Another bizarre coincidence

It's been a couple of days since I last posted.  Well, it's been over a week.  

I've been using this spot as a place to rant and rave, and get some of my thoughts down in a semi-therapeutic fashion.  Not as an avenue to get my life out there, but rather to scrawl my thoughts out on a wall in a mostly anonoymous fashion.  

I'm a graffiti tagger on the information superhighway.

I imagine that someone speeding by (googling) this page would see a splash of disjointed topics (maybe a photo or two) and wonder "What the hell was that guy thinking?"

So, I really haven't been writing for anyone, or for any real reason (beyond the reason that I need to).  I get an idea stuck in my head, or a project that I'm working on (got a new one, BTW), and I can jot it down here. 

I'm doodling in the margins of the internet.

So my heart kind of skipped a beat when I saw I had someone commenting on my iPost-its.  

Then I realized it was my best friend.

Now I'm having to fight the urge to re-read everything that I've written for the last month.  I don't think I said anything mean, but I constantly say things that can be taken out of context or misused (I'd make a very poor political candidate for that reason.  I think Palin had it right for the first week.  Just don't say anything public.  Doesn't work so well when you're running for public office though....)

Is it bad that you would be a worse candidate than Palin?  Given the state of mad-media, chopped sound-bites, and misrepresentations?

So, I've got a guy peering over my shoulder, reading what I'm typing.  And he's commenting on it.  Verbally and publically.  Now I gotta make sure I don't step on my crank.

Hey amigo, you freakin' rock.

Sequel to the bad movie

http://www.cnbc.com/id/27451527

I'm sorry, they can't account for the $90 Billion they've spent since mid-September???

Folks, I keep hearing people screaming about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan costing Billions a week.  

I'm doing the math here, and I'm seeing about $15 Billion per week ($90 Billion divided by 6 weeks), by a single company, who can't say where the money is going.

I know where some of the money is going:  nice business "retreats".  That news story has been done.  But I ask you:  If they're that stupid about publicly spending that kind of money, what are they doing privately?

Cell Phones

It strikes me that a cell phone seems to be the common excuse to be in public, but ignore the public.

It's bizarre that this little tiny device, with it's incredibly small level of interaction, can take the place of the massive sensory stimulus that is the world around us.

I'd like to think that I don't do this.  I know that almost certainly I'm wrong on that.

I do try to not talk on the cell phone around other people.  Let's face it, it's kind of rude to talk to someone that isn't there.  It's why we call crazy people "Crazy People".  We generally don't invite those people to parties.

I hate talking on the cellphone when I'm in the car with someone.  That's got to be one of my ultimate pet peeves.  You've basically just forced this other person to sit down, shut up, and not move.  The strange converse?  I don't mind that much if someone else takes a phone call while I'm in the car.

Not so in restaurants.  Seriously, you wouldn't do it at your mother's table, certainly don't do it out in public.

I truly applaud restaurants with a "No Cellphone" policy.  I recently went to one that kept my meal warm when I stepped outside to take a call.  Incredibly classy place, even if it was a 24 hour diner serving greaseball cheesesteaks (hey, at 2am, sometimes you really get a craving for an awesome cheesesteak).

I guess this is one other part of the "Treat others better".  Not well, but better.  Maybe start small, and just try to make one stranger actually happy that they were in your proximity that day.  If you find that you need to be a little bit stronger in an interaction, it's always easier to go from nice to nasty, than mean to nice.  Give everyone the opportunity to be nice.  I think the results will astound you.

OK, I feel like this is just a really bad movie

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aVann0.cv9Tw

So the two "Big Guys" in the securities industry have allocated $20 Billion (still gets spelled with a big B, at least until I make 1% of that amount) in bonuses to their employees.

A quick quote from the story:

``There is no Wall Street without bonuses,'' said Andy Kessler, a former analyst and hedge-fund manager turned author. ``The guys who know how to make money are the ones who are in demand. If you want to keep them, you have to pay them something.''

 Why the hell are you trying to keep them, you friggin' morons????  These are the people that have bankrupted you, and almost bankrupted one of the largest economies on the planet?  

