Happy belated 102nd Birthday to Nobel Economics Laureate Professor Ronald Coase. Wishing professor Coase good health and all the best in 2013!
In 2009, I took the initiative to spend a few days to download, process, upload, transcribe (small part of), and time-code professor Coase‘s 2003 Coase Lecture (a massive .mov file) to share on YouTube (6 clips in a playlist) to allow interested people from around the world to watch and learn as a way to celebrate professor Coase‘s 99th birthday.
For the last few birthdays of professor Coase, I mainly reshare the above video clips (with a new text interview in 2011). This time around, I’ve taken a new initiative to honour professor Coase‘s 102nd birthday. You see, a few years ago I went to the University of Calgary Law Library to conduct some US patent research for a client. As a bonus/treat for myself, I spent some time to download quite a few academic papers by professor Coase.
To celebrate professor Coase‘s 102nd birthday, I’ve uploaded the following three important papers plus a bonus paper as a special gift to readers of professor Coase‘s ideas.
“The only support I got was from my contemporaries. […] If this tale has any general significance, it is that new ideas are most likely to come from the young who are also the group most likely to recognize the significance of those ideas.”
For me personally, I received these important papers for free from the Law Library. And I see them (Firm, FCC, Lighthouse) deserve to be read by as many people as possible instead of under the messed up limited JSTOR manner. The bottom line, to me, by having these papers available by a single click here is that this save people’s physical travel time to go down to their local university libraries where these papers can be downloaded for free anyway!
It has not escaped my attention and noticed the paradox that The Lighthouse in Economics is a paper that disprove, with facts, the incorrect belief by many people (including my former MBA classmate who has a B.A. degree in Economics) that Lighthouse services cannot be charged thus has to be made freely available by the governments!
*** Concluding thoughts ***
I want to emphasize that I totally agree with the many academics in the #PDFtribute movement and Aaron that it is about time we in Canada and US require academic papers to be made publicly downloadable for FREE in perpetuity if any part (or whole) of their research funding come from any level of government (thus tax payers’ money, our money)!
Alison Klayman, director of Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, was very nice and cool to do her first post-Oscar-shortlist video interview with me on the day after she came back from a Bangkok film festival trip. Here is my video interview with Alison.
I just noticed on the back wall in the following film still, the pictures are the concept drawings that lead to the Remembering (2009), an installation for the Façade of the House of German Art.
Alison and I talked about the middle finger salute in the interview. To me, it is a show of defiance to the powerful, be it the one-party ruled Chinese government or any other governments or powerful institutions.
In response to CTV reporter question re integrity of the leadership vote, NDP Brad Lavigne (Principal Secretary to the Leader of the Official Opposition) stated ”No possible way to get into their process.“
Really, is Brad serious? He should really read the October 2010 Washington Post article “Hacker infiltration ends D.C. online voting trial” for a change and stop the “No possible way“ misguided claim at least (or delusional at worst)! Absolute declarative statement like “No possible way“ is a sign of NOT understanding the complexity of security matters especially surrounding internet voting.
“One of the hotly debated issues around the bill, around how educators are able to use copyrighted materials, has now popped up before the Supreme Court.
The justices will be hearing a case about whether grade school teachers who make copies of textbooks for their students should be shielded from paying tariffs.
The same issue came up before the Commons committee last March. Groups who represent educators and provincial ministers of education would like to see more explicit protection for classroom copying included in the “fair dealing” section of the Act, while those who represent publishers say they deserve to be compensated for the textbooks they create.
NDP heritage critic Charlie Angus said the government should be listening to criticism of the bill and making changes before it is forced to by the courts.
“There are problems that need to be fixed and we can do this in a collaborative way or a confrontational way, but I would prefer to get this bill done,” Angus said.
“I want to know that they’re actually listening to the witnesses, because witnesses have identified some serious shortfalls with the bill that can be fixed.” [...]
Internal U.S. embassy cables posted by Wikileaks this year suggested former industry minister Maxime Bernier offered to show American officials a previous copyright bill before it was tabled in Parliament.
The cables also detailed how the office of another former industry minister, Tony Clement, suggested Washington include Canada on an international piracy watchlist in order to push legislative efforts along.“
As a passionate Canadian, I am shocked and disparaged by the lack of respect for democracy and ethics by Stephen Harper. In these dark hours, the student-organized Vote Mobs across Canada shine a bright light and reminds me there is still hope in Canadian democracy.
“The veteran political comedian says it is refreshing young people are taking action in a brand new way, and explains how the recent ‘vote mobs’ show the kids are alright and getting engaged.“
The following news articles explain why (for just 10-15 minutes) I was unable to edit or access my site kempton.wordpress.com yesterday (March 3rd, 2011). Looks like WordPress.com is under new attacks today (March 4th, 2011) even they have been quickly resolved. (See LIVE status update here.)
