http://fgault.com/blog Frederick Gault Pontificates Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:41:21 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Is making a copy of a digital movie theft? How do content creators get paid for their work in the digital era? These questions have polarized people into roughly two groups; The status-quo group is of the opinion that people who don't pay for digital content are “thieves”, ... http://fgault.com/blog/2012/02/04/the-copyright-bruhaha/ Hello, We've had the most incredible three days in recent memory!  Our friend and host Gerard not only lives in the most mellow place I've ever been, but he also loves to cook and bake and eat in the Tuscan style.  We've sucked down life-changing wines, packed away cheese, prochuttio, wild ... http://fgault.com/blog/2011/08/29/under-my-tuscan-sun/ Hello, We are sitting by the pool with Mt. Vesuvius (of Pompeii fame) glowering at us with dark menace just across the Bay of Naples. One burp and it would fry us where we sit, although I'm not sure the oily tourists grilling nearby in the brutal sun would even notice. Whoever ... http://fgault.com/blog/2011/08/23/vesuvius-burps-and-youre-fried/ Hello, Its a miracle that French people aren't keeling over dead in the streets from lung cancer! If a French person isn't smoking, (s)he is either tossing a smoldering butt into the street, stylishly poking a coffin nail into his or her mouth, blowing smoke into someone's face (preferably a non-smoking ... http://fgault.com/blog/2011/08/17/paris-smokers/ Hi, Edinburgh, Scotland is a beautiful city with much of its medieval architecture intact.  We arrived to celebrate our 25th anniversary of wedded bliss - for you see we were married in Edinburgh and haven't been back since.  By coincidence we were there for The Military Tattoo (a bunch of marching ... http://fgault.com/blog/2011/08/11/a-wee-dram-for-mary-queen-of-the-scots/ Hello again, In the pouring English rain we tramped to the British Museum.  I had a mental image of myself quietly posing before The Rosetta Stone as my lovely wife took a snap.  The reality was closer to being stomped to death in a mosh pit during a Sex Pistols concert. ... http://fgault.com/blog/2011/08/06/london-calling/   Hello, There something sobering about looking over the railing of one of the world's largest ships (The Queen Mary 2) as "The Commodore" announces that we are 500 miles from the nearest land and The Titanic lies moldering roughly 3 miles below us. We are 4 days into a 7-day crossing ... http://fgault.com/blog/2011/08/01/steaming-over-the-titanic/ So we get to New York, see. I always want a "New York" moment, you know when someone yells something like: "Yo, Vinee, dis mook wants a cawfee ovah heah." or the like. We didn't have long to wait!  Picture this: Penn Station, first we help a fellow passenger who fell ... http://fgault.com/blog/2011/08/01/new-yawk-fugittaboutit/ We grabbed a cab - at the crack of the Miami dawn - driven by a Russian guy who had thick Mr. Magoo glasses that magnified his eyes to the size of saucers.  I was flailing my arms wildly in the back seat holding up the iPhone map and shouting ... http://fgault.com/blog/2011/07/17/from-miami-to-savannah-3rd-world-style/ Hello, I know by now that you are frantic, searching the intertubes for word of our status. Rest easy 'cause here is a SitRep: After being stripped down by the TSA then unceremoniously stuffed into a titanium cylinder and propelled at un-natural speeds through the clouds, we arrived in Miami. We are ... http://fgault.com/blog/2011/07/11/miami-beach-jurassic-reptiles/