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vitamins for vegetarians

what vitamins are vegetarians usually lacking?

It seems like you are eating a balanced vegetarian diet, so I you don’t need to take any vitamins.

Sometimes people don’t get enough B12

Foods with lots of B12 are :

Breakfast Cereals
Dairy and Egg products
Soups, sauces, and gravy
Yogurts
and more…..

But you are eating most of those things, so your diet is perfect

Vitamins for Vegetarians is a post from the Vegetarian Vitamins Guide blog where you can find suggestions and advice from vegetarians and vegans on vegetarian diets, supplements, vitamins and overall nutrition.

This post is part of the Entrepreneurship series – sponsored by AcceptPay from American Express, a new online solution that lets you electronically invoice customers and accept online payments-all in one place. Offer more payment options, manage your cash flow and get paid faster with AcceptPay. Learn more here.
Of course, the content of this post consists entirely of the thoughts and opinions of the author.

We spend a lot of time talking about innovation and ideas. Part of that discussion often turns to patents, and questions of whether it is better to “protect” or “hoard” your ideas, or to focus on sharing them. Patents live in this nebulous world between the two, where you partially (sort of) “give away” the idea, in exchange for the right to protect it. This seems counterintuitive when you think about it. Plenty of research has shown that people invent and innovate more often because they want what they’re inventing themselves — not because they want some sort of monopoly right over it. Other research has shown how innovation (rather than invention) is really an ongoing process, that often involves building on various ideas. For years, we’ve discussed how the “idea” is quite often overvalued, while the execution is undervalued. Lots of people have ideas. How you execute on them is where the real innovation occurs.

I was thinking about all of this after hearing of the launch of a new service called Mixtape For You, which let’s you create a limited time mixtape, which only a single person (who you email) can download. What does this have to do with ideas, execution and innovation? Well, let’s go back a bit… and follow this (somewhat convoluted, but fun) trail:

1. On Memorial Day weekend in 2009, at the annual Sasquatch Music Festival, some shirtless dude started dancing, and someone else started filming him with a cameraphone. Then someone else started dancing with the shirtless dude. Then someone else. Then a few more people. Then a bunch more. Then pretty much everyone. The guy who filmed it put the video up on YouTube, where it went viral (nearly 3 million views at this point). I remember seeing it passed around as a video that “just makes you smile.” And it does.
   
   
   
2. As the video became popular, some started to think about it a bit more, and all around smart guy, Derek Sivers, wrote up a nice little blog post in June, analyzing the sociological aspects of the video.
3. That discussion turned into an absolutely wonderful 3 minute TED Talk, given in February of this year, that Sivers gave, using the video as a way to explain and demonstrate the importance of “first followers” in creating a true “movement.”
   
   
   
4. That talk got a ton of attention, with lots of people telling Sivers that he should turn the whole “first follower” meme into a book or something like that. Sivers, however, said he wasn’t that interested in doing much with the concept and decided, in the very nature of the “first follower” to give away the idea and embrace anyone else who wanted to take the idea and run with it:
   

   
   If this “First Follower” idea inspires you to elaborate on it, please do. Feel free to write a hit book about it, tour the corporate speaking circuit talking about it, or anything else. I won’t.

   You don’t have to ask my permission, pay me, or even credit me.

   I’ve been very lucky with lots of opportunities. This one’s all yours.
   

5. Another all around smart guy, Andrew Dubber, picked up on the idea and considered doing exactly as Sivers suggested above, and writing a book based on this concept. But, after sleeping on it, he decided to innovate and execute in a slightly different way. Instead of taking the “first follower” idea and preaching it, Dubber wanted to be a first follower of Siver’s other concept: giving away ideas. He decided that he would give away 30 ideas in 30 days — just like Sivers “gave away” his idea.
6. Starting March 3rd, Dubber did exactly that, giving away an idea a day.
7. On March 16th (day 14), Dubber’s idea give away, was called I Made A Tape, and was based on the idea that, back in the old days, when people made mixtapes, they were usually for someone specifically. And while there are a bunch of “mixtape” services out there these days (though the RIAA likes to shut them down every so often), Dubber thought it would be cool to create one that allowed someone to be more personal:
   

   
   So that’s why my idea is an online music sharing site — but one that can only be shared with one person. You craft a “tape” with a single person in mind, and then that mix is sent to that person with a unique URL that only they can access.

