learning to be human, since 1984
Archive for July, 2010
How to Control the Cycle of Software
Jul 25th
I’ve noticed a pattern in software distribution. It usually works like this:
- corporation develops software idea and releases it (think Facebook)
- whether it’s “freeware”, subscription-based, or a one-time paid software, the user pays in one form or another (think Facebook selling user data to marketers, Basecamp, or Microsoft Office)
- Hardcore users (opensource & general programming community) democratize the software, releasing under creative commons, GPL, or other licenses – free for public use (think Diaspora, Gimp, Open Office)
- Initial program takes a slight usage hit but usually somewhat inconsequential (Firefox, Chrome)
- The next big software idea rolls out, making older platforms obsolete
Since the whole Web 2.0 craze in the early 2000s, have been profiting from user data. Free services require registration so that the data can be sold to advertisers and other corporations that use it for whatever they are allowed by law (and sometimes, not allowed).
Users tend to be oblivious or apathetic to concerns of privacy, security, identity, and general exploitation thereof: This has to stop.
While I think business is good (and necessary), I think big business often neglects to see the whole picture and the detailed picture simultaneously. It neglects to respect users, or even identify them as people. Rather, it treats them as sources of income and statistical data – not expendable – afterall, they fuel the software – but not really human either.
How do we stop this?
We take over the last step. We replace the new software with already democratized software, written by the people, for the people. We don’t mine data or harvest identities. We build communities where creativity and capability are values learned early in childhood. And we stand up and fight for eachother; against greed, corruption, exploitation, malice, and all those things that split us apart.
Idealistic? Yes. Possible? Yes. Likely? We’ll see…
Restoring PC Stickies
Jul 18th
I use a program called “Stickies” to temporarily keep track of notes throughout the day (similar to the OS X program with the same name, but for Windows). It creates resizable, styleable post-it-note-esque boxes on my desktop that can be repositioned, deleted, or serve as reminders (visually, and with audible alarms). I restarted my machine a few days ago and was prompted to choose a file from which to restore my stickies settings. My heart sunk as the backup restoration failed – but I knew somehow I’d get them back, and I did. Here’s how:
- Right-click on the stickies icon in the taskbar hidden icons area
- Select “About Stickies v7.0beta” – yours may say something different
- A window will open. At the bottom, click the ellipsis (…) to go to the data directory folder
- Right-click again on the stickies icon in the hidden icons area and select “Exit” to quit the program
- Go to the data directory folder you just opened and duplicate the last file that contains usable data (you can usually tell if the file size is larger, or open it with a code editor and search for significant text)
- Duplicate the backup file by copying and pasting it (ctrl+c, then ctrl+v)
- Find the file stickies.ini in the data directory and rename it stickies.ini.old
- Rename the file you copied stickies.ini
- Restart your Stickies program, and you should be back in business
Summer Updates
Jul 12th
Nearly six months ago, I moved away from the big city. Seldom have I longed for the restaurants, bike lanes (paved roads, for that matter) and friends, despite the fondness for them that I had developed. I now call this place home—the vast, wide open skies and rolling hills of North-Central Wisconsin—and I couldn’t be more sincere in my love and appreciation for where I live.
Mostly, it’s because I have learned, experienced, and accomplished more things recently than during any other time since childhood. In fact, it often reminds me of that period of my life: constant discovery, invention, failure, and recovery. Never, though, has my learning been in such a different area of knowledge: mostly farm related. I have also learned a lot more about food, programming, and design (three things I love, but already knew a lot about).
To give you a taste of my current life, here’s what I did over the past 2 days:
- Tweaked the Barn Dance poster
- Cooked a big pot of really delicious soup
- Weeded a 300-foot bed of carrots, three rows deep
- Integrated a client website with several social media plugins, including a language switching feature (between English and Arabic)
- Read a book, the subject of which I am not allowed to disclose
- Helped dig a 11′x12′ hole for the foundation of a wood-fired brick oven that we’re building over the next several weeks, pictures to come (the plans for which I modified to make a 3′x4′ cooking area)
- Wrote an article for the farm newsletter, entitled “Who’s the Sauce?” (hint: not Tony Danza)
- Learned a new song on guitar (Home, by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes)
Since moving here, I’ve also:
- Driven a tractor
- Produced maple syrup, from tapping trees to cooking down
- Learned to drive stick shift
- Built websites for several clients, with more lining up
- Learned Drupal enough to build high-end, custom website templates and integrate modules
- Become proficient with jQuery
- Cooked for 50 people (with a little help from my friends)
- Learned an incredible amount about organic and sustainable farming
- Learned to run quickly through the woods
- perfected my bread recipe
- handled bees
- pulled ticks off a dog
- chased pigs and cows back to their pastures
- picked raspberries
- cooked meals with freshly picked produce
- learned to become part of someone else’s family
- helped with wine-making
- harvested wild ramps from the woods
- loaded hay into the barn
- learned how to fingerpick on guitar
- made nearly 2 gallons of raspberry jam
- greatly improved my ping pong and pool skills
- learned more about state and local politics than I ever expected to
- hung out with a toddler, witnessed him seamlessly attach an initial fricative to the rest of a word which he previously pronounced in a toddler-variety of English.
- butchered chickens
I’m sure there’s more that I’ve forgotten, and even more to come.