Take my survey!

Another Don't Vote video...

Is buying DRM content purchasing or renting?

This wonderful xkcd comic just made me start thinking about DRM (Digital Rights Management) content.  Now, at work, I happen to work for a music store that offers DRM and non-DRM content depending on what record labels will allow.  However, the very concept of DRM removes the user's control over their own property.  If you purchase content and the store you bought the content from either decides to stop renewing licenses, or if you purchase a new computer, change operating systems, decide to switch from an Ipod to a Zune, or make any decision based upon what you want as opposed to the store you purchased the music from... then you are screwed.

So, in order to protect you property, you have to use circumventive technology, which is a violation of the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act.)  So, you are left with a choice, allow a system that enables media outlets to hit the switch to turn off all of the content you paid for, or stand up for your right to own property and break the law (in many cases).

It's a tough situation, but somebody has to stand up for individuals' rights.

Google Chrome

So far I have been pretty happy with Google's chrome browser.  My cube-mate and I have been arguing about which performance testing site is right, because it just seems everyone has chosen a side for or against the browser.  Some sites say it is better, some say it is worse than either Firefox or IE.  Personally, I have seen a drastic improvement with Java script speeds.

I like the idea that when one tab crashes, the whole browser doesn't crash (even though I heard a team of researchers somewhere found a way to force it to crash.)

I think it's good that Google is modifying section 11 of the EULA.  The new EULA now reads:

11. Content license from you
11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.

that's it.  Plain and simple.

It seems to be fairly free of security vulnerabilities... aside from the file download vulnerability I heard about which was by design, but maybe somehow they will find a way to make it more secure.

I still hope to see a replacement for ubiquity in the browser, and I wish to see Google toolbar included as I mentioned here: http://groups.google.com/group/google-chrome-group/msg/5b91a279c06f72c7

I know as a beta project, this is not a final release project, and for the first browser Google released it is excellent!  However, I have to admit, I was really looking for a browser to specialize in uniting Google services.

Google App Engine.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a Google Hackathon that focused on the App Engine API and hosting service.  At first my learning curves were very steep; I rarely ever use python, but I have a little experience with the language.  I was first thrown off because the app that we were using was built with Templates, and I haven't ever used them before.  So, I decided I wanted to talk about Google's App engine, and some other time I'm going to talk about Python Templates.


The first thing you need to do in order to use App Engine is Install Python.  This varies with different operating system, but basically it installs the same way any other program would be installed in your OS.  Then you need to download the SDK, and maybe even sign up for an App Engine account.  The best resource is the App Engine site on Google Code. 

After unpacking/installing the SDK, you are ready to start writing your program.  I created an RSS reader with a social twist.  In reality, if you took Google Reader, and added an automatically generated feed of articles both you and one or more of your friends read, then offered to initiate an email conversation based on the shared articles.

The App Engine API allows you to utilize Google Accounts, which is how I authenticated users for my app.  Another cool thing I learned about App engine, is that the SDK includes a development server environment that is great for troubleshooting your code before you deploy it to your app engine account.  That's why I said that making an app engine account is the last and optional step.  However, if you want to actually use your app, you should get an account.  It is free after all.

The one thing that kind of caught me off gaurd, but at the same time was perfectly reasonable is the quota system.  Apparently there are two quotas that are set for each app that you host with app engine: Number of users and allow processing power.  I don't know the exact numbers because they can vary according to your account, and what you can arrange with Google, but the idea is that you are given X number of page views, and X milliseconds of processing time.  If you exceed one of these quotas, then your app is disabled for the rest of the month.  However, there is a plan to allow users to pay to have more views and processing power.

Over all, I have to say that the app engine APIs simplify the process of making complex user-based server-side apps.  I plan to write up a documentation/tutorial on using app engine to create your own RSS reader, but first I need to finish some research to better explain why I did things the way I did.

until next time.

FOSS for Students...