   They can download or stream the mixtape, and it comes with the liner notes that you’ve written.
   

8. And then… on April 6th, some other guy, Ray Kuyvenhoven launched MixTapeForYou.com, based very much on Dubber’s idea from just a few weeks earlier.

I’d been following the whole chain of events from the very beginning, but what struck me about it, and what caused me to write this post was when I read Dubber’s followup post, gleefully talking about how cool it was that Kuyvenhoven actually executed on his idea, this one line stood out:

I invented something, and it came true because I said it out loud.

That’s a really powerful statement when you think about it. And, of course, it goes way beyond that. Just look back at the trail of things that happened that resulted in this particular offering coming about — how many of them were disconnected and simply shared. Yet, we keep hearing people talk about the need to “protect” an idea? Innovation doesn’t come out of protection. It comes out of building on the ideas of others and sharing and others taking a different view on it and finally someone executing, not because they want a patent, but because they want the product.

And to tie this all together, Sivers (who kicked off a lot of the chain of explosions above) has also pointed out himself that it’s the execution that matters, and ideas, by themselves, are “worth nothing unless executed.”

But think about all this in context, and you realize that it was the openness and sharing of ideas that resulted in execution. It happened by building on different ideas — not “copying,” but innovating. And, it’s not just this one idea. Remember, Dubber put forth 30 ideas, and others have been doing the same, building on those ideas themselves. In fact, some have committed to delivering on other ideas that Dubber put forth as well.

Now, before people get upset and say “well that’s great, but it doesn’t mean patents aren’t useful,” you’re right. I’m not saying that any of this negates the need for patents (there are other reasons for that), but I found it to be such a great example of how ideas travel and morph and lead to eventual execution, totally separate from focusing on the need for protection, that it felt worth sharing. And hopefully, someone else might share it, build on it and do something different and innovative with this idea themselves.

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A motorist was sentenced in a Santa Ana court Friday to four years in prison for killing a pedestrian while texting on a cellphone.

Martin Bert Kuehl, 42, of Costa Mesa was convicted in January of vehicular manslaughter in the death of Martha Ovalle early Aug. 29, 2008.
Ovalle, 32, a nanny, was struck by Kuehl’s SUV as she was crossing the street near Dover and Westcliff drives in Newport Beach.

Orange County prosecutors said Kuehl was texting while driving. He stopped at a light, failed to notice when it turned green, then lurched forward when the driver of the car behind him honked.

Prosecutors said he told Newport Beach police that he didn’t see Ovalle in the crosswalk before hitting her, despite having an unobstructed view.

— Jill Leovy

by David Roberts

I grew up listening to my dad’s vinyl. (Kids, point your iThingies here to learn more!) He was a fan of late ‘50s and early ‘60s Brill Building-style pop—early Beatles, Little Richard, The Coasters, The Everly Brothers, The Shangri-Las, Frankie Avalon, and compilations with names like “At the Hop.” (Kids, a “sock hop” was a school dance!)

On the surface it was all innocent doo-wopping and shoo-wopping, but underneath was that reverby “Be My Baby” kick drum, the threat of real heartbreak and loss. That stuff wormed its way into my skull and has shaped my musical tastes ever since. I still can’t resist good harmonies.

I’ve been enjoying the comeback of that sort of production in everything from The Pipettes to Lucky Soul to She & Him. Now Vancouver offers its version with Maintenant (French for “now”), an album made over five years by producer Colin Stewart, singer/songwriter Nick Krgovich, and a guest list of almost 30, under the collective name Gigi. Singers and players (many Vancouver locals) dropped by to do what is effectively play acting—pretending to be back in the Brill Building, even down to the era-appropriate lyrics.

