Probably nothing that money can't fix. Microsoft didn't own the name "Internet Explorer" before launching their browser. Instead they argued that "internet" and "explorer" were generic terms**. Eventually they had to shell out 5 million dollars to the owner of the name.
** these are that same guys that tried to sue other people for using the word "bookshelf" btw
Great links and thank you, Jerry.
I need to spend a bit more time reading your more technical ones but the thing that strikes me is how much we tend to think of our 12 note musical scale as being "natural" when it was such as recent innovation. The problem for early musicians was how to evenly divide up the frequency space from the lowest to the highest. What we now call the octave is the simplest division because the frequency of one octave is merely the doubling of the frequency of the previous one and it this can be easy achieved by simply cutting the length of the string in half. Where to go from there was the hard bit and every folk tradition seems to have divided up the octave using different set of ratios.
The result was workable in each case for composing and remmebering tunes but these scales tend have what we would call "flat" notes and the number of possible harmonic note combinations are generally quite small so folk music traditions have tended to avoid harmonies and concentrate on (at times very complex) single-voiced melodies and rhythms.
The well-tempered scale as popularised by JS Bach removed the flat spots from the traditional Western scale and allowed musicians to use an unprecedented range of harmonic possibilities. This innovation required some serious improvements in music technology, however, and instead of relying on ratios, the note relationships are based on irrational numbers: the length of each successive string needs to be divided by the twelfth root of two. Not what you would call a trivial mathematical exercise.
Hell and I always thought that Wired spelt it: INtERneT. Must have just been the cool font. Silly me.
posted by ZippityBuddha 20 years ago
In "Porn good. Australia Bad."
Sport and Porn. Sport and Porn. Sport and Porn. How could Latham have allowed himself to get so out of touch with suburban Australia?
posted by ZippityBuddha 20 years ago
In "Abu Ghraib Report Exonerates Rumsfeld."
Oh good, now that's over maybe they might have some time to look into allegations of sexual abuse of Afghani villagers by US soldiers. (clip - Real format)
posted by ZippityBuddha 20 years ago
In "Yet another goof up by Google."
Probably nothing that money can't fix. Microsoft didn't own the name "Internet Explorer" before launching their browser. Instead they argued that "internet" and "explorer" were generic terms**. Eventually they had to shell out 5 million dollars to the owner of the name. ** these are that same guys that tried to sue other people for using the word "bookshelf" btw
posted by ZippityBuddha 20 years ago
In ""This site"
Great links and thank you, Jerry. I need to spend a bit more time reading your more technical ones but the thing that strikes me is how much we tend to think of our 12 note musical scale as being "natural" when it was such as recent innovation. The problem for early musicians was how to evenly divide up the frequency space from the lowest to the highest. What we now call the octave is the simplest division because the frequency of one octave is merely the doubling of the frequency of the previous one and it this can be easy achieved by simply cutting the length of the string in half. Where to go from there was the hard bit and every folk tradition seems to have divided up the octave using different set of ratios. The result was workable in each case for composing and remmebering tunes but these scales tend have what we would call "flat" notes and the number of possible harmonic note combinations are generally quite small so folk music traditions have tended to avoid harmonies and concentrate on (at times very complex) single-voiced melodies and rhythms. The well-tempered scale as popularised by JS Bach removed the flat spots from the traditional Western scale and allowed musicians to use an unprecedented range of harmonic possibilities. This innovation required some serious improvements in music technology, however, and instead of relying on ratios, the note relationships are based on irrational numbers: the length of each successive string needs to be divided by the twelfth root of two. Not what you would call a trivial mathematical exercise.
posted by ZippityBuddha 20 years ago
(limited to the most recent 20 comments)