Skip to main content

Home/ LumpysCorner/ Group items tagged words

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
John Lemke

Amnesty is Already a Verb - 0 views

www.dailywritingtips.com/amnesty-is-already-a-verb

amnesty 2014 writing WriteLink tips

shared by John Lemke on 19 Aug 14 - No Cached
  • John Lemke on 19 Aug 14
     
    Amnetize is not a word.
John Lemke

» How to Build Residual Income as a Writer for Examiner.com : Freedom With Wr... - 0 views

www.freedomwithwriting.com/...e-as-a-writer-for-examiner-com

shared by John Lemke on 13 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Examiner is very unusual in that writers have some serious perks. If you move your cursor over your name in the top right of your page you will see a drop down list. Choose the ‘Examiner Perks’ option and prepare to be awed. You can get discounts on everything from Insurance to books to concert tickets etc. The discounts alone are worth the 200 words a month!
    • John Lemke
      John Lemke on 13 Jan 14
       
      nice perks
John Lemke

What happens with digital rights management in the real world? | Technology | theguardi... - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...digital-rights-management

rights 2014 DRM yourrights copyright DMCA copywrong security law legal litigation

shared by John Lemke on 10 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • In 1997's Bernstein v United States, another US appeals court found that code was protected expression. Bernstein was a turning point in the history of computers and the law: it concerned itself with a UC Berkeley mathematician named Daniel Bernstein who challenged the American prohibition on producing cryptographic tools that could scramble messages with such efficiency that the police could not unscramble them. The US National Security Agency (NSA) called such programs "munitions" and severely restricted their use and publication. Bernstein published his encryption programs on the internet, and successfully defended his right to do so by citing the First Amendment. When the appellate court agreed, the NSA's ability to control civilian use of strong cryptography was destroyed. Ever since, our computers have had the power to keep secrets that none may extract except with our permission – that's why the NSA and GCHQ's secret anti-security initiatives, Bullrun and Edgehill, targetted vulnerabilities in operating systems, programs, and hardware. They couldn't defeat the maths (they also tried to subvert the maths, getting the US National Institute for Standards in Technology to adopt a weak algorithm for producing random numbers).
    • John Lemke
      John Lemke on 10 Feb 14
       
      This is also why they have a hard on for developing a quantum computer.
  • An increase in the security of the companies you buy your media from means a decrease in your own security. When your computer is designed to treat you as an untrusted party, you are at serious risk: anyone who can put malicious software on your computer has only to take advantage of your computer's intentional capacity to disguise its operation from you in order to make it much harder for you to know when and how you've been compromised.
  • The DMCA's injunction against publishing weaknesses in DRM means that its vulnerabilities remain unpatched for longer than in comparable systems that are not covered by the DMCA. That means that any system with DRM will on average be more dangerous for its users than one without DRM.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • For example, in 2005, Sony-BMG music shipped a DRM called the "Sony Rootkit" on 51m audio CDs. When one of these CDs was inserted into a PC, it automatically and undetectably changed the operating system so that it could no longer see files or programs that started with "$SYS$." The rootkit infected millions of computers, including over 200,000 US military and government networks, before its existence became public. However, various large and respected security organisations say they knew about the Sony Rootkit months before the disclosure, but did not publish because they feared punishment under the DMCA. Meanwhile, virus-writers immediately began renaming their programs to begin with $SYS$, because these files would be invisible to virus-checkers if they landed on a computer that had been compromised by Sony.
    • John Lemke
      John Lemke on 10 Feb 14
       
