MediaDefender = Spawn of Satan

No matter how you feel about digital rights management, copyright issues or peer-to-peer networks MediaDefender, a ‘company’ out of California runs a shady business helping companies ‘preserve’ their data on peer-to-peer networks.  MediaDefender took down Revision3’s servers over the long weekend because of various problems – but read this article and judge for yourself – a company that violates laws to do business is just asking for a take down like never before.

The government needs to uphold the lows of copyright, and they need to uphold laws of proper business practices.  When companies step outside of the government to ‘uphold the law’ and those companies violate the law: the companies themselves need to be fined.  Sony and other companies have used Media Defender and I hope that the FBI (as mentioned in the linked article) takes them out of the equation and strips the company of any legal rights as they have a history of violating the law over and over and injuring completely legal companies.

That’s The Fork Calling the Knife Cutlery

In what is an ironic twist of science meets computers meets religion a “scientist” used a “computer program” to determine the origins of “religion” in “Michigan”. You can read an article about it here if you want to. I’ll pick some excerpts to poke holes in or poke fun of below in case out of context quotes are your thing:

The model assumes, in other words, that a small number of people have a genetic predisposition to communicate unverifiable information to others.

I got confused when I read this line because I was pretty sure this was the definition of journalism. Clearly the journalist who wrote this has the intellect to determine that because no time machine has been invented and mass produced and marketed yet that one of the clear issues this concept faces is that a computer program does not equal verifiable information. It also indicates that when you use the word assume, and the author does, that you’re not using facts, you’re using assumptions. I’m going to assume the author is a chimpanzee, though this is not a fact, it is merely an assumption. Or the author has a religious gene, but its being portrayed in the temple of the media.

The model looks at the reproductive success of the two sorts of people – those who pass on real information, and those who pass on unreal information.

Here the author is clearly implying things about people with marketing degrees and those who blog. Marketing bunks and bloggers debunk, right?! Don’t sell them what they need, sell them what they want. Or maybe this is a typo and he meant ‘reel information’ and ‘unreal information’ as a euphemism to fishing stories involving fish that get bigger and bigger. I can’t tell.

“[Now] you can be a Lutheran one week and decide the following week you are going to become a Buddhist.”

Ah, the classic argument about the issue of ‘being’. Philosophy at its finest. If you’re being a doctor and then the next week you are being a mechanic you better not force your co-workers to call you doctor when you’re tinkering with transmissions. And if you get sweaty on your brow asking bubba to come over and wipe your forehead like you might request a nurse to do is just out of the question 😉 But seriously, being a Lutheran and then being a Buddhist the next week is improbable if you’re truly being something. The change will more than likely be gradual and involve a disinterest rather than be this quick. A quote of generalization about religious attitudes from a less religious professional does not a good article make. Unless of course you want to pass along unverifiable information to people because of a genetic disposition. In which case those pants make you look fat, Mr. Callaway. I can’t prove it, but I’m willing to publish it on the internet for religious reasons – its in your jeans.

Stay Away From My Space

A friend’s friend’s mom [you have to love indirection] used MySpace to email (which isn’t technically email) to ask if the friend’s employer, a clothing store, had any new nightgowns in stock. That can only be more awkward if its your own mother. Note to world: children and their friends, no matter their age, should not be involved in that part of your life. That sort of clothing choice is only appropriate for your spouse and the strangers that work at the stores whose nametag you don’t read and whose faces you try to forget.

Jank

My computer is borked.  The puke that Abby gave it on Saturday makes it ‘exciting’ to use because periodically it will just reboot itself.  The puke is the deliverer of Funk and fortunately there is some Wagnalls coming because the fine people at the Apple store will be able to restore it to a normative state of working.  By normative I mean back to not smelling funky, having a screen that has correct color and such as well as a keyboard that responds to all of its keys being pressed.

Why get an extended warranty on an expensive laptop?  Because that will give my friend Dave something to make fun of me for.

More Barns In More Places

We’re in Kansas any more. We entered the state in the AM and will finally be out of it in the PM. It is a sad state to drive the width of because the only things to break the horizon are grain silohs and barns. Periodically a town will dot highway 70 with overpriced gas and pornography for Roman people who are 30 (XXX).

The girls are being mostly good and my iPhone is getting mostly good reception. I just want the wind to stop blowing so that the car doesn’t feel like we’re going to Oz Oh, and Kansas is the boyhood home of Bob Dole, who became a congressman and got out of Kansas to represent the state in Washington DC, a much more populous place, but you can drive through it just as slowly due to traffic and construction.

More Web Developers Choose Crack Over Any Other Browser!

I have spent far too much time on ‘fixing’ a bug that only happens in Internet Explorer (AKA Internet Exploder).  Here’s a run-down on the problem:

1) Use math to figure out where something should show up on the screen

2) Test in Firefox – works!

3) Test in IE7 – Fail!

4) Remove rational math that appears to make sense and replace it with nonsense – works in IE7, fails in Firefox because Firefox isn’t as buggy

What I don’t get is that more people use Internet Explorer and its older.  Why does the new browser have to work better, smarter, faster and cleaner?  Thanks for reading my whine.

IE7 hack  post mortem: in Firefox, use math.  In IE6 & IE7 use meth.

Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That

Last night my buddy Tony drove up from Austin to hang out with me while I’m in Grapevine, TX.  I stopped by the hotel front desk and asked about paying extra for another guest in the hotel room so as to

1) Be honest

2) Confirm that they knew I’d have another guest in my room

3) Make sure that any extra charge for another guest was not on the bill for the company I’m down here working for

The guy who I asked at the front desk asked his manager because he was new and didn’t know what the extra cost would be.  He came out with an odd grin on his face that was strangely dirty and concerned me and announced, “He says you can have the guest in your room for free tonight.”

I think this was free because the manager didn’t want to fiddle with the bill, but the perverse look of the messenger was very disturbing.  I think I shall go bathe in some bleach.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Its Like Being Dead, Only Different

I’m still here.  I’ve been working like a crazy man for the last month and some days.  I have re-written three interfaces in that time and I’m rather pooped.  I’m heading out on a business trip tomorrow morning (which is probably when you’re reading this) and will be on call for the whole trip to do work related things.  I’m hoping to get some sleep somewhere soon.  In the meantime please consider looking at pictures of things like barbed wire, my girls, or this.

If you’re in the mood some praying for my well being would be much appreciated as in 6 hours or so I’ll be getting up to begin the day’s traveling.  I’ll try not to whine since I’m blessed to be employed, blessed to have a great family, and blessed to get to see friends in Texas.