Articles by Chris Schults

Another case of copyright infringement?

Riding public transit is a good thing, right? And you would think that easily accessible maps would encourage more people to ride the bus or subway, or current customers to ride them more often. And you would also think that transit authorities would be thrilled to hear that their maps are now available to millions of iPod users. There, you'd be wrong.

From Wired we learn that William Bright, creator of IPodSubwayMaps.com, was asked to remove maps of the New York City subway system as well as San Francisco's BART. Both New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority and Bay Area Rapid Transit claim that William was guilty of copyright infringement.

After complying, William produced his own map of each system. The one for BART is now available on his site, while he is awaiting legal advice on the one for NYC since his map used the same fonts and colors of the MTA.

And unlike BART, William is "offering it up there for anyone to use and modify."

Update [2005-9-26 13:55:44 by Chris Schults]: I'm not sure why, but you get "This Account Has Been Suspended" when you try to visit IPodSubwayMaps.com. Hopefully William simply forgot to pay his web or domain hosting bill while fending off the MTA and BART.

Update [2005-9-26 15:18:45 by Chris Schults]: The site seems to be working fine now.

Penguin sexuality is not always black and white

For those of you who thought March of the Penguins was the only drama about our tuxedo-sporting friends, you may want to read up on Silo and Roy.

From The New York Times:

And Silo and Roy looked so happy together.

The two male chinstrap penguins had found each other in the big city. They had remained faithful. They had even raised a child. But then, not too long ago, they lost their home. Silo's eye began to wander, and last spring he forsook his partner of six years at the Central Park Zoo and took up with a female from California named Scrappy. Of late, Roy has been seen alone, in a corner, staring at a wall.

My heart goes out to you, Roy.

Former Google chef plans to launch sustainable cafe in Cali

Regular web searching was not enough. Neither were searches for images, news stories, and things for sale. Our own computers were becoming a web of their own, so there is desktop search to help keep us organized. And who can keep up with the ever-evolving blogosphere? But don't worry, there is now a search for that too. And the world is apparently not enough for Google.

In addition to niche searches, Google also provides a number of services, such as email, photo management, text and voice messaging, and web page translation. And there is even a rumor that Google wants to get in on the Wi-Fi bandwagon.

So what could possible be the next Google gift to the world? How about sustainable cafes? That's right; Charlie Ayers, former Google chef, has cashed in his shares and wants to launch a health-conscious and sustainably farmed cafe in Palo Alto, Calif.

Upload your very own enviro-themed videos

Do you blog? Podcast? Post your homemade music or videos on the web? If so, you belong to "Generation C" as coined by the folks at Trendwatching.com who define this group like so:

No, this is not about a new niche generation of youngsters born between March 12, 1988, and April 24, 1993; the C stands for CONTENT, and anyone with even a tiny amount of creative talent can (and probably will) be part of this not-so-exclusive trend.

So what is it all about? The GENERATION C phenomenon captures the avalanche of consumer generated "content" that is building on the web, adding tera-peta bytes of new text, images, audio, and video on an ongoing basis.

The two main drivers fueling this trend? (1) The creative urges each consumer undeniably possesses. We're all artists, but until now we neither had the guts nor the means to go all out. (2) The manufacturers of content-creating tools, who relentlessly push us to unleash that creativity using, of course, their ever cheaper, ever more powerful gadgets and gizmos. Instead of asking consumers to watch, to listen, to play, to passively consume, the race is on to get them to create, to produce, and to participate.

For perspectives on Generation C, check out WorldChanging and FutureWise.

Now, to all you enviros who are members of Generation C, wouldn't it be cool if your environmentally themed short films actually appeared on television? Sound too good to be true? Then check out Current TV.

And, according to Wired, this fledgling cable channel needs your help. Nay, your videos.