Cody Jackson’s Techdirt Profile
|
|
About Cody Jackson
I'm currently at my 12 year mark in the US Navy. I worked as a nuclear chemist, radcon technician, and nuclear mechanic on submarines before I was medically disqualified; now I work as an IT technician.
Prior to the Navy I worked at Gateway computers as a Senior Lab Technician, providing customer support for issues that couldn't be resolved by the phone support technicians.
I've spent 13+ years in the IT field performing technical support, training, programming, and advice. My supervisors have considered my strongest abilities to be my technical competence and my ability to discuss topics with people at a level they are comfortable with.
I have an AAS in Electromechanical Technology, BS in Computer Engineering Technology, and an MS in IT Management.
|
Cody Jackson’s Written Stories.
RSS
Twitter
Happened to me (as Cody Jackson)
I used to work at a large computer manufacturer back in the mid 90s. I saw a post on the alt.computers newsgroup regarding my company and how the poster wasn't able to get a replacement computer from the company to fix the problem he was having.
I posted on there (anonymously of course), explaining how the company determined determined who would get a new computer and what the circumstances were.
Unfortunately, the company noticed my post and traced it back to me. I admitted that I posted it, thinking the worst that would happen is I would be forbidden from posting to that newsgroup in the future.
However, supposedly I caused irreparable harm to the company. It was claimed that I cost the company millions of dollars because now "everyone knew the secret to getting free computers". Except that I didn't post anything that someone who had gone through the process didn't already know, and the fact that there still had to be a lot of justification for a replacement computer. It's not like the customer hadn't already paid for it.
Long story short, I was fired based on a bogus claim. I know this because months later I found out from a person in the company that my post was on the servers for less than 14 hours and no one had accessed it during that time. Plus, my manager framed me to cover his own criminal activities within the company and he was sleeping w/ the HR representative who was supposed to be helping me.
I am not surprised that AA fired this guy for stating the truth. Companies don't want their "secrets" getting out, regardless of whether or not they are truly secret. Companies continue to present the faceless empire facade to the public, refusing to have any indications that human beings are responsible for their activities.
That's why these companies are in financial crisis. Customers are willing to deal w/ their crap anymore.
Re: Re: GPL somewhat mitigates this (as Cody Jackson)
Well, I can only say that I considered both CC and GFDL licensing for my programming book when I wrote it. I ended up using the FDL because there were a lot of choices under CC and some of the nuances were difficult to figure out.
CC has streamlined things somewhat but I still think the FDL has its place; it ensures that any changes made are given back to the community, much like the GPL.
Too many licenses can be overwhelming and therefore a bad thing. But the fact that there are so many choices means people are more likely to pick one that doesn't limit other people from using an item to their benefit.
GPL somewhat mitigates this (as Cody Jackson)
The GPL published by the Free Software Foundation was designed to handle this. In the belief that information should be free, the GPL gives several rights to the creator and user of software:
There is also the GFDL (GNU Free Document License) for books, manuals, and other writings. The FSF has a list of free and non-free licenses for those interested in deciding how to license their work, including such "weird" things as font licensing, editorials, and opinions.
Much like Creative Commons, the GPL and GFDL encourage the free sharing of information and knowledge while preventing someone from co-opting the info for himself. However, the FSF recommends not using CC for some works because of ambiguity due to the many different CC licenses.
That being said, there is obviously a big difference between morality and legality. What is moral may not be legal and vice versa. For the most part, people have to follow their own compass. Are you going to do the right thing or the legal thing? Ideally, laws and morality would mesh but that won't always happen, especially when money and power come into play.
Blocking sites is a pain (as Cody Jackson)
I absolutely hate it when sites are regionally blocked. I was deployed to Iraq but couldn't watch Hulu or other sites because of the blocking. The only way I could watch shows was to download them via bittorrent or other "illegal" method. Though, I don't think Iraq had laws against it at the time, so maybe I wasn't really being illegal.
All these sites do is minimum the number of viewers they get, hence reduce the number of potential customers and ad viewers. Cross-border copyright restrictions are simply stupid, but I realize that companies must protect their intellectual property at all costs.
On another note, YouTube just isn't the best for watching videos. I haven't looked in a while, but the last few times I tried to watch something on there, the video was so horribly compressed as to be essentially unwatchable. Are the "professional" videos better or do they suffer from the compression/bandwidth issues too?
Great idea (as Cody Jackson)
This is a really interesting idea. The newspaper can make use of volunteers to reduce costs, people get a closer look at "making the news", kids may get interested in journalism, and the paper can find out about stories it might not have heard about otherwise.
