Mirror, mirror,
What u see?
Have I still got those dark clouds over me?
Or, am I really feeling what I feel?
The last days of the Devil’s Deal
Oh, mirror, what u see?Prince, “Family Name”, “The Rainbow Children” (2001)
I’m just listening to the new album from Radiohead, named In Rainbows, which was released yesterday. I’m still halfway through, but so far it seems like a good record.
So, what’s new?
I just downloaded it off the net.
Again, what’s the deal?
I actually paid for it.
Hm, interesting, for a change, but not exactly earth shattering, I can almost hear you think.
Well, think again.
I didn’t buy it from iTunes or another online music store. I got it directly from the album’s own website, after paying directly to the artists. Immediatly after checking out I received a web link that started the download of a zip archive, containing plain simple 160kbps mp3 files. No DRM. No strings attached. Just good music, click and play.
Now, hear this. What you pay for it is left up to you. No, really, it’s up to you.
So, what do you say? I say it’s high time you put your money where your ears are. I’m going to be quite upset when I see someone pirating this.
P.S.: curious about how much I chose to pay for the album? £3.33. I’d pay less for 160k mp3s, but I really wanted to vote with my purse on this one. I am generally concerned about sound quality; give me royalty-free, lossless high-quality audio files (hint: FLAC) and I will gladly pay more than that.
Moreover, while I understand it would somehow lessen the impact in this instance, generally I’d appreciate a little preview. Also, artwork does not necessarily mean paper.
P.P.S.: no, you can’t have my mp3s. Go download them off the site.
While the headline speaks for itself (here are the relevant release notes), it’s no big deal for me, since I make very little use of Skype.
There are times when I can’t avoid using it, though. Most people don’t value their freedom enough to take the most basic action or turn around the slightest annoyance, and I can’t afford not to care about all of them (though heaven knows I’m tempted).
That’s how I discovered that Skype had this very annoying habit of fiddling with the sound hardware on my notebook, randomly toggling the “capture” status and actually muting my mic during a call. After several experiments, a lot of repetitions and a whole lot of cursewords (only some of which have been heard by my counterparts, good for me), I’d come to the conclusion that it had something to do with the sound level, but couldn’t completely avoid this behaviour, no matter how low I kept my mic level or the tone of my voice.
Well, maybe the problem has been solved. This new release has a promising option switch, Allow Skype to automatically adjust my mixer levels:
to which I reply: hell no!!!
After literally months of whispering, I can’t wait to shout into someone else’s ears! Not quite enough punishment for using a closed-source, closed-protocol VoIP application, but still better than none.
Oh, almost slipped my mind: still no SMS.
After the umpteenth misunderstanding between my nickname and my first name just happened (interestingly, this time the blame is on me, but that’s not the point), I’ve decided to let go of the truth like never before.
A bit of background may be of help here. My nickname is andrew, as you know or may have guessed, from this site’s domain name for a start. My first name is Luca, but clearly the nickname comes from the assonance with my family name, Andreucci. Too bad Andrew is also the english translation for the Italian first name Andrea, which is very widespread, and also a male name. Needless to say, andrew is a very common choice for a nickname or screen name for someone whose first name is Andrea.
To sum it up, apart from the people who simply get it wrong, many among those who know me or hear me called by my nickname wrongly assume that my first name is Andrea. At the end of the day it’s quite a lot of them, believe me.
While there’s no question that this rather unfortunate choice is entirely my fault, there is a little story behind it, that I will use as a lame excuse, or at least try and entertain you with.
I started fiddling with computers when I was still a kid. Of course, like anyone else I had the habit of giving myself funny “hacker” names, but I never really settled on one1. During my early experiments with multiuser environments I’d been using my first name as a login. But when I started my University courses, the lab managers had this rule of using the first n letters from the family name, eight character tops, as a login name. As you may see, my family name is nine letters long, so I was left with the horrible:
andreucc:~$
I remember discussing this issue with one of the admins who, strange as it may seem, wasn’t really concerned; his resolution was then to strip down a couple more characters, leaving me with:
andreu:~$
Big deal. In no time everyone was having fun at my login name.
