E-Dribble

During one of my light reading sessions in the bathroom yesterday(what, I know I’m not the only one.), I was reading this month’s WIRED magazine. During my reading, I actively try to ignore the ads in the page, just to spite the company that so shamelessly packs more ads than content into their magazine, but one ad slipped by. It was for the Microsoft Zune.

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You’ll probably remember Sony/BMG’s recent antics.  They’ve been busted on installing malware, rootkits and more all in attempts to keep their customers from making backups of the music they purchased. They knew that there are thieving bastages out there that will take something that is not theirs and use it, all the while refusing to compensate the company that provided it.

Well, hi there pot! it’s me, kettle!

That’s right folks.  Sony/BMG got busted for installing pirated software on their servers.  The same company that installed rootkits on user’s computers, not to stop pirating, but to stop legitimate copying of owned music are a bunch of thieves themselves.

I guess it takes one to know one.

Hans Reiser, creator of the ReiserFS file system was finally convicted of murdering his wife.

I’m not going to bother sharing thoughts on his guilt or innocence, but after reading the article, I think you’ll agree that although he may be a genius, he is no good at the creative thought process.

That is a quote from one Richard L. Gabriel, lead national counsel for the RIAA and a partner at the Denver law firm Holme, Roberts, & Owen.

What’s he referencing? One of those dastardly, crooked cap wearing, pants-drooping music thieves with thousands of downloads under their belt, I bet.

Almost.

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Well, when it comes to lawsuits against their fans.  When it comes to providing their music in new and innovative ways, they’ll wait until it’s been proven economically feasible before they’ll try it.

You’ll remember that Metallica was one of the main proponents in the initial lawsuits that brought down Napster. Now, they’d like you to know that it was never about downloading music.  They just, you know…. didn’t want you to do it then.  Now it’s ok of course, because Trent Reznor made an assload of cash doing it.

What really happened is this:  Metallica got caught hugging an antiquated music distribution system.  When the fear of sales dropping touched their wallets, they lashed out.  Over the years, they’ve held their stance, because nobody else broke the mold.  Now that bands like Radiohead, Trent Reznor and others have proven that you can sell a lot of music this way, they’re willing to try it.  Oh, and hey, let’s just forget about that whole “attack our fans” phase we went through.

Hey, who am I to judge?  I’ll download their new album…. If they offer it for free.

Hey, I’m no pirate.

I hate the thought of my daughter using the computer. I know that’s odd for a person that spends the majority of their conscious time using one, but if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. I know how depraved you all are and want to protect her from that.

For that reason, I’m always on the lookout for a children’s portal or community to ease her into the dark underbelly of the interweb. My most recent find was Glubble. Touted as the greatest thing since sliced bread by nameless groups and clubs that probably don’t exist, I was excited to install it and try it out.

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Anyone who’s heard me speak of IKEA and their genius products will also know that I find their instructions to be their Achilles heel.  Manuals consisting of no text and pictures of stick figures holding what might be either a screwdriver or a shiv is cute when you’re assembling a toilet paper roll holder, but when you have to build your whole kitchen using these instructions, the humor is lost and you begin to curse the fair haired designers.

Japan feels the same way. In fact, they say it’s a risk.  I guess you might accidentally stab yourself with the instructions, but otherwise I just found it to be a terrible inconvenience.

Group in San Francisco has pray-in at gas station to ask God to lower gas prices.  Because, you know…. God hates an unbalanced economic model.

If I had known he was into such micro-management, I would have been sending some shout outs prior to all my dates in high school.

So says Bill Gates:

Open source, he said, creates a license “so that nobody can ever improve the software,” he claimed, bemoaning the squandered opportunity for jobs and business.

Luckily we have MS around to balance the scales and foster innovation and open development.

“I think you might be hypoglycemic.”

“What mean you for say that?”

“I think that may be why you are having problems with your speech, hearing and sight. Also, it may be why you quit lifting your feet five miles back.”

“Wonder for big dance huggy me.”

“Almost there.”

That’s how Orthoguy and I wrapped up our last Adventure Thursday. Twelve miles of blissful joint grinding, high elevation walking just to end up back where we started.

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