Copyright (readings for week ten)

The issue of copyright is HOTLY debated in the nerd/hacker/pirate community. In my experience, I've run across all types of copyright issues, both legal and ethical, and it's very hard to know where the line is.

My first computer, an IBM PS/2 given to me back in 1997 had DOS running on it. For those of you who don't know but care enough to wonder, DOS is what Windows is based on. The only difference is that DOS doesn't have any sort of Graphical User Interface, or GUI. Instead, the user has to type commands to make the computer do anything.

As you can imagine, this was unacceptable to an impatient pre-teen like me. I wanted it to work by itself, without the need to have me type commands. I wanted Windows. My neighbor happened to share my enthusiasm for computers with me, and he lent me his copy of Windows 3.1. It was spread across 13 floppy disks, but it was Windows and it was free. I installed it without a second thought, and thus began my pirated computing career.

When I first started downloading "free" music back in 2000, it never even occurred to me that what I was doing could be considered stealing. Even after my dad explained it to me, I still felt that what I was doing was not wrong. I felt that I had been provided with a solution to a flawed industry. When I was in high school, a movie would get released to the theater, play for maybe a month, and then it would disappear for a year or more until it was released on videotape or DVD.

"Why," I thought, "would an industry do something so stupid? Why make us wait over a year to see the movie in our own homes? Why punish us instead of embracing us when we find a way to do it without your help?"

This mindset carries over very well into the music realm as well. I think it's ridiculous that companies will sell us a song with Digital Rights Management (DRM) attached to it so that we can only listen to it on one computer, but not on a CD or portable music player. Additionally, if my computer breaks and I get a new one, the DRM restrictions prevent me from listening to the song that I OWN on my new computer! I think the copyright law in the US needs a lot of change.

Week Eight Readings

In the nerd world, there are two definitions for the word "free". When someone refers to free software, they generally follow it with one of the two definitions:

Free as in Freedom: This means that the software is free to distribute, change, modify, destroy, whatever. You have complete freedom over what you do with it, and who you give it to. Additionally, the author(s) encourage users to veiw the source code of the software and modify/enhance it and share the changes with the world. The legal license associated with software that is free (as in freedom) is called the GPL (General Public License) and states that the software can never be restricted.

Free as in Beer: No doubt started by rowdy college programming students, software that is free as in beer does not cost anything, but does not have the same liberties associated with it as free as in freedom software. The name comes from college parties where people generally drink other people's beer for free.

Many of you have used software that is free (as in freedom) and may be unaware of it. Firefox is by far the most common example. Many browsers share the source code of Firefox, and Firefox itself uses the same source code as Netscape. This goes to show that you don't need to charge money to make some famous software.

Being a Norwegian Lutheran, I will not spend money on ANYTHING unless I absolutely have to. That's one of the reasons I enjoyed this chapter. Even if I were more prone (or proner, if you want to use some bad English) to spending money, the chapter would still be relevant because all of the activites we've done in class so far have been free. Free as in beer. A few exceptions have been using NVU and Kompozer, which are both free (as in freedom) since they share the same source code. In class, I love using free software and doing free activities because it eliminates the income barrier that many students encounter.

I like Szendeffy's idea of E-Postcards, since getting personal letters (electronic or otherwise) is always a plus for students, but I REALLY enjoy blogging. Blogging is almost always free (as in beer) and it gives students a very powerful writing tool. I like it more than ink-and-paper journalling because of the cost, and the fact that you can share your thoughts with the world without having to make many different copies.

Once a nerd, always a nerd

As humans, most often we avoid things that do not mesh well with our personalities, and we will often sell ourselves short of what we can do, simply because we think that it's beyond our abilities. I am as guily as anybody regarding this idea. Often, I have declared myself completely incompetent in a certain area or unable to do a task simply because I believe I won't succeed. I rarely will even attempt it before the declaration of "I can't do this, I'm no good at it."

