Max Overacts 224

via occasionalcomics.com

From one of my favorites … the expression on Max’s sister Andy in the last panel is *perfect* …

Is Innovation Valuable? | asymco

Horace, as usual, makes some very astute observations. I’ve noted this effect with other technology firms that consistently design, build, and market innovative products. The stock market only values currently shipping products, rarely does it value the culture and process of the enterprise that allows it to consistently create something new and valuable.

The premise of the stock market today is therefore that being innovative in technology is meaningless. Innovations are valuable but there is no such thing as an innovation process. If there was such a thing then we could measure it and put a number of its value. Until then innovation is nothing more than a spin of the roulette wheel.

via asymco.com

Digital Personal Property — the “third way” for intellectual property

A good friend of mine, innovative thinker, good engineer, and fellow optimist, Paul Sweazey, has written a great paper called “Preserving Our Right to Own” that I’d like everyone to read … and I do mean everyone. The paper starts out with the paragraph:

Introduction

What if stores could no longer sell you products to own? What if you could only rent, subscribe, lease, or otherwise contract with corporations for restricted access to their products? It sounds unnatural, unreasonable, unfair, and unenforceable, and it would certainly give birth to a huge black market of off-the-record, untethered goods. Yet for a new and rapidly expanding category of products – downloadable digital products – we are dangerously close to the practical elimination of the right of individuals to own what they buy.

No, there is no grand conspiracy to enslave the planet. Intelligent, reasonable people have led us to this point with the best of intentions and with a deeply-held faith in personal liberty and free markets. We simply have neglected to synthesize the conditions that enable individual ownership of digital products such as movies, music, books, games, and so forth.

The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness of the problem and the solution, We can neither fix a problem nor embrace a solution that we don’t understand. We are reluctant to fix a problem if we don’t recognize how it affects us. Therefore, we need to educate ourselves. What does it mean to own copyrighted digital products? Why it is good for consumers, copyright holders, and businesses? How it can be enabled?

It then goes on to describe how we got into our current dilemma and the two extreme “solutions” that have been offered: nobody owns anything (it’s all licensed and you have no control), or nobody owns anything (it’s all free). In other words, it’s the RIAA/MPAA or the pirates, but they both are saying the same thing, just with different consequences. Paul proposes that there is a fine, Zen-like, third way that is based on the real world experience that we all have with our books, cars, houses, art works … anything “real”. That third way is “digital personal property”: a technologically- and legally-enabled way for people to actually own what they pay for, at least in the same way that people own intellectual-property-encumbered things like books, CDs, and DVDs.

Naturally, this outrages those on both extremes of the intellectual property battle since the DPP model is not “extreme” … it operates just like publishing works now. It allows content owners to publish and sell individual ownership of particular instances (meaning that they can gift or sell the instance, but they then lose access to the content) but no one gets to do unlimited redistribution without the cooperation of the original publisher. In other words, DPP allows iTunes or Amazon to sell songs or books as they do now, but those that buy stuff would then be able to give or sell it on their own.

I really like this … but Paul and his group (the IEEE P1817 Working Group) need more substantial support, so I’d like it if everyone would propagate this note and Paul’s paper everywhere and to everyone.

Thanks!

— 

Michael D. Johas Teener – http://Michael.Johas.Teener.myopenID.com/ – PGP ID 0x3179D202

Urgent: Stop [U.S.] American censorship of the Internet – Creative Commons

This is really, really serious. Congress is considering one of the most draconian, unfair, and freedom-blocking bills in a long time. Read this and *act*!

On November 16 the U.S. Congress will hold hearings on a bill that would unfairly, recklessly and capriciously enable and encourage broad censorship of the Internet in the name of suppressing distribution of works not authorized by copyright holders. As Public Knowledge aptly summarizes, the “Stop Online Piracy Act” would seriously “threaten the functioning, freedom, and economic potential of the Internet” by:

• short-circuiting the legal system, giving rightsholders a fast-track to shutting down whole websites;
• creating conflicts between Domain Name System (DNS) servers, making you more vulnerable to hackers, identity theft, and cyberattacks;
• sanctioning government interference with the Internet, making it more censored globally.

