First off I want to give mad props to Google for making Blogger work in lynx. You guys rock my console.
With that out of the way, I thought I'd give a little update as to what I've been doing lately. Most of my 'free time' has been spent helping to bring a hackerspace online in Norfolk, VA. 757 Labs is a project formed from a local technology social group called HRGeeks. I've been hanging out with these guys for a while, and even used to know a few of them when I was in high school. It's been a lot of fun, and as I seem to have become the network admin it's been a great learning experience. My home network just didn't offer the level of complexity that the lab network does. Maintaining a number of VLANs, making sure that visitors have working internet connection while keeping the main network secure with both hardline and wireless access for everything. I've learned that there were things I didn't even know that I didn't know. Of course, that's part of why I'm here, so it's all good.
My own personal projects have mostly been on hold for the time being, partly because this has been much more fun, and partly because once the space is active I'll be able to use it for my projects. Win/Win!
I can't believe I just typed that. I feel so lame. Oh well, it stands.
Now, why did I happen to come to know that Blogger works in lynx? Well, I'm at the lab now, upstairs at the server racks, about to shut down the audio stream I've been running, and got the urge to type this. As for that audio stream, Matt Lestock (former Hak5 host, and all-around spiffy fellow) has restarted his old internet radio show. What, you didn't know? Well carry yourself over to www.jeffandchew.com, and check it out. I'll wait...
Got the skinny? Good. Listen weekly, you'll be glad you did. Just don't listen with small children or people that can't take a joke. You've been warned.
That's about all I have for now. I'm going to try to get back into posting more, now that I'll have more to post about. Until then, keep doing what you do, as no one else can do it better than you.
Showing posts with label shared culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shared culture. Show all posts
New Hobbies Are The Best Hobbies
I've been idle lately. Not just 'technologically' but physically. Three years ago, when I changed departments at my employer, I went from climbing ladders and crawling under buildings to sitting at a desk all day. I also went from 175lbs to 220lbs. It took just a few months to get to the new weight, but it took over a year to get back (o'kay so I'm 180 now; close enough). I changed my eating habits to match my new less active job and made a point to get out now and then. That had been going pretty well until a few months ago, at which point I just kind of stopped. No real reason; just did. I also noticed that I wasn't doing much of anything else. It had all kind of run together. Sure, my various hobbies and such were still fun, but they were also old hat. I needed something new. I also needed to get moving or risk regaining the weight. If you've never been there, you can't really know, but it's a lot harder to keep the weight off once you've gained and lost it than it is to just not gain it.
I've been playing around with various GPS related applications on my phone lately. Mostly the 'check in' at a location variety. I have Brightkite, and Loopt; picked up Gowalla recently. They're all fun in their own little way, but I really enjoy the Geohash app. It's based off an XKCD comic, and though I usually don't go to the locations that it generates, I like looking at the info every day. I've yet to meet anyone else at a generated location, but I hold out hope that it'll happen.
Ever since I got an iPhone 3G (I have a 3GS now) I've played with the idea of getting a dedicated GPS device too. The iPhone serves me well for getting from point A to point B, but it's not all that accurate. A few years ago I read about a thing called Geocaching. The idea being that using just a set of coordinates and a few clues you would set out looking for a can, box, or other containers that someone else hid with the hope that others would find it. Sometimes there might be odds and ends to trade or clues to the location of yet another hidden treasure. Maybe an object that wants to travel to a faraway place, and if you can help it get closer by moving it to another hidden place then it's just accepted that you will.
Last night, on a whim, I decided that I was going to stop thinking about it, and actually give it a try. I signed into geocaching.com from work, set up an account, and searched for a few caches nearby. After work, I set out looking and using Google Maps and my phone's built-in compass I made an attempt to find two different places that seemed as though they would be pretty easy. I failed. A lot. All the while I was cursing the highly inaccurate GPS on my phone. Sure it was great for plotting a route to follow in my car, but when trying to find something that may be smaller than my hand and hidden from view, it just didn't seem to be good enough. Most handheld GPS devices I've looked at have a clear sky accuracy from 10 to 30 feet. My iPhone didn't seem to want to do better than about 40 to 60 feet. So combining the probable inaccuracy of the device that tagged the location and the error in location from my phone and I realized it was possible I could be almost 100 feet away from my target at any time and think I was right on top of it.
