I believe in the importance of copyright.  I also firmly believe in “fair use”: that is, if I pay for the right to use your content, I have the right to use it for my own personal use on any platform I choose.  Thus I am totally against abusive DRM systems that (for example) prevent me from watching a movie on my computer, and later watching it on my TV.  

My position puts me in a bit of a sticky position when it comes to “file sharing” and peer to peer (p2p) software.  If a person has a collection of music they have digitized from properly licensed CDs for their own personal playback on their computer or portable music device, that’s cool.  If they then install some sort of file sharing program to make their music collection available for anyone to download…that’s not cool. 

But the music and video/movie industry is being incredibly stupid.  They don’t just want to stop folks from sharing files, they want to force people who buy a CD to pay again when they want to listen to that same music on their computer, and again to listen to that same music on their iPod, and again….  They also want to have legislation that would allow them to illegally search and seize your home/computer to “prove” you are violating their laws.  They want people to believe that file sharing is so important, such a huge crime, that wire taps, keyboard/data logging, and prison terms are the norm.

They spend tens of millions of dollars a year, lining the pockets of government officials all over the world.  And money talks: witness the recent report from the U.S. patent office / Commerce and Intellectual Property Office that tells us that file sharing turns children into criminals and provides classified information to terrorists. 

If you want to read the entire 80 page government report, go here (pdf file).  Technologically, installing a peer to peer file sharing program (as the report indicates) has risks for home users.  It is often not well understood by users that, when they download something using a p2p program, they usually immediately “open up” that file for download from *their* computer as well.  In a corporate / government environment, use of peer to peer file sharing programs should be controlled if not outright forbidden.  There is no place for uncontrolled Internet based peer to peer file sharing in the office (although arguably bittorrent is used for some important/necessary purposes, there are “safe” bittorrent clients available).  That much is true, and where I work, the traffic from common file share programs like Kazaa is blocked on the network.  

But some of the conclusions and/or emphasis within the document is outright ludicrous.   Don’t share files: think of the children!  Don’t share files: you are supporting terrorism if you do!!  Man, those RIAA / MPAA goons must have really put on a niiice party for Under Secretary Jon W. Dudas….

Someone has been submitting about five “Viagra!” news items to one of my websites every day now for about six months.   Such news items are moderated, and never appear on the site since I delete them.  That’s dumb.

But that’s not the dumbest spam I’ve ever seen.  This is…

From: %CUSTOM_FROMS

Subject: Your approval is waiting! 

Dear %CUSTOM_HOMEOWNER%CUSTOM_7. %CUSTOM_8

You can receive %CUSTOM_3 for
%CUSTOM_4 per month.

Please respond %MTG_TODAY.
http://someURL.com

Bert Gipson
%CUSTOM_FROMS

%QUOTES

I received this email in my inbox a couple of days ago.  Apparently, this genious acquired a mailing list, installed some sort of automatic spam generator, then forgot to actually enter any of the configuration settings that would have given their message …well, a message. 

If any significant percentage of spammers are this dumb, I have hope…

On Thursday I decided to install some driver updates for Vista.  ATI has a new video driver, version 7.2.  I had this crazy idea that this might solve my problem with putting the computer in standby mode.  The rest of what happened is proof that, despite having a moderately high intelligence, I’m often rather stupid…

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What a strange place for a business convention. Niagra Falls isn’t really “home” for anyone- none of our offices are here, so everyone has to drive at least an hour or so to get here. It was particularly odd driving past the wax museum or whatever it was that had speakers blaring spooooky sound effects on my way to the hotel. But I’ve made it safe and sound to the other side of the country, and that’s what counts.

If Irene was here, we’d go do something like see the Falls or … something. Instead, I’m about to turn off the TV after three hours of Discovery channel. At least I can confirm that I was able to get reasonably priced ($25 for a week) Internet access from my room. And I’ve been educated via Discovery channel regarding FutureWeapons and 2057…

I have to do a bit of travel soon for work, and I’m not looking forward to it. 

It’s not that I haven’t been through the routine before: in fact, for a few years I was away from home for work probably three or four months out of the year.  It got so that the check in counter attendants at some airports recognized me as I walked up, and “bumped” me into first class…that was nice, if uncommon.  I’m not complaining about the travel, at least not really: some people face daily travel as part of their work routine, and I’m very fortunate that I’ve been able to make career choices that have reduced this to the bare minimum for myself. 

