The whole South Ossetia debacle in late August got me thinking about when it should be considered acceptable for a part of a country to secede and the rest of the world should back them up. What criteria should be applied in order to lead to other nations to step in and support the cessation. Various groups these days claim differences based on culture (Quebec) or religion (Kashmir). But is that simply enough?
Pretty much every group that wants to leave a country is because they are a minority when it comes to power and they simply don't like the way things are done. That's fine, but isn't that just tough? I mean there will always be a minority in any society along any metric you decide to measure people. And people tend to cluster around like-minded people, so finding pockets of minority groups in a country is not difficult.
But when a group of people are not only not being allowed to self-rule but are having their basic beliefs trampled upon by other people in a fundamental way, then I can understand splitting off. If you lived in a country that did not allow you to practice your religion or speak your cultural tongue at home, I could understand wanting to leave. Oppression of basic rights is wrong and shouldn't be allowed. And if letting a chunk of a country rule themselves is easier than forcing a country to behave, then so be it.
But wanting to break away just because you disagree doesn't seem to justify it. If you don't identify with the majority of the populace, then you either need to learn to deal with the fact you are not going to get your way or you might need to move to a place where your views are more appreciated.
Take Quebec. The Quebecois say they want to break away from Canada because of cultural differences. But in no way are their basic rights being trampled on that allow the Quebecois to be their own cultural group. Canada is a bilingual country to accomodate them; packaging of goods here are bilingual to make Quebec happy. No one has prevented the speaking of French. No one is forcing the Quebecois to identify with some other group in order to stay in this country.
Should Canada let them secede? I say not unless they are more trouble than they are worth. Luckily the Quebecois only try to break away politically. Other groups around the world, though, are not as civil and end up starting fights and can even being to enforce their own laws that go against the country's laws. In those cases, the instigators are breaking the law and should be punished under the nation's laws. Forcing yourselves to not be worth it through violence is not going to make anyone want to support you. But if the group is just whining, running their own false elections, etc., I say leave them alone. They are not hurting anyone so who cares. If they want to try to play a global version of House then so be it.
But you might be thinking I don't understand since I am not part of a minority in another country. Fine, then let's allow every ethnic and religious group that lives in a geographically central location to become their own country if they so desire. How many new countries would that lead to? Would entire nations cease to exist because they got so chopped up that they couldn't sustain themselves independently? Wouldn't then wars come about to take over these newly shrunk nations? It just sounds like chaos.
To sum up, if a group of people are not having their fundamental rights trampled on (and if you really want to attack me with the whole "what are fundamental rights?" question, then let's go with what the UN says) and the country the people live in will not straighten out, then let them secede. But otherwise the group should learn to live within the country they are at or consider moving to a place where there views are more agreed upon.
Showing posts with label rant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rant. Show all posts
2008-06-18
Are all good parents hypocrites?
The title of this blog post might seem harsh, but I think it is in general true and is not a bad thing. Typically parents want what is best for their children, which is usually better than what they had. This extends to not just one's situation in life but also personality.
We tend to pick up our parents' personality traits over the years. Because of this, parents often times try to train out the traits they feel are bad. But if you picked the trait up from your parent, doesn't that typically lead to your parent doing something that they have been trying to teach you not to do?
The perfect example of this is one of my father's favorite phrases: "do as I say, not as I do". That statement means he is being a hypocrite. But since he is trying to get me to do something "better" than what he does, is that such a bad thing? I know it is infuriating to kids when they catch their parents being hypocrites, but they have the benefit of hindsight as to what in their personality has been good or bad, but quite possibly lack the ability to ditch the trait themselves. Parents who try to improve their children might just inherently have to be hypocrites.
We tend to pick up our parents' personality traits over the years. Because of this, parents often times try to train out the traits they feel are bad. But if you picked the trait up from your parent, doesn't that typically lead to your parent doing something that they have been trying to teach you not to do?
The perfect example of this is one of my father's favorite phrases: "do as I say, not as I do". That statement means he is being a hypocrite. But since he is trying to get me to do something "better" than what he does, is that such a bad thing? I know it is infuriating to kids when they catch their parents being hypocrites, but they have the benefit of hindsight as to what in their personality has been good or bad, but quite possibly lack the ability to ditch the trait themselves. Parents who try to improve their children might just inherently have to be hypocrites.