      How the Sony DRM created serious security issues.  It should also be considered a violation of our civil rights.  Who the hell gave Sony permission to modify my OS!  Furthermore why didn't the OS companies sue Sony?  Likely because they are in bed together.
  • If I was a canny entrepreneur with a high appetite for risk -- and a reasonable war-chest for litigation – I would be thinking very seriously about how to build a technology that adds legal features to a DRM-enfeebled system (say, Itunes/Netflix/Amazon video), features that all my competitors are too cowardly to contemplate. The potential market for devices that do legal things that people want to do is titanic, and a judgment that went the right way on this would eliminate a serious existential threat to computer security, which, these days, is a synonym for security itself.And once anti-circumvention is a dead letter in America, it can't survive long in the rest of the world. For one thing, a product like a notional Itunes/Amazon/Netflix video unlocker would leak across national borders very easily, making non-US bans demonstrably pointless. For another, most countries that have anti-circumvention on the books got there due to pressure from the US Trade Representative; if the US drops anti-circumvention, the trading partners it armed-twisted into the same position won't be far behind.I've talked to some lawyers who are intimate with all the relevant cases and none of them told me it was a lost cause (on the other hand, none of them said it was a sure thing, either). It's a risky proposition, but something must be done. You see, contrary to what the judge in Reimerdes said in 2000, this has nothing to do with whether information is free or not – it's all about whether people are free.
  • The DMCA is a long and complex instrument, but what I'm talking about here is section 1201: the notorious "anti-circumvention" provisions. They make it illegal to circumvent an "effective means of access control" that restricts a copyrighted work. The companies that make DRM and the courts have interpreted this very broadly, enjoining people from publishing information about vulnerabilities in DRM, from publishing the secret keys hidden in the DRM, from publishing instructions for getting around the DRM – basically, anything that could conceivably give aid and comfort to someone who wanted to do something that the manufacturer or the copyright holder forbade.
  • Significantly, in 2000, a US appeals court found (in Universal City Studios, Inc v Reimerdes) that breaking DRM was illegal, even if you were trying to do something that would otherwise be legal. In other words, if your ebook has a restriction that stops you reading it on Wednesdays, you can't break that restriction, even if it would be otherwise legal to read the book on Wednesdays.
John Lemke

A Day in the Life of Maggie Koerth-Baker | - 0 views

www.theopennotebook.com/...n-the-life-maggie-koerth-baker

life writing freelance 2014 WriteLink author interview advice howto

shared by John Lemke on 11 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • I’m a freelancer, but I have a couple of contract gigs that play a big role in my monthly and daily cycles. I’m the science editor at BoingBoing.net, a technology and culture blog with 6 million monthly readers. I also have a monthly column with The New York Times Magazine.
  • The rest of the day really varies a lot, depending on what I have on my plate at that given time. I have ADHD and it’s really easy for me to get distracted and be unproductive, so I have lots of little tricks I rely on to keep me focused throughout the day. I used to use a timer on my computer a lot, just to have something that, periodically, forced me to look up and think about what I was doing and what I had to do next. But I find now that the two hours between breast pump sessions actually does that job pretty well. I also jump back and forth between stuff on my to-do list, depending on what I feel motivated to do. If I just can’t get myself to write during a given two-hour block, I’m better off answering email or sending out interview requests than just sitting there, staring at a blank page.
  • Skype, Call Recorder, and Stickies.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Word docs and/or Evernote
  • Livescribe pen. The Livescribe allows me to record audio and take notes, with the audio linked up to the notes, so that later I can find exactly the audio quotes and information I want quickly, just by tapping on the note that corresponds to what I’m looking for.
  • I’m experimenting with a new organizational system that I’m calling Just Put Everything in Evernote. All my research notes, papers, Livescribe notes and audio, everything … it all goes into Evernote, organized by story, and I can find it easily on my phone or my computer, even when I’m offline. The new Livescribe pen I got even uploads the audio and notes to Evernote automatically, whenever it has access to wifi.
  • I increasingly do my writing in Google Docs. Or Drive, or whatever they call it now. It’s been worth it for the couple of times I’ve already needed to access stuff when I’m away from my computer. And it helps with the nagging fear that I’m going to lose, damage, or destroy the laptop at some point, halfway through writing a story. On the same lines, I periodically save everything to Dropbox.
  • EasyCrop for quickly adjusting image
  • I do all my presentations in Prezi
  • Twitter and Facebook are both necessary for my work and a huge time suck
  • John Lemke on 11 Feb 14
     
    Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor for Boing! Boing!, a freelance writer and a columnist for The New Your Times Magazine. In this interview she discusses her life, motherhood and her work flow.
John Lemke

The New Year's Writing Resolution You Can Actually Keep - Copyblogger - 0 views

www.copyblogger.com/just-write

writing resolution 2013 freelance copywriting WriteLink

shared by John Lemke on 30 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • Every day in January, write for 20 minutes. By every day, I mean every day. Including weekends. Including the Martin Luther King holiday. Including the days that get crazy.
  • To become a better writer (whether it’s for text, podcast scripts, video scripts, or anything else that needs words to be strung together effectively), you need to write. And the best way to write more is to build the habit of writing every day. Give it a try for 31 days, and let us know how it’s going! And if you’ve ever tried a daily writing practice, we’d love to hear about it in the comments.
  • John Lemke on 30 Dec 13
     
