I stopped by the Apple Store today to take a second gander at the new iMac… You know what? It’s still ugly… The iPod is sexy, though.
All I hear, from all directions outside of my apartment is cheering…. I can’t hear anything else… When the screaming near me subsides on occasion, you can still hear cheering in the distance…. That’s pretty cool…
I don’t really think that much of football, but it is nice to hear so many happy people, even if it is somewhat artificial… :)
Update: Now the fireworks and airhorns have begun….
This year’s halftime show was so much better than last year’s… Thank god for U2…. Thank god for powerful speakers… :)
Sometimes I feel unfulfilled… My job certainly is fun, and I am learning a ton, but sometimes I feel that everything outside of my job is kind of hollow… I think I need to find more…. more people, more activities, more love… I seem to have this uncanny knack to combine indecision, trepidation, and callous dickhead in ways heretofore unheard of in man. I know that I am picky and I know that my ideals are set pretty high, but I am also certain that those ideals are achievable…
There is a vacancy…. This space for rent….
I made Snickerdoodles for the first time tonight, and they came out awesome… A really easy cookie to make that tastes great. I have started a “recipes” section of my web pages so I can point people at recipes that I like…
Ars Technica pointed me at this article by a developer at Ambrosia Software about people pirating their shareware, and the measures that they have used to try and deter this piracy… Even though the people at Ambrosia were Mac-Elitist-Dickheads a few years ago when we were both presenting at RIT’s IT Expo, and I was initially hesitant to even give their article the time of day, I decided to give it a go…
The article was what I predicted: Lots of people who use shareware don’t pay for it. Now for the past few years I have been moving away from using pirated software; either paying for the software I use, or choosing to use free software when it “did the job”. I never really sat down and audited my machine to see how I was doing in this endeavor, but this article prompted me to do so.
So as of this morning, I scoured my drive and came up with 3 pieces of software that I felt were in questionable use:
I shall address each of these separately:
Adobe Photoshop 6.0 - For years I have used Photoshop illegally, somehow convincing myself that I was justtified; that I would never pay \$300 for a piece of software that I used once a month at most. And this was true, there was no chance that I would ever buy Photoshop, unless I got some obcene deal on it that included future upgrades for around \$100. Knowing Adobe’s corporate policy, I knew that this would never happen… This morning, however, my perspective changed a bit… See, now that I have a digital camera, I forsee myself needing the services of an Image Editing application more often. But I still don’t intend to buy Photoshop, so I had a decision to make; Keep using the software illegally, or move on to cheaper pastures.
I hate The Gimp’s UI (I mean hate), but functionally I feel that it fills my needs for an Image Editing app. Compounded with the fact that it doesn’t cost any money the decision was rather easy for me to make. This morning, I uninstalled Photoshop and replaced it with The Gimp. I am sure that it will take me awhile to get used to using a new application, as I have been using Photoshop since v3.0, but I figure this is a small sacrifice to make to feel good about my computer’s legality.
Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 - This one’s easy: I only really use VC++ for work-related development, and we have enough licenses to go around at work for me to “bring one home”. While I do use the suite for non-work tasks from time to time, I really don’t see this as a license violation. A license is a license, and I don’t believe that I am violating that license in any way. If I compilied non-work stuff at work, I wouldn’t be in violation of the VC++ license (although I could be violating corporate policy, but that’s a different story).
That all said, the installed version of VC++ is from a burned CD that I copied from a former employer, using that former employers license key. But I feel that this argument is a weak one, since I DO have a valid license key that I can legitimately use. If push came to shove, I could uninstall/reinstall and any of my minor qualms would disappear. I don’t think that the work of uninstalling, reinstalling, and then applying the service packs just to remove a minor license quibble is worth it…
BeOS 5.1d0 - Another easy one: I installed this leaked internal version of BeOS to check it out. Having checked it out, I have come to the conclusion that while it does look cool, it is kind of a pain in the ass to use. In fact, I got so frustrated trying to make AliveJournal work the other night that I contemplated getting rid of ALL of my BeOS partitions… I still haven’t fully resolved those thoughts, and I still may turn away from Be before too long… It was a fun ride, but I don’t want to be an Amiga user.
Regardless of what route I decide to go, I don’t see myself keeping “Dano” around for much longer…
So there you have it.. After auditing my software I have wrangled my machine into a legal state I feel comfortable with, and I really didn’t lose anything along the way (nor did it take me much more than 15 minutes to do so). I have valid licenses for my OSes and valid licenses for my software (much of which was purchased as shareware, like WinRAR, DVD Profiler, PC-Cillin Anti-virus, etc). I think that as I work as a commercial software developer for the first time in my life, I really have a bit more of a tangible grasp about how software piracy affects the industry… Perhaps that is why I am a bit more sensitive towards my machine being “clean”… Regardless of my motives, however, I am glad to know that even yesterday I was using a fairly clean machine…
I can’t explain how pleased I am that Dennis Miller Live is finally back….
I took some pictures around the office with my new camera: Adam Adam - Huh Carlos - Slinkyvision Developer Posse (From left: Carlos, Mario, and Omar) Office - MagnetHead Office - View 1 Office - View 2 Office - View 3 Office - View 4 Office - View 5 Office - View 6
My camera is here!!!!
not only sent me the camera, but some Christmas Presents that weren’t delivered on time in the first place!!! I now have the latest Elastica CD and the book Physics for Game Developers. She rules…
Off to take pictures!