Tag: opinion

We are Free! Free, I tell you!

2009-01-07 rolfje 2 Comments

Regular readers know that I’ve been ranting about the way the music and movie industry are selling us crippled content, which actually feels like punishing you for honestly buying your digital content. Coincidentally, a month after that rant, Steve wrote a mail to the music industry in which he stated that DRM clearly was not working, and we needed to approach things differently.

A few months later, Apple and EMI actually started a new service in iTunes called iTunes plus, selling 256kbps DRM-free AAC files. If you’ve seen the latest Macworld 2009 Keynote Address by Philip (Phil) Schiller, you will have noticed that Apple hasn’t been sitting still. At the end of this quarter, all songs in the iTunes store will be available as DRM-free iTunes plus version. And there’s an easy button in iTunes which let’s you upgrade all your DRM-ed music automatically (payed, ofcourse). The link is in the iTunes Quick Links box, top right. I tried it, works fine.

Finally, your music will travel with you and play anywhere, just like those trusty CD’s did. Even better: with your iPhone you’re now able to buy music anywhere you are, because Apple has added 3G to the iTunes store on the iPhone.

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Micro Victories

2008-12-11 rolfje 1 Comment

Trophy The last few weeks I was frustrated about not being able to write any code for the project I am on at work. My days are filled with email, spreadsheets, documents, discussions and distractions. All important stuff, I’m sure, but none of it has got to do with actual coding.

I tried to write code during the evenings for that project, just to get my kicks. Two things happened:

Frustration grew, because I feel that this is the kind of work I should be doing during the day.
As I worked the late night hours, I realized I could never get it all done because the blocks of work were simply to large and required too much research to be done during a few evenings.

Brilliant TV

2008-12-08 rolfje No Comments

People who know me know that I’m not a big fan of commercial TV. It hasn’t got any depth, it usually underproduced, overmarketed and makes an insulting assumption on the viewer’s intelligence. (Wow, all in one sentence 🙂 )

So I usually get my information elsewhere. Most of the stuff I find interesting is provided through RSS feeds. Some of it is made available through audio podcasts, which is brilliant when commuting. As for video, youtube looked promising, but the messy interface and sheer overload of people making silly movies with their mobile phones has made it hard for me to find actual interesting video there. The rating system with YouTube did improve the past week, but it’s still hard to find stuff that interests me.

Enter the TED talks. These are brilliant video’s mostly of a presentation, or sometimes music. But generally, the TED talks are just that tiny bit more interesting than TV, without commercials, and with real contents.

Just now I finished watching Mena Trott’s entertaining presentation on how blogs are building a friendlier world. The TED.com site is really clean, easy to browse and contains tons of video’s about remarkable people with very interesting stories to tell. If my TV died, the only way I’d notice is when I switch on my PS3 to play a video game.

Fun

Monkeys: How to get rich.

2008-11-23 rolfje No Comments

I recently got an email with a brilliant little fairytale about how to trick people into happily giving you all their money. I wanted to share with you, but it was in Dutch, and the origin was cleary not the original author.

Today I was rummaging around the internet to see if I could find the original author, and I did. I found out that the Dutch story was freely translated from an English source. Here’s the original story from that English source, unaltered (and with reference):

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Fun

Design by Management

2008-10-29 rolfje 6 Comments

A lot of great ideas start in the heads of creative minds. Unbound by budgets, planning, and customers, these ideas are passed around, and some of them turn into projects.

As soon as companies and managers get involved in realizing great ideas which are not really theirs, things can go very wrong. The least that can happen is that something isn’t built. Tomtom on an iPhone? A brilliant idea and technically possible, but non-technical people get in the way.

Take their money, then take the pain

2008-10-20 rolfje No Comments

Just to get this out of my system, I’ll tell you what I think of the current crisis in the monetary system. It starts off with a fictional story, and explains why we need to get rid of the monetary system, and why you should have physical gold in your safe.

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Getting a high Google Quality Score.

2008-10-19 rolfje 2 Comments

The past week, I’ve heard some collegues talking about tweaking websites so that they will show up in Google search results. A lot of people actually try to figure out how to “fool” the Google search engine, and actually make a living writing books about it. The strange thing is, that a lot of people want to be the “I feel lucky” link in Google even when the search query hasn’t got anything to do with the content they’re providing.

It’s actually a funny discussion, because this behaviour which “makes use” of the system, actually breaks it. Suppose a lot of people figure out how to get this done. Now, whenever you use Google, your first page of search results will actually contain stuff you’re not looking for. After a few tries, you’ll get tired of this and start using a different search engine.

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Mine are real.

2008-08-27 rolfje 3 Comments

As Seth Godin pointed out, “Organizations will work tirelessly to de-personalize every communication medium they encounter.”

Just to let you know, all my mail is hand typed, including the “Kind Regards” and my name at the end. You may find it silly, but I think it shows that you care. I always think about my greetings, and I even try to vary them every now and then. Having a default greeting underneath every mail, wether the content of that mail requires it or not is just plain silly.

Almost just as silly as the disclaimers people put in the mail, thinking that it has any legal value, or even thinking somebody actually reads those.

Next time you receive a mail from me, keep in mind that my greetings are actual, meaningful, honest greetings, personally written from me to you. You may have noticed that I am never “yours”, because then I would be “truly” lying.

And yes, it als gives me an opportunity to leave them out, or tone them down. You’re allowed to check your mail now. Go and feel special.

Fun

Anything you say…

2008-08-14 rolfje No Comments

…can and will be used against you.

I got an email with a great link to a blog post containing 2 links to great presentations on why you should never talk to the police, even if you’re honest, or want to help, or have an alibi, or whatever. Never, ever answer any questions, no matter how trivial. Although this is an American presentation, it definetely applies to a great extend on Dutch and probably a whole lot of other European laws aswel.

Thanks to Pim for sending me this link. I really enjoyed the talk by Professor James Duane, he is a great presenter and a very articulate speaker. I’m jealous of the people in his class, it must be one good teacher.

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Censorship: here to stay

2008-08-12 rolfje No Comments

For those of you who think that media and information are free and uncontroled, guess again. Lately I have been seeing more and more incidents of large corporations hiding information, and even telling other people to hide it for them. I think this is plain wrong, and the guys involved should have been fired or punished otherwise.

If you have information which is of interest to the public, and somebody is making you sign a paper with which he can force you to shut up, you should think twice (and then not do it). Not because of the money, not because of the information itself, but for the sheer principle. Information should not be controled in that way. By anyone. It is dangerous.

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Apple, Microsoft