grr. grr. grr.

Today’s the day: the company deadline for removing all IM software from our computers. Management, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks its distraction potential outweighs its usefulness as a business tool. Personally, I’m not over-fond of IM, and amn’t particularly sorry to see it go. But what does it say about managers that, rather than search for the real reasons that their employees’ productivity is dropping, would rather rant, rave, treat the employees like children and take away their toys? 1. The economy’s too bad for them to give us the bonuses and raises we need to make this job worthwhile. 2. They’re idiots, and bad managers. 3. They’re just as addicted to Solitaire and Minesweeper as the rest of us.

It’s not work, just fun

I’m playing around a bit more with Radio UserLand. It’s going to take some patience to make it work, as I really want to get it to point at this site and not at my Radio Weblog. Meanwhile I’ve decided how to move forward on Manila Envelope, which was felled right before launch with an impossible problem with the preferences. I’m going to have to write my own code to write and read an XML preference file. Should be fun. Dig we must…

But much less tasty

Tomorrow morning the Galileo probe will take its last photos in a low-altitude flyby of Io. It’s due to crash into Jupiter in early 2003 so it doesn’t accidentally land on Europa, which has the best chance of any of the Jovian moons to contain life, and contaminate it with bacteria. I’m looking forward to seeing the photos; as I’m married to an Italian-American woman, there’s always been something amusing to me about a planet that looks like a pizza from hell.

Back, with tangerines

My turn to rise from the blogger dead. I’ve been laid flat (lain flat?) for the past few days by a very nasty cold bug, which I unintentionally and not on purpose probably gave to Tim during his visit. And my Internet connection at home isn’t working for the very simple reason that someone out there is out to get me. Seriously, I’m back, I’m eating tangerines, I’m reasonably content and on the way to being more so.

About Pop Pop: like Tim said, it’s been incredibly hard on the whole family — I don’t think any of us had realized how much we rely on Pop Pop to hold us together. Mom says that he’s doing better, though — his blood sugar was way, way down last night. As long as Mom has reason to be optimistic, so do I.

Have a great day, all…

Grumpy old blogger

I’m home. I have a cold. I’ve looked at Radio 8 and I’m not sure what’s going on yet. It looks really cool, and the UI is much better than in 7, but there’s a little bit of a learning curve. Now I’ll have to figure out how to blog all over again.

And I don’t wanna grow up either.

One of the things that came up was my grandfather. He’s possibly my favorite relative (sorry, everyone else), and also my last living grandparent. And he’s been alternately reminding me how much I care for him and scaring me over the last couple of days.

Last Saturday, I wrote about my detour to the family reunion. I spent a lot of time catching up with family–some people I hadn’t seen in quite a while; some read this blog frequently (hi, Jack!). But I think my favorite moment was sitting around the piano with about half the thirty people there, Mom playing, all of us singing Christmas carols (and the “Hallelujah Chorus”). Part way through, Pop-Pop asked the other folks to lay back so that my he, my Uncle John, and I could take a verse. It had been years since I sang with them at all, let alone solo, and it sounded great.

I probably didn’t notice at the time because of that and other factors (like my quick drive over and my need to hit the road), but Pop-Pop wasn’t in great shape. When I got there yesterday at 1 pm, I really noticed it: while his brain was as quick as ever, his speech was a little slurred, his fine motor control was gone (hands moving spastically and constantly), he stumbled when he walked because he was dragging a foot. His diabetes, normally pretty controlled, had really spiked before Christmas, and he was still feeling the effects, they thought. My Aunt Marie and I took him to the doctor this morning, and though his blood sugar’s down he is still having the symptoms. So we took him by the hospital. They’ve ruled out a stroke and are now investigating other causes.

I want him to be ok. I want to be able to introduce him to great-grandchildren some day, so he has a new audience for whom he can be the hysterically funny gentleman he was when I was growing up. I want eighty-four to be a good year for him, not the start of a downward slope.

Breaking the silence

Whew. Whirlwind journey almost over. I have a long train ride between Metropark and Boston tomorrow, and then I’m really back. Apologies for radio silence: some things came up. I’ll probably write about a few of them shortly.

