Posted by Dale on Jun 24, 2008 in
paperless life Some say that I have sold my soul to Google or that I have become one with the Borg. But I say to them that using Google tools has changed my life.
Recently my home was damaged in a flood. Although our basement was heavily damaged by flood waters, luckily I was able to pull all the computers from my home grown data center before the flood waters came in. But this meant taking all my computers off line. Ok, not so bad. But what about my important home docs? I can’t access what I need.
Yes, I have a back up system. I wasn’t worried about loosing data, my issue is that I can’t access data. Answer. Google Docs.
General documents, scanned in PDFs, number crunching spread sheets. Its all there. No file cabinets. No worries about loosing primary systems and all your data. All the really important stuff is out there at the Googleplex waiting there for me when I need it.
This whole thing got me really thinking. The flood was manageable. But what about a fire? Or such a disaster where I had to evacuate my home? If a F4 tornado is coming my way, do I have time to grab the computer with all the important docs? Probably not. Can I grab one of my back up drives and my laptop? Probably. But again, access to important home data may not be possible.
Disaster plan. Computer with family photos, back up on an external drive that is easy to disconnect and crab. They make external drives that fit in your pocket, no excuse. Computer with family documents, same deal. External drive that is easy to grab. Essential docs that may need to be accessed if data center is off line, Google Docs.
Ok, maybe the identity theft stuff (taxes, etc) not out there. Gotta go the old skool, burn a CD and safty deposit box for that. At least I am not hording paper in a foder somewhere, augh.
And the best part, I can pull it down from the iPhone if needed ;) That is GOLD man! GOLD!
Posted by Dale on Jun 22, 2008 in
opinion Now this is just getting out of hand. In Oct of ‘07, the RIAA got their first feather in their cap.
Jammie Thomas was found liable for infringing the record labels’ copyrights on all 24 the 24 recordings at issue in the case of Capitol Records v. Jammie Thomas. The jury awarded $9,250 in statutory damages per song, after finding that the infringement was “willful,” out of a possible total of $150,000 per song. The grand total? $222,000 in damages.
But if you read through the case, the evidence is not really there. The trouble is that the prosecutors don’t really have the tools to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the person on trial has committed a crime. So they use statements like,
“All the fingers in this case point to Jammie Thomas.” The prosecution pointed to the evidence of the MAC and IP addresses, a password-protected PC that only the defendant had access to. The use of a nickname across several services and e-mail accounts and the “eclectic musical tastes” of Thomas. “These things all point in one direction, and only one direction: that of Jammie Thomas,” the prosecution stated. “Jammie Thomas infringed the record companies’ copyrighted recordings.”
No where in this account is there ANY proof of any illegal distribution. None. Has our judicial system finally come to the point where we will say, if you look like a criminal, you are a criminal. So, what really is the crime here? If I remember the facts correctly, the crime she is on trial for is for the illegal distribution of copyrighted material. But the prosecution failed to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that she did that. Yes, she has set up shared accounts, but there is no proof that anyone accessed that account.
The good news is that I am not the only one who feels this way.
The federal judge who oversaw the Recording Industry Association of America’s lawsuit said on Thursday he might have erred with one of his instructions to the jury, and is considering granting a new trial.
But the story doesn’t end there. On the heals of the Thomas trial,
the Motion Picture Association of America said Friday intellectual-property holders should have the right to collect damages, perhaps as much as $150,000 per copyright violation, without having to prove infringement.
What? Have I been asleep for 100 years and the Constitution has been completely wiped away? I know that there are people out there who want this to happen, but as far as I know it is still there and we the people still have these annoying things called RIGHTS!
Lawyers are trying to make the case that it is way to hard to actually prove that a person has actually distributed their content. Look, I am all for the protection of someone’s property, but this is out of control. If we all the courts to impose guilty charges against citizens simply based on the fact that they THINK that you may have done something, where does it end? You are driving down a street and you go past a police officer. The officer takes chase and pulls you over and issues a ticket. Why? Well, the office figured that if you are in a car, driving down the street, you probably will speed. So, here is your ticket.
I will let your imagination go from there. In any case, the idea that we can be found guilty of a crime that has not been proven simply because the court ‘presumes’ that we did or will do it, is not what makes America great. These are the things told to me as a child why Russia was bad?
Posted by Dale on Jun 18, 2008 in
paperless life A great article I just came across at NYTimes.com. Chris Uhlik, an engineer at Google, has taken the steps to making his family’s life paper free.
Although I can’t 100% agree that small children should spend so much time at a computer as suggested in this article, there are other areas where he is on the right track. File cabinets of bills, old letters, endless miles of old legal documents, etc . . . . all areas where hard copies are no longer necessary.
I remember being in college, the endless of useless handouts. Why? Desktop document management and distribution of electric documents is clearly a better solution. All the things I would have remembered in school if it was all searchable. All those notebooks, yeah, they are in a landfill somewhere.
Digital. Doesn’t take up space. Searchable. Archivable.