Happy Thanksgiving

Sorry this is late, but happy Thanksgiving to everyone here! I meant to get this online last night, but after all the turkey and company I was rather busy with setting up a new piece of equipment that arrived on Wednesday. I'll talk about that in a little bit, but for now I just wanted to get my belated wish up.

BTW, what's everyone's favorite Thanksgiving dish (not counting dessert)? My favorite are the delicious homemade mashed potatoes.

iTunes/QuickTime DRM Scheme Disabled

The same fellow who created DeCSS has now created a program that dumps DRM AAC files into non-DRM AAC files.

I have mixed feelings about this. I like the fact that it allows me to take care of legal requirements myself (which I would still obey if I used it) instead of Apple doing it for me — it has always made me uncomfortable that company's are basically saying “yes, we've sold you this song [or something else] but we don't trust you enough to properly use what we've sold you, so we are going to make sure you use it a certain way and sue the pants off of you if you don't use it that way.” At the same time, I wonder if this isn't a big mistake.

If a fairly respectable (is there such a thing?) DRM scheme like that used by iTunes is broken into, the MPAA/RIAA have even more of a case to argue that either (1) tougher legislation is required to stop thosenasty people that clearly want to use this for pirating purposes (indeed, many probably will) or (2) that the Secure Computing Initiativemust be sped up to make it so that hardware prevents people from doingthings like this. While I'd prefer no DRM, I wonder if in the long term this won't lead to worse DRM. No matter what, the law abiding citizens will get hurt while the companies go after the non-law abiding ones that make DRM attractive in the first place.

As I've said before, I think I should be able to do — so long as I follow copyright law — whatever I please with a file I've legally bought or obtained. If I pay $.99 for a song, I should be able to do absolutely anything to it on my computer (since that doesn't in any way cause a loss of value to the copyright holder — I'm still the only person with a copy).

On the flip side however, while I believe that such freedom shouldexist, I realize that iTunes Music Store could possibly serve to cause the inevitable expansion of DRM to at least be a lot more friendly that it might otherwise be. While the idealist in me appreciates someone providing more freedom to me for my legally held music, the practical side of me realizes that such a gain in the short-term will quite likely hurt the promotion of friendly DRM schemes in the future.

So what do you think?

Back!

I'm back… yeah, it was a short trip, but I just couldn't arrange things to get part of the week off. I went to Silver Dollar City yesterday and, as always, it is one of the prettiest Christmas displays you can see. I feel very refreshed at the moment — the Ozarks will do that to you. I'll post more about everything later.

In the mean time, I have a question for the Bourbonite readers of this blog: What's your favorite pie at the Hen House Restaurant? I'd had the French Silk and Chocolate Meringue before (and I have a to-go piece of French Silk in the fridge), but tonight I tried the Coconut Meringue and it was delicious!

Be Back Soon

I'm taking a few days off for some R-n-R in the Ozarks. I'll be back soon and try to post more afterwards (reflections on the Purpose-Driven Life will be one of my next posts — I just finished about an hour ago). I'll also answer the final set of questions on the 40 Days of Purpose small group (sorry, guys, for being missing the last week!).

Driving and My Digital IQ

How did you do? Post yer results (or your answers to the “Sunday Brunch” questions) below.

A New Meaning for DOA

Most things you receive are guaranteed that they won't be dead on arrival. What if, on the other hand the whole point of its arrival was death? That must have been the thought that crossed the mind of founder of a new e-mail service: MyLastE-mail.

Apparently, the concept revolves around the idea that a person would want to send people e-mail messages when they died (you can send personal messages, not just a generic announcement). Afterall, as the site points out, you never know when you might kick the bucket, and you certainly may have things to say to those who you leave behind after your farm purchase. Yeah, right. I just can't see sending loved ones an e-mail message saying:

Hi there, I'm dead. I'll miss you.

-Tim

PS: Don't forget to feed my cats. Thanks!

How about you?

I'm back.

Well, I'm back from an unexpected blogging break. This week was really busy and then the weather change got the best of me leaving me a bit under the weather (pun intended), so I just haven't had a chance to come blog.

I've also spent a lot of time on the phone with FedEx and NewEgg.com. FedEx delivered about $300 worth of parts I ordered to the wrong address (an address which apparently had a waiver that said that FedEx didn't have to get a signature from them). After several days of repeated calling, FedEx finally got the driver to go back, only to find out that the resident of the home it was delivered to took the FedEx package to where you would logically take a wrongly delivered FedEx package: UPS!

After that, they waited around a day hoping UPS would call and report the package. When that didn't happen they had me call NewEgg and ask them to resend the package (saying they'd settled the claim with NewEgg). Of course, when NewEgg called FedEx, FedEx said it was my problem because I signed a signature waiver (rather the resident of where ever they delivered to signed that waiver and even if I had… how's that relate to delivering to the wrong address?!!?!). Finally, after talking to FedEx a few more times, I called NewEgg back and they now have my order shipped again. They were nice enough to up the shipping from FedEx Economy to FedEx 2 Day. Hopefully this time FedEx will get the address right.

Unfortunately all of this also ended up preventing me from getting a few articles on OfB that I was hoping to. On the bright side, one of those articles depended on the parts that are now MIA at UPS, so I couldn't have written the piece anyway. There's always next week.

Moral of the story: this is the second time in four months I've had trouble with FedEx. I recommend UPS at the moment.

What Founding Father Am I?

Which Founding Father Are You?

Political Views (Part II)

Last night when I posted my Political Compass results I lightly speculated on why my score might have taken such a dramatic change. The more I think about it, the more I wonder exactly why that is. I really don't think I've changed my views enough to move me 1/4 of the way over on the scale! In fact, I really don't think I've changed my views much at all the more I think about it. I wonder if perhaps I was feeling cranky the night I first took it and picked tougher standards or something.

I'm still not sure what to make of the scores at any rate. I'm certainly not politically much like Tony Blair — at least I didn't think I was. Nor am I what most people would consider a centrist. I guess what keeps me from the far right is that I am not totally laissez-faire in my views — I support antitrust actions (Microsoft should never have gotten away with everything it did, for instance). I also don't mind the government subsidizing certain useful things such as museums.

But… I also supported those things last summer when I was 2 points more conservative according to the compass. Was it a fluke? Something else? Hmm. If anyone else has tried the compass multiple times, I'd be interested in knowing if you've noticed sizable fluctuations.

Political Views

Your Personal Self-Government Score is 40%.
Your Economic Self-Government Score is 60%.

Economic Left/Right: 2.75 Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.05
This makes me more libertarian than Gerhard Schroder and Tony Blair, but economically about the same.

I think this has to do with my (slightly) lessening interest in economic versus social issues (never fear, I'm not turning liberal or anything awful like that!). So how about you?