Wired News: Google News: Beta Not Make Money

Wired News: Google News: Beta Not Make Money: "So while other online publishers like Yahoo News and MSNBC earn tens of millions of dollars in revenue each year and continue to grow, Google News remains in beta mode -- three years after it launched -- long after most of the bugs have been excised.

The reason: The minute Google News runs paid advertising of any sort it could face a torrent of cease-and-desist letters from the legal departments of newspapers, which would argue that 'fair use' doesn't cover lifting headlines and lead paragraphs verbatim from their articles. Other publishers might simply block users originating from Google News, effectively snuffing it out.

What is fair use of a copyright work? According to New York University, where I teach, it covers comment, criticism, news reporting, research, scholarship and teaching, with several factors considered, including how much material is involved as a percentage of the entire work and whether use is of a commercial nature or strictly for nonprofit, educational purposes.

So if you are reviewing the latest Eminem CD and need to lift a few lyrics you're good to go. If you need to summarize a medical article on, say, arthritis, or a new study on the percentage of households with high-speed internet access, you can (within reason). But if you want to run a business of aggregating news content by running headlines and whole paragraphs of copyright work, you might run into trouble."

Style, or Lack Thereof

Some writers have it, some don't, and it doesn't seem to mean a damn in terms of success. It's style, that distinctive narrative voice that imbues a story with swagger, chattiness, or anything else that makes a reader feel the narrator is just too cool for words.

I don't have it, at least in my fiction. Oh, in nonfiction I ramble and chat with the best of them. One of my fellow writers once told me that my columns have a "Psst, hey buddy, let me clue you in on something" feel. But while I like using a chatty, conversational style for nonfiction, my fiction uses a plainspoken narrative.

I'm not alone. Consider this quote from J. Michael Straczynski, creator of Babylon 5:

The best writing (IMO) is natural writing, where the words on the page flow very naturally, very smoothly. Every once in a while, you pull out all the stylistic tricks, you thunder and lightning all over the page, when needed for effect...but it's the writing free of artifice that seems, for me, to work well. If you hang out with writers long enough, the really *good* ones, you learn soon enough that most of them talk exactly the way they write.

Lemme give you a forinstance... when Asimov was first struggling as a writer, he had lunch with his agent one day. He was having a hard time describing things, using language to paint pictures. The agent said, "You know how Hemingway would describe the sun rising in the morning?" No, Asimov said, leaning in... how? "The sun rose in the morning."

I like stylistic tricks when needed, but I don't use them by default. My favorite writers, the ones that most influenced me when I was young, are all pedantic straight-ahead guys. Tom Clancy, Stephen King, John Grisham, Michael Crichton, all of them tell the story and stay out of the way. (Clancy tends to describe too much, but that's a subject for another article).

The way I see it, the story should be first and foremost. If the story is good enough, a bouncy, in-your-face narrator is more distraction from the story than benefit to it. Such a narrator can be fun, but a good story doesn't need it.

Here's an example of what I mean. This is the opening to Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. While the book is a fun read and an interesting look at a plausible near future, the story has its weak points and the ending could use some work:

The Deliverator belongs to an elite order, a hallowed subcategory. He's got esprit up to here. Right now, he is preparing to carry out his third mission of the night. His uniform is black as activated charcoal, filtering the very light out of the air. A bullet will bounce off its arachnofiber weave like a wren hitting a patio door, but excess perspiration wafts through it like a breeze through a freshly napalmed forest. Where his body has bony extremities, the suit has sintered armorgel: feels like gritty jello, protects like a stack of telephone books.

Great opening, just grabs ya. But as the book rolls on, we become increasingly aware that the strength of this story is less the story then the way in which it's told.

Now, to put my money where my mouth is, here's an excerpt from my first novel, Between Heaven and Hell.

Then, suddenly, he wasn't falling anymore. After he'd recovered from the sudden deceleration, he realized he hadn't hit bottom; he'd been caught. He looked up at the face of the demon that had saved him. The demon was tall, with angular facial features and bright blue eyes. His black hair was swept back from his forehead, and his perfect teeth were bared in a charming smile.