The 15 track running list could have stood some trimming, but for the most part the album’s a breezy delight. This track, “The Marquee” (with Katie Eastburn) is one of my favorites.

Related Links:

Friday music blogging: Rogue Wave

Friday music blogging: She & Him, again

Friday music blogging: Sarah Jaffe

In a move foreshadowed by Twitter board member Fred Wilson’s blog post earlier this week, Twitter has announced that it bought third-party Twitter client Tweetie.

According to the company, Twitter has entered into an agreement with Atebits and will be renaming the app “Twitter for iPhone”, which will be available for free, instead of $2.99, in the iTunes AppStore.

Sponsor

Just earlier today, Twitter also announced Twitter for Blackberry and Fred Wilson’s blog post earlier this week discussed precisely this direction – Twitter moving to fill in the gaps it had left for others to fill.

As part of this agreement, Atebits president Loren Brichter will join Twitter’s mobile team, helping to create “Twitter for iPad” as well.

With Apple’s announcement yesterday of its new mobile ad platform, iAd, we can see Twitter finally coming through with its own ad platform in the near future. Having its own native app for the iPhone is certainly a smart move in that direction – and it isn’t as if we haven’t been expecting Twitter to go in this direction.

Discuss

In a move that will strike fear in the hearts of every Twitter client companies out there, the company Twitter has made its first client acquisition, though a focused one: it has acquired Tweetie, one of the most popular iPhone Twitter clients, according to a company blog post late Friday evening. Here’s the slightly thin rationale of why it bought one: “Careful analysis of the Twitter user experience in the iTunes AppStore revealed massive room for improvement. People are looking for an app from Twitter, and they’re not finding one. So, they get confused and give up. It’s important that we optimize for user benefit and create an awesome experience.” I use Ecofon and pretty satisfied with it; others I know use Tweetdeck for it and have also had generally good reviews for it.

Taking a page from Google (NSDQ: GOOG) playbook, it will make the Tweetie app free through iTunes, currently retailing at $2.99.  Tweetie will be renamed Twitter for iPhone. The company will also work with the developer of Tweetie, Loren Brichter, to build a Twitter iPad app. Here’s how it sees benefiting the developer and publisher community at large: “Developers, services, and publishers will be able to leverage the Twitter iPhone and iPad applications to create additional innovative tools and integrations for users.”

Does this foreshadow more land-grab moves on desktop and other mobile platforms?

Twitter investor Fred Wilson said as much in a controversial blog post that reverberated online last week. Loic Le Muer, creator of the popular Twitter-client Seesmic, told SAI in a story posted earlier today that being a Twitter-only client is dangerous these days because “if Twitter-only application is crucial enough to the use of Twitter, Twitter might just clone it and crush it,” the story says. TweetDeck founder Iain Dodsworth told SAI: “I’ve no idea what Twitter are planning but it wouldn’t suprise me if they now deem it important to own more eyeballs.” A large subset of this happened already, with this acquisition announcement, and the move earlier today, when Twitter announced its own “official” client for Blackberry.

And what could Twitter buy next? At the most basic level, it could make a move for something like Twitpic, the most popular photo app, or Twitvid, the video app. Then as it hones out its business model, it could look for Twitter analytics clients, and possibly some monetization or ad plays in the space. And at the risk of repeating, read Wilson’s post again more carefully, and you may find most of the hints there.

Remember that incident a few years ago at Minot Air Force Base, with nuclear warheads being transported by accident? Of course we do… discussed all over ACW (link, link and link).

The Air Force conducted the Commander Directed Report of Investigation, (prepared by Maj, Gen. Douglas Raaberg), looking into what happened and who was responsible. The report was not publicly available, but hey, that’s what FOIA is for. After a two year wait, and almost forgetting about it, I got a package in the mail yesterday. Cool. Somewhat redacted, but still cool.