2008-02-16
Why I don't hold on to memorabilia
I originally sketched out this post after I visited my mother during winter break but I didn't get around to actually writing the thing until now (partially because I forgot I had not written it).
I spent most of my visit with my mother helping her clean out her garage in preparation for moving. There was stuff in that garage from my mother's childhood up to that month, so you can grasp the amount of memorabilia that was in there.
But as I helped my mother clean up, I also cleaned out the stuff my mother had been holding on to. I ended up tossing a very large amount of stuff, some to my mother's horror (e.g., all of my high school yearbooks).
Why would I do such a thing? One might think I am not sentimental, which is not entirely true (although I am definitely not THAT sentimental in general). One is that my memory is pretty good. I know Meesh and various friends have been spooked by some of the details that I can remember about conversations. And this can extend a decent distance back through history. This means that I typically do not need memorabilia in order to remember an event that took place in my life. Usually I just need someone to mention something and I can remember most of the event.
And typically a photo works just as well for me to remind me of what happened than some bulkier object. The great things about photos is that they take up hardly any space and are easy to organize. I can snap away with my camera, download the photos to my computer, and print out the ones I truly like for posterity. Maybe I will go as far as to create a life poster at some point that I update on a yearly basis. At this point I have (or plan to) frame photos from significant trips I have taken and put them up on the wall.
Besides, shouldn't we be trying to minimize the amount of space one takes up in this world? Ignoring the ecological impact of the space one takes up, it just makes economic sense. Typically the smaller the space the cheaper it is compared to places to live in the same area. So you can either save money or live in a nicer neighborhood. This is especially important in a place like SF where housing prices continue to be ridiculous.
And most people, I think, typically only look at memorabilia once in a long while. Usually one is either cleaning up, a story is told, or some new member of the family needs filling in on someone's life history. Since the memorabilia is not pulled out constantly they should not be allowed to take up as much space and time most memorabilia takes up.
And this all applies to digital content as well to some extent. End up with too much stuff on your computer and you just can't find the stuff. You have to be disciplined and diligent to keep on top of the mass of files one accumulates over time.
In case this post didn't make it clear, I don't like holding on to stuff just for the slight possibility I will look at it, reflect for a moment, and then move on. I have moved too many times in my life to care to do that. I am sure people who have parents who still keep their first bedroom for them have a different feeling about all of this as they have not had to move all of that stuff at some point. But I have, and it is not fun. When you move almost yearly and only see certain things when you move you begin to realize that you are just shifting things around with no benefit to you for keeping that stuff. I am going to stick to photos and keep the amount of space that I take up in this world in terms of myself down for simplicity.
I spent most of my visit with my mother helping her clean out her garage in preparation for moving. There was stuff in that garage from my mother's childhood up to that month, so you can grasp the amount of memorabilia that was in there.
But as I helped my mother clean up, I also cleaned out the stuff my mother had been holding on to. I ended up tossing a very large amount of stuff, some to my mother's horror (e.g., all of my high school yearbooks).
Why would I do such a thing? One might think I am not sentimental, which is not entirely true (although I am definitely not THAT sentimental in general). One is that my memory is pretty good. I know Meesh and various friends have been spooked by some of the details that I can remember about conversations. And this can extend a decent distance back through history. This means that I typically do not need memorabilia in order to remember an event that took place in my life. Usually I just need someone to mention something and I can remember most of the event.
And typically a photo works just as well for me to remind me of what happened than some bulkier object. The great things about photos is that they take up hardly any space and are easy to organize. I can snap away with my camera, download the photos to my computer, and print out the ones I truly like for posterity. Maybe I will go as far as to create a life poster at some point that I update on a yearly basis. At this point I have (or plan to) frame photos from significant trips I have taken and put them up on the wall.
Besides, shouldn't we be trying to minimize the amount of space one takes up in this world? Ignoring the ecological impact of the space one takes up, it just makes economic sense. Typically the smaller the space the cheaper it is compared to places to live in the same area. So you can either save money or live in a nicer neighborhood. This is especially important in a place like SF where housing prices continue to be ridiculous.
And most people, I think, typically only look at memorabilia once in a long while. Usually one is either cleaning up, a story is told, or some new member of the family needs filling in on someone's life history. Since the memorabilia is not pulled out constantly they should not be allowed to take up as much space and time most memorabilia takes up.