I tried one more, that was closer to home, later last night after an HR Geeks (Hampton Roads, not Human Resources) meeting that sprung up because some people couldn't make it to the scheduled meeting last week. It was quite dark by that time, and after a few minutes, I realized that it was a lost cause. This morning I was woken up far earlier than I had planned to get up and was forced to leave the house. After taking care of what I needed to, I decided to give it another go. I picked a different cache, as it was on my way back home. This time after just a few minutes I found a hidden glass jar with a few tiny seashells, an equally small toy car, and a rolled up piece of paper in a plastic bag. I unrolled the paper, left the date and my name, packed it all back up and hid it away again. There was another less than a quarter mile away, so I went for it. I also downloaded the iPhone application that Groundspeak (the group that operates geocaching.com) offers which gives access to the cache database, and an easy way to update entries. Sure it cost $10, but sometimes the free route isn't the best route.
So pulling up to the second attempt of the day I can already tell where it's hidden. Mostly because it was hidden in the same way the first one was, but on some level, it was like I could just feel it. This time it took longer to sign the log and put it back than it took to actually find it. Feeling good about myself I decided I want to try to find the last one I looked for last night. On the way, I'd be passing two others. First one is on the road I live on. Spent a few minutes looking, and started to think that perhaps it wasn't there anymore, despite only being put into place a short time ago. It's a pretty high traffic area and on the edge of private property. Just as I was about to walk away I see it, in plain sight. How I missed it until then I have no idea. Then off to the next one. At this point, I was feeling pumped. Silly I guess, but on some level, I felt like those shady characters in spy movies in their long black coats deftly snatching little-hidden objects off the back of park benches in plain view of everyone.
A few minutes down the road and I find myself along a line of shrubs. Trying not to collect too much of the bush inside of my coat, I start poking around the ground just under the leaves. As I do I start thinking back to my days as a cable tech, looking for pedestals which had been grown over. Falling into this mindset I spot it. My gaze hadn't moved and yet something that was totally invisible to me just moments ago was there as plain as the nose on my face. That's when I realized that yesterday I had been looking at things all wrong. My inability to find the caches I was looking for yesterday wasn't because my GPS devices wasn't accurate enough, it was because I wasn't looking. I was trusting my equipment to show me where to look. The point of the GPS is to get me there, it was still my job to actually search. Resealing the large film canister and feeling in the zone I roll out to what I'd decided would be my last attempt of the day. Off the side of the road, in view of the interstate, I start poking around wondering if anyone zipping by at 60+MPH even notices me and if I'm about to wake up a sleeping snake I creep farther into the trees. No geocache, but did find the remains of a beer cache. Looked like it had been abandoned some time ago. A slightly broken foam cooler, and mostly empty beer cans covered by black plastic and pine needles. Again, just as I was ready to leave, out of the corner of my eye I catch something that doesn't look right. A magnetic key box tucked away from view. Another signature log and a small rubber lizard that might have been trying to be the Loch Ness Monster. Left my mark, and having very much enjoyed the morning, headed home.
I don't see myself regularly checking off five a day, even on my days off. I do see myself venturing off course every now and then, to spend a few minutes searching out a little slip of paper to scribble my name on. I may never meet any of the people whose names mine is sharing space with, but still I feel that in a way they all were there with me when I found the cache. We all saw the same thing, in the same place, just not all at the same time. I really think I'm going to enjoy this.
I've been playing around with various GPS related applications on my phone lately. Mostly the 'check in' at a location variety. I have Brightkite, and Loopt; picked up Gowalla recently. They're all fun in their own little way, but I really enjoy the Geohash app. It's based off an XKCD comic, and though I usually don't go to the locations that it generates, I like looking at the info every day. I've yet to meet anyone else at a generated location, but I hold out hope that it'll happen.