"Daniel Cho, I presume," said the demon as he lowered Daniel carefully to the floor. "The infamous leader of the Demon Task Force. Pleased to meet you at last."

Daniel sat and stared, trying to catch his breath.

"Ah, but you don't know who I am," the demon continued. "Please allow me to introduce myself. I'm a man of wealth and taste."

That's one of my favorite chapter endings. We know the demon Daniel's just met is no ordinary demon. In fact, if you catch the Rolling Stones reference, you know exactly who it is, even though I haven't named him yet.

But look closer a that passage. While the dialogue has some style, the narrative is plain-spoken. The closest I get to artifice is "his perfect teeth were bared in a charming smile," the word "bared" telling something about the nature of that smile. But on the whole, pretty straightforward.

Style has its time and its place. Like any writing tool (things like alliteration, symbolism, etc.), it can be used to make a good story better. But be careful that it doesn't become a crutch, concealing that there isn't a story there at all.

Sorry...

I've been having some problems syncing with my desktop ever since I reconsecrated it as my workstation. I used to do everything on my laptop (I got it as a desktop replacement - which I took everywhere) but desired something with a constant sized footprint at a permanent location. Having my DVD+/-RW writer, iPod, and Zodiac sync cradle connected to an always-on machine is nice. I used to set up shop on whatever work space I can find, which usually meant on the living room coffee table.

Unfortunately, I have been having some problems with syncing my Zodiac (and all my writings for the web on NoteStudio.) I'd rather fix the problem first than adapt to this problem and never solving it (I do not want to sync the Zod to my laptop.) I've tried re-installing the PalmDesktop software numerous times; the Zod always syncs the first time, but not subsequently. Any hints?

Red States Feed at Federal Trough, Blue States Supply the Feed

If we need more refuation of the myth that the Republicans don't believe in government assistance, an article on the TaxProf blog blows it to smithereens. It appears that 76% of the 32 states that receive more federal money than they pay in federal taxes are "red states" -- states that voted Bush in 2000. Of the 16 states that pay more in federal taxes than they receive, 69% are "blue states" (the voted for Gore in 2000, natch). So the blue states are filling the trough at which the red states feed.

I'm sure the Republican voters in these states have no idea this is happening. How can they? The Republicans are supposed to be all about smaller government, reducing taxes big government and our dependence on them. Obviously they haven't a clue.

Or they're all lying about what they espouse vs. what they actually do.

Link: "http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/1169123"

Tapland - Tapwave Zodiac all the time.

Tapland - Tapwave Zodiac all the time. is celebrating it's 1st anniversary by giving stuff away all week (doesn't get much better then that). Scott dropped a couple hints today that tomorrows prize is perfect for those who don't yet have a Zod but want one, I'll trust you to figure out what the prize might be. So if you don't have a Zodiac head over and register for a chance to win (keep an eye on Taplands Breaking News area for the link to Day 5 of the contest, it'll be up sometime tomorrow), if you do have a Zodiac head over and register because frankly they run one of the best community sites I've seen for anything, and certainly the best Tapwave site.

Jeff's mysterious lack of blogness

His internet access is kaput (that's the technical term, I'm an IT guy I should know). So he asked me to post and apologize for his lack of rants. He should return within the next week to his former blog addicted self.

Tapland - Tapwave Zodiac News: New Engine Promises Net-Based Multiplayer Gaming

Tapland - Tapwave Zodiac News: New Engine Promises Net-Based Multiplayer Gaming

Introducing Punk, the Industry's first complete mobile game development solution. Based on the Torque Game Engine from GarageGames, the Punk Mobile Game Engine is a fully featured AAA game engine with award winning multi-player
network code, seamless indoor/outdoor rendering engines, state of the art skeletal animation, drag and drop GUI creation, a built in world editor, and a C-like scripting language.

This could truly change handheld gaming. Bluetooth multiplayer is neat, and a fun little bonus. However even though both Jeff and I own Zod's we have very different gaming preferences and even with the Bluetooth enabled games we've played very few Bluetooth multiplayer games.