And this all applies to digital content as well to some extent. End up with too much stuff on your computer and you just can't find the stuff. You have to be disciplined and diligent to keep on top of the mass of files one accumulates over time.
In case this post didn't make it clear, I don't like holding on to stuff just for the slight possibility I will look at it, reflect for a moment, and then move on. I have moved too many times in my life to care to do that. I am sure people who have parents who still keep their first bedroom for them have a different feeling about all of this as they have not had to move all of that stuff at some point. But I have, and it is not fun. When you move almost yearly and only see certain things when you move you begin to realize that you are just shifting things around with no benefit to you for keeping that stuff. I am going to stick to photos and keep the amount of space that I take up in this world in terms of myself down for simplicity.
2007-11-15
Blogs for historical reference of one's life is handy
Sony has a deal going that if you have bought two discs from a list of 12 you get another disc from the list for $3. I thought I had two of the discs (turns out I was wrong; I have Underworld, not Underworld Evolution), but I didn't remember what month I bought Casino Royale.
Well, a quick blog search revealed that I blogged about the purchase, letting me easily find the receipt. Guess I should mention purchases more often so that I can easily find their receipts as needed. =)
2007-06-24
Change your business model, don't resort to DRM
ComputerWorld has an article about how Vista's DRM scheme is easily broken when using virtualization (you don't need to know what that term means to understand my rant). Because of this, Microsoft has made it illegal to use Vista in a virtualized setting.
DRM (Digital Rights Management; the attempt to prevent you from copying DVDs, CDs, music files, etc.) is just a bad attempt at restricting the rights of consumers. The biggest issue with DRM is that coders will get around it. Nothing is perfect in computers and someone will always find a way around DRM. So it is a losing battle that the content providers are fighting.
So instead, they should accept defeat, stop spending all of this money trying to protect a broken technology (mostly through lobbying Congress to make breaking DRM illegal or suing people), and try to find a different way to make money. With the amount of time and money wasted so far I suspect they could have figured something out by now. That way consumers would never feel mad that personal use of something they bought would be considered illegal and the content providers would lose less money to piracy.
DRM (Digital Rights Management; the attempt to prevent you from copying DVDs, CDs, music files, etc.) is just a bad attempt at restricting the rights of consumers. The biggest issue with DRM is that coders will get around it. Nothing is perfect in computers and someone will always find a way around DRM. So it is a losing battle that the content providers are fighting.
So instead, they should accept defeat, stop spending all of this money trying to protect a broken technology (mostly through lobbying Congress to make breaking DRM illegal or suing people), and try to find a different way to make money. With the amount of time and money wasted so far I suspect they could have figured something out by now. That way consumers would never feel mad that personal use of something they bought would be considered illegal and the content providers would lose less money to piracy.
Various comments on stuff going on in the news
Salman Rushdie has been knighted. Unfortunately this has caused quite the raucous in Islamic countries thanks to the general dislike in the Muslim world of 'The Satanic Verses'. This dislike has gone so far as to cause Pakistan to invoke a UN resolution about countries broadening understanding.
Now, if the article's summary of the resolution is fair, then Pakistan is really grasping at straws. It seems hypocritical for any country that does not actively squash ant-religious rhetoric about ANY religion to throw a fit about a specific one. You know they would not be doing this if Rushdie wrote a book that people viewed as anti-Christian.
And Rushdie has written other books that were not viewed as anti-Muslim and have garnered awards. His body of work, I don't think, personifies an anti-Muslim view. And yet these people who seem upset act as if this knighthood was for this one book.
Moving on, Dick Cheney is a dick. =) His office is refusing to report what documents they have classified as secretive or declassified. They have also blocked inspection to make sure they are are following protocol to properly protect national secrets.
How could anyone think that the vice president's office is not part of the executive branch? He is the bloody vice president. Notice the "president" in the title? That means the executive branch! And I don't care if he sits in on the Senate. Claiming that exempts him is like saying I am not American because I am also a Canadian. Just because you are dual classified does not negate either classification! That is such a logical fallacy its ridiculous.
If he really doesn't think he is part of the executive branch I say take away his privileges that he gets from the executive branch. Let's see if that makes him happy.
God I hope they investigate this group when they are out of office. I can only imagine the amount of dirt that is going to turn up.
