the pod bay door

A recent report by Microsoft suggests that efforts to stop music file-swapping programs is pointless. It’s interesting to read this, knowing of the efforts of the RIAA to fight it. And as a musician, I’m always conflicted somewhat over the copyright issue. Yet every struggling musician I meet wants nothing more than to make their music available over the Internet, and not necessarily for a fee. There’s even an boycott RIAA movement now.

It is fascinating to watch the record companies squirm, especially in light of the recent $143.1 US million dollars paid out by the planet’s five largest music companies and three largest music retailers to settle a two-year old antitrust case involving price fixing of CDs. And lest you think that successful musicians aren’t interested in this either, check out Janis Ian’s thoughts on the subject. Here’s her first essay, and the follow-up. Now I am going back to work, preparing my Materials Engineering 343 lecture…

So what will happen when weblogs go mobile?

Two posts below, I discussed altering web sites for colour blind readers. Please see the very interesting commentary by the anonymous CB reader who offers further fascinating insights into that world.

Barring a miracle, the white flag was raised today re: Gallery. My webserver does not support NetPBM, nor does it run PHP in a non-safe mode. I will investigate other photo uploading programs.

From Anne’s site comes this hilarious take on self-help books, romance novels, computer manuals, and more. Bust a gut.

I don’t know if this is the basis for a Broadway musical, but it’s a heckuva start, as they might say in Minnesota. This was staged without the other library patrons having any idea what was about to happen, so it appears; watch their reactions. I love it – it’s totally brilliant.

In other news, trying to load Gallery nearly reduced me to tears last night. Tonight I mucked around a bit more, downloading and unzipping binary NetPBM files (it’s ok, my brain hurts too), and I did some CHMOD shyte. Finally, I submitted a long message on their user forum. I’m beginning to wonder, is it worth it?

So instead, I built my first PHP page last night. I have no idea what the coding means. And I played on my computer, over and over and really loud, Trusty Chords, by Hot Water Music. This is music to exorcise the demons. Listening wasn’t enough – I blew the dust from my Telecaster, plugged it into my AmpCan, took a minute to decipher the chord structure of the song, and played along like I was in a punk band. HA!

Today, people at work reaffirmed my faith in humanity.

Isn’t life sweet?

First of all, if you need a laugh, click on a horse or two. How do people come up with this stuff? Also, this is why cows hate winter (requires a movie viewer like Windows Media Player).

Recently one of my readers (God, I can’t believe I just wrote that) provided me with feedback about the colour of the links on this site. He’s colour blind, and was having trouble distinguishing the links from the other typeface. He suggested I change the colours to darker shades of green or blue. Initially my choices were for appearance only. I made the changes to see if it would help him, and it did. I’ve worked with a colour blind colleague, and his area of responsibility was maps! Colour blindness also surfaces in the movie Auto Focus.

With his permission, I share with you his comments, which are enlightening in that they reveal some of the problems with which a colour-blind person must deal in today’s world:
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Another Saturday drifts into history. It was a lazy day. I didn’t sleep well, I woke up at 4:00 am with a killer cramp in my right calf, very painful. Had coffee this morning with a good friend, then saw 8 Mile, did Costco for fun, and retired to bed for a few hours. As for 8 Mile, I liked it – what can I say? I am not a fan of hip hop/rap, but Eminem is engaging in this movie, he definitely has a screen presence. The story follows a Detroit rapper named Rabbit, as he climbs the local scene towards better things like a recording contract. Rabbit’s final rap in the movie was, I admit, brilliant.

Please welcome Keith to the ranks of (non)blogging.

I’m still working on loading Gallery. But I am losing patience with programs whose downloading and installation instructions are ambiguous and fuzzy at the best of times. In fact, I’ve been really cranky all week! My head’s feeling very heavy tonight.
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While in NYC I went down to the WTC site on November 5, 2002. The site has been emptied of debris, and the subway track for Line 1 in being rebuilt, in addition to a temporary WTC station for the PATH Trains to New Jersey. I’ll upload more pictures from NYC soon.

Click on the picture for a larger view. Note on the left the Deutsche Bank building, still covered in netting since September 11, 2001. The three black plaques on the wire mesh fences in the middle show the names of everyone who perished on the site that day.

I’ve had a day of mixed emotions. Family issues surfaced, so I looked to a friend for kind words, went for a walk at lunch, and fed one of the library squirrels some almonds. It was fascinating to watch the squirrel take each nut from my fingers, assess it for a second or two, then scoot off to bury it, each time choosing a different location and then covering it with leaves. A magpie came by a used its beak to move a few leaves over, but the squirrel chased it away.

After working out tonight, I felt like writing a thousand words about my life, its ups and downs. Maybe another time. Painful episodes can be especially draining – thank God for good friends.