We’ve done the instant posts as they happen thing. It worked. Or worked until it didn’t. Now, we’re taking it a step further–and saving a tiny bit of space in the database. Updates by email, 2.0. Get one post per day, with everything I’ve posted in a particular day–and probably a few extras. Plus, come right back here to take advantage of things that won’t fit in the email update. If you’re not a fan of the RSS feed, now, you don’t need to be. The link you need is on the left hand side. Or, just go click. I’m still ironing out the kinks, so things may or may not go querky once or twice. Maybe even 3 times. But it works, it’s an update type thing, and I get to fire a WordPress plugin to save space. Not saying no. Now. Who wants some?
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Email updates 2.0.
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Wanna be a Canadian citizen? Brush up on your official language of choice…
From the “it’s about goddamn time” department, the folks what run this country are actually doing something else that makes sense and is long overdue. For folks not so familiar with the workings of Canada, we have two official languages. Well, unless you live in Quebec–then there’s one, with grudging acknowledgement of some kind of second language type thing going on over there. thing about it is, people coming to Canada weren’t required to actually learn either of those languages. That makes things really quite interesting–particularly when I run to the store across the street and the guy serving me can speak an entire… maybe… 4 words in English (that’s another entry). The folks over at Citizenship and Immigration would very much like to change that. A new thought bubble to be floated out of the downtown core is that folks wanting to apply for citizenship must now be able to prove, in writing, their proficiency in at least one of our two official languages–English, or French (yes, Quebec, that probably includes citizens who want to live there). Now, here’s a question. How long before somebody on the opposition benches turns that into an attack on immigrants? Any ideas?
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The government plans to catch up to 2012–in 2016.
Forget about trying to bring ODSP up to date–a thing I’ve been doing off and on for a couple years, now. Somebody’s been prodding the federal government in the ass a time or six. They’ve now decided, scheduled for 2016, that any and all payments from them–like, say, your income tax refund–will be handled via direct deposit. Keep in mind direct deposit’s been around for years. They call it in the name of saving money, but finally catching up to technology would be another way to look at it. Now, if we could just do something about the fact there’s still places around here that don’t take debbit–KFC here in Ottawa, I’m staring directly in your direction.
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In which James gets run over by awesome and doesn’t even realize.
So about this whole blogging more often thing. Yeah, about that. How’s that going? Hint: don’t answer–I already know. That’s kind of what happens when life decides to say hi, how’s it goin’. But, hey, it’s still less than a month since the last entry. I’m not completely slacked off, right? … Right? … Right.
So what’s the geek been distracted with that’s kept him from brainmelting all over the place? Catching up, mostly. You know, when you take2 days off from your usual routine, it takes you about 10 to actually clean up after it. I took 4. It wasn’t a completely unproductive 4 days, though–I did meet some supremely awesome folks during the downtime. It’s what happens when you stick me in the audience at a show put on by Propeller Dance, which is where I spent a good sized chunk of one of those off days. And in so doing, I very nearly tripped and fell over a few wicked awesome people–one of which, I didn’t know until that night, actually writes a blog I have occasionally been referred to for sources of random amusement/general “what the hell does this much caffeine do to this person” type commentary. Which, uh, kind of reminds me–hey, Zoom? If you still actually read this, she says she knows you.
On top of that, there’s the usual. I take 30 seconds to find something mock-worthy, life takes 30 seconds to create distractions. this time, in the form of a move that ended up not happening–no, not mine–I try to move once every two years if I can help it. But I actually didn’t need to go remind me how to get back into this thing again, since I have a nasty little habbit of waiting until *after* the cookie containing my password goes and dies on me before deciding hey, maybe I should log in. That’s progress, dammit. Lack of blog, however, doesn’t mean lack of content–I’ve still got a pile. It will make it up here, I just haven’t the slightest idea as to when. As for right now? I have caffeine. And you have to go read The Maven of Mayhem. No, seriously. You do. Go. I’ll wait. By the time you’re done alternating between snorting your beverage of choice and spitting it out, something useful will probably make it up here. If it doesn’t, it’s probably because she’s posted something else and I’m joining you. Now. Where’d I put my caffeine refill?
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Turning free speach on its head: rant about anti-piracy laws, go directly to jail.