Such has been my case for web design over the past years. I am a very visual person, and I see myself as a very creative person, but I've always believed that I don't organize things well visually. My room is always messy, I'm very disorganized, and oftentimes the only thing holding me together is a thread of anxiety woven from my disorganization. Sure, I have made websites, but I often tell myself that I've cheated because I use designs and templates that somebody else made up, and I simply filled in the information.

Given this background, I'm sure you can all understand the apprehension I felt when Dr Smidt told us what we were going to have to produce by the end of the semester: a professional website. I'm confident in my ability to print the work I've done, and in my ability to put my work on the Internet, but to piece it all together using programs and techniques I'm unfamiliar with seemed, at least for a few minutes, too much to ask. But, just as the dreaded research seminar I will eventually have to take, this too shall pass. I will get this done and online, ON TIME, and above all, it will look good. No good nerd will ever turn down a challenge to learn more about computers, and a skill as valuable as making a website and posting it on the Internet is too good of a challenge to pass up. We'll see how this turns out.

Here's an English joke for

Here's an English joke for everybody: A preposition is not something to end a sentence with.

Podcasting 101

One thing that's difficult with communicating on the Internet is the impersonal nature of text-based communication. Also, since there is no vocal inflection or non-verbal/vocal cues, a message can be severely misunderstood. The following example conversation is a fairly typical example of what can happen.

Me: Hey, you should invest your money in the stock market.
My Friend: Yeah right, that sounds like a great idea.
Me: Really? Wonderful! I was really being a sarcastic jerk, but you thought I was being serious!
My Friend: I was being sarcastic too. And you are a jerk.

There are several ways to counteract that, and today you will get to read about two of them.

The first way is fairly straightforward. It involves formatting the text so in such a way to draw the emphasis on to certain words. Re-read the conversation:

Me: Hey, you should invest your money in the stock market.
My Friend: Yeah, right, that sounds like a great idea.
Me: Really? Wonderful! I was really being a sarcastic jerk, but YOU thought I was being serious!
My Friend: I was being sarcastic too. And you ARE a jerk.

The formatting changes help, but not a lot. Some meaning is still lost.

The second and more effective way to communicate would be to directly speak to your audience through a podcast. Some people find it a lot easier to speak than to type, and I see how some people would like that. Personally, I need a live audience to perform a monologue, otherwise I lose focus and I don't do the same quality of work.

Tonight's class showed me a little more of how people learn to use technology that they are unfamiliar with. People tend to be very distrustful of themselves when they encounter a problem on a computer. Also, the Matthew Effect comes very strongly into play with technology (for those of you to whom the Matthew Effect is unfamiliar, it comes from a verse in the Book of Matthew in the Bible which says "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer"). Those who view themselves as "technologically incompetent" tend to despair when they encounter a problem with a computer, or they tend to be too afraid of making a mistake that they don't explore what happens if they click "yes" or "no" on the computer screen.

I love that I now know how to make podcasts, at least with Gcast. I'm well versed with general computer use, and technical program use, etc... but very unfamiliar with audio and video creation/editing. Podcasting was something I used on a very general level, but not something that I understood. Now that's changed, and I hope to make many more podcasts in the future!

Podcasting and whatnot

I think what I like the most about this class is that I get the chance to learn how other people learn about what I love. Every week, I'm fascinated by watching how people learn about technology, and I learn so much about how people think about and view technology. Even in their struggles (or perhaps because of them) I learn how to make technology simpler to use. It's always easier to find the mistakes that others make and learn from them, which I looked for when we used Apple's website and Trackstar.

I like podcasts. In fact, I love them. Every week, I download Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" podcast and listen to it, at least in the event that I don't get the chance to hear it on the radio. But it was very interesting watching other students who aren't as familiar with podcasts, or even with what they are. Many thought they were individual songs, and others thought that you needed an Ipod brand MP3 player to use them. As class progressed, we learned that neither belief was correct. I think the concept of Podcasting has greatly benefitted the technology world, making audio programs much easier to find and use.