And the Doha round of talks are falling apart. Why? Because people love their farmers. Reuters says that the developing world is not willing to open up new export markets to the developed nations. But The Age claims that the US and EU are not willing to cut back on their agricultural subsidies to a reasonable level. I bet both sides are being stubborn.
I just don't get why people feel the need to subsidize farmers so much. I understand if it is to keep them afloat because other countries tax your exported crop so much. But if the tax goes away, then they have a much larger market. Are they worried that all farmers will go away within the country? I don't see that happening as some things just grow well in the US and can still be made cheaply thanks to not having to ship it as far. And if it is a worry that the US would not be able to support itself agriculturally, then I think some perspective is needed in terms of other dependencies we have that are much more concentrated and tougher to deal with (oil ).
Now, if the article's summary of the resolution is fair, then Pakistan is really grasping at straws. It seems hypocritical for any country that does not actively squash ant-religious rhetoric about ANY religion to throw a fit about a specific one. You know they would not be doing this if Rushdie wrote a book that people viewed as anti-Christian.
And Rushdie has written other books that were not viewed as anti-Muslim and have garnered awards. His body of work, I don't think, personifies an anti-Muslim view. And yet these people who seem upset act as if this knighthood was for this one book.
Moving on, Dick Cheney is a dick. =) His office is refusing to report what documents they have classified as secretive or declassified. They have also blocked inspection to make sure they are are following protocol to properly protect national secrets.
How could anyone think that the vice president's office is not part of the executive branch? He is the bloody vice president. Notice the "president" in the title? That means the executive branch! And I don't care if he sits in on the Senate. Claiming that exempts him is like saying I am not American because I am also a Canadian. Just because you are dual classified does not negate either classification! That is such a logical fallacy its ridiculous.
If he really doesn't think he is part of the executive branch I say take away his privileges that he gets from the executive branch. Let's see if that makes him happy.
God I hope they investigate this group when they are out of office. I can only imagine the amount of dirt that is going to turn up.
And the Doha round of talks are falling apart. Why? Because people love their farmers. Reuters says that the developing world is not willing to open up new export markets to the developed nations. But The Age claims that the US and EU are not willing to cut back on their agricultural subsidies to a reasonable level. I bet both sides are being stubborn.
I just don't get why people feel the need to subsidize farmers so much. I understand if it is to keep them afloat because other countries tax your exported crop so much. But if the tax goes away, then they have a much larger market. Are they worried that all farmers will go away within the country? I don't see that happening as some things just grow well in the US and can still be made cheaply thanks to not having to ship it as far. And if it is a worry that the US would not be able to support itself agriculturally, then I think some perspective is needed in terms of other dependencies we have that are much more concentrated and tougher to deal with (
2007-04-17
Still feels weird to be considered a "celebrity" in the Python community
I am acting as a mentor in Google's Summer of Code again this year. For those of you who don't know what this is, basically Google pays students $4,500 over the summer to work on open source projects. This lets them program over the summer instead of work a fast food job or something. The hope is that they will enjoy the community they work with along with the altruistic nature of it that they will continue on with their work and get involved in open source.
Anyway, the student I am mentoring, Alexandre, has a a blog. He has a post about finding out that he was accepted for his GSoC project. The thing in the post that prompted this blog post is that he called me a "Python star developer". That was rather flattering!
Just one of those things, along with being recognized by people at PyCon and having people thank me for my work, that still surprises me. I hope I never grow accustomed to it as it is rather nice to have it put a smile on my face every time something like this happens.
Anyway, the student I am mentoring, Alexandre, has a a blog. He has a post about finding out that he was accepted for his GSoC project. The thing in the post that prompted this blog post is that he called me a "Python star developer". That was rather flattering!
Just one of those things, along with being recognized by people at PyCon and having people thank me for my work, that still surprises me. I hope I never grow accustomed to it as it is rather nice to have it put a smile on my face every time something like this happens.
2007-04-01
I hate April Fool's (and that is not a joke)
I just marked all of my RSS feeds as read instead of trying to sort through them to tell which ones were real and which ones were faked as jokes. I basically consider today a total wash in terms of online news short of what I get from Google News.
2007-03-30
Trying not to scratch my PS3 itch
I miss playing video games. Being a Mac user means that PC games are basically out (I could dual boot, but I don't want to plus my current Mac is not powerful enough to play any games). For me, games fall into that space between reading and watching a movie; they are not totally passive but they don't require a ton of deep thinking. I enjoyed them immensely as a kid and I have been an avid gamer on and off throughout my life. I would not mind being a gamer again.