With EvDO right around the corner Punk could be huge. Since Punk is based on the Torque game engine it's already got a host of games in development which can be easily ported. It also means that someone on a PC can play against someone on a Zod. Now there is no worry that there won't be anyone to play against (unless it's a really bad game). Independent developers now have more options, they can release their game on several platforms with minimal effort and give themselves that much more of a chance to succeed. For those of us who already can't get enough gaming on our Zod's this is could suck us in completely.

Vim with Vigor: Serious text editing for the Pocket PC

I'm a fiend for writing in plain text. I hate proprietary formats, and I spend as little time in Word on my PC or PocketWord on my Pocket PC (PPC) as I can. On the PPC, there are a number of text editors, but only one of them supports multiple documents and none of them support opening large documents. On my PC I use Vim, the vastly improved version of the Unix vi editor. Vim isn't an easy program to learn, and I'm no whiz at it, but it gets the job done. Now, after several tries, I have Vim version 6.0 working on my PPC as well. It handles files as big as I want and supports opening multiple file.

A fine fellow named Rainer Keuchel has ported a number of Unix programs to PocketPC, including Perl, Emacs, Vim, Apache and many others (http://www.rainer-keuchel.de/software.html). He has a small dll file that makes all the software work on WindowsCE devices, and environment variables required by Unix-like and Windows systems are handled via registry entries.

Vim isn't a small program by any means. All you're required to have to run Vim on the PPC is the executable (1.3M) and the celib.dll (148k). Of course, this minimal installation provides no menus, syntax highlighting or help. To use Vim most effectively you need to get the Vim 6.0 runtime files from www.vim.org and unzip them to your PC. A full installation Vim comes with megabytes and megabytes of runtime files, including a complete help system, syntax files, menu definitions, and more. You can use as many or as few of these files as you want on your PPC. I have the standard menu file (34K), a color definition file (3K), and the win32.vim file (3K) that makes Vim act a little more like a standard Windows application for highlighting, cutting, pasting and copying text. Finally I have my own personal configuration file, just a few hundred bytes in size. This file holds my preferences for margins, screen size, macros, key bindings, etc.

Vim is nothing like any standard DOS or Windows-based editor. The interface is hardly intuitive, and the learning curve is steep. Like the ancient Wordstar word processor, Vim was designed to keep the user's hands on the keyboard. Vim can be used with nothing more than standard typewriter keys plus the Control key and Escape key.

Vim generally operates in two modes -- command mode and insert (or append) mode. Insert mode is where text is entered; it has minimal editing capability. In command mode, keys and key combinations actually execute commands on the text. Command mode is invoked by hitting the Escape key; inset mode is invoked with one of several commands, including "i" (for "insert"). The dual-mode nature of Vim tends to drive beginners nuts. Fortunately, the modern, graphical versions of Vim, which include the PPC version, allow the use of pull-down menus for many commands.

So how does this all work on the space-restrained, portrait-mode PocketPC screen? Not too badly, though there are a few quirks.

First, the proper number of lines and columns must be configured. Vim is compiled with a handy right-side scrollbar, and with the standard Courier font I can see about 27 characters per line. In my config file I have the wrapmargin variable set to 0 so the text automatically wraps when it reaches the physical right edge of the screen.

Screen length is another story. Vim doesn't accomodate the Soft Input Panel; Fitaly, my SIP of choice, covers the bottom five lines of the Vim window. Vim simply doesn't automatically shrink the active window to accomodate it. Since Vim works great with an external keyboard, I've initially set it up to start with a full 16 lines of text; if I want to use Fitaly, I manually reset the screen size to 11 lines (I'm sure I can write a macro to do that, but I haven't tried it yet).

The Escape key is essential to using Vim, but the Escape key isn't well supported on the PPC. Though Fitaly has an Escape key in the customary place, the default soft keyboard has no Escape key, and my Dell folding keyboard uses a function key combination to invoke Escape. Kuechel took care of this by permanently substituting the Ctrl-C combination to act as the Escape key. This works well enough with Fitaly, and I've remapped two semi-colons tapped in quick succession to substitute for the Escape key for both my external keyboard and my PC keyboard. If I want to use the menus, I have to use a stylus.