“What I gleaned from viewing “The Social Network” was bigger and more important than whether the scenes and details included in the script were accurate. After all, the movie was clearly intended to be entertainment and not a fact-based documentary. What struck me most was not what happened – and what did not – and who said what to whom and why. The true takeaway for me was that entrepreneurship and creativity, however complicated, difficult or tortured to execute, are perhaps the most important drivers of business today and the growth of our economy.
[...] As the web increasingly democratizes innovation and costs decrease, anyone can showcase a product – just look at Facebook or YouTube. In the digital world, the dependency on a large checkbook to start a business is diminishing. Instead, what has become increasingly more important is the help from others — the intellectual capital and know-how to succeed.
Entrepreneurship involves mistakes and failures. But ultimately, if you have that intellectual capital and intimate understanding behind your project, you have a chance to succeed.
[...] In the digital world, borders are permeable.
While watching the “Hollywood version” of one’s college life is both humbling and entertaining, I hope that this film inspires countless others to create and take that leap to start a new business. With a little luck, you might even change the world.“
It was my pleasure finally to meet Tony Lacavera, chairman of Globalive & WIND Mobile, in person at the CRTC Breakfast at 2010 Banff World TV Festival after interviewing Tony over the phone in Sept 08 and Dec 09. I wanted to video interview Tony after the breakfast but he had a plane to catch so Tony promised to let me have another phone interview with him.
- How is WIND Mobile preparing for Sept 1st, 2011 when analog TV broadcast goes digital and those old analog TV frequency spectrum becomes available ? Any plans to bid for some new frequencies? (note: WIND currently doesn’t have coverage in Quebec.) Is WIND ready for new competitions from winners of the upcoming auction?
- Good to see WIND Mobile is keeping its promise and keeping an open blog taking users’ comments and feedback. Does WIND find it difficult to get useful insight from the comments and feedback which sometimes has lots of “noise”? I asked Tony to give some specific ideas or suggestions from users that WIND has implemented, unfortunately Tony wasn’t able to give me any examples.
- Tony mentioned that both him and Ken Campbell, WIND Mobile CEO are available to Canadians when the other wireless providers aren’t.
- WIND Mobile had lots of network problems a few weeks ago in my area (Calgary SW) and it seems to have improved in the last few weeks. While Tony was unable/unwilling to tell me how many network towers are in Calgary, he told me the total number of towers have doubled since launch.
- Is WIND Mobile able to get network or tower sharing access with incumbents? In an April 2010 speech, Tony mentioned that WIND had sent over 100 sharing requests to the incumbents and had no success. Unfortunately, this is still true! The incumbents are doing their best to NOT help WIND. :)
- The top WIND Mobile data user has been reportedly used 118 GB in one month. I suggested that using the rate of 5 cents per MB charged by the incumbents, 3 GB max data for the best $100/moth plan, the additional charges for the additional 115GB will be $5,888!!! Tony talked about the existing well publicized fair usage data policy with no cap, which I think is very fair.
- Tony also talked about how WIND see Public Mobile and Mobilicity as pure play wireless company. And since there aren’t much details on Shaw’s wireless plan, Tony didn’t have much to say yet.
- Finally, I asked Tony will WIND consider selling out to the big three in a few years down the road. And what kind of new promotions are coming up in coming months.
3D TVs related production gears are everywhere in the 2010 NAB Show. You can’t miss them even if you try.
Had a wonderful first day at NAB Show and I want to capture some of my thoughts about 3D before I head out to another exciting day at NAB.
3D & Money – Billions and hundreds of millions
Yes, we are talking about billions (Avatar, today’s figure: worldwide $2.7b) and hundreds of millions (Alice, as of today: 780m). And the millions of dollars spent by Sony, Panasonic, etc in R&D and making the production and consumer gears.
As a potential major new source of revenue for film studios, broadcasters, electronic gears makers, and others, I don’t fault them for wanting to backflip from a cliff in the dark of night into a rough sea that is also known for its golden opportunities like Avatar and Alice.
3D & Dramatic Content – The lessons from Avatar, Alice, and Titans
Jim‘s Avatar was a story told with care, plus deep insight and understanding about the 3D technologies (both its pros and cons).
3D & Sports/Live Content – The foreground trees, hands, and guitar headstock
I will check out more of the 3D sample footage in the NAB Show today, but from the footage I’ve seen so far, 3D’s strength is also its deadly weakness, I think.
It is human to pay attention to what is closest to us because it is in our gene to pay attention to things closer to us (is it a tiger?). But when watching 3D TV, tell me why I should care/pay more attention to the trees closest to the camera? Should I be distracted by that clipping hands in a concert just because it is closer to the camera? And in another concert footage, the guitar headstock happened to point at the camera, so it makes sense to have it become the focus?
My problem with the current iteration of the 3D technologies is that it seems to be too “distracting”. I am not sure will I articulate the following well, but step away from your computer later and try this. Look out into the distance. When we see things in the real world (our 4D world), we sort of “see everything and nothing at the same time“. We see everything but actually nothing until we focus our eyes onto something particular (like a building in the distance, an ad on the wall, or a pretty girl/guy in the crowd, etc). With the current iteration of 3D, the camera decided what our focuses are. And in the demo footage showcasing the best capabilities, unfortunately what stood out for me were the trees, the hands, and that stupid guitar headstock!
