Digg Problems

I actually wrote most of this last night, but I didn’t publish it. I now see that Lahni wrote a very similar post, which is strictly a coincidence.

If you know me well, you know that I love Digg. I am constantly checking Digg throughout the day. I would bet that I spend hours on Digg everyday. I find everything on Digg, from hot news items to hilarious videos/pictures to cool science stuff. Lately, however, Digg and I have been having some problems. Really, it boils down to one thing: the other Diggers. I am so sick of the hypocrisy that runs rampant in the comments. I have found most diggers to be left leaning atheists, which is fine. The problem, however, is that many of these fine souls do not practice what they preach. They love to think that they are open-minded and respectful of others. They aren’t though. Any story that mentions religion is immediately filled with comments that basically say that if you believe in God you are a complete idiot who deserves no respect. They lump anyone who has any believes in God into the same category as the religious zealots. They have become very much like the religious zealots whom they despise so much. They are closed-minded individuals who can’t see past their own beliefs. They are egotistical in their belief of the non-existence of God. They label anyone who does believe an idiot, a sheeple, a nut etc. It really bothers me. I agree that there are some people out there who are religious zealots that are rather extreme, but to lump all religious people together, as the comments on digg frequently do, is unfair and wrong. And if you try to explain that to them, they will quickly point out that they are not trying to convert people and digg you down. However, a lot of the comments are about how people have been fed lies by organized religion and telling them they’re wrong. I’d say that that is the same thing.

On a related note, I really dislike how one-sided digg can be and how quickly allegiances can change. Take for instances the American election. First it was Ron Paul. It seemed like every story was about Ron Paul and everyone loved him. A story that brought up some bad points about Ron Paul was immediately buried. Then, when Ron Paul was no longer in the race, Digg switched to Obama. No story could bash Obama. Anything that bashed Hilary or any Republican (except Ron Paul as I pointed out earlier) during the primaries was dugg straight to the top. No pro-Hilary or pro-McCain/Romney/Huckabee article could do that. After the primaries were over it was the same thing, except it was all against McCain and Palin.

The other thing that bothers me is that, no matter what the story is about, someone will turn it into a political or religious discussion. Not only that, but it will end just as I described above. I mean you could have a picture of a cute puppy and someone would say “Palin will probably shoot it from a helicopter” or “The religious right want to ban puppies too! Watch out!” You get the point.

I think the last verse of the song Angry Mob by the Kaiser Chiefs describes digg very well.

We are the angry mob
We read the papers everyday day
We like who like
We hate who we hate
But we’re also easily swayed

If Only

A Shot in the Dark

Remember that photography site I was thinking about making? Yeah, I made it. It was one of those things that I start and can’t stop until it is finished. It has actually been “done” for about a week now, but there was some stuff that I wanted to fix/update. I decided today that it is good enough for now.

As I am way too lazy to design my own stuff now, I decided to go with 3formed’s Clean Grey. I then used Zenphoto as my photo backend. I didn’t like the way Zenphoto displayed each image on a separate page, so I wrote a theme for Zenphoto using LightboxEx, which is a modified version of Lightbox 2 that includes slideshow functionality.  I am pretty happy with how it turned out. Hopefully, you feel the same.

Check it out at http://www.ashotinthedark.ca

The Poor Radio

This is the story of how I managed to destroy a radio in under 5 seconds. When I say radio, I mean military grade walkie talkie type unit (Motorola XTN XU 2107 to be exact). The tractor I was using was a big John Deere tractor (John Deere 4320). The pull behind mower (Progressive Pro-Flex 120) that is hooked up to it is 10 feet wide and sounds like an airplane and that isn’t an exaggeration. This happened a few weeks back, but I told someone in an email just recently.

