512 Pixels

Huh.

Major thanks to David for having my home screen as a part of his great series.

If you don’t read MacSparky, shame on you.

Timothy B. Lee for Ars Technica:

An Oregon judge has ruled that a Montana blogger is not eligible for the legal protections afforded to journalists, letting stand a $2.5 million defamation verdict.

This case draws a clear line between people who write for traditional media outlets and for blogs. Judge Marco Hernandez wrote:

Although defendant is a self-proclaimed ‘investigative blogger’ and defines herself as ‘media,’ the record fails to show that she is affiliated with any newspaper, magazine, periodical, book, pamphlet, news service, wire service, news or feature syndicate, broadcast station or network, or cable television system. Thus, she is not entitled to the protections of the [Oregon journalist shield] law.

Shield laws protect journalists who do not wish to testify about their sources of information. By not extending this protection to “bloggers,” this case could potentially cause problems for bloggers all over the county. Judge Hernandez’s ruling ties shield law protection to being employed by a traditional media company. I believe that’s outdated and wrong; just because a newspaper doesn’t own my site doesn’t mean I’m not working as a journalist when I write it.

Again, Timothy Lee:

But Hernandez once again ruled that Cox was not a journalist. He noted the lack of “(1) any education in journalism; (2) any credentials or proof of any affiliation with any recognized news entity; (3) proof of adherence to journalistic standards such as editing, fact-checking, or disclosures of conflicts of interest; (4) keeping notes of conversations and interviews conducted; (5) mutual understanding or agreement of confidentiality between the defendant and his/her sources; (6) creation of an independent product rather than assembling writings and postings of others; or (7) contacting ‘the other side’ to get both sides of a story.”

While the blogger in this case acted without “adherence to journalistic standards,” “real” journalists don’t have to prove that they do to gain protection from shield laws.

Shield laws are handled on the state level, with a total of 40 states having them in place.

A federal shield law failed to pass in the Senate in 2009.

This is a serious issue for those of us who write on the web, working for ourselves. If other states view the Oregon case as a precedent to start following, bloggers will have very little protection against companies and other agencies in court.

Hosain Rahman:

We recognize that this product has not yet lived up to everyone’s expectations – including our own – so we’re taking action:

This means that for whatever reason, or no reason at all, you can receive a full refund for UP. This is true even if you decide to keep your UP band. We are so committed to this product that we’re offering you the option of using it for free.

Good move by Jawbone.

Garrett Murray:

Don’t buy this piece of shit. It doesn’t work, it will fail, and the software is terrible. Jawbone is still selling them even though they know they’re all future bricks. Don’t buy one. Feel free to read on if you’d like the nitty-gritty details.

Ouch.

Want some super rare Apple gear? Here’s your chance.

I had never heard of the MultiServer, but according to the eBay listing, it is a 17 x 16 x 6 case in which Apple was developing a server, based on the 3Com 3 Server technology of the time. The case appears to have Apple-specific ports on the back and is decked out in the Snow White design language.

The Apple II ROM card is dated 1978. This auction isn’t nearly as cool, but it is rare.

The apps are $199 and $29, respectively.

Logic Express got taken out back and shot in the head. If this goes where I think it will, we could be looking at Logic X sometime in the next year or two.

Seriously — anyone could be an analyst.

From the site’s blog:

The holidays are a time for giving. So there is no better time than now to use your about.me page to support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. And AOL will donate $1 for every page created or updated to support St. Jude through December 31st (up to 10,000 pages).

Alright, each of you is going to edit your page, right?

Linda Holmes for NPR:

[Co-host Adam] Savage tweeted this morning that the show is still in production, and that rumors that it was suspended are inaccurate. But that doesn’t mean everything is status quo, of course.

One question that will need attention is whether, after several seasons, the pressure to do bigger and cooler things is changing the equations about safety in spite of everyone’s best intentions, simply because of the scope.

I really hope the show stays on the air, but I wouldn’t mind it returning to its roots a little bit. I love explosions as much as the next guy, but sometimes, I think that’s all the people behind the show care about anymore.

Without a doubt, Ice Cream Sandwich is the best looking version yet. Granted, that’s not saying too much.

Marco Arment:

I can’t afford to invest months of development time into learning the platform and making an Android app, then supporting and maintaining it in parallel with my iOS app indefinitely, with so many other data points telling me that it almost certainly won’t be worth the investment.

So I’ll make it more interesting.