So, I've read a few of these articles about Free Open Source Software (FOSS) for students. I guess everyone else has summed it up, but here is my two cents:

(Please keep in mind the programming section is really my area of expertese.)

Tools for all students:

• Open Office.org - It's pretty much a free version of Microsoft Office, and if you know MS office this will be easy. It also has many plugins for specific needs like linking quotes with bibliography data, then automatically using a given format.
  
• Google Documents - For most of your word processing. spreadsheets, and Presentations you may want to use a program installed on your computer, but if you frequently work from public computers or write group papers, then you really want to use an online editor. That way all the team members can continually check eachother's work and everyone can work from the same document.
  
• Google Calendar -This is my favorite tool for scheduling my time. If you get in the habit of doing things on a schedule, then an online calendar is the perfect solution. You can access your calendar from anywhere, and sync it with your favorite calendar programs. Even use it to manage invitations and RSVPs.
  
• Gmail -Everyone needs email.
  
• Google Reader - This is a RSS reader, nothing too fancy, it's good for keeping track of frequent Google searches, news papers, blogs, and an ever growing list of pod-casts and similar services.
  

Math and Science:

• LaTeX - Essential for engineering, mathematics, science... anything where you repeatedly need funky symbols and advanced editing features. It requires a bit of learning, but you will save a lot of time in the end.
• TiLP - Texas Instruments calculator emulator for your PC. That's all you need to know. If you want a second calculator, or you want to copy and past you calculator work into a text document, this is the best way... in my opinion.
  
• Maxima - If you ever hear the words MatLab or Octave, then you want to learn Maxima. It's not everything MatLab and Octave are, but it is a little easier to learn, and most of what you learn will still apply.
• Kalzium - A periodic table with a little extra. You can find examples of where you see each element, plus additional information on a second page. Great for Chemistry students everywhere.
  

Programming:

• Emacs - An advanced text editor wich is totally worth learning. The advanced features require a bit of learning for all the shortcut keys, but once you get proficient with them you can accomplish a lot in a small amount of time.
  
• VI editor - I have seen more textbooks listing this as the Linux editor. Emacs is a competitor to VI, both of them do the same thing in different ways.
• GCC (GNU C Compiler) - A C/C++ compiler that I think is essential for any programmer to learn. Especially if you learn C/C++ in MS Visual Studio (you're too pampered). Real men do it in Notepad! (j/k, but it is good to learn.)
  
• Eclipse - This JAVA based IDE is really the ideal environment to do JAVA development, but the IDE itself can handle any language (you just have to point it to a compiler/interpreter.)
• Mono - Personally, I hate Mono, but I have to admit it is one of the best FOSS apps for .NET development.
• Perl - If you can learn perl, you can learn any programming language... practically.

So, there are some apps I recommend/use a lot. I should note that many programming students will want to use the Math/Science tools as well.

Homeland Security has gone too far!

I am really outraged by this new Homeland security policy. I know I don't travel outside the US... well, ever really, but I think that we the people of this great nation need to start banding together as a nation to prevent this type of abuse of power.

I understand that when going through customs you are subject to [bend over and] give up all your rights and have everything you bring with you inspected, but this policy goes far beyond inspecting what you bring with you. Plus, there is no good that can come from this policy. If someone wants to transport data that could be harmful to transport into or out of this country, they could use the Internet and render this policy useless. Not to mention, how long will it be before CD and DVD ripping software will be catagorized as a circumventive technology and then declaired illegal under the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Seizure of laptops on international flights poses a risk to anyone who saves personal data on their computer. I do not trust homeland security to do the right thing. Plus TSA agents are not highly trained experts.

I can't believe that we let this happen. First we allow congress to steal the public domain from us, and now we let homeland security take our laptops for no reason! I fear this policy could be used to enforce copyright laws that I feel are unethical. It is the job of the copyright owner to find violators of their copyrights. I also feel that copyright law needs to be reformed to a pre-1984 mentality (no reference to the book specifically intended.) [I feel] copyright laws should only apply to the commercial use of content covered by the copyright. For example, if I hold a copyright, that should only mean you can't publish and sell that content. However (ironically) in 1984 that changed to cover free distribution because the VCR manufacturers and retailers were found responsible for the violation of copyrights performed by the users recording TV shows. Anyway... back topic at hand.

