Vanity Foul

Vanity Foul
Dedicated to the wanderings of an egotistical mind.

Monday March 28, 2005

on cybersquatting and trademark violation

Last night I stayed up far too late reading the interesting case of a wrongly-accused cybersquatter (that is to say, he was not squatting). Warning: about halfway through the case I started skimming, and it still took me over 3 hours to read.

This case is of particular interest to me because several years ago I set up a "convenience" site for a local paper. They are well known by an abbreviated name, but had never registered a domain name under that alias. So I registered it and provided a link to the official site. I provided a paragraph at the top explaining that it was not the official site followed by the link.

Where I erred was in providing weather information, games, and even a link to that paper's competition (further down the page). In any case, when I received the inevitable cease-and-desist I did so. I knew I was on weak ground, and cancelled my ownership of the domain name. I even suggested to the paper's attorney that they should recommend their client purchase the domain once the registration cleared. They never did, and now I see it belongs to a real-estate company in New York (not local).

Idiots.

Thanks go to Boing Boing for pointing out the case, and check out Seth Godin's take.
( Mar 28 2005, 08:36:24 AM ) Politics Permalink [Link]
Trackback: http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/trackback/lance/Weblog/on_cybersquatting_and_trademark_violation

Friday March 18, 2005

gu·ru (goo' roo, goo roo')

n. [Unix] An expert. Implies not only wizard skill but also a history of being a knowledge resource for others.[Dictionary.com]

Mike West is my javascript hero. Seriously, this guy displays some wicked javascript chops and creates something useable:

( Mar 18 2005, 10:33:50 PM ) Technology Permalink
Trackback: http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/trackback/lance/Weblog/gu_ru_goo_roo_goo

( Mar 18 2005, 01:43:11 PM ) Personal Permalink
Trackback: http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/trackback/lance/Weblog/20050318

Empty Post Day? Is this "Empty Post Day" and nobody told me? This is the second empty post I've seen in my aggregator today.
( Mar 18 2005, 01:40:31 PM ) Personal Permalink Comments [2]
Trackback: http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/trackback/lance/Weblog/empty_post_day

RIP Andre Norton

I am saddened to hear that Andre Norton has died. I've only read a couple of her books, and she was far from my favorite author, but she was a prolific influence on the SciFi/Fantasy genre.
( Mar 18 2005, 01:35:01 PM ) News Permalink
Trackback: http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/trackback/lance/Weblog/rip_andre_norton

Z-list bloggers

I'm not sure if this is what Rogers Cadenhead is proposing, but the following is what he made me think of:

In addition to showing the Most Popular blogs, perhaps Technorati (or someone else) should display new entries from the least popular blogs.

If you like them, and link to them, they'll grow more popular, creating room for new not-yet-popular blogs. Sort of a Z-list of bloggers. Of course, there will be those like me who never leave that list. Oh well.
( Mar 18 2005, 01:28:09 PM ) Technology Permalink
Trackback: http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/trackback/lance/Weblog/z_list_bloggers

Thursday March 17, 2005

Extracting a CSS palette from a photo

I'd forgotten to link to this but Ben Hyde reminded me today (by linking to it himself). I'm not sure how difficult this is, as it never occurred to me to try. Very Cool.
( Mar 17 2005, 03:23:09 PM ) Technology Permalink [Link]
Trackback: http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/trackback/lance/Weblog/extracting_a_css_palette_from

Wednesday March 16, 2005

What Polyhedral Are You?

You are the rare, the overlooked, yet incredibly useful dodecahedron: the d12. You are a creative, romantic soul. You often act without thinking, but make up for your lack of plans with plenty of heart. You easily solve problems that stump others, but your answers tend to put you into even deeper trouble. You write long, detailed backgrounds for all your characters, and are most likely to dress up as one or get involved in cos-play. You can be silly at times and are easily distracted by your own day dreams, but are at the end of the day you're someone who can be depended on.

Take the quiz at dicepool.com
( Mar 16 2005, 03:35:05 PM ) Humor? Permalink
Trackback: http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/trackback/lance/Weblog/what_polyhedral_are_you

« woot! disappoints Introducing: Multilogue »