SOPA threatens every site on Internet, but would especially harm the commons, as the Electronic Frontier Foundation explains, focusing on free software. The same applies to free and open projects beyond software, which often use CC licenses. While standard public licenses have lowered the costs and risks of legal sharing and collaboration, SOPA would drastically increase both the costs and risks of providing platforms for sharing and collaboration (think sites ranging from individual blogs to massive community projects such as Wikipedia, from open education repositories to Flickr and YouTube), and vaporize accessibility to huge swathes of free culture, whether because running a platform becomes too costly, or a single possibly infringing item causes an entire domain to be taken down.

The trend that one can plot from the DMCA (1998) to SOPA, and continued extensions and expansions of copyright and related restrictions around the world, also demonstrate the incredible importance of the commons for healthy information policy and a healthy Internet — almost all other “IP” policy developments have been negative for society at large. The DMCA was decried by advocates of free speech and the Internet, and has over past 13 years had many harmful effects. Now, in 2011, some think that the U.S. Congress ‘struck the right balance’ in 1998, while big content is dissatisfied, and with SOPA wants to ratchet the ‘balance’ (watch out, 2024!) much further to their short-term advantage.

Techdirt has excellent coverage of the gritty details of SOPA, its ill effects, and the many constituencies alarmed (such as librarians and sports fans).

Sign up at American Censorship Day to be alerted of actions you can take against SOPA. Demand Progress, EFF, and PK have forms you can use to write the U.S. Congress right now.

Please take action! If you aren’t already sharing works under a CC license and supporting our work, now is a good time. Bad legislation needs to be stopped now, but over the long term, we won’t stop getting new bad legislation until policymakers see broad support and amazing results from culture and other forms of knowledge that work with the Internet, rather than against it. Each work or project released under a CC license signals such support, and is an input for such results.

via creativecommons.org

Really cool math geek stuff: Bezier curves – a primer

Thanks to Gus Mueller (master of “Flying Meat” and creator of Acorn and VoodooPad and FlySketch) I learned about this absolutely fabulous interactive site explaining the math and geometry behind Bezier curves … which are the fundamental building blocks for drawing nice smooth curves in digital graphics. If you are at all interested, check it out!

BTW, the interactivity and math typesetting is all done without any plugins … just using standard HTML5 and JavaScript … IE people need to be running IE 9, but everyone else just needs to be using the current version of their browser.

A primer on Bezier curves – by Mike “Pomax” Kamermans

Last updated: 2 November, 2011

Before we begin I’d like to say that all the graphics on the page, except for the Wolfram Alpha images, are interactive graphics, without requiring any special browser plugins. If your browser supports javascript, and the canvas element (sorry IE8 users, you’ll have to upgrade to IE9, which supports <canvas> – Get it here,) it will be able to let you use this page, thanks to the most excellent Processing.js project. You will also see rather nicely typeset mathematics, thanks to the equally excellent MathJax library.

So, with that out of the way, let’s look at the topic at hand: Bezier curves.

Broadcom, NXP, Freescale, and Harman Form OPEN Alliance Special Interest Group

This is good stuff, and I’m glad to say that I had a bit to do with this (although our excellent PHY team – both engineering and marketing – did the heavy lifting while I provided high-level technical and evangelism support). Anyway, congratulations to our team!

