July 2005 Archives

Yes, it official. I have decided to embark on the journey that is called Getting Things Done.

Phase 1

Buy the book, Getting Things Done

Phase 2

Read the book. Some parts need to be read more than once. I may end up re-reading whole chapters in the future to make sure I'm not screwing it all up.

Phase 3

Unfortunately it will not be profit. Phase 3 for me will involve putting the practices which I've read about into play. This will be the hardest part because it is meant to not be a piecemeal activity. It is designed to be a high barrier to entry because the system, according to the author, only works if you get wholly invested in using it. If you only do a little bit, it will very quickly become ineffective and thus useless.

The good news is that you can do the prep work for getting invested on little chunks and that's what I'm doing right now. I spent time yesterday buying supplies and making my 43 folders. With that kind of stupid stuff out of the way, hopefully it will be easier to set aside the 8 hours or whatever it takes to get into the system.

Phase 4

Once I'm in the system, I need to remember not to push it on other people. This kind of system is pretty intense and it needs to be something people take up on their own.

So, that's the plan. It will be interesting to see if I can hang with it. My track record on things like this isn't good -- but after reading the book (well, I'm almost done) I think I see why I haven't been very good at sticking with previous systems and it's all in Phase 3 above.

I recently got a FlickrMail from a random person, who lives in The Netherlands, letting me know that he had used one of my photos on Flickr for his latest netlabel release cover. Now, while it's not like I just did the cover the next Pixies CD, I still think it's pretty cool. As icing on the cake, the music is pretty cool too.

But let's take a peek at a few points with regard to copyright. That photo is licensed with by-nc, which means that when using the work, credit for the original work goes to me (which they link back to my flickr account, which is perfect) and they can't sell the work for profit, which they aren't. All of that was possible because of the license. I gave away certain right, with strict conditions, and it was all done with out any communication until it was all over and released. This is exactly why I wanted my photos licensed like this. I still reserve the right to be the only one to make money off that photo. I still reserve the right to have my name associated with the work. For me it comes does to this, if you aren't making money off my work I really don't give a damn as long as you tell people it was my work.

Case closed. Next!

I can be found online in lots of places. On Yahoo 360°, I'm pberry.

Favorites sponsored by the wish for a Nikon D50

[Note: I was webmaster for EFF when Creative Commons launched and Lawrence Lessig is on the board of EFF...so yeah, I'm biased towards Creative Commons]

John Dvorak makes his living by writing columns that attempt to stir up the pot to get more traffic to PC Magazine's ad-laden website. His current column, to which I will not link for fear that you will hold me responsible for descreasing your IQ just by reading it, is a classic example of his "style."

Creative Commons is his target. It's taken John almost three years to come to the opinion that it's "eye-rolling dumb."

Wow.

He even went so far as to ask "the critics", and by "critics" we mean Andrew Orlowski (who is himself the John Dvorak of The Register), about how lame CC was. Amazingly enough, Andrew did think CC wasn't that great. Again, wow.

The rest of the article is just as inane and full of misrepresentations of not only CC but Copyright law itself. You would think somebody who makes money off their own copyrighted work would understand a bit more about the system. Apparently not.

He closes with, "Will this nonsense ever end?" John, I ask myself that very question every single time I hear about one of your articles.

"Some rights reserved" versus "All right reserved." It's really not that difficult. Seriously. Even I can understand it.

Related Links:

• About Creative Commons
• Fair Use
• Learn More about Creative Commons

A Colorado congressman told a radio show host that the U.S. could "take out" Islamic holy sites if Muslim fundamentalist terrorists attacked the country with nuclear weapons.

Fox News

Collective punishment is a term describing the punishment of a group of people for the crime of a few or even of one. It is contradictory to the modern concept of due process, where each individual receives separate treatment based on their individual circumstances -- as they relate to the crime in question.

Collective Punishment
Wikipedia

Dean went to Utah and told the reddest of red states about our stance on abortion.

"I'm tired of Republicans telling us we're pro-abortion. I served on the board of Planned Parenthood for five years. I don't know anybody who's pro-abortion," he said. "Most people in this country would like to see the abortion rate go down. That includes Democrats and Republicans. The difference between the parties is that we believe a woman makes that decision about her health care -- and they believe Tom Delay makes it."

