Cox Crow

I finally realized why Jack Valenti, Hilary Rosen, Michael Eisner, Senator Hollings, et alia, piss me off so much.

I am an author. I hold copyright in my works. Some of my works are for hire, because they pertain to my job.

They do not create. They do nothing. They add no value. And yet they presume to speak for us?

5:07:03 PM #
categories: Language, Law, Media

My Philosophy at Microsoft. The thoughts in this essay have been brewing in my head for a long time. [Tommy's Thoughts]

I can sympathize with Tommy's sentiments, though I work for a competitor. They're more especially pertinent since we were absorbed by an RBOC. I'll add an additional reason to his fear: short commute. Jobs in the New York metropolitan area are concentrated in NYC. You can see this just by looking at a map of the transportation infrastructure.

I don't quite understand why this is so. Last I heard, ~8 million people trek in and around the City. That's a lot of talent wasting time on the World's Longest Parking Lot.

After reducing my commute by an hour, I do not want to return. My daughter is in bed by 19:30. If I worked in the City again, I would not see her, and our family would not dine together. These things are precious to me.

4:53:42 PM #
categories: Family

Preaching to the Choir

It does little good to publish counter-arguments only online. By not publishing in the old-line media, we allow those who do so to define the terms of the debate.

This does not mean publishing solely in the print media. There is a vast aliterate population out there, listening to talk radio and watching Survivor.

How? Beats me. I'm just a lowly sysadmin pushing buttons, not a media mogul.

4:09:52 PM # Google It!
categories: Law, Media

Some time back, I read this article on Microspeak by James Gleick, in which we learn that a "bug" is now a "known issue."

Known? Known to whom? If it were known we wouldn't spend hours looking through Microspeak documentation trying to translate it back into English.

There's a choice Orwell quote at the end of the column: "A speaker who uses that kind of phraseology has gone some distance toward turning himself into a machine."

3:20:24 PM #
categories: Dear Microsoft, Language, System Administration

LOL! I was looking for the lyrics to Pink Floyd's "Nobody Home," and Google came up with this.

12:54:13 PM #
categories: Media

How does digital television benefit consumers?

12:42:30 PM #
categories: Law, Media

I read over the CBDTPA again last night. The bill has some egregious flaws:

• It does not promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts.
• Copying is intrinsic to our art. It is impossible to implement section 9 without violating section 3(e).
• Preventing the copying of the matter attempts to void the limited times requirement of the Constitution, by effectively preventing the matter from entering the public domain.
• The findings of Congress are flawed regarding the demand for broadband and digital television.

11:18:16 AM #
categories: Industry, Law, Media

What story?

"Sun is doing this to bring together three exciting communities of developers to provide the best investment protection story in the industry." "A Closer Look at Linux", Anil Gadre and Stephen DeWitt, Sun Microsystems

What so perverted their ability to think that they forget the principle of storytelling?

Show, don't tell.

10:52:19 AM # Google It!
categories: Language, System Administration