For awhile, I've had this signature:

DRM? Trusted Computing? Fine, but not with my code.

I do start to feel like a hypocrite looking at that. After all, I'm now working as an HD-DVD developer, making quite a bit of money, enjoying what I do, and not at all close to wanting to quit in outrage about the DRM.

But while I don't have to deal with DRM every day, I do have to deal with it often enough. While I have not personally written any code that does DRM, all my code will eventually be DRM'd on-disc, and one of my co-workers has, in fact, written some utilities to manage AACS stuff.

And, in general, I still feel that DRM is useless and should not be done, but I also have seen it done in ways that aren't really that bad, and even seen some things which benefit the consumer. Steam, for example, allows me to download the same game (unless it's Bioshock) anywhere I want to, anytime, so long as I remember my password and only log in at one place at a time. (So that's one download and/or game being played at a time.)

Steam is actually an example of "not that bad", as everything they do which benefits the consumer, they could've done without DRM. No, an example of something which benefits the consumer are the "music rental" services. After you get to a certain amount of music, it just makes more sense, financially, to simply rent your music rather than buy it. If the service goes away, and the DRM isn't cracked, then yes, you lose a bunch of music -- so you join another service and download the same music again.

I prefer to own my music, but I'm a bit of a fanatic.

So, while most days I'd rather see DRM go away forever, this signature is starting to be a bit hypocritical. After all, DRM is being done with my code, and most of what I write is not GPL'd.

So why do I have it?

Simple: Since I started using this signature, I've seen almost none of the retarded arguments against GPLv3 -- the arguments which talk about the GPL being used to attack DRM, that it's overstepping its bounds as a software license and attacking hardware... Whatever.

Because this statement makes all of those arguments go away. Licensing software under the GPLv3 is not directly attacking DRM, it's not even saying that you hate DRM and want to abolish it. It's simply saying that you may not use it with this code.

People point to the TiVo as an example -- shouldn't I want to license my software such that people can make cool stuff like the TiVo? Well, why should I, unless I'm getting a cut? It's simple: TiVo can either have my code for free, on my terms, or they can go somewhere else. There's plenty of GPLv2 or even BSD-licensed stuff they could have for free, or they could buy some commercial software -- maybe even from me.

I don't see that as inconsistent with what I do for a living, but this whole essay doesn't exactly fit in a signature. So I am posting a consistent position here:

I don't like DRM, and I don't like closed software that I don't have access to. Therefore, software which I release for free will have no part in this. If you're willing to pay me a living wage to develop software, I will develop pretty much whatever you want, so long as it's not wholly unethical (I won't write Lotus Notes for your Killbot). But if I release something as free and open, it's probably because I intend for it to stay that way.

So, if you have a problem with me using the GPLv3, either hire me or use somebody else's code.

I live in a small town in Iowa. An ISP here is offering fiber to the home for $60/mo, free installation. That's 100 mbits, and they do support net neutrality -- meaning that if they can't build enough bandwidth to support everyone on YouTube (or BitTorrent), they'll simply move to a metered model, but apparently they don't have to yet.

We spend enough time talking about the ISPs we hate -- which ones do we love? Anywhere else with fast, cheap, neutral Internet?

I've got a server in my house, which always stays on. I can use cron and WakeOnLAN to wake my desktop, and with a bit of hacking, I can probably feed KOrganizer reminders from my desktop into the server's cron, and set my desktop to do something once booted, such as play some loud music. The one missing component is speakers -- how can I turn them on programmatically? (Thinking programmable power strip here.) Even better, are there some cheap, decent-sounding speakers I could get which can be entirely software-controlled, including volume and forceably switching to speakers, even if I leave my headphones plugged in?

With all the chatter recently about TiVoToGo coming to Mac users, I'm a bit surprised that nobody mentioned the fact that a significant percentage of TiVo users have not been able to use TiVoToGo since a patch in November broke the functionality on a small (but significant) percentage of Series2 TiVos. This problem was discovered within days of the patch's release, and as of today there has been little official response from TiVo.. save a few messages in the forums when things got downright nasty.