Originally as was going to get a Wii. But lately I have been reconsidering getting a PS3 thanks to some conversations I have had with Jeff. Anyway, me being me, I feel like writing down the various reasons I am interested in the PS3 and Wii, and why I won't get an XBox 360.
PS3
Pros
Wii
Pros
XBox 360
Con
So the Wii has its scarcity and carpal-tunnel threat holding it back. The XBox 360 has its creator as a drawback. The PS3 has its price as its troublemaker. In other words the PS3 is winning and now I just need to see if I can convince myself to spend the cash. =)
Originally as was going to get a Wii. But lately I have been reconsidering getting a PS3 thanks to some conversations I have had with Jeff. Anyway, me being me, I feel like writing down the various reasons I am interested in the PS3 and Wii, and why I won't get an XBox 360.
PS3
Pros
- Cool technology. The console has some rather neat pieces of tech in it. Suffering from technolust like I do, I appreciate it when a device uses great tech for the right reasons. The controllers are Bluetooth, for instance, which is great since I have been complaining that all remotes for devices should be Bluetooth for a couple of years now. It might also let me use my Bluetooth devices that I have for my cell phone. And the Cell processor in the PS3 seems well-designed.
- Linux. The bloody thing can dual boot with Linux! Sony supporting Linux and alternative OSs on the device really hits home their desire to make the PS3 the center of your home entertainment system. Plus it allows for easy browsing of the web in the living room. Handy after you have watched a movie and you want to look stuff up on IMDb.
- PS2. The system supports backwards-compatibility with the PS2 which helps to flesh out its gaming library. Since I have never owned a PS2 I can easily look up what the classics are and start playing them at reduced price. I can finally find out what all the hub-bub about God of War is about.
- Networked games. A key thing with this interest in gaming again is to be able to play my friends down in the States. Both Bryan and Jeff game and I know Bem does on occasion. Channing does as well. To be able to do something with them while I am up here would be wonderful (assuming they got PS3s; Jeff at least has one).
- Blu-Ray. I have an HDTV. I want some HD content. With Canada not switching over to digitial TV broadcasting I really don't have anything to watch on my TV that truly makes use its resolution. Blue-Ray movies would let me. Plus I enjoy movies enough that I know I want an HD movie format.
- Blu-Ray. This is a pro and a con. With Blu-Ray competing with HD-DVD still, I don't know which format is going to win in the end. I think Blu-Ray will win the format war, but there is no guarantee. It would suck to have a machine that they stopped making discs for.
- Expensive. The thing ain't cheap. I know Sony has tried to justify the cost by pointing out that the system includes a Blu-Ray player and that it is designed to be the center of your home entertainment system. But it's still expensive. =) I have the money in the bank, but I always have to fight with myself while I am a college student to spend US$600 on something like this. Granted it should last me several years, but still.
- Cell. The cool piece of tech is also a painful one. Because the system is multi-processor it makes developing for it difficult. That means that it will take a while for developers to learn how to program for the machine. Heck, they may never learn until the system is obsolete. But then again, the entire computing industry is being forced into this kind of development thanks to Intel and AMD, so I suspect the game developers will learn fast.
Wii
Pros
- Cheap. $250 is definitely less than $600.
- Active. The system promotes movement. That's a good thing in a town like Vancouver where you are stuck indoors most days for half the year.
- Networked gaming unknown. No one knows how well the networking support will work out on the platform. I am sure Nintendo will have something, but who knows when.
- Not a hardcore gamer's platform. The Wii just does not have games like Resistance and F.E.A.R. on it since it is meant for the family. That's kind of a bummer.
- Carpal-tunnel. Things changed for me when I got carpal-tunnel two summers ago. I worry that the added motion that the Wii asks for with the remote might aggrevate my carpal-tunnel. Now I really doubt this as the system seems to promote full arm movement but you never know. I do know Bryan has told me that you can't play the system for more than 40 minutes until you get tired. But having an artificial restriction placed upon me like that just seems crappy.
- Lack of HD support. The Wii only supports 480p as output. That's a bummer when your TV supports up to 1080i. As I said in the pros of Blu-Ray, I want some HD input for my TV.
