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Wednesday, July 24, 2002 |
Mark Twain. "Time cools, time clarifies; no mood can be maintained quite unaltered through the course of hours." [Motivational Quotes of the Day]
My first reaction to organizational changes is to get angry and lose it. Sometimes, I've said and done things that I regret. I'm learning not to let those first reactions dictate what I do. I don't suppress those feelings because they'll just leak out anyways. I let them be and then let them dissipate. I'm almost always better off for it. For the past four years at HP, I've had several managers and many were not chosen by me. They came about as the result of a re-org. And it's happened again.
It's time to "Stop, breathe, and think." That's good advice for all of us.
12:19:49 PM 
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Living Today: Issues of modern living. Over an adult's working life, high school graduates can expect, on average, to earn $1.2 million; those with a bachelor's degree, $2.1 million; and people with a master's degree, $2.5 million, according to the U.S. Commerce Department's Census Bureau. [UPI - Life & Mind Desk]
The salary figures really depend on what area your get your degree in. I have a BS in Computer Science. My wife has a Ph.D in Church history. I have 4 years of post-secondary education. She has 12 years. Unless her books make lots of money, her salary potential will never reach mine.
12:13:03 PM
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Evil genius: Matt Kingston has set up his TiVo to display a list of recently updated weblogs. [Workbench]
This is absolutely sick. In a good way but still sick. I love my TiVo and wouldn't part with it. I'd love to hack it to do more but I'm afraid that my wife would kill me if I killed the TiVo. Maybe it's time I get a second one ;-)
12:05:20 PM
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Emile Coue. "Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better." [Quotes of the Day]
Yup. That's me. I'm coming out of a very depressing time and it feels good.
11:59:05 AM
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I'm at O'Reilly's Open Source Convention this week and it's been a life saver for me. I'm burned out and discouraged but this has been a very refreshing experience. Why? Because I get to learn about lots of new things and for me there's nothing better to get my battery going again.
This morning, I got to listen to a keynote by Lawrence Lessig and he challenged us to do something to prevent the further erosion of our rights. "What have you done?" was his mantra. I've got to admit, I've done nothing about copyright encroachments because I've never really viewed it as an issue for me. I don't use P2P services to steal MP3's, books and movies. I think that it's wrong to do so. Not to say that I haven't been tempted but, I've resisted so far. I don't believe that either side of the spectrum is correct. The DMCA and other efforts by the music and movie industries are just as contemptable as the actions of those who steal content.
All the same, the attempts by the US government to further erode our rights and give more power to copyright holders must be stopped. Lessig pointed out that the terms of copyrights have been extended over the past 40 years from the original 14 years (back in the late 1700's) to the current life + 75 years. Coincidently, Disney has been one of the major beneficiaries of this to further extend the protection of Mickey Mouse. And they are at the center of the current fight to extend copyright holders powers to include the ability to reach into your computer to remove copyrighted material and to possibly damage your computer. Yikes! That's scary. Disney, back in the 1920's, 'stole' the concept of the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, Steam Boat Willie, from the movie Steam Boat Bill, Jr. And they've continued to 'steal' ideas from stories in the public domain like the Brother's Grimm.
I don't know how to respond to these issues. I'm torn between liking the content (including Disney movies and CD's), wanting to adequately compensate artists and prevent the further erosion of our rights. My leanings at this moment go towards protecting and compensating artists. What's a rational way to do that? I don't know.
11:42:10 AM
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© Copyright 2002 Paul Leclerc.
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