AG025: Creatively Common Star Trek

Creatively Common Star Trek

This week Chris and Russ talk about Creative Commons. Creative Commons is a non-profit organization which encourages people to share their creative works with out simply putting those works into the public domain. The bottom line is that Creative Commons offers a number of licenses that you can apply to your works.

There are a whole family of creative commons licenses. For example, if you don't mind if someone else modifies your work, and makes a profit from it but you do want the credit for anything they do with your work, you can use this license:


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Alternatively, you might want to give your song or book or picture away, as long as there is no money involved:


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Or you might want to restrict users of your work from changing it:


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

The Creative Commons licenses is a tool for you to control what people can do with your work.

The book of the week is All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Watching Star Trek by Dave Marinaccio. If you like Star Trek but don't particularly like Star Trek books, try this one. It is a fun romp through the 'philosophy' of everyone's favorite sci fi show.

Russ

AG024: Patent It!

Patent It!

Techies and artists seem to have so little in common. We manipulate electrons and bits with manic precision. They fling paint and images like maniacs. We dream of being the soul of a new machine. Their souls machine new dreams. We write code. They write kōan. But when it comes right down to it, we are all in the business of creating ideas, concepts, schemes, designs. We do have some things in common though: Both artists and techies want to get our due for our work, if not in money than in credit.

The law provides for three ways to make sure that you get the benefit of your ideas, your work and your brand. In fact, if you live in the U.S., some of that protection is built right into the most basic law of the land, the Constitution. Article I, section 8 says that Congress has the power...


...To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.


Lawyers generally interpret this to mean that Congress has two separate powers, one to grant patents and a second, different power to grant copyrights. A patent is the right of an inventor to prevent others from using his or her invention. A patent is a kind of a bargain: The inventor gets the exclusive right to profit from their invention for a limited term (20 years in the U.S). In return, society as a whole gets the invention when the patent runs out. The idea behind patents is that it will be better for inventors to get a patent than to try and keep their invention secret.

Getting a patent is not easy, nor should it be since a patent is a very broad monopoly. If you hold a patent on some invention, I can't use that invention without your permission, even if I thought of it independently. In order to get a patent, you need to come up with some invention that is really novel, novel in the sense that no one has thought of it before. Recently there has been a lot of criticism of the U.S. patent system for granting patents on fairly obvious 'inventions'. One of my particular favorites is U.S. patent 6,004,596 which provides a exclusive monopoly to the inventors of:

A sealed crustless sandwich for providing a convenient sandwich without an outer crust which can be stored for long periods of time without a central filling from leaking outwardly. The sandwich includes a lower bread portion, an upper bread portion, an upper filling and a lower filling ...

Good thing this patent wasn't around when my mother used to stamp out sealed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches by making the regular kind and then using a coffee mug as a sort of cookie cutter.

In contrast to a patent, a copyright is easy to get. In fact it is automatic. Simply by typing these words as I am right now, I am magically creating a copyrighted work. Copyright protects the authors of any original work, be it prose, poetry, music, art and even computer programs. Copyright means that the author has exclusive ownership over the work for some period of time. For new works copyrighted in the United States (this article for example) the copyright lasts the whole life of the author, plus 70 years. Although copyrights are easy to get, they are a much weaker protection than a patent. A patent means that you more or less own the invention, the idea. A copyright means that you own your expression of the idea. Thus, while I own this article and could sue you if you turned the first few paragraphs into the lyrics of a Country and Western song, I would be helpless if you simply went out and wrote your own Country and Western song about patents and trademarks.

Although copyrights are automatic, you can register your copyright. Registration is mostly a processes of sending a copy or two of your work to the copyright office and paying a small fee. Even though you automatically own the copyright on whatever you create, registration strengthens your hand if you do need to sue over that Country and Western song.

Finally, there are trademarks. A trademark is a name or a symbol that you use to identify your business or product. The idea of a trademark is that you should be able to stake out some kind of symbol or name or catch phrase that uniquely identifies your product or business. Like copyrights, trademarks are pretty easy to get. In the U.S., you can register your trademark with the government in pretty much the same way that you register a copyright and for pretty much the same reasons: If someone violates your trademark, you are going to have an easier time in court if you took the trouble to register it first. Interestingly, different companies can use the same trademark, as long as they are in very different businesses. Sometimes this leads to interesting collisions, as when a small computer company founded in the 1970s took the same name, Apple, as an existing music publisher. After all, what could personal computers have to do with music? The rest is, as they say, legal train wreck history.

