A Whole Lotta Nothing

Lisa: Look on the

Lisa: Look on the bright side, Dad. Did you know that the Chinese use the same word for "crisis" as they do for "opportunity"?
Homer: Yes! Cris-atunity!
- The Simpsons, episode 2F08

Over the past few months, I've seen things described as problems that could have instead become sources of revenue. Large organizations are calling mp3 and movie downloaders "pirates" when they could be calling them "customers." Why can't the MPAA and RIAA see that people going to the effort of finding and downloading music and movies would be perfectly willing to pay for the things they are "taking?" Napster isn't a plague on the internet, it's a great tool that can be used to capture a revenue stream. Making money from piraters requires a change in thinking, a change in revenue models, and this is where the movie and recording industry can learn something.

People are going great lengths to see movies and hear music on their computers. This is called "demand" and the demand is extreme. Frankly, it's a pain to find a song or movie you want, track down where the file is located, and then find a server willing to give it to you. If full mp3 versions of CDs were in the 2-3 dollar range, I'd pay for music I want in a heartbeat. If I could find full album copies of the music I like in a central place, I'd pay for that service. If Napster required a $30 monthly charge to use the network, and tracked which artists I downloaded to reimburse them accordingly, again, I'd sign up in a second.

Movies require even more extreme methods. First you have to find a gathering place to see what's available on the underground movie trading networks. Then you have to find a server, gain access somehow, then wait patiently for gigabytes to transfer from overtaxed, slow lines. Look at the pay-per-view model, Hollywood. Offer a high quality stream that can't be saved locally, and charge a couple bucks to watch. There's plenty of lame movies that don't need to be viewed on the big screen to be fully enjoyed (see: every Saturday Night Live spinoff movie, most comedies, independent movies that aren't being shown in my area).

The fact is that music and movies are going to continue to be downloaded and traded illegally. Either the powers that be in Hollywood can recognize that, and turn that into something positive, or they can chase after them in a vain attempt to shut pandora's box.

Today I'll be walking around

Today I'll be walking around saying "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!" Why? I had a couple days of interviews with Sapient, and I heard today that they decided not to offer me a position. :(

(Warning: rant ahead. These thoughts are fresh in my mind and I'm just putting them down as fast as I think them, if I sound like a bitter old crank, that's why)

They had two issues with me as a prospective employee. One was that they were unsure that I could concentrate on information architecture alone. Right now, I split my time about 60-40 between design and programming. Design is probably my main passion, but I like the variety. You never hear people walking around saying "specialization is the spice of life" do you? In addition to design and programming, I do database stuff, video, audio, write content, and deal with clients. I guess I can't see myself doing one tiny part of web development either, I'm a born multi-tasker. I also have a passion for learning, something I mentioned before, it's what keeps the internet interesting for me. Continued learning about a single topic isn't enough sometimes, and that's a problem for me. I work around that by trying technologies, or seeing how a new protocol can apply to what I do, things of that nature.

The second problem Sapient had with me was that I wasn't enthusiastic about the company. I had four interviews last week (over the course of a single day), and every interviewer asked me at some point "Why Sapient?" The truth was that they called me, I did some background checking on them and heard they were a large company with a good reputation, and that's exactly what I told them. I suppose they wanted me to talk about how impressed with them I am, and how much I hope they succeed, but the truth is from the outside, they're no more special than any other company, and until I worked there for a period of time, I'm not in a position to say whether or not they're doing things right, or doing things that impress me. They're a corporate services firm, which in the grand scheme of things is a real yawner. The one thing I like about my current employer is they're a non-profit doing important things to help people. This is not to say I hate businesses and or that I'm an anti-capitalist or something. What I'm saying is that if an employer requires that I get behind them and everything they do, they have to do something that makes the world a better place, something fulfilling, something that fosters the growth of the internet in a positive manner, something that encourages communication, sharing of ideas, something that helps out the human race. I honestly can't see Sapient doing that. They're a corporate services firm, and there's nothing too earth shattering or mind blowing. I'm sorry, but life is much too short to become blindly loyal to a corporation.

There's a new addition to

There's a new addition to this page, my current and recent reading list. I don't get nearly enough time to read, so don't expect it to change very quickly. One a month is about my average for books, unless they're particularly captivating.

I went to Fry's today and bought a floppy adapter for my digital camera's memory. Downloading photos just got incredibly easy, so expect more photos from my occasional travels. If I get ambitious enough, I might have a photo of the day. In other news, I'm starting to get sick, which is never very fun. I'm doing everything I can to get over this quickly, I'm eating large amounts of vitamin C, echinacea, and cough syrup, hopefully one of those will help out. Oh and I drank my first ColdBuster from Jamba Juice today. Unlike their other smoothies, it tasted terrible, so it must have been good for me.