Ever since I got an iPhone 3G (I have a 3GS now) I've played with the idea of getting a dedicated GPS device too. The iPhone serves me well for getting from point A to point B, but it's not all that accurate. A few years ago I read about a thing called Geocaching. The idea being that using just a set of coordinates and a few clues you would set out looking for a can, box, or other containers that someone else hid with the hope that others would find it. Sometimes there might be odds and ends to trade or clues to the location of yet another hidden treasure. Maybe an object that wants to travel to a faraway place, and if you can help it get closer by moving it to another hidden place then it's just accepted that you will.
Last night, on a whim, I decided that I was going to stop thinking about it, and actually give it a try. I signed into geocaching.com from work, set up an account, and searched for a few caches nearby. After work, I set out looking and using Google Maps and my phone's built-in compass I made an attempt to find two different places that seemed as though they would be pretty easy. I failed. A lot. All the while I was cursing the highly inaccurate GPS on my phone. Sure it was great for plotting a route to follow in my car, but when trying to find something that may be smaller than my hand and hidden from view, it just didn't seem to be good enough. Most handheld GPS devices I've looked at have a clear sky accuracy from 10 to 30 feet. My iPhone didn't seem to want to do better than about 40 to 60 feet. So combining the probable inaccuracy of the device that tagged the location and the error in location from my phone and I realized it was possible I could be almost 100 feet away from my target at any time and think I was right on top of it.
I tried one more, that was closer to home, later last night after an HR Geeks (Hampton Roads, not Human Resources) meeting that sprung up because some people couldn't make it to the scheduled meeting last week. It was quite dark by that time, and after a few minutes, I realized that it was a lost cause. This morning I was woken up far earlier than I had planned to get up and was forced to leave the house. After taking care of what I needed to, I decided to give it another go. I picked a different cache, as it was on my way back home. This time after just a few minutes I found a hidden glass jar with a few tiny seashells, an equally small toy car, and a rolled up piece of paper in a plastic bag. I unrolled the paper, left the date and my name, packed it all back up and hid it away again. There was another less than a quarter mile away, so I went for it. I also downloaded the iPhone application that Groundspeak (the group that operates geocaching.com) offers which gives access to the cache database, and an easy way to update entries. Sure it cost $10, but sometimes the free route isn't the best route.
So pulling up to the second attempt of the day I can already tell where it's hidden. Mostly because it was hidden in the same way the first one was, but on some level, it was like I could just feel it. This time it took longer to sign the log and put it back than it took to actually find it. Feeling good about myself I decided I want to try to find the last one I looked for last night. On the way, I'd be passing two others. First one is on the road I live on. Spent a few minutes looking, and started to think that perhaps it wasn't there anymore, despite only being put into place a short time ago. It's a pretty high traffic area and on the edge of private property. Just as I was about to walk away I see it, in plain sight. How I missed it until then I have no idea. Then off to the next one. At this point, I was feeling pumped. Silly I guess, but on some level, I felt like those shady characters in spy movies in their long black coats deftly snatching little-hidden objects off the back of park benches in plain view of everyone.
A few minutes down the road and I find myself along a line of shrubs. Trying not to collect too much of the bush inside of my coat, I start poking around the ground just under the leaves. As I do I start thinking back to my days as a cable tech, looking for pedestals which had been grown over. Falling into this mindset I spot it. My gaze hadn't moved and yet something that was totally invisible to me just moments ago was there as plain as the nose on my face. That's when I realized that yesterday I had been looking at things all wrong. My inability to find the caches I was looking for yesterday wasn't because my GPS devices wasn't accurate enough, it was because I wasn't looking. I was trusting my equipment to show me where to look. The point of the GPS is to get me there, it was still my job to actually search. Resealing the large film canister and feeling in the zone I roll out to what I'd decided would be my last attempt of the day. Off the side of the road, in view of the interstate, I start poking around wondering if anyone zipping by at 60+MPH even notices me and if I'm about to wake up a sleeping snake I creep farther into the trees. No geocache, but did find the remains of a beer cache. Looked like it had been abandoned some time ago. A slightly broken foam cooler, and mostly empty beer cans covered by black plastic and pine needles. Again, just as I was ready to leave, out of the corner of my eye I catch something that doesn't look right. A magnetic key box tucked away from view. Another signature log and a small rubber lizard that might have been trying to be the Loch Ness Monster. Left my mark, and having very much enjoyed the morning, headed home.
