A copyright may represent a substantial asset for a person or company. The UK does not have a formal copyright registration process as in the U.S.A. — in the UK, creating the work creates the copyright.
The British National Bibliography (BNB) is the single most comprehensive listing of UK titles. UK and Irish publishers are obliged by law to send a copy of all new publications, including serial titles, to the Legal Deposit Office of the British Library; hence, the BNB is a list of copyright registrations. The British National Bibliography, was originally a weekly catalog which which became a reference for book selection, cataloging, and for retrieval.
A Free BNB Web service to be launched in January 2009 will make the BNB available through the British Library Integrated Catalogue web pages. At that time, the CD-ROM version of BNB will be withdrawn. The current consolidated catalogues available on the BL website certainly correspond to a large part to the BNB. The British Library Automated Information Service (BLAISE), allowed a BNB search back to 1950, but I do not know if those catalogue records were transferred to the current BL website’s Integrated Catalogue, but it appears that the the new Web service will include these records.
Secure Login
Secure Login integrates with Firefox’s password manager, and will log you into any Web site without you having to remember or look up the password. On a site that requires a login, either click the icon or use a hot-key combination to login.
The program prevents hackers from stealing your passwords by halting malicious JavaScript code. It also protects against cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks and other password dangers.
Download Secure Login
Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG) like World of Warcraft are little more than communication tools and some terrorism and intelligence experts are concerned that it is theoretically possible that such platforms as MMORPG’s and Second Life might be used to plan terrorist attacks. For an overview of this topic see The Ongoing Debate About The Possibility of Terrorists in Virtual Worlds at The Evince Blog.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to locate the voting records of Members of Parliament who are now candidates in this election. Do this to become better informed Canadian.
The House of Commons’ Compendium of Procedure article on Recorded Votes (also called divisions) is your first stop. Your second stop is the chapter on Debate and Voting which explains when members’ names are recorded during a vote. This also explains when members’ names are not recorded.
Your next stop should be How’d They Vote. This site takes takes the Hansard from the parliament website, and extracts information on bills, members of parliament, votes, and speeches.
LegisInfo lets you peruse votes on bills along with the following:
- the text of the bill at various stages;
- government press releases and backgrounders (for government bills);
- legislative summaries from the Parliamentary Information and Research Service;
- important speeches at second reading;
- coming into force data.
For example, choose Bill C2 in the current session under House of Commons, Government Bills. Once you have selected the bill, you may select Selected Recorded Votes and see how the members voted.
Office work not only makes you fat, it makes you week. The old saying, “use it or lose it”, applies here. While at a client’s offices recently I saw several standing desks and exercise balls used in place of chairs, so it seems some people understand the problems (though I have reservations about using an exercise ball for a chair). The final two exercises require equipment.
Exercise Ball Crunch
The exercise ball should be the right size. The get the right size, sit on the ball with you butt just barely on the ball and lean back. Your legs should form a right angle.
To do the Exercise Ball Crunch sit on the ball with your butt just barely on the the ball and lean back, but not far enough to arch the lower back. With your arms behind your head, pull your ribs to your pelvis in one smooth movement.
This is difficult. Do just a few the first few times to get the movement correct. You should then do this morning, noon, and just before you quit work each day until you can do a full set of twelve. Then strive for three sets three times a week.
These days, if you have an exercise ball in your office or cubical, nobody will think it is strange, however, lying on the floor and doing the bicycle maneuver will transform you into a curiosity.
The Captain’s Chair
This exercise is the Reverse Crunch done in the Captain’s Chair. Start and finish with the thighs parallel with the floor.
Just like the Reverse Crunch, curl the front of your pelvis towards your ribs and slowly return to the starting position. Strive for two or three sets of 10 to 12 repetitions.
A former engineer at chip maker Intel Corp., Biswahoman Pani, has been charged with stealing trade secrets after taking a new job at rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.. More than 100 pages of sensitive Intel documents, as well as 19 computer-aided-design drawings, were found in a search of Pani’s house conducted on July 1.
He began working for AMD eight days before his employment at Intel ended. Pani still had access to Intel’s computer network. Russell said Pani used this access to collect sensitive documents that might have provided valuable competitive intelligence for his new employer.
“…there is no evidence AMD knew of Pani’s actions or encouraged them. Neither is there evidence that AMD ever received the confidential Intel files.”
You can read the entire article at The Boston Globe.
Subsidiaries seem to be the bane of my existence lately. The following story is getting old.
A company has what seems like a good idea. It gets people to invest.
The intellectual property (IP) is registered to, or transferred to, a subsidiary, which is then spun-off. The newly independent company then transfers the IP to an off-shore company. The off-shore company then licenses the IP to the original firm.
The Income Securities Advisor runs a 6 year old story about United Airlines filing for bankruptcy and within 10 minutes, UAL’s stock had fallen from $12.45/share to $3/share before trading was halted.
Read the article by Mary Ellen Bates about this and why Web browsers should come with training wheels.
A study reported by Ars Technica indicates that “heavy mental effort leads to much bigger meals”. Knowledge work is “a new risk factor … with the potential to lead to overweight in the long-term.”
PDF Download manages the download of large PDF files. This remains necessary to handle PDF files in Firefox V.3.
Download Statusbar allows you to view and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar - without the download window getting in the way of your web browsing.
Morning Coffee allows you to bring up a whole menu of websites with a single click. MorningCoffee is particularly useful for routinely monitoring several sites simultaneously.
Ubiquity promises to become the most advanced tool for Firefox. It is in early beta now but getting better. It requires Firefox 3. Check out the video below.
Beware that this can be abused. It will allow you to alter the content of a web page then email it as part of a mash-up. In the current version, there are well-documented ways that a command author could smuggle malicious code into your machine.
First, make a list of all addresses linked to the subject, including the Canadian postal code. Then search in Google for bank or storage plus the postal code. Do not include a hyphen or put the postal code in quotations. Search each postal code in order. Now you have a list of banks where the subject may have an account and a list of sites where he may have a storage locker.
BoB is short for Bug-out Bag. BoB will help you Get Out Of Dodge (G.O.O.D.) fast. The Toronto propane explosion should be a strong reminder that we have to look after ourselves when things become chaotic. Running out of the house in pajamas and slippers is not a good survival strategy.
It doesn’t take much to have an inexpensive but rugged day pack in the front hall closet along with a pair of good boots and socks. Good boots are perhaps the most important item. When the White House was evacuated on 9/11, the area was littered with shoes that came off as people fled. If you can’t walk, then you can’t get away from the danger.
Water, food, a good knife & multi-tool, flashlight & candle lantern, clothing & rain gear, first-aid supplies, and maps should reside in BoB. Medications, money, ID, and important documents should be organised nearby for a quick getaway. This should get you through 3 or 4 days.
If you travel by car a lot, then a BoB clone should reside in your car. The same applies to your office if possible. My briefcase contains a mini-BoB.
“IDEA” Will Make Company and Fund Information Interactive
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox today unveiled the successor to the agency’s 1980s-era EDGAR database, which will give investors far faster and easier access to key financial information about public companies and mutual funds.
The new system is called IDEA, short for Interactive Data Electronic Applications. Based on a completely new architecture being built from the ground up, it will it first supplement and then eventually replace the EDGAR system. The decision to replace EDGAR marks the SEC’s transition from collecting forms and documents to making the information itself freely available to investors to give them better and more up-to-date financial disclosure in a form they can readily use.”