I asked the lab admin if he could change the last character as to give me “andrew”, but he said this was against the first n letters rule, so I was stuck with andreu.
No wonder I left the University before graduating.
But want to know what’s even more fun? When I left the University to start my own ISP firm, the lab guy ended up being one of my associates. Too bad I couldn’t get my revenge: his family name is only seven letters long! 
But I finally got the login name I wanted:
root:~#
That’s how andrew was born. No later than a year after that, the andrew.org domain was registered, and the rest is history.
I hope you enjoyed this story. Movie rights are still available to the highest bidder.
1 There’s actually one I was using more often than others, but never in the world I will reveal it, not even under the most excruciating tortures. Lucky for me there’s a very good chance anybody who knew it probably can’t remember, will not read this or does not give a damn anyway.
I’ve got a truckload of unfinished posts in draft status, and absolutely not a drop of will to finish any one of them. So I will give in to the latest quick thought, waiting for better times.
I was thinking about Microsoft Vista earlier today. More specifically, about the fact that nobody seems to like it. Most people I know are very disappointed from being force fed it buying a new machine. Those who have a choice aren’t even remotely considering the switch. Every single day I read or hear about reports ranging from bitterness to furious rage.
As I said many times before, in spite of the looks, I don’t hate Microsoft. I think I can understand the reasons behind their success. Of course, mainly because of these reasons, I don’t like them either; but I don’t like ignorance as well, and still there is only so much I can do about it.1
Anyway, I was thinking that, as a well-known and long-standing opponent, maybe I should take some small comfort from this bad reputation that Vista is gaining. This led me to a simple question: so, why am I not taking any comfort?
I’d like to tell you that my answer has to do with the Law of Karma, but I’m afraid I’d be lying. The truth is that I feel there is absolutely nothing to take comfort from. In spite of the bad stories, Vista is already a commercial success, and it’s only going to gain. People will just keep on being force fed it, and in the end they’ll come to like it, or pretend they do, simply because they have no choice.
Or do they?
Ignorance is bliss—to some.
1 the brighter ones will see the connections here, but let’s not digress, or I’ll end up with one more draft…
being alone is not so bad if you manage not to get too paranoid…
but it’s also nowhere near as interesting!
Enter Moblin, Yet Another Mobile Linux effort, directly from Intel.
Looks interesting as others did before. But will it turn out to be something more than words, words, words, and Photosh… I mean, Gimp-ed mock-ups?
Time will tell. In the meantime, I’m betting €5,00 on NO.
Works from Nicoletta Ceccoli are showing at Roq La Rue Gallery, Seattle.
I’m so happy for Nicoletta, who happens to be a good friend of mine.
This is a major event for her, I know how much she cares about this and I whole-heartedly wish her all the best.
Links:
The first iPhone demos were the icing on the cake. Now, news of Microsoft involvement are the final seal; when they get to attach their name to it (as in Microsoft™ Surface®), it’s bound to be big.
The news is this time, for a change, I agree!
To tell the truth, the 2006 demo from Jeff Han at TED got me instantly convinced. Think about it, using fingers (and voice) has to be the definitive HID. This technology has served man well for… quite some time.
Therefore, I decree: surface/gestural, multitouch, or whatever-you-like-to-call-them interfaces are the Next Big Thing.
I am not able to sleep well if I do not take at least a cursory look at BugTraq before bed.
I just literally stumbled upon this: Apache httpd vulenrabilities (sic)
What worries me has not so much to do with the vulnerabilities themselves, rather than with the accompanying note:
The information on the vulnerabilities above was sent to Apache Software Foundation on 16 May, 2006. For over 1 year no official patch has been issued.
People like myself often point at Apache as an example of Free Software’s excellence, especially where security is concerned. So, assuming that the threats are real, is this possible, I am wondering?
I will definitely keep my eyes on this thread. Meanwhile, I am not going to sleep well tonight.
cat >/dev/null is 