- You can't find the bloody thing. Nintendo really screwed up by not manufacturing enough of these things. And at least in Vancouver stores have gone weeks without a shipment. And when they do come in there are only like 20 units and they sell out in under an hour. If you are not in the stores just plain lucky with when you call to check stock levels you are out of luck. And I have been out of luck since January. This has gotten really old.
XBox 360
Con
- It's an MS product. No matter how badly I would like to consider working for MS Research, MS products still morally upsets me. With the amount of crap info they spread about open source and Linux along with their anti-competitive practices, I still can't bring myself to be willing to work for the company (at the moment; hopefully they will change). And if I am not willing to work for a company I don't think I should buy their products.
So the Wii has its scarcity and carpal-tunnel threat holding it back. The XBox 360 has its creator as a drawback. The PS3 has its price as its troublemaker. In other words the PS3 is winning and now I just need to see if I can convince myself to spend the cash. =)
2007-03-19
What happens when you acclimate to the weather in Vancouver
- You spend a week in a sunny place where you only go outside for lunch and dinner and people still think you look tan compared to when you left.
- 12C (55F) is warm and calls for no jacket if there is no wind (otherwise you walk around with a light jacket unzipped).
- A completely overcast day
- Can be considered sunny because some of the clouds or white, fluffy clouds and thus are thinner than rain clouds and let me sunlight through.
- Your eyes actually hurt slightly in the morning from that extra bit of sunlight coming through those white, fluffy clouds.
- You skip work if the skies has some blue in it, knowing it could be weeks before this rare occurance happens again.
- You bother with an umbrella only if it is truly POURING rain outside.
- You bother with a hood only if it is pouring and you have to walk more than a couple of blocks.
- You own rain shoes.
- Snow is still novel when it is in your front yard.
- The novelty of snow wears off within a day when the city begins to shut down from the snow.
- Your girlfriend talks about wanting to take a trip to "find the sun".
- You can physically tell how much happier you are when there is sunshine (does not require blue sky, but that is a nice perk to get).
And the scary thing is all of this is true.
2007-02-07
The car industry and their weak arguments against fuel efficiency
The EU is workings towards enacting new CO2 emission standard for 2012. It's interesting to read the response from the car industry. Claiming that because people want "big, safe" cars that lower CO2 output could be bad is bogus. SUV sales have actually been on the decline. Plus the global warming movement at a large scale is a new thing and will end up taking hold. Not exactly forward-thinking on their part.
2007-02-05
The Super Bowl w/o the commercials
Turns out the Canadian broadcast of the Super Bowl does not have any US commercials unless you get the HD feed on certain cable channels. That's a big disappointment.
2007-02-02
Using "bcannon" as a username is becoming a burden
It seems there are at least two other people out in the world who have the name B. Cannon that cannot properly enter their email address into web forms or remember it correctly when they give it out to people. One of the people seems to use Kodak for printing services and some other online service. The other is a first grade teacher.
It happens every so often, but it is annoying when it does. I would consider getting a new Gmail account, but I am not sure if it is worth the hassle since that would be a pain for my Google Talk list along with my Blogger blogs. I guess I could just message everyone on Google Talk (online or not) and tell them to switch over. As for Blogger, I could add the new account as a fellow admin and just let my bcannon email address forward to some new Gmail account.
The problem is that "brettcannon" is not available. I could do "brett.a.cannon", but that just doesn't look as nice. Plus since I don't use my middle name people might have a harder time remembering.
The teacher thing is no big deal, but the sign-ups for services is really annoying. Hopefully it won't continue.
It happens every so often, but it is annoying when it does. I would consider getting a new Gmail account, but I am not sure if it is worth the hassle since that would be a pain for my Google Talk list along with my Blogger blogs. I guess I could just message everyone on Google Talk (online or not) and tell them to switch over. As for Blogger, I could add the new account as a fellow admin and just let my bcannon email address forward to some new Gmail account.
The problem is that "brettcannon" is not available. I could do "brett.a.cannon", but that just doesn't look as nice. Plus since I don't use my middle name people might have a harder time remembering.
The teacher thing is no big deal, but the sign-ups for services is really annoying. Hopefully it won't continue.
