Reading

Theme Competition Deadline Extended

The theme competition for WordPress 2.0 Themes continues. I am looking forward to seeing the results.

After much thought and input from the wordpress theming community, Iâ??ve decided to extend the theme submission deadline to May 1st, 2006, 12pm PST. This will allow ample time for theme design, locating new sponsors, and spreading the word in general. Please update your calendars and thanks again to everyone thatâ??s supporting the WordPress Theme Competition. Winners will be announced May 15th, 2006.

The competition blog is at www.arenawp.com

Posted on by mklang

Reading tip

In an chapter entitled “Exploring Creative Commons: A Skeptical View of a Worthy Pursuit” Niva Elkin-Koren writes:

It may well be that there is nothing wrong with copyright per se, but only with the way these rights were exploited by copyright owners in recent years. Changing social practices may have a powerful signalling effect, the importance of which could not be overstated. Yet, establishing a workable and sustainable alternative to the current copyright regime would require enforceable legal measures that would restrain the power of copyright owners to govern their works. To achieve this goal it would not be sufficient to facilitate self-restraint and encourage copyright owners to treat their copyright as guardians, protecting it from any attempt to restrict access and reuse. In the long run, creating an alternative to copyright would require a copyright reform.

The chapter is part of the book The Future of the Public Domain, (P. Bernt Hugenholtz & Lucie Guibault, eds.)
Kluwer Law International, forthcoming 2006. It is also available at SSRN.

Posted on by mklang

3 days left

Now its only Friday, Saturday & Sunday left to work on the thesis. I have spent most of the day (and night) editing the thesis. To be able to find many of the small errors I have missed despite several readings of the text I am now using the text to speech tool on my mac and following on a printed version on the text. Editing by listening is a very, very effective method of catching out the small typos. I have done half the text in this way and will do the other half tommorrow. The editing has resulted in the removal of some text but I still have increased it by 88 words (total 94969).

I will also meet my supervisor tommorrow afternoon to get his final thoughts on the text so that I can spend the weekend editing. On Monday morning I can finally let go of the text for almost two whole weeks. So tired…

“Lunch Hour” by Joseph Hirsch 1942.

Posted on by mklang

Day 10

So much for the short break. Cant keep away. Also I have been getting some early feedback from some people. The new count is + 650 words (93163). Also the reading tip of the day is Savirinuthu “Open Source, Code and Architecture: Its the Memes Stupid” International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, Volume 19, Number 3 / November 2005 pp 341 – 362.

Which unfortunately is not available for free but the library should have a copy. Another reason to support open access!

In addition to this I have news that my examination committee has been chosen. I cannot write about them but I am happy with the choice. For you gender studies people the committee will consist of 1 woman & 2 men.

This is not the Committee!
Posted on by mklang

day 11

Yesterday I handed my thesis (all 92 513 words of it) over to my supervisor for his final reading before I submitt to the internal reviewer. This means that I am taking a break from the thesis for a few days. But not many – the clock is still ticking…

And if anyone wants to read a copy and send me their comments – just contact me…

Posted on by mklang

day 13

After a few days offline in the middle of snowy nowhere. I have read the entire work and begun the serious process of editing. Today I have now edited a little more than half the book. I am on the 53rd version of my document and I am becoming more paranoid about data-loss for each day and version. Lots of backups now.

I thought that the backups would make the work shorter but I was wrong. Today the word count is 91856 words which is an increase by 1502 words since the last time I opened the file.

Even though there are still 13 more days to go I hand everything over to my supervisor tommorrow for him to read while he is travelling. On his return I have the weekend to edit his comments before handing it all in to the internal reviewer who will be my opponent on the senior seminar on the 15 March.
The reading tip of the day is specialist stuff – Blanke “Robust Notice” and “Informed Consent”: The Keys to Successful Spyware Legislation, Columbia Science and Technology Law Review 2006 Vol 7.

A long time ago I had to wear a school uniform with this badge… never would have guessed where I ended up…

Stella Maris College, Malta
Posted on by mklang

19 days "oh, wooble, wooble"

A landmark day the text crossed the 90 000 word mark! I know its not about the amount of words but this is really the only communicable mark which is available to the writer. Otherwise it is only a good day or a bad day. Actually I hope that the total does not rise too much beyond this point as it is really enough. (Whatever that means in a text?) The total of todays work is 90 288 words spread over 183 pages. The production level of the day was + 967 words.

No real good place to explain where the work was carried out as it concerned the explanation of which regulatory modalities (Lessig The Code, 1999) were studied in each of the six case studies. In other words…

wibble
“wooble”

For those of you who needed help on the above the reading tip of the day is the whole BBC Blackadder site and the transcripts from the series which are here (Go directly to Wooble here). For those of you serious students out there buy the whole series on DVD.

Posted on by mklang