Well, what happened was I had my radio sitting in the cup holder on the tractor and I drove in between two trees. One of the trees had a branch the perfect height and length to reach the radio. As the branch went by, it took the radio with it. I didn’t notice until I heard a large clunk come from the mower itself. As I looked back, I noticed that my radio was gone and then realized what had happened. I felt awful. The radio did pretty well, all things considered. It didn’t survive however. It had been ripped open, the LCD had been decimated, and the batteries were in a few pieces. The belt clip was totally destroyed, as was the antenna. I was able to recover the volume knob, which I stuck on the other radio that was missing one. That was the only good thing that came out of this.

Mike (the second assistant superintendent) was the only one there that day, so I told him. He thought it was awesome. I told Pat (the superintendent) the next day that I owed him some money (those things are worth about $200 each), but he said not to worry about it. He owed me a golf ball, (specifically, a Callaway Tour iX, which is about a $5 ball) so he called it even. Good deal eh?

I was going to take some pictures of it, but Mike whisked it away when I told him. I think he thought that it was bothering me, but I actually wanted to keep it, especially since he just threw it away.

Tidbits

No, not Timbits, but I would like some of those. I haven’t had those in a while, in fact, I haven’t had Tim Horton’s anything in a while. I think I might go on Monday. The only problem is that the Tim Horton’s at the University is always busy, like really busy. The line stretches across Mac Hall most times. I don’t think I’ll go to that one.

In other news, police surrounded a convenience store today, where a sasquatch was attempting to buy Haagen Dazs.

I bought a new domain name, ashotinthedark.ca. I was hoping to get just shotinthedark.com/ca but that was, as I thought it probably would be, taken. I think I am going to create a photography website for myself there. I’m not sure though and if I do, it won’t be coming anytime soon. I was also thinking about redesigning this site. I’ve always known that it doesn’t display correctly in browsers using the Webkit engine, like Safari and now Google Chrome. I have never figured out why though. My code is 100% standards compliant (minus the YouTube embed code and the Lightbox JS CSS, which isn’t my code).  Those exceptions are not the problem though. It hasn’t ever displayed properly and I didn’t have an embedded video or Lightbox originally. I haven’t really cared before because it isn’t a very big difference and I don’t have many visitors from Safari and gang.

However, lately the design and the fact that it doesn’t display properly in some browsers has started to bother me. I think it is time for a change. It will probably take a while though, so don’t get excited. I’ve also decided that I’m done with doing websites for other people. That means that in the redesign, the portfolio will probably be gone. I’m also thinking that I am going to redirect all traffic from mapledesign.ca to here too. I hate that site. I threw it together quite quickly using a design from OpenWebDesign.org and always meant to change it. Well, I never did and I don’t like it.

I spent $10 USD on glowsticks today at the dollar store. I got quite a bit, which was awesome. I got four four packs, two six packs, three individual ones and one lantern thing. The lantern was really cool. I think I got a pretty good deal. They were well worth the $10.

As for my schooling this year, I changed my major. Well okay, not technically. I didn’t submit an application in time last year and am, therefore, still a computer science major. I am, however, not taking any computer science courses. I am taking courses that will go toward a geology degree. I am pretty excited and happy so far. All the courses that I took last year transfer over nicely, so that’s pretty awesome.

Well, I think that is about that I have to share right now. Sorry for not posting in a long time. Hopefully my next post won’t be in a couple months. Oh, for those that were wondering, or even if you weren’t, the Canadian copyright legislation (Bill C-61) is dead. Since we are having an election in a month, the Parliament has been dissolved and that legislation, along with a few others, died. That doesn’t mean that copyright reform won’t take place, it just means that particular attempt failed. Copyright reform will come back though, regardless of who wins the election. This is what Michael Geist had to say a few days before the election call:

“Raising the profile of copyright has required thousands of Canadians to pro-actively contact their elected representatives. Starting next week, those same representatives (and would-be representatives) will be seeking you out.  They will be knocking on doors, making phone calls, attending all-candidates meetings, and generally doing their best to convince voters that they will best represent their interests. I believe that this presents an exceptional opportunity to ask the question – where do you stand on important digital issues such as C-61 and Canadian copyright reform?  Does your local Conservative candidate support the reintroduction of Bill C-61 or would they work toward amendments before it returns?  Is your local Liberal candidate willing to commit to public consultations before the introduction of any new copyright bill?  Is your NDP or Green candidate firmly against the approach in C-61?  These are the questions (along with positions on net neutrality, telecom competition, broadband access, and privacy) that need to be asked again and again and again this fall.  Bill C-61 may be about to die, but the prospect of Canadian DMCA-like legislation remains very much alive.”