2007-01-19
The right way to do DRM
For those of you who have never heard of the acronym, DRM, it stands for Digital Rights Management. It is the technology put on files so that you are restricted with what you can do about it. The most widely known DRM software is Apple's FairPlay which they put on every song you buy from the iTunes Music Store. It makes sure that the songs you buy can only play on specific computers you say they can all while putting a cap on the number of computers that you give the okay for.
I personally don't like DRM. If I had my way nothing would restrict how I use the media I purchase. If I buy a song I feel like I should be able to use it wherever I want, not how Apple specifically wants me to. Same goes for DVDs, etc.
But the media companies, reprsented by the RIAA and the MPAA, don't like that. They prefer to restrict what you can do with the stuff you buy. The argument is that if they don't you will either freely share the media you buy with the whole world or you will steal it. There has also been arguments lately that DRM is there to make it so that you pay multiple times for the same thing (e.g., a movie) for each way you want to use it (e.g., on DVD, your iPod, your cell phone, etc.). I suspect both are true.
If the iTunes Music Store didn't sell stuff per song or so much cheaper than a full CD, I would always buys the original media since I can do more with CDs. But that is not the case so I use iTMS and allow myself to be locked into iTunes and my iPod (until I burn a copy to CD). But I would prefer to not have any restrictions.
I new company named streamburst has come up with an interesting way to help prevent theft while not forcing DRM on to the customer. They tack on a five second clip at the start of the media (all video at the moment) stating who bought it. That covers the shame aspect of theft. They also add a digital watermark so they can know who shared their media. That gives accountability.
But otherwise you are allowed to do what you want with it. I can burn the videos they have to DVD, put it on my iPod, whatever I want. I could even give the file to other people, but they would have to watch a video that states I bought it and it would be traceable to me. I think that is a very reasonable thing to do.
I personally don't like DRM. If I had my way nothing would restrict how I use the media I purchase. If I buy a song I feel like I should be able to use it wherever I want, not how Apple specifically wants me to. Same goes for DVDs, etc.
But the media companies, reprsented by the RIAA and the MPAA, don't like that. They prefer to restrict what you can do with the stuff you buy. The argument is that if they don't you will either freely share the media you buy with the whole world or you will steal it. There has also been arguments lately that DRM is there to make it so that you pay multiple times for the same thing (e.g., a movie) for each way you want to use it (e.g., on DVD, your iPod, your cell phone, etc.). I suspect both are true.
If the iTunes Music Store didn't sell stuff per song or so much cheaper than a full CD, I would always buys the original media since I can do more with CDs. But that is not the case so I use iTMS and allow myself to be locked into iTunes and my iPod (until I burn a copy to CD). But I would prefer to not have any restrictions.
I new company named streamburst has come up with an interesting way to help prevent theft while not forcing DRM on to the customer. They tack on a five second clip at the start of the media (all video at the moment) stating who bought it. That covers the shame aspect of theft. They also add a digital watermark so they can know who shared their media. That gives accountability.
But otherwise you are allowed to do what you want with it. I can burn the videos they have to DVD, put it on my iPod, whatever I want. I could even give the file to other people, but they would have to watch a video that states I bought it and it would be traceable to me. I think that is a very reasonable thing to do.
2007-01-12
The ignorant continue to influence schools
A school district in Seattle can't show An Inconvenient Truth without discussing an opposing view. Ugh. You would have thought the evolution fight would have proven something to school districts when it comes to religious people coming out to try to squash science that goes against their beliefs.
2006-12-17
Why is the dry cleaning industry technologically behind the times?
While the girlfriend is away for the holidays I am trying to be productive and get some long-standing errands done. This includes getting some dry cleaning done.
So, being a tech-savvy person that I am (and thus Time Magazine's Person of the Year) I hit up Google Maps and searched for [dry cleaner] near me (using square brackets to denote what you entered in a text box online is common convention). Unfortunately it only turned up one. But I gave them a call to see what ther hours are today. Would have found out had they answered the phone or had an answering machine tell me.
OK, let's try searching [dry cleaning]. That turned up one farther away, but still within walking distance. Called them and I eventually was redirected to a fax machine (which, by the way, has not happened to me in ages).
Now, had this been a couple years back I could have understood why people didn't have a personal web site for their small business. You had to register the domain, get hosting, and then design a web site. Several steps that someone who was not computer literate might be scared of.
