| Profilo di KimBimotaGrrrlFotoBlogElenchi |  Strumenti  Guida |
|
23 dicembre Bill Murray sits down with Santa ClausThis is great writing. Bill Murray is a god. Not THE God. But "a" god (to borrow his own line from "Groundhog Day"). Reprinted below without permission. You can find it at http://men.msn.com/articlees.aspx?cp-documentid=1380670>1=8883.
20 dicembre True Stories From The Bleeding EdgeI worked at a well-known high tech company for over ten years (if I include my first year as a contractor). Around 1997, I worked with the team that made a well known web browser. We were meeting with folks who worked on a network meeting client and server product, and we were asking them how they determined their customers' key scenarios and usage for their product -- "What were your customers doing with it?" Their faces quickly blushed and the room got quiet. Their top manager burbled, "Well, we discovered through intensive user tests and surveys that our #1 customer is the porn industry." He went on to explain that the top scenario is for a handful of customers to connect and watch a woman live as they chat with her.
We all giggled a bit. Then came the story I'll never forget. He goes on to tell us of an IT manager he met at a computer show. This IT manager told him about discovering the cause to a hard-to-find bug the network meeting team had been searching for, for a long while. They got to talking because the network meeting manager was curious as to 'how' he'd tracked this bug down -- since his team had tried everything to investigate it. The IT manager was using NetMeeting to watch a woman 'do things' that the 5 customers or so who connected and watcher her through NM had each asked her to do. At one point, one of the men typed that he was having a flashing problem with the image of the lady. A second man said he was too. The IT manager started inquiring to those men what version of OS and various hardware and driver questions.
Very quickly, the give customers became fully engrossed in a technical conversation about computers and video and TCP/IP, and about 1/2 hour later, the IT manager looked at the lady and she was laying there, naked, reading a book.
LOL! The geeks spent their time talking about computers, rather than to the woman!
More stories to come...
07 dicembre Thoughts On Music PiracyOne of the great things about the Internet is the ability to share ideas and thoughts both with people you know, and those you don't know; and through this sharing, create new friends. It's a huge virtual coffee house. All you have to do is post your own ideas through, say, blogging (like this), and folks can come and read about you (whatever it is you want to share about yourself - whether true or not!), and read about what you think on any given subject.
The line is drawn, however, when you choose to share something that isn't your own; and by doing so you bring hurt on the person(s) who own or created that thing you shared. The Internet has made stealing music so easy. Limewire, for example, matches those who possess certain media (songs, movies, etc.) with those who want that media and don't want to pay for it. This is nothing short of stealing music from that artist.
Would you work for your company for free? Would you go to school and receive no credit for your labors? Then why force those (whose music you appreciate) to do that?
The arguments extolled -- that sharing is hurting only the evil music company -- well, that dog just doesn't hunt for two reasons. First, the music company provides services for the budding and experienced artists such as all kinds of promotion, concerts, recording, management, etc. Yes, they take a huge cut of the profits. But the artist has signed a contract recognizing the facts of the deal. If the artist believes their music company to be evil, then *they* will elect to break away from them and release their music in another way. But for the fan to decide to do that on their own is nothing short of stealing from the artist, since they are rewarded and paid based on sales.
Second, that music company has stockholders and they will be hurt as well. These stockholders might be hard working folks (policemen, firefighters, teachers, retired, etc.) who have their retirement invested in one of these firms.
Now, having said all that, I also believe that recourse for wrong should be meted out fairly. I love this post on Slashdot by IAmTheDave today (http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/05/1858251):
Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman admitted that he was fairly certain that one or more of his children had downloaded music illegally, but despite this direct admission of guilt, no lawsuits are pending. Surprised? Bronfman insists that, after a stern talking-to, his children have suffered the full consequences of their actions. 'I explained to them what I believe is right, that the principle is that stealing music is stealing music. Frankly, right is right and wrong is wrong, particularly when a parent is talking to a child. A bright line around moral responsibility is very important. I can assure you they no longer do that.' I wonder if all of the people currently being sued/extorted can now just claim that they 'no longer do that.'"
Linus said it best: "There's a big difference between "copy" and "use". It's exatcly the same issue whether it's music or code. You can't re-distribute other peoples music (becuase it's _their_ copyright), but they shouldn't put limits on how you personally _use_ it (because it's _your_ life)." (http://lkml.org/lkml/2006/12/13/370)
What do you think?
04 dicembre Great article on Patents and CopyrightsThis article has a very good treatment of software patents, history, and issues around patents.
|
|
|