Sounds like a win-win for everyone.
I've been boycotting Sony for 5 years (as Cody Jackson)
The last thing I recall buying with the Sony name on it was a PS2. (I don't count Sony movies since they own so many different studios).
The last straw for me was MiniDiscs. I was a big user of MDs, with more than 80 discs in my collection. I used them to copy all of my CDs so I could sell the CDs; no since taking up space since I move so often.
I posted my encounter with Sony customer service to a forum after it happened. In a nutshell, my request was to open up their MDs to upload back to computers and use other operating systems; they considered it a tech support issue and kept sending me what was effectively a form letter saying my problem was a tech support issue.
That's when I realized Sony doesn't care about their customers, just the money. Then, they had the rootkit fiasco and the DRM-encumbered Blue-Ray tech and it just reinforced the fact that Sony doesn't care about customer service.
There are too many other companies that want my money and make as good, if not better, items for me to bother with Sony.
If you're disgruntled, why go to the game? (as Cody Jackson)
I don't understand. If the fans are disgruntled and upset about what the team/owner is doing, then why do they continue to go to the games?
The team isn't going to do anything different as long as they are getting money. If the fans keep giving them money, there is no incentive to change.
Re: Incremental costs (as Cody Jackson)
Just wanted to say that your site is almost exactly what I have been looking for to publish my ebook. It's simple, easy, and free. I'm looking forward to uploading my book (and future writings) to your site.
Re: Why is digital printing so expensive? (as Cody Jackson)
Sorry. I was thinking of how I read ebooks on my computer. The vast majority of them are PDF, which is just fine for large screens.
For the pocket sized ereaders, e.g. Kindle, iPhone, etc, I realize that a different format than PDF is better. But still, digital conversion shouldn't be that difficult.
Pick a standard and go with it.
Why is digital printing so expensive? (as Cody Jackson)
Seriously, it's digital. Conversion software shouldn't be that difficult to work with, unless you're fighting with XML schemas.
When I wrote my ebook, I used LaTeX to convert it to PDF. However, I can also export it to HTML, DOC, RTF, etc. With the tools available from other places, e.g. Stanza, it's nothing to convert most formats to one of the "ebook standards". (Why we need so many ebook standards when PDF should be fine, I don't know).
So, it sounds like the publishing industry is artificially making things difficult for themselves, or they are just incompetent. Granted, I'm not in the industry and don't know the details but I do know computers and programming. From what I know, it shouldn't be as difficult as they make it out to be.
Re: So would it work? (as Cody Jackson)
In general, it would be a good idea. There are many times when I am not near a WiFi spot or otherwise would prefer to have a non-electric reading device. Having current articles to read would be nice.
However, I also like to read the comments on web sites. If an on-demand paper could incorporate these, allowing a reader to read the comments then when at a computer later to post a follow up comment, that would be another useful addition.
Re: I don't bitch that I'm not paid for my book (as Cody Jackson)
Clarification: I didn't mean to imply that libraries need to be paying the authors directly every time the book is checked out.
When the libraries purchase their books, obviously the publisher gets the money and then doles it out to the author. Whatever the author's contract states is what he is paid; no "double dipping" by having extra cash every time someone borrows a book.
I believe libraries have the same sort of contracts as movie rental stores: they pay a different price vs. standard retail, usually more to compensate for the payback in rentals. Hence, I suspect authors actually get a larger paycheck when libraries buy their books.
Re: Re: Re: I don't bitch that I'm not paid for my book (as Cody Jackson)
Thanks for the catch. I guess I was typing too fast. :)
I don't bitch that I'm not paid for my book (as Cody Jackson)
I wrote a book last year and, though it would be nice to make money off it, I haven't. Because the book is about programming, the market is pretty saturated. When I contacted a publisher about printing it, I was told there just wasn't a market for an intro to programming book like mine. This is after I spent 9+ months researching, writing, and creating code examples.
So, I self-published it online as a free ebook, even putting it on The Pirate Bay and Mininova as a torrent. It's been downloaded more than 6000 times and I have received no money from it. Naturally it would be nice to make some money but I feel it's more important to share the knowledge and give back to the Internet community where I learned to program in the first place.
Maybe when I revise the book I will set up some way to make it financially beneficial to me. But, I certainly don't think people are stealing from me; I borrowed plenty of ideas from other programming books and web sites.
