The Online Rant

Sometimes I get so frustrated with our media and the stuff that makes headlines. Take for example, the big Zune controversy that hit the news last week. It seems that someone saw the President elect Obama in the gym listening to music on a Zune. That’s right, a Zune rather than an iPod.

Which is somehow hugely newsworthy. The Tubes were ablaze with speculation and rumors about why he might have used a Zune rather than an iPod. And like the comic above implies, there were huge arguments about what this meant to his moral character. And it really was just silly.  And yet somehow it was a big deal in the eyes of Americans. So much so, that his administration made an official statement that he, Obama, does not own a Zune. 

What is wrong with our country? How is it that whether Obama uses a Zune or an iPod has become more important than what his positions and plans are on issues like Abortion, the War, or the Economy?

Another good one from XKCD

I’m generally pretty happy with the default WordPress posting interface. It’s clean and pretty easy to use. But some people I know find it a bit more difficult to use. So when I heard that Windows Live Writer could handle both Microsoft Live Spaces blogs and third party blogs, I thought I would check it out.

And I’m actually pretty impressed. It integrates seamlessly with your blog(no matter what the style looks like), and allows for all the bells and whistles that posting through the normal interface allows. Plus, for those used to a "word" style writing interface, Windows Live Writer provides a familiar look and feel.

I just can’t get over how well it integrates. For example, this post was written entirely with Windows Live Writer rather than the normal built in WordPress tools. And if I hadn’t said anything, there is no way you could have known. So while I doubt I’ll be using this too much myself, I’ll probably be installing it on my Mom’s computer for her sites.

I just spent the day setting up a new family website. I’m using wordpress mu as the back end for it. The cool thing about using wordpress mu, rather than standard wordpress, is that you can set up each user with their own site using subdomains.
So each of my sisters and brothers can have their own customized site. Check it out. www.BarrowsNotes.com

Well, now that I’m back in the US, I’m having to readjust to the “always on” life that I had before going overseas. And it’s becoming a bit of an effort to keep up. I’m actually not sure how I did it before. And even worse, my current volume of mail and phone calls is actually lower than normal. So I know that as I get back into the swing of things, the amount of things needing my attention will increase.

Don’t get me wrong, I like being connected all the time. But after being away from it all for a while, I can understand how people get overwhelmed by it all. And why they want to turn off their phones and ignore their computers. Between work phone calls, personal calls, work email, personal email, and all the social networks out there, I can hardly keep up. Oh, and I almost forgot. I also have to(more like want to) keep updating this blog.

I know I can handle it. After all, I handled a much larger volume of information than what I’m working with now. I just am a little out of practice.

When I saw this pic, I just had to post it. It was too much like my real life. I spend all day at work at my computer and then come home andv spend more time on a computer

I had an interesting discussion with a friend of mine the other day. My friend is an amature photographer. And he is quite good. He was showing me some of his pictures, and I asked him if he had posted them anywhere on the Internet. His response was that he had a few low resolution images posted on his webpage, but nothing with a high resolution. Plus he only had a few of his large collection posted there.

Now my friend isn’t into the latest Internet trends. He is computer literate, but a lot of Internet culture and services just pass him by. So I started telling him about Flickr and the ease with which he could post his pictures on the site. I described the community benefits of the site, and I stressed the offloading of bandwidth and hosting costs for large pictures. My assumption being that bandwidth and hosting space were the reason why he hadn’t posted very many pictures on his site.

His response was not at all what I had expected. Though maybe I should have. Now that I think about it, I think his response may be typical of how most people not in the computer industry and coming from his background would respond.

What he said was, “If I post my pictures on Flickr, it would make it easier for people steal them.” He then went on to explain that his photos were quite valuable. In fact, he had already managed to sell a few of them to the local newspaper. His worry was that by posting his images on the internet for anyone to access, he would be reducing their value because they would be easier to “steal”.

I didn’t try to convince him otherwise, but I do think he is wrong. He thinks the Internet would reduce the value of his photos. The truth is that at worst would have no affect on the value, and at best it would increase the value.

Right now his photos only exist on his local computer. He knows about them, and knows what they contain. No one else, other than a few local reporters, knows they exist. From the perspective of most of the world, his photos and his expertise as a photographer do not exist at all. Because they can’t find him and have no way of knowing he or his photos exist.

If he posted the photos on Flickr, or any one of the many other photo sharing sites, people could find them. They would be categorized, indexed, and searchable by the whole world. The pool of potential buyers for his photos would become huge and nearly unlimited. His photography skills would be displayed and advertised to the world. Which would make his photos, and his skills more valuable than they ever could be with him pitching them only to local reporters and newspapers. And it wouldn’t cost him anything.

Will people “steal” his photos? Of course they will. But would the people who “steal” his photos have ever bought them in the first place? I really doubt it. If they aren’t the kind of people who would honor his copyright terms in the first place, then they are unlikely to to be willing to buy his photos.

