Patrick’s Rants

The other day, in the process of being told not to install software on a particular computer, I was told not to install “Open Office” (official name: Openoffice.org). I replied, we use Open Office all the time. It was at that point that an onlooker asked, “why would you install Open Office if you already have Office?” The onlooker apparently works in the tech services department and seemingly the only reason to use it in her mind was if you couldn’t use Office for some reason. I was caught off guard and didn’t have anywhere near enough time to explain it to her, so here are the answers I came up with later.

10) Why use Office when you have Openoffice.org available?

9) Openoffice.org is fairly mature (it’s been in development in one form or another since the mid-80s [about]) and has had to compete on its own merits; its growth is due to its value, not due to it being bundled with Windows.

8 ) Openoffice.org uses an open format for its documents. Microsoft recently tried to force a “standard” onto the international community that would have only benefited Microsoft and would have left anyone else trying to use it open to lawsuits. Standards by definition are open and available to anyone.

7) Openoffice.org has the financial backing of Sun Microsystems and IBM. IBM recently committed 35 full time developers and code to the Openoffice.org project.

6) Openoffice.org saves disk space: I have a spreadsheet that is ~47k in Open Document Calc format, over 150k in Excel.

5) Openoffice.org doesn’t lock me out of my documents if I stop using it: files can be simply unzipped and the data extracted if I stop using it. Not so with Office.

4) Openoffice.org is free. I can install it on as many computers as I want for the low price of nothing.

3) If you absolutely have to pay for your office suite (cause you think that’s the only way to get value) how’s $69.95 (which includes code that cannot legally be given away for free) from Sun?
Compare that to $500-700 for Office. (I hear that Microsoft is offering Office 2007 for $89 for school district employees if they buy through the district. Compare that to $0 for a Sun Educational License)

2) Openoffice.org is cross platform. I can open documents on whatever computer I’m using.

And the Number 1 reason:
For the same reason I check the sex offender database; I don’t want convicted criminals around my children.

NPR : Nebraska Senator Sues God

I got this email that looked pretty funny. Someone had switched all of a co-worker’s office furniture with cardboard replicas. Deciding that it was cool enough to post here, I copied all of the images from my email, renamed them, and uploaded them to my site. I decided to see if someone else had done the same and found the origin. So, I don’t have the images here, but check out: PrankMike.com – Jokes, Pranks and the home of the Cardboard Office.

My head hurts. I thought this might have been over my head, but now I know for sure. Last night at our LUNA meeting (which are very sporadic as of late) Dr. Raul Salazar presented us with the basics of embedded Linux development. It was supposed to be about 90 minutes of presentation. I had to duck out to pick up my daughter after 2 1/2 hours (I could have stayed all night if I didn’t have prior commitments)

The presentation should be available online soon, although there was so much stuff that I’m sure you could spend days and days reading it.

4 AM Sunday morning I’m awoken by my wife. She didn’t try to wake me up, but when something’s not right I usually wake up. This morning, the something was her staring out the window, cordless phone in hand. She’s dialing the phone. 4 AM? What the hell? Someone had broken into a car across the way and was rifling through it. I didn’t see the guy at first, but as my wife was describing him the best she could at 100 yards, he exited the SUV and stood by the wall, seemingly admiring his haul. I thought he would begin walking away, but he stood there until the cop car whipped into the drive a policewoman jumped out and yelled, “Hey!” at the guy. I could see her walk him over to just out of sight where what I could see told me that she was taking him down. He must have had a metal bar or pole that was dropped and clanged on the ground. After that it was kind of boring – I just would have liked to actually seen the takedown.

So you remember, Larry (I’m not gay) Craig. He’s the guy who used the words, “I’m not gay,” way too much in his “I’m resigning” speech. We learn that he isn’t actually resigning, but that it’s his “intent to resign” according to a misfired voice mail. That and he’s going to try to have the guilty plea reversed.

The original story is that he went into a men’s room that was being watched due to it being gay meetup joint. You know, walk in, sit right down play a little footsie under the partition and wave at the guy in the stall next to you. But he’s not gay. He didn’t tell his wife or even his own lawyer but he’s not gay. Instead it’s all a mistake, a vast conspiracy by the “liberal media”.

Now that we have that out of the way… let’s read the latest on CNN.com (more…)

In an equine bowel ejection titled Fair use is not a consumer right Patrick Ross (No relation. I’m not related to that starfish fellow, either if you must know) argues that telling “consumers” that they have a fair use right to things that they buy or watch is simply not true. You, consumer do not have the right to make back up copies of your music or your software nor do you have the right to show your movies to your friends without paying an admittance fee to the movie studio. And the movie studios have every single right to tell you to stop stealing their movies. That’s why there is an FBI warning at the beginning of movies that you own – to stop your inner thief. And no one, no one has the right to tell you that you have a right to make backup copies. He argues that you have an “affirmative defense” of your legal use of your movies, so that when they sue you – and they will – you have a defense.

If he wasn’t hard enough to swallow in the comments is this little gem, a horse apple if you will,

Good column!

I write my own music. I can disseminate and dipose of it as I see fit. Because you may purchase one of my tunes does not give you all of my rights – I retain the overwhelming balance/bundle. In other words – you are privileged to play my music because I say so, not because you have a right to.

Nope. I can play your music because I have a copy of it. You have the right to make additional copies and to sell those copies. It’s that simple. You retain the right to make copies for sale.

The whole fair use debate is specious. It is designed to promote a culture of poaching and freeriding. Copyright holders should not be ashamed to defend against this freerider culture – they seek to take your fruits with recompense.

The so-called “Fair use debate” centers around what I’m allowed to do with my CD once I buy it. Can I burn a copy so that my original stays pristine. I have four kids. They’re hard on CDs. Wipe your mouth, there’s still a little steaming manure clinging to your lip.

Taken to the extreme, who’s going to want to produce original work if it can’t be protected; if through expansive fair use “rights” a person who had little to do with your creation and risk can outright steal what you’ve sweated over?

The answer – no one. Not even Larry Lessig or Ed Balck.

Like the Tidy Bowl Man on a bad Bermuda vacation this argument is circling the drain here. Fair use says I can take your post, interject my comments and turn it into a new copyrighted work. I can also make backup copies of my CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes (do I still have those?) etc. I’m not selling them or giving them to my friends, I don’t buy ripped copies, I don’t sit in the movie theater with my video camera. You seem to think that when I say “Fair Use” I mean I want you to make music that I don’t have to pay for and that I’m a freeloader. <sniff> <sniff> Check your shoe, I think you stepped in something.Horse Apple comment

Oh… I commented here cause it’s more fun and I don’t have to register to spew my opinion.

Last night the news had a story about a man who left his child unattended in his car for over two hours. He was arrested while at the Mustang Ranch brothel in Reno NV. On hearing that he had driven down from Bend, OR I checked to make sure that it wasn’t Jake. Jake is, of course, still banging away on his keyboard.
Oregon Man Leaves Baby in Nevada Brothel Parking Lot – Salem-News.Com