Derek Bodner’s Blog

MythBusters plans on doing an experiment to see if cockroaches could survive a nuclear holocaust. From the article:

The bugs will be watched over the next couple of weeks to see how soon they die.

Now, if they were a cute animal, PETA would be all over this. But since they’re generally disliked, you don’t hear a word about it.

Well, no. I hate DRM with a passion. I feel dirty just typing that subject.

However, early this week I got an e-mail from the fsf (Free Software Foundation), which can be read in its entirety here.

Just as music companies do not like MP3-formatted audio because people can share it, they do not like free video formats like Ogg Theora, because it would allow people to save and share their videos. But, as with audio DRM schemes, video DRM schemes not only prevent sharing, they take control of your computer and data, and prevent you from doing any of the normal activities that have traditionally been done with VCR tapes and DVDs: the ability to sample, to copy the movie onto a disk or tape, and to move it onto another computer or portable video device. Giving up control of your computer and software is unnecessary, and there exist free software and open formats that not only respect your freedom to do what you want with your computer and your data, but they are also technically superior to their proprietary counterparts.

I loathe when I purchase a song through an online vendor and find out it’s DRM encrypted junk, or when you purchase a crippled CD/DVD. I have purchased these songs, and I absolutely should be able to play them how and where I want to. Preventing me from doing so does restrict my freedom to use the media I purchased.

But I swear sometimes we just make blank statements and leave it at that. DRM is bad! DRM removes your freedom! With netflix you’re not buying the video. You’re paying for a service, which allows you to download the movie and watch it instantly. But just like conventional netflix, you don’t own this DVD. You don’t get to keep it. You don’t get “normal activities that have traditionally been done with VCR tapes and DVDs” because you haven’t purchased the DVD. You cannot expect to pay $4.95/month and be able to download and keep movies. There is no business model where that would be a viable solution. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. If you want to actually own the movies, and get the “normal activities that have traditionally been done with VCR tapes and DVDs”, then you should purchase the DVD, not a subscription.

Conversely, Yahoo Music and a Napster subscription is not purchasing the music. “Freedom” does not mean I should be able to pay $9.95 for one month, download as much music as comcast will allow me, cancel my subscription, and “own” all the music I “purchased”. I paid for the subscription, not for the music.

When I purchase a movie online, I should be able to download it DRM free, and do with it as I please. When I purchase a CD at a store, it should come in a format I have control over. Likewise, when I go to Napster and purchase a song for $.99, I should have complete freedom over the use of it. But when I purchase a subscription, like Napster, Yahoo Unlimited, or Netflix, I am not purchasing the Music/DVD. I am purchasing the right to watch it. Believe it or not, I do believe there is a place for DRM. Do I think it’s often times used used unethically? Yes (*cough*Sony Rootkit*cough*). Is it often times misused on media I have bought? Yes. Do the DRM-technologies suck? Yes. But are there times when it is appropriate, times where I haven’t purchased the music/DVD and don’t get the rights to the “normal activities that have traditionally been done with VCR tapes and DVDs”? Yes.

Yesterday my boss brought his dog into work for the day. The dog’s a golden lab pup, and for some reason just really livened up the day. I started wondering about why this is, and this is the conclusion I took from it.

In my opinion, we tend to overcomplicate our lives. “In order to be happy, this has to happen in my career”. I think a lot of times people tend to spend their lives thinking about what they want people to think, moreso than what they actually want. As long as our outward appearance is that we’re successful, and hardworking, and “amazing” in our field, we’ll be happy. We spend so much time worrying about what we don’t have that we end up not appreciating what we do have. You see it all the time, where celebrities end up not being happy. Success doesn’t make one happy if the road to success isn’t happy. And that’s how I try to base my life. Sure, I take my work seriously. I’m on call 24/7, so I’m never truly “away”. But when I get home, and see my family, that’s what I’m concentrating on. That’s what’s important to me. I don’t want to sit at home and be worried about the project I’m going to have to work on tomorrow when I get in. I want to enjoy the time I have with the people I love.

And that’s what’s refreshing about dogs. They remind you of that. You watch a dog, and all he cares about is the joy he gets from being with you. You watch him wag his tail and bark when you leave the room, and jump up at you when you walk back in. The simplicity in their exuberance is refreshing, and something our culture of “if you’re not being productive, you’re being unproductive” has forgotten.

Today I was sitting at work and my phone rang, and on the Caller ID it was listed as being for a 1800 number I have. I previously had my own business, which I stopped doing about 2 years ago. I retained this number, but it hasn’t been published or in use since that time.

