A Farewell to False Love
Farewell false love, the oracle of lies,
A mortal foe and enemy to rest,
An envious boy, from whom all cares arise,
A bastard vile, a beast with rage possessed,
A way of error, a temple full of treason,
In all effects contrary unto reason.
A poisoned serpent covered all with flowers,
Mother of sighs, and murderer of repose,
A sea of sorrows whence are drawn such showers
As moisture lend to every grief that grows;
A school of guile, a net of deep deceit,
A gilded hook that holds a poisoned bait.
A fortress foiled, which reason did defend,
A siren song, a fever of the mind,
A maze wherein affection finds no end,
A raging cloud that runs before the wind,
A substance like the shadow of the sun,
A goal of grief for which the wisest run.
A quenchless fire, a nurse of trembling fear,
A path that leads to peril and mishap,
A true retreat of sorrow and despair,
An idle boy that sleeps in pleasure's lap,
A deep mistrust of that which certain seems,
A hope of that which reason doubtful deems.
Sith* then thy trains my younger years betrayed,
And for my faith ingratitude I find;
And sith repentance hath my wrongs bewrayed,
Whose course was ever contrary to kind:
False love, desire, and beauty frail, adieu.
Dead is the root whence all these fancies grew.
--Sir Walter Raleigh
Monthly Archives: April 2008
Archery: Severn Valley
Had a wonderful day shooting in Severn Valley yesterday. It was 36 target shoot with a 10:30am start, we finished around 3pm. What made this shoot different was that due to heavy snowfall the forest was covered in snow before we began, during the course of the day this did melt away but we did have a couple of rather sudden blizzards to contend with as we went round the course.
Not only was it very cold the ground was also incredibly muddy so I found that I was walking around rather gingerly in case I lost my footing and fell down a hill again. The turnout on the day was exceptional given the bad weather. We were represented by Richard, Alex, John, Simon, Cliff and myself – we had to split into pairs so I spent the day shooting with John.
It was not one of my better performances … I shot well below my usual par but this didn’t change the fact that we all had immense fun. Richard and I both forgot to pack our camera’s so I took some pictures with my mobile fun which have been uploaded to my flickr account, and here’s a couple of my favorites from the day:
Everyone arriving and getting ready to start
Us lot 🙂
Me shooting and trying very hard not to fall in!
John always smiling!
It was a great day, and full credit to everyone from Severn Valley Yeoman’s for organising the shoot and setting up a very challenging but enjoyable course.
Student Lecture Notes infringe Professor’s Copyright?
Sounds almost surreal … taking notes in class is copyright infringement? I know this case is not that clear cut, the Professor is partnering with an e-book manufacturer and they’re trying to sue an organisation that pays students to take good notes which are then published. The whole thing seems to hinge on the notion that notes taken in class are “derivative works”
“Students are buying a particular note packet to do well on a particular exam by a particular professor,” Sullivan said. “The commercial appeal of the product is that it is a copy or close derivative work of that professor’s intellectual property.”
But if a professor’s lectures are copyrighted, aren’t students already infringing just by taking the notes in the first place?
Yes, Sullivan answers, student notes do infringe, but they are protected infringement.
“That’s absolutely fair use,” Sullivan said.
What if a student took notes, but didn’t copy anything verbatim from a professor’s lecture, and then decided to publish the notes online or sell them?
“While that may not be slavish copy, the notes would be a derivative work and a copyright holder has the exclusive right to create derivative notes,” Sullivan said.
Whilst I recognise that this is an attempt to protect the intellectual property of the Professor, and the whole business around paying students to make good notes which are then published so lazy students who dont go to class can benefit from them is of course ethically and morally questionnable … but it seems to me that this lawsuit has wider implications … for example:
How long will it be before students will have to sign an EULA before walking into a class room? Maybe I just don’t get it but this feels so wrong.
Stephen Hawking: Asks questions about the universe
A wonderful talk in which Stephen discusses the following questions:
- Where did we come from?
- How did the universe come into being?
- Are we alone in the universe?
- Is there alien life out there?
- What is the future of the human race
It’s an enlightening talk and makes me realise just how small we really are.
Case Insensitive Tab Completion in Mac OSX Terminal
One of the things that keeps annoying me slighty is that by default tab completion in the terminal window is case sensitive.
It’s amazing how often I make that mistake … fortunately there is a way around this. Add the following line to your ~/.profile file:
-
span class=”st0″>"set completion-ignore-case on"
-
Once you have done this, restart Terminal and try again. Now tab completion is case insensitive very nice 🙂
Death
Death
Nor dread nor hope attend
A dying animal;
A man awaits his end
Dreading and hoping all;
Many times he died,
Many times rose again.
A great man in his pride
Confronting murderous men
Casts derision upon
Supersession of breath;
He knows death to the bone
Man has created death.
-- by William Butler Yeats
So far 2008 has been a horrible year … another friend died last night … I’m struggling to focus at the moment, my thoughts feel increasingly morbid. Maybe I’m just having a bad day.
Data Portability
Here’s Talis’ very own Danny Ayers performing his song on Data Portability called “Get Your Data Out”
For those who don’t know what Danny is referring to The DataPortability movement is about ensuring the data you put into sites like Facebook or LinkedIn etc about yourself and your friends or contacts is available for you to move around between sites. This is still early days though and lot more work needs to be done before this becomes a reality but it’s encouraging that Facebook has agreed to work with the group and develop some standards.