I don't see myself regularly checking off five a day, even on my days off. I do see myself venturing off course every now and then, to spend a few minutes searching out a little slip of paper to scribble my name on. I may never meet any of the people whose names mine is sharing space with, but still I feel that in a way they all were there with me when I found the cache. We all saw the same thing, in the same place, just not all at the same time. I really think I'm going to enjoy this.
Cows MOO while MUCKing about in the MUSHy MUD
In the 90's, while the internet was starting to get pictures, most of us were still using text to describe what things look like, what they did, and what happened to them after the dog got a hold of them. There were a great many ways in which this was done; but among the more non sequitur were the MUSH, MOO, MUCK, MUX, MUD (especially of the Tiny variety) etc. Many people connected, much fun was had, and little of it made sense.
So just what are all these acronyms about, and what do they have to do with cows, pancakes, Pop-Tarts®, pennies, dirty diapers, or Gary Numan? Well the MU, for those that have a MU*, stands for Multi-User... the rest is something of a subject for debate, as most are thought to be backronyms. Generally the user base is allowed to create objects and rooms, and to one degree or another program responses to events generated by other players, objects, and rooms in one of a few purpose-built languages fashioned after or otherwise baring a resemblance to gems like Forth (in the case of TinyMUCK) or Lisp (like MUSHcode for all the MUSH variants). What about the cows et al? Well, cows, pancakes, and Pop-Tarts® are easy. They're all awesome. Pennies and dirty diapers are the same things, of course. As are pancakes for different values of pancakes. If I need to explain what Gary Numan has to do with anything you are officially banned from reading my blog from this moment on, so go away.
All the Numan dissing wannabes gone? Good. So where was I? Oh, yes... user programmable text-based social interactions. It was still largely the time of coyotes and tumbleweed on the internet, and most things worth doing were still done with a keyboard. Graphics were for single player games, and the vast majority of the clicking came from our coveted IBM Model M keyboards. Much of this clicking was spent playing combat MUDs and programming. What could be more fun? Combining the two, and tossing in large amounts of insanity, while largely taking out the combat.
There were a lot of different systems up at that time, running different versions, and with different themes, if they had one at all. I was always a fan of the loose role play systems without a defined theme. My favorite was OtherMUSH, with its awesome Toilet Adventure, heavy TMBG references, and the ever popular and often fatal Bring Your Grandparents to OtherMUSH Day.
Today many have passed on into obscurity or otherwise vanished from the face of the net. While there are a few which remain, most are strict roleplay based on sci-fi or fantasy books, movies, or TV shows.
A few weeks ago, I set out trying to find OtherMUSH. The website still lives at other.org/ but the MUSH seems to no longer be there. Discouraged, but not willing to just let it go I decided to set out on a mission to bring some of that weirdness back to the net, or at least try to as best I could. To that end, I downloaded and installed the current version of TinyMUSH on my 'do it all' server, and began to relearn how MUSHcode worked and getting back into the frame of mind that once let me describe the most mundane in very obscure ways.