But at the very root of things, I think I’m someone who really, really likes his routine.  When I travel for work, my stress level shoots through the roof: every little thing, like what to eat, whether it’s safe to walk a couple of blocks to a convenience store, or whether my toothbrush is where it should be, takes on menacing overtones. 

Oddly, I am much less upset by vacation travel.  I’ve pondered about this quite a bit, and I think I’ve figured out a couple of reasons why this is so.  If I’m on a vacation, then I can defuse the pressure by

a) not having to be at a specific place at a specific time with specific resources ready; this combination of things is *always* part of business travel
b) being able to take along part of my “home” in the form of my wife, who can be there to anchor me

I think I’ll survive this trip, but I’ll be much happier when it’s done and I’m back home. 

I was reading an article today about a man who was in a coma, in what they call a persistent vegetative state, for 19 years who “woke up “in 2003. Terry Wallis, the coma victim, had regained his power of speech and his mobility, and had clear memories of his life before the coma. Terry has awakened to a world where his one year old son is now 20, and Ronald Regan hasn’t been president in decades.

This isn’t the first time this kind of thing has happened. But it is probably the first time that medical science was able to actually detect what had happened in the brain to permit the recovery. Basically, the brain had reconstructed itself, building completely new connections in quite unnatural ways (E.G.: connecting the two halves of the brain via a new connection at the back of the brain). This flies in the face of traditional medical understanding: the brain isn’t supposed to be able to
reconstruct this way. But it certainly did.

What does this mean? Well, for one thing it means the diagnosis of someone being in a “vegetative” state needs to be rethought. We need to be able to figure out a way to tell the difference between the occasional Terry Wallis, who after 19 years made a full recovery, and the other 90+% of the people in his condition who never do. Otherwise, our hospitals will be full of $5,000 per day meat sacks with hopeful families waiting decades on the faint hope that *their* loved one will one day wake up and return to a normal life.

And for another thing it means medical science needs to figure out how to promote and speed up the healing process Terry’s brain performed entirely on its own. The brain and spinal column are one of the last great medical mystery areas- damage to either of these organs is usually considered permanent and non-recoverable. But the game appears to have changed…

My Mom is a pretty smart lady. She grew up during the great depression, served overseas in the Second World War rising to the rank of Sergeant Major. She raised six kids, several of us largely as a single mom on a small salary. Thanks to her, we all turned out pretty well.

But a stupid computer can sometimes befuddle her. Her buttons that let her access email and Pogo (which means a web browser, but to Mom its her Pogo) aren’t showing up, and a Kodak icon is open with some funny tabs. And here I sit, an hour away, trying to visualize what it is she is seeing. I’m frustrated because if I was standing next to Mom, I’d know exactly what she was referring to; she’s frustrated, because what she sees on the screen doesn’t make sense, and she can’t explain it clearly to her geeky son. “Powering off” the computer and restarting it didn’t seem to fix anything. And the stupid computer is no help at all…

I finally got my Mom back in business- the Windows Explorer seemed to have been crashed on her machine, so the Windows Taskbar was missing and the machine was largely unresponsive. “Powering off” on her machine isn’t actually shutting down- its putting the machine in standby, and turning it back on just puts it back to where it was- crashed. I walked her through the three fingered salute (CTRL-ALT-DEL) to bring up the task manager and complete a successful restart. Of course, then MSN messenger popped up saying it needed to be upgraded, and a seemingly endless series of questions and prompts also appeared (Do you want the MSN tool bar? How about all these other useless things we’d like to install?) In the end, everything was more or less fine, although I suspect she now has a full suite of Microsoft clutter on her machine.

To a large extent, I think there is a missing “language” between my Mom and the technology, something which those of us who have grown up working with computers take for granted. But really, the machine shouldn’t require the user to adapt to it quite so much. The operating system should detect when it is in trouble, and give a reasonably understandable message (”Your computer seems to be having problems- would you like to restart to correct this?”). And darn it all, automatic updates shouldn’t ask a zillion questions about things you don’t want- there should be a simple choice that says “upgrade only and don’t waste my time trying to add new stuff to my machine”.