Canadian DMCA is Here

Industry Minister Jim Prentice introduced his new copyright legislation today and it is not good.

As expected, the Canadian DMCA is big, complicated, and a close model of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (Industry Canada provides a large number of fact sheets here).  I’ll have much more to say once I’ve had a careful read, but these are my five key points to take away:

1.   As expected, Prentice has provided a series of attention-grabbing provisions to consumers including time shifting, private copying of music (transferring a song to your iPod), and format shifting (changing format from analog to digital).  These are good provisions that did not exist in the delayed December bill.  However, check the fine print since the rules are subject to a host of strict limitations and, more importantly, undermined by the digital lock provisions.  The effect of the digital lock provisions is to render these rights virtually meaningless in the digital environment because anything that is locked down (ie. copy-controlled CD, no-copy mandate on a digital television broadcast) cannot be copied. As for every day activities like transferring a DVD to your iPod – those are infringing too. Indeed, the law makes it an infringement to circumvent the locks for these purposes.

2.   The digital lock provisions are worse than the DMCA.  Yes – worse.  The law creates a blanket prohibition on circumvention with very limited exceptions and creates a ban against distributing the tools that can be used to circumvent.  While Prentice could have adopted a more balanced approach (as New Zealand and Canada’s Bill C-60 did), the effect of these provisions will be to make Canadians infringers for a host of activities that are common today including watching out-of-region-coded DVDs, copying and pasting materials from a DRM’d book, or even unlocking a cellphone.

While that is the similar to the U.S. law, the exceptions are worse.  The Canadian law includes a few limited exceptions for privacy, encryption research, interoperable computer programs, people with sight disabilities, and security, yet Canadians can’t actually use these exceptions since the tools needed to pick the digital lock in order to protect their privacy are banned.  In other words, check the fine print again – you can protect your privacy but the tools to do so are now illegal.  Dig deeper and it gets worse.  Under the U.S. law, there is mandatory review process every three years to identify new exceptions.  Under the Canadian law, its up to the government to introduce new exceptions if it thinks it is needed. Overall, these anti-circumvention provisions go far beyond what is needed to comply with the WIPO Internet treaties and represents an astonishing abdication of the principles of copyright balance that have guided Canadian policy for many years.

3.   The other headline grabber is the $500 fine for private use infringement.  This will be heralded as a reasonable compromise, but check the fine print.  Canadian law already allows a court to order damages below $500 per infringement, so the change may not be as dramatic as expected (though $500 in damages is the maximum for private use infringement).  Moreover, it is already arguably legal to download sound recordings in Canada.  Under the proposal, there are exceptions for uploading or posting music online (ie. making available) and even the suggestion that posting a copyright-protected work to YouTube could result in the larger $20,000 per infringement damage award.

4.   The ISP provisions are precisely as expected with a statutory notice-and-notice system.  However, check the fine print.  The role of the ISP may be undermined by the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which the government trumpets in its press release.

5.   The education community received several provisions that are largely gutted by the fine print.  For example, library materials can be distributed in electronic form, but must not extend beyond five days.  In other words, it turns librarians into locksmiths.  Moreover, there is an Internet exception that educators wanted but it does not apply for any works that are either password protected or include a notification that they cannot be used.  In other words, online materials that are available under a Creative Commons license are fair game (as they are already), but most everything else is still potentially subject to a restriction.  This was precisely what many feared – rather than pursuing the far superior expansion of fair dealing, the education community got a provision that does little to enhance classroom learning.

