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Marketing 101. Consulting 101. PHP Consulting. Random geeky stuff. I Blog Therefore I Am.

Thursday, August 22, 2002

My Comments on Lessig Versus Winer This comments on Dave Winer's very perceptive comments in today's www.scripting.com.   Cross Reference.  I too am as much of a legal neophyte as Dave Winer. Still I feel that I have something to contribute to the debate. Like Dave I am a happy capitalist and I think that you should have a right to sell software if you want to. It doesn't mean that people can or will purchase it over a free alternative but Lessig also doesn't have the right to take this freedom away from me. Even though software may be unsellable after 10 years, it still doesn't mean that Lessig should take my legal property away from me. As Dave said, Lessig seems to be going after the Big COs with this. And I think he is. What he is also after though is the wrongful copyright extensions granted by Congress that extend the rights of Disney and the like essentially indefinitely.  There are two fundamentally different types of content involved -- why should the same laws be applied to each?  Let's see these copyright extensions repealed to the founding fathers original intent (don't have the # off the top of my head but it was much lower) OR set to the same time period as a patent. Why are these different after all? They both serve to protect intellectual property. Direct Comments on Dave's Points: >>Second, it comes at a pretty bad time in the software business, which has been reeling from the idea that what we produce should all be free. The software industry is, imho, reeling from: The continued dominance of Microsoft and its rapacious penetration into new markets. There just aren't all that many places for new developers to go. It's no wonder that giving away code seems like such a good idea to many.  Let's face -- we're programmers, programmers want to see their code in use and they'll give it away if that's the only way to see it in use.  And that's OK.  They have that right. The movement towards so much software being bundled on computers has created a reality where many, if not most, consumers just don't have to buy software at all. This creates a culture against ISVs in general.  If people aren't used to buying software, it's much harder for them to do so.  And this isn't just Microsoft. There is now so much software bundled with modern Macintoshes that the Macintosh software market, which is generally stronger for an ISV than the Windows market (again IMHO), will begin to crumble. The rise in software prices relative to hardware prices. Every year hardware gets cheaper and software gets more expensive. While we may understand this, it makes no sense to the average consumer who basically figures "I'll use what came with my machine and pirate, download, or use free alternatives. i.e. it's the syndrome of How can a copy of office be worth 50% of my Macintosh iBook?" >>Perhaps Lessig and his friends are well intentioned, I don't know what the thought process is, and I don't care. Not wanting to know what Lessig's thought process isn't helpful to the debate. We may disagree with him but Dr. Lessig is a smart, intelligent man.  Shouldn't we at least try and understand people we are being critical of? 7:02:11 PM  Google It!  comment []   IM Me About This

8:55:27 AM   comment []   IM Me About This

Scotts Searching :: A Bad Search Trick :: Screwing Up Over Searching By Ignoring Search Context It seems like just yesterday that I was writing about Over Searching being a good search trick.  Oh.  That's right.  I'm a goober.  It was yesterday.  Well I guess that makes this even more appropriate.  (Warning -- You are entering a potentially bile filled anti microsoft rant zone.) Over searching, as I mentioned yesterday, takes into account what a user might want in addition to what a user searches for to deliver more results than specifically required by the query itself.  It's a good approach -- but -- it needs to take into account the context of the user's query.  Or it just results in alienation (and rants like this).  Here's what I just did. ==> Read Story <== 8:55:26 AM  Google It!  comment []   IM Me About This

You Did NOT Want to Be in My House 10 Minutes Ago It's always interesting to me how technology frustrates people.  It's even more interesting when it makes people swear -- that's a sign of a real issue.  Here's an example.  You did NOT want to be near me about 10 minutes ago.  I was using Word 2000 to write a letter of reference for a friend.  I was in Page Layout mode to make it look correct (he's a good guy and it's so worth doing right) and when I entered the URL of a site he helped me develop, Word made it into a hyperlink.  Ok.  Backspace.  Remove it.  Hit Space to type the next word.  ACK!!!!  Made it again.  Go back.  Remove again.  Same thing.  Sigh.  The next words were: ($)*#)(%* )(*$%)(#*)(%*) ^%($%$(_% )_^$^ ($ *****###### Translate that into your local vernacular as you so choose.  I suspect that you get the picture.  Let's just say that even my cats ran away at this burst of bile and invective.  And I figured it out, of course, but I'd offer three suggestions to the designers of Microsoft Word: Automatically turn off auto hyperlink creation if a document is in page layout mode -- or ask the user when they change into it Remember that the user just removed a link on a phrase.  Why recreate it if 10 seconds ago they removed it? If the user removes 2 or more hyperlinks in a document, ask them "Do you want auto hyperlinks turned off for this document?" Whenever I hear someone say "There's nothing that Microsoft could add to Office", I think "Bullsh*".  Office frustrates the every loving sh* out of people on a regular basis.  Perhaps there is nothing more to add.  Perhaps its a matter of fixing bad design decisions. 7:05:50 AM  Google It!  comment []   IM Me About This

BlogBack: Hey!  BlogStreet's Starting to Be Very Cool. I mentioned www.blogstreet.com recently and just thought to check back since my buddy Veer mentioned it to me.  Here's how it looks for my blog: Click to zoom in to the full graphic.  I particularly like the way I can drill down into blogs that link to me and who's related to them. Thanks Veer!  Nice work. 6:08:21 AM  Google It!  comment []   IM Me About This