I've been writing several posts about my anguish with Visual Studio.
I am also subscribed to a newsletter that constantly sends me letters about how dangerous the swine flu vaccine is. Since I have taken the vaccination, had and have no ill effects, my friends and relatives have taken the shot, feel fine, and a total of 4 million Swedes have taken the shots and most of them survived, the danger issue is of little interest to me. The negative side effect of the disease far outweigh the negative effects of the vaccine. Case closed.
But the reason why there is so much controversy over products such as these is because there is no alternative to them. The company that makes the swine flu vaccination has made big bucks from their patent and from the fact that many countries, including Sweden, are legally bound to order enough vaccines to vaccinate the population. We as consumers can not chose a different vaccination that we think are safer for us -- we are stuck.
With software it is the same thing. When a software giant has multiple patents, there is hardly any way for other software producers to compete. Software patents are terrible due to how fast the industry develops and once brilliant discoveries are now obvious.
Did you know that the web plugin was patented in the 1990s? There are numerous other examples. If all those patents were enforced, the industry would be at a stand-still. That's why most people in software industry are against software patents.
Without patents, companies would have to compete by making their products as good as possible. As it is now, they mainly have to compete by being the first to discover and patent it. The patent then lasts for 20 years. Good luck in competing with Microsoft a la 1989.
tisdag 8 december 2009
måndag 7 december 2009
Signing off my moral rights?
I was about to make a post on the IMDB message board. Just for fun, I read their terms and conditions. As is typical of such sites they have a lot of legal garbage talk stating you can not hold them liable for anything or ever get any money from them no matter what. Ok, that's what one could expect -- I've read Microsoft's contracts that are full of these statements. But, I actually understand them in one way: if they didn't have all these waivers, they might get sued by anyone for any purported damage, such as someone getting a heart attack from intense use.
But one thing about IMDB's waiver struck me..
You agree that any materials, including but not limited to questions, comments, suggestions, ideas, plans, notes, drawings, original or creative materials or other information, provided by you in the form of e-mail or submissions to IMDb are non-confidential and shall become the sole property of IMDb. IMDb shall own exclusive rights, including all intellectual property rights, and shall be entitled to the unrestricted use of these materials for any purpose, commercial or otherwise, without acknowledgment or compensation to you. The submission of any materials to IMDb, including the posting of materials to any forum or interactive area, irrevocably waives any and all "moral rights" in such materials, including the rights of paternity and integrity.
I happen to have some experience with "moral rights". The Creative Commons 3.0 license explicitly mentions that it does not waive moral rights. In many countries, it is legally impossible to sign of moral rights anyways, but I think it is nice to have it clearly stated. However, on Wikipedia, where I was a contributor for some time, this statement made people from the US not want to use the Creative Commons 3.0 license, with arguments such as "what if someone doesn't like how I use his picture, can he sue me on moral right grounds?". Even intelligent people said things like that.
Of course that completely misses the point, and does so in two ways. First of all, the US does not have moral rights in the same way, so saying that the 3.0 license protects them more than the 2.5 license is moot. Secondly, in most other countries you cannot sign away moral rights, so it doesn't matter whether you use a Creative Commons license that mentions this or not.
Back to moral rights in the US. On IMDB I allegedly agree to give up any moral rights. Does that mean I agree that they can legally use my forum post in a way that is purely libelous, such as distorting the message to make it seem like I support the Ku Klux Klan? I don't know, but I decided not to make a post at the message board.
More information about moral rights:
http://www.rbs2.com/moral.htm
http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2006/06/12/us-vs-europe-moral-rights/
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/property/library/moralprimer.html
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Addendum. It appears that in the US, the defamation law might protect me from such things as the example I gave in the above paragraph. But I'm still uneasy about signing away my moral rights...
But one thing about IMDB's waiver struck me..
You agree that any materials, including but not limited to questions, comments, suggestions, ideas, plans, notes, drawings, original or creative materials or other information, provided by you in the form of e-mail or submissions to IMDb are non-confidential and shall become the sole property of IMDb. IMDb shall own exclusive rights, including all intellectual property rights, and shall be entitled to the unrestricted use of these materials for any purpose, commercial or otherwise, without acknowledgment or compensation to you. The submission of any materials to IMDb, including the posting of materials to any forum or interactive area, irrevocably waives any and all "moral rights" in such materials, including the rights of paternity and integrity.