Tech and Automotive Leaders Unite to Drive Next Generation In-vehicle Networking

IRVINE, Calif., Nov. 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ —

News Highlights:

• Enables Wide Scale Adoption of Ethernet-Based Automotive Connectivity
• Establishes industry standard for 100Mbps Ethernet connectivity over single pair, unshielded cable
• Enables migration from closed application to open, scalable Ethernet-based network

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ: NXPI), Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE: FSL), and Harman International (NYSE:HAR) today announced the formation of a special interest group (SIG), established to drive wide scale adoption of Ethernet-based automotive connectivity. Jointly developed with founding automotive members BMW and Hyundai Motor Company, the OPEN Alliance (One-Pair Ether-Net) SIG will address industry requirements for improving in-vehicle safety, comfort, and infotainment, while significantly reducing network complexity and cabling costs. For more information visit www.opensig.org.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111109/LA03155LOGO)

Designed to encourage wide scale adoption of 100Mbps Ethernet connectivity as the standard in automotive networking applications, the OPEN Alliance plans to expand its membership roster in the coming months to additional automotive suppliers and manufacturers.

Key to the newly established SIG is the proliferation of Broadcom’s BroadR-Reach® technology as an open standard. BroadR-Reach technology, designed specifically to address the stringent requirements of the automotive industry, delivers high-performance bandwidth of 100Mbps over an unshielded single twisted pair cable. By eliminating the need for expensive, cumbersome shielded cabling, automotive manufacturers can significantly reduce connectivity costs and cabling weight.

Founding members will initially focus on establishing interoperability requirements, third party testing, certification procedures, and higher data rate specification requirements. License to specification for BroadR-Reach is available to all interested OPEN Alliance members under RAND terms via a license from Broadcom.  

Quotes:

Kevin Brown

, Vice President and General Manager, PHY, Broadcom Corporation

“Broadcom is working closely with leaders throughout the industry in defining the future of automotive networking. Through the formation of the SIG, we’ll gain invaluable insight and support in the proliferation of BroadR-Reach Ethernet technology as an open industry standard. Making BroadR-Reach Ethernet open to the industry will help manufacturers achieve higher bandwidth, significantly reduce connectivity costs, and deliver new and exciting features and applications to a broad range of vehicles.”

Lars Reger

, Vice President Strategy & New Business Automotive, NXP

“BroadR-Reach Ethernet technology addresses the high bandwidth functionality the automotive market is asking for. We’re excited to adopt this standard. As the global No. 1 supplier of In-Vehicle Networking technologies NXP will speed up the wide adoption of Ethernet in the automotive industry. Automotive Ethernet is the logical next step in NXP’s broad In-Vehicle Networking portfolio of products, starting from LIN, CAN and FlexRay up to Ethernet.”

Ray Cornyn

, Vice President and General Manager, Automotive Microcontroller Division, Freescale

“Freescale has long been at the forefront of automotive networking technology, helping to establish such standards as CAN, LIN and FlexRay. Ethernet is the next step in the evolution of automotive networking, meeting the need of new high bandwidth applications, such as cameras and multimedia. By enabling Ethernet communication over unshielded twisted pair cable, BroadR-Reach technology provides a critical element to a flexible and cost effective Ethernet solution.”

Sachin Lawande

, Chief Technology Officer and Co-President, Lifestyle and Infotainment Divisions, Harman

“As the leader in connectivity solutions for the world’s automakers, HARMAN is pleased to support the work of our industry partners in driving scalable Ethernet solutions for high speed networking for the car.  Increasingly we see the need for flexible and cost-effective connectivity solutions supporting the customers growing demand for information, entertainment, and safety features seamlessly integrated within the car network.  Ethernet will provide the highest quality streaming A/V experience and encourage interoperability of networked A/V devices.”  

About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a FORTUNE 500® company, is a global leader and innovator in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom® products seamlessly deliver voice, video, data and multimedia connectivity in the home, office and mobile environments. With the industry’s broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip and embedded software solutions, Broadcom is changing the world by Connecting everything®. For more information, go to www.broadcom.com.

About NXP Semiconductor

NXP Semiconductors N.V. (Nasdaq: NXPI) provides High Performance Mixed Signal and Standard Product solutions that leverage its leading RF, Analog, Power Management, Interface, Security and Digital Processing expertise. These innovations are used in a wide range of automotive, identification, wireless infrastructure, lighting, industrial, mobile, consumer and computing applications. A global semiconductor company with operations in more than 25 countries, NXP posted revenue of $4.4 billion in 2010. For more information visit www.nxp.com.

