Vitanuova for 2002 April 17

Brown-Tien

1. D2-D4 G8-F6
2. C2-C4 E7-E6
3. G1-F3 B7-B6

 ABCDEFGH
 --------
|RNBQKB R|8
|P PP PPP|7
| P  PN  |6
|        |5
|  pp    |4
|     n  |3
|pp  pppp|2
|rnbqkb r|1
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General

Briefly noted: Tim O'Reilly on used books; Scientific American on the decline of tinkering; Cory on related issues; security through obscurity considered harmful (Internet Draft); and, of course, the U.S. patent for a "Method of Swinging on a Swing" (via Lisa Rein):

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a method of swinging on a swing.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A few basic types of swings have been around for generations. Perhaps the most common is one that includes a seat suspended between two ropes or chains that are hung from a tree branch or other substantially horizontal support. These swings are often found in side-by-side sets of two or three or more on, for example, a school playground.

Young children often need help to climb onto a swing, and may need a push (sometimes even an "underdog" push) to begin swinging. Others may be able to begin the swinging movement on their own by pushing with their feet against the ground, and once moving may coordinate the motion of their legs and body in what may be called "pumping" to sustain the movement of the swing. When swinging in this manner, the user travels along a path as generally shown in the cross-section of FIG. 1. Another method of swinging on a swing involves twisting the seat around repeatedly so that the chains or ropes are wound in a double helix. When allowed to unwind, the swing spins quickly, which can be entertaining for the user.

Wednesday

What a contrast between the Copy Protection Technical Working Group in the morning and the EFF Pioneer Awards that same evening! John Hoy was there in L.A. in the morning and Jon Johansen there in S.F. that night. (Jon appeared via MPEG-2 because he was afraid of being arrested or sued if he came to the U.S. I have it on good authority that the MPEG-2 file was not encrypted with CSS.)

The Pioneer Awards were given to Dan Gillmor, Beth Givens, and Jon Johansen and the other authors of DeCSS. A terribly distinguished and interesting crowd turned out for the ceremony and the great dessert which accompanied it. I knew dozens of people there and had never met most of them face-to-face.

I'll have to write more soon.