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I’m Back
Ok… I’m back. I’ll start posting again. This isn’t a personal blog, as in for people who know me or about me, So I don’t really want to get into too much details.
Had and still do have a serious family illness, but the craziness and fuss has died down a bit, and if I continue to have enough free time I will be updating this again.
I’ll be moving this over to wordpress most likely, because I don’t feel I’m using tumblr as I should, and I’m not getting what I want from it either.
So stay tuned I’ll try to get something on here shortly about where I’m taking this.
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Temporary Leave of Absence
I’ll have to start my 365 days of writing over when I get a chance.
A severe family emergency has arisen and I’ll need to take a break from most of my activities for a while. So I most likely won’t be updating this much at the moment, I’ll be back soon.
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Altered Reality
The other day I mentioned something about the Holo-Deck on Star trek. Today I’m going to talk about something very related, and most just a thought experiment. It could be than just a mind game, but that remains to be seen obviously. I want to talk about the idea of an altered reality.
Before I get too much into it, an explanation. Many people speak of finding the right job, a job that they love and can be happy doing. It’s rare in general that people ever get that. I’ve actually read advice from some extremely successful people around the world that you shouldn’t look for that in a job, but that you should look for a job in something that you are good at. I don’t want to get off point so more on that some other time.
The reason I think finding a job you will love is because of two things, people, and the fact that its a job. Those two things work in tandem to make it a job, and for it to be a job you need people, and they in turn make it difficult to find something you will love. For example, you’re a web designer. You’ve been hired by someone to build a website and you’ve done that, it’s fantastic. Your client doesn’t think so and wants all kind of changes made; more often than not these changes are from someone with no experience in what makes a good site. No you have to scrap what you thought was great and make something they want no matter how awful.
The idea is called “selling your soul” usually, or being a “sell out”. But to make a living you have to make money, and if you aren’t making money, it’s no longer a job. The example can be used with almost any job out there, tattoo artists, writers, musicians, artists and so on. Some people can avoid it by just doing what they want and making money, but usually this is luck, like a painter painting what they feel like painting and hoping it eventually sells.
Now the problem with the unhappiness is people. If you didn’t need to work for people you’d be happy. You can make the great site and you’ve done something masterful and no one complained. Obviously life isn’t like that, but what if it was? What if someone designed a machine like I mentioned the other day? A personal Holo-deck, or better, a system like in the Matrix (take out the robots of course)?
Imagine a machine that you can connect to, and it will put you in an altered reality, a reality perfect for you. In this reality you can do anything you want and the world is designed just as you want it. The idea of many religions being Heaven of some kind where you have absolute perfection, imagine this machine can do exactly that, it provides exactly what you mind WANTS and needs. You want conflict in your world; it’s there, the exact amount you want. Want to be ruler of the universe and everyone loves you, got it. Anything and everything is at your disposal.
You still exist and live in the real world. The machine can provide what’s needed to sustain you. The original design is capable of keeping someone in the system for a day, but it can sustain a stable mind indefinitely. The machine might cost a bunch of money, but it’s so popular as recreation that almost everyone in the world has one or has access to one. They are installed in “arcades” all over the world by the hundreds. Airports have them for waiting customers, heck almost any business that involves waiting has them. There is a surplus of these machines actually.
In this machine you can have sex/make love with anyone you want. Had a crush on Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie? It’s alright the machine can let you meet them either in some ridiculous scenario or the most realistic scenario, whatever works best for you. If you accept this as a simulation or reality it makes no difference the machine gives it to you. Better yet, the machine can create the ultimate perfect match for you. Every single aspect of that person designed exactly how you want it, forever. Want more than just sex, want a relationship that lasts, than you have it. Never want to fight? Then it never happens.
That job I mentioned before, in here people love the work you do, there’s no conflict. You love you job, or you don’t even need one. The world is just perfect and it will last until you die, unless you don’t die in this world, you live forever, makes no difference. Everything here is perfect in every possible way for you. In the real world, it simply isn’t, and in reality at this point I’d be surprised if anyone was actually around.