A Series of Mistakes

First, there was a scheduling mistake. Basically, someone updated the real schedule which details the missile pylons to be transported, but that update never made it into the hands of people doing the work, who mostly use “working slides” (power point printouts? cliff notes??) rather than the official and more complicated schedule to guide their tasks. So, they moved two missile pylons listed on the old schedule, one of which was armed with nuclear warheads. This was only the first mistake. There were at least three other points at which the mix up should have been identified.

Normally, the handling team goes into the shelter where pylons are stored, and at that point does Missile Safe Status Checks, which include verifying the payload of each missile by shining a flashlight into a small window in the casing and reading the inside label. Some of the testimony referenced in the report suggests that no one was seen carrying a flashlight, which would make verifying the payload through that little window impossible.

Also, the report notes that no one seemed to notice that one pylon was marked with placards indicating its readiness for movement and the other was not. Granted, these placards are two 8.5 × 11 signs, but still—obvious difference (the report writes: “inexplicable,” “baffling”). It’s not all flashlights and signs though. The crew is monitored by the Munitions Control Center, which is supposed to verify pylons before movement using a software-tracking program that identifies nuclear vs. inert payloads. Apparently the person who was supposed to do this was simply not trained to use the program, and so didn’t.

And on and on. Payload checks are supposed to be performed by the team that opens the storage, the team that tows the pylons to the aircraft, and then the flight crew. The report details how at each step someone didn’t check. The flight crew did a spot check, but only on one of the pylons and, by chance, not the nuclear one.

Nuclear Skills

The end of the report picks up on a more general point, that because of a shifting focus to conventional weaponry, nuclear skill sets have faded:

The calculus has changed. There has been a fundamental shift over the past three years to nearly conversional-only operations. Much of it has been by design. [redacted] The Advanced Cruise Missiles from Minot and the remaining Air Launched Cruise Missiles in their inventory are scheduled for further demilitarization, destruction, or departure. [redacted]

[snip]

To emphasize, the nuclear skill sets have not been exercised. They are atrophied. It was evident in the testimony of every operations group member we interviewed. When referring to the tactical ferry program they believe it is a, “Depot Maintenance input that only requires three (3) crewmembers … we’re only ferrying ‘carcasses’ from point A to point B!”

The discussion of the changes in training of the air crews is pretty interesting, but I am not sure what to make of several mentions of “touching” the nuclear weapons…

the Barksdale AFB crew that flew the Advanced Cruise Missiles from Minot AFB have never physically touched a real missile… their fingers have never put an imprint on an actual advanced or air launched missile… neither the experienced instructor pilot, radar navigator or inexperienced copilot. [ellipses as in report]

[snip]

The most recent Distinguished Graduate from weapon school, the instructor pilot on ‘Doom 99’ which transported the nuclear warheads aboard her B-52, did not receive specific nuclear weapons instruction in Class 07-A. Again, she admitted she had never physically touched a nuclear weapon.

I kind of follow the professional culture or education argument being made, but it also sounds a bit like, well, you have to get to second base with a missile or something in order to really understand what you are doing.

Recommendations

The report provides detailed suggestions for each step in the process, from how to achieve better nuclear-related training for wing leaders, to better labeling of pylons, to revisions in assignments and procedures.

One recommendation suggesting that nuclear unit be stored separately from nuclear-inert units caught my attention because it’s a concern that seemed to come up frequently in press accounts of this incident. The recommendation came with this note:

The Air Force permits mixed storage on nuclear and nuclear-inert weapons. This was even done in Strategic Air Command day. SAC regularly mixed loads in storage in preparation for testing, training, and tactical ferry missions. Previously, SAC regulations and now AFI 21-204 does permit mixed storage as long as the unit “delineates” the separate loads.

There were actually three official reports prepared about this incident: this one by Maj. Gen. Raaberg, a blue-ribbon panel led by Maj. Gen. Polly Peyer, and a Defense Science Board (DSB) review led by Gen. Larry Welch. The last one was publicly released, and there is an executive summary of the blue ribbon panel. A number of the key points and recommendations are similar in all three reports, so here I’ve just highlighted a pieces that I found interesting in the Raaberg report.

