On top of having the ebola virus (or whatever), I find myself to be in a really cranky mood. I was forced to leave work early because my eyes would not stop watering, and so now I'm even farther behind than ever. Just writing this blog entry is a huge effort that's probably going to take forever. Since I am mostly incoherent, I should probably just lay down some bullet-points full of whining and be done with it.
• Desktritus... Avitable has picked up on a meme whereas you share a photo of your desk. Of course, anything Avitable does seems to propagate through the blogosphere like a wildfire, meaning that if I don't participate there must be something wrong with me (even RW is doing it!). The problem is that there IS something wrong with me and I'm at home sick. This means I can't snap a photo of my nicely-organized work desk... oh no! I have to use a photo of my home desk, which is pretty much a disaster area that should be condemned...
Here you go Avitable, you bastard!
0) Business cards from people I will never contact, 1) A stack of books to read (probably recommended by Vahid), 2) A bottle of melatonin, 3) A pencil cup with my Maui shark keychain and assorted pens, 4) A plastic bag with a defective camera lens in it, 5) Two tarot card decks (I'm making my own Bad Monkey Tarot, and need them for reference), 6) An unused plastic rain poncho I got from Disney World, 7) A shot glass from my trip to the Hard Rock Lisbon, 8) Coin cups from the Hard Rock Casino Las Vegas with loose change inside, 9) My Rosetta Stone French course, 10) My Mac G4 Cube that I can't bear to get rid of, 11) A container full of Lego pieces, 12) A spare blanket from my car, 13) A container with Farscape trading cards and autographed photos of the cast, 14) A bag of rejected shirts from the Artificial Duck Store, 15) A box of souvenir crap from my trip to China, 16) A bag with an original Chris Ware print from a trip to Chicago needing to be framed, 17) A container filled with Japanese manga comics, 18) A tube with a poster from my trip to The Vatican Museum, 19) A hardcopy of my book, 20) A stack of comics I've read and need to file away, 21) A mess of cables and a LiveStrong bracelet, 22) A voodoo doll from my trip to New Orleans that really works, 23) My Sully plush from Monsters Inc., 24) My old Nintendo DS, 25) My Batman alarm clock that Karl gave me at TequilaCon, 26) My iPhone and glasses, 27) My MacBook Pro, 28) Old film negatives that I need to send in for scanning, 29) Comics to read, 30) Buttons left over from Davecago2, 31) Comics to read after I have a few more issues.
Yeah, that's pretty bad. But, in my defense, I've been traveling and working a lot and haven't had much time to clean it up around my home.
• Theft... I am constantly getting emails from people telling me of dumbasses who steal stuff from Blogography and try to pass it off as their own. Whenever I confront these idiots, it's always the same story... "I just wanted to share it with my readers!" Well, if that's all you wanted, then why not link to the original source? Or, if you simply must post it on your site, why not at least credit where you took it from? Otherwise, you're nothing more than a douchebag thief, passing off somebody else's work as your own.
My Creative Commons license is very generous. As long as you aren't a commercial site making money off my stuff, go ahead and take anything you want... as long as you credit me as the creator with a link to the source material. If you don't credit the source, you're breaking my copyright and the law. If you post my material on a site whose primary function is selling advertising, that's a commercial site and your're breaking my copyright and the law (even if you credit the source). It's not rocket science, it's the difference between right and wrong, and I'm tired of it. If you are totally incapable of saying anything original and have to steal all your content, then just give it up you thieving hack.
• NBC... I pay for DirecTV, so I don't buy many television shows online. I prefer to wait for the DVD. The only exception are those times I miss an episode, or I'll buy shows just to have something to watch when I'm stuck somewhere without entertainment. This is why Apple's iTunes Store is so great... it's so easy to buy a shows whenever you want. The $1.99 price tag is a bit steep for what you get, but I'm willing to pay the money for the convenience of it all. Except now NBC Television has decided to pull out of the iTunes Store because they want $4.99 per episode, and Apple (quite rightly) said no. IS NBC OUT OF THEIR FUCKING MINDS? Let's take a look at current options for obtaining television programs. As an example, I am using the first season of NBC's hit program Heroes...
