Someone made the point that democracy is not necessarily bad and freedom is not necessarily good. It's not a good thing to allow people the freedom to kill others. This may be true, but the points I was making was that fundamentally freedom is better than democracy. If a people in a democracy vote to allow mistreatment of woman that's not a good thing either and is strictly against the notion of freedom. The point can be made that you need to restrict some freedom to collect taxes and keep a society functioning. But this argument does not carry that things like oppression or religious persecution are necessary. These things are evil. Freedom opposes all these things, democracy doesn't.

We need to stop talking about fighting for Democracy. We need to stop going around the world talking about forcing people into Democracy and start talking about Freedom. That is a worthy ideal, all people should be free, free to choose whichever government they want. There are many forms of Democracy and Republics yet there is only one form of freedom.

Though I personally don't download illegal music and movies off the internet it's not necessarily out of deference to the MPAA or RIAA, both organizations I actually abhor. Their tactics are dumb, not helpful to their cause, and antagonistic to even those who understand the idea of stamping out piracy. I mainly don't download music or movies for the same primary reason that I don't buy many CDs and DVDs. I just don't want to watch or listen to most of their crap. I already own most of what I want. If once in a while something good does come around I do buy the DVD.

Music is a different beast. I am very much a fan of the idea that if I buy a CD or a song I am buying the right to hear that song or album anywhere and anyway I want. My license should be able to be temporarily shared out to someone else as either both me and other people can listen to said music when we are both in the same place or someone else can use my license so long as I am not using it. This seems a bit weird to many people but I believe it is a direct extension of how we use CDs and DVDs. We can invite friends over to watch a movie or play music on our stereo, though not for profit. This type of license is what we have come to expect from those medium by the end of the 20th century and should try to maintain it going into the 21st century even though the medium itself may change.

I fully expect in the 21st century to be able to buy music over the internet either piecemeal or in bulk rather cheaply to reflect the cheeper cost of distribution compared to CDs. DRM like that used in iTunes from Apple, though I hardly like to be treated like a potential criminal, is leagues better than the DRM used by the likes of Sony. I would prefer watermarking in conjunction with minimal DRM where any music I download is watermarked with my license information so that bots can monitor the illegal or even legal trade of music. The current DRM being pushed by companies like Sony BMG are another large reason why I don't buy CDs. I shudder to even put a music CD into my CD drive as now I can't know what programs are going to be installed that can not only install programs onto my computer without my knowledge or permission but can wreak havoc on my computer and violate my civil rights. The computer is the primary way I listen to music. I don't have a normal CD player and don't want one.

While I'm on the subject of legal license I would mention that I am in favor of shorter length of patents and copyright. You can see way down at the bottom of this page that I have a Creative Commons non commercial license for all the content on this cite. I believe it is a form of injustice to keep what quite obviously should be in the public domain as it has becomes ingrained into the consciousness of a civilization, far exceeds the limit of time needed to gain profit for the loss of R&D, and in too many cases is not even being sold or used by the parent company anymore (or whomever may currently now own the rights) but is kept for their licensing portfolio. If companies can't turn out a profit unless they keep their one single money maker for even up to 120 years, quite a bit longer than current average American lifespan of 75 years, that is a clear sign of a bad business which needs to be choked off and the way made clear for slimmer less bloated companies to take its place. Why exactly does the surviving estate of a dead creator need to keep a copyright for 75 years after said person has died?

Also what is this scary trend of companies who's sole purpose is to create or collect intellectual property (IP) in bids to essentially hold entire industries ransom after the whatever invention becomes ubiquitous (READ JPEG and SCO)? I think after a certain time if a company or someone invents something yet doesn't tell anyone about it they forfeit their copyright if someone else 'invents' the same thing. They certainly shouldn't be able to wait until the company turns a huge profit to suddenly strike and sue them. I do know part of the problem is a slow as molasses patent office and for that matter a dumb patent office. Why for the love of all that is holy should a company be able to patent parts of the human genome or naturally occurring elements? Handing out patents for any damned thing is detrimental to the health of the economy, stifling innovation rather than promoting it. Also allowing companies to change a small aspect of their patent as a loophole to continue keeping it out of the public domain is criminal.

