Tag Archives: music

Tarot History, Takei Respect, DRM Woes, Work Tunes, Illusions in Motion, and Comic Book Stuff

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This entry is part 50 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Hopefully, after today’s utter insanity and stress, things will fall back into a more “schedule-friendly” rhythm at work. We should be past the point where a project that should have ebbed has continued to flow… right over top of a new project that was planned to start in the down-time.

In the feed, there’s what I consider a nice story about the insistence on DRM (Digital Rights Management) has come back to bite the company that insisted upon it in the ass. Seems a publisher that vehemently insisted Amazon only sell it’s ebook editions with DRM in place, is now in the sticky situation where it’s no longer happy with Amazon’s terms and charges, but can’t pull out without more or less using it’s entire customer base–because they’re locked into only being able to read the books on Amazon readers… because of the DRM.

Even more “fun” is the tidbit in the article that mentions Tor Books, which dropped DRM from it’s ebooks a couple years back. Ostensibly, DRM is in place to prevent piracy. Well, it seems that since dropping DRM, not only has Tor not seen an increase in piracy, they’ve actually seen an increase in sales.

Same thing happened when Amazon really jumped into the MP3 game… challenging iTunes by offering DRM free downloads. That may not have been a clear-cut victory, but Amazon’s music sales aren’t too shabby.

DRM has always treated legitimate customers like criminals and done little to nothing to deter, let alone stop, actual criminals. In most cases, it seems that it’s created more who break the law–by stripping out or otherwise circumventing the DRM so they can use their products freely.

People pirate stuff because they can’t get it legally in the form they want to make use of it. This is a lesson you’d think everyone would have learned when Napster was the biggest thing. People went there to effectively steal music because there was no legal way to get it in that format.

Ebooks are popular because people love the format. It’s bad enough that there are so many competing formats (which offer very few differences when it comes to the actual content… outside of which device you can use to read them). Adding serious DRM to them does nothing but open the door for things like a content producer getting screwed over by their DRM provider.

Maybe this time around, companies will learn.

Probably not.

A lot of humor (and some action) to counter-balance the really disturbing bits of news

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This entry is part 47 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Another kind of crazy day, but there was plenty of humor to distract online (or so it seems).

That’s good because some of the news items that came across my various feeds were more than a little disheartening. Mostly politics and environmental stuff… and I didn’t bother to re-share many of them because I just didn’t have the time to dedicate to giving them a good intro.

But they’re out there… and, sadly, I’m sure they’ll come up again.

So, today you get mostly talking animals, heart-warming stories, and some movie trailers.

Because, really, the world sucks enough as it is… no need to dwell on it all the time. (Just take action when you can!)

Also, it’s supposed to be ridiculously warm this week (mid-90s during the day, mid-70s overnight, if we’re lucky). I don’t care much for that kind of heat… especially when it’s paired with equally ridiculous levels of humidity. Imma gonna melt.

More than a few days worth of stuff (Including science, cats, politics, Fathers Day, and a whole lot of Johnny Cash)

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This entry is part 46 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Not much of an intro today. It was a low-key weekend (after the out-way-too-late game night, at least) and a busy Monday.

It’s going to be hot and humid the rest of the week. Can’t say I care much for that combination. Hopefully, the A/C unit can handle it.

Anyway, on with the catch-up feed…

Community News, Wolverine, a lot of Culture Talk, Some Science, a Little Food, and The Wonder Years Reunion

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This entry is part 37 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

I was asked in a comment stream today why I post (or, technically, share… since other people have found most of them first) the articles I do, especially about the whole misogynist culture stuff that’s really being talked about a lot right now.

The answer is simple: Awareness needs to grow.

I know far too many people–myself included–who either are or were blind to how their actions impact the lives of others.

You can’t consciously change things you don’t know you’re doing.

I can’t make anyone improve themselves. But I can at least, maybe, give them some insight into their own actions. (I know, long ago, I was utterly shocked at many of the things I was doing without realizing it.)

We can’t make anyone do anything… not without a whole lot of negatives that outstrip the positives. Plus, unless there’s a critical mass of awareness and will to begin with, forced change never sticks.

This is part of the build up to that critical mass of awareness and will to change.

If just one or two people are shaken awake, realize what they’re doing isn’t what they think they’re doing, and make personal change, then there is progress.

There’s always more than one or two people who are shaken awake.

In the particular case of this issue of entrenched male privileged and misogynist culture, we’re talking about something that is even more entrenched than racism or homophobia. It goes back thousands of years and is built into political discourse and religion like nothing else.

But just because we’ve never known a time that was different, doesn’t mean we can’t try to be better than we (as a species) have ever been before when it comes to equality.

That right there is the beauty of free will and not being trapped and controlled by our biology alone.

So, yeah, I think it’s kind of important.

Lots of Questionable Government Decisions, VR for Chickens, Public Fiber, Vocal Range Ranked, Netflix Glitched, and Why I’m Amazed We Still Any Money in the Bank (Computer Security)

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This entry is part 32 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

There’s a lot of stuff in this world that amazes me. Some of it in good ways, some of it in very bad ways.

On the list of “bad ways” is how utterly broken our ideas (and implementations) of security are. There’s a good (and terrifying) article about that, focused on computer security, in the feed. Of course, the related “good way” is that I’m constantly amazed any of us have any money in our bank accounts, despite the ease with which it can be whisked away.

Also on the “bad” list is how quickly people escalate things to ridiculous levels. Skipping over pretty much everything regarding the Department of Homeland Security (in the feed: the billion plus dollar over-run on building their headquarters… which still hasn’t even really started being built), there’s the feed article about the guy who called the cops when he came across two kids who were out for a walk. There seems to be no reason he couldn’t have called their parents, at least not from the article. But the mess it’s made is epic in the worst ways.

On the good side, sometimes people are just so full of joy. That really shines through in the video where two complete strangers join in the music with another dude who’s just playing guitar and signing on the sidewalk. It really made my day.

There’s always going to be amazing stuff out there on both sides of the divide. I always hope to run into more of the positive than the negative. Sometimes, that happens. Other times… well… reality conspires against me, it seems.