This may seem unconventional and paradoxical, but can 3D actually reduce our entertainment experience? Can the foreground objects become too distracting?
3D & Your money
If you are a consumer:
Are 3DTVs ready for prime time yet? Should you rush to buy a brand new 3DTV to replace your newish HDTV? Well, unless you have lots of money and nowhere to spend it (and have given lots to charity already), then may be buy one and be prepare to buy a new new one soon.
For the general public and for me, I don’t see the need to have a 3D TV set at home yet. They still need to come out with engaging programs plus sort out a common standard first (side by side or up and down).
Hmmm, this just come to me: How do you watch sports in 3D in a large group in a pub or a friend’s home? Will it be BYO-3DG (Bring Your Own 3D Glasses)?
If you are a TV or film producer:
I want to spend a few more days at NAB first before I make a more informed call on this. My gut feeling is the current iteration of 3D cannot be applied like a magic bullet. A new set of considerations along the transitions like silent to sound, and B&W to colour may be needed to be carefully thought out first.
James Cameron’s big-budget (and even bigger-grossing) films create unreal worlds all their own. In this personal talk, he reveals his childhood fascination with the fantastic — from reading science fiction to deep-sea diving — and how it ultimately drove the success of his blockbuster hits “Aliens,” “The Terminator,” “Titanic” and “Avatar.”
The following is Chris’ publicly posted introduction and a version of his prepared text for the roundtable. While I may not agree with everything Chris is saying, I feel it is important enough to repost it here for further public discussion. If we are to make democracy in Canada working better again, we have to be able and ready to roll up our selves to start finding better ways to do things.
As some of you know, I am in Ottawa this evening, ready to present at a Liberal sponsored roundtable tomorrow morning (March 2nd). I’ve consulted with many of you and put together these statements to reflect what I think needs to be done to reenage Canadians with our democratic process. I couldn’t include everything, but the morning session will provide ample opportunity to bring up some of the other issues (such as recall legislation, senate reform, etc).
I’ll be tweaking the text a bit, but it should give you the gist of it. Enjoy!
—
I want to start by thanking the moderators for the opportunity to speak today. Before you sits three distinguished professors of political science and law, between them over a centennial of service, and me – the guy who started a Facebook group.
While I joke about it, I know that my presence helps to legitimize the role that new media can play in our politics, to say nothing of the countless hours dedicated by thousands of Canadians across the country over the past two months and the results we’ve seen. I cannot speak for all of them but I can speak from my own conscience, which has served me well up to this point.
I want to talk broadly about the relationship between the government and the people. I’ll start by saying that we are not in a democratic crisis. What we have is a structural democratic deficit and, as with any deficit, we need to make some tough choices that aren’t going to be popular with everyone but will hopefully makes things better in the long run.
Ask any Canadian and the vast majority will say it’s their “duty” to vote and yet the reality is that over the past 25 years, voter turnout has been in declined. In my both homes of Alberta and the Northwest Territories – I’ve got duel citizenship – half of eligible voters didn’t bother to cast a ballot in the 2008 election. This cannot simply be chalked up to apathy and indifference, it’s our collective failure to address the growing disconnect between people and our government.
Our elected Members of Parliament are no longer seen as representing their constituents. They are seen as a separate class, Read the rest of this entry »
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is sneaking back into Canada through the front door.
Harper flew back from Switzerland today.
While in the air his office announced the appointment of five new Senators and the Supreme Court ruled he has the power to decide to ask if Omar Khadr could be repatriated.
What does Harper have to say about these developments? Nothing.
Journalists travelling with Harper are being kept on the plane to ensure the Prime Minister doesn’t face any questions in his short jaunt from the bottom of the staircase to his waiting limousine.
A prime minister that refuse to answer questions from the press, especially after important decisions of national significance, has lost the moral authority to govern.
One 8.5 x 11 piece of White paper (heavy card stock works better)
roll it up (don’t roll to tight/small)
tape the paper on the side
tape one small Canadian flag on the outside at the TOP of the “Torch”
tape a second (if you have an extra) Canadian flag on the inside in the matching location as the outside.
Done!
Have fun in exercising your Digital Democratic Muscle!
P.S. I’ve learned not to be afraid in making mistakes and making rapid prototypes from reading and learning from Bill Buxton over the years. By the way, Bill’s “Sketching User Experiences” is highly recommended to those who cares about design and user experiences.
RT @emmgryner: OMG just got off the phone w @Cmdr_Hadfield who signed off saying "see ya when I get back to Earth"...and I got chills 1 week ago
RT @WilliamShatner: I watch @Cmdr_Hadfield 's Space Oddity video last night and I have 2 words for him: "SHOW OFF!" I'd even look good floa… 1 week ago
RT @emmgryner: I am going to bed blown away by all the feedback and love re @Cmdr_Hadfield's Space Oddity. So proud to be a part of it. Wow… 1 week ago
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