Recently, I've met a type

Recently, I've met a type of web worker I didn't know existed. Everyone I know working the web has a passion for hypertext, a love of communication, and senses the "community" of the internet. But I suppose I've been lucky to meet people that shared that passion. There exists a population of people that "do" the web, but don't "get" the web. People that build sites professionally from 9-to-5, but don't have a personal site, and sometimes not even a personal computer. They take part in the web, but they're only contributions are those tied to business ventures.

They're an odd lot.

I couldn't have planned today

I couldn't have planned today in my wildest dreams (or worst nightmares). I was having a nice, normal day until my father emailed a friend and frequent poster to MetaFilter, who then posted a photo of me as a kid. That would have been all well and good if it were a normal harmless photo, but it wasn't. It was a photo I hadn't seen in years, a photo that instantly reminded me why I didn't have a completely normal childhood. It brought back a lot of painful memories that I didn't even know I still had in me. To me, the photo represents a lost childhood in some ways. When I was a kid, I didn't play much sports because I wasn't allowed. I couldn't enjoy myself when I played or goofed off because there was always the threat of a horrible accident looming over me. The photo, while it looks harmless, marks the precise point at which my having a perfect childhood stopped being a possibility.

My Dad didn't know any of this, he probably thought it was just a cute and embarrasing photo. The fact that he didn't know it brought up many more issues. Issues of communication between him and I, and issues about a lack of understanding of one another.

It's a lot to think about for me, and frankly, I'm exhausted from going over these things in my mind.

So I had a long

So I had a long day today in San Francisco, and something odd happened. I checked weather.com before I left, and there was a week of rain forecast for SF. So I went fully prepared....and it turned out to be sunny and warm today in SF. And then, as I'm enjoying the sun's warmth around 5ish, waiting for my flight back to LA, it gets cancelled. Because of weather. Yeah, you read that right, "weather" in LA, so bad they cancelled a flight.

I hope you're having a

I hope you're having a good six dollar holiday, I know I am.

Last night's concert was great,

Last night's concert was great, if you've never heard Mose Allison before, you really should check him out.

I wasted a good part of the day rewriting some code at MetaFilter, making information about previous comments and links actually useful. Next to come for that site will be previews and editing of posts for users, email integration so users can know when someone comments on their post, and a new design/colorscheme.

Thanks to some christmas gift

Thanks to some christmas gift certificates, I bought Jakob Nielsen's book today, but I feel dirty for doing it. Nielsen's the kind of person you love to hate. I'll let you know how the book is when I finish reading it.

Tonight, I'm heading over to The Jazz Bakery to see one of my favorites, Mose Allison.

It seems that it was

It seems that it was just a power supply on my home box, I'm back online.

Oh, there was another missed photo opportunity today: I walked by Michael Dukakis on my way to lunch. It's not that big of a deal to walk by the guy that came in 2nd for the 1988 US Presidency, he works at UCLA as a lecturer, but I only see him once every 6 months or so, so it's still a minor thrill to see him.

I woke up early this

I woke up early this morning to find my computer completely dead. It seems the power supply fizzled out, but I won't know until tomorrow. A side-effect of this is that I'm reading email and writing this on a laptop, connected by 28.8 modem, which is the first time in over two years since I've last used a dialup connection. If I was still confined to a modem line, I don't think I could ever maintain a weblog, there's just too much waiting.

Snowboarding today was an absolute

Snowboarding today was an absolute blast. It rained all night, so I was hoping for some fresh powder, and when I awoke at 5:15am, it was still raining. Unfortunately, it rained all the way up the mountain, including on the mountain at over 7,000 feet. We'd get 2 or 3 good turns in on the packed, slightly wet snow, then we'd have to stop and wipe the water from our googles so we could see again. It continued to be drizzly all day on the mountain, but the sheer enjoyment of sliding on some snow was more than enough to make up for the less-than-perfect conditions. It was too wet for my digital camera, but I did take a few shots going up and coming down, because the weather was nuts. At times it was snowy, rainy, sleety, foggy, and windy, usually 2 or 3 at time. It wasn't too bad to drive in, my new truck is the first 4-wheel drive vehicle I've owned, and it felt safe and secure every step of the way.

I'm finally taking a day

I'm finally taking a day off and going snowboarding tomorrow. The forecast calls for some possible snow showers, but I have the extra gear for it, so it should be fun. I'll probably take my digital camera, and if it's not snowing out, I'll take some shots.

From the ultimate in

From the ultimate in stupidity file: The student store next to my office has stopped selling books for 20 stamps for $6.60 and instead there's now a vending machine that sells one 33 cent stamp at a time for 50 cents. Let's look at that again, shall we? Fifty cents is 17 cents more than the actual face value, which is also just over half the cost of the stamp itself. Unbelievable...

