Rewriting the submission forms and process is the next big item on the todo list. I'm going to try to find a way to make it easier and more clear. I want to retain the detail I have, but it seems to confuse a lot of people.
But it's also really busy and a little overwhelming to my eye. I find it a little difficult to focus in on any particular link, or to decide on a reading pattern. I wind up bouncing all over the page in a very ADD fashion. I'm getting used to it and it's nice being able to see that many more links at once. But I'm still on the fence all told.
I loved working with an axe, but for several years after I got it I rarely had the opportunity. Occasionally a friend would ask me to help split wood (which isn't really what it's for, though it does it spectacularly). About a year and a half ago I joined a fledgling eco-village here in town and suddenly I've had opportunity to use it pretty frequently. I helped them clear the land with it and break down the trees we felled. I've used it at home in my own garden when I've needed to do any sort of rough wood carving or shaping. It does spectacularly well. I haven't sharpened it even once since I got it 4 years ago, and I can still shave with it. It hasn't seen a whole ton of use during that time, but it has seen enough to make that astonishing. As I've used it, my initial fondness for the axe as a tool has developed into a deep love for it. When I've got the time and money I'm thinking about getting some other kinds of axes (such as a smaller carpenter's axe). I'm seriously thinking about building a log cabin style shed just using axes as tools, just to see if I can do it. Also, because it's so much fun to use em!
And that was all with a Republican opposition that was not nearly so obstructionist, experienced, insane or entrenched as the one Obama faces today. In Clinton's day, Fox News had not yet become the bastion of right wing propaganda that it is today, there were some campaign finance laws in place, Republicans had not yet perfected their use of the filibuster to completely shutdown the government and there was no Tea Party.
I would say Obama is a pragmatic progressive. If you don't see him reaching for more, it's because he knows there's no way in hell he's gonna get it yet. So he reaches for less, things he thinks he can get. And then once he gets them, looks for ways to make the next step. He plays a very long chess game. We're criticizing him for sacrificing a bunch of pieces half way through. I'm still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and see what the end game looks like.
Also, thanks! And yeah, no worries, not beating myself up too much. Releases are always a wee bit stressful ;) I was just venting a bit.
Edit: never mind, reproduced and fixed. I created that bug trying to solve another minor bug. I hate putting out release fires. In any case, thanks for catching that!
Look, I'm happy to pay for a live performance or a physical copy of a book. And I will probably continue to pay for both long after copyright is done away with. But once something goes digital it doesn't cost me anything to make a copy of it. It doesn't cost the creator anything either. It's as easy to make a copy of as 'ctrlc' and 'ctrlv'. And that's a GOOD thing! It's means, for the first time in our history, completely free transmission of information. I think we should be supporting this! Yes, this means certain industries will have to change or maybe go away entirely. Film and television won't be able to use DVD sales as an extra source of revenue. Films will have to depend on being shown in the theaters and television will have to depend on its first run. Musicians will have to depend on live shows, rather than being able to just float on their albums. Books, well, will have to stay books. I am okay with all of that. I really think that's the way it should go. And I say this as someone who works entirely in the digital and can't figure out how to make money from things that I produce in any way other than asking for donations. And I'm okay with that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VIgFl2OCNg&feature=playe... Just completely breaking it down in the middle of a song.
Case in point: Barefoot Truth - A Folk and Jazz influenced Jam band out of Vermont http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmoBgpko58Y&feature=playe... http://www.youtube.com/user/barefootTRUTH#p/u/11/kdECvgNgxvY http://www.youtube.com/user/barefootTRUTH#p/u/10/VJBJPnRJ-bI -- This one has a ridiculous drum solo in the beginning. If that's not your style, go to the 3 minute mark.
'This world is a shit storm of greed that desperately needs mopping up. We're talking about people's homes, people's lives, people's dreams and the media wants to make it about the discomfort of millionaires who live around Liberty Square? The article said mothers have trouble getting strollers around police barricades. God forbid the revolution should get in the way of your evening stroll with pookie wookie. This may not be a revolution in the traditional sense, but this is a revolution of thought. Americans are tired of greed over good, profitable pollution over people, war for wealth over the welfare of average workers. This is a thought revolution and the revolution will not be sanitized. It will be criticized, ridiculed, intentionally misconstrued and misunderstood, but it'll push through. Shit all over it all you want, but the flood gates are open now. The revolution will not be tidy. The revolution will not fit with your pillates schedule. The revolution will not be quiet after ten pm and it will not fit easily into a mainstream media defined paradigm. The revolution will affect your bottom line. The revolution will affect you whether you ignore it or not. The revolution will not be dissuaded by barricades or pepper spray, driving rain, police raids, or ankle sprains. It's like the postal service on steroids. Pepper spraying us is like throwing water on gremlins, the more you do it the more of us show up. The revolution will be annoying to the top 1% and those who aren't open minded enough to understand it. The revolution does not care if you satirize it you still won't be able to jeopardize it. The revolution will not wait until after you hair appointment, your dinner party, tummy tuck or titty tilt. The revolution doesn't care about your lack of intellectual curiosity. The revolution will not be televised, but it will be digitized and available on youtube, facebook, twitter and anywhere real ideas are told. The revolution will not be hijacked by your old, tired, rejected political beliefs. The revolution will make politicians squirm, bankers bitch, elites moan and those with Stockholm syndrome scream "Hippie, punk, criminal assholes! Shut up and do what our captors told you. There's a sitcom on about a chubby guy who hates his wife and we're supposed to watch it. Now shut up and get in line!" The revolution will not monetized, commercialized, circumcised or anesthetized. Good god, don't you get it? Greed is no longer good and it's not god. The thought revolution is here to stay whether you give two shits about it or not. The revolution would, however, like to apologized for shitting all over your apathy.' My favorite part is definitely The revolution will not be dissuaded by barricades or pepper spray, driving rain, police raids, or ankle sprains. It's like the postal service on steroids.
The primary problem is that people who have no understanding of software are issuing patents for software. And so they are issuing patents that are horribly broad or even repeats of existing patents. Things like "linked lists" or "systems for charging customers with a credit card online" are being patented. Which is just obscene. But even aside from that, software is a field where it's very easy to invent something new and innovative at the exact same time as someone else. In fact, concurrent invention is happening constantly. It's very difficult to determine what is "non-obvious" because it all depends on the problem you are trying to solve. Personally, I'm against patents. All patents. Back before the days of big corporations it made sense. But now it's too easy for the big corporations to get patents just for patents sake and then sit on them, or use them as legal weapons against their competition. We're seeing it in software. We're seeing it in biotech. We're seeing it in aerospace engineer. Anywhere where there is patentable stuff and big corporations, patents are ending up stifling innovation and holding us back rather than moving us forward. Here's a great article on Software patent trolls and the damage patents are doing to the software industry: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/07/26/138576167/when-pat...
This. I've never been able to put this idea into words. And this phrase doesn't quite capture what I think has been a giant, gaping hole in our economics and society, but it's a great start to putting words to it. Our society and economics are based around the idea that there is great scarcity and everyone must work in order to create things and prove they deserve to survive. But there isn't scarcity. Quite the contrary, there is an over abundance of the basic necessities of life. There is a scarcity of things to do and produce. We've gotten so efficient that we can produce more than enough stuff. The problem we now face, is figuring out how to distribute that stuff in a way that isn't based on working a job (the one thing that is truly scare) for money and using that money to buy stuff.