Final thought: Getting documents in the mail is fun. I am thinking of more things to FOIA because, well, dissertations take a while, so I have that kind of time. Suggestions always welcome.

Jane Vaynman contributed this guest post.

Three bronze markers have been pried off the graves of U.S. military veterans at Pacific Crest Cemetery in Redondo Beach, authorities said Friday.

Police sought the public’s help in catching the thief or thieves who apparently broke into the gated cemetery  Thursday evening. An employee discovered the crime Friday and reported it to police.

The names on the 12-by-18-inch markers were not released.

Redondo Beach Police Sgt. Rody Contreras said that the cemetery, located near the South Bay Galleria, is fenced and its gates locked at night but that occasionally trespassers hop a fence near the railroad tracks.

Metal theft has plagued Southern California in recent years, mushrooming as prices for bronze and copper have soared.

Police asked anyone with information on the theft to call the Redondo Beach detective bureau at (310) 379-2477, Ext. 2714.

— Jill Leovy

An old friend and hero of this blog turned up on the CNN website today:

The story of how I became a national figure in the media is widely known, but few people know what I actually did for the CIA.

I was a covert operations officer specializing in nuclear counter proliferation — essentially, making sure the bad guys didn’t get the bomb. . . .

I resigned from the CIA in 2006 because it was no longer possible to do the covert work for which I was highly trained and which I loved. . . . But I did not lose my belief that the danger of nuclear terrorism was the most urgent threat we face. Nor did I lose my passion for working, albeit in a new way, to address that threat. I am working on this issue now as part of the international Global Zero movement, in which political, military and faith leaders, experts and activists strive for the worldwide elimination of all nuclear weapons.

As Wilson explains, the recent arms reduction initiative between the U.S. and Russia (which David Dayen has been covering here in recent days) is an important step toward preventing nuclear terror: “The only way to eliminate the danger that nuclear weapons will be used by countries in conflict, by accident or by terrorists is to lock down all nuclear materials and eliminate all nuclear weapons in all countries.”

In addition to her work with the Global Zero movement and for a nonprofit think tank in New Mexico, Wilson appears in “Countdown to Zero,” a film that will be released in theaters in July after premiering (to positive reviews) in January at the Sundance Film Festival.

Somewhere, Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby, and Karl Rove are probably gnashing their teeth that Valerie Wilson is continuing to work against their dream of a more militarized and antagonistic world.

Lakers – Wolves Gameday Page
We took a look at the Lakers – Wolves contest in Minneapolis as the Lakers looked to rebound from a tough loss in Denver the night before, with knowledge that a win would clinch home court advantage throughout the Western Conference Playoffs.

Inactives
Lakers: Andrew Bynum (Achilles)
Wolves: Al Jefferson

Starters
Lakers: Fisher, Brown*, Artest, Odom and Gasol
Wolves: Jonny Flynn, Corey Brewer, Ryan Gomes, Kevin Love, Darko Milicic
*Though Vujacic was announced in the starting lineup with Kobe Bryant opting to miss his second-straight game, Shannon Brown got the start.

Injury Update
Both teams come in missing their best players, with Kobe Bryant opting to rest for the second-straight night and Minnesota’s Al Jefferson missing the contest due to personal reasons. The Lakers also go without Andrew Bynum for the 10th straight game. For a full preview podcast of the contest, CLICK HERE.

First Quarter
5:59 Much was made about how late … er, early … the Lakers arrived in Minneapolis (4 a.m. plane touch down), and such circumstances often have a direct impact upon that night’s game (whether they should or not). Sure enough, L.A. settled for jumpers for the first several minutes as the Wolves jumped to an 8-2 lead, but the Lakers quickly responded by getting better shots on offense and eventually knotting the score at 13 when Ron Artest nailed his first 3-pointer in three attempts.