The problem is in the TiVo box, not in the implementations of TiVoToGo, and affects both PC and Mac users. For those considering shelling out the US$100 for Toast 8 Titanium, or any other TiVoToGo solution, you might want to read a few forum posts first to get an idea of the scope of the problem...

Personally, I'm appalled that TiVo could break something this bad and then take two or more months to not fix it. And, what's even worse is, if you read the forums it appears that Tier 1 support isn't completely informed of the problem.

I've heard quite a bit about frightening memes lately, particularly neo-conservative astroturfing. It's become pervasive enough that Occam's Razor tells me that it can't be wholly astroturf, it must be a successful meme.

I think of myself as mostly immune to memes. By that I mean, it takes more than a catchy slogan or a bit of thought to make me adopt a meme. I'm immune to advertising, peer pressure, etc. And of course I realize it's impossible to be completely immune and still remain human and relevant.

And yet, far too many people aren't even close. I have a good friend who is one of the smartest people I know, and yet he has at least a couple of memes he's accepted and never questioned thoroughly. He thinks very well about them, too, builds on them, and his beliefs are self-consistent, but choosing that memeplex over another is, as Spock would put it, "not logical."

What we need is a powerful immunizing meme. A meme that is more than a fad, that is potent enough to spread as easily as MySpace or emo/anti-emo, but which carries a payload that immunizes against other, similar memes. A meme that tells you to stand up and think for yourself, and to fight for your beliefs, never relax and stop caring.

With people actually thinking for themselves, it should be much easier to accomplish most political goals I share with most people reading this. For instance, a demand for verified voting would be much easier with people actually thinking -- we know they at least claim to care about democracy. Ditto to a boycott of high def media (DRM), a mass exodus from Windows where possible, or voting for the candidate who's actually an honest man, instead of the one who has the most corporations to finance his campaign.

In fact, I think much of my political beliefs can be distilled to a simple and effective meme, but I'm thinking of this like democracy. The original reasons for any democracy could've been solved with a monarchy -- with the American Revolution, we could've done away with the tea tax, stamp act, etc, and still made George Washington King, instead of President. But we chose democracy to make it last, based on the theory (if I may theorize) that if the new government had a flaw, or developed one, democracy would correct it without the need for another revolution.

Same for memes -- if we, as a species, can become fundamentally resistant to being so easily subverted by advertising, politics, astroturfing, and dishonest memes, and develop a habit of thinking for ourselves, and questioning our every assumption, then we get an automatic benefit: If any aspect of our government or society has a flaw, we will correct it, without the need for a massive grassroots, campaign, mememetic engineering, whatever. If the flaw is as blindingly obvious as, say, Diebold, then we will independantly and automatically reject it, Stand-Alone Complex style.

Oh, it won't eliminate the need for these things. People do disagree, so we will need to construct memes or campaigns for, say, Linux vs Windows. Some of you will be on one side, some on another side, each calling the other a fanboy, and that's ok. But I would much prefer an intelligent dialogue than the willful ignorance of the majority.

That is the ultimate goal here: Eliminate ignorant apathy. By the time young John Doe buys his first gas-guzzler, he should be making a definite statement that he doesn't care about the environment. He should not simply buy it by default because he didn't know about hybrid cars. By the time Jane Doe buys her first Dell, she should either be making the statement "I like/need Windows and don't mind supporting MS" or "This is the best value I can get for this kind of hardware." She should not be buying it by default, because Dell advertising has given her a subconscious assumption of "computer==dell". Nothing done by default, or if you do, make sure it's consciously by default: I got the default Ramen because it's not worth my time to choose Ramen flavors, when they taste so much alike.

Comments! I want to know if this can work!

I haven't been here since the beginning, but at 1060 comments, it's really time for me to explore a bit more about Slashdot, such as the social networking bit.

Looking over my own stats, I only have one friend, and I can't remember when I added them. I've also got no foes. I guess I never thought it was worth it to add trolls to that list.

I do have the Profanity Blacklist as a freak, and have for a long time -- what a fucking surprise, that!