    This is a pretty decent tip.  The reality is simple.  If you don't love to read, you have no business even considering being a writer.  Furthermore and more on the topic of the article, if you are not writing daily, you shall never be a writer.
John Lemke

» How to Get Paid as an "Elite" Writer with iWriter : Freedom With Writing - 0 views

www.freedomwithwriting.com/...s-an-elite-writer-with-iwriter

2013 copywriting review freelance gigs writer iWriter

shared by John Lemke on 18 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • iWriter is perfect for both the beginning and the established writer that wants to add another writing site to their list.
  • The range of these topics is considerably greater than most writing sites and includes pretty much anything you would want to write about and probably a few things you never considered.
  • Unlike many sites, there is no article submission required for approval. Don’t let this throw you and make you think less of this site. The site simply uses other methods to get and keep quality writers. This is great because you can get started immediately instead of waiting for an editor to approve your work.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • You can select the type of writings you want to do. Your choices are articles, ebooks and rewrites.
  • A rather odd note is that the writing block area specifically tells you not to copy and paste from other software into the block. However the FAQ suggests doing so. I recommend the copy and paste method simply because if there is a glitch during submission then there is little chance of recovery and you would need to start over. As an alternate, you can copy and past your work from the writing block into your word processor.
  • Essentially, you have to write at least 30 articles and have a rating of 4 stars to move to the Premium level. Once you hit 4.6 stars you move into the Elite tier. The only ratings that count are those from clients, iWriter only counts your articles. Because of this it’s important to do a good job for the clients and it’s also important to pay attention to the types of clients that you choose. Clients that reject often and are overly demanding may not be worth the effort.
  • Payment is made once your account reaches the minimum of $20 and is paid to your Paypal account.
  • Set up notifications for the topics that interest you
  • Get up early on Monday. Monday is when many new articles are added to the system.
  • Take many small articles at first.
  • John Lemke on 18 Dec 13
     
    This one looks very promising.
John Lemke

This One Tiny Habit Can Help You Become a More Productive (and Wealthier) Freelancer | ... - 0 views

www.therenegadewriter.com/...mini-habits-stephen-guise

2014 writing copywriting tips freelancer writer

shared by John Lemke on 06 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle
  • Not only did his book confirm for me that the best way to create a positive change is through small acts repeated daily, but the book was exceptionally well written and researched — impressive in that the author is not a professional writer — and so applicable to the many writers I meet who struggle with getting query letters out the door or writing big projects like books and novels.
  • There are two kinds of motivation. The first type is having a reason for doing something. My motivation for exercise is to look and feel healthy. My motivation for doing this interview is that you asked me to do it and I want to spread the word about mini habits. Unlike the next definition of motivation, your reason for doing things is generally very stable and changes very little over time. There’s also emotional motivation, which is rooted in enthusiasm and determines your willingness to take action in the moment (“This year I’m going to get in shape so I’m off to the gym!”). Most goal systems rely on this type of motivation; they’ll tell you that you need to find this motivation to succeed. The problem is that emotional motivation isn’t reliable or habit friendly.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • There’s a quote from Sun Tzu’s Art of War which sums up the Mini Habit system: “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.” By taking one small action a day—just one small behavior change—we start with a win. After that point, you’re free to do more.
  • John Lemke on 06 Apr 14
     
    The article talks about taking small steps to make a big difference.
John Lemke

Add Personality and Voice to Every Blog Post You Write - 0 views

thewritelife.com/nality-and-voice-to-blog-posts

freelance copywriting tips 2014 WriteLink writing list voice blog

shared by John Lemke on 23 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • write a post specifically for that ideal customer. Narrow it down as much as possible, and write as if they are sitting right across from you learning from you along the way.
  • using words that evoke images:
  • Every post you write should be a complete thought.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • It should be able to stand alone
  • John Lemke on 23 Apr 14
     
    A nice collection of tips for getting your voice into your blog post.  Arrangednicely in several bullet-ed list.
John Lemke

Suffer and Suffrage - 0 views

www.dailywritingtips.com/suffer-and-suffrage

WriteLink writing 2014

shared by John Lemke on 21 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • the two words have different origins
  • John Lemke on 21 Jun 14
     
    I always thought they had a similar origin.  Turns out they don't.
John Lemke

Hyphenating Prefixes - 0 views

www.dailywritingtips.com/hyphenating-prefixes

2014 writing WriteLink freelance copywriting hyphens grammar words

shared by John Lemke on 07 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • John Lemke on 07 Jun 14
     