So when I got the call to that number, I ignored it and let it go to the answering machine I have setup for that number, because I know anyone calling there has to have a wrong number. So I get an e-mail alert that I have a new voicemail. She was “returning my phone call about the foreclosure I called her about”, and asked if I could return her call. Whatever, I ignore it. Five minutes later she calls again, this time giving me her social security number to boot.

Keep in mind, the message I have for this phone number clearly states who I am, and what my business is. If you’re paying attention to the message, you’ll know that I had an internet company (webhosting and development at the time), and nothing to do with foreclosures.

So not only did she have the wrong number, and not only was she not paying attention AT ALL, but she then proceeded to give me her name and social security number without even giving it a second thought.

I wish I could say this was an isolated incident. How freely people are willing to give up this kind of information is really disturbing. No wonder identity theft is as rampant as it is.

I’m not really one that’s much for “web 2.0″ apps. I prefer a desktop e-mail client. I don’t like to edit my spreadsheets in google docs, I’d much rather use OO.o, gnumeric, or even Microsoft Office. I find vendor lockin to these “apps” to be far worse than for desktop apps, and most of the times they don’t have the functionality I want. I do feel that Web2.0 apps have a place and a need, even in my warped sense of the world, however. They should be there to enhance desktops apps moreso than replace them.

E-mail’s the best example of this. With an IMAP account, I can access my e-mail from anywhere, while still maintaining the customizability of how I want to view it to the desktop client. There are countless Thunderbird extensions I can use to customize the look and feel, and even the functionality of the app if my needs change. A webmail interface can never replace a desktop e-mail client for me. Even if I find one that has ALL the functionality I want, and that has a good enough look, feel, and notification that I can use it to replace a desktop app, the vendor lockin kills it for me. While if Thunderbird development gets stale I can quickly switch over to evolution or any other client that support IMAP. If gmail development gets stale, there’d be a much more significant resistance to move.

However, as I said, there is a place for Web2.0 apps. While I want to use a desktop email client on the computers I work at daily (desktop, laptop, work computer), having a good web interface that fits my needs is also a great thing in case I’m on the road and have to borrow someone’s computer. I could dig gmail, if it was a fallback option. But since gmail doesn’t allow IMAP connections, it’s not of much value to me.

RSS is another one of those “Web2.0″ (I hate that phrase) apps that I’ve been fighting with. I like using Thunderbird (or various other desktop RSS readers I’ve tried) moreso than the web applications I tried, but it gets extremely hard when you’re using so many computers, as keeping them in sync gets to be tedious. For a while I used a heavily-modified feeds on feeds (before fofredux started) which somewhat satisfied me, but I ended up not checking it very often, and when I would go to read the articles, there would be too many and I’d end up ignoring them (RE: mark all as read without actually looking at any). What I ended up doing was going back to a desktop reader, and only really running one at work.

Today I decided to take another look, and looked at Google Reader (http://www.google.com/reader) and Bloglines Beta (http://beta.bloglines.com). I think I’ve finally found something I can live with.

I didn’t care too much for Google Reader. It didn’t feel all that snappy, and the interface just isn’t there. I do like being able to star items and read it later (saving into the “Starred items” folder), but that alone wasn’t enough to win me over. I’ve just never been a fan of Google’s interface for things, but overall the product seemed usable.

Then I tried Bloglines Beta. Most of the features are probably “inspired” by Google Reader, but it feels better implemented. The new start page is a great timesaver, the folder layout on the left hand navigation seems crisper, and the AJAX is actually useful.

There are two main gripes I have, but I think I’m going to continue to use this (for the time being at least). First, I’d like to be able to view all unread, which doesn’t currently exist in bloglines beta. Well, it could work, but you’d have to put all your feeds in one folder, which takes away the primary purpose of the folders. Second, there’s a 3rd party desktop notification I found for gnome (and subsequently xfce) based desktops, which works fine. But it only tells you when you have unread feeds (and how many). I’d like something like checkgmail, which will give you a quick synopsis of what messages are unread. Just getting the notification is fine, but I’d like a little more.

Well, if you consider what we witnessed down at the Wachovia Center last night basketball.

There was a lot of bad, with a little bit of good sprinkled in. I’ll try to touch on a few random thoughts.

