2010 series Life in the Byte Age chapter one · Sunday January 3, 2010 by colin newell
I have a couple of things in common with some of the big pop stars in the World. I have written an albums worth of music and a chunk of the lyrics to go along with it.
One of the biggest differences is – I have sold under 1000 CD’s (compared to millions and millions for some artists) and that is (in part) because I am decidedly, if not staggeringly, less talented than most.
The other thing I did is, having embraced modern technology, having made some, if not all, of the material free to hear online prior to purchasing – on CBC3
One thing I feel very strongly about is the ability to protect intellectual property – but in order to do that, one must live within a society that subscribes, at least on some level, to the theory that music (and the arts) are actually worth something.
U2’s front man, Bono is calling for better restrictions on the internet to protect artists and their work. In his regular column for the New York Times, which the pop singer began a year ago, Bono says downloading is becoming all-encompassing.
“The only thing protecting the movie and TV industries from the fate that has befallen music and indeed the newspaper business is the size of the files,” he wrote.
Bono predicts people are only a few years away from downloading movies in a few seconds.
And I think that Bono and I are seeing exactly the same philosophical and ethical phenomenon: That society as a whole sees music and art, movies and television as something to be picked off of a communal apple tree. With impunity. Without a twinge of guilt. Because it’s there.
Most of my creative friends (and an equal number of the non-creative ones) feel that it is OK to download (steal) music and movies and TV shows. Some insist that they will tend to buy more music if they have the opportunity to download some first. That is like saying, “I promise to buy more fruit as long as I can steal some of the vegetables…”.
I mean, if the same rules, that applied to the internet, applied on the streets of your town, we would be free to loot stores of their goods. What is the difference?
I can proudly say that I have yet to download a song, movie or a TV show. It is about worth. Having been through the exercise of actually taking out 10 months of my life to produce, what I thought, was some good music – I always felt that it was worth something.
Where Bono and I might diverge in opinion is this: We have opened the flood gates to a lifestyle – and a conscience free choice in behavior. I find it hard to believe that we can now close these doors after they have been opened.
This is Blog Number 602 since the Spring of 2005. Crikey!
Summer Food Fun and Drink Chapter 9 why I play the guitar · Tuesday July 7, 2009 by colin newell
Spring into birdsong - why we do not twitter · Sunday April 19, 2009 by colin newell
I embrace technology. Heck, I have been doing this for too many years. When I first started monkeying around on the internet, there were no web servers. They were called gopher servers – and they served up text.
My first attempts at webbing were launched from a Windows 3.11 for Work groups box (an IBM PC) around 1995 or so. That was a century ago in internet time.
So now we have streaming audio and video and dynamic web pages that change with every glance. I am good with that, dog. Really I am.
I believe that I owe it to my dedicated reader that I keep it fresh and real.
I do not believe, however, that there are more than a very small handful of people out there that would hang onto every word – if I offered truly up to date snippets of my every thought.
Twitter.
I do not do it. I will not do it.
No one needs to know what I am thinking when I am standing on the corner of 1st and Main Street. No one needs to know when I am sipping on a truly great coffee in a remarkable setting. I can tell them later.
Twitter is an alarming indication that we are getting a tad too self indulgent.
I went through the eighties – I was in my 20’s. And let me tell you folks… the only difference between then and now (for me) was more hair and more hair gel… and a lot more self indulgent behavior from just about everyone around me.
I have a theory. We never actually left the eighties. The mentality is still very much alive in all of us. There are many of us that actually feel that there is an audience for our every utterance, our every stomach gurgle, our every thought – however useless and every trivial thought that jumps from our synapses.
Enough already. How about some quiet.
Take some… on me.
Colin Newell is a Victoria resident and long time user of the World Wide Web. His handiwork has graced the cyber-World for going on 2 decades… if anyone is counting that is.
Comment [3]
Spring forward into high-definition · Sunday April 5, 2009 by colin newell
We have had a Sony Wega Trinitron 32” CRT Flat-screen TV for almost 5 years… it was one of the 1st HD-Ready TV’s – It has an HDMI input on it and 2 separate component video input sets.
Our cable provider, Shaw, had a promotion on – a special on HD terminals and HD-PVR boxes. Well, we thought… I guess it is time to jump on board prior to our TV being completely obsolete.
So we sign up. And I opt for self installation being a telecom professional and all.
Right.
Home I go, with box in hand – and I install it.
Follow the instructions. Hook it up and call Shaw.
Have a human on the line within 4 minutes.
They enable it over the network.
Hmmm. I get audio but no video.
The helpful dude on the other end of the line suggests their help line – there is a very small wait queue at the time. I am connected to the help line within one minute.
The resolution: I had one of the component video cables crossed – and they are clearly color coded… and this is the kind of stuff I work with all day.
Major point being: You really do not want to be a passenger on my commuter jet when I am in the cockpit. I make little mistakes from time to time. Which I guess everyone does. As a technical professional, I tend to do one too many highly technically demanding things too often in the course of one day. Thankfully, no one dies.
Anyhow – enjoying NHL Hockey in 1080i… and the Discovery Channel spiders in 1080i… looking forward to time shifting my favorite show into my reality.
Colin Newell is a Victoria resident, electronics technologist and media engineer – and a food writer for EAT Magazine. And if the number of typos in this article are any indication – we are doomed!
Comment [1]