    Personally, I err on the side of using the hyphen. However, there seems to be much disagreement on the topic of when to hyphenate.
John Lemke

20 Rules for Writing So Crystal Clear Even Your Dumbest Relative Will Understand - 0 views

boostblogtraffic.com/crystal-clear-writing

2014 writing freelance copywriting tips list writer WriteLink

shared by John Lemke on 15 May 14 - No Cached
  • Spreading an idea means getting it from your brain into someone else’s. It means putting together the essential facts, the logical arguments and your insightful conclusions together in exactly the right way to recreate your brilliant idea in the mind of your reader.
  • Try to describe your audience with this simple formula: X who Y. For example: “Bloggers who want to get more traffic”.
  • If you can’t explain what your post is about in one simple, short sentence, it’s probably too complex or unfocused.
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • Make sure a clear connection exists between the opening of your post and the headline.
  • If a sentence, phrase or word is particularly important or significant, use bold or italics to add stress. But don’t overdo it.
  • Always be consistent with your terminology.
  • If a point is worth making, it’s worth making twice. Or even three times.
  • Only tell them what they need to know to follow your argument. Share the minimum you need to convey the desired message.
  • Clear examples help readers understand difficult concepts.
  • Concrete language describes something detectable by the senses. Something you can see, feel, hear, smell or taste. Abstract concepts are much harder to imagine.
  • When you provide specific detail in your writing, there’s less room for ambiguity. Your reader is far more likely to end up with the same idea in their head as you have in yours.
  • Clarity does not tolerate “might,” “may” or “possibly.” If you can’t say something with certainty, perhaps you shouldn’t be writing about it at all.
  • if you’re in the business of spreading ideas, you must make friends with bullets.
  • Bullets are a valuable tool, but you should never drop your reader into a list without first setting the scene.
  • make sure each point is recognizably related to the others.
  • If you were giving your reader a list of steps, you’d present them in the order they needed doing, right? Obviously. But if the items in your list aren’t steps, they often still have a natural order – even if you didn’t have one in mind when you wrote them.
  • always supply everything the reader needs to fully understand your points within the post itself.
  • You think you’re being generous but truthfully you’re being greedy. Greedy with your reader’s time, their attention, and their patience.
  • include a clear call-to-action. Tell your reader what you want them to do.
  • John Lemke on 15 May 14
     
    20 tips on writing with clarity.
John Lemke

Enthusiasm and Enthuse - 0 views

www.dailywritingtips.com/enthusiasm-and-enthuse

2014 WriteLink Word Origin vocabulary

shared by John Lemke on 07 Aug 14 - No Cached
  • John Lemke on 07 Aug 14
     
    Interesting... enthusiasm had a negative association in the 18th century.
John Lemke

Seven Ways Your Physical Environment Can Help or Hinder Your Writing | Writing Forward - 0 views

www.writingforward.com/...onment-can-help-hinder-writing

2014 WriteLink freelance copywriting tips list environment writing

shared by John Lemke on 04 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • Are You Likely to be Interrupted?
  • What Can You Hear?
  • Are You Sitting Comfortably?
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • How Much Clutter Can You See?
  • What’s the Mood of Your Room Like?
  • Are Your Tools Good Ones?
  • Just imagine trying to write with a dried-up pen, where you have to keep stopping to go over too-faint words.
  • If your keyboard is fiddly to type on, if the software you’re using freezes or crashes, or if you’re struggling in some way against your tools, don’t put up with this: change it.
  • Are You Allowing Distractions In?
  • John Lemke on 04 Sep 14
     
    A good approach to looking at how your environment impacts your productivity. 
John Lemke

Color My World | The Word - 0 views

www.asja.org/...color-my-world

2014 writing WriteLink freelance copywriting tips writer

shared by John Lemke on 03 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • My trade magazine features can require up to dozen sources, which means many interviews and lots of quotes. Sometime early in my freelance life, I realized I needed a way to keep the sources and their material straight, especially during the cutting and pasting part of the editing process. The solution?  Type the notes from each interview in a different color.
  • The colors facilitate turning an overwhelming mishmash of perspectives, examples and quotes into a coherent article.
  • John Lemke on 03 Sep 14
     
    Some tips on how this author uses colors to keep her work straight.
‹ Previous 21 - 35 of 35
Showing 20▼ items per page