You can find all sort of further information at the web site of the patent and trademark office and also the copyright office.

Our intro music today was My Friend by our friend Jason Dale. Our bumper and exit music was
Forever, also by Jason Dale. You can find out more about Jason's music over at his web site.

Thanks for listening!

Russ

AG023: Design Matters

Design Matters

Good design is all about making something that just works, that does what people want it to do with no fuss and perhaps with a little bit of style. Think about a plain old hard cover book. You buy a book because you want to read it, to get at the information or the story inside. You don't have to turn it on, you don't need a password, you don't even need to read the instructions. To get at the information inside a book you simply start reading and the data flows. Look away and the flow stops. Look back at the page and it starts again. Now that is great design.

Old traditional land line phones worked the same way: You never actually turned them on. To use a traditional phone you simply lifted the handset and the phone turned itself on. You could tell from the dial tone. Again, simply. Again, a great design.

The iPhone doesn't turn itself on automatically, but it is still a great design. The wonderful thing about the iPhone is that it just wants to be that little portable computer that you have with you all the time. But the iPhone doesn't aspire to spreadsheets and complex documents: Instead it simply does the stupid little computing tasks that need to be done. So the iPhone helps you figure out where you are and where the nearest pizza place is. The iPhone is computing in the small, at it is superb at it.

So what is good design? It is doing one thing really well: Be the repository for a certain chunk of information, or the always there voice communications conduit or the little computer that you always have with yout.

Good design also means doing things with a minimum of fuss: Thus, even though your book may contain important information, books don't generally come with locks on them. A lock might keep prying, non-paying eyes out, but it would be a pain in the neck to the actual owner. In the same way, the old phones just worked, they were always there and they were always ready to deliver your voice. And the iPhone fits in your pocket.

The ironic thing about high tech devices like the iPhone is that if they are well designed, they actually make the world a more human place. Or at least they make it easier to find good pizza, which amounts to the same thing.

Our opening theme is Them Say Piano by the 3AM Association. Our closing theme was Since I've Been Loving Your by SComber.

Russ

AG22: We Trip The Light Fandango

Download Episode 22

This week we talk about light - there's more to it than you think.

So what does the heat that seems to try to cook you when you get in a hot car, the radio that you play as you drive and the X rays that your dentist uses to find that cavity all have in common with a beautiful sunset? The answer is that the glow from your car, the radio signals, the X rays and the light from the sunset are all electromagnetic radiation, one of the fundamental forces in the world. They are all just different flavors of the same thing. You can think of the different kinds of EM radiation as different notes on a piano keyboard. The radio waves are the really deep, low notes down on the left end of the piano keyboard. The heat coming off your car are slightly higher notes and the visible light, the stuff that we can see with our eyes are higher still. Up the the really high end, the sharpest notes of all are the X rays. The different pitches - technically frequency - not only change the way that we perceive the radiation, but also affects how much energy the radiation carries. This is why you don't need to fearful of standing in the glare of a light bulb or next to a radio transmitter but should be very careful around the much higher frequency X rays.

Electromagnetic radiation is all around us - fortunately mostly the safer, lower frequency stuff. In fact, everything that is at all warm, (where warm here means anything above the coldest that you could be, which is -273 C ) naturally radiates electromagnetic radiation. That hot car is radiating EM that we perceive as heat. Turn up the temperature a bit, say on an electric stove and you get 'red hot' - the EM radiation coming off the stove is high enough frequency we see it as a dull red glow. Red light is the lowest frequency light that we can see. The other colors are all of slightly different frequencies with yellow somewhere in the middle and violet having the shortest. We call the EM radiation whose frequency is slightly less than red 'infra-red' and the stuff above violet, 'ultra-violet'.