Installation of Vim on the PPC is relatively easy, but not exactly straightforward. Start by copying the celib.dll file into the \Windows folder and vim.exe into any folder (I keep mine in the Axim's Builtin Storage). Things get complicated when establishing HOME and VIM folders and adding those locations to the device's registry. Keuchel provides an executable file and batch files that modify the Pocket PC registry (a PPC registry editor works as well). The example batch files show a lot of registry entries that cover more complex programs such as his port of Emacs (which I found to be much less stable on the Pocket PC than Vim).

Vim's environment is relatively simple; it requires a location for HOME and VIM folders. Instead of being designated through environment variables as on Unix/Linux and Windows, Keuchel creates a new key in the PPC's HKey_Local_Machine hive called "Environment." Choosing the location for HOME and VIM is the most confusing part of the setup, but once the right combination is entered into the Environment it's easy to add any of the standard Vim 6.0 runtime files, such as the help files, to the installation. I've set the HOME and VIM keys to \My Documents. The HOME key controls where my configuration file (_VIMRC) is located; the VIM key controls where runtime files live. I could easily change VIM to a folder on a storage card where I have more room to add runtime files I need.

I'm impressed with this port of VIM to WinCE. It's a powerful, versatile editor, as impressive in manipulating one or more plain text files as Textmaker is at manipulating formatted documents -- though Vim is considerably faster. It loads quickly, and I've opened two documents totalling nearly a megabyte in combination, each in their own window, and seen no falloff in performance. Vim itself is not a program to use without a willingness to make a committment to it -- but for those of us who won't be beholden to prioprietary formats for our deathless prose, it's the best answer for the Pocket PC.

gapingvoid: Don't Worry About Finding Inspiration

gapingvoid: "If you’re arranging your life in such a way that you need to make a lot of fuss between feeling the itch and getting to work, you’re putting the cart before the horse. You’re probably creating a lot of counterproductive “Me, The Artist, I must create, I must leave something to posterity” melodrama. Not interesting for you or for anyone else.

You have to find a way of working that makes it dead easy to take full advantage of your inspired moments. They never hit at a convenient time, nor do they last long."

Writing what you know

Write what you know. That is a dictum that I had received from my advisor as I started writing a scientific paper. This is a piece of advice that bears well on any other style of writing one tries. As I began writing for WOYP, and as I attempted various expository or fiction works, I realized how little it is that I know.

My love affair with literature began when I was young; no parent or mentor ever had to convince me of the worth of books. If anything, sometimes I faced discouraging remarks as elders asked me to do something besides reading! I am glad to have had library cards from every town or city I lived in; I have sometimes even tried starting a library card collection. Residency requirements killed that dream. A place filled with books seemed the most magical of places; with these credentials, I am amazed I am a doctoral candidate in neuroscience. I feel most suited for a life in a department of history. Although I have had as heavy a reading load as possible, from histories to genre fiction to the so called Western Canon classics to technical literature, it struck me as ironic that I know so little.

Reading, in one narrow sense, is passive. While the mind engages in creating mental picture, it likely avoids the level of detail that can be transcribed to some other person. The reader should not assume this implies a failing on the part of the either the writer or the audience. If the author keeps all the minutiae in his text, it makes for a boring read; the audience does suspend their sense of disbelief so that the flow of words is maintained. I think that often, one wants to avoid recalling so many details; the author may not always want his audience to imagine their own tree, but his. Different styles of work will elicit its proper level of active engagement. Simply, a history will evoke more scrutiny, while a novel encourages suspension of disbelief. When I started writing, to try to tell and show, I realized how much of this active component I have ignored.

The problem is simple: if I were to tell someone a story, where would I begin? What details would I use? Do I even have details? Oh, I have had little problem creating those mental movies; it isn't a lack of imagination or understanding. If I needed to capture some essence, or even some level of excruciating detail, could I do it? My problem, it turns out, is in the telling. This problem is similar to drawing; I am certain that everyone can create a high level of visual detail in the mind's eye. But for someone who cannot draw, he would fail to recreate that detail with charcoal and a pad. That is the level of detail I wish I could convey using words.

