PDF Hammer

Need to edit a PDF file?  Now you can do so without buying software or even installing software.  Go to PDFHammer and upload your PDF file.  Using the online tool you can delete a page, rearrange the order of the pages or append more pages to your PDF.

When you are finished, click Export and your modified PDF can be downloaded right from the site.

You can’t make text changes on a specific page, but if you have a big PDF file and want to pull out one single page, PDFHammer can do it without the hassle of installing special software.

Posted in edtech | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Copyright in 2028

David Pogue has an article about copyright and the views of different generations.  He poses a list of questions about copying movies or music and asks audience members to raise a hand if the they think the act is wrong.

He starts with “I borrow a CD from the library” and goes all the way to “I download a movie I don’t want to pay for”.

He says in audiences with a mixture of age groups, he has more hands go up with each advancement toward the obvious “this is wrong” end.  That was until he did this exercise with a group of 500 college students.  No hands went up until the very last scenerio… and then only two hands were raised.

I will try this one with a couple of my classes. Judging from remarks I have had in the past, I expect similar results.

Pogue’s final question:

Right now, the customers who can’t even *see* why file sharing might be wrong are still young. But 10, 20, 30 years from now, that crowd will be *everybody*. What will happen then?

Posted in copyright | Tagged | 1 Comment

Creative Commons from a professional’s standpoint

Here’s a different view on Creative Commons from Dan Heller, a professional photographer.  Dan sees the downfall of CC resulting from misuse by the little guy.  Here is the simple example he gives:

-A pro photographer places a copyrighted photo on a website for sale (his own, or a stock photo agency’s).
-A random 12-yr-old internet surfer finds the photo and places it on his Flickr photo stream, removes the copyright text, and gives it a Creative Commons attribution.
-A photo researcher at Big Company Inc. sees the photo and the Creative Commons license, and uses it in an ad.
-The original photographer sees the ad, files an infringement claim.
Even though Big Company Inc believed it was acting in compliance with the license, the law doesn’t allow for this defense. It is still culpable, and is subject to fines ranging from $750 to $30,000.
-The 12-yr-old is technically liable for Big Company Inc’s misfortune, but let’s face it—no one’s going to go after him.
-Big Company Inc’s lawyers now institute a policy of never trusting a photo having a Creative Commons license.

This could certainly be the collapse of CC use by big business, but I’m not sure a lot of big businesses are using CC photos in advertising for the very reason listed in the example above.  And I don’t think he is correct in saying that no one is going to go after the 12-yr-old.  The RIAA has been doing this very thing for a long time.  The parents of the kid will ultimately pay.

I understand photographs are a whole different world when it comes to copyright.  Just look at the number of photos on Flickr.  Heller says there are more than two billion with 2.8% of them being tagged as CC in one form or another.  In other words, in the amount of time it took you to read this last paragraph, fifty more photos were added to the CC library at Flickr.  With the number of twelve year olds using Flickr, one of them is probably doing exactly what Dan has described.

Posted in copyright, edtech | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Creative Commons from a professional’s standpoint

Could someone have listened?

I wrote about this a month ago and now ESPN has picked it up (undoubtedly not from my blog).  After the BCS debacle this year, maybe we could have a four-team playoff.  It will be at least 2010 before it is a possibility.  That’s when the current Fox contract runs out.

It just goes to show that it’s all about the money.

Posted in leisure | Tagged , | Comments Off on Could someone have listened?

Got Bluetooth

I am now one of those people walking around with a flashing blue light in my ear.

I did a little research and found one of the best priced Bluetooth headsets on the market is the Jabra BT250.  I can finally drive with both hands on the wheel.

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