Hallowe'en story

It's Hallowe'en today, which reminds me of a story that happened when I was young.

Eclipse

We watched the lunar eclipse with the kids this evening, Donnie Darko setting up the rickety old telescope I got from my folks when I was about his age. I wonder if any New Agers were watching it from the observatory in Chichen Itza... I really should go there and find out.

Connections

We've been watching Connections this past month, a TV show I watched when I was younger that explores how social and technological change throughout history has often been the result of people using other people's ideas and discoveries in ways not previously imagined. It presents History not as a series of dates but a series of connected events. When I was in highschool I thought I hated History, but in truth it was the presentation of the subject that I hated. I would grumble about learning it during the week then watch Connections on the weekend, and the history I learned from host James Burke stuck with me a lot more than the history my teachers presented.

It seems they've restored the show for release on DVD because I recall the video being quite grainy and the colours washed out when I watched it as a kid. That we're watching it on our new Boxing Day sale digital TV might be part of the reason it looks so good, too. We're very happy with the new TV, and besides looking great it's driven a few projects for us this past month.

A Glimmer of Hope

Jim Prentice has delayed introducing his copyright reform bill.  Hopefully it's a permanent delay.

No Rights for You

I've been converting my CDs to MP3s and Oggs for years. I recently also started converting my DVDs to Xvids to watch on MythTV so the kids won't scratch them up. I own my CDs and DVDs. I paid for them. I have a right to convert them to other formats... for now. A new bill will soon be tabled that will make converting protected digital media for personal use illegal. I won't stand for it. I wrote the following letter to my MP, Jason Kenney, and sent it via Canada Post; this website helped me write it.

Dear Sir,

I am a Computer Network Administrator currently working in the Geomatics industry in Calgary. I've been a constituent of Calgary Southeast for the past five years, and I am writing to you out of grave concerns for the future of Canada's cultural policy, particularly in regard to legislative proposals for "copyright reform." I hope that you will work to ensure that any new legislation improves upon — rather than regresses from — the sensible policies set out in last Parliament's Bill C-60.

In particular, I do not believe that "digital rights management" (DRM) technologies should stop the public from making lawful uses of their legitimately acquired media. Publishers using DRM push aside the delicate balance between copyright and the rights of the public - a balance set according to an assessment of the public interest by legislators - and replace it with one-sided rules that reflect publishers' private interests. Any new copyright reform legislation, as in Bill C-60, should not make it illegal to circumvent DRM for lawful purposes.

I am also concerned about the implications of DRM on Canadian research, particularly the censorship of computer security research and of the implications of genetic research. As a Network Administrator, I know that all computer systems have vulnerabilities. DRM laws have been used to silence security researchers like Princeton computer science professor Edward Felten; when the only people looking for vulnerabilities are a few company employees and a vast network of hackers, the odds are in favour of the hackers. It is also not hard to imagine litigious corporations involved in the genetic manipulation of food using DRM laws to silence findings of any adverse effects of their products.

Finally, I am concerned that the use of DRM can threaten consumer security and privacy, as in the recent Sony-BMG "Rootkit" fiasco. When content companies routinely use technological measures to control how people enjoy entertainment in the privacy of their own homes, I think we need protection from DRM more than we need protection for it.

These concerns are shared by a substantial and growing number of informed Canadian citizens. I hope that you will take them into account when considering any changes to Canadian copyright law. Thanks very much for your time.

Sincerely,

Jan Kat

Raising the Dead

Donnie and I practiced a little electronic necromancy this weekend, which reminds me of lessons I learned many years ago.

Remembrance Day

Let me tell you how my life was directly influenced by events near the end of World War II.

Shakers and Pumpkins

There was some pumpkin carving and birthday partying going on last week...