But you know, despite the occasional challenges….the really cool thing is that my Mom started using a computer for the first time about two years ago. And she’s using it regularly- she visits this website, reads her email, and plays her Pogo. This impresses the heck out of me, and makes me feel very good in a strange, geeky-son kind of way. I guess the technology isn’t *that* obtuse….although it has a long way to go…

I read an article today about a study showing that people today are tending to retain a state of immaturity far into adulthood. Basically, instead of becoming fixed in their ways, focused on stability and safety, more and more people are continuing to retain a child-like interest in new and different things, in change, and in learning new things.

This doesn’t shock me- but then I’ve always had a hard time thinking in purely adult terms. I am rigidly resistant to change in some areas: home, family, friends, fashion. But I also like to discover novel ways of doing things, to try new technologies, to read new books, to explore new ideas and ways of thinking. I don’t want to grow up…not if growing up means no longer learning new things, not feeling passionate about what I believe, being unwilling to change what I believe, or beginning to think of every new thing as some sort of an assault on all that is right and true.

I think the world needs a mix of “mature” people who are somewhat resistant to change with people who are embrace new things with the wonder of a child. I’d go a step further and say that we need a mix of these attitudes in all of us. I suppose the trick is finding the balance, so that we can enthusiastically explore the new and amazing things that come our way while simultaneously remembering we have to pay the mortgage.

Irene has been aquasizing for a couple of months now as part of the recovery process from her hip replacement operation.  She’s going an amazing five or six times a week, and it really has been helping her: she’s walking better and better, and has even been able to go on some quiet rides on her horse Spirit. 

When Irene started going to the Y we bought a family membership, and I started going a couple of times a week to run on the treadmill and use the fancy gym equipment while Irene takes her class.  I’m pretty much a walking blob of flab- my strength and endurance are way down from where they were a couple of years ago when I was regularly working out using our Bowflex.  But the sessions at the Y seem to have been helping me a bit as well…I’m feeling a bit more energetic (barring the occasional bout
with IBS), and I’ve even started feeling like joining Irene once in a while on her walks with the dog.

We just got back from such a walk… its a warm day here, I’m guessing heading for the mid-20’s celsius, and sunny- not a cloud in the sky at this time at any rate.  Despite my slight increase in energy, I’m happy here in my cool dark little cave.  Something in my personality craves the mental distance…I imagine in the old days I might have been a scholarly monk, or a hermit in a cave somewhere.

The sun hurtses us, it does….yesss, my preciousss, it does..

It’s really not news that Bill Gates is stepping down from his role at Microsoft. I recall him saying pretty clearly five or six years ago that he planned on removing himself from his position within the company before he was 55, and spending an increasing amount of time in his philanthropist role within the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

That said, it is something of an end of an era. Bill and I sort of “grew up” together in a philosophical sense. One of the first computers I played with was an Altair 8800- Bill and Paul Allen both worked briefly for MITS, the company that made the Altair, and formed “Micro-Soft” at that time. I bought my first computer in 1980, when Microsoft was still had fewer than 30 people on staff and was generating less than $3 million a year in revenues. I remember reading about Bill Gates at around that time- he was still in his early 20’s, and not yet a “superstar”, and I figured he was doing exactly what I wanted to do: write code and get rich

Don’t get me wrong: I don’t think of Bill Gates as some sort of technology god. He possesses any number of flaws, from his storied arrogance and overwhelming (some would say crushing) drive to his dandruff. But Bill has been my stand-in in a world of former football-jock CEOs possessing Yale and Harvard MBAs and about as much technical know-how as an ice cube. He proved that someone who really knew things, a technologist not a jock or cocktail sipping blueblood, could “win”. That brains could win out over smooth charm, fine manicures, and tailored suits. My personal “revenge of the Nerds” icon.

So, here we are, 26 years later. Bill is 50, so him stepping down is right on track for his plans. Ray Ozzie is another one of my technology “idols”, and he is taking on much of Bill’s technical leadership roll within Microsoft. But for me, Bill Gates will always signify my “youth” and growth in the technology field. Thanks, Bill- and best of luck to you in your increasing role within the Foundation.