I’ll have more to say soon, but the takeaway is that the DMCA provisions are worse than the U.S. and the consumer exceptions riddled with limitations as the government promotes a strategy of locking down content and launching lawsuits against Internet users.

Michael Geist – The Canadian DMCA: Check the Fine Print

This legislation must be stopped. There is a new letter to send. This one is sent to your MP, Industry Minister Jim Prentice and Heritage Minister Josée Verner. To send it click here.

Publication?

I have recently been in contact with a member of Dr. Neil Brown’s staff, Rob, in regards to using some of my photos in one of their publications. Who is Dr. Neil Brown you ask. He is the MLA for Calgary-Nose Hill. They contacted me through flickr. If this works out, it would be my first real publication. I have photos in other things, like the Schmap Calgary map thing and other online publications, but this would be the first real printed publication. I’m pretty excited.

I have to phone Rob again tomorrow to work out all the details, but other than that it should be good to go. I’ll keep you guys updated.

Canadian Copyright Reform

It looks like Industry Minister Jim Prentice will introduce his new copyright reform bill tomorrow.

Multiple sources advise that Industry Minister Jim Prentice’s current plan is to introduce the Canadian DMCA this week, likely on Wednesday.  While things could change, it would appear that Prentice’s communication strategy is to do as little communicating as possible. Plans for a possible press conference have apparently been put on hold given concerns that the press might actually ask questions and Prentice has even entertained thoughts of shuffling the bill quickly to a committee for summer hearings so that he would not have to deal with the issue all summer long. The Minister will also head for Japan and South Korea late the following week as part of the OECD Future of the Internet Economy conference, so out-of-sight, out-of-mind.

Michael Geist – The Unoffical Canadian DMCA Background Document

I recommend that you read his post in its entirety. He lists what he expects to be in the bill and things that Mr. Prentice likely won’t talk about. Canada needs balanced copyright reform and adopting a US-style DMCA is not the answer. From what I’ve heard and read about the bill, it is not looking good. We need to act now in order to prevent this bill from becoming law and to give Canada a chance at fair and balanced copyright reform. I urge you to write to your MP, the Prime Minister, Industry Minister Jim Prentice, and Heritage Minister Josée Verner. One way of doing this is to use this pre-written letter and use the form on that page to send it via email. I would also recommend printing it out and mailing it. Letters mailed to Parliament/MPs/Ministers do not require postage. Simply print it off, put it in an envelope, address it and drop it in the mail box.

If you don’t know who your MP is, you can find out by clicking here and entering your postal code. Please send a letter. We were able to stop Mr. Prentice’s bill in December and we can do it again.

More Videos

Well, I have more videos to share. The first one is one of my projects for my video arts class back in high school. The second one is another time lapse, which some of you have seen. When I posted those other two videos on here, I got a lot more traffic, so I am hoping to do the same with the other time lapse. The first video is on Youtube, the other on Vimeo. I put the music video on Youtube because I thought it might get more views. I like Vimeo better though. Anyway, enjoy!

This one is a music video for Rise Against’s “Swing Life Away”.

This is a trip up to the University. Normally, I wouldn’t go this way because it takes longer, but the way I do go isn’t nearly as exciting. The music in this one is by me. The full version is 1:30 long. If you want it for some strange reason, email me and you can have it.

Trip to the University from maple on Vimeo.

Time Lapse Photography

I recently decided to try my hand at some time lapse photography. Here are some of my results. In the first video, I used the continuous shooting mode on my Nikon D50. It was taken at the Devonian Gardens in downtown Calgary. For the second video, I used Nikon’s Camera Control Pro to control my camera, which had been rigged up in my truck.

Devonian Gardens from Joel Steeves on Vimeo.

Driving Time Lapse from Joel Steeves on Vimeo.