So if they take his photos off of Flickr and use them without paying him, he isn’t really any worse off than he would be if they hadn’t taken them. In fact, he might even be better off because more people will see the images. And reputable publications will attempt to track down the owner before using the images. So the “stolen” photos actually become a form of advertising for his portfolio and his skillset.

That doesn’t mean I don’t think he should ignore violations of his copyright. After all, if you don’t attempt to enforce your copyright there is no incentive for anyone to ever honor it. The point I’m trying to get across, is that you shouldn’t let concerns about potential copyright violations drive what you do with the images you own. Because the benefits of sharing the images, far outweigh the protections you get from hoarding the images.

By the way, the images I use on this blog come from morguefile. A great site for free images and amature photgraphers.

Today I set up a website for my missions project. The whole thing kind of went on hold over the last month. What with Christmas and everything, I just didn’t have a lot of time to work on it. But now I’m getting back to it.

Things are going rather well on the Installer. So I thought it was time to set up a website to host the project files and various pieces of data that this project entails. It’s mostly a shell at the moment, but I’ll be adding to it in the next few weeks. So stay tuned to the new project website for updates.

Check it out: www.MissionDisk.com

Thought the above comic was just too funny. Especially since I just spent a great deal of time cleaning off my parents computer. I think they had 40-50 different viruses and spyware on their computer.
I know that my parents computer is the “family” computer and consequently it gets used by my little brothers and sisters. So the people using it aren’t always the most computer savvy. But seriously, how do they get so many viruses and spyware? Do they just click on every little thing that pops up?

I don’t even run a resident antivirus scanner on my personal computer, and I have yet to get infected with spyware or viruses. And yet my parents computer, my brothers computer, and various friends, all of whom are running resident antivirus programs get infected. Please people! Don’t click on popups and don’t install shady software. LOL

Heidi over at Virushead tagged me in a post about blogging. I don’t normally do the blog meme thing, but I was bored. So I thought I would make an exception this time. So here goes.

1. How long have you been blogging?
Not that long. About a year. I started blogging with a blogger account, and only recently purchased a hosting account with Dreamhost. Domains are cheap, but hosting isn’t quite as cheap. But Dreamhost isn’t bad.

2. What inspired you to start a blog and who are your mentors?
Well, I started blogging for two reasons. First I just wanted a place I could post things that I found interesting or funny. That way my friends and family could see the things I found. That was my first blog, and I still run that blog and post to it on a regular basis. My posts there have gotten a little more professional as I’ve gotten more writing experience, but the basic theme is still the same.

I started this blog as a place where I could post my thoughts and ideas. A good friend of mine suggested that I start writing as a way to let off some stress. Of course, the suggestion was for me to be writing in a journal. I don’t think I could do a paper based journal. I’m too much of a digital person. So this is what I got.

I guess that kind of answers the mentors portion of the question as well.

3. Are you trying to make money online, or just doing it for fun?
Well, I’m certainly not trying to make money off this. I don’t have any adds or sponsors on either of my blogs. I post for fun and my own personal development. As long as I can afford to keep paying for the hosting, both blogs will probably stay ad free.

4. Tell me 3 things you LOVE about being online.

The sheer wealth of knowledge. Anything I ever want to know or am even curious about is online and available with a simple search. Before the internet, the only way I could have satisfied my curiosity would have been to go to a library. Then I had to hope that the library would have a book on the subject. Now within five minutes I can have all the info I could ever want.

The communication aspects of the internet. I have friends all over the world that I correspond with daily. Without the Internet, I would never be able to keep up with them. I would be limited to only those who are within telephone access. I know that snail mail exists, but the long turn around would just make any real communication not possible. And telephone costs for overseas calls would be totally impractical. The Internet makes that possible.

The ability to create and publish my own ideas and thoughts. Basically blogging like this. The internet has made it possible for people who don’t have access to expensive equipment or traditional publishing resources, to publish their own words. That is something that has never been possible before. And it’s an exciting thing to see and experience.

5. Tell me 3 things you STRUGGLE with in the online world.
Keeping focus. The sheer number of distractions and calls on my attention when I’m online can be really overwhelming. I’ll go on with a purpose, and discover an hour later that I have forgotten what I was looking for because I spent the whole hour looking at cats with inane text captions.

Feeling inadequate. The internet is a big place and it makes you realize what a small fish you are. For every thing I know, it is really obvious that I don’t know much. There is so much knowledge and information out there. And no matter how much I ever learn about any particular subject, I will always know so little compared to how much there is to know about it.

Keeping up with people. Instant communication is great, but you can get really overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of messages you get. It’s really easy to let someone fall through the cracks. Or to let a message go unanswered by accident.

At the end of this, I’m supposed to tag some other bloggers, but I don’t think I will. Not because I’m stingy with my links, but because I normally hate being tagged in one of these things myself. So I don’t think I’ll do it to anyone else. Hope you enjoyed my answers to the questions above.

Image citation
good question from e-magic’s photostream.