Friday, May 4, 2007

The Structure of American Society

Rich get richer, poor stay poor, and it seems impossible for middle class citizens to make any headway towards becoming a member of the first group. This has been a fact of life in much of the world as far back as history is documented. So how does this hierarchy survive with the coming and going of generations?

Well, there have always been those lucky enough to be born into wealth. This usually lasts only a few generations as each generation understands less and less of how that wealth was accumulated in the first place. Then there are those that have been lucky enough to start just the right type of business, at just the right time, in just the right location. This method isn't pure luck like being born into wealth is, it requires a good idea and smart implementation, but this is still overshadowed by luck after witnessing many good ideas fail to see something less innovative take it's place with success.

As just a few more examples of luck making people rich, now we have lotteries, casinos, and even stock/commodity traders. All of which require either a lot more luck than skill. So is there a group of people out there that broke the middle class barrier without relying on luck?

Well yes, but it isn't the quick road that we all envision. It seems to be a road full of working multiple jobs and spending little money. The majority of your life is spent living on the lower end of the middle income class while accruing your wealth. It's in your later years or life that you finally break the wealth barrier to become part of the rich crowd.

So why do we strive to achieve that which seems so unlikely? Because most of us want something better for our children and the generations that follow, than we had for ourselves. We don't want them to have to work as hard or go without. We want them to have the free time to enjoy life because we never take the time to do it ourselves. The problem is, our children will want something better for their children too. And thus the cycle of the middle income class that prevents so many of us from ever being happy continues.

Thursday, May 3, 2007

No Heart

When I read this story I immediately had extremely mixed feelings. Everything from wanting to punch this cop so hard he remembered what his badge meant, to just down right disgust and sorrow to know that people can be this cold.

Some canoeists were near Twin Falls Idaho when they saw a woman jump from the Perrine Bridge into the Snake river. It seems she died on impact, but there would have been no way to know that 100% at the time. The group paddled out into the river to hopefully help/save the woman, but they ended up retrieving the body. The women in the group were crying and everyone was trying to cope with what they just witnessed.

Apparently a female deputy showed up and tried to comfort and calm everyone. It was shortly after that when a sergeant walked up, and said "I see you don't have any life jackets so I am going to give you a citation." He then proceded to write everyone that had paddled out to save this woman a ticket for $85. Not so much as a hint of warmth in that man's heart. Does he even understand the reason for that law? It's completely obvious that he has forgotten his duty to protect and serve, but to me its worse to see a fellow human being that has the emotion and understanding of a robot. It's a good indication of how cruel our world is becoming.

Don't become this guy, if you have to force yourself to do something small just to keep that heart from freezing solid. Smile to let your waiter know your happy with the service, or even something as small as wave at a neighbor when you get the morning paper. There is no excuse to become a heartless machine.

Found this story here.

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0

There it is, the hex key to decode HD-DVD. It's on thousands of websites and listed on at least that many forums. So why is something like this that is usually kept behind the scenes showing up on so many front pages? The answer is censorship.

The world is tired of it, and more and more people are standing up to it. At this point I'd wager as many as 75% of the websites that show this key could care less about using it. That includes this blog. But after watching the disaster that has become the RIAA bully old ladies and children, when the cease and desist letters started going out to every website that so much as talked about this key something seems to have clicked.

Censorship isn't an answer. It is no more an answer than sueing old women and children that don't even own computers over digital copyright infringment. Both start with a good idea, then get lost along the way. This uprising wouldn't exist right now if the cease and desist letters were limited to the websites broadcasting the key. But instead they went with the shotgun approach made so famous by the intellectually challenged over at the RIAA and sent letters to anyone that listed the key, anyone that had links to the websites that listed the key, and to search engines that might have indexed a webpage that listed the key.

Pirating will happen. It always has, it always will. But by trying to take freedoms and rights away from people in the quest to keep pirating to a minimum, you actually put those that are pirating on the moral high ground. That officially makes it the better side of the argument to stand on if it comes down to losing freedoms, or allowing pirating. If you really want pirating to diminish, take away the moral high ground you've given it and provide better alternatives because you'll never get rid of it entirely.

Monday, April 30, 2007

Hope for Patents

I just got back from a vacation with some good friends. So I'm in a pretty good mood. I don't have a rant for you today. Instead I stumbled across an article over at Ars Technica that basically says the Supreme Court made a ruling that equates to you can't patent common sense.

More specifically you can't patent anything that would seem obvious to someone with ordinary skill in the field that the patent is being applied for. While there is no word on rather this will immediately invalidate 80% of our current patents, or rather each one will have to be fought and beat in a court. Nonetheless, this sets a precedent, and one that was originally intended when patents were devised.

Three cheers for innovation and to the employment offices for all the greedy patent farmers.