Postcards from the Bleeding Edge
Monday, January 26, 2004
I am on about my 9th lost post here... I remember when I used to have save things 3 times, on 3 different tapes, on the CBM PET in order to be absolutely sure that a few hundred bytes were REALLY saved... 25 years later, things are worse. I have had it with blogger right now. I am moving off to my own site in about a week.
Before I give up here's a bit that I was trying to comment on from MichaelA Cooper
I was writing the other day about this. I discovered something (watching firefly, actually) about myself that really rang true.
As a coder, as a computer guy for those stinking 25 years - I have been in the sorry position of a prostitute that loved sex.
"Would you do that for 200 dollars?"
YESS!
"Would you do that for 150 dollars?"
YESS!
"Would you do that for 75 dollars?"
YESS!
"Would you do it for free?"
YESS!
"Would you do it for stock options?"
YESS!
¶ 11:02 PM 0 comments
Before I give up here's a bit that I was trying to comment on from MichaelA Cooper
- So, then, what happens when in the Being-John-Malkovich future we can actually have other people's experiences? Have, for instance, artists' coming-up-with-art experiences? Does that mean that the Art will eventually just drop out? Eliminate the middleman, so to speak?
Suppose I had hour-long extended orgasms and others could share them. Would they? Would it be like open source software—everybody shares and adds improvements along the way?
[Think about what the fact of open source software seems to mean for capitalism. Isn't it the case that groups of people will always work for free to provide things that others charge for, exactly because they believe the others shouldn't be making sleazy profits from things that nice people could just get together and make for free?]
I was writing the other day about this. I discovered something (watching firefly, actually) about myself that really rang true.
As a coder, as a computer guy for those stinking 25 years - I have been in the sorry position of a prostitute that loved sex.
"Would you do that for 200 dollars?"
YESS!
"Would you do that for 150 dollars?"
YESS!
"Would you do that for 75 dollars?"
YESS!
"Would you do it for free?"
YESS!
"Would you do it for stock options?"
YESS!
- What's sobering to realize is that, in a future where you could share the inner experience of anyone you wanted, the vast majority of people in the world would want to have the inner experience of someone very, very different from me—probably somebody I don't even like very much. (Of course, my take would then be, Hey, baby, how do you know if you haven't had the experience? Huh?)
¶ 11:02 PM 0 comments
I started this piece last year, got as far as the first half, then lost heart. Maybe I will finish it before the big game. Which is better? A few hundred yards of mars or few hundred yards in a satiric football stadium? Basically I was trying to put together the big game - between the team - the Closed Source Foundation - CSF for short - that want to own everything (quarterbacked by by a series of men in black) and those that want to make it a better world (quarterbacked by Linus Torvalds - with eric raymond as wide receiver, Doc Searls at fullback, and a host of other luminaries at various positions)...
I figured it would be a good radio script (I flashed on some scenes in Bull Durham) but I never got further than dictating most of the first two quarters, and writing this one scene down.
Imagine the following read like a radio football announcer -
It's fourth and 10 on the CSF's 40. There's 30 seconds left in the quarter, enough time left to run just one play.
You bring out - RMS. He's the 390LB John Perry. He's so big that you only call him out for special plays on offence and defence.
Even if you don't hand him the ball, the opposing side all piles on him in the hope they can stop whoever's following - sometimes even your own team piles on him so they can stop him from running over the officals.
RMS lumbers in from your goal line, past the 10, past the 20... He's got momentum... He's got inertia, he's nowhere near the huddle yet but Linus has got a time out called so it doesn't really matter, past the 50, to the 45, Linus calls the snap and hands Richard the ball. RMS goes... right up the middle. There's no stopping him!!! Score! RMS ploughs past the goal line, through the base of the stadium and out into the street.
The government agents watching the play radio out "RMS has left the building, rms has left the building"
...
Meanwhile, upstairs in the luxury suite, agents of the Men in Black pour drinks into the league chairman, trying to convince him to change the rules of the game....
¶ 9:18 PM 0 comments
I figured it would be a good radio script (I flashed on some scenes in Bull Durham) but I never got further than dictating most of the first two quarters, and writing this one scene down.
Imagine the following read like a radio football announcer -
It's fourth and 10 on the CSF's 40. There's 30 seconds left in the quarter, enough time left to run just one play.
You bring out - RMS. He's the 390LB John Perry. He's so big that you only call him out for special plays on offence and defence.
Even if you don't hand him the ball, the opposing side all piles on him in the hope they can stop whoever's following - sometimes even your own team piles on him so they can stop him from running over the officals.
RMS lumbers in from your goal line, past the 10, past the 20... He's got momentum... He's got inertia, he's nowhere near the huddle yet but Linus has got a time out called so it doesn't really matter, past the 50, to the 45, Linus calls the snap and hands Richard the ball. RMS goes... right up the middle. There's no stopping him!!! Score! RMS ploughs past the goal line, through the base of the stadium and out into the street.
The government agents watching the play radio out "RMS has left the building, rms has left the building"
...
Meanwhile, upstairs in the luxury suite, agents of the Men in Black pour drinks into the league chairman, trying to convince him to change the rules of the game....
¶ 9:18 PM 0 comments
