You may wonder what I’m blathering about, well its this. I’ve been following CAD for some time now (if you like a good chuckle and a well written webcomic check out the archives) and honestly didn’t see this coming. The subject matter is a difficult one and as a away of breaking out of the pigeonhole of ‘Gaming Comic’ its one of the most effective plot twists I’ve seen. Tim sums up his reasons for it here, and I stand behind him wholeheartedly.

Gamers are people too with all the baggage and emotional turmoil that that entails, its about time someone said so. I salute you Tim and will continue to read CAD as long as you continue to write it.

Bookmark to:

Originally written serially and published online as a blog (unfortunately no longer available), it gained a large following and widespread praise for its humour and style. The author continues to delight readers with short stories and novellas, again published online, which expand upon the history of the universe of Simon and give insights into how things as they are in Simon of Space came to be. There is an entire world of characters and events encased in Mr. Brown’s skull and I can heartily recommend this book and Mr. Brown’s continuing online work to any fan of new science fiction. Read and be enthralled.

Bookmark to:

“Yeah,” she said, “its the same every year. For about a month you get irritable, restless, and are unable to focus your attention on any one thing for very long.” Theres also the feeling of futility and uselessness of it all which I don’t mention to her. I have the feeling its slightly better this year because I’ve got Arthur to look after. Its possibly somehting to do with a vitamin D deficiency brought on by not enough sunlight (I should maybe visit a tanning salon). I’ll get over it though so its nothing to worry about really.

The upshot of this is I tend not to sleep very well and lie awake letting my mind wander where it will. Last night I had an Idea (I think it deserves capitalisation)….

The Rise of the Social Web.

It seems that the latest fashion on the internet is for social websites, especially social websites which recommend other websites based upon user ratings (Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us, and others). We also have various other forms of social interaction on the web from fora on all manner of subjects, the oft demonised chatrooms, and information repositories such as wikis (Wikipedia being the most famous example). These things all have something in common, they require the input of large groups of people to be successful. Surely the same rule can be applied to government, and the same technology.

Government and the Web

Current administrations have been woeful in the degree to which they embrace this new technology and the way the present their use of it. Most simply use it to gather and disseminate information from those who interact with it, not actually using it as part of the mechanism of democracy. They tell you how its going to be, get you to fill in a form online to do your tax return or pay your council tax, but don’t actually ask your opinion. Its a combination if ignorance and age. In the UK the majority of our MP’s are not part of the internet generation. Even the youngest members didn’t have the internet in their home until the mid nineties, that same as everyone else. Its seen as a toy, or a giant virtual shopping mall. The only concession I have seen so far has been the petition system on our Prime Minister’s website. Depending on how seriously the holder of the office takes it, it is either a very good thing or simply something that they can ignore. I haven’t seen them paying any attention to the petitions (apart from the Green Road tax petition, which they only took notice of because the press made a big fuss about it). It is still an impersonal and detached way of getting the government’s attention and relies quite heavily on people knowing that a petition you submit is there. There’s no feed of new petitions so you can’t simply use a newsreader to find out what people are petitioning about. They are slowly making use of the new technology but are yet to realise its full potential.

Bookmark to:

Write about a life event in one sentence. Harder than it sounds. There are some really touching ones on there if you take the time to look.

The link is to mine btw.

Bookmark to:

Funny, funny and more funny. A comic for gamers by gamers. My current favourite is “l33t 3nuf?”

More news:
Arthur has a tooth and is sleeping through the night at last.

I am currently unable to read any blogspot blogs or Samizdata which is a pain. If anyone knows why this might be and possible solutions let me know.

The hit rate for this site is slowly in decline and I’m not sure what I can do about it. If anyone has any ideas feel free to let me know.

Bookmark to:

The story is available on Blogger but for some strange reason I can’t read it there, or comment unfortunately. If you read it there tell them Mandrill sent you

A dark and dystopian vision of our future from Mr. Brown. Lacking his usual whimsy but no worse for it. The scary thing is that it could come to this.

Update: On Ch7 now and it’s getting better every time. I think I see what Mr. Brown is attempting. Lowers the mood in the first half, but begins to build it back up in the second.

Bookmark to:

Want to know how you’re being manipulated? Want to know how to examine what you are told critically and independently? Read this. You’ll recognise some of the tricks striaght off, others will make your spine tingle. Its amazing how easy it really is. Learn to cut through the spin to the core of truth (or lies) within.