Since electromagnetic radiation is a sort of wave - think of it as like ripples on the surface of water - you can make it interfere with itself. Interference is something that waves do. Throw a stone into a still pond and you will make a set of ripples, little circular mini-waves. Throw two stones in and you will get two sets of ripples. When those two sets of ripples run into each other something very interesting happens: In places they reinforce each other while in other places they cancel each other out. So when two waves hit each other you tend to get an interference pattern, the waves are alternatively stronger (as the two waves reinforce each other) and weaker - as the waves cancel each other out. You can see that kind of interference by looking at the back of a CD or a DVD. The rainbow that you see coming off the back of a DVD is produced by the light that is reflected off of the tiny dots on the back of the DVD. All those dots reflect a bit of light which then goes out and interferes with the other bits coming off of other dots and we get the rainbow. In the same way, scientists bounce X rays off of the atoms inside of crystals - which causes X rays interference patterns - to try and figure out how those atoms are arranged.

Electromagnetic radiation: The world would be a darker place without it!

The opening theme music for this weeks episode is called Walk With Me by our good friend Jason Dale.

The closing music is Air On A G String, performed by the Gardner Chamber Orchestra with soloist Paula Robison

Russ & Chris

AG21: Seven Tips For Finishing The Big Project

Download Episode 21

How do you start and more importantly, finish a big project? The answer depends on what we mean by a big project. Psychology, a big project is one that you can't easily redo if you mess it up completely. So washing your car is not such a big project: The whole thing might take a couple of hours from hardtop to wheels, and if you had the start over you have only lost a Saturday morning. Building a custom car, which might take months or years, is a completely different story. If you left your pliers in some inaccessible place in your hot rod, well you might have to redo months of assembly work.

So if you have a big project on your hands, what can you do to ensure that you not only start it but also finish it? Here's 7 things to keep in mind.

1. Plan But Be Flexible

Step one is make sure that you prepare, that you have a plan. Don't just plan: Plan big. Most large projects get off the ground on a tremendous blast of ambition. Tell yourself that you are going to write that opera or novel or that giant mural. This is no time for little thoughts: Think Sistine Chapel. The flip side of planning big is to execute small. The very thing that makes big projects big is that you can't finish them in one sitting. So execute small: Pick a little goal, a first or second or third step and do it. Tell yourself that, yes, I'm going to write that long novel, but it starts with writing the first page or the last page or an outline. So go ahead and write that page, make that first brush stoke or compose the first measure. Plan big. Execute small.

2. Clear The Decks

Another thing that you need to do before you start a big project is to get all the little things out of the way. Do your taxes *before you start on that masterpiece. Clear off your desk. Buy those 3X5 cards. Sharpen your pencils and clean your brushes. It helps to clear the minor things, things that will be in your way once you get underway.

3. Don't Listen To The Voices

I knew this guy in college who would say that the difference between crazy people and sane people is that crazy people will tell you that they hear voices. The sane people say they don't. It's not that the sane people don't hear the voices, it's just that they won't own up to it. I think that everyone who has ever tried to do something big has heard some voices, voices that say that you are wasting your time, that it's all going to be crap. Don't listen to the voices - they are the chorus of perfectionism. The prize - a finished project - goes to those who show up. The only way you are going to win is to be in the room when the project is finished. Mostly the voices are wrong; We are our own worst critics. If you do hear those voices, just sit down and say to yourself, "OK, maybe it's not going to be very good, at least not at first. But I'm just going to do it."

4. Let Yourself Be A Beginner

Which leads us to our next point: If you are just starting out doing something, then just accept that you are a beginner. It's all way points on the road to getting good. Give yourself the time to be bad at it, to learn. If are starting on the long journey to learn something new, then give yourself the time and the patience that you need to finish the trip. Nobody learns to program, or to paint or to play the oboe in a day or even ten days. But in the middle of day ten you will be nine and a half days closer to that oboe concerto. Hang in there.

5. Follow Your Muse But Track Your Progress

Sometimes a big project takes on a life and a path of its own. Sometimes you just need to listen to the work, to follow it to where it will take you. Sometimes we have a plan, but the project - or perhaps our muse - has a mind of its own. Sometime you need to simply follow it where it takes you. Take the project a step at a time and see where you are after each step.

Do try to have milestones though, some way to track your progress. Especially in the middle of a really big project, when you have forgotten what the beginning feels like and there is no sight of an end, knowing that you have just finished something, made some real progress can be a huge morale booster. I keep track of my large writing projects with 3 by 5 cards taped to the wall. Chris takes pictures of his guitar projects so that he not only has the 'before' and 'after' pix, but also 10,000 'along the way' shots.