What seemed weird to me was, I have no other freaks, and I do have five fans. Seems odd -- either I've been doing pretty well, or I've just kept my head down. I know others have a long list of freaks. I've been looking at that list to try and find some insight as to why these people picked me, and whether I should add them.

There's a very large part of me that wants to ignore the whole thing, and call it something only MySpacers would do, but looking through some of these people, I do find interesting discussions I'd have missed otherwise. I guess it's something to do when I feel like reading Slashdot, but there've been no updates.

Woah. Maybe I'm an addict.

Anyway, no particular point to this exercise, but I've left comments enabled. Drop me a note. And no, this will not be a weblog, but until I decide to get something like that set up, I may as well post Slashdot-related rantings on Slashdot.

"Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hanged." - Abraham Lincoln

"Pacifism is objectively pro-Fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side you automatically help out that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, 'he that is not with me is against me.'" - George Orwell

So, I submit (what I think) is a great "Ask Slashdot" about wanting to hear everybody's moving experiences ("Moving Your Geek Cave") on August 15. Here it is, almost a month later, and the submission is still "Pending."

Jeez. Reject it or freaking post it already.

Meanwhile, we get Ask Slashdot "stories" about cleaning pig smells out of equipment. Like, any of us is ever probably going to have to deal with that.

Argh.

I think I just did a Bad Thing. I posted a link in a slashdot story about Scott McCollum, and I suspect that I'll get a lot of hits. Heck, they're already pouring in.

My poor bandwidth bill...

I'm submitting this as a slashdot story, but in the likely event it dosen't get approved, I'll go ahead and write something here. It's also on my livejournal.

I got spam from the Ueberroth campaign this morning. Ugh. Not that it matters, because I'm still registered to vote in Arizona (not here in California). But, I did send off this little letter to Ueberroth's campaign. Maybe something will come of it. I doubt it.

It's very unfortunate that your campaign has chosen unsolicited E-Mail as a way of promoting your campaign. It now has required me to rethink whether or not Ueberroth is going to be sensitive to the needs of the electronic community.

Unsolicited E-Mail is a huge problem on the Internet. It costs mail operators and ISPs like myself millions annually in costs, clogs our systems with mail that is largely unwanted and discarded by our customers, and is generally used to advertise products and services of questionable legality. One of the issues that will inevitably come up during this governor's term is the "SPAM issue".

By choosing to send spam, you have proven to me that you will not be "tough on spam". We need laws that make spammers responsible for the damages they do to systems, and to allow both consumers and business owners to seek damages; and allow our state government to imprison those who use spam to run scams.

As an aside, not only does this show a resistance towards passing tough anti-spam laws, it also shows that Mr. Ueberroth is out of touch with those of us that the media has labelled the "digerati." Without question, none of us likes spam, and the vast majority of us get so much spam in our mailboxes that we are drowning in a sea of penis-enlargement scams, MLM solicitations, and porn website ads that we go through extensive technical measures to shelter ourselves from such unsolicited crap. It does make me wonder how Mr. Ueberroth will vote on other important issues like UTICA, the use of open-source software (and IT methods) in government, and the abuse of the court systems by "industry groups" like the RIAA and MPAA. It sends a very clear message that Mr. Ueberroth is likely either behind the times, or in active opposition of the online community in these areas.

For the record, at no point did I ever release my E-Mail address for the purpose of solicitation. I do not tolerate spam, and this is "polite" compared to the average spammer message I send. I expect to be removed from your mailing list, and further expect an apology for intruding on my personal space.

It's a sad day on slashdot when Phil Karns KA9Q gets modded a troll.

No, really. This is one of the guys who's singlehandedly responsible for TCP/IP over amateur radio. He's part of the ARRL's Future Systems Committee (or, at least he was a number of years ago). Argh.

When even the tech community can't tell the differnece between a troll and somebody who knows how to butter his bread, we're in big trouble.

I don't ever write much here. Mostly, because I don't comment much on slashdot. Maybe I should start journalling here on things that are /. related.

If you want to read the generic journal, check out http://feedle.livejournal.com.

I've recently started ticking off people who's comments I enjoy as "Friends." If you came to my user account's journal as a result of looking at your "Fans", welcome. You apparently don't suck. *chuckle*