In the meantime, I wrote this update on Saturday: Sorry about the unexpected silence the last two days. I was staying with a friend who had no broadband and had given up his home phone. I spent a few days catching up with old college and work friends. I’m certainly happy to have had the chance to visit with everyone, but I’m really ready to come home now.

I spent most of the day with Esta. We drove into Charlottesville for dinner and nostalgia, and now we’re sitting in Cocke Hall blogging. At least she’s blogging–my site is down and I’ll have to post this later.

New business model: hate your customers

About a month ago, I wrote Universal Music Group to complain about reports that starting in mid 2002, all their CDs would be copy protected using a format that renders them unplayable on Macs and on many CD players. Today I got a response from an automated support email that I’ve posted. I think there are two things in the letter of interest:

  • First, they claim that they hope to include Mac-based “playability” on copy-protected discs, and that they “have not made a commitment” to put copy protection on all their CD releases. This directly contradicts the statement made in Billboard last month.
  • Second, they claim that “unauthorized CD ‘ripping’ leads to illegal Internet distribution of music.”

The second is an interesting and novel claim. Let’s break it apart. First, what does “unauthorized CD ripping” mean? The last time I checked, fair use allows me to make a copy for personal reasons. This blanket “unauthorized” accusation and the copy protection measures that attempt to prevent it are only infringing my fair use rights. Second, how does ripping lead to distribution? Last time I checked, they were two separate acts. Just because I rip one of my CDs to put it on my iPod doesn’t mean I’m going to distribute it on the Internet. I agree that file sharing programs like Napster and KaZaA are designed to facilitate distribution. But ripping? Oh man we’re in trouble if the RIAA goes after that one.

Universal: why we’re afraid of our customers

Okay, so I posted a complaint at Universal’s site like a lot of other people, which is why I got the following message today. I’ve highlighted in red the two bits that I find interesting:

From: “MusicHelpOnline.com Support”

To: [my email]

Subject: MusicHelpOnline Support

Date: Wed, 09 Jan 2002 15:01:20 -0600

Thank you for your feedback regarding copy protected CDs. We
appreciate your opinion, as the consumer experience with the music we all
love has always been a priority at the Universal Music Group.

Unfortunately, over the last few years, the music industry has been faced
with a growing problem of unauthorized CD “ripping” leading to illegal
Internet distribution of music – a practice that is hurting everyone from
recording artists to songwriters to record stores. This illegal copying is
taking place on a massive scale, with literally millions of copies being
made without any compensation to the creators of the music. If a way is
not found to protect the music from these abuses, recording artists,
songwriters and many others will be deprived of their livelihoods. The
changing economics could cause fewer new artists to get a chance to find
their audience.

Universal Music Group is committed to protecting the rights of our artists,
songwriters, and copyright holders, and, like the rest of the entertainment
industry, is evaluating emerging technologies to assess their viability while
also attempting to maximize the consumer experience. In addition,
Universal is exploring new ways to make music available in a variety of
online formats. We are also working with technology companies on new
offline formats that appeal to consumers.

We have licensed copy protection technologies developed by others and
are experimenting with the integration of those technologies into some of
our CDs as a first step in measuring their effectiveness in an evolving
marketplace. While the CDs with copy protection may not be playable in a
limited number of CD players, UMG is currently working with our
technology providers to achieve 100% playability. We also hope to
include Macintosh-based playability on copy-protected discs in the future.
We have not finalized our plans for 2002 nor have we made a commitment
to put copy protection on all of our CD releases.

UMG has also established www.musichelponline.com to provide
consumers with support and to answer any questions you may have
concerning copy protected CDs.

We appreciate your business, and your support for the musicians who
bring so much to all of our lives.

A very worthy Pilgrim

Congratulations to Mark Pilgrim’s DiveIntoMark for receiving the Best Scripting Weblog award in the 2001 Scripting News weblog awards.

After the nominations, I browsed my competition and quickly figured out that this guy was really where it was at, scripting wise. For that matter, so were my other competitors–it’s a complete mystery how I got nominated. 🙂 But it’s an honor just to have been in the running, and so thanks to Dave and all who voted for me.