I could understand if this policy applied to non-US citizens entering or leaving the country, but we are supposed to have rights. We are supposed to have the right to privacy, and I feel the government should not have the authority to allow an organization to violate that right.

I am not sure what we have to do, but something needs to be done. I would love to have some suggestions as to what should be done.



That's my two cents.

Home Made Games for Xbox360

The XNA creator's club isn't exactly new, nor is the XNA Game Studio; The new info here is that Microsoft actually announced prices for XNA Game Studios! Here is an update of everything going on here.

1. For about $100 a year anyone can joint the XNA Creator's Club.
2. Club members can submit a game for peer review.
3. If approved by peers (via democratic process, I hope,) those games can now be distributed on Xbox Live's Marketplace.
4. The club members can choose a price between 200 and 800 Microsoft Points (or up to $10).
5. Microsoft will allow the member to keep up to 70% of the revenue (Microsoft will keep more that 30% if the game is prominently advertised.)

I read the USA Today article about it.

I like this news because it is one of all too few distribution policies that allows independent developers to sell their products to the main stream audience. Plus, it's something being pushed by one of the biggest players in the gaming industry.

Is P2P harmful to copyright holders?

I have been reading this book Titled Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig. The content of the book is very closely related to copyrights and piracy. What specifically grabbed my attention is the view of piracy as a beneficial free marketing tool for copyright holders, but before I talk about the interpretations and conclusions I drew from the book, allow me to talk a little bit about who exactly Lawrence Lessig is (as to avoid someone just pawning him off as insignificant based on my views.)

Lawrence Lessig (Wikipedia Link) is a Law professor at Stanford. He founded the creative commons and has written four books, that I know of, and I have read (or at least started to read) all of them with the exception of Codev2, which there is a list his books and a link to download Codev2 for free from Lessig.org. That being said I hold his work to be very good and insightful, but I like to think I don't judge people (I like to think I judge their work/actions.)

The subject at hand is the concept of P2P being harmful to copyright holders. After reading the first few chapters, you a presented with a generalized view of copyrights, in which Lessig mentions a system of lumping P2P users into 4 categories that would be needed to establish if P2P specifically is harmful. (I hope I don't violate a copyright by talking about it on my blog...) The categories are:

• A. People who will download free content as a substitute for purchasing.
• B. People who will download free content to sample it before purchasing.
• C. People who will download free content because it is not commercially available, or financially feasible for them to obtain the content otherwise.
• D. People who will download free content because the copyright allows it.
  

Lessig says that the way to establish if P2P is harmful you need to determine if the benefit from category B is less than the damage from category A. Also in his argument he notes a figure suggesting that at one point in time over twice as much recorded content was being downloaded than the record industry sold.

This is the point where I draw away from what Lessig said (I think) and I ask the question of analyzing category A a little more. If there are twice as many people downloading content annually than the number of albums the recording industry has every sold in a year(not to be confused with the change in records sales), then how many records would the record industry sell if pirates did not download free content? I think this is the only question that matters. The basis of my belief in this is re-affirmed in the book when Lessig talks about the difference between being illegal and being wrong.

Any moral philosophy class will start making you think about the differences between morality and legality. I feel it is rare we can find a subject like murder where it is both illegal and wrong. This is one of the reasons why laws often change with time (segregation, slavery, copyrights, ect.) I actually think it is a crime that Mickey Mouse has not yet become property of the public domain the same way that the works of other dead creators' works have been in the past, but does that make it wrong for me to disobey the law and use Mickey Mouse in a cartoon I created? Should Disney be able to sue me for using their creation that is now such an icon for children of my generation that the mere silhouette of Mickey instantly pulls up a relation to Disney and the mouse? After all, Mickey's first appearance with sound, Steamboat Willie, was nothing more than a pirated concept of the time.

