So, I'm back to posting again on SQLAdvice.com. As much as I enjoy bloging there I've got two pretty big problems that keep me from doing it on a regular basis:
1) I'm such a perfectionist that it takes me way too long to work through blog entries. Luckily I've recently been exposed to a powerful paradigm provided by a fellow named Dick Haab. Among other things, his advice is to seek for excellence not perfection. Hopefully with that in mind I'll be able to post more regularly.
2) Virtually no-one, it would appear, reads my blog on SQLAdvice. That really makes it hard. That being said, it's still good practice for me to be able to try and succinctly elucidate thoughts/concepts/ideas/etc. Back in the day when I wrote frequently and regularly I was able to write quite well by my own estimation (and that of my professors). A few years away from any sort of writing, along with a steady and vigorous diet of just technical books has found my skills greatly atrophied. So... plodding along on my RepeatableRead 'column' on SQLAdvice will hopefully give me some much needed practice. At least, that's how I tell myself I'll stay actively blogging there...
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July 30, 2004
SQLAdvice
Posted on July 30, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
July 26, 2004
RIAA: Letting other people listen to your CDs while you listen is Piracy.
Attempting to completely stamp-out all forms of digital piracy, the RIAA recently announced that it has garnered support in the Senate for a new bill. The proposed legislation, Anti-Direct Digital Piracy Control, or ADDPC for short, is expected to quickly bypass normal, constitutional, channels in the Senate for quick ratification by sympathetic Senators.
Direct Digital Piracy, a relatively new term employed in the RIAA's war against piracy induced sales-losses, describes one of the most simple forms of piracy to commit -- yet the most difficult to technologically protect against. Speaking before a group of enthusiastic Senators, lead by Orrin Hatch (Rep. Utah), RIAA CEO Mitch Bainwol explained DPP, and its effects on the Music Industry thusly: "It's no secret that record labels have done their utmost to provide consumers, and artists, with the highest-quality digital music. Labels, musicians, and recording studios and staffers have gone to great lengths to ensure the truest forms of digital recording. Sadly, hackers who seem to think of no one but themselves have repeatedly shown us that while they enjoy these efforts, they don't care about stealing from musicians, labels, and studios to the get the music. Many pirates are so brazen in their attempts to use digital music without paying for it that they frequently will allow their friends, spouses, relatives, and even strangers listen to PURE, DIGITAL, MUSIC without paying for their own license. A perfect example comes from younger couples who chose to co-habitate, or from married couples who don't share bank accounts -- they're frequently prone to engaging in Direct Digital Piracy, stealing from musicians, labels, and studios to let their 'significant other' listen to copyrighted music without said 'significant other' holding their own copy of the Digital music that they enjoy so freely."
Commenting on how ADDP will help the RIAA curtail Direct Digital Piracy, Mr. Bainwol continued: "The RIAA has investigated technological solutions to prevent DPP, but because we truly don't have a clue about technology, we've come up with 'bupkiss' [sic.]. Letting other people listen to your CDs when they haven't purchased their own copy is piracy, pure and simple.. .we just can't figure out how to stop it. Happily, buying Senators is much easier than developing new business models, and we're hopeful that we'll soon have State support in collecting royalties for infringements that have gone on too long."
The RIAA contends that the most pernicious forms of Direct Digital Piracy occur at the hands of teenagers and college-aged kids who are brazen enough to play their own CDs for groups of their friends at social gatherings and parties where royalty fees are not accessed, collected, and remanded to the RIAA. While the RIAA plans to use the new legal teeth provided in the ADDC against younger offenders, Mitch Bainwol pledged that he would ensure that no violation would go un-noted, vowing that "while it may appear to be innocent to some, even old codgers sitting on the porch listening to oldies but goodies CDs could be in violation if they play music for their relatives and acquaintances. We need to think this in terms of how it steals money from producers, artists, truck-drivers, store-clerks and the likes. Again, piracy, in any form, is an ugly, senseless crime."
Absurdity above inspired by realities below:
RIAA warns that unfettered copyright infringement abounds because of digital streaming of music.
Copyright holders don't even honor the intentions of artists
I'm all for copyright protection, but what ever happened to that thing called fair-use Heck, for that matter, where did common sense go I guess as long as the RIAA can keep getting legislation passed that lets them gouge people, why bother changing their business model
Posted on July 26, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Sometimes I Wonder...
Sometimes I wonder why I don't feel safe using a calculator between operations unless I hammer the 'clear' key about 3-4 times?
Sometimes I wonder why vegetarians are frequently so good at stabbing people in the back...
Sometimes I wonder why some TV Network 'out there' doesn't just smash-the-hell out of the competition by running GOOD programming on Saturday instead of infomercials?
But of late I've been wondering why Microsoft has taken so long to re-assemble the Internet Explorer Team. Actually, that's not true. I know why they've finally rehydrated the team -- because FireFox is simply a better browser. Hands down. Joel explains why it's better too, and he does it succinctly.
While we're at it, Joel also explains in that same post why MS let the IE team, nay the BROWSER, die. You got it, MS was so worried that DHTML would become so damned good that nobody would really need Windows?
Which makes me wonder: do you remember Bill Runs Microsoft Well, Bill had this cooky idea two years ago that computing should be TRUSTWORTHY.
So I wonder: could there be a Microsoft application with a greater installation base With greater market penetration I doubt that Office has a bigger installation base -- it costs money on both Windows and Mac. IE is free to both platforms.
So I wonder if MS was really so afraid of DHTML trumping Windows that they just kept pretending that IE wouldn't need to be completely rewritten to make it Trustworthy? In effect, they just burried their heads in the sand relative to IE's trustworthiness. Only once it started showing signs of loosing market share did MS assemble the troops. They don't seem to have given a crap about all the users they had, only the ones they were losing...
Not until Steve Ballmer's "developers, developers, developers" began switching in droves to FireFox (and these developers weren't at all afraid to tell everyone in their sphere of influence to do the same), did they begin marshalling the troops. They didn't do it because it FAILED TO BE TRUSTWORTHY... which says that they haven't quite gotten the trustworthy computing initiative. They may WANT to, but they're not there yet... not when they could leave such a big juicy target with such a huge installation base to sit on the shelf without an overhaul. To that end, it's no wonder we just witnessed Internet Explorer completely melt-down under a barrage of concerted attacks by a bunch of black-hats that have had years to fiddle with IE and discover it's weaknesses. Something tells me hacking would be a lot harder against a moving target than a stagnant one...
So... Sometimes I wonder if anyone could POSSIBLY still think IE is trustworthy....
Posted on July 26, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
July 15, 2004
Firefox Vs Internet Explorer
This about sums up my experience:
.91 > 6
Posted on July 15, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
July 14, 2004
Sue Orrin Hatch
Eliot Van Buskirk, you rule; your summary of the stupidity of this proposed 'Act' could not have been stated more succinctly or logically:
Posted on July 14, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
July 01, 2004
Amazon Customer Support Number
Well, it looks like Carson has figured it out. He's the #1 referer on the search engine of choice for Amazon's Customer Support Number.
(This googlebomb is sure helping out too). Check his info out: http://blog.frogbody.com/frogblog/2004/01/update_on_amazo.html
Then do a search on google for: amazon customer support phone number ... you'll find the FrogBlog coming in on top.
Posted on July 01, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
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