The documentation provided with TinyMUSH is very useful in setting it up, and o'kay at describing commands, it isn't so good at giving useful examples of how to make the commands work with each other. So I began searching again, hoping to come across a few long-forgotten websites which might prove useful. What I found instead was that while largely out of date there were lists which contained links to many MUSH, MUD, MUCK, MOO systems which are still in operation. Most of them are still of the strict role play variety, but a few worlds which subscribe to the 'if you build it weird, they will stay' mentality still remain. Of them, the two I'm having my mind wrapped around are:
TrippyMUSH is... well... trippy. Nuff said. I'll say more, but that was enough. TrippyMUSH is a wholly wonderful place; if you find surreal worlds which take place only in your own head but made by someone else which is actually happening in an asylum which you can never escape from because you were never actually there, wonderful. If not, you soon will; the strange coloured liquid on drip in the IV in your arm will make sure of that. Sound scary? That's only the first five minutes. Just remember, you can't quit, but you can go home... or at least that's what you'll imagine once you pass out.
telnet to pebkac.trippy.org 7567 to stop the hallucination and accept you are an inmate just like the rest of us.
TinyTIM is NOT just a game... it's a really, really BIG game. You think you're city/town/backwater hole in the world is big? It's got nothing on the world of TIM. TIM is God, and all praise TIM. He's not paying attention, but that's o'kay, he loves us anyway. Powered by Pop-Tarts® and smelling of The Old Man of the Nexus (which is something not unlike Old Spice and nursing homes) TinyTIM is the strangest thing you've seen all week. Yes, even stranger than that. You know you want to visit... you'll never want to leave. Even if you do, TIM will be with you always. Even during your special alone time in the shower.
telnet to yay.tim.org 5440 and come see the most complicated machine in all the MUSHdom, The Clock on the Wall. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wonder how you ever got through your day without TIM.
As for my MUSH. I'm still planning to subject the world to it. But it's not ready yet. Once it's half-baked I'll let everyone know.
So just what are all these acronyms about, and what do they have to do with cows, pancakes, Pop-Tarts®, pennies, dirty diapers, or Gary Numan? Well the MU, for those that have a MU*, stands for Multi-User... the rest is something of a subject for debate, as most are thought to be backronyms. Generally the user base is allowed to create objects and rooms, and to one degree or another program responses to events generated by other players, objects, and rooms in one of a few purpose-built languages fashioned after or otherwise baring a resemblance to gems like Forth (in the case of TinyMUCK) or Lisp (like MUSHcode for all the MUSH variants). What about the cows et al? Well, cows, pancakes, and Pop-Tarts® are easy. They're all awesome. Pennies and dirty diapers are the same things, of course. As are pancakes for different values of pancakes. If I need to explain what Gary Numan has to do with anything you are officially banned from reading my blog from this moment on, so go away.
All the Numan dissing wannabes gone? Good. So where was I? Oh, yes... user programmable text-based social interactions. It was still largely the time of coyotes and tumbleweed on the internet, and most things worth doing were still done with a keyboard. Graphics were for single player games, and the vast majority of the clicking came from our coveted IBM Model M keyboards. Much of this clicking was spent playing combat MUDs and programming. What could be more fun? Combining the two, and tossing in large amounts of insanity, while largely taking out the combat.
There were a lot of different systems up at that time, running different versions, and with different themes, if they had one at all. I was always a fan of the loose role play systems without a defined theme. My favorite was OtherMUSH, with its awesome Toilet Adventure, heavy TMBG references, and the ever popular and often fatal Bring Your Grandparents to OtherMUSH Day.
Today many have passed on into obscurity or otherwise vanished from the face of the net. While there are a few which remain, most are strict roleplay based on sci-fi or fantasy books, movies, or TV shows.
A few weeks ago, I set out trying to find OtherMUSH. The website still lives at other.org/ but the MUSH seems to no longer be there. Discouraged, but not willing to just let it go I decided to set out on a mission to bring some of that weirdness back to the net, or at least try to as best I could. To that end, I downloaded and installed the current version of TinyMUSH on my 'do it all' server, and began to relearn how MUSHcode worked and getting back into the frame of mind that once let me describe the most mundane in very obscure ways.