Bookmark to:

Midwesterner:
First thing: I don’t want this to degenerate into a slagging match and as stated above if I can learn something from this discussion all the better. I don’t take issue with the friggin’ part of “What a friggin’ communist.” Anyone who denies that is lying or dead from the waist down. However, I am far from a communist. I will concede that some of my attitudes and opinions will be collectivist in nature, I blame that on my cultural and socio-political conditioning and beg your indulgence. I’m slowly getting it out of my system through argument, education, and some directed reading (suggestions welcome). Saying I’m a communist implies that the majority of my opinions about such things are communist in nature, which I’m sure they aren’t. If you feel you can convince me otherwise then please do so. Otherwise I’d still like a retraction

On to more important things…

“Why should anyone who had nothing to do with the writing of the book make money out of my hard work?”

This is not a statement about the legitimacy of IP. It is a flat out statement denying the legitiamacy of unearned property.

True. I don’t see your point though.

“(publishers/record companies/film studios) . . . These parasites make a living out of the work of others”

I’ll let other readers decide whether this is a statement on the legitimacy of IP or a more general anti-bourgeoisie sentiment.

Marxism defines the bourgeoisie as the social class which obtains income from ownership or trade in capital assets, or from commercial activities such as the buying and selling of commodities, wares and services. Though why you let Marxism define anything I don’t know. I’m not anti-bourgeoisie, that would make me a communist. The service that the aforementioned parasites provide is no longer necessary though they would like you to believe that it is. The only thing that concerns the parasites is keeping the monopoly on distribution that they have. Not very free market is it? This is beginning to change Spiralfrog.com is an indication of how things are developing. Once active Universal Music will be making their entire catalogue available for download free of charge all they ask is that you watch some ads while you download. It could so easily be the artists themselves making that money instead of Universal.

“This is coporate property (a form of collectivism btw)”

I don’t think you understand the difference between voluntary co-operation and collectivism. Those silly East Germans should have just sold their stock in that particular collective enterprise.

To be honest I don’t see the difference between voluntary co-operation and collectivism, here’s your opportunity to educate me. You seem to be implying that collectivism requires coercion, hence the East German reference. I don’t think that it does. Collectivism may be voluntary, based upon an agreement between individuals.
If a corporation isn’t communal property what is? A corporation is considered to be a single entity but it is made up of individuals whose work has gone into providing the corporation with its property, the only thing that stops these individuals claiming a chunk of the corporation’s profits is the fact that they have agreed not to. How have the shareholders ‘earned’ their claim on the corporation? Bought maybe but not earned.

“If you so desired you could do it all on your own. You only have to look at the internet to see it beginning to happen, YouTube, IUMA, and blogging are all evidence of it.”

Golly. You’ve got a lot of confidance in my capabilities. If I were to try that, I would still be hung up at the burying cable stage.

What do you need to bury cable for? You’re already paying for that if you have an internet connection. How YouTube, IUMA et al make thier money is by selling advertising space on their websites. You are already paying for the infrastructure in a million little ways. All you need is A DV Camera for film, A microphone for music and a keyboard for an Ebook and of course the requisite talent and determination and you’re laughing.

“No-one owns my thoughts but me. I may wish to sell a physical manifestaion of those thoughts (CD, Ebook, Dead Tree Edition, DVD) but the thoughts are still mine all the buyer can claim ownership of is the medium of transmission, not the thought itself.”

How can you claim they are your’s and yet also say they are not transferable or bequeathable?

how can you claim your life? It is after all equally non-transferrable and unbequeathable and yet it forms the basis for all concepts of property. A thought cannot be unthought, I cannot give you a thought of mine and then not have the thought. You’re applying concepts of physical property to something intangible which simply doesn’t work.

“PS If I were a communist I’d be saying that no-one should own anything, which I’m patently not. I’d like a retraction please.”

Well, I certainly will retract “friggin”. It is irelevant and unproven. As for “communist”, it is relevant, and there certainly appears to be features of your concept of property that would be more at home in some for of communual property system. The contradiction that I can’t work out is how you can “own” it in your mind, but not transfer ownership of it on your own terms. That is the essence of IP. To provide a framework so you can share your thoughts without losing title to them.

I don’t see the contradiciton. I am transferring ownership on my own terms. Upon my death any idea of mine which I have transmitted in any medium (Book, CD, DVD, Flashdrive, or whatever) enters the public domain and no individual or corporate/government body may restrict or otherwise impede the reproduction of said idea for their own profit or advantage. If someone wants to keep printing my book and selling copies all power to them but they will not have the sole right to do so.

Bookmark to: