obfuscated.org

John Scalzi has a very pragmatic stance regarding pirated electronic copies of his books.

Yes, I am aware that pirated versions of my books are floating around on the Internet; in one sense it’s flattering (yay! I’m popular enough to be pirated!), but on the other hand I can’t guarantee that what you’re reading is what I wrote; honestly, who knows what those crazy pirates are up to these days. If you find yourself in the presence of a pirated electronic copy of one of my books and are having a crisis of morality about it, relax. Read it if you want; if it works for you, consider picking up a physical copy later. Simple. If you’re one of those hardcore “I want to pay you but I won’t buy anything but e-books” sort of people and you come across a pirated copy, go ahead and read it, and if you like it, consider picking up a physical copy and giving it to one of your friends who still does all his or her reading old school. Again, simple enough.

This makes so much more sense than the “WE WILL SUE AND KILL EVERYBODY WHO EVEN THINKS ABOUT A PIRATED COPY OF OUR IP” that we get out of the RIAA and MPAA. Well done, Scalzi.

I mean, I know the answer: so they can get you to click through to the page and look at some banner ads. But seriously. Does that really fit in with what they’re trying to do with things like Pipes?

In related news Fake Steve went back to full feeds, so there is some justice in the universe.

The music program at The Kid’s school covers music history, from time to time focusing on particular artists. I’ve so far been astounded by the selection of artists. The Kid will come home and tell us that his class learned about Ray Charles or Duke Ellington. We never got much past Mancini when I was in fourth grade.

This last week his class studied Stevie Wonder. Which, again: Damn. His school’s music teacher is great. It also reminded me of perhaps the best children’s television moment of all times. So hooray for schools with music programs, and hooray for Sesame Street.

So Jill mentions a blog that from time to time posts weekend things to do with the family. This is braggable. I’m always looking out for that sort of thing.

However, the site doesn’t seem to have per-category RSS feeds. (That, or I’m just too lazy to find them.) I’d like to read about things to do, but the main content of the blog — wireless technology — is something that I have a real hard time getting in to. This struck me as a fine opportunity to give Y!Pipes a go.

Man was it easy. Enter the URL in to a box that sounds like it will pull the data down and up pops a debugger to tell me what it’s found. There’s a handily-named “filter” box that will do what you expect. Drag the little bits from one box to the next — the “what does the pipe produce now” debugging output always current — and you’re done.

I usually can’t say enough snarky things about my former employer, but I have to give them credit here. Pipes really is cool, very well implemented and stunningly easy to use. This is easily the most well-executed Web 2.0 “version one” that I’ve ever used. Kudos, Yahoo.

Dear software developers everywhere,

If your code is in a version control system, you can go ahead and delete those old bits of code that you would comment out otherwise. I’m talking about things like this:

// BUFFER_SIZE = 1024;
// BUFFER_SIZE = 2048;
// BUFFER_SIZE = 4096;
BUFFER_SIZE = 8192;

That’s what version control is for.

Good day.

Speaking Freely lists five things you can do with your computer when the tubes are down. I present here a simplified list.

1. Put the computer down and read a book.

Boston’s 9/11-inspired war on cartoons just keeps getting better and better:

In a news conference, Rich told reporters he had advised his clients not to discuss the incident. Stevens and Berdovsky took the podium and said they were taking questions only about haircuts in the 1970s.

When a reporter accused them of not taking the situation seriously, Stevens responded, “We’re taking it very seriously.” Asked another question about the case, Stevens reiterated they were answering questions only about hair and accused the reporter of not taking him and Berdovsky seriously.

Reporters did not relent and as they continued, Berdovsky disregarded their queries, saying, “That’s not a hair question. I’m sorry.”

If there’s anybody who deserves to be made a mockery of, it’s the Boston police department and the media who reported the incident. Good show, Stevens and Berdovsky.