About Freescale Semiconductor

Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE:FSL) is a global leader in the design and manufacture of embedded semiconductors for the automotive, consumer, industrial and networking markets. The company is based in Austin, Texas, and has design, research and development, manufacturing and sales operations around the world. www.freescale.com.

About Harman International

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets – supported by 15 leading brands, including AKG,

Harman Kardon

, Infinity, JBL, Lexicon and

Mark Levinson

. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 12,500 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported net sales of $4.0 billion for twelve months ending September 30, 2011. The Company’s shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NYSE:HAR.

Media Contacts:
Tamara Snowden Broadcom Corporation 408 922-6505 tamaras@broadcom.com	Birgit Ahlborn NXP Semiconductor 49 1705746124 Birgit.Ahlborn@nxp.com	Andy North Freescale Semiconductor 512 996-4498 andy.north@freescale.com	Darrin Shewchuk Harman International 203-328- 3834 Darrin.shewchuck@harman.com

Broadcom®, the pulse logo, Connecting everything®, BroadR-Reach® and the Connecting everything logo are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU.  Freescale, the Freescale logo, are trademarks of Freescale Semiconductor, Inc., Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off.  Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Broadcom Corporation; BRCM Infrastructure & Networking

News Provided by Acquire Media

via broadcom.com

“Marketplace Fairness Act” could force Amazon to collect sales tax

via arstechnica.com

I’ll admit to being one of those that used Amazon extensively over the past few years to get around taxes … but it’s really time to stop that. I’m just draining biz away from local firms and benefiting places where Amazon workers (and executives) do their thing. Not fair, and I’m stopping. I’m glad that even Amazon is supporting this act … good on them!

Bearmageddon – Page 25 – Big Brother

Disclaimer: This blog post has little to do with Bearmageddon or drawing comics.  Also, I feel like I risk sounding egotistical in some of the things I write below.  I am attempting to write about being a big brother, and that means to write about being looked up to.  I want to write honestly, with humility but not false modesty.  I’ve done my best, but you can be the judge.  Also, because this blog is about brothers, it is about boys.  I love my sisters dearly, and some of this applies to them as well, but I am speaking mainly from the experience of growing up in a house of brothers.  I also write a lot about the dark side of being a musician, and I do not mean to paint all musicians in this way, but only those who truly believe they are the super-humans fans make them out to be.

The character Louis is meant to embody not only my own three younger male siblings, but he is a nod to the young male fans that used to show up at my band’s rock concerts.  That is why he is wearing a Lunaractive hoodie, which was the name of my band.  A lot of the kids that came to our shows had that hairstyle, and even though it bears a resemblance to Malachai in some way, it was actually those kids who inspired it.  Much like being a big brother, being in a rock band tends to put you into a position in which, whether you like it or not, you are seen by some as a kind of super hero or mini god.  I do not attribute to myself these things in the least, but I can say it from the experience of being called a hero on more than one occasion, and in my own experience of how I viewed my own favorite rock stars (especially those in my own home town who were close enough to touch but still so far away I could never be “one of them”).

In fact one day at a concert I literally came upon a kid who looked identical to me at age 15 (I was 25 at the time) who walked up to me and asked if I was Ethan, and then told me I was his hero.  It was surreal, and eye opening.  It reminded me that those kids looking up to me were not fans, or others… they were me.

I don’t know if it is common for a guy in a popular rock band (and we were only popular in a small part of Oregon) to carry the weight of feeling like he has taken on a whole group of new siblings, but I think that all of us in the band felt that way.  We didn’t want to abuse our position, even if it was simply by ignoring it.  We always tried to make ourselves available, to step down from the pedestal kids put us on and let them know we really believed that the highest place we could be was not on a stage where in general only the most shallow and self-indulgent people spent their time, but down where the richness of people could really be experienced… off the high horse and at the same level as everyone else.