Current iTunes |
NBC Wants |
DVD |
HD- DVD |
Bit- Torrent |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost/ Episode |
$1.99 |
$4.99 |
$1.60 |
$3.04 |
$0.00 |
| Cost/ 23 Eps |
$45.77 |
$114.77 |
$36.89 |
$69.85 |
$0.00 |
| Cost/ Season |
$42.99 |
??? |
$36.89 |
$69.85 |
$0.00 |
| Legal? | Yes |
Ha! |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Quality | Low |
Low |
Med |
HD |
HD |
| Extras | No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Maybe |
| Media | No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| iPod Ready? |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
| Wait | Short |
Short |
Long |
Long |
None |
| DRM? | Yes |
Yes |
Kinda |
Yes |
No |
| Fucked Up? |
Kinda Maybe? |
FUCK YES! |
Not Really |
NO... Cool! |
Not Ethical |
Who in their right mind would pay $4.99 for a television show that's of low quality, has DRM crap encoded in it, is more expensive than a DVD set loaded with extras, comes without any storage media, and is more expensive than even HD-DVD? NOBODY! That's who! Digital delivery of files is the cheapest possible method of distribution with practically no benefits (except convenience) yet the legal options for buying it always cost the most. That is totally fucked up. Fuck NBC. Fuck them up their stupid, greedy asses. And bravo to Apple for not caving to idiocy, and being willing to lose money rather than compromise to a no-win situation.
• Adobe... After having had to get my MacBook repaired because of a TSA agent dropping my battery on it and denting the case, something was wacky with the hard drive and I had to reformat it. This is no big deal, I keep full backups of my data, and I don't mind reinstalling my software. Unless that software comes from Adobe. Because of their new online activation bullshit, I ended up having to call in to get technical assistance so I could access software I PURCHASED DIRECTLY FROM ADOBE. This idiocy is meant to stop software piracy, but all it does is piss me off (meanwhile, cracked versions of the software are available on BitTorrent, which means that it doesn't stop piracy in the first place). What kind of company purposefully initiates a scheme whose only effect is making their loyal customers hate them? Why do I pay these idiots to treat me like a criminal?
• Finale... Eh, that's enough bitching for one day. I'm going to see if a couple of tubs of chocolate pudding will make me feel any better.
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Heh. At least your desk is better than Avi’s. I can’t honestly say that it is better than mine, though… I think its a toss up.
Chocolate pudding is second only to Pepto Bismol in it’s curative properties. It’s a well known medical fact. Trust me. I’m a doctor.
Godda Mighty you people are slobs…
I know what the stealing bit feels like. I constantly get my photos (OF MY FACE!) stolen. Whenever I can get someone to reply about it they say “oh well Im just playing a role playing game online. I didnt think it was a big deal”.
Ya thats great. I want my face to be used in a game where you lie and create crazy ass stories.
That is what I like about you Dave2. You always seem to have it worse than even the most decrepit of souls, like me. Even if my desk looks bad, yours leaves no room even for a pen or coffee cup. Jerks steal your creative art w/o remorse. Hey, Jamie in Missouri, get lost or jump off a cliff, OK? Adobe is Adobe, software you can’t live with, or without — & I’m grateful that I only have to use it to read & save pdf stuff.
Just hum a few bars of Judy Garland’s “Over the Rainbow” and things will be much better on Saturday. Guaranteed.
God, you are nasty and cranky, aren’t you? Doesn’t sound like a pretty beginning to a holiday weekend. If I were closer, I’d kick your ass….oops, just kidding. Right after the vegetable soup…homemade, of course. With yummy bread. And a big huge homemade pie to wash it all down with. Now that would make you feel better.
Sheila… Mostly my desk is just a place to stash stuff. I rarely do any actual work there, so it’s not TOO bad! 🙂
Tracy Lynn… Yes, but following your medical advice is what got me in my current state of dis-health!
RW… I’m sure you mean that in the nicest possible way!
Kirsten… I’ve had my identity stolen a couple times as well. Though why anybody would want to steal my life I have no idea.
Bogup… If I hum a few bars of Judy Garland’s “Over the Rainbow,” I’ll be 50% gayer on Saturday. Guaranteed. I just don’t have that kind of heterosexuality to spare.
Lewis… Homemade vegetable soup and bread WITH PIE?!? Remind me to show up totally sick the next time we meet!
Moths ago, when I was posting pictures of my place, I took one of my office. After careful consideration I decided it was too hideous for human eyes and 86’d the idea.
I should have gone ahead with it after seeing Avitable’s.
And yours? HOW CAN YOU BE DYING IF YOU TOOK A COMPLETE INVENTORY OF YOUR DESK AND THEN ADDED THE NUMBERS AND DESCRIPTIONS?