3:22 Artest’s jumper made it 21-15, capping a 19-7 run, but the Lakers failed to score for the rest of the quarter. Fortunately for them, Minnesota couldn’t find the rim either, and L.A. took a 21-17 edge into the second quarter despite shooting just 36.4 percent from the field.

Second Quarter
5:51 Sasha Vujacic nailed his third straight shot of the quarter to get to seven points, helping a nice stretch from L.A.’s full complement of bench players (Farmar, Vujacic, Walton, Powell and Mbenga) that opened an 11-point lead.

2:57 Jackson didn’t put Gasol, Artest or Fisher in until the 5:51 mark of the second, a longer-than-usual rest (more usual for a back-to-back, of course), but the Spaniard promptly made an imprint by using his length in the lane to first nail a running hook, then grab his fourth offensive board and put it back to reach 12 points with seven boards, putting L.A. up 44-32.

0:50.1 Adam Morrison’s first appearance since garbage time in Atlanta rendered a baseline jumper, and Gasol added a free throw to get to a game-high 15 points while putting the Lakers up 52-34 at the half.

Third Quarter
8:55 Phil Jackson didn’t look too pleased to see Minnesota go on a 9-0 run to begin the second half, but instead of calling a time out, allowed L.A. to figure it out … and that they did. Gasol scored on back-to-back possessions, then Odom laid in to put the lead back at 15.

3:09 The Wolves, however, used the middle portion of the quarter to swing right back, climbing to within seven points when Ryan Gomes hit two free throws. L.A. had no trouble scoring, but seemed to let up a bit defensively as Minnesota made 10 field goals in eight minutes after totaling just 15 in the first half.

0:24.5 An and-1 layup from the Human Victory Cigar (that’d be Darko Milicic, the No. 2 pick after LeBron and before Carmelo, Bosh and Wade) got the Wolves within nine at quarter’s close, cutting L.A.’s halftime advantage in half.

Fourth Quarter
11:00 Jordan Farmar’s 3-pointer pushed the lead quickly back to 10 after the Wolves continued to nibble, again getting it to within seven. The bucket gave L.A.’s bench 28 points with 11 minutes to play, and was Farmar’s third in four attempts. In fact, on the season, Farmar was at that point shooting 38.1 percent to lead the team (he passed Artest in March).

7:45 Congo Cash (you may know him as DJ Mbenga) was a relative scoring machine, nailing to early-fourth buckets to get to 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting. That was, in fact, good enough for Mbenga’s career high. Congo Cash.

2:41 L.A.’s bench failed to match its production from the first half early in the fourth, allowing Minnesota to cut the lead to just four repeatedly, but Gasol and Odom stepped up in a big way in the game’s final two minutes. First Gasol swatted a Wolves’ attempt at the rim, then nailed a hook on offense. On the next possession, Odom boarded Gasol’s miss before eventually dropping a dagger 3-pointer to put L.A. up 95-86 with a minute to play. Odom added the game’s final bucket on a pretty alley-oop layup from Farmar to seal the Western Conference for the Lakers.

Up next is a Sunday afternoon tilt against Portland back in Los Angeles, but until then, your numbers:

POSTGAME NUMBERS
3 Straight years the Lakers have won the Western Conference.

11 Career-high points scored by DJ Mbenga. Congo Cash.

12 Turnovers for the Lakers, another solid performance in terms of ball control.

29 Points for Pau Gasol on 11-of-17 shooting, not to mention 15 rebounds and four assists in an impressive showing from the Spaniard.

33 Bench points for L.A., led by 13 from Jordan Farmar, who hit 3-of-6 3-pointers.

Shaw plans to enter wireless market in 2011.

More competitions should be good news for consumers. And with Shaw HQ in Calgary, it is natural (and I hope) that they will also launch in Calgary first.