Oi. For a good rundown on frequent misconceptions about copyright go here.

I was just thinking about something my cousin was talking to me about some years ago. How it seems that you rarely ever see a movie or read a book that doesn't have the title in it. So, anyway, I wanted to point out that no I don't hate America. I love it, the problem is, as Bill Maher has said, I am also embarrassed by it. Go here for some of the comments others have made about the previous post.

Work on neTodo has stalled due to lack of time lately and will continue for at least another week due to things mentioned in the title.

One wonders when was the turning point. When did the lofty ideals of truth, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness turn into complacency, money, and the struggle for power? When did America stop being the brightest beacon of hope? Was it the Kennedy assassination, Watergate, McCarthyism, Bush? Or was it ever anything else? Maybe there were only a few leaps in time when colonists shrugged off their chains and flipped off the red coats, when heady times of free love and bra burning turned into a real rights movement, when blacks finally were given rights, when going to the moon was awesome. Seems like we enter times of crap and disease, where greed and intolerance reigns down seemingly endless, then just in the nick of time redeem ourselves somehow once we realize what idiots we were. One wonders when will be the next turning point.

What makes a Mac, a Mac? It's the user experience. I keep hearing that the a Mac is all about OS X. While this may be true of the exact moment, what Apple really is about is the user's experience. It's about the elegance, the look, the feel, the service, the tangibility that says this product not only feels better than any Wintel or Lintel box running around out there it IS better. Sure Apple and their Macs are a niche market, despite the iPod, but that's a good thing. I believe any move that makes them anything but is a disaster to both the company and the consumer. In the end becoming just another computer company churning out computers, though making a few bucks, won't put your name in the history books and certainly won't create the loyal following like Apple has today. There is always a need for that white sheep in a sea of black sheep to remind us that while cheep is all well and good, when you want something better here it is. I must add that though I have used a Mac and used OS 9 and OS X at work, I have never owned a Mac.

So I had a discussion with my friends today over coffee about third world countries versus first world countries. We talked about supposed utopia and complete equality. I don't believe that people are necessarily born equal in every way. Not physically, mentally, nor really should they be treated as such. However, there are a few things things people should be treated equal about. First everyone should be able to have the same medical care, everyone should have the same opportunity for education (whether everyone goes to AP classes or not is another matter), everyone should be protected equally under the law. We have some things right, not everything. I think that a society without competition, without adversity, is a stagnant society. One which will inherently fail because a society that has nothing to strive for doesn't strive for anything. How do we connect the one argument with the other? Well, perhaps I dunno. Life does what it does, let's keep it going and maybe get the answers we seek.

As I do nearly every weekend I went and saw a movie, this weekend I saw "What the bleep do we know?", which was an interesting documentary about quantum physics. There were two main parts to it, the story and the documentary, both revolving around the central theme of quantum physics and how we are effected at the very small quanta levels. One of the more interesting things I brought out of the movie was the idea that we can tell ourselves to have positive thoughts but instead what we get is a very thin line or layer of positive thought surrounded with our normal negative thoughts or feelings. Leading us to think we've pushed the negative away when really we have not. Another interesting idea, which Japanese scientist Masaru Emoto experimented with, that water can be affected by human thought, vibration, words, and music by different crystals forming such as with thoughts like love and hate. I leave you to follow the links to research on your own for now.

So I'm surfing the web, as I'm prone to do from time to time, and I run across the Christian Exodus web site. These very few people are trying to organize thousands of people to emigrate into South Carolina to take over legislative districts. Their goal is to return the United States to the good old days of their christian fundamentalist bullshit views one state at a time and if they can't do that secede from the Union. Take a look at their bullet points of what is wrong with this country. Now take a look at the Free State Project web site where a bunch of libertarians have the same kinda of idea. Sad fucking people.

I been also reading the news from the Guardian UK web site. It's pretty sad when I have to go to a news site in another country to get real news about my own. They have some up to date news on Guantanamo Bay. For those of you who don't know anything about The Patriot Act you need to smack your head against the wall for 3 hours then read this. Also go here, here, and here.

Finally, on a brighter note the Daily Show is funny.