user: Thursday’s business agenda

Artisan’s Asylum Inc., a community makerspace, is holding seven classes to teach students the basics of Web design. The last class will take place Thursday and will have the theme of an “Overview of Useful Frameworks and JavaScript Libraries.” Thursday, 9:30 p.m., Artisan’s Asylum, 10 Tyler St., Somerville. $195 to $235.

Last week, the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 4.02 percent, up from 4 percent the week before. New numbers are scheduled to be released Thursday morning.

Last month, the Labor Department reported that the US unemployment rate rose to 5.5 percent in May, up from 5.4 percent in April. New numbers will be released Thursday morning.

Transitions in Stride LLC is holding a workshop to teach students the roles of body language, using a peaceful setting, and horses. Thursday, 9 a.m. to noon, Transitions in Stride, 117 Poor Farm Road, New Ipswich, N.H. $75.

Stock markets in the United States will be closed Friday — a chance for many people to get a jump on the Fourth of July weekend celebrations.

Summary: Web design, mortgage rates, and more notable events and things to know.


The user-hostile FT

John Gruber wrote the definitive article about “Tynt, the Copy/Paste Jerks,” back in May. Tynt is the company which adds what Gruber quite rightly calls “a bunch of user-hostile SEO bullshit” to your clipboard every time you copy text from a website; most of the time that text comprises a unique link back to the post in question.

In the annals of Tynt-based user hostility, however, I suspect that FT.com has now won some kind of prize. For one thing, their addition comes before, not after, the text you’re trying to copy. And what’s more, it actually tells you that you’re in breach of the website’s terms and conditions. Here’s an example:

Please use the link to reference this article. Do not copy & paste articles which is a breach of FT.com’s Ts&Cs (www.ft.com/servicestools/help/terms) and is copyright infringement. Send a link for free or email ftsales.support@ft.com to purchase rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f01e34f0-f5a9- 11df-99d6-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=rss#i xzz161RfBYUK

Hilariously, even the FT’s own journalists are falling foul of this idiocy: on Thursday, in his Markets Live conversation, Neil Hume wound up pasting text onto the FT’s website saying that he was infringing the FT’s copyright. “Sorry,” he then added. “Damn disclaimer.”

It’s pretty clear that the FT doesn’t want people like me linking to them. Their Money Supply blog, for instance, after disappearing behind the paywall in June, linked to me this morning. But I don’t know what they said, because even when I paste the headline (”Would €90bn be enough for Ireland?”) into Google and click on the Google link—something which works with most FT stories—I still run into that paywall.

Meanwhile, the FT’s terms and conditions page gives me very strict instructions on exactly what I must—yes, they use the word “must”—do if I want to link to their stories:

These are the conditions you must comply with in order to produce summaries:

- you source FT as the author of any article from which you have derived a summary by way of an attribution such as “[journalist name] at the Financial Times reported that”, with a hypertext link from the word “Financial Times” to the original story published on FT.com.

And at the bottom of every story, the FT now adds this note:

You may share using our article tools. Please don’t cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.

Which seems to me to basically say “don’t blog this article.”

All of which makes me agree with Matt Yglesias that there’s increasingly no point in subscribing to the FT any more. If I want to pay for the privilege of passively receiving their words of wisdom, that’s fine. And if I want to use their article-sharing tools to drive my friends into the FT paywall in an FT-approved manner, then they’re OK with that as well. But if I want to use incredibly simple and obvious ways of sharing what I’m reading—copy-and-paste, email, blogs—then the FT’s now telling me quite aggressively that I’m some kind of criminal and should just stop what I’m doing and go away.

What I don’t understand is what the FT hopes to achieve with all this user-hostile aggression. It obviously doesn’t garner any goodwill from its readers or subscribers. And it’s hardly going to get extra marginal subscriptions by telling us not to link to it or publicize its content. All I can imagine is that it’s retreating to a newsletter model, where subscribers get value not only from the content itself but also from its exclusivity: they pay for subscriptions precisely because other people don’t have one and therefore can’t read the articles. It’s a sad and narrow fate for what should be a proud and global newspaper.

Summary: John Gruber wrote the definitive article about Tynt, the Copy/Paste Jerks, back in May.


Is Adele Settling in SoCal? Singer Sells Seaside Villa in the UK

Top-selling singer Adele, who took up residence stateside in a 6,600-square-foot Beverly Hills, CA, abode in June, has sold her seaside villa near Brighton in the United Kingdom for about $3.7 million, Variety reports.

Adele and her significant other, Simon Konecki -- they have a 4-year-old son, Angelo -- bought the art deco -- style home in 2012 for $3.28 million. Reports say the two-story house features a double-height atrium, open floor plan, seaside terrace, and four bedrooms.

The house sits on "Millionaire's Row," a stretch of beach where Heather Mills, Sir Paul McCartney's ex, once lived. Other British celebs that have owned property nearby include "EastEnders" actor Nick Berry and sketch comedian David Walliams.

And although she still owns a couple of homes in Kensington, West London, The Sun reports the singer is ready to spend most of her time in Southern California and leave the cold climes of her homeland behind.

The Grammy winner bought her place in exclusive Beverly Hills for $9.5 million earlier this year from producer Don Mischner. Her neighbors include Jennifer Lawrence, Ashton Kutcher, and Mila Kunis. The singer has been touring the U.S. this summer, playing sold-out shows which have drawn a bit of criticism, not for her singing -- but her talking.

Summary:

assistant: Singer Adele, who took up residence in Beverly Hills, CA, in June, has sold her seaside villa near Brighton in the U.K. for $3.7 million. The post Is Adele Settling in SoCal? Singer Sells Seaside Villa in the UK appeared first on Real Estate News and Advice - realtor.com.