Filed under: Business, Calgary, Canada

When you think of shaping ceramics, you probably think of a potter spinning a clay pot on a wheel, or perhaps even yourself making that piggy bank in art class. In reality, the term “ceramic” encompasses a lot more than fired clay, and shaping some of the more exotic forms can be quite involved. Researchers from North Carolina State University (NCSU), however, have recently discovered a new way of shaping ceramics. It should be much more energy-efficient than present methods, making the entire process more cost-effective and environmentally-friendly…

Tags: Ceramics,
Environmentally-friendly

Related Articles:

• CasioTransparent Ceramic Lens technology reduces zoom lens size
• New technology makes stronger pistons
• Glass casting meets the digital age: 3-D glass printing method developed
• Newly developed nanomaterial could boost data storage density and cars’ fuel efficiency
• North Carolina campus goes solar
• Noise-cancelling piezo-ceramic bearings

Just two days after comments by Twitter investor Fred Wilson made third-party Twitter developers nervous about what the company might do, those fears have become reality: The company announced Friday that it has acquired Atebits, the maker of Tweetie, one of the top Twitter apps for the iPhone. According to a post by co-founder and CEO Evan Williams on the Twitter blog, the app will be renamed Twitter for iPhone and will now be free (previously, the pro version of Tweetie cost $2.99 to download). Developer Loren Brichter said on his blog that he is joining Twitter’s mobile team and will be developing Tweetie for the iPad.

Developers and other observers immediately started analyzing the purchase as soon as the news broke. Hunch co-founder Chris Dixon connected Fred Wilson’s comments — which the VC blogger denied were about any specific future action by the company — with the Tweetie acquisition, saying: “Wow, weird coincidence! a Twitter board member blogged about killing twitter apps the same week Twitter released/bought 2 clients!” Engadget editor Nilay Patel said that Twitter buying Tweetie was “roughly equivalent to Microsoft building it’s own WP7 phone – bye bye, ecosystem.”

Former Engadget editor and gdgt co-founder Ryan Block said: “As of today, if your app depends on Twitter for anything other than identity or content syndication, you are officially on notice.” Some developers even formed their own unofficial “union” with a Twitter hashtag — the #unionoftwitterapps. And Daring Fireball blogger John Gruber wrote that “there’s going to be some heavy drinking tonight from developers of other iPhone OS Twitter API clients.”

On Wednesday, a blog post by Wilson raised some hackles in the developer community because he said that some of the features third-party apps have provided, such as picture-sharing and URL shortening, should have been part of Twitter to begin with. The suggestion seemed to be that Twitter would either be developing some of those itself, or possibly acquiring them, as it did when it bought Summize and renamed it Twitter Search. Some saw this process as a natural one, since companies have been acquiring third-party apps and add-ons or developing their own services that mimic external ones for years. One developer said after the fuss over the Wilson post blew up that it was totally expected, and that he supported the company’s desire to build in some of those features.

In an interview with the New York Times just before the recent controversy, Ev Williams also said that this process was inevitable, and suggested that the company might buy certain apps, and others it might simply compete with. “There’s some misunderstanding around platforms,” he said. “There’s both a natural win-win relationship between a platform provider and third-party developers, and there’s a natural tension.” He added that there are “tons of opportunities created by the Twitter platform, and things that people will probably be disappointed if they invest in. It’s a question of what should be left up to the ecosystem and what should be created on the platform.”

Clearly, having an iPhone app was crucial to what Twitter felt it needed to provide for users, as opposed to allowing a number of developers — of apps such as Tweetdeck, Twitterific and Echofon — to fill that market need. What other things will the company decide it needs to do? An official desktop app perhaps? Or maybe a URL shortener with built-in analytics, such as Bit.ly (which shares some investors with Twitter already, including Ron Conway). And if it decides to move into these markets, will it build or buy? Nervous developers everywhere are placing their bets, and will no doubt be asking some pointed questions at next week’s Chirp conference. Loic Le Meur of Seesmic and Iain Dodsworth of Tweetdeck appear to have seen this coming and have expanded the utility of their products. Le Meur also wrote a long blog post about how he sees his app stacking up against Twitter and his view of the relationship between the company and third-party developers.

