Exploding Batteries
I've got a Sony laptop...
It has a Sony battery (duh)...
Yet Sony laptops are not exploding... Hmm. If Sony causes us to not be able to carry on laptops in the future, I will boycott (I won't be able to go anywhere, not a chance I will check my computer - sorry but NO).
Speaking of batteries - I arrived in Zurich this morning after getting up at 4:45am to catch my flight from France to Switzerland. After meeting with a customer for 4 hours and speaking at the Swiss Oracle User Group for two more hours - I got to my hotel later this evening. A "small" package from home was waiting for me (thanks to Lori):
If that is their small box, I'd like to see the medium one. It worked though, the battery and charger were in there and I can take photos again.
I still need to go back to Paris with a camera though. What a neat place. There are just so many icons there - you see things like the Eiffel Tower:
that you've seen a million times in pictures - and until you see and photograph them yourself, live in person - just don't mean the same thing. I have a mission now - to go back soon, with batteries!
This weekend - Vienna. Looking forward to it, the weather so far looks perfect. There will be pictures Sunday night for sure.
But for the next two days - I'll be in Zurich giving a seminar first...
posted by Thomas Kyte at 4:05 PM
21 Comments:
Do you really need another reason to boycott Sony? I mean, the whole root kits on CDs debacle was enough for me to want to, they're just too intertwined with my life to go cold-turkey.
well, until recently their hardware was good stuff.
I've never bought that I know of, "software" from Sony.
Zurich...a lovely city. When my wife lived in Poland we went there 3 or 4 times. Haven't been back for 5 years though:( A walk along the canal is a must. And Banhofstrasse is pretty neat too. It is really nice during the Christmas season. They have lights above the street....looks very romantic.
I actually drove from Paris to Vienna via Switzerland back in 1992. Very scenic. I bypassed Zurich to spend more time in Interlaken, but it still wasn't enough time to take the train to the top of the Alps, so I'll have to head back someday. In Vienna, I'd recommend catching a concert in or near the Opera House and touring the Schönbrunn Palace among many other sights. You may notice that Marie Antoinette has ties to both Paris and Vienna. I saw paintings of her everywhere along my trip.
Word Verification: hpqtg
I just started my own one-man Sony boycott after finding that they had obsoleted their own proprietary memory stick format in favour of one very slightly smaller, rendering my two 1Gb sticks useless in any current Sony model, apparantly.
I now have a Canon camera that is much better :D
This is my second Sony boycott, following a DVD-stops-working-after-one-year scenario. I keep forgetting though.
You should be careful. AFAIK you need a license for publishing images of the illuminated Eiffel Tower.
do you have a link or anything to relevant information about the publishing of the eiffel tower?
Seems to me it was a public spectacle. Copyright typically does not apply in that sense.
There is a snippet to do with the copyright issue on the FAQ section of the Eiffel Tower website -
http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/teiffel/uk/pratique/faq/index.html
Also Tom if/when you do go back to Paris, if you haven't been to the Palace of Versaille before I can highly recommend it.
Hi Tom,
With regard to publishing photos of the eiffel tower, check out this link: http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/teiffel/uk/pratique/faq/index.html
I find the law highly ridiculous, and I don't know whether that would hold up under South African law, that's for sure! Not sure about the US, or France though.
Sorry, didn't see the post by John Scott, seems he came across the same thing! *blush*
Hi,
The anonymous user is right. We have in France some stupid laws stating that for example the architect or the owner has some rights on the photographies of its buildings. It includes the brand new lights of the Tower. Eiffel died a long time ago, so you're safe at day.
Even owners of fields of a well-known hill asked for some « rights » (without success).
Not that I think that a free low-quality photography on a foreign blog would matter.
Live dangerously, I say. If the owners come after you for a small, fuzzy picture from a camera phone from which you derive no material benefit...
eh, better safer than sorry I guess. I had another picture that is "ok" so I'll just use that one.
It does not seem to be enforced, if you use google.com, you can find lots of them
and I doubt all of them are paying copyright charges...
typically france !
well, at least in Zurich you will not have problem if you take pictures of the stained glass windows by Marc Chagall in the Fraumünster Church, which is very close to your hotel (in case you have the same hotel as last year), just go down to the Paradeplatz (the most expensive place in Swiss Monopoly), and you cannot miss the cathedral
arghhh, it seems to be closed this year...
sorry!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_eiffel#Image_copyright_claims
"In a recent decision, the Court of Cassation ruled that copyright could not be claimed over images including a copyrighted building if the photograph encompassed a larger area. This seems to indicate that SNTE cannot claim copyright on photographs of Paris incorporating the lit tower."
French/Italian Court of Cassation == USA Supreme Court
http://blog.fastcompany.com/archives/2005/02/02/eiffel_tower_repossessed.html
"When I spoke to the Director of Documentation for SNTE, Stéphane Dieu, via phone last week, he assured me that SNTE wasn't interested in prohibiting the publication of amateur photography on personal Web sites"
Ahh. The French. Popular perception of the French lead to stuff like this...
http://despair.com/effort.html
and this...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4187452.stm
11 weeks of vacation a year. I don't think I could stand it.
Wait. Restrictions on photographing the lit Eiffel Tower (a public place) because of intellectual property legal issues? This is from the same country that was considering legislation that would force Apple to pull out the iTunes Music Store because the DRM is too *restrictive*?
It sounds like the French Parliment is going all different directions at once with regard to intellectual property law. They should take a step back and look at the bigger picture (so long as it isn't of the Eiffel Tower at night).
>> 11 weeks of vacation a year. I don't think I could stand it.
Really? I could. In my mind, I'm already there ....
David Aldridge said...
"In my mind, I'm already there ...."
Remnants of anesthesia perhaps?
- Mark
Great!! being an oracle and java follower myslef, i love you and your articles.
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