And that's where Mr. Edwards runs into a vicious cycle: in his world, would I be responsible for paying the authors of my research data, especially web sites? Obviously any library books should be providing a cut to the authors but what about all the "free" tutorials on the web? I would suspect that Mr. Edwards feels that ad-supported sites aren't enough and anyone that gained knowledge from a site should chip in with a donation, just to ensure the author can make a living.
I wrote my book on my own time; I have a "real" job in the military. As a matter of fact, I wrote my book while deployed to Iraq; I didn't have a nice, cozy little house to stay in while writing. It may not be a professional book with paid copy editors, but it was a work of love, if you will, not greed.
It would be nice to be paid to spend just a couple hours a day writing and then do whatever I wanted for the rest of the time, because that's exactly what I did while writing my book. I'm not a professional but there is simply no way someone can spend a full work-day writing. In reality, Mr. Edwards probably made $40000 for 4-6 hours a day of work for 6 months. Not that bad.
Simply put, I feel no sympathy for these so-called "struggling artists". If you aren't making enough money, then get a real job and write in your spare time. I did, in a war zone even, so it can be done.
Re: Re: Types of news also (as Cody Jackson)
ESPN makes a killing on sports related topics, both on TV, Internet, and even print. It has a niche market and can capitalize on it.
I believe that is the "secret" to making money for newspapers. Find a niche and fill it well. General news is not money making, especially with the many outlets to getting "standard" news. Most news outlets simply carry AP feeds, which can be found nearly anywhere, especially online.
Personally, I haven't picked up a newspaper for years. There's simply no reason too, except for convenience when I'm not near a computer or WiFi point. Normally, for general news info, I just turn on my Wii and look at the News Channel.
However, I have no interest in sports and most business news. In many papers, that's 1/3 to 1/2 of the paper. Local sections sometimes have useful info, but frequently it seems to be filler.
I am interested in technology and science, which is very under-covered with traditional media. Hence, most of my news interests have to filled online.
Ergo, as the parent stated, specific data are more of a marketable idea than general news. Heck, I can go to the BBC and get better news coverage than I can w/ most American media, so newspapers have already lost the battle for general news. They simply don't offer anything that can't be found elsewhere; charging for it will only make it worse.
Re: Re: Dumb Pigs (as Cody Jackson)
Or they could realize that legislating morality is as effective as legislating stupidity and eliminate vice squads.
By and large, prostitution is not a bad crime. Illegal prostitution is much, much worse than legalized prostitution. Legal prostitutes have to have regular medical checkups, have to practice safe sex (no paying extra to go condom-less), and the prostitutes are protected, legally and physically, from abuse and assault. Plus, the state can tax their income.
Illegal prostitution avoids all of that. Many of the women are regularly beat up, raped, or otherwise assaulted, but they can't go to the cops because then they will be busted for prostitution or told they "got what they deserved". STDs are much more likely because they can earn more if they don't practice safe sex. And illegal prostitution is also the realm of sex slaves and human trafficking.
Sex is a natural function. Humans are just different from other animals in that we can enjoy sex at any time because we don't have a "heat cycle". There is nothing sinful about it; that's just an artificial idea put to it by religion to control people.
If you think about it, if man was made in God's image (as claimed by the Bible), then the human sex drive is divinely given. Not having sex would be an affront to God, since He made us different from other animals. Heck, up until the late Roman times, and in some cases even later, there were temple prostitutes working for religious purposes. So it's not like there's a very valid reason for it to be illegal.
Re: Re: (as Cody Jackson)
I don't know about nowadays, but back in the early 90s renting CDs was fairly easy in Japan. That's why MiniDiscs were so popular; people could rent CDs and copy them to MDs. It was nearly impossible to find a "pressed" music MD.
One thing I'd like to know though: how much illegal infringement occurs via mobile phones? And as others have asked, how can a DB know which songs are legal or not?
Re: (as Cody Jackson)
My thoughts exactly. Can't stop the analog recorders.
Re: How many times have we heard about brown M&Ms? (as Cody Jackson)
Yes, the real story is very interesting. Especially when read in context of a concert. If someone hasn't taken the time to actually read the contract, as evidenced by the M&Ms, then they obviously can't be trusted to have paid attention to details.
This is an extremely clever idea to ease the burden of double-checking people. If they took care of the M&Ms, then you can have a reasonable expectation that they took care of other details. If not, then you better start looking over their shoulder, quick.
Re: (as Cody Jackson)
You're not the only one. I haven't listened to radio for years, mostly since Clear Channel started buying nearly every station in America. I couldn't tell you anything about current music trends, except hip-hop is now so mainstream that it's disgusting.