I wonder if he also hammered home the point that studies are showing the abortion rate has gone up under Bush.

Wherein I, perhaps foolishly, ding a recent mac convert for drinking too much Kool-Aid.

Today's Dilbert reminds me of more than one person...

Using Woodstock's wi-fi and AC edition.

I admin about 4 linux boxes at work. I use them because I do a lot of web development and a RedHat install is pretty much out-of-the-box ready for LAMP projects. I spent a whopping hour getting Ruby on Rails up and running on two of the RHEL boxes. Another nice thing is that this type of install makes it easy to use off the shelf LAMP products, specifically phpMyAdmin, which I have to say has come a long way in terms of usefulness (to me at least).

Now, like a lot of people who don't have a lot of time, I tend to install things according to the INSTALL or README document that come with the package. This also means I'm more vulnerable to attack if a problem is discovered in one of these apps that I have installed. So, in addition to making sure that I keep up-to-date one security releases for the packages I have installed, I also install them in non-documented directories.

Now, I know this isn't "security" per se, but it is another step that you can take to not be an easy target for canned attacks (or nessus scans). This incredibly obvious "tip" is sponsored by a large iced mocha.

From a friend I consider a libertarian (in a good way not in the "Hey look how insane I am! I give guns and cigs to kids in the name of phreeeeeeeeedom" way):

Arguing with a Republican is like arguing with a high-output Straw Man factory.

I knew I shouldn't have sent him that redstate.org link...

I just want to begin by saying to Roosevelt E. Roosevelt, what it is, what it shall be, what it was. The weather out there today is hot and shitty with continued hot and shitty in the afternoon. Tomorrow a chance of continued crappy with a pissy weather front coming down from the north. Basically, it's hotter than a snake's ass in a wagon rut.

Adrian Cronauer imitating Walter Cronkite
Good Morning Vietnam

So, I use del.icio.us. It is good. You should use it. You should use the new for tag to "send" me links. If you use del.icio.us just use the tag for:pberry and it will show up in a special private feed.

One damages national security and one holds tasty beverages. I post, you decide....

I hate rubbernecking. But this crash it just too utterly spectacular not to gawk at.

dKos dug up statements from the previous RNC Chainman, Ed Gillespie, saying that this scandal, if true, would be worse than Watergate. Of course, that was way back in 2003. Today Oliver Willis posted a bit from Fox News where John Gibson said Rover should get a medal for something "worse than Watergate."

I mean, come on! How awesome is that? Pretty awesome, I'll tell you that much. Fox News says that if you disagree with the president in a "time of war" then you suck, and you're a traitor, and you're blaming America first, and you want to mouth kiss bin Laden. Now Bush is on record as saying he would fire the son of a bitch who leaked this info and John Gibson is saying said son of a bitch needs a medal.

So the question to you, John Gibson, is why do you want to mouth kiss bid Laden?

I decided to go through and get enough favorites of sunsets to get a favorites square.

I'm not sure what I was expecting -- but this isn't it.

• At White House, a Day of Silence on Rove's Role in C.I.A. Leak
• Bush Aide Deflects Questions On Rove
• White House Won't Comment on Rove, Leak
• Rove Told Reporter of Plame's Role But Didn't Name Her, Attorney Says
• Dems call for action against Rove after leak report
• White House Leaks: A serious security matter
• White House silent as political firestorm erupts around Rove
• Report Links Rove to Early Plame Leak

...and the beat goes on. But screw just firing Rove...perhaps it's time for President Bush to step down.

Wow. People still make the argument that education isn't something to be financed publicly despite the huge benefits it brings.

Who wants to watch video on a screen that is less than 2"×2"? Can you imagine watching Lord of the Rings on an iPod? Does it feel entertaining?

Could Karl Rove being any more dangerous if he tried?

My work PC just told me it was time to install SP2. Now before you ask why it wasn't installed ages ago, it's centrally managed. Lets just leave it at that shall we?

The liberal media is still searching for a defining moment for Bush.

Nomination Could Be Defining Moment for Bush

I thought Sept 11, no the war in Iraq, no Social Security -- weren't all of these supposed to be his "moment?" He's fallen down on all of them and yet they still search in vain for the time when he wont fall down.

Cc: Atrios