But these days these steps are in a single package from companies who make it extremely simple to get online. Yahoo Small Business has been around for a while. Google now has Google Apps for Your Domain. Both provide a complete solutions package for getting you online, including simple tools to use to make a web site (to the point that you can do proverbial colour-by-numbers page building).
And cost is not an issue either. Google Apps for Your Domain just started charging $10/year to register a domain name. Google already gives free hosting of web pages when you use Google Page Creator (which comes with Google Apps for Your Domain). You also get Gmail and Google Calendar, and Google Talk for your domain. It is a complete package to get a small business online from nothing for $10/year!
So when these small businesses don't even have a single web page online listing their business, contact info, and hours, it doesn't bode well for them that I will take them my business.
So, being a tech-savvy person that I am (and thus Time Magazine's Person of the Year) I hit up Google Maps and searched for [dry cleaner] near me (using square brackets to denote what you entered in a text box online is common convention). Unfortunately it only turned up one. But I gave them a call to see what ther hours are today. Would have found out had they answered the phone or had an answering machine tell me.
OK, let's try searching [dry cleaning]. That turned up one farther away, but still within walking distance. Called them and I eventually was redirected to a fax machine (which, by the way, has not happened to me in ages).
Now, had this been a couple years back I could have understood why people didn't have a personal web site for their small business. You had to register the domain, get hosting, and then design a web site. Several steps that someone who was not computer literate might be scared of.
But these days these steps are in a single package from companies who make it extremely simple to get online. Yahoo Small Business has been around for a while. Google now has Google Apps for Your Domain. Both provide a complete solutions package for getting you online, including simple tools to use to make a web site (to the point that you can do proverbial colour-by-numbers page building).
And cost is not an issue either. Google Apps for Your Domain just started charging $10/year to register a domain name. Google already gives free hosting of web pages when you use Google Page Creator (which comes with Google Apps for Your Domain). You also get Gmail and Google Calendar, and Google Talk for your domain. It is a complete package to get a small business online from nothing for $10/year!
So when these small businesses don't even have a single web page online listing their business, contact info, and hours, it doesn't bode well for them that I will take them my business.
2006-12-16
Cards with gifts for the holidays
I am a phone person. When I want to talk to someone I tend to call (this does not necessarily apply if they are not in my timezone). This includes special days when cards are the traditional way of wishing someone well. Over the years I have tried to let people know that I much preferred to give them a nice phone call and see how they are then send some folded piece of stiff paper with a witty saying on it.
But some people, such as my mother, still prefer the card. She argues that it shows you care enough to go out and hunt a card down that you think fits that person. I can understand that and so I try to get my mother a card for those times that calls for one.
But what about cards that go with gifts? If you are not there it could be argued that they help take the place of a phone call. It allows you to not only identify who the gift was from but give a little note that you would have normally said had you been there.
But how about when you are there to present the gift? Is a card truly useful? The will know the gift is from you since you will tell them. And any message you would have delivered you can say yourself (assuming it isn't personal, but then again you can always give those messages in private later in the day).
We could even take this as far as they are bad for the environment. I can only imagine how much energy is used to make all of those cards that Hallmark makes. And this is not the trees that I am talking about as I am sure most cards are made from recycled paper. I am thinking of the actual power required to make that card and the environmental harm that power caused to be produced.
So, cards with gifts when you are not going to be there personally I can understand. But a card with a gift when you are there to hand it to them personally I think is wasteful.
Boy am I going to get some flack for this post. =)
But some people, such as my mother, still prefer the card. She argues that it shows you care enough to go out and hunt a card down that you think fits that person. I can understand that and so I try to get my mother a card for those times that calls for one.
But what about cards that go with gifts? If you are not there it could be argued that they help take the place of a phone call. It allows you to not only identify who the gift was from but give a little note that you would have normally said had you been there.
But how about when you are there to present the gift? Is a card truly useful? The will know the gift is from you since you will tell them. And any message you would have delivered you can say yourself (assuming it isn't personal, but then again you can always give those messages in private later in the day).
We could even take this as far as they are bad for the environment. I can only imagine how much energy is used to make all of those cards that Hallmark makes. And this is not the trees that I am talking about as I am sure most cards are made from recycled paper. I am thinking of the actual power required to make that card and the environmental harm that power caused to be produced.
So, cards with gifts when you are not going to be there personally I can understand. But a card with a gift when you are there to hand it to them personally I think is wasteful.
Boy am I going to get some flack for this post. =)
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