RasterWeb!

I’ve been contemplating changing my title. I mean, I don’t have any sort of real or official title, I usually just go by “computer nerd” or “web geek” or sometimes “hacker” though in the past I did dabble with “SmartFriend” on occasion…

What about “Computer Genius” – does that sound pretentious? Hmmm, maybe I should just stick with “hacker” as it’s sort of a good catch-all without getting too specific or typecasting what I do.

I know these guys who were planning on implementing VoIP at their employer, which I thought was very cool. They even dabbled with Asterisk, which again, I thought was very cool…

Fast forward a few months and when I get an update, I find out they’ve choosen a vendor, solution, what-have-you, and while it’s VoIP, is what I call VoIP The Wrong Way.

By that I mean, while they can use any hardware phones, and they’ve choosen some nice ones, they have a solution that only works with the softphone provided by the vendor (lock-in) which, by the way, only runs on Windows (more lock-in.)

Granted, they are a bit of a Windows shop, but they’ve now limited softphone use to people who have Windows. Their plan included people who might have to work from home or the road using softphones, which means people who run Mac OS X or Linux are out of luck. That also means that they are tied to the vendor for the softphone they use, and while it appears to be a solid piece of software today, who knows how that may change in the future. It’s a shame they won’t be able to just swap softphones if a better once comes along. (Note that I don’t have all the details here, it may actually just be the codecs supported that limit the softphone used.)

I honestly don’t mean to condemn, or say anyone made the wrong choice. There are many factors at play in such a decision, but I’m one to avoid lock-in whenever possible, at the operating system level, and at the vendor level, unless the reasons for choosing lock-in are so compelling as to be worth the risk. Who knows? That may be the case in this situation…

Last night I attended a talent show at the local gradeschool. Some kids danced, some played piano or guitar, heck some of them even sang. One little girl sang what is commonly know as “Happy Birthday” and that’s where the trouble began…

First off, I realized that she was publically performing the song, which is fine, I mean, I assume the little girl (or her parents) paid the neccessary royalties to allow her a public performance of the song, right?

But what happened next was unthinkable! She encourage everyone in the audience to sing along! Now, I don’t know if this kid’s royalty payment covered everyone in attendance so I sat quiet, and told my kids to do the same, expecting the ASCAP lawyers, or the Thought Police, or someone to come busting in at any minute.

Am I making this up? Am I being extreme? Let’s check with Snopes, and a page titled Happy Birthday, We’ll Sue:

…royalties are due for public performance, defined by copyright law as performances which occur “at a place open to the public, or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered.”

See? I’m not making this stuff up. Sorry, but you gotta protect yourself these days, you can’t just go around willy nilly singing “Happy Birthday” without expecting some consequences.

(Of course you shouldn’t do anything willy nilly, right?)

I think the only thing that makes me more sad than not implementing (or just plain ignoring) standards is when someone comes just that close to actually implementing standards, or even does implement some standards, and then completely ignores others, or does 90% of the work, or adds in their proprietary crap on top that makes it non-standard, and makes little babies cry.

And then there’s the whole lock-in thing, don’t get me started on that one!

Ok, you can’t actually be an “Eccentric Weirdo” and do you know why? Because while an eccentric and a weirdo may seem quite similar (and indeed they are) there is one big difference that separates them.

Money.

Yup, if you are weathly and act strange, you are eccentric, while those of us without overflowing bank accounts are considered weird.

It really is that simple. Are you an eccentric and want to become a weirdo? Just get rid of all your money! Any further actions that deviate from the norm will gain you the ‘weirdo’ label. Are you a weirdo wishing to become an eccentric? Find a way to get money! Once you have money any quirks in your behavior will be attributed to the fact that you are eccentric.

If anyone doubts me on this just send me large sums of cash and watch how I transform from weirdo in eccentric almost instantly…