The world actually ended long ago. People stopped going to work, stopped having families, and stopped doing anything but living the perfect life in the machine.
Would YOU ever leave?
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Music’s Future
I wrote about DRM yesterday and that got me thinking about the music industry in general. I’m not going to cover DRM all that much in relation to music since I already did that bu ti might come up. Instead I’d rather shard my views on the industry as it stands.
My background in music isn’t super shiny, I’ve done vocals for about a decade and I’ve done the recording side of things just as long. I did much more professional recording stuff lately than I did before thanks to some great friends and an awesome mentor, Graham Lewis. Look this guy up if you need some awesome work done. Plug aside, I’m not taking a very huge active role in the industry anymore because it’s failing.
The music industry as it was is dying. A new wave is coming through and the big companies are going to fade away, hopefully sooner than later in my opinion. With the way that the internet has become so common and so fast, with bandwidth only limited by how much you want to pay, most audio/video media has taken a new shape. Sites like Youtube (especially!) have made it incredibly easy for the indie film-maker, musician, and everything else involved with either to promote themselves and be seen by the public.
This is a plus because now you don’t have to be a part of the “local scene” to enjoy some bad ass independent work. Not surprisingly, I’m finding more and more things to watch or listen that I LOVE on Youtube. I’m not getting this stuff from the radio, or MTV or whatever, but the internet. Interestingly enough most of it is free, but the possibility to advertise and pimp your work is so much easier. The big companies can take part of this and they do, because they have to, they are trying to adapt.
Honestly, I think the big companies have to go. I’m much looking forward to the day that media in general is “by the people, for the people.” We’re close and I’m hoping it happens soon. Anyone and everyone can get in on this and make great stuff to share. It’s good to see the general public being able to share the limelight. Granted some of our super stars will have to suffer a bit and the idea of future stars is also fading. Stars that make millions will be on the way out and so will super stars that last 20 years I guess. With access to so much content for a star to remain a star for very long will require a ridiculous amount of effort.
One of the really cool things I’ve seen of late as well are bad asses like Trent Reznor telling doing their own things and supporting the online movement. He released a bunch of CDs for “pay what you want.” An amazing idea, that seems to work so well every time I see it. Reznor still banked on his music and was able to sell exclusive merch and solid copies in limited editions at a premium and it made sense and no one felt cheated. Radio Head did this at some point as well, and a few other bands that escape me at the moment. I bought a copy of all of them. Some people got them free, others paid hundreds. But it’s so well received. It almost feels like good old busking!
Reznor’s Wife’s Album, which was free and kicked much ass!
I don’t see the industry surviving very long without adopting a system like Reznor did. There are plenty of opportunities out there and looking in the wrong direction is going to cost them. A bunch of the giants are still into things like iTunes, but even that is on its way out with the popularity of smart phones. I’m not going to quote numbers, because I don’t know them, and iTunes could be stronger today than it was yesterday, but the model isn’t exactly the best one to follow at the moment. I can install 1 of a few dozen streaming apps on any android, iOS, blackberry, Windows device to listen to unlimited music and most of them for free. Add 3G/LTE and you can do this anywhere you want. Suddenly iTunes seems kind of irrelevant. I haven’t had it installed on my computer in years.
I can’t predict the future, but it would be silly to think the industry can keep going the way it is. I don’t think they’re blind, they have lots of intelligent people and I’m sure they’ll find ways to make money, I’m just hoping it isn’t another way that take advantage of the people like enforced DRM and such. I think they learned their lesson there, so keep an eye out because changes are coming.
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Pirates
No we aren’t going to talk about Johnny Depp or Captain Hook. Today I want to talk about software piracy, everything thing from music to movies, games and applications. I also want to talk about digital right management as well.
Get outta here Depp, Git!