This site is now officially

This site is now officially accessible from the haughey.org domain as well as haughey.com. I was playing with domainsurfer and noticed that although someone bought haughey.org last summer, they probably didn't pay for it and it went back into the dns. It's slightly troubling that someone in the bay area owns a whole bunch of domains, including matthaughey.com (it doesn't go anywhere, but it's kind of scary when someone else owns your name and can do anything they want with your "identity"). I suppose I could now sell the haughey.com domain to someone with a real company or something, and move over to the org. I wish I could look up domains by owner, because I'm actually having a hard time remembering all the domains in my possesion. I think I'm up to 7 or 8, but there's only a couple that I really push, the rest are projects stuck in my head.

Today was a leisurely Sunday,

Today was a leisurely Sunday, I slept late and had a huge breakfast. In the afternoon, we spent our gloomy, rainy Sunday visiting the Getty Museum (20 images and descriptions)

I just had a few

I just had a few thoughts about some weblog things. As SXSW draws near, I'm going to be trying to recognize a lot of new faces, or I'll stare at everyone's badge until I can put a name with a face. My prediction is that everyone going will be putting up images of themselves on their pages so people can find them in Austin (well, at least that's my hope).

Another thought: with the beebo ratings and various weblog monitors, why hasn't anyone done the ultimate in popularity contests and make a Weblogger Stock Exchange? I'd love to buy 100 shares of STRN, EVHD, or KTKE and watch as they shoot up 3 points on re-design day, or go down a point and a half when they don't update.

I'm keeping track of all

I'm keeping track of all my missed photo opportunities here, hopefully this will force me into remembering to bring my digital camera with me every place I go. Tonight I went to my favorite Italian restaurant with Kay, her mom, and her mom's friend. We had to wait for a table, and the table we got was the one that was occupied by four people, including The Pretender, Michael T. Weiss, and Camryn Manheim, who I love, even though I never watch The Practice (too busy for TV). Kay's mom actually got to sit in the same seat as Mr. Pretender, and Kay got Camryn's spot. Apparently, it's Camryn's favorite place too, so I expect we'll run into her again sometime soon.

I must be have been

I must be have been bred for life in a desert. I brought my Galileo thermometer into work today, and it is reading the current room temp as somewhere in the area of 76-80 degrees F, but it feels cold and I'm always wearing a jacket.

Well, it's official now, I'll

Well, it's official now, I'll be flapping my jaws in Austin for SXSW. Also, in the resume-stealing news, someone from the PassportAccess company doesn't think they are violating any copyrights (scroll down to delfuego's comment), since the resumes they are pilfering don't explicitly have copyright notices on them, as if they needed them. Thanks to Jason at Queso for that. I'm working on an article about the whole thing, which may be online very soon.

Not just evil, they're eeeeee-vil.

Not just evil, they're eeeeee-vil. PassportAccess continues to abuse the internet for their own profit. You thought things you wrote were *yours*? According to them, they can freely grab anything off the web as they see fit. Well, you learn something new every day...and here I thought "copyrights" meant something...

Oh, the MetaFilter thing on

Oh, the MetaFilter thing on the left is now a static file, updated hourly. This means this site should load much more quickly. I love ColdFusion, it makes doing scheduled tasks like writing database output and ftp'ing each hour really easy.

Elsewhere: I rant about resume

Elsewhere: I rant about resume sites. I feel better now, thanks.

I try to live a

I try to live a life free of regrets, but most of the regrets I do have revolve around not having a camera with me when I see weird or amazing situations. Tonight's bizarre scene that wasn't caught on film was a couple, casually dressed in t-shirts and shorts, stepping out of a Lamborghini Diablo Roadster and into a KFC for a bucket of chicken. Only in LA...

The proverbial winds of change

The proverbial winds of change are blowing pretty hard these days. I may have a few choices ahead of me in the near future: The Startup, The Corporation, or The Canadian Firm. Decisions, decisions, decisions....

Time moves so fast, I

Time moves so fast, I can hardly believe I'm 27 now. Today I was reminded of that when a card came in the mail announcing my 10-year high school reunion. Has a decade gone by? Actually, I'm kind of glad it's almost ten years behind me, it wasn't a good experience, and is pretty meaningless in the big picture. I haven't talked to my high school buddies on a regular basis since the summer after HS, and probably never will again. Since I can't come up with a good reason to, I'm not going to my reunion, and I don't regret it.

MetaFilter. Oh, and thanks

MetaFilter. Oh, and thanks to Matt Lavallee for helping me out with some code on this page.