When I’m sick I can’t work a faucet.
I’m a butterscotch pudding freak, myself. I od’d on chocolate long ago.
I get the feeling that RW is gettin’ a little uppity about his organizational skills and tidiness.
I don’t know how you can take inventory (with nice round numbers), list it with links, and make a table with cost comparisons while suffering from Ebola. You’re amazing.
Where’s the giant black butt plug that I got you for your birthday? I thought you’d have that displayed on your desk proudly!
Suzy… It took almost an hour to write this entry, which is agonizingly slow for somebody who used used to cranking them out in 10-15 minutes. My eyes will not stop tearing up, and I have to stop every 2 minutes to take care of it. I’ve worked under far worse health conditions (exploding diarrhea does not make for a productive work day), and am used to forging onward whether I feel like it or not. 🙂
Geeky Tai Tai… RW is probably entitled! Some strange plague may be kicking my ass right now, but tenacity counts for something!
Avitable… Why, I’m sitting on it, of course!
hi dave, i’ve been reading your blog via Bloglines for as long as i can remember. everything’s been smooth until i moved to the new Bloglines Beta. images on you entries are considered hotlinks and i got that “pwned!” ass image to my face, and like in this entry, several times!
when i switched back to Bloglines classic, the images show no more ass.
any ideas how to combat this problem?
Hm. I guess I’ll let you off the hook, then.
Awww…poor thing. I personally have a strong belief in the curative power of wine. Specifically a nice Chardonnay. Kendall Jackson perferrably.
You can tell a lot about a person but the items collected on their desk…I don’t think I want to go there.
Have some wine.
Yeah, “…disaster area that should be condemned” is probably the only way to describe it. It made me feel nervous just opening your website and seeing that picture today! 😉
Is your thief from Lifejournal? That would immediately set off my suspicions if I happened to find myself hurled unexpectedly into Livejournal hell. I’ve never seen a witty or halfway entertaining post on Livejournal. It always seems to be Emo Kids running short on Xanax.
In other news…Feel Better!
Hi Dave,
I saw this meme and instantly thought there is no way in hell I am doing that.. you are a brave brave man.
We still have a plugged in working Cube. (Slow as all hell but oh so cool looking.) Then again we just threw out our PowerPC from 1995 so… maybe we are pack rats.
I wanna know why.. these Livestrong bracelets always end up in the tangles of wires… odd…
And last, I don’t know where people get the idea that they can just take stuff from the internet and use it. I have this discussion at work at the time with photos. So I feel for you.
Hope you feel bettter soon.
It’s strange….I just spent half of my night having a recurring dream with you in it, so the first thing I am reading this morning is your blog just to make sure you are okay (cause I get like that when I dream about someone).
I love seeing your desk, which is full-on goodie central! I hate seeing people steal your work, which is full-on asstoad central. But mostly, I just hope you feel better, which is full-on Hilly puffy heart central :).
Bad monkey tarot cards sounds too cool to be true!
I’ve always wondered about the ethics of downloading TV shows with BitTorrent. It’s ethically wrong if you download the DVD rips – for sure, but just downloading a capture of a TV show. I’m thinking it is akin to taping or recording it of my PVR.
I know I missed an episode of a show I watch on Thursday so I downloaded it last night and watched it this morning. I feel no ethical conflict with that. Plus after watching it I deleted it.
…And you had the cheek to call MY desk untidy!
Hope you feel better soon.
My theory on NBC’s wanting to dump iTunes and raising their per episode price to $4.99 is this: they have another venture called hulu.com (along with other networks) that they felt if they raised the price to something Apple would not agree with, they could move on past iTunes. This makes them not only greedy, but stupid to think in this day and age of proprietary media stores closing (Sony’s Connect is the latest to announce their closing up shop), why mess with something that is working for them (iTunes gets 30% of their TV show business from NBC). This decision will come back to bite them in the ass.
As for the Adobe software, I am getting close to having to do a reformat (replacing the hard drive in my MacBook Pro with a 250gb soon) and will need to install my legally purchased CS3 again. Your problems now have me going out to the internets to find out how this needs to be done, trying to avoid the dreaded phone call. I understand the need to reduce piracy, but Adobe needs to figure out another way of doing this to tell their legal customers, “We care about you and want to make life as easy for you when installing and using our software.”
