You know you’ve been spending too much time on the internet when you start seeing e-rocks.

Hackers on PBS—excellently done. Microsoft’s vulnerability is a key point in the show. Show stopping security in Windows 2000? The hackers are laughing. E-Commerce needs to sit up and take notice.

Whew! Close one!! I forgot to close a tag properly, and almost blew up my blog. It wouldn’t let me edit the post as I would normally, so I was unable to fix it at first. I had to backtrack from a more current post down about a hundred or so until it picked it up. All fixed now. Maybe I will set up those bookmark macros now.

Apparently lines have been drawn. Just in the wrong place.

Uh-oh, the writing is on the wall.

Ask yourselves this though. Why does the Record Industry own the rights to a recording artists music? Novelists, poets, and the like own the rights to their own works. They can move from publisher to publisher and take their work with them. Publishing a book with one house or another. But if a recording artist leaves a record label he is forced to walk away from his former work, and has little or no control over what the record company does with it. He can not take it to a new label and have them release it. Would someone like to explain why? Don’t we have unions for this sort of thing? You would think artists would be banding (excuse the pun) together to finally break free of their servitude. To stand up and say “I own my own work, thank you very much!” But I don’t see much of that happening.

What I do see that’s hard to believe, is the foolish posturing, and pressure tactics by artists that I would never have guessed would do such a thing. It’s revolution time and no one wants to lead.

Keep Out! No Apple Users Allowed Here by Jim Heid talks about a nasty trend that seems to be working its way through the Web. It seems that it’s becoming less and less of a Mac friendly world out there. And the Mac community is beginning to get upset. Dare I even say worried?

To quote:

“Mac users are accustomed to being treated like second-class citizens by software developers, who tend to give Windows priority because it’s where the big sales numbers are.”

Since when? Funny, it feels like just yesterday (actually it was more like 10 years ago) that Mac users were laughing at the fledgling PC users. I distinctly remember how one-sided the graphics industry was. Things like Photoshop were Mac only. If you didn’t know the Mac platform you were pretty much out of luck trying to get a hold of a decent graphics program for the PC. I even remember Photoshop being released for the PC for the first time. “You use a PC? Are you nuts?!”, is what the PC world heard. And granted, Photoshop for the PC was a pale shadow of the Mac version. Not to mention that the PCs back then didn’t have the horsepower of a Mac either, but it was a start. It took years of therapy to get over being severely traumatized by a gang of Mac users for my PC leanings. I still never got that apology.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not gloating now. I certainly would hate to see an all Microsoft world. And I know how hard it is for software developers out there to make multiple versions of their products for use on different platforms (sound familiar?). I don’t hear too many Linux users crying foul. At least not loudly anyway. I don’t believe many sound card manufacturers have made Linux drivers yet, so that might explain it. But Jim’s article uses words like digital discrimination, and Mac-hostile, albeit to get his point across, but I feel he may have overstated. Should we be referring to the Mac community as PC challenged now? Relax Jim, browsers are almost dead anyway. Come to think of it, isn’t the sky falling?

Please note my love of Mac users, all things Apple, and my high levels of sarcasm and testosterone.

Ok, well, I did it. I bought a digtal camera. It’s not like I don’t already have enough toys, but I have been shopping for a camera anyway. I still intend on getting a good 35mm SLR but this digital gem was just so inviting. What’s one more toy on the junkpile anyway?

I picked up the Nick Drake Box Set over the weekend. Haven’t stopped listening to it since. Now I remember what it is I love about the guitar. Thanks Nick.

The term FUBAR is never more aptly used than when describing NY during a snowstorm. The plows are sitting around doing nothing, no one knows how to drive safely, and what could be a fairly easygoing, if not heightened safety alert of a commute, becomes an episode of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

To recap. I hate snakes!!!! Argh!!!

Sorry. I’m uptight, wet, and tired after my 3 hour commute home. Or should I call it a 3 hour tour? Echoes of Gilligans Island in the distance. A 3 hour tour… Lovey dahling!

It’s being discussed on thousands of blogs around the world. Anger and frustration are being vented everywhere, and gossip runs rampant. People are exiting the stadium as if the game is over. It’s a shame the way brush fires start and can consume an entire forest so rapidly.

There is no need for eulogies. And blame is useless. Are people actually going to sit back and blame Ev for being a poor business man? The only people who have any right to be even partly angry and upset are the employees of Pyra. An employee can expect that his employer will do his best to provide him some semblance of security. Who can say that Ev made poor decisions anyway? But the blogger population getting upset? Sorry that’s simply out of line. You’re living free off of someone else’s labor and generosity. You have no right to expect anything.

Everyone knows how to run a company, but no one owns one of their own. I’ve seen people go off on Pyra because they think they had no business plan. People are upset with Blogger because they are having trouble using the service lately. I’ve seen people complain about leaving Blogger if they don’t get their act together. Try giving back instead of just sitting around complaining.

I’ve taken to helping out as best I can. Which is all any of us can do as we wait and see where the river Blogger takes us. I’ve been answering any questions and helping anyone I can in the Blogger discussion forums. I suggest you all find some small way to help as well. You want to be an online community, start acting like one.