David's Blog

I think I have completed my twitter integration, and have added a new plugin: Blackbird pie, which will allow me to link to twitter posts instead of taking screenshots. I am not sure if I will actually use it, it is nice to have possesion of an image opposed to leaving twitter up to serving it over to me.

This post serves as a test.

I am testing IA Writer. First thing I do is put it into Full View. My screen is blank, except the words I am typing. I could get used to this. Then, my mind goes blank… what was that shortkey again I think it’s cmd+f lets try it… Nope. That brought up a search function lets try cmd+shift+f… Nothing. I’m going to have to exit full window. cmd+ctrl+f

Normally I avoid programs that demand the slightest bit of learning. That is, the ones that deviate from the norms of user interface or control or are completely intuitive. I picked up IA Writer, paying $9 for the app because I need something to keep me writing. I am too easily distracted from my work by twitter, carousel (instagram) and email. Once I get off the writing track it is hard to get back on, and my sidetracks can sometimes end up lasting hours. I may check twitter, then decide to post an update to one of my two blogs, six facebook pages, email, edit one of the dozen websites I administer, or worse: open up a new application.

This is peaceful, it is sereen. There are nothing but letters on my screen. The mouse courser has disappeared.
Testing *italics* nope that’s underline.
Testing **bold** now
“# Title 1″
# Title 1
## Title 2

This is rudamentary, but, it gets the writing done. The formats are not there. They are suggestions to be completed in a rich text editor. This is a basic text editor. Then again that is the point of the app, to get the text down. To complete the assignment. I’m thinking there is no such thing as spell check in this app, which is not entirely a bad thing. My spelling and grammatical errors can be fixed later. IA Writer is minimalist, to the core. I doubt I will use any of its features. All I really need is sentences and Paragraphs. The rest can wait for editing.

> Testing an indented Paragraph, apparently once I get to the end of the paragraph the indent of the paragraph will remain at this indent. So it does.

So, While it may take a few times to get the basics of this application down (that is using the features by memory, the basic principle of the application is to leave nothing between you and typing. It does that well. There is a word count at the bottom of the screen, as well as a character count and an estimation of the time it will take to read this entire entry. They appear five seconds after I have stopped typing.

440 Words, 2,300 characters not a third-grade equivalent but not quite where it should be. I am going to try and save this using what I would think to be the save short key: cmd+s… It saves the file as a .md, or text only document. Well, now I only need to turn off my phone, which is buzzing right now, and I will be distraction free.

Yesterday, I created a list of SOPA/PIPA supporters to better understand who, and why this legislation has been proposed. From the sources I have gathered there are five distinct groups of supporters for SOPA.

Digital Photographers/Artists:
You won’t find any of these folks on my twitter list, mainly because they don’t seem to use twitter at all. They don’t seem to SEO much either, that means their advertisement is mostly done by traditional means, ie. Word of mouth. Photographers ranged from your local wedding/portrait photographer, to magazine or architectural photographers. The internet, for them, is a dangerous place. Their bread is in those pictures, and for the most part once they put them online anyone can use them. I know this because It is a constant temptation for me to use other people’s images for content. I don’t have the cash to purchase stock photo’s for web design so I have to hassle with finding half decent Creative Commons photos on flickr and properly crediting each amateur photographer for their images. It is easy, for anyone with less respect for their artistic talent to grab one or more of those photographer’s images and post them on their site. Without SOPA, the best the independent photographer can do is ask the website owner to remove the image or pay their royalty fees. Not likely to happen. I think in an extreme case a particularly mean pirate may bundle many or all of the photographers images and distribute them. SOPA gives them a great opportunity to fight back and seriously dissuade digital theft.

Entertainment industry:
I think it’s safe to say you’ve already heard of the pirated early release of X-men 3 last year. And there are few people more vocal about loosing money online than the music industry. It goes without saying that despite their ability to make money selling their movies these companies will go to to any length to make more. They have deep pockets, and they’re shelling a lot of resources into making the internet make them more money through this legislation. I think its safe to say that the argument on the economical impact of digital piracy is still open for debate. Still the industry will make more money if SOPA and PIPA are passed.

Highly Marketed Brands
This is the physical counterfeit area of the bill. Online websites are selling knockoff products that closely resemble (and nefariously use the logos of) merchandise made by companies who spend millions of dollars on marketing. Counterfeit sales are a completely different animal than digital piracy but a major market for those sales is online. SOPA and PIPA will give these companies the ability to limit the illicit sales of products that mimic or resemble their own.

The IP industry
There are a few random other companies and industries who, put a significant amount of money into Research and Development. Their objective is to strengthen their ability to limit other manufacturers from using their Intellectual Property (ie sue the pants of everyone). This includes car parts manufacturers, Publishers, and Standardized test producers.

The Law.
Private and Public law enforcement groups support both SOPA and PIPA. I can’t quite grasp the motivation behind Public law enforcement and government officials. Maybe its just because it will make their jobs easier, maybe they owe favors or kickbacks to people in industries who support these bills. The private sector law enforcement includes companies that track down counterfeiters and develop means to authenticate industrial goods, presumably these companies would gain from SOPA/PIPA in much the same way as the IP industry and of course must support the best interests of their clientele. They may even stand to gain a sizable amount of government funding after this legislation passes, and work as a quasi governmental agency with an over abundance of power not unlike the TSA.

For the Most part, it is absolutely understandable that these corporations and interest groups would try to make these bills work to their best interests. They have organized a very large amount of support into some very broad and all encompassing bills that may ultimately have very resounding ramifications across both our society and our economy.

Congress is now in recess and putting off their vote on the controversial SOPA Legislation until next year. So I am taking a day to research the two sides of the the bill. My questions:

• Why has this bill been proposed?
• Will the ramifications as bad as they are hyped to be?
• What are the arguments for/against the legislation?
• Can I support the right for intelectual property and be against this bill?

To start, I’m stacking my sources. On twitter I have been getting some grave stories from Tim Karr CDT and EFF, and I’ve read an interesting article or two on the subject. I’m trying to go a little deeper by looking at who wants this legislation passed. To get a complete story I’m porting a list of SOPA supporters put together by digitaltrends to a twitter list of my own. It has already provided me with some good articles, and a decent overview of the type of companies and interest groups that are pushing this legislation forward.

And after adding a bunch of twitter links to this post I am remembering a WP addon that I may want to add… where was that?

Update: I have to link this letter b/c digital trends linked to a google redirect and I cant save it in zotero. lazy linking.

I often find myself tiered of communication with other people.