You think maybe this is a good time to fire the lot of them, and pull in some people that understand how this works?  

C'mon!!!  Even I know that it's pretty risky to give my friend a loan.  You know, the one who can't seem to hold a job any longer than he can hold his bladder.  Sure, he's nice and he's really trying hard, but he's had more jobs in the last year than changes of underwear (I'll give him credit, he can hold his bladder a long time).

Bunk and garbage

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/ten-years-later.html

The DMCA is a horrible piece of legislative garbage that has given a litigious backbone to agencies such as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America.  These are the same groups that have taken to bringing hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawsuits against individuals who they suspect but cannot prove have committed a crime.  Further, they have petitioned the US Supreme Court that they do not need proof of the crime to demonstrate damages related to the crime.  

http://themusic.fm/2008.09.26/riaa-jammie-thomas-case-mistrial-ruling

http://media.www.reflector-online.com/media/storage/paper938/news/2008/01/15/Opinion/Riaa-Suits.Show.Bad.Ethics-3151765.shtml

Simply putting the songs into a shared folder is enough to make you a criminal, in the eyes of RIAA.  So, if I create a synchronized folder on my desktop and laptop, which has copies of my music, then this is illegal?  Even though iTunes says I'm ok?  (I'm not saying that I do this.  I don't need the RIAA coming after me)

Let's take it one step further:  

I have an iPod Touch.  Cool little piece of tech that many would argue is a mini-computer in its own right.  I have a ton of music, both from iTunes and from my CD's.  I routinely synchronize the iPod from my computer.  I'm sharing the music from one computer to another.

Now, I believe that under "Fair Use" doctrine, I'm in the clear.

I also believe that in order to be nailed in a court of law, the plaintiff has to prove proximate cause of their damages.  They have to prove damages, and they have to prove that I caused them.  I'm not going to argue that there is damage occurring (I think the RIAA has caused more damage to itself than it has prevented), but I will argue that merely having songs in a computer system that is capable of sharing the files, is not sufficient proof of damage.

A quick synopsis of my previous ire.

Now onto my current annoyance.

Author David Kravets (http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/ten-years-later.html) is pushing that the DMCA has opened up the freedom of the web.  

Horse-puckey

The DMCA is a morass of bills hung on to one label.  The idea that sites like YouTube, Google, and other user-generated-content sites (like this one) would not have been able to flourish without the DMCA is pure rubbish.  These sites are an inevitable extension of the internet.  If they had become popular before the DMCA, I'll contend that we would have had a much better piece of legislation.

His final quote from an MPAA employee: "The ISPs wanted safe harbor provisions in return for their support for the anti-circumvention provisions, which was one of the major and most important compromises in this legislation," he says. "It's not perfect. But it's better than nothing."

This type of belief is moronic!  We can't afford blatantly damaged, distorted legislation.

This is the same mentality that screams out "There ought to be a law!"

People, we don't need or want the government legislating our behavior.  

We didn't need the DMCA to tell us:

It's ok to copy your music from your CD to your MP3 player.

It's not ok to give all of your friends, their friends, and their friends friends copies of your purchased music.

It's really not ok to sell it to them illegally.

A Crisis of Faith

First, I'll start with a typically weak excuse:  It's been a rough year.  It's been a rough two years.

OK, pathetic.  Really, no excuse when I compare with how rough it could be.

I "volunteer" at a local business that is putting in a new bar in my neighborhood.  The place serves around a dozen beers on draft, none of which I have ever seen advertised during the Super Bowl.  The food is excellent, and the owners have a knack for picking out some of the most personable staff it has ever been my pleasure to work with/for.  Finally, it is within walking distance of my house.

In short, an aweseome project to devote some of my spare time towards.  I won't even get in to the owners of the establishment, who are two of the coolest people around.

Anyway, I fixed a computer glitch the other day, and I wanted to stop by and check on it later that night.  I'm walking up to the door, when I see one of the server's around the back.  I wandered over and found him and a co-worker smoking.