Don’t misunderstand, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with AT&T’s desire to experiment with its logo design, but can we please focus funds on doing something about dropped calls first? More »

We’ve written many times about the inherent conflict between free speech and copyright laws. Copyright law is an inherent restriction on free speech. The courts have tried to get around this with two tools: “fair use” as an exception to copyright and the “idea/expression” dichotomy, which is supposed to only allow copyright over the specific expression, rather than the idea (in practice, this is often violated — such as in the recent decision to ban an unauthorized sequel to Catcher in the Rye). So, that mostly leaves fair use. However, many people have noticed that fair use is woefully inadequate in preventing basic First Amendment abuses.

Justin Levine points us to an interesting paper by David Olson, where he proposes beefing up the basically non-existent “copyright misuse” defense for situations where copyright is clearly being used to stifle free speech against the First Amendment:

The Copyright Act serves First Amendment interests by encouraging authors to create works. But copyright law can also discourage the creation of new works by preventing subsequent creators from using copyrighted work to make their own, new speech. Courts have long recognized this inherent tension, and have also recognized that the conflict should sometimes be decided in favor of allowing a subsequent speaker the right to make unauthorized use of others’ copyrighted works. Accordingly, courts created, and Congress codified, the fair use defense to copyright infringement, which allows unauthorized use of copyrighted works under certain circumstances that encourage speech and creation of transformative works. The problem with fair use, however, is that the informational uncertainties and transaction costs of litigating the defense make the fair use right unavailable to many as a practical matter. Subsequent creators are left open to intimidation by copyright holders threatening infringement suits. By decoupling the copyright misuse defense from its basis in antitrust principles and basing it in First Amendment speech principles, the legal protections for fair use shift from theoretical rights to practical rights for many. Copyright misuse has two deterrent features that will allow fair use as a practical right. First, a copyright holder’s misuse of its copyrights against anyone can be used to prove the defense of misuse. Second, once misuse is found, the copyright owner loses its ability to enforce its copyright against everyone, at least until the misuse is cured. Thus, by defining as copyright misuse the unjustified chilling of speech that some copyright holders perpetrate, the misuse defense will encourage important speech rights that are currently under-protected.

This is definitely a paper worth reading, even if it seems unlikely to ever be adopted by the courts or Congress. It would definitely be a big improvement over what we have today. It’s really too bad how rare it is for courts to actually consider the First Amendment implications of their copyright rulings.

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With the OMG news tonight that Twitter bought Tweetie and has made it its official iPhone client — and it’s a great choices, as Tweetie is a damn good app — we can’t help but wonder: What Android Twitter client would you like to see as the the holy writ for Android? Something from your own must-have Twitter client list? Something else? Let’s hear it, people. [via TiPB]

When I look at this watch, I’m glad I don’t drink. Designer EleeNo has somehow managed to utilize two small circles, surrounded by increasingly larger circles, to replace the hands on a conventional time piece, hence combining elegance and simplicity in design with … confusion. ..

Tags: Wristwatch

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After months of starts and stops at getting a new website up for the annual Salt Lake Christmas Tour, we finally got it posted this afternoon. After reading a number of articles and even posting a blog about using Google Sites, I decided to give it a try. At this point I’m really pleased with it. The site was easy to build and has most of the functionality that I needed to build an easily navigated website that I believe will do the job just fine. I have much to do yet, including adding a new Logo to the top, and many more pictures to the Archive, but it’s coming along well.

Google puts very few restrictions on users of Google Sites, but one that could give pause to some users is the inability to post affiliate ads other that “Google ads.” If you think about it though, this makes sense, as they are making their money off their percentage of those ads. The site space is FREE to the user, so most of us certainly won’t complain. In the case of the Salt Lake Christmas Tour, the lack of affiliate ads on the site isn’t an issue.

Since the site is built at site.google.com, that line is included in the actual address of the site. However, I just forwarded the SaltLakeChristmasTour.com address at my domain registrar, and will use that as my public address. Easy…