Chew on this RIAA

I don't do much file sharing. I once did, back in my Napster/Gnutella/LimeWire days but I've sort of lost interest in that whole scene lately. However, I wanted to listen to a few tunes at work recently and decided to download some music. Now I have two little confessions to make to the RIAA and all the RIAA sympathizers (whoever they may be).

1. Most of the music that I downloaded, probably 80%, was music that I already owned. According to copyright laws, this is unquestionably legal. I used peer-to-peer file sharing software to do my downloading. More importantly, those from whom I downloaded music were unquestionably NOT in violation of any copyright laws by simply allowing me to download copies of music I'd already purchased.

2. Some of the music that I did not own resulted in a CD purchase by a co-worker. She heard the tunes and said, "hey, I want that CD." So, the questionable music downloads directly resulted in product purchase. The co-worker would NEVER have heard this music if I had not been playing it at work and I would never have been playing it if I hadn't downloaded it via peer-to-peer software.

Is my experience typical of file sharing? No, probably not. However, it demonstrates the cracks in the philosophy of the Music Industry and hopefully shows "normal folks" that file sharing can be a very healthy experience for all interested parties.

posted by Eric J | 11:45 AM

Google has a subtle new look

Not completely sure what's different about Google but it has a slightly new look and the linked "dictionary" words are now on the right instead of the left of the page, at least in my Safari browser.

Not really commenting on anything specific, just noting that Google has changed a bit. Maybe to get ready for the big IPO or in preparation for Microsoft's big search effort?

posted by Eric J | 09:56 AM

Blogger TV

If Bloggers had a television channel there would NEVER be any reruns. Every show would be fresh, new and exciting. Just sitting here thinking about the number of television shows I no longer watch because they keep showing reruns. I loved "Insomniac" but I can't remember the last time I saw a first-run episode. So I quit watching it altogether. I used to watch the History channel but realized that just about every show was one they aired earlier that day, or the week before, or last month, etc. No more History channel.

The list could go on but you get the point. Start showing reruns and I'm not going to watch. Why do we even have reruns? Seriously. Late Night talk shows run five days a week and they rarely show reruns. Why can't a one night a week show at least put something original on 40 weeks out of the year? That's a whole 12 weeks off (if my math is correct).

There is something about the "blogger-mentality" that demands a lot of "fresh" content pumped out regularly. We need Blogger TV.

posted by Eric J | 11:36 PM

I love Lawrence Lessig

It was Lawrence Lessig's second book, The Future of Ideas that opened my eyes to the reality of copyrights in a digital world. His ideas motivated me to learn more about copyrights and intellectual property and to ultimately understand that the "old guard" (the RIAA, MPAA, Disney, etc.) are damaging creativity and innovation.

Lessig's new book, Free Culture is available free online but I'm going to buy the book just because I hate reading books on a computer. There is something very special about Mr. Lessig and I foresee the day when his work and ideas result in sweeping changes to the way the establishment handles intellectual property. At least, that's what I'm hoping.

posted by Eric J | 07:22 AM

Get MAMed

You know what MAME is right? The Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator allows you to play all those old arcade games right there on your PC. For FREE! I was really into MAME about four years ago but sort of lost interest. I liked the games and everything but I just didn't have the time to hunt around for them on mysterious Web sites.

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I went to see our friends. Lo and behold, they had an ultra-Boss MAME setup, right there on the PC. Dude had a real-deal arcade style control panel and I've included a couple of pictures to give you the idea.

Anyway, I played the game Journey, among others, and memories came flooding back. If I got one of those arcade control things I know I'd never use it, but I still want one.

posted by Eric J | 08:44 PM

Candidate for Jay Leno's "Headlines" segment?

Men's group finds kinship in wood (registration required).

posted by Eric J | 06:13 PM

An historical day

I came into work this morning and didn't have a single spam email in my inbox. That's never happened in the time I've worked here. I guess the spam-blocking software they're using is working... for now.

This is the way email was SUPPOSED to work.

posted by Eric J | 08:58 AM

Comment Spamming, Flaming and the Blacklist

Beginning yesterday I received my first official comment "flaming" on one of my MovableType blogs. Managing such malcontents is relatively simple in the MT environment so after allowing my eager friend to post nearly a hundred (could have been more, I quit counting) comments on the blog (yes, I know I'm too forgiving) I decided to ban his IPs (three of them at last count) from commenting. In true Flamer tradition the little fellow moved over here, to good ole webraw/blog, and resumed his (I guess the offender could be a female) comment flaming (I think I'm addicted to parenthesis). Veteran readers are aware that THIS blog is still powered by Blogger (which hasn't changed much in the two years I've been using it) and the comments are run by a simple PHP script and archived as a text file. And while the "dot comments" script I'm using does provide for IP banning, I believe I'd have to swap the installation and if I'm going to start reconfiguring things I might as well follow Moltz's lead and move webraw/blog to MT.

Leave it to some lame-ass comment flamer to finally force this blog into the arms of MT. The big downside of course is that I will lose all the existing comments (unless some bright coder has a solution). I guess I could still keep them up in some way but I probably won't. Anyway, while I'll be moving over to MT (finally), I won't be redesigning any time soon (it's staying wide so deal with it).

