RasterWeb!

During the recent Thanksgiving Holiday a conversation arose with family about the InterWeb, and the subject of downloading music. I think that if you ask the ‘average citizen’ who is not immersed in the web on a daily basis if it’s legal to download music, you might get quite a few ‘no’ answers, which is probably one of the goals of the RIAA, to create confusion among people, and make them think they might be doing something wrong, etc.

I tried to explain that there are many musicians and records labels that provide music for you to download free of charge, and this is perfectly legal as long as they own the rights to it, and that there are services that allow purchasing of music for a fee such as the iTunes Music Store.

The idea that it’s “illegal to download music” has to go away. I can record an original song today, upload it to this web site, and allow you to download it. That’s not illegal. Yes, it’s quite true that many people attempt to distribute things they do not own the rights to, and that ain’t right… People need to respect the copyright holder’s rights.

And that whole “filesharing” term has to go away too. I share files. A lot of them. This web site probably has a thousand files that I share. But for each one of them, I’ve got the right to share them. I just shared this file with you, and you’re using it, and we’ve broken no laws…

Want to download some music for free? Try some of these sites:

• Lookout Records
• Matador Records
• Don Fury’s Cyclone Sound
• kill rock stars

There’s more out there… these just tend to correspond to the types of stuff I listen to, which does not really fit into the category of popular music. If all you listen to is popular music, you might try to expand you mind a bit and listen to things put out by people who are interested in having control over the things they create… just a suggestion… [This might be filed under: D.I.Y.]

Linux has made great strides, as has Windows, but as often is the case, they are still missing the details. And the details are what often set things apart.

Take a look at the Lycoris Desktop. There’s a page titled Take Out The Trash. I know, the title is meant to be cute and friendly (something Linux is usually not) but the text of the page reads:

Your deleted files are stored in the trash until you are truly ready to bid them farewell. You’ll never accidentally delete an important file, because it stays in the trash until you are sure you no longer need it. A simple right click empties the trash at your convenience.

The word ‘trash’ appears three times in the text. Look at the accompanying photo and you’ll see something called ‘Recycle Bin’ and a command titled ‘Empty Recycle Bin’ in the contextual menu.

It may seem like I’m picking nits here, but think about telling a novice computer user how to delete a file.

To delete a file, drag it to the trash.

Where is the trash?

On the desktop.

I don’t see it.. but there is something called the ‘Recycle Bin’ – should I recycle my file?

The trash is not the recycle bin and vice versa. If you don’t believe me try dumping all your leftovers in your recycle bin and putting it out by the curb. In some places you’ll be fined some outrageous fee.

The “Internal Search Word Report” tells me that these words were searched for in November:

• skating
• cow

(Dr. Frank would be proud.)

I fully expect this to be followed up with the words “surfing” and “cow” in December…

Don’t let me down folks!

We took a short break, a hiatus if you will, but we are now back, and we’re not alone…

As you can see, this site is now complete, as it features a photo of cats. Go ahead, check the manual. A web site cannot be considered complete until it contains at least one photo of some sort of cat. Whew, I’m glad that’s over.

Yes, these two cats, going by the names of Lucy and Tinkerbell, can now be found within our house. This would be because they live with us. We adopted them, they’re not related, but both of them were orphaned, and had no family. Now they do. The last relationship I had with a cat lasted over 20 years, so this could be interesting…

For all you dog lovers in the crowd, don’t worry, we’ll try to keep things equal. I mean, I still deal with all the dogs that seem to crap on my lawn way too frequently. I’m joking, we love all our animal friends. Except the birds. All birds must die! Ok, not all of them… Still, we’re not too fond of the birds… But what do you expect, we’re cat people now! (And oh what we have to look forward to!)