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. 

Wireless Internet Security

My wireless security has been compromised.

Now, the worst part isn't that someone is in my network: in fact, I'm pretty impressed by how he* blew through my 20-something character password, with WPA encryption and a hidden SSID. No, the problem is that he's using my bandwidth. Not just a few YouTube videos either: at one point, 12gig in one day.

That is not hacking. He beat me, yes, he broke into my network, smashed my security, and embarrassed me. But he also provided me with a chance to outsmart him, a challenge issued and well received. That is, to me, what hacking is about. Not making viruses, not theft, not damage to another, but the defeat of another in virtual combat: a nerdy battle to the death.

This, however, is not hacking: it is theft. The very nature of a wireless network means that I am always on the defense. To break my security is not necessarily even a negative experience: I guarantee that my defenses will be far stronger, and my security protocols more stringent overall when all is said and done. The bandwidth overages that now plague me have been a significant expense, and have spared this individual from actually paying for his own.

To hack for personal gain to me is not hacking: it is theft. Perhaps I have an overly romanticized view of it, but this is not in the true spirit of hacking.

*It's not sexism, just convenient to stick with one gender. I may not have any statistics that confirm my point to hand, but I assure you that the odds are that my adversary is male.

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.

Around The Web

The usual assortment of useful, informative and funny links:

• http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,193811/printable.html Very useful is you happen to be tech support for friends and family members, as I so often seem to be. 
• http://contentconsumer.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/is-ubuntu-useable-enough-for-my-girlfriend/ Highlights some issues with Linux (specifically Ubuntu) that are preventing it from becoming a more mainstream OS.
• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126536482 Clever solution employing, although probably not possible to implement on a significant scale. 
• http://www.joeydevilla.com/2008/04/28/montana-meth-projects-billboards/ A fascinating look at how Montana is combating use of meth.
• http://webtint.net/tutorials/how-well-be-building-websites-in-5-years-html5-and-css3-layout/ A glimpse into the likely future of the web. 
• http://wildammo.com/2009/09/26/national-flags-never-tasted-this-good/ Delicious national flags.

God Bless Us All

God Bless us all...

...and Anna Nicole, and poor MJ... not to mention the joy of consumption, the false idols plastered on our walls, our billboards, and our minds. The slow eradication of everything The Regime doesn't want us to know... the indoctrination of children every year by religion, schools, and their idealistic, blinded parents. Destroy the world, one dollar bill, one percentage, one point on a computer screen at a time.The plastic isn't just in our pockets and in our houses, it's bred into our children and molded into our minds. Work, buy, consume die, and never question anything. Don't worry; you're safe though. The terrorists are being taken care of, and they'll stay away as long as you don't ask where your civil liberties went.

God Bless us all.



As you can tell, I've been feeling pretty frustrated, and decided to pop this piece of writing from a few years ago from my 'Iconoclast' folder, and stick it on the blog. It was originally posted on a message board in response to some mindless dribble about "God Blessing Us All, for we, and many others, have sinned, but America is strong, and we shall...." or something similar to that. Feel free to rant and rage, it's what I'm here for.