:
 

—————————————————————–
Project name:
—————————————————————–
Stage has 1 stack
—————————————————————–
when_green_flag_clicked
{
pop_up_warning “Hello world!”
stop_script
}

Curious how much longer you can expect to wait before Color Factory has finished processing your files? If you go to the Operations Center, you will see a monitor, telling you the estimated queue time remaining:
 
Keep in mind, though, that this is only an estimate of the time remaining to process what is currently in the queue. If you have channels that output to the input folders of other channels, you can expect the time displayed to be wrong.
 
Caveat lector: I work with support at FotoWare. This blog is my own space, I am not paid to write it. I write about FotoWare and FotoWare products because I believe in them.

Did you know that you can apply a metadata macro when closing the metadata editor?
 
FotoStation‘s metadata editor can automatically apply a metadata macro after adding metadata to a file. Here is how you activate that option:
 

1. Open the FotoStation configuration, then go to the Dialog builder (under Metadata)
2. Choose and open the editor you want this to apply to
3. On the left-hand side, under Editor Properties, check the check-box marked Auto-exec Macro, then select the macro you want

 
Caveat lector: I work with support at FotoWare. This blog is my own space, I am not paid to write it. I write about FotoWare and FotoWare products because I believe in them.

A while back, I wrote a post about how the term intellectual property theft lacks semantic foundation, and argued that no such thing actually exists. Instead, I pointed out that the correct term would be intellectual property infringement. Part of the problem, when talking about intellectual property, is that, depending on where you are, different rules exist. While that in and of itself would not necessarily be a problem, I feel it is a problem when laws in one country are changed for the sole reason of harmonisation with those of another country.
 
Norway, where I live, has a copyright time of the creator’s lifetime plus seventy years. It used to be fifty years, but that was changed to conform with US copyright law. Now, this wouldn’t be a problem, if it didn’t serve to hinder the spread of Norwegian culture. The way this happens is insidious and not a little nasty, and it happens the most with books. A lesser known author has a book published, which sells moderately well; enough so that he earns some money, but not enough so that the publisher wants to reprint it.
 
A few years pass, and interest wanes. The book is out of print, and the publisher doesn’t want to risk the cost of another edition. The author, relatively unknown as he is, does not have the clout to push the publishing house to reprint. Fast forward to the author’s death: The book is still out of print, and interest is at an all-time low, with the result that a reprint is out of the question, even if the publishing house was interested.. Fast forward another seventy years, and interest is now relatively non-existent.
 
Here we come to the heart of the matter: Interest is not non-existent based on the quality of the work. It is non-existent because no-one knows the book was written in the first place. I see this as a grave threat to all culture, and in particular that culture which is so tied up in the language.
 
In the title of this post, I mentioned a way forward. Here it is: Instead of making still stricter copyright laws, make them less strict. Make it lifetime plus, oh, I don’t know, say twenty-five years. That’s the legal side of things. However, the author can also do something here. When publishing a work, do so under a Creative Commons license. Share the work.
 
I can, of course, see the counter argument from the publishing house, which goes something like “What? Are you crazy? How are we to earn our money?” It’s a fair question, but the answer is as simple as I think it is obvious: When writing a contract with an author; all rights of publishing usually (in Norway, at any rate) revert to them ten years after the last edition was published. At that point, the publishing house is out of the picture, and the author is left with a choice: Cling to the right granted by law, or offer the work up to the public at large.
 
I’m not saying it’s a perfect solution. I’m not saying it wouldn’t lose you money. It isn’t and it might. However, if you turn it to your advantage, it might not. By giving away one book when publishing another, you can hook readers in, get them interested, and, in effect, sell more books.
 
There are no simple solutions. This is one suggestion. Whatever you do; make a conscious choice, and do what feels right.

A while ago, I looked up a book that I like on Amazon’s Kindle store, to see if I could get it for my Kindle. Sure enough, they had it, but they wouldn’t sell it to me. Instead, I was met with this message:
 
To my mind, there is no good reason for this. There is, however, a very bad one: Corporate greed. Because authors generally have publishing deals with different publishing houses in different regions, they lose sales. By the same logic, I should not be allowed to buy a book in the US, and bring it back with me, or order the paperback from Amazon, yet I am.
 
Ebooks are by no means alone in having this kind of problem. The best example I have, is regions on DVDs and Blu-Rays. The historical background is NTSC/PAL; two different systems for video tapes. NTSC tapes would be recorded and played back at 60 frames per second, while PAL tapes would be recorded and played back at 50 frames per second. The reason is simply that the electrical grid in the US transfers AC power at 60 hertz, while the grid in European countries transfers AC power at 50 hertz.
 
Now, while there was a good reason way back when, there is no good reason now, and this silliness needs to stop.

