Re: Illicit Potter eBooks Piece

I think almost everyone is missing the point about illegal eBooks. Which is simply the same as that made by downloaders of music through portals like Kazaa, Bearshare, etc.

MEDIA IS JUST WAY TOO EXPENSIVE THESE DAYS FOR THE QUALITY OF THE CONTENT! It is government-sanctioned daylight robbery to charge $15 for a CD that contains 2 good songs and the rest as fluffy filler. In the same light, it is deplorable that a 750-page hardcover book that I am going to read once, maybe twice, in the span of three evenings, costs $30. Not everyone can pay this much for a book, and why do most of us have to wait for that book to come out in paperback (at $12.95 a pop) to be able to read it? The amount charged for value obtained, considering the economic situation of most people, is disproportionate.

A book is a great medium for personal amusement and edification, and for education and enlightenment. When school textbooks cost around $75 each and no book can be purchased for less than $5 at the bookstore, what are the people who cannot afford to buy these books going to read? Aren’t they entitled to this information as well? Especially when the technology and study material exists to create high-quality texts for a fraction of the cost that the publishers charge? With some of the arguments running around in these emails, one would think that these people would make teaching children how to read, used bookstores, or even lending libraries illegal as well.

iTunes has the right idea. $1 for a song that you pay to download after you have heard it. There is an example of exchange of money for value. Similarly, if dead-tree books didn’t cost so much and were available in different formats, it would give readers a CHOICE, which would make them hate a publishing company so much that they would get a pirate copy to enjoy what they CANNOT OTHERWISE OBTAIN.

Things that are wrong have been supported by legislation as long as history. To get past those wrongs, people have had to fight and in doing so, have been outlaws. Which begs the question: If I were to purchase a copy of the book and loan it to 50 of my friends, would that make me a criminal? So, if I make a copy of it and spread it across the internet to all of my “friends,” what’s wrong with that? Ironically, the whole expensive argument here is over replication and not over the number of people who have had access to one single copy of information.

June 27, 2003 | books, computing & internet | Comments Closed

The Latest In Baby Prison Design

Oh, that’s horrible! I can’t believe that area for the solitary confinement of little kids is an actual product in their line. And they call it the “Windsor” … how medievally appropriate. (Never mind the historical fact that the Windsor line doesn’t extend back before the 1600s.)

This after hearing on the radio this morning of a woman who is to send her 4, 6, and 10 year olds to boarding school, because she just can’t handle raising them anymore. Why have kids? Wait a second, isn’t that why they have public schools? Government-mandated babysitting …

Most public schools in the south are deplorable, and lawmakers here just made it impossible for low-income parents to pull their bright children out of public schools and send them to private/parochial schools for better educations. Somehow, it’s alright to spend billions of taxpayer dollars on “liberating” the people of Iraq, but we find it beneath us to use the money and the heart to educate our own as they should be. Then, we go and fight over whether these same kids should be let into college based on affirmative action. Like I always say, the playing field needs major landscaping before anyone should argue over college entrance policies.

June 26, 2003 | culture-society-history, government | Comments Closed

On The Web Petition To ‘Save The Pledge of Allegiance and Our National Motto’

‘One Nation Under God’ … ‘In God We Trust’

Why isn’t the same importance given to say ‘Love Thy Neighbor’ or Thou Shalt Not Steal/Kill?’

What do these words mean? Where is the action? Who are they kidding?

I hope we all know that the words “one nation under god” were added to the Pledge during the McCarthy era to help Americans make sure that they wouldn’t be accepted if they were atheist commies.

As follows:

The last change in the Pledge of Allegiance occurred on June 14 (Flag Day), 1954 when President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved adding the words “under God”. As he authorized this change he said:

“In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America’s heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource in peace and war.”

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation under God, indivisible, With Liberty and Justice for all.

June 14, 1954

changed from the original:

I pledge allegiance to my Flag, and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation indivisible, With Liberty and Justice for all.

October 11, 1892

Speaking of the national motto: Now is this “In God We Trust” or is this “In Christian God Above All Others And There Will Be No Tolerance We Trust?” There they go forgetting their own immigration laws again.

Of course, the state guarantees its citizens freedom OF religion, and that includes freedom FROM religion. So, people should just be able to do what they damned well please as long as they don’t infringe on the rights of others, whether they believe in god or not. Sophomoric statement, but still grossly overlooked.

Again, I simply cannot fathom why it is so important what our national motto or pledge of allegiance states; they are equally moot if people just recite them and don’t feel the salient message of the consitution (not just the bill of rights), and understand the liberties that we have a right to and are responsible for.