I suppose I should maybe stop doing this, lest I end up in the cell across the hall, but hey–they make this shit easy. What’s the quickest way to make damn sure you land yourself a 2 year prison sentence for running a website? Vent about the site’s most likely shutdown and your having been charged with copyright infringement. That did it in Alexandria, Verginia, at least–where after posting online about her having been convicted, the former owner of ninjavideo.com found herself with a free place to stay. I’m not even going to get into the hipocricy of a country that will criticize China for putting folks in jail for ranting against their laws turning around and doing the same thing. If it were any other topic of conversation, and someone had taken issue with it, any judge in his right mind would have slapped them down and called it free speech. But because “OMG PIRACY!”, the rules change. Folks, this combined with my post from earlier should more than explain just what lengths of ridiculous the copyright/piracy-minded have to stretch themselves to to make their point–something they still haven’t really managed to get entirely down pat just yet. So now, she’s in jail, piracy’s still illegal, and we’re still no closer to a viable alternative to it. But it’s for the artists, you know. Yeah, those artists.
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Brian Coldin strikes out: we still don’t wanna see what ya got.
Remember this guy? Sure you do. Naked folk resort, central Ontario, thought it’d be fun to go grab a burger but didn’t really wanna grab clothes first? Yeah, him. He thought it might be fun to take a run at the constitution with his court case, having the laws changed so it’s perfectly acceptable for folks like him to do exactly what, well, he just did. And, guess what? It’s not.
Like I said in the other entry on this little event, I could really care less what he does on his own property–if folks in general knew how I dressed in my own apartment, they’d probably take offense. But it’s my own private property. I can do that. The general public doesn’t wanna see it. And it’s not violating my rights if they don’t. Brian over there, though? doesn’t quite see it that way. Which is exactly why he runs his own private resort for naked folks–emphasis on private. Now, if he’s smart, he’ll leave this case exactly where it is and go about doing his thing. But, then, if he was smart, he wouldn’t have showed up at a drive through with nothing but a smile in the first place. You can probably guess, I’m looking for the appeal.
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Why does the TSA do this to themselves? Anyone know?
I really meant to do *this* forever ago. But really, it practically mocks itself. The TSA’s good catches of 2011–every single one of them being things that would have been caught and taken away pre-9/11. Well, everything dangerous, anyway. They didn’t start getting quite that paranoid until recently. Just how paranoid?
TSA confiscates a butter knife from an airline pilot. TSA confiscates a teenage girl’s purse with an embroidered handgun design. TSA confiscates a 4-inch plastic rifle from a GI Joe action doll on the grounds that it’s a “replica weapon.” TSA confiscates a liquid-filled baby rattle from airline pilot’s infant daughter. TSA confiscates a plastic “Star Wars” lightsaber from a toddler.
Feel safer yet, US folks? No? Well, okay. How about now?
Of all the many complaints about airport security and the TSA, one of the most common is that they make little distinction between plausible security threats and passengers unlikely to be doing anything wrong.
And a recent incident in Wichita, Kansas has reinforced that argument, as a four-year-old girl was apparently subjected to a humiliating ordeal after she hugged her grandmother while she was waiting in line.
The girl was accused of having a gun and declared a ‘high security threat’, while agents threatened to shut down the whole airport if she could not be calmed down.
When asked about the overbearing treatment the girl received, a TSA spokesman did not apologise and insisted that correct procedures had been followed.
Keep going, TSA. Sooner or later, you’re bound to catch you a terrorist. Hey, maybe you can put that on 2012’s best catches list. Or how about just admit your system’s a little tiny bit busted? Yeah, somehow I didn’t think so.
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Another vote for piracy, from the completely legal-minded.
Remember all those miniature essays I wrote about folks not seeming to be able to wrap their heads around exactly how easy it’d be if they really wanted to prevent piracy of anything from movies to software? Yeah, those posts. The ones where even the TV stations themselves don’t much get it. It would seem you can add to the list, the major sports organizations (I’m looking at you, MLB).
Your average American’s got two things going on on Christmas day. They’re eating way too damn much, and probably watching either football or basketball. Or both, if you’re some folks. An author over on Techdirt wanted to be one of those folks. Here’s the catch, though. As always happens, the gatekeepers said thanks, but no thanks.
Like many of you, I made the trek with my girlfriend to my parent’s house to exchange gifts, eat too much food, and sit around with my family and friends talking as the television sat in the background displaying football and basketball. As the night progressed, the food cooled, the board games became boring, and the way my family slings around red wine resulted in the urge to go home early in the evening. Since my girlfriend was kind enough to drive us home (sober, of course), I was free to do what I wanted in the passenger seat.