I happen to have some experience with "moral rights". The Creative Commons 3.0 license explicitly mentions that it does not waive moral rights. In many countries, it is legally impossible to sign of moral rights anyways, but I think it is nice to have it clearly stated. However, on Wikipedia, where I was a contributor for some time, this statement made people from the US not want to use the Creative Commons 3.0 license, with arguments such as "what if someone doesn't like how I use his picture, can he sue me on moral right grounds?". Even intelligent people said things like that.
Of course that completely misses the point, and does so in two ways. First of all, the US does not have moral rights in the same way, so saying that the 3.0 license protects them more than the 2.5 license is moot. Secondly, in most other countries you cannot sign away moral rights, so it doesn't matter whether you use a Creative Commons license that mentions this or not.
Back to moral rights in the US. On IMDB I allegedly agree to give up any moral rights. Does that mean I agree that they can legally use my forum post in a way that is purely libelous, such as distorting the message to make it seem like I support the Ku Klux Klan? I don't know, but I decided not to make a post at the message board.
More information about moral rights:
http://www.rbs2.com/moral.htm
http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2006/06/12/us-vs-europe-moral-rights/
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/property/library/moralprimer.html
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Addendum. It appears that in the US, the defamation law might protect me from such things as the example I gave in the above paragraph. But I'm still uneasy about signing away my moral rights...
onsdag 8 juli 2009
Happy about blog
Today I happily noted that no-one is reading or following my blog at all. This made me relieved because I sort of have a paranoid disposition and hate criticism.
But ok, I've read that most blogs don't get read.
New mouse
As I mentioned, I was planning on buying a new mouse and possibly keyboard. In the end, I went for a MS Intellimouse and a MS keyboard of some kind. This post will be about the mouse.
The name is Intellimouse Explorer 3.0. It cost the equivalent of ca 40$, which I consider my limit for a mouse. It had gotten some good reviews on the net, which I read on my iPhone while at the store. But the reviewers -- except one guy on a forum -- failed to mention that the new "improved" mouse has a seriously defective scrollwheel. I use my scrollwheel a lot. Mostly on webpages of course, but also heavily in Visual Studio, and to some extent in other programs such as the Windows Explorer. The problem is that is is clunky. It takes too much effort to use and sometimes gets stuck.
The guy on the forum suggested to fix the mouse buy bending one of the clips inside the mouse. I tried that but it didn't work. He was right though in that the hole for the right side of the wheel is too large.
My solution was to put a small piece of paper on the bottom of the hole. It is important to make it exactly as wide and thick as it should be. If it is too thick, the wheel won't scroll at all. If it is too thin, it won't be much of an improvement. To make it thicker use layers of paper. Put the layers in your mouth to make them stick together.
It is also important that the part above of the middle mouse button is slightly thicker. Otherwise you won't be able to press that button. Also make sure that the piece is not so big that it covers the right mouse button.
It may take some time to get the piece to the exact right size.
The image is not of great quality but you can see the reddish piece of paper underneath the wheel.
It is also important that the paper is glossy so that the wheel slides. Here is an actual example of glossy paper.
By the way, after some effort on my side, sending mails and sms, I will be getting my wall mounted coat rack back next week! It's important to know what one is entitled to.
lördag 4 juli 2009
About my computer
Hia,
figured I should continue posting, but just call them "rants" and not anything else. Hope you understand!! There are less intelligent blogs around. Enjoy my posts for what they are and don't take me too seriously.
Just moved into new apartment, the first one I bought for my own money and thus own. Feels great. Everyone should own their own apartment/house. I believe George W. Bush said that too. No wonder there was a housing crisis -- I consider it to be essential to be able to afford your living before buying. Is it the banks or the people that are stupid? Ok, that's a question for the economists.... Speaking of my apartment, the previous owners appear to have taken the wall mounted coat rack with them! I'm going to try and get it back. They had no right to take it.
Anyways going back to the topic -- as I might have mentioned, I own a HP dv9000. The same type that has its dedicated fanpage http://www.notebookhingecrack.com/.
The computer is 3 years old, but I bought it one year ago in a good as new condition, for the equivalent of ca 900 $. I actually think it is a generally decent computer!! As a programmer I find the keyboard peculiar to say the least, but I accept that since I should avoid programming at home.