The Future of Music

About 25 cents of every 15 dollar CD you buy from a major record label goes to the artist. The RIAA claims they sue people in the States who download music to protect the artists; really it's to protect their fat profit margins. A few years ago, the CRIA — the Canadian equivalent of the RIAA — got the Canadian government to impose a levy on all blank CDs, arguing that the major purpose of blank CDs was not to back up data but to copy music. Ironically, they were too blinded by short term profits to foresee that the levy now makes it legal for Canadians to copy music as long as they burn the music to blank CDs.

I love Radiohead. I first heard them on the soundtrack of Romeo+Juliet. I found out who they were, downloaded a couple of their songs from Napster, and based on that bought a couple of their CDs. And unlike Metallica, who made obnoxious fools of themselves by joining the recording industry's fight against Napster, Radiohead always supported music downloads.

Not long ago, Radiohead completed their contract with their record company. Instead of signing a new contract, they decided to reject the established music distribution system and distribute their new album In Rainbows themselves via the Internet. Besides being possibly the first major band to try this, they are also offering the music with no copy protection and the album has no set price: pay as much as you like.

I paid a lot less than 15 dollars. But they just made substantially more than 25 cents. This is the future of music.

MythTV

Well, I got MythTV mostly installed and working last weekend, but today I moved the box from the lab to the front room and hooked it up to the TV. It still needs some tweaking and I want to add a Colecovision emulator so the kids and I can play the old games I played in highschool, but it works.

We don't have cable (we don't watch much TV) so we'll mostly use the PVR function to digitize old videotapes. I can also use it like a jukebox to play all the music I ripped to OGGs last summer, but the thing I like about it most is that the kids can watch movies and there'll be no more scratched up DVDs lying all over ther place.

The Basement Window

We spent a good part of this weekend and last putting in a new window in the basement.

Harper's War on Drugs

Prime Minister Harper announced this week that his government is going to crack down on the trafficking and use of illegal drugs, adding that current enforcement policies have sent a confusing message on the danger of drugs. I guess this is why Alberta's Conservatives privatized liquor sales: to make it clear that the government is not in the business of selling dangerous drugs.

Maybe PM Stevie should get some advice from George W. We have this huge surplus of federal cash; why not just throw it all into a Civil War on Drugs like the Americans have?

The Island

Time for our annual trip out to the Island to visit my folks and their pets.

This is not one of their pets, though.

Beer

Tried a new beer this week: San Miguel Lager. It's quite good. I think this batch was originally intended for export to Australia, though.

Osama bin Laden makeover

Recent footage on Al Jazeera television shows operations conducted by Al Quaeda, Marketing Division, including a makeover for head speleologist Osama bin Laden.


It seems the "khaki clad guy in the cave" image is getting a little old and they're looking at some ways to spice it up.


And if the whole "wipe out the godless Westerners" thing doesn't work out, he's got an open invitation to play a super-villain in one of the upcoming Spider-Man sequels.

Geek noir

I started to write a new geek entry but got way carried away.

Embracing my inner geek

OK, I tried to hide it, but I can't keep living this lie. It's not that I haven't done anything for the past couple of months. It's that I didn't do anything I wanted to write about in this blog.

I've been working on terrible, geeky things. Like converting my entire CD collection to Ogg Vorbis files so I can listen to music from any room in my house or in the back yard. And planning how I'm going to do the same with my vinyl record collection... and my cassettes... oh, and what about my DVDs or the videos of our kids growing up? Almost forgot about those.

Anyway, I wanted to write about my geeky stuff. So I've started to. Right here.

Bowness Park

A park, a 'cache, a tasty burger.

Calgary drivers

I saw a billboard beside the road on my way home today.

It said: one in five people who read this will develop a mental illness.

My first thought was that thousands of Calgary drivers must have read it already.

But no, it's new... it couldn't have affected anybody...

Yet.

Fortunately, many Calgary drivers are illiterate.

Many more are just plain blind.

But come Friday, the rest will have driven by and read that billboard five times.

OK Go

These guys make me giggle.


A Million Ways


Here it Goes Again