It is not an easy lesson to learn, and I don’t know that we fully learned it, because for all the talk I think we all still got a thrill from the experience of standing in the lights at a level higher than the rest of the room and being cheered harder than we had ever been cheered by our own family or close friends… and the simple reason for that is because they knew us very little in truth, and a whole lot in fantasy.  Nonetheless, the 65% cheer of a loved one means a world more than a 200% cheer from a stranger, but in the moment, the stranger’s cheer feels so much better, it just doesn’t last as long.  For if they are cheering you that hard, they are making no room for the possibility that you need correction in life, and the family member who loves you knows that if they put 100% into cheering for you, their will be no energy left to lift you up, and I do not mean to lift you up to a pedestal, but out of the pit you don’t yet realize you are in, and of which all your fans are willfully blind.

During my short time as a rocker I saw a lot of people who survived on the cheers of strangers.  It was like living on a strict diet of microwavable popcorn.  It was a fun, festive and cheap delight that was meant for a late night horror movie on occasion, not to sustain you day after day as a replacement for honest human interaction.  Why are so many rock stars quiet, reserved, hard to talk to and in their own world?  Because they live on that higher ground, the stage, where love comes easy, it costs nothing, and nobody thinks you need correcting.  On the floor, where the most burned out losers share foot space, you have to face the fact that you are just as susceptible to being a fool as any of the rest, and it’s terrifying.

I do have to say that I attribute my straying from the intoxication of the stage not only on the fact that there was never money in it (there isn’t much in comics either, and to be honest, not making money is not a big deterrent for most people addicted to the stage) I have to give credit where credit is due, and that is the church.  You may be the kind of person who is strong enough to find these truths in life without the teachings of humility that I would say saved my soul, but I am not.  I know what I am made of, within my own dark heart, and I know that in me is a guy who revels for the cheap praise of strangers like a dog at feeding time.  I must point outside myself for any explanation as to why I would not have committed my life to the microwavable popcorn of rock n’ roll, because I in my heart loved the attention.  I believed that I, like all people, have a higher calling than to be a great rock star… it is to be a great person, and it became very clear that being a great rock star was detrimental to my greater goal.  I needed to step down to a place where I was not only no longer looking down on others, but that I could look up to them.

From left: Ethan, Noah, & Isaiah Nicolle

I contrast the unearned praises of fans with the unearned praises of little brothers.  I have three and they all mean the world to me.  Most of you are very well acquainted with one aspect of my relationship with Malachai, but few of you know of my other two brothers, Noah who is 2 years younger than me, and Isaiah who is 6 years younger.  Noah and Isaiah share the same mother as I do, Malachai has a different mother.  Noah and Isaiah are the brothers I grew up with, went through the hell of transformation out of childhood with, and who know me better than most anyone else on this earth.  This blog is dedicated to all three brothers, but to these two the most, because they were with me from the days I was a child, and they knew me at my most horrifying stages of metamorphosis.

What is fascinating to me about my little brothers, is that even before I was any kind of hero to anyone else, I was a hero to them for no reason but because I was born first.  Just as by divine roulette I had been given an unquenchable desire to draw pictures without ever getting exhausted, and to eat food without ever looking down at my gut, I had been put in the position of big brother.  My Dad likes to say we are given a “package” in life and it contains some things that are their to make life easier, and some to make life harder… the things to make life easier may only be a vice in disguise.  For my Dad, his pursuit of fame as an Opera singer felt like a good part of his life package until he learned what he was truly meant to do with that thing is set it aside and step down from the Opera stage and unshield himself from the harshness of being small like the rest.  So, part of my package was to be a big brother, and with that package came the great honor of being looked up to… to be a hero without having earned it for one second.  Of course, with that honor came the responsibility to try to fulfill that roll, because much like a parent, in the position of big brother you are looked up to whether you want to be or not.