I actually feel very strongly that piracy via P2P is not nearly as harmful as the RIAA makes it look to be. I also feel that all copyrights should expire after a reasonable length of time (probably around 10 years). Meaning that morally I do not have an issue with people downloading any content released before 1987 (21 years before this post) to avoid permanent monopolies on content. Meaning that a very large amount of older content should be considered property of the public domain making it legal for anyone to share. An example would be that Pink Floyd's original version of A Momentary Lapse of Reason and all albums published before it (basically all of their original albums) should be free for anyone to distribute as well as Metallica's first three albums. However, many older albums are re-mastered; This raises a question of whether or not these remastered works could be covered under a new copyright as original works. I admit that re-mastering an album takes a bit of work, and requires equipment most people can not afford or advanced technical knowledge or writing remastering software. Because these works are not original I don't feel they should be covered under a separate license, however it would provide a valid excuse for an exception to the rule; allowing publishers to provide new and improved content at a price, while the old content could be free.

Now that I have established my moral views, what about harm to the copyright holder? I recall the case with Jimmi Hendrix; where after Hendrix died the record label retained distribution rights, but the Hendrix family (namely his children) did not receive payment for their father's work. This is a case where I feel the creators of content are being cheated. If I record a song with a record label I would be paid a fee, set by congress, for each copy of the album that was sold. I have no control over the content from that point forward. Once it is recorded I get paid per album, then I get paid for each show I perform, but if I want to take my work, and start giving it away for free because I feel I have made the money I need off of the content, then I will have no authority to make that decision. The same is true toward the creator of The Simpsons; The Fox corporation actually owns everything. Even with the creator's permission, you can not distribute this content in any way (even if Simpsons happens to be in the background while you are shooting a documentary.

The argument I am starting to form is not a legal argument, but a moral argument. An argument of who has acted wrongfully: the copyright holder or the pirate. Certainly Shakespeare is considered the public domain, why should Disney, Fox, or anyone else be treated differently. The copyright should last a reasonable time then fade away to the public domain.

Regardless of whether the copyright is valid, enforceable, or even should be enforceable we need to come back to the argument at hand; does P2P harm copyright holders. Can P2P pirates be viewed the same as thieves that steal books or albums off of a shelves in stores? Absolutely not. When you steal a physical object, the entity the object was stolen from no longer has that object; unlike when you share something on a P2P network, nobody looses a physical object. This is because digital objects can be reproduced infinitely at no additional cost to the producer. Decentralized networks like BitTorrent and Gnutella or even semi-centralized networks like FastTrack (KaZaa) clients can distribute content highly efficiently. The user only has to leave the program running after downloading content to automatically share anything on the user's hard drive. Should there be a responsibility for the creators of these networks to scan million or even billions of computers regularly to ensure no copyright content is available? I guess the real question will come down to cost. While a networks like BitTorrent and Gnutella can't exactly be just shut down the same way as a centralized network like Napster, a semi-decentralized network like FastTrack can be shut down. What is the cost to society of shutting these networks down?

I view the claims of the MPAA and RIAA as typical rejections of new technology. These same arguments were made of Radio, Hollywood, and Cable TV; the copyright holders are not getting exclusive control of all distribution methods their content is being distributed with. In all past cases Congress has stated that there is not harm is playing copyright content over the radio without paying the copyright holder; the same is true for TV. Hollywood was formed under the premise that California was not policed, and the film makers did not want to pay Thomas Edison to use his video equipment; so they moved to California and waited for the copyright to expire. These foundations that form much of our every day life now, were once all just a bunch of pirates trying to use the work of someone else. Now, being played on the radio is the main goal for many record companies; TV is our source of entertainment and news. These older industries were forced to give content to the public domain in certain ways that would benefit society over the monopoly of a copyright holder.

