I would just like to say…
by Kait Wheeler on April 28th, 2008
filed under Updates
…that I have the world’s sexiest man as my boyfriend.
Seriously. The world has yet to see a finer looking man.
He just amazes me and I love him.
Fin
Manchester
by Kait Wheeler on April 20th, 2008
filed under Updates
Early this morning I left Boston to go to Manchester, NH. I’ll be here until late Wednesday night for training at the Comcast headquarters. I didn’t bring my camera or anything, so there won’t be any pictures and honestly…it’s not really worth it. The hotel that I’m in is pretty standard and boring. Nice bed, t.v. with nothing to watch on it, crappy art. Though there IS a couch and a chaise. So that’s kinda nice.
I’m just really thankful that they have free wireless internet here so I can lie in bed (I’m pretty sure this is a queen), listen to crappy t.v. and sit here updating my website (because Drew is always shoving his fist up my ass to update more).
I’ll be updating when I can about how the training is going and whether or not I met any tolerable people or whether they’re the same suit-wearing yuppies that I’m expecting them to be.
Right now, it’s nap time because I can’t stand being awake right now.
Piracy
by Kait Wheeler on April 17th, 2008
filed under Rants
I learned today that the popular torrenting site (linked in my blogroll) The Pirate Bay is being sued. I can’t say that I’m terribly surprised by this fact, especially not when the get (and respond to e-mails like this).
This and other recent blog posts have sparked my desire to write about what the music industry across the globe is doing to itself and its customers.
Now I’m nowhere near the best source when it comes to technology (as stated in my previous post). The only thing I can claim is my own opinions. So I’m not going to sit here and talk about each program, when it came out, and how it affected the pirating community because in the grand scheme of things it’s really quite irrelevant. The important thing is this: file-sharing has been going on since the internet was released to the public. Period. As long as the internet exists and CDs are still physically made, torrenting and file sharing will live on.
iTunes was a genius way to reach out to the digital media community.They were making music available to people at a cheaper rate than buying the CD (which made sense as you didn’t have to pay for all the packaging and printing of the CD jackets), and they even had great integration for THEIR MP3 player; the iPod. It was revolutionary and had only one problem; MASSIVE limitation.
To the best of my knowledge you cannot buy music on iTunes and import it onto any other MP3 player other than the iPod. More importantly, you can’t listen to it on any other media player because of the copyright information that’s embedded into the file. I did just learn however (through recent research) that you can convert your iTunes files to be compatible with the Zune…yet another product that’s about as dependent on it’s big brother as Courtney Love is to crystal meth.
So what’s the answer to all of this you ask? Obviously it’s not to just give in and let us keep getting free music. Even I have to admit that the music industry has a right to be making money off of the things that they create because that in and of itself TAKES money to do.
The truest and most unlikely answer is for them to ONLY release music on things like iTunes. Where the content is so heavily encrypted that you cannot open it in any other program and cannot alter it in any other way, shape, or form. This would be the absolute worst decision for the industry because people would just stop buying new music altogether.
The other option is to overtake the internet and literally track every single file that’s put over it…then arresting or fining every single offender…which I also think is highly unlikely.
Honestly, there IS no reasonable option for them to stop music pirating over the internet. And the same thing goes for movies, books, and programs.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say that they got the full version of Photoshop or chat programs or video/audio editing software over the internet for free. Hell…I even know people that are running their computers on pirated operating systems. There are people around the globe working on cracking software, movies, music and scanning in books so that people don’t have to buy them any longer.
When you think about it that way it’s really quite sad. What’s going to happen in twenty or so years when the generation that still buys all of these things legitimately stops doing so? What will happen to the economy (because these things are a HUGE part of it)?
Unfortunately this entry wasn’t as cohesive as I would have liked it to have been. My thoughts were somewhat sporadic and I will be the first to admit that I don’t have the best knowledge on the topic. If you’d like to see something else discussed, comment, or make a post on the forums as soon as I get them up and running.
Hobbies
by Kait Wheeler on April 14th, 2008
filed under Rants
Before you get excited, this is not about my hobbies.
I’ve noticed in the last year that the people I’m around have a lot of different interests. Whether it be video games, role playing, their jobs, music, movies, foreign culture, 2 girls 1 cup; anything. Almost everyone I know is interested in at least two ‘hobbies’ or ‘interests’.
Lately I’ve noticed that that isn’t a universal fact. I know a few people that seem to have one interest. Or at least it seems that way to me and I’m sure I’m not the only one that’s noticed it. Every group of people seem to have that one guy or girl that only ever wants to do or talk about one thing. One basic interest that they just can’t shut up about for five minutes and it’s beginning to grate on my nerves to the point of detonation.
The worst part about it is that they don’t even seem to realize how one dimensional they’re being. They just think that everything is grand and they’re being social – with their one topic. They try to dominate the conversation for fear that they won’t have anything to contribute otherwise and they’ll get left out.
So let’s linger on that fact for a moment. I’ve always believed that one of the wondrous things about meeting new people and being social in public (even online for that matter) was sharing interests, opinions, hobbies – anything to extend your own knowledge of things; to expand your horizons and of course, to meet and associate with new people and enjoy their company. Surprisingly enough (or perhaps unsurprisingly) there are people that either don’t want to, or don’t know how to be social in this manner.
The other thing that bothers me is that they don’t even seem to take any particular interest or consideration for the other people in the group. They stop to think, “Hey, these people might not give a shit what level my character is or how much fuzz I pulled out of my belly button or how many headshots I got in Counter Strike last night.” No. They just blab on and on, trying to capture at least one person’s interest and if they’ve done that then they feel as if they are holding the main conversation and they are the ones that should be paid attention to.
Now I’m not one to try and tell people how they should be living their life. I understand and realize that it’s none of my business and you will never see me ranting about things in an attempt to do that. But I am going to say what’s on my mind and what’s there right now is:
One dimensional people: You fail. You are something drawn in MS Paint by a three year old with nothing else better to do. Knuckle up, call adobe, and get Photoshop.
Starting out Big
by Kait Wheeler on April 13th, 2008
filed under Updates
I generally don’t like blogging. I find it a severe imposition on my privacy and a complete waste of time. I don’t like sharing my deepest darkest secrets and I certainly do not and have never given a flailing donkey’s ass about what other people thought about me or my opinions.
However I’ve recently grown to have a huge problem with closed-minded opinions about certain issues and I feel it’s about damned time that someone got the facts out there and tried to make idiotic people realize that their view or belief isn’t necessarily wrong, but it’s not necessarily accepted or the end-all be-all of society.
I am a writer. This is my blog. Read at your own risk.