The documentation provided with TinyMUSH is very useful in setting it up, and o'kay at describing commands, it isn't so good at giving useful examples of how to make the commands work with each other. So I began searching again, hoping to come across a few long-forgotten websites which might prove useful. What I found instead was that while largely out of date there were lists which contained links to many MUSH, MUD, MUCK, MOO systems which are still in operation. Most of them are still of the strict role play variety, but a few worlds which subscribe to the 'if you build it weird, they will stay' mentality still remain. Of them, the two I'm having my mind wrapped around are:
TrippyMUSH is... well... trippy. Nuff said. I'll say more, but that was enough. TrippyMUSH is a wholly wonderful place; if you find surreal worlds which take place only in your own head but made by someone else which is actually happening in an asylum which you can never escape from because you were never actually there, wonderful. If not, you soon will; the strange coloured liquid on drip in the IV in your arm will make sure of that. Sound scary? That's only the first five minutes. Just remember, you can't quit, but you can go home... or at least that's what you'll imagine once you pass out.
telnet to pebkac.trippy.org 7567 to stop the hallucination and accept you are an inmate just like the rest of us.
TinyTIM is NOT just a game... it's a really, really BIG game. You think you're city/town/backwater hole in the world is big? It's got nothing on the world of TIM. TIM is God, and all praise TIM. He's not paying attention, but that's o'kay, he loves us anyway. Powered by Pop-Tarts® and smelling of The Old Man of the Nexus (which is something not unlike Old Spice and nursing homes) TinyTIM is the strangest thing you've seen all week. Yes, even stranger than that. You know you want to visit... you'll never want to leave. Even if you do, TIM will be with you always. Even during your special alone time in the shower.
telnet to yay.tim.org 5440 and come see the most complicated machine in all the MUSHdom, The Clock on the Wall. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wonder how you ever got through your day without TIM.
As for my MUSH. I'm still planning to subject the world to it. But it's not ready yet. Once it's half-baked I'll let everyone know.
SyFy? SRSLY?!?
O'kay I'm usually not one to rant, (I said usually) but SciFi Channel... seriously?
Rebrand? O'kay fine... I don't understand why, but whatever. Include more shows that aren't Sci-Fi/Fantasy? Hey, you included 'pro wrestling'... well it is fiction, so why not? Alienate your core audience by insulting half of it, and pretending the other half doesn't exist? OMGWTF?!?
So the males of your core audience aren't really human, and the females aren't there? Every female I call friend watches the SciFi channel. huh?
Dave Howe, president of the SciFi Channel, said: “What we love about this is we hopefully get the best of both worlds.” “We’ll get the heritage and the track record of success, and we’ll build off of that to build a broader, more open and accessible and relatable and human-friendly brand.”
I say 'we', the demographic you're trying to distance yourself from, are human, and really don't take kindly to being marginalized by what used to be one of the new television networks that actually seemed to have a clue about what we wanted to see. We lost TechTV when G4 swallowed them up and bastardized everything that made them great. Now SciFi?
Look, you guys killed Sliders by jumping every shark you could find, and even made a few out of paper-mâché when you ran out of real ones. I forgave you that when you took Stargate from Showtime and did it proud for a very very long time. Didn't do too bad with Atlantis either. I'm not forgiving you for Farscape, but no one is, so just accept you're getting the Ass-Hat award for that one SciFi. I can even accept wrestling, if begrudgingly, as you felt you needed to pull in a different audience that might just stick around after the show. Giving a big Frack You! to the people that made you what you are, your longtime fans is totally unforgivable, and I will not be coming back. If you happen to have anything left worth watching once BSG is over, I'll be watching it without commercials as I will not be tunning any of my cable receivers or my TiVo to your programming ever again.
SciFi... errrr SyFy, to you I say Good Day, Sir... Good Day!
Rebrand? O'kay fine... I don't understand why, but whatever. Include more shows that aren't Sci-Fi/Fantasy? Hey, you included 'pro wrestling'... well it is fiction, so why not? Alienate your core audience by insulting half of it, and pretending the other half doesn't exist? OMGWTF?!?
