http://mises.org/daily/3864
What do you think that Plato or Socrates would have though of this? I would never attend a class conducted by someone who had decided that ideas were his, and his alone.
Do I think that it's right to be able to copyright a plan, or an object? Absolutely. But an idea? An undefinable, ethereal image of a dream! How can one learn and grow if all ideas are owned?
Just another step in the ever-advancing corporatism of the modern world.
Showing posts with label Internet freedom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Internet freedom. Show all posts
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Links
Time to pass on a few important bits:
- http://cryptome.org/info/g8-police/g8-police.htm Pictures from the G20/G8 protests.
- http://www.zcommunications.org/political-myths-we-live-by-by-peter-lach-newinsky A list of some of the fallacies that we have about politics. Some, in my opinion, are slightly exaggerated (I think that there is a difference between the Right & Left, although not a huge one at that.)
- http://www.30daydefox.com/ Time to give FOX what they deserve.
- http://www.wspa.org.uk/helping/action/pigsofgod.aspx Seems pretty disgusting (and unecessary) to me.
- http://transformingpower.ca/en/blog/toronto-burning-or-it
- http://www.spacehijackers.org/html/projects/halfprice/index.html Clever.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
The Failure of the Maker's Bill of Rights
The Maker's Bill of Rights is certainly an interesting document: it clearly states many of the qualities that I believe are important when purchasing something, especially electronics.
If you can't open something up, can't take it apart, see how it works, put it back together again and sell it, if you can't alter it as you wish to, or give it away when you're done, then you don't own it, it's not yours.
But something that most people fail to acknowledge is that it's still our choice: it can be something tiny, like choosing a 'Droid over and iPhone, or larger: choosing to use Linux over Windows. But whatever the decision is, there is always a choice, even if the choice is abstaining: not buying anything at all hurts the manufacturer almost as much as you buying their competitor's product.
An XKCD that I find relevant to this topic as a whole:
Really, what I'm trying to say is that we do have a choice: it's not the manufacturers fault for not providing the products that we want, it's our fault for not demanding them, and refusing to buy anything less.
If you can't open something up, can't take it apart, see how it works, put it back together again and sell it, if you can't alter it as you wish to, or give it away when you're done, then you don't own it, it's not yours.
But something that most people fail to acknowledge is that it's still our choice: it can be something tiny, like choosing a 'Droid over and iPhone, or larger: choosing to use Linux over Windows. But whatever the decision is, there is always a choice, even if the choice is abstaining: not buying anything at all hurts the manufacturer almost as much as you buying their competitor's product.
An XKCD that I find relevant to this topic as a whole:
Really, what I'm trying to say is that we do have a choice: it's not the manufacturers fault for not providing the products that we want, it's our fault for not demanding them, and refusing to buy anything less.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Freedom of Speech, Internet Uploading, & Telus Mobility.
I have owned two phones:
The LG Dare (An iPhone ripoff.)
(currently) The LG Keybo
Now, imagine a world without the internet. When I purchase something, the only realistic medium in which I have to express my satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the product is word of mouth. Therefore, I am limited to at most, providing the information that I possess to a hundred or so people, although the actual number will likely be far lower.
However, in writing this post, I am exposing my experience with the product and the company that provided it, to a nearly unlimited amount of people: chances are that only a few will bother to read it, and it will be relevant to fewer still, but at least it is there for anyone who wishes to seek it out. This is the great value that the internet has: that ability to upload and produce, not just the ability to consume and download, although it might be buried under mountains of pornography, spam and poor spelling.
Now, onto my systematic dismantling of Telus Mobility and their products. The (proprietary, unalterably isolated) OS that the phones run is a disgrace. It`s actually just pathetic. The music player slows to a crawl if more than 100 songs are loaded onto it (even though it supports an 8gb extra memory in the form of a microSD card) and it has little functionality other than texting and phone calls, which is not what any reasonable person would expect from a several hundred dollar smart phone. Neither is of solid construction, with the Dare needing replacement 6 months after the plan was purchased, and the Dare's hinges worn out with only a tiny amount of use.
Telus, in all my dealings with them, has been quite uncooperative: the staff were pleasant enough, but when push came to shove, they were effectively powerless to correct anything.
In short, I'm fairly certain that you don't care, but maybe someone who is thinking about buying a phone plan from Telus will do a little more research and decide if that's what they really want.
The LG Dare (An iPhone ripoff.)
(currently) The LG Keybo
Now, imagine a world without the internet. When I purchase something, the only realistic medium in which I have to express my satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the product is word of mouth. Therefore, I am limited to at most, providing the information that I possess to a hundred or so people, although the actual number will likely be far lower.
However, in writing this post, I am exposing my experience with the product and the company that provided it, to a nearly unlimited amount of people: chances are that only a few will bother to read it, and it will be relevant to fewer still, but at least it is there for anyone who wishes to seek it out. This is the great value that the internet has: that ability to upload and produce, not just the ability to consume and download, although it might be buried under mountains of pornography, spam and poor spelling.
Now, onto my systematic dismantling of Telus Mobility and their products. The (proprietary, unalterably isolated) OS that the phones run is a disgrace. It`s actually just pathetic. The music player slows to a crawl if more than 100 songs are loaded onto it (even though it supports an 8gb extra memory in the form of a microSD card) and it has little functionality other than texting and phone calls, which is not what any reasonable person would expect from a several hundred dollar smart phone. Neither is of solid construction, with the Dare needing replacement 6 months after the plan was purchased, and the Dare's hinges worn out with only a tiny amount of use.
Telus, in all my dealings with them, has been quite uncooperative: the staff were pleasant enough, but when push came to shove, they were effectively powerless to correct anything.
In short, I'm fairly certain that you don't care, but maybe someone who is thinking about buying a phone plan from Telus will do a little more research and decide if that's what they really want.
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