I think that it is a greater crime to not allow P2P sharing of free and otherwise unavailable content than to allow a subset of P2P users to illegally download content as a substitute for purchasing content. I am sure that some of these people will not buy an album that they otherwise would have bought, but I feel more people will download content that they otherwise would not have bought; which means these people are not stealing profit from the copyright holder as much as they are enjoying content that exists in the world on demand.

Later,

SteveO

Android at Google IO!

I like the new features that seem to be popping into Android as the development moves on. At first some of the features currently present in the mobile phone OS either were not present or appeared to be poorly implemented. Now the layout has become more in tune to the concept of "Natural Input", as opposed to using a keyboard and mouse, which is key to making a cell phone.

Here is a video I found, on download squad (via Google reader).



That's all for now.

Later,

SteveO

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS installation conclusion.

After installing the system on both of my machines, I concluded that the installation was a success for myself, but the upgrade has some issues. Granted that I probably had some errors that other people will not have because I performed all of the operations right when the distribution was first released, and now there have been several updates to the upgrade tool. So, lets dive into exactly what I am talking about.

Dell Inspiron 5100:

This computer is currently running a triple-boot configuration. I have 4 partitions: Windows, root, home, and swap. The boot loader is installed to the MBR (Master Boot Record), and I performed a standard install and a Wubi install. Both of the installs are successful, however the ATI Mobility drivers are still not perfect. Because I am not allowing myself to perform command line repairs to any machines I have not gotten my S-Video port to work, nor have I gotten 3D acceleration to work properly. I admit that the fix for this is a simple one line edit to the x11 config file, but a novice user should not have to do that, so graphics are considered a failure.

Other than that the two installations came out nearly identical with a slight performance decrease in the Wubi install. I have to say the process is great for those that want to install an OS without knowing what they are doing, nor commiting to any permanent changes to the machine, but some users with older computers may run into issues. Typically you will want to have a minimum of 15 - 20 Gigabytes available on your machine. This way you will insure that you have enough memory to perform the install and work with some of the applicaitons, but more memory is always better. Over all, the Wubi install is easy and great, but I find myself caught up on the graphics issue.

Lenovo 3000 N200:

I have upgraded this machine a few times now. Normally the upgrade process runs fairly smooth, however after this upgrade I am seeing a decrease in performance, unstable applicaitons, and bugs that are popping up from apps that have been running fine for a while. Graphics performance on the Intel chipset are running fine, althought I hear that NVidia cards are the only way to go if you want S-Video functionality out of the box. I have a feeling that the upgrade process is less buggy now that a few of the bugs I ran into have been resolved as fixed on Launchpad.

Other issues I was having include a sound issue where the headphone port does not automatically mute/unmute the laptop's speakers. My usual fix of running a script that downloads and re-compiles the alsa drivers does not seem to work, but I don't actually want to go to the command line, so I have been living with it.

I have been contemplating re-formatting this machine and starting over with a fresh install to work out the bugs. I think that the released updates should solve all the issues I am having, but I have notices that bugs still seem to pop up with every ditrbution upgrade.

Other than that, I am happy with the changes. Exile is a great media player, and the "dynamic" playlist feature means that the music will never stop until I hit stop. Firefox 3 Beta 5 is quick and runs great, however I am having issues with google toolbar's incompatability. It was also disappointing to find out that many of the firefox plugins that I use don't work in the beta, but with firefox 2 installed I can get by.

In conclusion, The installation of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS seems to be more stable than the distribution upgrade. Most of the improvements in the OS invole look and feel or ease of use. The ditribution is getting closer to the goal of being a user friendly system for normal desktop users. There is a little room for improvement, but it is getting better.

So, that is a quick review of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS. If you have any comments suggestions or questions, please give me something to write about that people want to read.

Later,

SteveO

Ubuntu 8.04LTS installation review.