And, while on the subject of comment flaming, I've been receiving a steady increase in comment spam (you know, "Want a bigger..." or "Viagra for free.") and decided to install MT-Blacklist to help manage the spam (and subsequently any comment flamers). It was amazingly simple to install. I use it at work but the Unix geeks there wouldn't let me run the chmod so I wasn't sure how complicated the install may be. It is really, really simple and once it's installed, managing comments is MUCH easier than with plain MT. But of course, you already knew this.

Anyway, I won't give a timeframe for the blog switch but it will be soon... I hope.

PS: Speaking of comment flaming, has anyone had success with reporting offenders to their ISP? My latest headache is with Comcast and their abuse page is pretty straightforward. I guess we'll see what happens.

posted by Eric J | 10:46 PM

CARS is all NEW

Crazy Apple Rumors Site has a new look. It's also MT powered. Now reading those hillarious, fake Apple rumors is more fun than ever before. The site also has a couple of new features.
1. Comments. WooHoo! About damn time.
2. Search. You can now search for your favorite Apple rumor.

Props to Mr. Moltz for getting around to upgrading CARS. Maybe Apple will give it a mention on their Hot News? It could happen.

posted by Eric J | 11:32 AM

Patterned backgrounds. In or out?

I'm redisigning a site (not this one unfortunately) and am pretty much sold on using a squidfingers pattern but I'm wondering... are tricked out background patterns last year's "blink tag" or are they still in vogue? I'm so out of the Web design loop I just don't know any more. *Sigh*

posted by Eric J | 07:07 PM

Opens in a new window

Note to bloggers everywhere:

Do not EVER make your blogroll links open in a new window. Actually, don't do the whole "new window" thing at all unless you're popping up content on your OWN site. I can't tell you how many blogs I've come across and discovered that the list of "favorite blogs" is just a long list of links that open a new window for EVERY click.

Stop this now.

posted by Eric J | 09:16 PM

E-Stamps

Guess who likes the email stamp idea. That's right. Dr. Evil Himself.

posted by Eric J | 07:55 AM

My email Turing Test

I've got this wacky idea. True, most of my ideas are wacky but hang with me here and see if this makes sense.

Spam is a problem. No argument. Spam blockers are good but can be beaten by innovative spammers and I've yet to see spam blocking software work flawlessly, often letting obvious spam through while deleting genuine communications from legitimate sources. I prefer my spam blocking software to err on the side of caution by allowing more spam through because a single legit message that is wrongly deleted can cause a lot of problems (I've experienced this before).

My idea is based on some fundamental principles of modern society. Before we can drive we must pass a series of tests. Those who fail, don't get to drive. To participate in elections requires some level of literacy and the illiterate don't really get to vote (though I'm no authority on this so maybe they have picture voting for the severely illiterate).

My point is that society regularly asks individuals to meet certain requirements before participating in certain activities, either by law or just the way a society is constructed. It is that principle that I propose a sort of Turing Test requirement for emails. This would be primarily applied to personal emails but it could also be adapted for business correspondence as well.

Here's how it works. When you open your email program for the first time (either on install or your first login for a multi-user machine) you're presented with a little "workbook." The "workbook" explains how to compose the subject of an email so that the recipient KNOWS that it's not spam. For instance, if I send an email to my friend Bob from high school I would make the subject: "Hi Bob, this is Eric from Germantown High. Got a question about Noodles."

Now, when Bob gets that email he immediately knows that my message is NOT spam. Or, if I'm sending an email to someone I don't know I'd say something like, "Hi Anne, you don't know me but I went to school with your son, Billy." I've inserted something that a spambot wouldn't likely know about (her son's name) and she'll read my email.

I know your shaking your head and you're right. This won't reduce spam per se. However, it will be a step in the right direction and will certainly help to eliminate the problem of legit email getting trashed by spam blockers. Currently, if you send an email to someone with the subject line of "Hi" or "Hey, how are you?" then be sure it will never be read. And I guess this isn't really a Turing Test but it's sort of like one... in a way. The main point I'm making is that people need to put some thought into how they word the subject of their emails. Just like you'd put thought into the first sentence of a letter to a friend, do the same with your emails. That's all I'm really saying.

Thanks.

posted by Eric J | 09:53 PM

My dog will eat anything

The above scanned X-Ray is of my Basset Hound, Wendy. Sometime on Thursday of last week (we think) she swallowed what appears to be a large bolt. The X-Ray makes it look to be about the size of a... well... large bolt. We learned that bolt-swallowing really screws up a Basset Hound. She quit eating and drinking. The vet said, on Friday, that she had swallowed some mulch (we have no mulch in our yard) and she'd be fine. We went home with some antibiotics and hoped she'd be all better.

By Saturday afternoon we realized she was dying of dehydration. We took her to the Animal Emergency Room and they took the X-Ray. After getting rehydrated via IV overnight we took her home Sunday evening. She still wasn't interested in food but was coaxed into eating a little.

Monday we took her back to the Vet and the new X-Ray showed no bolt. She had passed the bolt and is now happy again.

Moral of the story. Dogs are stupid. We did learn one thing, there is now such a thing as pet insurance. We're filling out the application now.

posted by Eric J | 10:24 PM