It may be related to the powers of observation one has. Perhaps for some of us, the nuances of the real world become smeared, averaged, across many viewings. A boy wearing a blue T-shirt with orange shorts may be a blue cotton T with gray whales with ochre colored khaki shorts to a better observer. To a writer, he would have invented a better description. Indeed, that is perhaps the trick; it isn't just a straight exposition, but a choice of words that can convey a high level of detail without pedantry or clumsiness that escapes me.

It remains trivial to do simple research to get specifics. Look at the tags on a shirt; find a book on weaves and machine looming. Find some time to ask about textiles. So my problem is that I received no talent in congealing the mass of impressions and reality with lyrical, precise, and enjoyable sentences. Fortunately, I've realized that writing, as with all things, is a craft; words can be worked, reworked and improved. My word choices may not always be inspired, but I'll be damned if I can't begin to tell stories smoothly.

If practice is all that is needed, then I am living in a wonderful time. The proliferation of portable computers has allowed any place to become a workplace. Even more conveniently with portable digital assistants, powerful word and text processing programs are available - and they fit in pants pockets! Tools are important, and whenever the muse appears (mine happen to be Tinkerbell. Shakespeare's muse was one of the goddesses herself), having a memo "page" ready for these half-formed impressions is crucial. This page substitutes for the paper pad the analog note takers use.

I am quite happy that these various machines let me develop a writing habit. I could have learned the opposite lesson, because I cannot write like Neal Stephenson or Charles Dickens. It would have been simpler to pity myself and stop writing. However, as I continue to write, I have gained a much deeper level of appreciation that being a mere reader did not allow me. It allows me some insight in how writers accomplish what they do; that is, not only are details described, but how intangible things like tone, mood, the bearing of a character, and his feelings and emotions are captured. These details are usually intimated and not declared. Even writing at the pedestrian level as I do lets me notice more technique, sentence construction, detail exposition, and setting atmosphere.

With the sharp, clear images one's mind forms, it could be the norm that one ignores the difficulties inherent in describing these
details. Having a PDA has expanded the length of time I devote to the craft of writing. I hope that my ability to notice enough salient details and to expouse on them improves with time. I cannot say often enough to how much I owe this little device, the portable digital assistant, in making that happen.

3G Killed the WiFi Star

I still don't have WiFi. Why not? Well, several reasons, actually. First off, I'm cheap, and still haven't decided it's worth putting into my tiny apartment. Second, I can't decide whether to get 802.11g, or the cheaper 802.11b, which at 11mbps is still faster than my 3mbps cable modem. Decisions, decisions.

And as so often seems to happen in my life, my procrastination might pay off. As cool as wifi is, it might soon be irrelevant for those always on the go.

Verizon and Sprint are rolling out a new data service called evDO. This is a 3G data service that offers packet-based internet access separate from the CDMA voice network. Instead of using the phone like modem, converting digital data to analog and then back to digital again, evDO sends the digital data directly, much like a DSL or cable "modem" would.

While wireless carriers have provided packet data before, speeds have been unimpressive. GSM carriers like T-Mobice and Cingular offered data in the 30-50kbps range, roughly what you'd get from a slightly noisy landline modem. In short, narrowband. CDMA carriers weren't much better, in the 60-80kbps range.

That was with 2.5G technology, the "second and a half" generation wireless. evDO (and its slightly slower GSM counterpart, Edge) is a 3G technology. evDO offers speeds in the 2.5Mbps range, as fast as many cable modems.

So lemme get this straight. Instead of getting wireless broadband only in specific locations, I can get it anywhere? Why would I continue the eternal search for hotspots?

Well, price for one. evDO is pricey, moreso than most WiFi plans. And WiFi is getting cheaper. By the end of this year McDonald's is supposed to have WiFi in every one of their restaurants nationwide. One hour for free with every combo meal. At the end of the hour, you can purchase another hour for $3.95 or just buy another combo meal. In a lot of cases, WiFi won't cost more than the initial price of the hardware.

What 3G will do is force WiFi prices down. T-Mobile will have to adopt more aggressive pricing for their hotspot program if they want to stay competitive.