Speaking of keyboard, it amazes me how many ways there are to produce a bad keyboard layout. At work, I have a Dell keyboard. It is alright except for one thing: the Shift key is insensitive, and requires you to press harder than on a usual keyboard. I've counted to at least 20 times per days I have to go back and correct letters that weren't capitalized, or - supposed to be _. After having complained to the manager, he was kind enough to give me a new keyboard (thank you, I appreciate your effort to satisfy this demanding programmer). It was a no-name keyboard, so I won't mention any names. But after having used the new keyboard for a few hours, I had to give it up (I still left it on my desk for a couple of weeks, not wanting to be one of those whiners).
What was wrong with it? First of all: the keys had a weird height angle, they were sort of leaning upwards in a strange way. Secondly, the distance between Left Shift and F5 was just slightly to large for me to reach both keys without over-extending my fingers. And Shift-F5 is a combination that any Visual Studio programmer would/should recognize. I can't remember exactly what it does now that I am writing out of context, but I know I use it alot. So I'll stick with my Dell keyboard for now... but I have my eye on a logitech desktop which I hope will solve all my woes without costing $$$$.
Back to my HP... I have a vague memory of having complained about my HP keyboard before so I'm not going to do that again. Instead, I will write about the touch pad. If you surf into the afore mentioned page, you will see that the HP hinge cracks because of wrong constructions that with time makes it too hot and cracking. In fairness I should mention that it hasn't happened to my computer yet, which is good because HP only extended their warranty to May 2009! If it cracks now, I'll have to live with it until I buy a new computer (and I will think twice before buying an HP again).
I don't know if it is related to the bad design of the hinge, but my touch pad has always been unpleasantly hot. It's hard to measure but I would estimate it to be at least 40o C, or for those illiterate in Celsius degrees: serious fever.
The 17" monitor is not bad. I can't distinguish some color, such as light grey from white, but I think that't the same with most laptops?
It is a multimedia computer and I would say the sound is not bad, and it has some nice features such as playing a DVD without starting up windows, by pressing a button next to the ON button.
Oh, almost forgot -- the battery doesn't work. When I bought it, it never got loaded. I sent a mail to support, and they soon sent me a new battery free of charge all the way from some central Europe country such as Austria. However, that battery soon died too, and is now completely worthless. If I unplug my computer it dies within a few seconds. I would still like to know why? Did they send me a flawed battery, is my computer unable to load batteries, or did I make something wrong? Anyways, I won't bother with their support again. Support is evil.
My computer has many nice features. The graphics is not bad. I can play computer games and do whatever I want (until it cracks).
I think one shouldn't be too picky about laptops. The components have to be carefully balanced to give as much power as possibly, without being expensive, draining power or overheating. In my last school class, we bough our computer ourselves. Some of my classmates used them while in bed and what not, and were surprised when they stopped working. Well, you tell these kids "don't block the air intake, the computer will overheat", but they don't care, do it, and suddenly their computer breaks and it's everybody's fault but their own.
The 17" monitor is not bad. I can't distinguish some color, such as light grey from white, but I think that't the same with most laptops?
It is a multimedia computer and I would say the sound is not bad, and it has some nice features such as playing a DVD without starting up windows, by pressing a button next to the ON button.
Oh, almost forgot -- the battery doesn't work. When I bought it, it never got loaded. I sent a mail to support, and they soon sent me a new battery free of charge all the way from some central Europe country such as Austria. However, that battery soon died too, and is now completely worthless. If I unplug my computer it dies within a few seconds. I would still like to know why? Did they send me a flawed battery, is my computer unable to load batteries, or did I make something wrong? Anyways, I won't bother with their support again. Support is evil.
My computer has many nice features. The graphics is not bad. I can play computer games and do whatever I want (until it cracks).
I think one shouldn't be too picky about laptops. The components have to be carefully balanced to give as much power as possibly, without being expensive, draining power or overheating. In my last school class, we bough our computer ourselves. Some of my classmates used them while in bed and what not, and were surprised when they stopped working. Well, you tell these kids "don't block the air intake, the computer will overheat", but they don't care, do it, and suddenly their computer breaks and it's everybody's fault but their own.