The troubling thing is that it is not a coincidence that _everyone_ that I have talked to about this, who supports the mention of the word “God” in our judicial and legislative documents, expects it to be a Christian god because this country was founded on Christian principles. If you are secure in your beliefs, you don’t need to bandy words about. Back to that ‘behavioral’ vs. ‘lip service’ thing.

Which brings about the question: “What Christian principle? The part that states ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’?”

What if people were to get this vociferous about educating and feeding the kids of America instead of fighting over mere words … who will care about these words when there is no one left to read them?

June 23, 2003 | government | Comments Closed

Orrin Hatches Plan To Zap Machines Of Copyright Violators

From the San Jose Mercury News: Senator Orrin Hatch (R, UT) — who, besides being Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a composer whose royalties were $18,000 last year from songs he’s written — says that maybe people who keep abusing copyright laws should get their computers destroyed. That kind of action “may be the only way you can teach somebody about copyrights. If we can find some way to do this without destroying their machines, we’d be interested in hearing about that. If that’s the only way, then I’m all for destroying their machines… There’s no excuse for anyone violating copyright laws.”

Oh, he’s got to be making more in kickbacks from the RIAA than from the proceeds of sales of his music alone. Besides, can you imagine him onstage with a mohawk and a bass guitar? There’s material for Berke Breathed …

And how do you destroy someone’s machine _without_ destroying it? Is Hatch a particle physicist as well as a musician now?

Welcome to dumbocracy where the newspeak just keeps on coming.

June 18, 2003 | government, music, science & technology | Comments Closed

Home Truths And Homely Remedies

MSH sent me this recently. May I please share these with some imbeciles I know?

1. If you are choking on an ice cube, don’t panic. Simply pour a cup of boiling water down your throat and presto! The blockage will be almost instantly removed.

2. Clumsy? Avoid cutting yourself while slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold them while you chop away.

3. Avoid arguments with your wife about lifting the toilet seat by simply peeing in the sink.

4. High blood pressure sufferers: simply cut yourself and bleed for a while, thus reducing the pressure in your veins.

5. A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from rolling over and going back to sleep when you hit the snooze button.

6. If you have a bad cough, take a large dose of laxatives, then you will be afraid to cough.

7. Have a bad tooth ache? Hit your thumb with a hammer, then you will forget about the tooth ache.

June 15, 2003 | funny | Comments Closed

The Old Academia – Industry Skirmish

This in response to my friend, JRSB, who dislikes the lack of intellectual freedom in the corporate job as well as the low pay of academia. Hmmm, quite the quandary …

A PhD-level scientist in an unhappy situation with a corporation is not going to have his problem simply vanish, until they give him a better job with more leeway and funds within the company. That may only come after his PhD and maybe not. I’m sure a lot of it has to do with the lack of innovation and excitement on the job, too. Being in academia, while not having finished up yet, is a big exercise in frustrating Catch 22. You know where you want to be, but you’re not there yet. You have all the power only after you have finished with your degree (and then, not quite) but have to make a job decision before you are granted that degree. And in the meantime, your self-esteem is in the toilet and you just don’t know what to do with yourself. I will warn you, though, that postdoc positions are more transient and offer frustrations above and beyond working someplace in industry. I know several postdocs who just hate life right now. It is a thankless job, with some new experience gained, but you’re mainly a very skilled hand.

Interns don’t always have the best job within any given company. That’s why they are interns. The other important point is that it is a waste of a life to work for a company that doesn’t appreciate you and couldn’t care less that you work for them, even if you walk on water.

Of the people who think that if they don’t keep in academia they will dry up and become failures: Oh puh-leeeeze!!! Yeah, just watch me as I wither away into oblivion over here in the oil industry. I am doing so much fun stuff and creating a lot more than I would have been in a PhD in structural geology at Madison, or in Massachusetts. It’s not like I have attained my life’s goal (and that goal is not in geology or the oil industry, for sure), but it’s a lot better than working in a university computer lab and not being taken completely seriously. You can still be creative and work in industry. Academia is also turning into a smaller version of industry in that everyone in it is fighting over a pool of money (except that pool is a lot smaller in academia) and someone always has their head up someone else’s ass. All industry in any given field is not like Exxon, I am sure, and there has to be some company where one can shine in applying one’s knowledge to the daily workflow and come up with new ideas. It’s all about the freedom of application and creativity, and academia is not the only place to do it.

June 11, 2003 | science & technology | Comments Closed
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