• Lou Williams really looks like he can score at this level. His range has improved tremendously since he came into the league, and that step back jumper of his he can get off at any time. The key for him will be keeping his turnovers down. It sure would be nice to get him some time so we can see what we have to work with in the future, but….
• I don’t think he can play at the same time with Andre Miller in the backcourt. It would be nice, as right now I’d much rather start Williams over Green (whom we know to be mediocre, at best), but neither Williams or Miller can defend shooting guards.
• When Carney hits shots, he can give you something offensively. When he’s off….2 rebounds (and one of them was in the final two minutes of the game)? How can you be 6′7″, play 38 minutes, and come down with 2 rebounds? With his length and athleticism, that’s unacceptable. Having both him and Korver getting major minutes would really put us on a disadvantage on the boards.
• I like Thad Young. He’ll contribute this year. Maybe not be a difference maker at this stage of his career, but he’ll contribute. He’s all hustle, and hits the boards better than I thought he would. You can tell the potential’s there, as he does have range and a quick first step. But he just turned 19 this summer, and it’ll be a few years before we see that potential realized. But with his physical skills, hustle, and apparent smarts, he’ll get there. Until that time he’s a hustle player, which with his length, quickness, and effort, he could be a good one at that.
• Speaking of Thad, his ball handling is brutal. Literally an adventure every time. At this stage of his career, he should be a spot-up jumpshooter and cutter. Unfortunately he doesn’t move all that much without the ball. That’s something that should come with experience, though.
• Jason Smith I’m extremely torn on. I’m trying to like him. I’m trying to be upbeat about him. I certainly liked the selection on draft night when it happened. Extremely mobile, strong, legit 7 footer with range and a quick first step? What’s not to like? Seeing him play in the summer league and again last night, and I do say I have some fears. He has a great first step, but doesn’t seem to be able to finish well. He’s got short arms, a low release point on his drives, and doesn’t get much elevation (seems to be a better two-footed jumper than one-footed jumper). Not good. The low release point is the most troublesome. He got rejected on a turnaround fadaway last night. That should never happen. If he can’t finish on his drives, I’m not sure his athleticism is going to translate that well to the NBA. It just seems like his strengths (7 footer, quick, strong) aren’t taken advantage of (short arms, low release point, doesn’t hold ground well). Hopefully that’s correctable.
• For that matter, we don’t seem to have anyone that can finish down low. Smith and Amundson seem to have the habit of bringing the ball down to their side on drives. Carney, Iguodala and Young don’t have the body control to finish a high percentage of contested shots. Williams can finish in the paint, and Randolph could a little, although it’s yet to be seen if he can post injury. Reggie Evans shouldn’t touch the ball on offense unless it’s an offensive rebound.
• Willie Green….eh, I’ll touch on that later. I’ll have all season to complain about him if he continues to start.
• I liked Byars at the draft, thought he was a great value pick. He hasn’t done anything to distinguish himself since then though. He might have trouble making the roster. Although….
• Just a hunch, I think Kevin Ollie’s the odd man out. I think the Sixers really want to give Lou Williams a chance to get some experience, and I think they want to do so at PG. That means getting the minutes Ollie did last year. Not that I mind, as I really want to see Herbert Hill and Shavlik Randolph make the team.
• The food down there was terrible. I bought a “pizza” (they used to be small personal pizza’s, now it’s a slice) that looked to be about 3 hours old. The sauce wasn’t even sauce any more, it was completely hard. What’s worse, the service was terrible. Rude and slow.
• Hip-hop did his thing where they shoot t-shirts into the stands. He shot one into an empty section. Literally. A kid two sections over ran over and got it.
• The fans that were there were very into it. There were a lot of kids, which I’m sure had a lot to do with it, but they get an A+ in my book.
• This isn’t new, as they were doing it last year too, but there’s just far too much going on (visually) anymore. Between the jumbotron, and the ads going around the arena, it’s like a lights show, and really gets distracting in my opinion.
• I didn’t see one appearance of the 76ers dance team

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Link to Story

That is when Masters allegedly delivered “a backhanded punch to the chest” and took off running, police said.

“That made her mad,” Gibbs recalled.

The woman, who was uninjured, jumped in her car and called police as she chased Masters. He was arrested minutes later.

Farmington Police Chief Rick Baker said the two incidents taken separately equaled two misdemeanors: shoplifting and minor third-degree assault. Together, they make for second-degree robbery, a class B felony, defined in state law as forcibly stealing property. The amount of force and the amount of property does not matter.

I don’t know, this just seems wrong to me. You take two misdemeanors, combine them together, and now you’re facing 30 years to life? The amount stolen and amount of force aren’t taken into the equation? So you’re telling me stealing a diamond after beating a guy unconscious carries the same weight as someone who stole a doughnut, panicked, and pushed aside a lady?

Please. The punishment certainly does not fit the crime (unless there’s something drastic that’s being left out of the story.