I just installed Ubuntu 8.04LTS on my Dell Inspiron 5100. The installation went smooth, but I was disappointed that Google Toolbar is not compatible with Firefox 3B5. Most of the hardware is working correctly, but my S-Video out does not work. This is common with fresh installs.

I also performed the new Wubi install. The neat thing about this type of install, is that you perform it from within Windows. I am not very familiar with that type of install yet, but it creates a large file in Windows rather than using a different partition. This makes it easier to test drive the distro before really commiting to the change (which means re-formatting your intire drive in some cases.) The process in this case is very easy to reverse because the Wubi install can be uninstalled from the windows control panel.

The result of the Wubi install is that the user can choose between Windows of Ubuntu when the computer is booting. The speed of the Wubi install is slower than a standard installation. I typically keep one partition for my OS files, a second for my swap partition, and another partition for my home directory, which runs quick. My hard drive also has a fourth partition that I run Windows on, just to keep around for work purposes.

In the other room I am currently upgrading my Lenovo to Ubuntu 8.04 from an installation I've been upgrading sense Ubuntu 6. That is my primary computer, and I use it for most of my day to day work. It has an 80GB hdd that is devided into 3 partition: swap, root, and home. That machine actually runs everything, but I will be testing out life without my Google Toolbar for a little while (at least no toolbar at home.) I don't think I could give it up for too long.

So far the install is going sort of slow. I have Qwest DSL, which is supposed to be a 7mb connection, but it doesn't ever seem to get close to that speed. I must admit I am comparing it to the Gigabit connection at work, but that is a different story.

It reported that more than 1300 files will be upgraded. Most of which would be un-installed first. I am not sure if the upgrade will actually mess up my system in any way yet; I have had issues with my S-Video out after upgrades in the past, but I am hoping that even though I am sure I know how to deal with the issue, I do not want to do it again.

So, I'll get back once I have my third version of Ubuntu up and running.

Linux in our lives.

Linux on PCs

Over the years, more and more people have heard of Linux. I have been watching this OS grow from difficult to usable, and recently I have really started to think the OS has a chance. I suppose the thing that worries me is seeing Linux distributions like gOS being sold at Wal-Mart. I am excited to see Linux pre-loaded on a cheap PC, however I would prefer to see an original Ubuntu distribution rather than a modified Ubuntu distribution that puts such a large emphasis on web 2.0 services.
Linux needs an easy to use distribution that functions the way Windows users expect the machine to function. Then, the additional perks of having online repositories of free software and clearly written documentation in laymen's terms.

Linux on Mobile Devices

I have been happy to see the Nokia 770, N800, and N810 released with Nokia's mobile OS, however I would have liked to see more long term support for at least the proprietary portions of the system. I was also disappointed to see a lack of pre-loaded PIM software. It was easy enough to add repositories to allow easy installation of a fairly impressive software library. I personally enjoyed loading putty for the purpose of using my own encryption for my personal internet traffic through untrusted access points.
Another mobile device I have high aspirations for is the Neo1973. I hope to see the retail version of this device released in the next year; you can currently obtain a really nice kit including the developer model, a debug board, and their OS pre-loaded on the phone. I just wish I were sponsored so I could give a review of this, however I plan on continueing on this idea after I actually get my hands on one of the advanced developer kits ($400 USD).
I am looking forward to the Google Android OS to be released. I have been testing simple applications with the SDK using Eclipse. I have found that Oreilly's Eclipse Pocket Guide was very useful to quickly familiarize myself with the IDE; which I felt was easy to transition to from Visual Studio. The Android OS features a built in web browser based on Webkit, a Google Map viewer, and Contact List.

I think this post is horrendous... however I will try and improve over time.

I think my next post will be themed around social networking.

If you read this, tell me what you think/hate/like?/how stupid I sound.

Later,

SteveO

New Blog!

I started this blog with the idea of having somewhere to just rant about tech news and that sort of stuff....

I will start ranting next post...

in a few minutes.


Later,

SteveO