If you’re alive you’ve heard about DRM. It was a big deal back when Naptser got big; the record industry had enough of people sharing the music “illegally” and started adding DRM to most music out there. It became such a big deal at the time that some people swore of some of these companies until it was removed, and these weren’t the pirates, but people who actually paid for their music. They claimed that they paid for their music; they should have the freedom to do what they wanted with it and not have DRM forced on to them. This was a big issue because it made it difficult for people to have their music on multiple devices or PCs.
About the same time video games, especially on PCs began seeing more and more DRM as well, from software keys that checked online to ever more difficult systems such as games requiring a constant connection to the internet or an online check every time the game launched. The outcry was huge again. People wanted to own their software, not simply rent a license. The problem was about the same, the software could only be installed once or twice sometimes even a “generous” five times. But in a the PC world, games are likely to be reinstall over a dozen times, due to hardware changes, OS changes or even having an entirely new PC.
Software has always had DRM and it wasn’t until recently that it really became an issue. Maybe the biggest news on this front was when Windows 7 came out and only allowed so many uses of its key. If the hardware in the PC changed too much the OS would complain and say this was a new computer and require re-validation, even sometimes requiring a call to Microsoft to resolve. There are other applications that have the same systems, while others will require an active connection to even launch.
DRM became a big hassle really quick and piracy sky rocketed! Quite the opposite intended effect. When the game “Spore” by Maxis released with its severely locked down DRM, it became the most pirated game almost overnight. The online community swelled with people outraged at the DRM, people who had even bought legitimate copies of the game were online looking for the pirated DRM free version. Maxis eventually “Fixed” the DRM, as they realized all they’d accomplished was to lose customers and sales.
It’s a strange history, because DRM was considered a new great idea to protect companies’ software. As more advanced methods developed, the companies started including more and more thinking this was perfect, eventually the DRM became so restrictive that companies started losing sales. Today, many companies are actually getting rid of DRM, and it seems like more and more companies are of the idea that DRM is an awful system. It isn’t completely gone, but I doubt it will survive for very long.
Piracy is pretty interesting in itself. There have been a few studies that show that the piracy of some games has actually increased the sales of the game. Some companies have released “leaked” copies of music and software and games to the pirate community with the intention of using it as advertising, or demos. Many companies won’t admit it while others do.
The stance on piracy is a mixed bag all over. Some people hate it, while others think its just great. Some people are shameless about piracy and will download anything simply because they can. Other might have reasons like they don’t typically play that kind of game or listen to that genre of music, sometimes they can’t afford them. Some like to use piracy as some kind of grand demo system. They download anything that interests them before buying. If the game or music isn’t to their liking they may delete it and simply never buy it, but if they loved it then they purchase a full version eventually.
The pirate scene itself usually even tells people that if they enjoyed what they downloaded to make sure and promote the company that developed what they got. It might seem strange that the groups making the releases themselves would say these things, but it really isn’t. In a day where software is become increasingly complex companies have taken shortcuts and released their product without the properly addressing any bugs. So providing the people with a demo of software so they can review it makes sense. They don’ despise these companies, to the contrary they love the software and keep using it, but they also buy it and support the companies.
I doubt I know a single person who has never pirated something online, and I’m not one to judge, I’ve done it was well. When I was in high school it was so common and the implications of the whole thing weren’t even understood. Heck at the time the government didn’t get it either, and the laws were lacking. Things have tightened up since then. I started working in the music industry and took an appreciation for the hard work of people involved with making products for the people. I’m not going to condone piracy but I won’t disapprove of it, because to be honest it seems like it’s been more helpful than not, but seriously, if you like something, BUY IT! Support the people who made it so they can make more!
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Fighting Back
I’m sure by now tons of people have seen the Occupy movement that’s spreading across the US. It started off as the Occupy Wall St thing, and then got bigger and even covers more issues that it originally did. The event are mainly a protest against inequality,both social and economic and also corporate greed. I’ve seen quite a few even protest the power that the rich have over the government.