And what I wanted to do was watch sports. The tail end of the Bulls game was still on. The Bears game would shortly follow. Sports on radio never did much for me. I wanted to watch. So I yanked out my smart phone and checked out the NBA site, the NFL site, and the sites of our local television stations. What I found was what I expected: the local stations didn’t offer any streaming of the games, but the NBA and NFL have their versions of mobile streaming packages which generally start right around the $50/season mark. This gets you access to their respective broadcasts (not the local ones).
Enter a problem easily solveable by pirates, as the article explains. But I’ll pause there just for a minute. He’s already got a cable package, presumedly. Were he already at home, he could plunk his ass down in front of the tube, flip to the local station, and catch the broadcast that way, at no extra charge. He would probably even, though he doesn’t say so in the article, not mind paying a little bit extra just to get that same broadcast on his phone. But the NBA and NFL have their own ideas. What he does say, though, is he’s not out to avoid being nagged at by advertizing–he’d have it easily, and the leagues wouldn’t be responsible for it.
Here’s my question: why is any of this necessary? With that same smart phone, I could have gone to one of dozens of websites (evil, evil websites) that would simply stream the games I wanted directly to my device for free. More to the point, they’d stream the local broadcast that I wanted, complete with commercials. Why wouldn’t the major sports leagues do the same thing? If advertising is still the major money-maker for professional sports (and, along with merchandise, it is), why wouldn’t they want to increase their reach by offering their own free advertisement-laden stream? Coupled with location identifiers, I’d think the leagues could partner with local broadcasters to make sure that people were getting the same geographical broadcast they’d get watching at home. Again, the same commercials can be in place, so what’s lost? Why charge me $50 a season to watch the game on my phone or tablet, but not levy that same charge for watching on my television? It’s the ads that matter, isn’t it?
And, as he somewhat sideways eludes to, had he done exactly that–gone to one of those evil websites that would have given him exactly what he wanted exactly how he wanted, he’d be among the masses the very same leagues accuse of depriving them of their advertizing dollars and causing all manner of horrible evil bad things to happen to innocent children. And yet, you can probably guess exactly what he did. Rather than let you, have this.
And so we get back to the start of this piece, in contrast to Mike’s message of masses saying “no” to those who impede technological progress. Because in my case, driving home that blustery Christmas night, with only thoughts of Derrick Rose and Brian Urlacher in my head, I felt no urge to say “no”. I only recognized one sentiment as I glanced over the league’s packages for streaming and then turned to one of the evil, horrible, death-enducing sites that gave me the stream I wanted just in time to see Derrick Rose drive the lane and score the winning layup to beat the Lakers: I don’t need their packages.
No one needs their packages, necessarily. Not as long as the same damn thing can be obtained at a cost no different than it would to watch the same broadcast at home. The leagues already make mega cash off advertizing. Plus I’m fairly sure they all have their own TV channels now, which means more mega cash from cable and satelite subscribers. But they’ve joined everyone else in the recent trend of charging multiple times for the same content in a slightly different format. No, you don’t need their packages. And neither do they. The sooner they realize that, the more willing their fans would be to fork over more of their money. Now which league’s gonna go first?
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In which I breathe a sigh of relief and thank christ I don’t have to deal with US immigration.
If ever I have a reason to deal with US immigration in future, can somebody please very politely slap me upside the head with something blunt and heavy? Thanks. They don’t seem to be in possession of a degree of inteligence lately. A 14-year-old girl ran away from home and was later arrested for shoplifting. She fed police a fake name–what 14-year-old hasn’t done that, if they thought it’d keep them from catching shit–and that name just so happened to belong to someone wanted by the Colombian government. So the police handed her over to immigration–who promptly took her fingerprints and, uh, deported her anyway. Her grandmother only found out about it, uh, this year (this happened in 2010). I wonder how long it’ll take them to undo this mess–and how much of its web sensorship practices are playing a part in why no one knew of it until, uh, 2012?
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Knighthood ain’t what it used to be.
Apparently all it takes to become a knight these days is being partly responsible for Apple’s mamoth crushing of just about anything that competes with it–whether it’s deserved or not. The guy who was behind the original design of the original iPhone, iPod and iPad has officially been knighted. For uh, being responsible for Apple’s mamoth crushing of pretty much everything that competes with it. Is now a bad time to say I’m contemplating what will be the eventual replaceement for the iPhone I didn’t really want?