One year ago today: August 12, 2017, the $9 jackpot.
Five years ago today: August 12, 2013, by coincidence, the wagon . . .
Nine years ago today: August 12, 2009, the famous “Canadian” convo.
Random years ago today: August 12, 2010, my parade float.
Aha, I was right when I began to suspect as early as Win 98 that MicroSoft was installing spyware at the factory. In the early days when things went wrong, it was common to scan the ascii code for readable passages. I noticed huge swaths became unreadable and issued warning almost immediately. So today, JimmyR contained an announcement that MicroSoft begrudgingly admits the wrongdoing. And those who called us paranoid would be in better control of their identities today instead of paying bank fees. But one never could get through their thick skulls.
Here’s a table being painted at the work yard. These are for the fancy restaurant downtown, Agt. R is the handyman. I was over this morning fitting the new burners. The case is slightly smaller and the adapter is for the one lb bottles, but that just gives me a bit more clearance. I need to proceed with staff training and practical measurements. For instance, we know a three gallon pot holds three gallons, but how full can you practically fill it? Is that level the same for simmering liquid or boiling liquid? And how many ladlefuls can be served from that level. It’s best to not have to discover these little gems by surprise.
You know what I don’t like about SD disk encryption? It’s the whole flash drive or nothing. Like most people, I don’t need every file in the vault. What’s annoying this time is now SanDisk requires a monster password. It’s one thing to advise people to use better passwords, but it is wrong to insist on it. I’ve worked with people who have to locate and use the Caps Lock key to type even a single capital. They call themselves ‘power users’.
Another European study shows that consumers are willing to pay more for products that have a longer life. This bitter lesson was partially learned in the 1980s by American auto manufacturers when they lost their market share. Imagine that, people would pay more for good quality, how it must have stunned them. The strategy only works until the factories merge and agree between them to water down the product. Like the camera people did, are you listening Kodak, Nikon, Panasonic, Canon, etc.?
Of course, the American companies were quick to jump on the wagon by changing their advertising to the meaningless phrases, “longer lasting” and “lasts up to . . .” crock. The product has not improved a lick. The Europeans are tabling legislation to force label information that indicates the product’s expected minimum lifespan. Interesting. But they are also aiming to force manufacturers to pay the recycling cost of anything that lasts less than five years. I’m iffy on that if it piles a cost on existing industry. It would devastate the American industrial landscape.
Solar panel highway.
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Instead, I decided on another batch of chicken soup. Why heat three gallons of water and waste it? Five ingredients not counting spices, folks. Chicken, celery, corn, potatoes, and peas. I don’t really call it soup made from scratch because it doesn’t contain any, ha-ha. The ingredients are cooked separately, then simmered together. Just a habit of mine that started from not wanting the potatoes to soak up all the broth. That’s the spuds in the pot that’s steaming, with onions. And the upside-down pot on the back burner? Just sterilizing my pressure cooker, another habit.
Speaking of lawless, the Europeans are also dabbling into copyright law, which seems sensible enough since they invented the concept, and out of thin air, too. Myself, I support the right of people to not have to tiptoe around because somebody else is having a tough go. Where does it end? If you let the copyright people have their own way, it never stops. Do I now have to stop before I snap a picture to first make sure there isn’t some movie poster or book cover in the distant background? Because that is where they are going with this.
Another aspect of it that irks me is how the rules apply differently to amateurs and pros. Millions of people post photos everyday without a thought of compensation or ownership. Yet a nearly identical picture of the same scene, if taken by a “professional” is suddenly intellectual property to be protected by the ridiculously expensive court system. These professionals want full use of the Internet to promote their wares, but want to grant others only partial use. Hmmm.
Now make sure you are reading me right. I’m not saying free-for-all. There are criminals who abound making pirated copies that diminish demand for the originals. That is definitely wrong. Question: is it wrong to the artist, or is it wrong to the person who is not the performer, but now claims it as his own property. Trust me, once they’ve been paid the first time, most musicians don’t care who uses it after that, as long as they use it. We are back to the rotten recording industries and I don’t know of anybody who sympathizes with them.
Still, should not the burden of protection rest with those who use copyable media? After all, movies and books have been successfully marketed by radio, which alone proves there are effective means to prevent piracy, if you look for them. My music performances cannot be stolen because they are not recorded. That’s a strong hint.
There is a kafuffle over BitCoin, how it has lost billions in value in the short last while. Funny how the US dollar does the same on a regular basis and nobody panics. I understand only the basics of bitcoin and I still don’t respect any currency that does not have a store of value backing it up. That means gold and silver for now. I can’t shrug the feeling that governments hate crypto-currency for far deeper reasons than their stated opinion that criminals use it. They use dollars, too, and the feds still print those. That’s hypocrisy anyway, since the establishements are pushing for cashless societies with their existing dysfunctional banking system in control.
ADDENDUM
Having said the above, I have always avoided using watermarked or copyright labeled material in this blog. For that matter, I find it annoying when I search for such material to find what I can’t use. I don’t make any money off it. But if the law changes, I cannot imagine the task of going back through the material to find any infringements. It boils down to who is responsible. I do all I can but if the photo is not clearly labeled as copyrighted, how am I supposed to know. If you left it up to them, they’d slap the load on me (to discover if a given item is copyrighted), which is grossly unfair. They should establish a cutoff date and a distinctive signal, after which all new material that is protected is clearly flagged. But making the law retroactive, that's disgusting. It is not like the average person is the least concerned with the issue, and it was clearly intended to target those who make a habit or a living doing it.
[Author’s note: the case in question was a student who had permission to use a copyrighted photo in an assignment. He won and the school published it in their yearbook, which included the photo. The artist did not specifically tell the school they couldn’t use his photo and it’s use in the yearbook is an obvious extension of the student’s right. They were publishing contest winnings, not conspiring to steal pictures. The artist did not have to prove the school made a profit or cause him a loss. This would have to be absolutely proven by the accuser before I’d ever consider letting matters go any further.
The “artist” was obviously a scumbag and should have his work blacklisted. I fear we’ll soon see a rash of speculative prosecutions in this vein.]
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