I can’t say I really disagree with the movement to begin with. The US has quite a few problems at the moment. I’m not going to claim expertise on the subject and like I said yesterday question what you’ve been told about those problems as well. Some problems are bigger than they are, others haven’t received any real media attention. That’s not the point of this though, so let’s move on.
The Occupy movement is making a stand against the corruption of the “American Dream.” That’s the claim anyway. In general I’d have to agree the “American Dream” isn’t what it used to be. Work hard and play hard was really what it was. In the US you have the freedom to do SO MUCH, and with that freedom many have started businesses and made it big, but is it too much?
It’s obvious to everyone, unless you’re mindless, that the economy has gone to crap. Not just in the US but all over the world. Countries have filed bankruptcy, something I have a hard time wrapping my head around. Economies in other countries have simply collapsed and been replaced. Jobs have been downsized and more and more people are out of work. The figures for all of these are pretty hard to come by. Most of the information is a mess and trying to figure out how bad off we are is difficult.
We know that things are bad however, and it does seem to be affect a lot of people. Is that just the media playing it up and the access to information simply making a decades old problem more obvious? I can’t say and I’m not gonna make an uneducated statement about it. Things suck in the US for the people who aren’t the top 10%, they always have and always will it seems.
The Occupy movement is trying to fight back, and bring about a change. The problem though is will this matter or even make a difference? I’d don’t want to start some propaganda post and cry out a call to arms, but I wonder to myself, and aloud to you now, would this make a bigger difference if it were more violent? Should Americans prepare for an all out revolt? I see a lot of coverage of the subject and all I see are people in a disorganized group sitting and holding signs. It’s all rather tame, and I have to wonder if anyone with the ability to change this will even notice.
I have to wonder if the top 10% are simply laughing at it all and treating the protesters as zoo animals. They don’t seem to have too much to worry about. Of course everyone is losing money with the economy failing as it is, and the rich are losing more than we’ve ever made. However, the rich can still afford their homes and condos. Of course it isn’t all about money, now is it. It’s about pain.
It’s all about suffering. It’s easy to quote all these big huge numbers and say we lost this many dollars and this is costing us this many dollars. But really in the end, we can’t really make any statistics for the media about how this is tearing people up. People are losing money and they are in debt and they are poor. We can look up the numbers on the internet and get averages of how poor we all are, but we can’t do much about how everyone feels.
It’s stressful working a minimum wage job and wondering if you’ll have that terrible job tomorrow. You want to be thankful you have a job right now, but you suffer even more knowing you could easily be replaced by tons of people who want a terrible job simply to have some money and stay out of debt a day longer. We have tons of plans for fixing the economy, but what are we going to do about fixing the US, and the people who live there?
I think Occupy has the right idea in a sense. I’m more prone to suggesting a violent upheaval and turn the world on its head than sitting by and hoping this reaches people. It seems to be the thing that gets through. What do I know though? I know we have to fight back somehow. I guess everyone needs to use their preferred method, and stick to it and make sure we fix this country. Occupy has signs claiming they aren’t part of the 10% or 1%, and that’s important. We need to remember there is a HUGE group of us, 90+% of us that are aching and we need to work as a group and make some kind of change.
But that’s such a lofty idealistic goal. That’s why I wrote this, because I feel this movement will accomplish nothing because we’re fighting ourselves. Everywhere occupy is seen on the internet there are as many detractors as supporters. People who didn’t lose much, people who don’t like activists, people who don’t like fighting, people who don’t like hippies and the list goes on. Instead of feeling up lifted by seeing people fighting for what is right we just get more bickering amongst ourselves. It’s sad.
I don’t care if you like Occupy and their message or that they seem like hippies, or whatever other reason you might have. heck I find the majority of them weird too. But they have a goal and its a good one. Put your silly hate aside for a few days and maybe support someone who is trying to make right by the world. I mean social equality is a pretty noble goal isn’t it? But seriously, what do I know?
