There are two interesting Android blog posts about a new licensing/copy protection system for apps. Check it out.
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/07/licensing-service-for-android.html
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/07/licensing-service-technology-highlights.html
July 28, 2010
July 26, 2010
Here is a link to a presentation at this years OSCON about UI Design for the Android platform.
Enjoy!
OSCON UI Design Tips for Android
July 24, 2010
I was at Bridgehead earlier today and heard a cool tune. I asked the staff what it was, and they told me that it was Low Strung. After coming home I wanted to get the CD, but was unable to find it anywhere but iTunes. I don't do iTunes, because Apple doesn't do Linux... but fortunately my wife has a Mac.
So, after getting the album I had to convert it from .m4a to .mp3. I figured I'd share my script...
convert-m4a-to-mp3. You'll need
to grab a few packages to use it: apt-get install zsh faad id3v2 twolame toolame.
cd dir-with-m4a-files
./convert-m4a-mp3
Ta da!
July 23, 2010
Just announced is release of Git version 1.7.2.
Scanning through the ReleaseNotes the following look interesting:
git -c var=valwill override configgit show :/patternnow uses regexgitno longer squelches if it doesn't find .git (useful when using in PS1)git checkout --orphan namemakes a new root branch (no parent)git cherry-pickcan now be given a list of refsgit log --decoratelearned to colour more things
So I’ve recently been playing with Ditz, a ruby-based distributed issue tracker, to go along with my distributed workflow in Git. It’s a good start, but not quite polished yet. I added the issue-claiming plugin, played with it for a while, and then realized that I don’t need it since I’m the only developer on the projects that I want to use it for.
Then I removed the plugin, but it left behind sections in the ditz yaml files that caused it to now spew warnings.
msoulier@egor:...ier/work/mbg-bugs$ ditz todo warning: unknown field "claimer" in YAML for tag:ditz.rubyforge.org,2008-03-06:issue; ignoring warning: unknown field "claimer" in YAML for tag:ditz.rubyforge.org,2008-03-06:issue; ignoring warning: unknown field "claimer" in YAML for tag:ditz.rubyforge.org,2008-03-06:issue; ignoring warning: unknown field "claimer" in YAML for tag:ditz.rubyforge.org,2008-03-06:issue; ignoring
Well that’s unacceptable. So now I need to remove this claimer line from each file. Well, this is *nix so I’m not doing it by hand. I could use a perl one-liner but I’m a tad more familiar with ex commands, editing in Vim all day as I do.
So, I make an exscript file containing this:
%g/^claimer:/d wq
And then run it on the files like so
for file in $(find bugs -name "issue*.yaml") do ex - $file < exscript done
Presto. Fixed. So happy.
July 22, 2010
Digital Copyright Canada
digitalcopyright
Digital Copyright Canada - All Canadian Citizens are "Rights Holders"!
I met with Justin Trudeau at his office at 625 Faillon Street in Montréal, Québec, from approximately 15:00 to 16:00 on Monday July 19'th. My wife attended as she was interested to meet Mr. Trudeau. The conversation was primarily about Copyright, and when it was nearing 16:00 it was Rina and not one of Mr. Trudeau's staffers that had to remind us that the office was closing when it seemed we might head off into other topics (Census, patenting of life, ....).
Firstly, I would like to thank everyone who came out this month! It was a small group, but still very interesting.
Chris Saunders gave a short presentation on integrating analytics into your Android applications using Localytics.
As was mentioned at the meeting, we will be willing to promote Android applications on the Ottawa Android website. [...]
July 16, 2010
Digital Copyright Canada
digitalcopyright
Digital Copyright Canada - All Canadian Citizens are "Rights Holders"!
A release from the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP) indicates that on Tuesday July 20, a group of public interest organizations, represented by Sean Flynn, Associate Director of PIJIP, will file a complaint alleging that U.S. trade policy in the Obama Administration violates international human rights obligations.
In this case the issue is the promotion of policies restricting access to affordable medications around the world. The report is also abused to promote other highly controversial policies which go beyond or contradict internationally negotiated treaties in areas of patent, copyright, trademark and related rights.
Interesting statistics from Copyright and Technology Blog :
[...] academic research into DRM and other rights technologies in the United States has diminished to virtually nil.
(For example, a search of IEEE shows that of all digital rights-related research papers published from 2008 to the present, 40% were from China, 27% were from the rest of Asia, 20% were from Europe, and less than 4% were from the United States. Spain by itself had more activity than the US.)
