What can we still get done in a day? I’m glad you asked. I learned how to play the spoons. It took about 15 minutes to master the techniques. I haven’t a clue how important learning spoons is, as I don’t know what others accomplished in the same time frame. The trick is to not overplay, to keep the basic rhythm well into the background. It works best with folk music. It is time somebody moved it along or invented a new tactic.
Other than a trip to the library, I stayed indoors on a lovely day. So you understand, even on a cool day, the Florida sun can glare, so I mean lovely indoors, a day you can sit in the shade with a window open. The cross-breeze means no A/C needed. Myself, I usually don’t sit outdoors by myself, rather with company. Speaking of company, Dave-O has not been around for tea. I tend to only drink tea when company arrives, see the logic? Then you get my famous curry-mayo cucumber sandwiches.By startling coincidence, cucumber sandwiches are mentioned in Sherlock Holmes, a set of chapters I am just finishing. It seemed to me such a sandwich was the aftermath of World War II rationing. I’m aware it is English though it didn’t occur to me it went back further. That means I may be making them all wrong. Time to find a recipe to see how I’m doing. It is still unknown why I am the only one in my group who drinks coffee every day.
It took some doing, but I am slowly getting some answers from the e-book crowd. I found a site in California that will actually answer questions, and I don’t mean those lame FAQs for dummies. I may read the fine print soon. I was doing more research on free e-books at the time. The controversy in the news is not copyright, that’s been around for ages. The trouble is DRM, which I think stands for “Digital Rights Management”.
Here’s a layman’s explanation, if you want more, go look it up. Let me explain the two sides of the issue, then get into the blurry area of overlap. Side A: you are the author of a work, and therefore you are entitled to a royalty payment whenever somebody enjoys it. Side B: authors are entitled to a royalty fee once when the product is sold new. After that, copyright only stops others from making copies, they can still sell or give away the original.
That’s clear. Now, the fuzzy area. The DRM people say the ease of electronic copying and distributing gives them the right to go further in protecting their intellectual property. The anti-DRM lobby says no, they are trying to delve into areas that are not covered by copyright law, and they are clearly infringing on people’s privacy. Both are right.
If the DRM people win, every book, tune and video you buy will only play once on your registered player, which will have “the chip”. You would pay again to use it another time, or take it over to your neighbors for the evening and get him to pay. You would not be permitted to sell or transfer the usage to others, it won’t play on their equipment until they pay for it again (you can deduce the per-play payment should be lower than a purchase, but don’t count on it. Look at cable TV charging people $114 per month to watch commercials.).
There is even talk of the works expiring after any period of inactivity, and charging a renewal fee if you buy a new computer, reader, or player. MicroSoft already does this with software. The DRM squad would be able to tell if you ever play a pirated copy, they already can search your house without a warrant in California. It is the middle ground where the problems lie, so not choosing sides won’t save you anything. As a performing musician, I am not sympathetic to recording issues.
Oh yes, it is quite within the capabilities of the major media to keep a file on your usership for life. They would never abuse the data like the libraries do. Myself, I’m more for the anti-DRM for I have a vested interest in used media. Of the 6,000 odd books I’ve read, I’ve bought less than 20 of them new (not counting texts while in college). I doubt I’ve ever bought a new Mechanics Illustrated or a National Geographic.
I’m pretty sure the last album I bought was Juice Newton, who looked and acted nothing like Britney Spears, Lady Gaga or that sack of bones who used to be Madonna. Yet I maintain the media companies lost nothing, as I would never have paid their outrageous prices in the first place, and that is what the copyright laws are for: to ensure demand for their product.
ADDENDUM
Much later, I decided against Karaoke tonight. Instead, I stayed up until 2:00 AM and got the Arduino to do some basic math. (As usual with the C language, twice as much time spent looking for misplaced punctuation marks instead of getting work done.) I calculated an hypotenuse. Well, there’s more to it than it sounds. It must also display the results in the correct format, which is full of quirks if you are not familiar with signed long memory variables. But I hear any computer genius in Ontario can fill you in on those.
Return Home
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
