Sean's Blog

Well, there’s just over 12 hours until the 24 hour “Shutdown Day” begins, and idea promoted by the site http://www.shutdownday.org/. Of course, engadget is attempting a boycott, which is kind of funny.

Personally, I don’t see a point. It’s the weekend, so I technically could, and my wife isn’t working, so we will probably go and take of groceries and everything else that day. However, they are just doing it

…because we were worried about how much time we all spend on computers and how little time is left these days for the other things in life. It has developed into an international event, a global experiment…

Not because they are against some particular issue or event or anything like that; just because they are concerned about all the time we spend on computers. Perhaps if this event was also timed to coincide with “Don’t Watch The Television Day” and “Don’t Go To A Movie Theater Day”, you might have something there. If you could get it to coincide with “Do Something Other Than Sit Around Day” and other such events, you might get somewhere. Technically, one could participate by turning off their computer, after which you could go to bed and when you wake up begin watching the entire extended version of The Lord of the Rings or all the Star Wars movies in order, pausing for meals, and then go to bed. Success!

I thought about it, and it’s not that I’m necessarily addicted to my computer or the Internet, it’s just one of those things I do. I’ve never told my wife that I can’t go for a walk because I’m using the computer, nor done that in regards to other outings, events, or meals. Then again, that could just be that I know where the line is and make sure not to cross it.

At the moment, I probably won’t be home for part most of the day anyway, but I don’t want to take part in either the actual Shutdown Day or the Double Use Day. I may need to check for directions on how to get somewhere, or the time something is open until. It’ unlikely, but I may have to take care of an issue at work via e-mail, or check the location of a particular gathering of my staff. I may also use it to kill time, while waiting for other people to become available before heading somewhere. I have the benefit that I don’t particularly care for television, and I’d rather not sit and watch a movie. I do love reading, as I can control the pace, which may be why I enjoy that and the web, as I can do it at my own pace.

I’m also looking at it as it is “don’t use the web”, but it’s not. That is a key point, as the web is becoming a tool that we use, and saying “don’t use the web” would be the same as saying “don’t use a car” or “don’t use a phone” (cellular or land); some things are just part of our society, and it what does not using it really accomplish anyway? Showing that you can live in a different setting than you’re used to? All that shows is that you are adaptable. Has your quality of life changed? That’s something that can be taken on a per person basis, as it all depends on what you think it means to be human and what you think humans should become. And that, is a totally different discussion.

With that said, I’m not taking part in Shutdown Day, nor am I taking a part against it. If you do, great! If do not, I might see you online… or not.

First, I’d like to say that I reached a first sometime around 1:40 EST this morning; a story I submitted to digg was made popular. To quote Matt at work:

Wow Sean, now you’re going to have all this clout. You can just start submitting any story you want now.

The article in question is titled University of Wisconsin-Madison Will Not Forward RIAA Letters To Students, which I found on The Consumerist, and you can digg the story here.

The article itself, which is mainly an article about an e-mail sent to The Consumerist by a student at University of Wisconsin-Madison, simply comes down to this: the universities are going to protect the students as well they can, but are going to make sure the students know that continuing to download music that they do not legally have the license to may face trouble down the line. Personally, I am not made aware of how many letters and what not we (the university) get about students using p2p in the residence halls, so I do not know where Bowling Green State University stands in relation to all this, but I’m sure we get some, based solely on the fact that I know my staff encounter p2p on student computers and that they all cannot be using the program for legal means. Really, not that many people need the latest linux distro.

While I don’t think that people have a right to take music just because it is so easy to get in mp3 format, I do not agree with the manner in which the RIAA is going about trying to catch people. While I am not as learned in the subject as I ought to be, I personally believe that aspects of the RIAA’s stances and arguments about the recent crackdown on student downloading are flawed. One article of counter arguments can be found on Techdirt, but overall, plenty of other players are getting involved, like NPR, but that’s more about radio play than downloading music. Overall, there’s just enough information available regarding the RIAA to see that why care more about the companies they represent than the artists, though that’s probably because many of the companies, and not the artists, are the holders of many of the copyrights to the songs.

As I said yesterday, the post I created was based upon a site I found via digg. The amusing thing was that for a couple hours afterwards, I was getting hits from Google searches regarding the string 584e4d59c580ca10f301d53814b700da, which the original poster included in his post. For those who care, it’s likely (99.99%) a hash that you can’t do a reverse look-up on. That’s why he had said “cryptically speaking”.

Came across this today at information aesthetics, which is part of a larger pdf file which can be found here as part of this entry. I’m tempted to make it a multi-page printout and send it to the color printer here in the office, as I think a 2×2 or 3×3 copy of it would look nice. Mind you, this is just of the North American continent, no the entire world, and it is the routers. To put it better:

…it is not geographic. Things on the right aren’t on the East Coast and so forth. It looks the way it looks for readability purposes. The lines are actual connections between routers, but the length of the lines, again, do not correspond to geographic distance.

The map is interesting to look at. Hopefully I’ll be able to take a better look at it in the upcoming week. Just by reading the byline (form follows data – towards creative information visualization) and looking over some of the recent entries on information aesthetics, I’m going to have to look more into that site, as it appears rather interesting. Really, I’m a sucker for any maps that attempt to map things, especially if it deals with people, groups, and cyber-stuff.