And never get rid of your G4 Cube.
Yvette… I’ve added the bloglines beta URL to my htaccess file, so it should be working fine now. Let me know if it isn’t!
Avitable… Yes, but will you let me off this plug? It’s been two days now…
Trish K… I have a nice bottle of “Conundrum” waiting for me, but I don’t think I could properly enjoy it while sick. 😛
Kilax… One of these days it’s all going to come crashing down on me, and THEN where will I be? 😀
Mia… This one is from MySpace, though I get plenty of people from LiveJournal who steal entire entries without crediting the source, making it look as if they wrote it as well. 🙁
Nat… I have no idea. The thing that really puzzles me is that I don’t care if people want to take stuff for non-commercial use… so long as they credit where they got it. Is that really so bad? I just don’t get it. And my Cube is the most beautiful computer I’ve ever owned, but it doesn’t have USB-2, so I had to replace it with a MacMini. Still love it though.
Hilly…If I was in your dream… isn’t that kind of a nightmare, really? 🙂
Goran… I’m quite proud of the cards I’ve designed so far! Who knows if I will ever get to publish them (probably not) but it’s a fun graphical exercise.
Troy… The legality is a grey area to me, the ethics of it are not. Technically, if somebody is offering something for sale that you can get for free by other means, then it’s stealing to take the freebie. But if you pay for cable or satellite, and download a show that you have paid for that way… is it stealing? Or what about a show like Jeremy Piven’s “Cupid” which is simply not available ANYWHERE for purchase. If you download that, is it stealing, considering it’s your only option for obtaining it? I don’t know. But, personally, I still consider these scenarios to be an ethical problem, because the people distributing the material do not have permission to do so. If you haven’t been given permission to upload material you don’t own, then it’s wrong. If you download material that has been distributed without permission, then it’s wrong. That’s just my opinion, but it seems logical to me!
MRK… Hah! Yes, I am very much a cheeky bastard! But you knew that already, didn’t you? 🙂
ChillyWilly… What’s so insanely stupid to me is that NBC is actually so stupid to think that $4.99 is a reasonable price to charge for a television show people are probably already paying for on cable or satellite! At $1.99, it still seemed pricey, but I was willing to pay for the convenience of having it already formatted for my iPhone and automatically synced without any fuss. BUT $4.99?!? WTF?!?
Maybe NBC is doing this because they’re going to launch their own thing soon and they don’t want anyone getting too used to iTunes. They’re like that sometimes.
Goodness gracious! To be fair, my desk is my lap, so I have very little room to talk, but how do you keep track of everything?!
Wayne… You mean hulu.com? If that was their thinking, then they are doubly stupid. Unless they plan to sell without DRM, that means Windows Media. If it’s Windows Media, it’s incompatible with the most popular portable media player on the planet (iPod) and the most successful digital distribution player on earth (iTunes). Add to that the fact that all the other networks have renewed with Apple for the $1.99 price, and they’re even MORE stupid because nobody is going to pay $4.99 for their shit when everybody else is at $1.99.
Bre… I don’t. Anytime I need something, I have to go through all that crap to find it! 😀
How is rosetta Stone? Do you recomend it above the more affordable knock offs?
Chocolate pudding makes everything better. Actually, for a chaotic desk, it looks fairly organized. I recognize true chaos when I see it. 😉
The shit stolen most often from my site is the steaming pile of shit” I created from your original, with due credit, of course. Funny thing is, most people aren’t smart enough to copy & paste, most are just linking to the original, so I keep changing the filename and replacing the old one with signs that read, “I am a complete fucktard, please fuck me in the ass” or something equally profane.
You are obviously not too sick, if you’re dissing my hard earned medical skillz. It took me ten whole minutes at the foreign medical school website, I’ll have you know.
I only recommend top quality books to sit on your desk.
I’ve always thought the idea of even paying I-Tunes $1.99 for an episode in such low resolution formats with DRM locks was outrageous. Some networks actually make their episodes viewable on their websites for free, with the inclusion of commercials. That works for me.
Fortunately, the NBC move to $4.99 will sort itself out in the consumer marketplace. I predict that they’ve just priced themselves out of the business … and a price correction or several will come down the pike eventually. Can’t make any money if nobody’s buying!
Dude… that girl stealing your post is retarded. I found something like that happen once before. At first I thought she just put the picture (which of course is bad w/out putting your link) but when I realized she used your text. Gah. Just idiotic.