I say this because as I look back on my life, a lot of little things were instrumental in my journey as an artist and as a man.  Many things deserve credit including my faith, my parents, my friends… but few deserve quite as much credit as my little brothers, because they treated me like a hero before I ever could be even close to becoming one, and if I ever could deserve to be called a hero by anyone, it is because of that self-fulfilling prophecy that they proclaimed when they were only toddlers, they told me my future and believed it far before I ever could… not in the encouraging way of a friend, or the hopeful way of a parent, but in the never doubting faith that could only come from a child who believes wholeheartedly in insane things like Santa Clause, Dragons and Big Brothers.  So, when my brothers wonder how I became the guy I am, I have them to thank in large part.

I hope this doesn’t sound like I am lifting myself up too high, I am only trying to acknowledge that I am in a blessed position, and I know that it is due in part to luck, providence and drive.  Well, even the drive I can not take full credit for because I am saying that it came from the providence of little brothers saying I was awesome, and luck is always a term used out of ignorance of how the universe really works.  In other words: I consider my brothers a gift from God.

Proof that we actually started out this awesome.

Don’t let this fool you into thinking my brothers and I had a great relationship all our lives, especially Noah and I used to fight like cats and dogs.  In fact, my treatment of Noah as a child is one of the great regrets of my life because looking back I see that he looked up to me and I looked down on him.  Much later in my early 20′s, when I began to befriend my comic artist hero Doug TenNapel, I realized for the first time what it felt like to have a big brother.  I realized how inspiring it is, but I also realized how horrific it would be to have someone you hold in that high regard look down at you and berate you.  It took me 30 years of my brothers looking up to me, for me to finally look up to my little brothers and see that they are me heroes as much as I was ever theirs.

So if you have little brothers I hope you look up to them too.  And if you are aspiring for fame, I hope you see as clear as possible how cheap it is compared to the true heroism bestowed on you (and that you are called to) simply by being someone’s son, daughter, brother or sister… not to mention mother or father.  The stage is an incredibly lonely place.  It’s a lesson I thank God for every day.  Thanks for reading.

 

Ethan

 

P.S. for those of you who had wanted to buy my older comic series Chumble Spuzz from SLG at dirt cheap prices (under $4/book) they are now back in stock!  Also, if you live in So Cal come see me at Long Beach Comic Con this weekend!

1

via bearmageddon.com

Wonderful comment about being a big brother from another great comic artist.

New license plate for the SV650

The bike now helps me evangelize one of most important current projects.

Check out The Bridge School Concerts – 25th Anniversary Edition

Nicest thing shows up during my therapeutic massage this afternoon?  Great ,,, Eclectic … And for a good cause.   Now mind you the text above turned into this most rocky because I trie to us the me "less  obtrusive "split keyboard on my iPad … The results are bad below, and took me a least 6 times longer than normal. 

…… Original text ……..

At thi recommendation original

Y looked lldE the following mess because of the new split keyboard on the IOS5  IPad  and somewha frantic spell chec,k.

 support this FB ArNicest thing shows up during my therapeutic FB BroNicest thing shows up during my theraputic mSsSa from FB Brodg e shoplift out this album on iTunes:

The Bridge School Concerts – 25th Anniversary Edition Various Artists Rock Released: 2011                    21 Ratings

Text

iTunes for Mac and Windows

Please note that you have not been added to any email lists. Copyright © 2011 Apple Inc. All rights reserved

— 

From myPad … less terse than myPhone, but more terse than myBook this! 

 Afternoomhttp://Michael.Johas.Teener.myopenID.comdg e shoplift out this album on iTunes:

   

 
 

iTunes for Mac and Windows

Please note that you have not been added to any email lists. Copyright © 2011 Apple Inc. All rights reserved

—  

From myPad … less terse than myPhone, but more terse than myBook

http://Michael.Johas.Teener.myopenID.com