We've recently been told quite a lot about the activities of the US National Security Agency in monitoring internet communications. Much of it could be described as "stuff you might have feared, but that's a bit depressing to have confirmed". For people outside the US, one perhaps surprising thing is that the US government seems… Continue reading “It didn’t violate the First Amendment because Americans weren’t among the people targeted”
Tag: usa
Did you know? Some people like Helvetica
Helvetica is—as every font geek who enjoys a repulsive turn of phrase must agree—one of the most iconic fonts of our time. Which is a pretty strange thing. Designed in 1957 by two not very famous type designers as a neutral typeface for the Haas foundry in Switzerland, Helvetica might almost have been drawn to… Continue reading Did you know? Some people like Helvetica
iPads in schools
Fraser Spiers remarks, in a review of the Google Nexus 7 tablet: My experience with two years of iPad in school is that the iPad can cover 99% of everything we want to do with a computer in school... the iPad can replace the computer suite I think the radical nature of his observation has… Continue reading iPads in schools
“Various nifty functions”
Further to the code-literate judge in Oracle v Google, via Groklaw we now have his ruling that the Java APIs are not copyrightable. It's an exceptionally clear piece of work and a good introduction to the subject. I certainly couldn't have written a better technical summary, although I'm sure there are bits that a non-programmer… Continue reading “Various nifty functions”
Speaking of learning to code
Dialogue in Oracle vs Google, between Judge Alsup and Oracle's lead counsel David Boies: Judge: We heard the testimony of Mr. Bloch. I couldn't have told you the first thing about Java before this problem. I have done, and still do, a significant amount of programming in other languages. I've written blocks of code like… Continue reading Speaking of learning to code
A dot com is an American domain
"Verisign seizes .com domain registered via foreign Registrar on behalf of US Authorities" (via Daring Fireball) — a gambling site based outside the US, using a .com domain registered by a non-US registrar, has had its domain seized by US authorities after prosecutors in Maryland asked Verisign, who control the top-level .com nameservers, to hand… Continue reading A dot com is an American domain
The Breakfast Post 