Off By One

So, I spent the greater part of yesterday evening ploughing through, or more accurately, slogging through John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism.

Yeek, that’s a workout. It might be the circuitous sentence structures, it might be the content. But either way, it’s hard going.

So, of course, I grabbed some Lagavulin 16-year scotch to sip as I educated.

Life is pretty good.

Oh, and in other news, my local hockey team beat their local hockey team. And what a game, it was. Wow.

In yet other news, did anyone notice the geographically-relevant link list down and to the right? I’ve added “Sites near me” to the sidebar. It’s possible that there’s even a useful community of bloggers in Edmonton. Although, odds are slim.

I have had a few people ask me for ideas, so I figured I’d just put them out here as a suggestion or three.

Yes, it’s a swaglist. Sue me, it’s my website.

(On a related note, by the way, Char and Simon will be getting posting setup at Morruz when they take off. So you’ll all have to read it for their travels, too. I hope that Simon will post there, with a link over from his usual haunts, so that the travel docs can be kept together.)

Anyhoo.

So, there’s a few techie things that I’ll get out of the way ASAP. I’m looking for a Microsoft Bluetooth (wireless) mouse. I’m also looking for some kind of USB2 external hard drive in the medium-large range. Nothing insane. Last, but not least, I’m interested in a couple of computer games. For Windows (sad, but I installed Windows on the laptop just this weekend. I’m a sucker for techie playthings, what can I say). The games are HalfLife 2, and The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.

Heh.

Books are cool, too, of course. I’m low on literature, despite Amy’s best efforts to swamp me

Anyway, that’s about it for the technolust. I don’t know why people keep saying I’m hard to buy for, since I usually make it pretty clear what I want.

Ahh, politics.  I love the smell of…

Shit.

It would appear, from the news at least, that checking a voting machine can result in a $40,000 “repair” charge regardless of any actual damage to the machine itself.

There’s a trend in the modern electoral machine in the Unites States towards greater automation.  What there is not is a trend towards correspondingly greater accountability.  He who counts the votes, &c.

I just find myself wishing that there would be some sense of actual interest on the part of the public at large, but what there is, instead, is a whole big steaming pile of apathy.  Hell,it’s contagious — I had a hard time motivating myself to rant about it, and I can tell from the pace of the text above that I’m really just phoning it in.

So what’s the solution?

So where am I at?

Oh, this isn’t going to be a “life story” sort of post. It’s more of a corny way of saying “Here’s what I’ve been up to over the last week.”

Char and I have been doing well, thanks for asking.

I’ve seen some pretty funny theatre in the last 24 hours, and a well-written play not too long before. The former is, of course, Die Nasty, and the latter is a Stuart Lemoine piece called The Velvet Shock. The play was enjoyable. A bit dark in humour, which I like, and with a hint of a happy, romantic ending. And a talented cast, bolstered in no small part by a skilled (and attractive!) supporting actress in the role of the niece.

I’ve come to a conclusion that, practically speaking, there is one thing that irks me more than anything else when dealing with friends. I don’t mind if plans change, and someone can’t do something with me that was planned. That’s cool. But in this age of mobile and ubiquitous communication, for christ’s sake, call me. Just dial a damned number and say “Sorry, Chris, I can’t make it to [thing].” Is it that bloody hard?

Grrr…

I just realized that the above complaint was the blog post that had been tickling about my head for the last day and a half. Glad to get that out of my system.

So, no big plans, really. I think I’m going to investigate writing my first serious OS X program, to do some bookkeeping and synchronization of my pair of ITunes libraries. Just metadata, I think, but you never know… I might get ambitious.

The annual Jefferson Muzzle awards for 2005 came out a short time ago.

From the FCC to the MPAA, with stops at high schools and the Republican/Democrat conventions in between. It’d be funny if it weren’t true. As it is, it makes me want to cry.

I’m getting a bit fed up with all of the people who don’t understand the concept of freedom of speech.

Yes, it’s going to be one of those posts.

There’s a couple of interesting incidents out in the wilds (I hesitate to say “hinterlands”, but mainly because I don’t think that way of Austria, and I don’t want to lump them in with the rest of the places at issue) of the world. You may have heard of them. There’s the (by now) infamous incident with the Danish editorial cartoons causing riots and bloodshed… Oh, sorry, no. Just to be clear, that bloodshed? Those riots? The threats? Those are the works of madmen, not cartoonists. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to differentiate the two.

Anyway… Back on track… There’s the cartoons, and then there’s this twit over in Austria, deliberately flouting their laws against Holocaust denial to promulgate bald-faced lies about the occurrence of the Nazi extermination of some large number of Jews.

So… What’s the most common refrain? Well, on one hand we have people who are all for freedom of speech, and then on the other hand we have people who are all for freedom of speech.

What the fuck, you ask?

Well, see, that last group “believe in free speech, but…”

Beware of anyone who prefaces a statement with that line. They probably don’t have your best interests at heart, and they’re a liar, to boot.