6. Work Where You Are Comfortable

Find a happy place. If you like to write at Starbucks, then by all means write at Starbucks. I have my special writing desk, with the monitor set at just the angle I like. My keyboard is at just the right height. All my 3 by 5 cards are just where I want them. Find the place to work that makes you happy and go there, work, and be happy. Doing a project in your happy place will get you through the hard bits: You might get stuck on a paragraph or the way the shadow falls on her face, but at least you'll be comfortable, at least you'll have your donut/cappachino/calico cat to make you feel better.

7. Be Brave. Finish.

Finally, finish the thing. If you have a hard time simply declaring victory and saying 'this is done' ask yourself this: What is it that you are cheating the world of? It's better than you can possibly imagine. Get it out there!

Russ

AG20: The Big Left Brain Right Brain Shoot Out

Download Episode 20

This week Chris and Russ take on the topic of left brain vs. right brain.

Saying that someone is left brained or right brained has become something of a cliche: We all know that left brained people are analysing, logical and good with numbers and technology. Think Mr. Spock, Dr. Frankenstein (the scientist, not the monster) and the entire male cast of The Big Bang Theory. Right brained folks, by contrast are supposed to be artsy and holistic, passionate and feeling. Think Dr. McCoy, Frankenstein (the monster, not the scientist) and virtually everyone on Project Runway. Is this all just some faulty popular psychology or is there something to this right brain/left brain stuff?

In a word, yes. It is both a myth and there is something to it. Certainly every human brain has two major chunks, one located on the left and the other located on the right. Certainly there is a lot of specialization going on: For most people the left brain does much of the work when we are talking or doing numerical things. The right half of the brain (again, in most people) does seem to specialize in spacial and artistic endeavors. And clearly, many people are better at math than painting (Russ) or better at sculpture than programming (Chris). So there is a lot to this left brain/right brain stuff.

Well, sort of. The thing to keep in mind is that every normal person (and a lot of abnormal ones too!) come equipped with a whole brain, complete with both sides. To dismiss someone - or even yourself - as completely left or right brained is to miss the fact that people can do absolutely extraordinary things. Right brained people learn to program, to do math and to assemble stereo equipment; left brained people learn to draw, sing and decorate birthday cakes.

Russ first learned about this left brain/right brain stuff - and learned to draw - from the book Drawing On The Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. You can find out more about the whole left brain/right brain thing at WikiPedia

You can learn more about QTips here (no, I'm not making this up). Work on that two handed technique.

Russ and Chris

AG19: Do You Have The Audacity To Edit Your Podcast?

Download Episode 19

This week Chris and Russ talk about using Audacity to edit your podcast. Audacity is a full featured audio recording and editing application that is available for Mac, Windows and Linux. You can use Audacity to delete the coughs, ringing phones, crying babies or anything else that detracts from your podcast. If you are going to use Audacity to edit, you probably also want to record with it in the first place.

Remember that silence is your friend. Leave some silence at the beginning of your podcast: It will help if you want to eliminate noise later. In addition, you'll want to leave some silence after a mistake, simply because when you are editing it is easy to spot those stretches of dead air, which means that it will be easy to find the mistakes.

Speaking of editing, remember: Never ever edit the one and only copy of your recording! Keep that original recording in case you need to go back to it. We have screwed up enough editing sessions to know how important this is.

To cut out a that cough or ringing phone, you simply find the part of the recording that you want to cut, select the graphic that corresponds to the unwanted sound and hit the DELETE key. Always listen to a few seconds before and after your edit to make sure that it sounds OK. Audacity supports unlimited undo, so if you mess it up just undo your change.

If you seed to change the loudness of part of your podcast, select that part of the graphic and hit the effect/amplify menu item. You can use the slider on the resulting dialog to make that part of your recording louder or softer. But don't over-do it!

Using Audacity to remove noise is a two step process: First you select some silence (remember the silence that you left at the beginning of your podcast?) and select the effects/Noise Removal. When the dialog comes up, you hit the "Get Noise Profile". Now Audacity knows what the noise sounds like. Now you go back, and select the part of the podcast (maybe all of it) that you want to clean up and select the effects/Noise Removal menu item a second time. This time around, select the OK button.

Exporting your podcast to MP3 is pretty easy: Go to File/Export, enter any tags and make sure you ask for an MP3 file.

Finally, our bonus suggestion: Start with the best quality recording that you possibly can.

Happy Podcasting!

Russ & Chris