Ok, that was all about my computer for now. I have my eyes set on the LOGITECH EX 100 cordless desktop. I've had good experience with Logitech previously. Bye-bye.
måndag 15 december 2008
Why I don't like open software
Some people are very enthusiastic about open software. I had a techer in a linux class once who was all fire about it and of how great it is and of all the advantages of working in a team with other developers, etc etc.
Personally, I use few of them. And every time I try one, I am enthusiastic for a few weeks or months, but then things don't work as they should. There is no support, and when asking or requesting for simple fixes to obvious problems, you at best get a reply such as "it's not a bug, it's a feature", sometimes get no answer at all, and often get an answer such as "quit bitching, it's open software, fix it yourself".
This is just a natural way of open software. There's no trying to change it. In an open software project, people do what they want to, and they don't do what they don't want to. That's why free linux projects so often suck. They are built by nerds why want to implement their own features, and don't care about the 40-year old accountant who just wants things simple. That's why 2001-2008 have all been declared the year of the desktop linux, but still hovers around 1% market share.
I used to edit Wikipedia for a while, and it was the same thing. There are guidelines there about being nice, but the motivator at Wikipedia is ego, so being nice serves little purpose except to not violate the guidelines that would put sanctions on you. Just trust me, there's a horde of people and administrators that are just below the threshold that would get them in trouble -- although they still often get into trouble in the end, and complain and leave under big fuss. Rudeness, unfounded critizism and plain dumbness are things I really despise, maybe I even have a personality deficiency to handle such things, but when I waste my time doing such unpleasant things (in my spare time!), my blood pressure rises, I get anxious and I even suspect I'm losing my hair.
But Wikipedia works, you say? It may looks so at the moment, unless you've tried being an editor to a greater extent. Open software are great as startups because they require little money. But after a while, it's chaos.
Rather than having to put up with insults, no support, and being asked to spend my own working time fixing things that you'd think be obvious, I think I'll chose at proprietary software. Money is an efficient expedient for achieving things, it's a way to value other people's work, and to have your own work valued by others. I'd rather pay people to write good software and answer my questions politely.
Personally, I use few of them. And every time I try one, I am enthusiastic for a few weeks or months, but then things don't work as they should. There is no support, and when asking or requesting for simple fixes to obvious problems, you at best get a reply such as "it's not a bug, it's a feature", sometimes get no answer at all, and often get an answer such as "quit bitching, it's open software, fix it yourself".
This is just a natural way of open software. There's no trying to change it. In an open software project, people do what they want to, and they don't do what they don't want to. That's why free linux projects so often suck. They are built by nerds why want to implement their own features, and don't care about the 40-year old accountant who just wants things simple. That's why 2001-2008 have all been declared the year of the desktop linux, but still hovers around 1% market share.
I used to edit Wikipedia for a while, and it was the same thing. There are guidelines there about being nice, but the motivator at Wikipedia is ego, so being nice serves little purpose except to not violate the guidelines that would put sanctions on you. Just trust me, there's a horde of people and administrators that are just below the threshold that would get them in trouble -- although they still often get into trouble in the end, and complain and leave under big fuss. Rudeness, unfounded critizism and plain dumbness are things I really despise, maybe I even have a personality deficiency to handle such things, but when I waste my time doing such unpleasant things (in my spare time!), my blood pressure rises, I get anxious and I even suspect I'm losing my hair.
But Wikipedia works, you say? It may looks so at the moment, unless you've tried being an editor to a greater extent. Open software are great as startups because they require little money. But after a while, it's chaos.
Rather than having to put up with insults, no support, and being asked to spend my own working time fixing things that you'd think be obvious, I think I'll chose at proprietary software. Money is an efficient expedient for achieving things, it's a way to value other people's work, and to have your own work valued by others. I'd rather pay people to write good software and answer my questions politely.
onsdag 10 december 2008
Refreshing real programming
I'm doing a bit of JavaScript currently. It is refreshing to do some "real" programming as compared to how programming is done in Visual Studio. Now for JavaScript I am typing in a text editor and write every statement. In Visual Studio, after writing each statement, the program formats the lines and the text, checks the variable and function names and puts in underscores if it doesn't like them. I feel much freer in just a text editor were I don't have the feeling that someone is constantly looking over my shoulder and pointing out things it doesn't like...
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