Ever feel like you don’t have enough time? More and more, I feel like there are not enough hours in the day.
In college, all I had was time. In fact, I had far too much of it. I wasted hours a day watching TV, playing video games, and just generally screwing around.
After graduating, I still had a lot of free time (or so I remember). But each successive year, it seems like I have less time to myself to just relax. Being busy isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it’s better than being bored. But it would be nice to have more time to focus on the things that I want to keep me busy, rather than the things that I have to get done.
“And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but its sinking,
Racing around to come up behind you again.”
– Pink Floyd, “Time”
I stumbled on an interesting article about problems with Microsoft Vista’s new content protection elements. It’s pretty long and can get technical in some parts, but here’s the basic summary: Microsoft, in cahoots with major media moguls (Hollywood studios, record labels, etc.) has designed their newest operating system (Vista) with a paranoid level of safeguards against pirating. The “protections” are so restrictive that many users may find that they cannot watch or listen to content that they legally purchased (and this has already become an issue for some users).
Even if you are lucky enough to be able to view the content, Vista may still downgrade the quality without telling you. So even though you may be watching a HD-DVD source disk, the actual image quality may have been downgraded to that of a regular DVD.
The article lists other issues with the new content protection system. Drivers have to be signed by Microsoft (a very cumbersome process) in order to work 100% with the OS, otherwise the device it controls will be crippled (imagine that you buy the latest video card but Vista won’t let you view movies on your screen). All protected media content has to be encrypted within the computer, forcing the CPU to decode a video stream and then immediately encrypt it, which will put excessive demands on the CPU (if it’s even possible on your computer). Of course, all of this protection is geared towards media – Microsoft doesn’t really care if your personal information, like passwords, is protected or not.
The bottom line for the average user is that a computer will now cost more because of hardware development costs, increased hardware requirements just to run the operating system, and when all is said and done there is no guarantee that their computer won’t run into problems because a Microsoft software update breaks functionality that it deems “unsafe”.
More advanced users will probably have no problems getting around these issues by circumventing the entire protection system. It will probably take hackers days to break Microsoft’s various protection schemes (which is common – MS has had a host of problems with their existing DRM), but most users won’t know enough to take advantage of those hacks. Once again, in the war against piracy, it will be the common user that loses.
An operating system should enable a user on his computer, not interfere with the user’s ability to work with the data on his system. If Microsoft continues down this path, it will see consumer market share decline sharply. More and more users want to be able to view and create content on their computers, and if Microsoft interferes with those features then users will be willing to pay a little more, get an Apple, and get exactly what they want.
Personally, I like the Windows XP OS. It’s pretty stable (relative to the other Windows versions, although 2000 wasn’t too bad) and very easy to use. The ease-of-use was the key selling point for Windows that made it so popular. Apple has stepped up to the plate and created an interface that can rival Windows, so Microsoft no longer has the luxury of being the only choice on the menu.
On a final note, a few months ago Steve Jobs posted an open letter on DRM, explaining Apple’s business stance on the DRM it uses in iTunes. He goes on to say that if the studios would give consent, Apple would gladly do away with its DRM. It’s interesting to see the difference in philosophies between Apple and Microsoft. PCs used to be a totally open hardware specification, which differentiated it from Apple’s closed model. Now, Apples run on PC hardware (although still tightly controlled) while PCs are in threat of conforming to Microsoft’s (and the Hollywood studios’) specific demands.
I’ve never owned an Apple computer; in fact, the only times I’ve used one is helping someone else to figure out how to create and manage media files. But if this keeps up, I may have to finally give up on Microsoft and make the switch. I guess I’ll be watching Vista closely to see how this goes (and holding on to XP for as long as I can!).
Apparently a marketing campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force went horribly awry when some concerned citizens in Boston mistook a circuit board with lights in the shape of Ignignokt (a minor but popular character from the show) for a bomb.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-01-31-boston_x.htm
The city mobilized their bomb squad and anti-terrorism units, shut down major roads, subways, and a river, and spent between half a million and a million dollars battling this “threat”. And now the mayor is trying to lay suit to Turner Broadcasting, threatening to sue to have their broadcasting license revoked or suspended. And two employees of the marketing firm that were hired to place the advertising units have been arrested and are being charged with crimes that could include jail time.
Could Turner have handled this better? Yes, all they had to do was notify the cities in advance. Is the Boston mayor overreacting to garner publicity for himself? Yes, because he is embarrassed that his city spent close to a million dollars to clean up a few dozen Lite-Brites.
I wish I found one of them here in Chicago – it would hanging in my office right now lighting up my room.
The month of weddings is finally over. After three weddings this month (one out of town and another I was in), I’m looking forward to doing nothing for a while. Of course, “doing nothing” isn’t literal; I already have tentative plans for next weekend and the 18th, plus Thanksgiving is around the corner. And since November hasn’t actually started, who knows what other plans will show up on my calendar before the month is over. But at least now I can try to have some free time on the weekends.