Damn

I really like the guy.  He's young, smart, seems like a decent guy.  Always pitching in, never complaining, perfect "laid back" guy that you'd hang out with.  Honestly, he seemed smarter than a smoker.  

I know!  I've got a long way to go to overcome my preconceptions.  At least I know I have them, and I try to keep them in check.

So I started my bitching and moaning about his smoking.  It wasn't a real bitch and moan session.  It was more of a "Man, I can't believe you're doing that", and my complaining that I've seen too many people get nailed by smoking.

The two of them tossed it back at me (They don't know what I did for a "real living", before taking up the college student lifestyle).  I just talked about the handful of friends and acquaintances that had died in the last couple of years.  These were people their age who clearly died to young, and clearly not from a car wreck or bizarre drive-by shooting.  Could I say the cigarettes killed them?  No, but I could say that each one smoked.

I wound up BS'ing with them for a little bit longer before heading in to check the computers and talking to the owner.  I walked home without paying it a second thought.

This is the moment that chills me, and I'll get to it in a bit.

Two days later I'm back at the restaurant (I'm a computer guy, but I'll be the first to claim that I'm not a computer expert), and my friend starts his shift.  He pulls me aside and drops a bomb on me.

He's quit smoking.  Cold turkey.  Done.

Ordinarily, this would be enough to make me tear up.  He goes on to tell me that I really struck him the other night.  My coming over, and telling him how I honestly feel made him reconsider exactly what he was doing. 

His words "I just needed someone else to give a shit to show me that this is worth it."

Whoa

OK, I tried real hard not to visibly tear up.  I don't know how well I succeeded.

I've got a fair number of friends and family who smoke or have smoked.  I've seen all of them try to give up with varying levels of success.  Universally I've seen that it's a trial to do it.  The habit is not hard to kick.

I've heard people compare it to heroin or crack-cocaine addicition.  I'm not sure how valid that is, but I can tell you why cigarettes can be harder:

Social acceptance

This hits on so many levels.

First, a smoker has their "Gang", their friends that go out to the corner of the building and smoke.  You see them, they're the social outcasts now, who have formed their own rebel enclave.  They have secret meeting times, even special "gang signs" to indicate when to head out to the "Butt Hut".  The get together just to smoke.  Not what I would call a great support group.  Certainly not a group that is going to help you kick the habit.

Second, you can smoke in public.  On the street, at the bar, on your porch, in the majority of places you can light up.  No one is going to see you smoking and call the cops.  The next couple of fill-ups at the gas station, see how many people are smoking.  Easier, look for tossed out cigarette butts.  I'm going to bet that people don't carry them around just to toss them on the ground at the gas station.

Third, you can buy them anywhere.  With all the jokes about the invasion of Starbucks across the country (yeah, another addiction, but it's different) you'd think someone would notice that you can buy cigarettes almost anywhere.  Hell, in some places it's easier to find cigarettes for sale than a public bathroom, water fountain or pay phone.

I guess if smoking were as anti-social as heroin or crack-cocaine use, it might be easier to kick.  I don't know.  

I do know that if my buddy calls me at 2am, needing a gum fix, I'll be there.  If he can kick it, he can help someone else do the same.

So the reason that this chilled me so much:

I had almost gotten to the point of not caring.  I'd delivered my canned speech so many times that it was almost stale.  A year ago I would have walked away from the encounter bothered that this guy was engaged in such a self-destructive behavior (to call it anything less is just candy-coating it).   It took him listening, reacting, and feeding it back to me to realize where I was.

I'm really thankful that he grabbed it with such enthusiasm and vigor.  Even more so that he decided to turn around and share it back with me.  He may have saved my enthusiasm.

Speak your mind, share your thoughts.  You never know when it may change someone's life.  You never know when it may make living your life that much more rewarding.

A special shout-out to my best friend, who did quit smoking, has staying off, and vocally advocating others to quit.  I don't always agree with his methodology, but I'm really happy about his success.

Well, you can just rock me to sleep tonight

Apparently these are real images.  Links to the story below.  I'm going to go have a terminal case of the heebie jeebies.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&xml=/earth/2008/10/22/easpider122.xml&CMP=OTC-mostviewedrss