July 15, 2010
Digital Copyright Canada
digitalcopyright
Digital Copyright Canada - All Canadian Citizens are "Rights Holders"!
Some great news from New Zealand via Paul Matthews of the NZ Computer Society.
July 14, 2010
Digital Copyright Canada
digitalcopyright
Digital Copyright Canada - All Canadian Citizens are "Rights Holders"!
Michael Geist has published his submission online which touches many different areas. I'm in full agreement with this submission.
I was thinking about this last night after reading another "but we have to have the C-32 approach to TPMs for the creators to get paid" article, and think I found a way to explain my thinking.
Let's divide Canadians into 4 groups based on their ability to bypass TPMs and their respect for copyright law :
| Can bypass TPMs | Can't bypass TPMs | |
|---|---|---|
| Respect Copyright law | Engineers | Comsumers |
| Don't respect copyright law | Pirates | Wannabe pirates |
A CBC News article documents yet another failed attempt to misapply technology to solve unrelated legal issue. I only wish this government would do evidence based policy, and look at when specific technologies have failed to solve legal problems elsewhere (IE: access controls in copyright in the USA has been a failure, and yet a far worse version is in Bill C-32). In the case of DMCA TPMs it wasn't a small sample, but a failed experiment committed against the entire country.
July 13, 2010
Digital Copyright Canada
digitalcopyright
Digital Copyright Canada - All Canadian Citizens are "Rights Holders"!
In an earlier article describing my limited participation in the Digital Economy consultation I indicated that I wouldn't have the time to make a formal submission. This fact was hilighted in a flattering article by Laurel L. Russwurm, who did make a formal submission, so I thought I would write about why I didn't allocate the time.
July 9, 2010
Digital Copyright Canada
digitalcopyright
Digital Copyright Canada - All Canadian Citizens are "Rights Holders"!
The deadline for ideas and submissions on Canada’s digital economy strategy has been extended until midnight, Tuesday, July 13
I don't think I will have the time to make a formal submission. I have instead started to post to the ideas forum. If you agree with these ideas, please vote them up. Please also add comments.
July 7, 2010
Hello Ottawa Android Devs,
We have been contacted by Natalie MacLean who is looking for an Android developer for a short contract.
The details of the application are as follows
Looking for developer to create Android version of “Nat Decants” which is currently available for both BlackBerry and iPhone.
Requirements:
Welcome Screen with postcard pictures
Dashboard from where users can choose [...]
Digital Copyright Canada
digitalcopyright
Digital Copyright Canada - All Canadian Citizens are "Rights Holders"!
Musician Loreena McKennitt penned an opinion piece where she spoke about declining revenues for a whole series of largely unrelated industries, and then made two wild unfounded claims: first, that "today's online environment, where piracy is virtually unchecked" was the problem, and second that Bill C-32 was a solution.
July 6, 2010
Digital Copyright Canada
digitalcopyright
Digital Copyright Canada - All Canadian Citizens are "Rights Holders"!
Author, broadcaster, editor, journalist, musician, negotiator, singer, and MP Charlie Angus has released a letter to Heritage Minister James Moore discussing how the Minister has his facts wrong on Copyright.
It is great that we have an actual creator in parliament, able to speak on behalf of fellow creators, rather than too many parliamentarians that get confused by intermediaries falsely claiming to represent creators!
July 5, 2010
Digital Copyright Canada
digitalcopyright
Digital Copyright Canada - All Canadian Citizens are "Rights Holders"!
The Interim Consensus Submission from those who discussed online and offline about such a submission is now published, and available for endorsement. This is a submission that will be endorsed by many people towards the National Consultations on a Digital Economy Strategy.
I participated (online only), and endorse the submission. There is only one are that I would have used different wording, and that is in "4.3 Balanced copyright". The submission used the language of "A fine balance needs to be struck between the rights of creators/consumers in a wide variety of digital contexts". This could easily be misinterpreted as being similar to when governments talk about a need to strike a balance between the interests of consumers and the rights of the creative community. My experience in the last near decade on this policy has been that the strongest disagreements are between different creators, and that a balance between the interests of different creators is a more important axis to be concerned with in trying to create balanced copyright law.
July 4, 2010
After some procrastination, we finally have our email system working. You can now get in touch with organizers via email. All the information is on our new “Contact Us” page.
