one of these things is not like the other

Posted on By Wil

On his blog The Whatever, John Sclazi is doing something called A Month of Authors, which is exactly what it sounds like. He’s featured posts from authors like Charles Stross, Susie Bright, and Patrick Rothfuss.

John invited me to contribute an entry to his month of authors, probably so he can play the "one of these things is not like the other" game at the end of the month. In his introduction to my post, John wrote about the origin of our friendship:

Now, while I was watching Wil, it turns out Wil was also checking me
out, in that bloggy, not-at-all-inspiring-of-Scalzi/Wheaton-slashfic
way, and we started up a friendly correspondence through e-mail, which went on for a couple of
years. Finally, last October, when I went to California for my high
school reunion, he and I met in the real world over dinner with our
mutual friend Mykal, who was deeply amused, to say the least, that two
of his pals had independently become Intarweeb SuperDorks and were now
meeting in the flesh for the very first time.

“So if this restaurant blew up, the Internet would be in mourning over you two,” Mykal said.

“Nah,” Said Wil. “They’d still have FARK.”

See. Wil gets it. I like that I can say I know him. Non-Biblically.

I sent John my entry Blue Light Special, which was rewritten for Happiest Days. It’s my favorite story in the book, and is in my top five favorite things I’ve ever written, so I was thrilled to share it with people who haven’t read it, yet.

Speaking of Happiest Days, I’m taking the final 40 or so international (and two domestic eChecks that snuck into the wrong bin) to the post office as soon as I hit publish. I’m behind on softcover orders, but I’ll be all caught up on those by the weekend.

the joy of mutually geeking out

Posted on By Wil

While at the Child’s Play dinner, I told Twitter:

Wiltweet

Without knowing about my message to Twitter, Major Nelson then told Twitter:

Nelsontweet

Heh. Awesome. We ended up geeking out at each other a whole bunch after dinner was over, and I’ll eventually be on his podcast, which will rule.

The Child’s Play dinner was great. We raised just over $225,000 for the charity, and had a ridiculously good time while we did it. The guys who won the auction to sit with me were really cool, fun to talk to, and totally one of us. I won’t link them, in case they want to remain anonymous, but I do want to publicly thank them for being cool and friendly, and helping bring happiness to a lot of kids.

Star Trek alumni support the WGA

Posted on By Wil

“Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few . . . or the one.”

– Spock.

When I was a little kid, I loved this show you may have heard of called Star Trek. When I was a teenager, I worked on a show called Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was like Star Trek, but with jumpsuits and snazzier special effects.

They were both popular programs, inspiring and bringing joy to generations of viewers, while putting loads of cash into the pockets of Paramount and its shareholders.

Today, the WGA is having a Star Trek picket at Paramount to honor the people — like Harlan Ellison, John D. F. Black and Ron Moore — whose stories over the years made Star Trek such an important part of our culture, and inspired writers, actors, engineers, and others to reach out for the stars.

The picket is scheduled from 11-3 at Paramount’s Windsor gate. I’ll be there, and I hope you’ll all join me, at least in spirit, as we thank the people who made Star Trek possible, and fight for the rights of the next generation of writers.

Quote of the Day

Posted on By Wil

"I realised I don’t play games for the challenge. I
don’t need or want to be punished by a game for making mistakes. I play
games for what Ron Gilbert calls "new art". I play to see the next
level or cool animation. I don’t play games to beat them I play games
to see them. Coming to that realisation was actually sort of important
for me."
    – Gabe, at Penny Arcade

(Quoted
because this is exactly why I play games, too. This is similar to why I
love Rock Band so much: it lets me immerse myself in the fantasy that
I’m a rocker the same way sandbox games let me immerse myself in the
fantasy of the game’s world. It also explains why I vehemently hate
fighting games.)

DRM and the DMCA: so stupid it makes me want to punch babies

Posted on By Wil

I hate DRM. I hate it so much, I want to punch babies. DRM’s mere existence infuriates me, because it’s anti-consumer, turns honest customers into criminals, and does nothing to stop dedicated pirates.

You’ve read my blog before, so this is nothing new. DRM is in my mind today, however, because of two links I read at boingboing.

Link the first:

Wellington Grey has a great little slideshow about the idiocy of the DMCA’s “anti-circumvention” measures, which prohibit breaking the digital locks off the stuff you own. In it, Grey recounts how offended he was when he bought a TomTom GPS that came with a CD in a sealed envelope, the seal on which read, “By breaking this seal, you agree to our contract,” but the contract itself was on the CD, behind the seal. In other words, the CD said, “By breaking this seal, you agree to a bunch of secret stuff.”

I saw this on Reddit last week, and meant to link it then. Whoops. Anyway, I love how this guy explains just how fucking stupid and pointless DRM is, and that he shows us what would happen if DRM and the DMCA were applied to real world objects. It’s good perspective that’s useful for explaining to technophobes (and congress critters) why these things need to go away. Now.

Link the second:

Techdirt reports that Steve Jobs has been pitching studio execs on a scheme whereby DVD owners can pay extra for the “privilege” of ripping their DVDs — but only for playback on iPods and iPhones. The thing is, Jobs fought the music industry back in the early iTunes day, arguing that people who buy CDs should have the right to rip them without paying anything extra.

So what’s the difference? DRM — Digital Rights Management. This is the anti-copying software that studios put on DVDs, allegedly to “stop piracy.” But DRM isn’t doing anything to stop piracy (people who want to pirate DVDs just break the DRM, because it’s impossible to stop determined attackers from copying bits on their own computers). It seems like the primary use for DRM is to sell you back the rights you used to get for free, so that the studios can pick your pocket every time you find a new way to use the media you buy from them.

That second link reminds me of the first time I encountered some sort of restrictive, proprietary “software”: when I was 9, my mom let me buy this really cool cap gun. It was so awesome! It looked just like a real gun (this was in 1979, when things like this were harmless fun for a suburban 9 year-old) and you could load this strip of plastic caps into a clip that went into the handle. When you fired it, it went off with a satisfying bang, and ejected one spent cap like it was a shell.

I didn’t want to ever shoot someone for real, and as an adult I don’t have any interest in owning a gun, but when I was 9, this thing was the coolest toy, ever, and it was the perfect addition to my James Bond superspy roleplaying adventures with the other kids in my neighborhood.

The thing was, I could only load the gun with a particular type of refill, and if the store was out of those refills — but flush with all of the “standard” strips and rings of caps — my really cool gun instantly became a useless piece of plastic and metal that only made whatever “bang bang” noise I could create myself . . . just like the kids up the block who used Legos to make guns that didn’t make an awesome “BANG” but more of a 9 year-old vocalized “bang”.

Of course, the proprietary caps were more expensive than the standard caps, and after a few months they went off the shelf, never to return. The cap gun became a paperweight, and was sold at a garage sale.

It’s not exactly a 1:1 on DRM, but I believe the fundamental concept is the same: a manufacturer uses some restrictive bit of technology to lock consumers into one format and one device. It’s stupid, it’s anti-consumer, and it makes me stabby.