As part of my studies, I came across this video. I’ve seen it before, and I’m sure many others have, too (right now, it has over one and a half million views on YouTube). Still, it poses some interesting questions, and looks at text in a different way.

I believe strongly in the power of words. They can hurt and heal, and they are our primary mode of communication. When discussing any topic, accuracy is very important, and using accurate and appropriate words for what you mean to describe improves your arguments. By the same token, using words that do not accurately describe what you mean to describe, while possibly an effective rhetorical device, weakens your argument.

You may remember an ad that was slapped on most, if not all, DVDs for a long time, called Piracy, It’s a crime. In case you don’t, the text went like this:

You wouldn’t steal a car,
You wouldn’t steal a handbag,
You wouldn’t steal a television,
You wouldn’t steal a movie.
Downloading pirated films is stealing,
Stealing is against the law,
PIRACY
IT’S A CRIME

This ad, builds on a single, core, assumption; that piracy is theft. This is at best a disingenuous assumption, and at worst an outright lie. Why do I say so? Semantics – the study of meaning. It is my contention that the use of the word “theft” in conjunction with intellectual property, as used above, lacks semantic foundation.

In order to discuss this further, we must first define what, exactly, “theft” means. For that, we go to Merriam-Webster:

1 a: the act of stealing; specifically : the felonious taking and removing of personal property with intent to deprive the rightful owner of it
b: an unlawful taking (as by embezzlement or burglary) of property
2 (obsolete): something stolen
3: a stolen base in baseball

Implicitly, this means that you have a piece of property, which is taken from you, causing you no longer to have said piece of property. The only way in which this can happen with Intellectual Property (IP), is if the rightful owner of said IP has written it down, and what he or she has written down becomes stolen, without him or her being able to reproduce it.

Given that context, it seems that what the RIAA, MPAA, NCPC and FBI, to mention a few, define as intellectual propert theft, for the most part isn’t theft at all. What it is, is infringement, about which Merriam-Webster says:

1: the act of infringing : violation
2: an encroachment or trespass on a right or privilege

The fact that the above-mentioned groups choose to attribute qualities to the word “theft” which it does not have, does not mean they are right, and it can only serve to weaken their arguments. Furthermore, and to the very best of my knowledge, no-one has ever, in the history of criminal justice, been charged with theft for infringement of IP. There are no provisions for it in the penal code. There are, however, statutes against infringements of IP, and rightly so. In addition, there is an entire body of civil law dedicated to the protection of IP rights.

Is this a minor point? Possibly. Am I being a pedant? Sure, I’ll concede to that. I still believe that my point is important, valid, and correct. By being clear and concise in how we define things, and how we talk about things, it is my firm belief that we become better people, better able to civilly disagree.

Just as an aside, I checked the Oxford English Dictionary, which defines theft as the act of stealing, further defining stealing as follows:

steal
verb (past stole; past part. stolen)
1 take (something) without permission or legal right and without intending to return it.
¦ dishonestly pass off (another person’s ideas) as one’s own.
2 give or take surreptitiously or without permission: I stole a look at my watch.
¦ move somewhere quietly or surreptitiously.
3 (in various sports) gain (an advantage, a run, or possession of the ball) unexpectedly or by exploiting the temporary distraction of an opponent.
¦ Baseball run to (a base) while the pitcher is in the act of delivery.
noun
1 informal a bargain.
2 chiefly N. Amer. an act of stealing.
¦ an idea taken from another work.
¦ Baseball an act of stealing a base.

Interestingly, in the OED, the implication of something tangible being taken is more explicit. Oh, and by the way, neither MW or OED define IP Theft at all.
 
Sources:
Merriam-Webster on theft
Merriam-Webster on infringement
Oxford English Dictionary on theft
RIAA on Intellectual Property Theft
MPAA on Intellectual Property Theft
National Crime Prevention Council on Intellectual Property Theft
FBI on Intellectual Property Theft
 
All pages visited on October 1st, 2012. This .zip-file contains the full pages as they appeared on that day.

One feature that I have been missing on my iPhone, even though I didn’t realise it, is a way to have the iPhone be quiet when I want it to, but intelligently so. What I mean, is that I want it to be able to let calls from important people (such as my wife and parents) come through the shield, while others are kept quiet. In iOS 6, Apple have introduced the very functionality I wanted.
 
Called “Do Not Disturb”, the feature is located two places in the Settings-menu. The first place, is a simple on/off switch, in the main area of Settings. If you want to configure your settings, though, you need to go into “Notifications”, then “Do Not Disturb”. You can turn on and off Do Not Disturb on a daily schedule (though I’d like to be able to schedule it differently for weekday and weekend), set who to allow calls from, and whether to allow repeated calls to come through.
 
One important thing to note, is that even if you have Do Not Disturbed on, if you are interacting with the screen (i.e. if you have the phone unlocked), notifications will come through.