Here’s the skinny, and I know that this comes as no news to most of those that read here, but nonetheless: Free Speech means (and, in fact, rests firmly upon and is rendered meaningless without) the right to say things that terrify, disgust, demean, insult, and verbally violate all that you hold dear. The more offensive an utterance is, the more important it is that the speaker be free to say it, without fear of violence or of censorship. That isn’t to say that they should be immune to censure — that’s how mind-blowingly stupid pronouncements like “Auschwitz’s Crematorium Two, the site of half a million deaths, is ‘a mere legend’” should be greeted. Ridicule is another good response. As is simply ignoring the speaker. But silencing your critics is… well, there’s a couple of interesting 20^th century events that might be informative on the subject. I leave that, too, as an exercise for the reader.

In short, freedom of speech is not just freedom to agree with the people who have more guns.

(I just sent in this letter to the editor) Regarding “Web superhighway likely to be toll road” (Jan 30):

There are two issues in connection with this issue that I would like to address. First, and most visible to all subscribers of the ISP services, is that — despite their claims to the contrary — companies like Shaw and Rogers lie to their customers when asked about the use of software that specifically restricts the speed of certain types of traffic (“Traffic shaping” software). From personal experience, I can tell you that this leads to frustration from the side of the customer, especially when I’m experiencing service delays with my competing VOIP service. This is a major issue, since Shaw is competing with Vonage for VOIP services, but Shaw is in a position to severely, and adversely, affect the quality of Vonage VOIP, something that is currently affecting me.

Secondly, the issue of network cost. The claim from Shaw, Telus, and Rogers is that their users are getting something for free, which is patently absurd. We PAY for the service that they provide, which is not e-mail and web, but is in fact a connection to the internet, which may include those services, as well as others, such as VOIP or streaming video to name two. The ISPs, if they want to get into the business of selecting which content providers should be permitted, should stop claiming to sell “unlimited” internet access.

Update

Nope, no luck. It’d have been great to be published, but it appears that I’m not witty enough. Bummer.

I realize that this is two posts today (a habit that wouldn’t kill me to keep up with, all told) but here’s something you all should see: the Firefly Season 2 project, as linked from this /. article.

There’s a survey for demographics that, if you liked the show, I encourage you to fill out as gappily as you want. Since I get my spam protection from spamgourmet, I’m comfortable giving them a protected address. I encourage you to do no more than that.

But every bit helps.

Maybe, just… well, what’s the worst that can happen? No more Firefly? Well, shit. Looks like that’s already happened.

It’s worth noting, and it’s easy enough to determine for yourself, that there is some debate as to the reality of this plan. I’m not sure, myself, but given that the site creator has responded reasonably to the accusations, and the information requested is not required, just desirable, I’m inclined to say that it can’t hurt.

So, I’ve been thinking.

I’m watching the software piracy world being shaken up repeatedly by increasingly successful interventions in both distribution and production by the authorities of various nations, usually acting in the name of private, for-profit industry groups.

I’m seeing an ever-increasing degree of technical control exercised over the viewing and distribution of electronic media.

I’ve seen my ISP decide that they should clamp down on my use of the internet connection I’m paying for, and like others in the same business space, lie to me about what they’re doing.

It’s getting so that I’m going to have to start paying for everything.

And, to be honest, I’m pretty okay with that. Well, except for the traffic shaping shit from Shaw.

The thing of it is, I’m about to be in a position from which I can afford to pay for my software. Across the board. It’s kind of nice, actually. As discussed previously on this blog, I approve of software developers’ rights to charge for their creations, and have always had ethical issues with the means by which I have acquired them. Soon, that’ll be in the past. It’s already begun, in the sense that I’m starting to pay for the little shareware utilities that I use, and I foresee doing so in greater quantities as time passes. Couple that with increased reliance on Free/Open Source software, and I have realized that — at the moment — my computer at home is almost completely clean of illegitimate software. It’s a nice feeling.

The title of this post is a bit misleading — I’m not really being forced into ethical behaviour, here. It just so happens that concurrent with my own push to be more upstanding, the sources of my content are leaving me no other choice. It’s a valid statement, that ethical behaviour is meaningless without the option of behaving unethically. But I made my choice before it became impossible, and I feel that it makes me a better person.

I was thinking, today; I have a lot of books on my plate in the immediate future. I mean, just stupid quantities of readings that I mean to get to.

I’m just finishing Tad Willams’ Shadowmarch right now. I’ve started, and need to get around to finishing, Stephen R. Donaldson’s The Runes of the Earth. I’m in the same position with C.J. Cherryh’s Collected Short Fiction and Precursor/Defender/Explorer.

Char just bought me Freakonomics, which looks interesting. I’ve also got Ray Kurzweil’s The Age of Spiritual Machines on my plate. Add to that a plan to re-read Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things and a standing request for Amy to lend me the rest of Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan books, and I’ve got quite a pile. Not to mention Dan Simmons’ Illium and Olympos, the former of which I am half-finished.

The sites part of this post is a link to the Library Thing and the Library Elf, two excellent tools for book lovers.

The Library Thing is an online book catalog. Enter your books into it, by ISBN, LoC catalog number, or manually, and you can use it as a “list of books you have” for all time. I’m lazy, so I haven’t got around to finishing my collection off, but it’s worth it. If I ever get around to it

The Library Elf is a late-fee preventor. It tracks your loans at any number of libraries (for any that support it, for example, the Edmonton Public Library) and sends you an email when they’re almost due, providing a good reminder.

Does anyone else know of any funky sites for book geeks? I know about Project Gutenberg, for the record.