So the males of your core audience aren't really human, and the females aren't there? Every female I call friend watches the SciFi channel. huh?
Dave Howe, president of the SciFi Channel, said: “What we love about this is we hopefully get the best of both worlds.” “We’ll get the heritage and the track record of success, and we’ll build off of that to build a broader, more open and accessible and relatable and human-friendly brand.”
I say 'we', the demographic you're trying to distance yourself from, are human, and really don't take kindly to being marginalized by what used to be one of the new television networks that actually seemed to have a clue about what we wanted to see. We lost TechTV when G4 swallowed them up and bastardized everything that made them great. Now SciFi?
Look, you guys killed Sliders by jumping every shark you could find, and even made a few out of paper-mâché when you ran out of real ones. I forgave you that when you took Stargate from Showtime and did it proud for a very very long time. Didn't do too bad with Atlantis either. I'm not forgiving you for Farscape, but no one is, so just accept you're getting the Ass-Hat award for that one SciFi. I can even accept wrestling, if begrudgingly, as you felt you needed to pull in a different audience that might just stick around after the show. Giving a big Frack You! to the people that made you what you are, your longtime fans is totally unforgivable, and I will not be coming back. If you happen to have anything left worth watching once BSG is over, I'll be watching it without commercials as I will not be tunning any of my cable receivers or my TiVo to your programming ever again.
SciFi... errrr SyFy, to you I say Good Day, Sir... Good Day!
Support is more than just saying it
I'm a big supporter of the public domain, Creative Commons, and any release other than all rights reserved. I always have been. Sure, people need to be compensated for what they do, but most of the time the license that is associated with something is far more restrictive than just 'give me props and a few pennies for my trouble'. I'm a big supporter... or am I? Sure my default publishing license on Flickr is (CC) BY-NC-SA (Creative Commons, must give attribution, non-commercial derivatives allowed, all derivatives must be shared under the same terms) but other than that I guess I really just give lip service to the whole thing.
I realized that tonight while listening to a lecture about copyright, free culture, and the movement back to 'the way things used to be'. It's not enough to be for something to just say you support it. Support is in the doing, not the saying. Some people give time and money to organizations which seek to further the cause of a free common culture or just defend those that are being legislated out of existence for doing what should be legal in the first place. Not having the time, or the money doesn't mean you can't help. If you're reading this then you probably also create some kind of content. Maybe you're a coder or a writer of fiction. Perhaps you paint or sculpt, or maybe you blog about what your cat is doing (with your cat's permission of course). But unless you're using content which you don't have the right to let others redistribute then I ask that you consider applying a license to it that is far less restrictive than 'all rights reserved'.
This wacky world of thoughts and ideas was built on sharing, and will only survive with sharing. It's not enough to just put it out there, let people know what they can, and can't use. Let them know what they can, and can't do. Everything I do, unless stated otherwise, is in my mind (CC) BY-NC-SA... only difference is now I'm going to make sure that's clear to the world.
Be the change you want to see in the world or something like that.
I realized that tonight while listening to a lecture about copyright, free culture, and the movement back to 'the way things used to be'. It's not enough to be for something to just say you support it. Support is in the doing, not the saying. Some people give time and money to organizations which seek to further the cause of a free common culture or just defend those that are being legislated out of existence for doing what should be legal in the first place. Not having the time, or the money doesn't mean you can't help. If you're reading this then you probably also create some kind of content. Maybe you're a coder or a writer of fiction. Perhaps you paint or sculpt, or maybe you blog about what your cat is doing (with your cat's permission of course). But unless you're using content which you don't have the right to let others redistribute then I ask that you consider applying a license to it that is far less restrictive than 'all rights reserved'.
This wacky world of thoughts and ideas was built on sharing, and will only survive with sharing. It's not enough to just put it out there, let people know what they can, and can't use. Let them know what they can, and can't do. Everything I do, unless stated otherwise, is in my mind (CC) BY-NC-SA... only difference is now I'm going to make sure that's clear to the world.
Be the change you want to see in the world or something like that.
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