I also caught up on all of my recorded TV shows (well, except for this weekend’s taping) and finished the fiction book I was reading (The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons, which is good if you like science-fiction — it has a Dune feel to it, although you should read the first three books starting with Hyperion first). Anyway, now I can turn my focus back to Lightwave with little distractions.
I just started reading “Lightwave 3D 8 Character Animation” by Timothy Albee, which will teach me the basics of rigging a model (rigging sets up a modeled character for animation, so that the limbs and appendages can be moved effectively and believably without distorting the shape). I plan on applying this knowledge to the model I created earlier, so that will keep me busy for a while. When all is said and done, the character may even make a guest appearance on University State, although probably not for quite a while because of the long production cycles.
Don’t forget: you can see the first two episodes of University State online! The third is still in production, but coming along nicely.
The past few weeks have been pretty busy. I had to make a trip to Detroit for work, plus I’ve been spending a lot of time on my day job. Two weekends ago it was my mom’s birthday, plus I hung out with some out-of-town guests. This past weekend was my birthday, plus it was also my sister’s and her fiance’s bachelor/bachelorette parties.
When you start adding up all the time that you spend on things you need to get done, you start to realize that there is very little actual free time left. 8 hours of work, 8 hours of sleep, an hour to eat all the meals throughout the day (if you’re lucky – double that if you go to a restaurant for one of those meals), exercise, hygiene, etc. Once all is said and done, you end up with a few scant hours to yourself on weekdays. And it seems like there is always something going on during the weekends. In October, I have three weddings to attend (I’m standing up in one of them).
Anyway, I’m almost done with the body for my model. I’m just finishing up some tweaks and then I’ll post this draft. But that probably won’t happen today because I’m going to a concert after work: Massive Attack at the Riviera Theatre! It was postponed for two weeks because of visa problems for the band. I hope it was worth the wait.
Portishead has been talking about releasing a new album for several years. I’ve been looking forward to hearing some new music from them but so far nothing has been released or even recorded. I just stumbled on their album’s MySpace page, which has two new tracks! Hopefully soon they will release a full album.
For those that haven’t listened to Portishead before, you should check out their “Dummy” album. I first listened to them almost seven years ago and I still listen to that album very frequently. There isn’t a good way to describe the style of the music, although the industry has dubbed it “trip-hop” (all trip-hop artists seem to hate that term – probably because it’s a generic category that is mean to encompass lots of different sounds that don’t fit neatly into existing styles).
If you’ve ever listened to Massive Attack, Portishead’s style is similar to some of their more downtempo songs. I’ll be watching Massive Attack live in a few weeks in Chicago; maybe if I’m lucky Portishead will tour soon and I’ll get to see them, too!
Between Kori’s move, my injuries, and various social commitments the past two weeks, I have not been able to focus much on anything else. I haven’t been updating this blog as much as I would like. I’ve barely drawn anything. I’ve only done minimal work on Lightwave. And the college videos are being ignored.
I went to the gym tonight for the first time in probably a month. Now that I’m able to work out again, I’m hoping that my energy levels will even out and I’ll be able to focus more at night on my various personal projects. I already feel a positive difference from this one workout, so hopefully nothing will prevent me from getting back into my workout routine.
Time for bed.
I went to the Pearl Jam show last night at the United Center. The show was fantastic! This is the third time I’ve seen them and all shows have been amazing. This time around, they played for almost three hours! They opened with Release and went on to play half of the Ten album by the time the concert was over, including Black (my favorite song by them) and Porch (one of their greatest live songs, always with an extra long solo in the middle). The also played a few of their most popular B-sides and covers: Yellow Ledbetter, State of Love and Trust, and Baba O’Riley. Other interesting moments: they played part of Open as an intro to another song (I forget which one now), the end of Daughter became a short rendition of W.M.A. that replaced “White Male American” with lyrics about a “white texas son” and the chorus was just “President”, and the encore included lots of Versus songs (Go, Blood and Indifference).
If you ever get a chance to see Pearl Jam live, don’t pass it up. They manage to sound even better live than in studio and they do their best to repay their fans for having to shell out a lot of money for the concert tickets.
I’m trapped. Stuck in my condo, unable to leave. Even within my condo, my movements are limited.
Why am I trapped? Because I sprained my ankle last night. Pretty bad, too. Bad enough that I can’t put much body weight on my left leg. Which means that I can’t walk. If I want to move from my couch to my office, for instance, I hop on my right leg over to the other room. And showering last night was a major feat of one-legged gymnastics.
I’ve been icing down my ankle and keeping it elevated whenever I can (hard to do while working on a laptop). I can already tell it has started to slightly heal, but it may be another couple of days before I can even walk to the grocery store across the street.
On a more positive note, here are some funny video links (credits go to Jill and ClunkyRobot):
It’s my last night in Tucson and there is little to report. I’m excited to finally get to sleep in while I’m out here. In order to make all of my morning conference calls, I’ve been waking up before 7am (except for Tuesday, when I was able to sleep until 8).
Tomorrow we’re driving up to Phoenix and exploring ASU. We’ll be staying in a hotel for the night near the airport and then flying back home on Saturday.
It will be nice to get back.
