Sam in Real Life

Wooo, lots has happened since I last posted. Graduation probably the biggest, because, ya know, college is over and stuff. On the other hand, life is happening, and it requires me to stay in collegeland. Work is going great, really liking it a lot, and find it fun to go in to work.

In other news, I got hacked yesterday, boo. Someone had control of my router and my home server. Guess I should have probably tightened it down a little more. It was kind of fun figuring out how to pinpoint what happened, god I’m a nerd. Oh well, now is as good a time as any to go ahead and do some retuning. New server OS, new services, new security, as good a time as any to pick up another HDD to retool the backup system (though it performed admirably, it could be better).

I am sure many people here in the HASTAC community use Facebook for social networking and maybe for slacking off and playing a game from time to time. For those of you who do, are you aware of how little Facebook cares about your data? Actually let me rephrase. Are you aware of how little Facebook cares that your data is widely available? In fact, they recently have boasted as much with the roll out of their new Open Graph API.

Now the most obvious line of defense in the war over privacy is to only share what you are ok with getting out in the open eventually. They can’t leak what they don’t know. Even though this always has, and always will be the best way to keep your information private, some people disagree with this method, so we move on.

One major thing to be aware of is the privacy changes to Facebook. There is a great timeline of privacy policy quotes directly from Facebook over at http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/04/facebook-timeline/.

Other than knowing the privacy changes, and altering settings to match your desires in regards to those changes, there is not much you can do to protect yourself. Even if you set your profile to be completely be locked down, there still are plenty of opportunities for your data to get out. Any time you use an application, thanks to the new API, any user data is easily taken by the application developer and they can do with it what they please. Also, Facebook has been known to have issues with security. For example, they recently accidentally set a number of profiles to be completely public, as well as had issues with sending people to the wrong profile with full access to the data. Not too long ago they also spent two weeks trying to fix a well known security flaw.

Just some Facebooking thoughts to keep in mind, hopefully, more people will now think twice before putting that data on Facebook. They are slowly allowing more and more data out and have a history of issues protecting the data not supposed to go out. Be careful and happy socializing.

Really did not want to get sucked up in this show. I don’t know why, but I always wanted to dislike the show. Unfortunately, I failed. Miserably.

The music industry seems close to falling from the “4 Major Labels” to the “3 Barely Hanging on Major Labels.” EMI currently sits on the brink of going six feet under, as they have until June to raise $180 million in order to avoid their loan going into default. Once that happens, and it looks more and more like it will, Citigroup could seize the company and sell it off or break it into smaller divisions. Either way, if and when that day arrives, the big 4 will be the big 3.

This is looking more likely because EMI is running out of ways to raise that sort of money. They attempted to sell their Abbey Roads studio, a mecca of music, which caused so much public outcry that the site is now protected by English Heritage. They also have run into a few problems that decimated them even further, taking away some of their money as well as big money makers. Upon hearing about the restructuring occuring at EMI, both Radiohead and the Rolling Stones dumped the label. After that, EMI was successfully sued by Pink Floyd for digitally selling singles of theirs. Pink Floyd objects to this because of a contract that their material should be sold in full album form, which they argue is the only way to consume their music. With these happenings, as well as Citigroup and Terra Firma Capital Partners (owners of EMI) becoming disenchanted with each other, leaves EMI in major trouble.

They are not the only ones, however, as Time Warner, Sony, and Universal are all having their own problems. Time Warner is quickly dropping out as a major label simply because they no longer have the same musical clout they once did. Arguably, the same can be said about Sony ever since the BMG split. These companies also only seem as well of as they are because they are diversified. Time Warner, Sony, and Universal all have outside interests besides their record labels, which are doing well enough to keep the companies from completely going under, even though their labels are hemmoraghing money.

That begs the question, what next? Where do we go from here? Obviously digital distribution is taking a clear foothold, which is part of the reason these large companies stuck on the way of the CD are faltering. The problem with digital distribution is one of legitimacy. With record labels, bands held a legitimacy, someone decided this band was good enough to share with the world so I can trust that they have some talent. With digital distribution, anyone can do it, so how do I know this was not some horrible noise put together by a random Joe lacking any musical skill?

On the other hand, does this matter? Just because I do not believe Joe has musical skill does not mean there won’t be someone out there who gleans enjoyment from his work, and in the end, isn’t that the goal of music?

The other major issue that self distribution or even small indie labels face deals more with clout. Even the indie labels, and especially self distributors, do not have the pull to set up any kind of tour at will. Does this mean touring will go the way of vinyl? Will it become a niche market? Will it only be possible to hear a band from far away over the internet, with no ability to see them live?

Most importantly, is this good or bad?

So many questions, and so few answers. Only time can tell us what will happen, but until then, let me know what you think will happen.

(Information on EMI taken from the Associated Press “Music group EMI in dire straits”)

Google just announced its foray in the broadband network game. They are to begin a trial run of gigabit fiber optic networks for a lucky 50,000 (or 500,000 they aren’t sure yet). This comes on the heels of the FCC’s push to bring America up to speed with the rest of the world. According to a CNET article (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10317118-38.html), the US lags behind twenty seven other countries when it comes to internet speeds. That is pathetic for the country that founded the internet, as well as the graphical web browser (shout out to MOSAIC and NCSA).

The FCC apparently is aiming to bring 100 megabit speed internet to the most everyone, which would be a significant increase over the average of 3.9 megabits that the country sees now (http://www.pcworld.com/article/189549/fcc_wants_highspeed_internet_for_t…). The FCC also is focusing on the needy, as they are trying to up the speeds for the E-Rate Program and the Rural Telemedicine Program. The goal is to bring high speed internet to schools and libraries (ERP) and to bring those same speed increases to a network of rural medical clinics, offices, and hospitals (RTP).

Google plans on rolling out their network sometime soon, in attempts to bring gigabit networks to everyday users. It seems to be their belief that we as consumers are missing out on applications that could be the future, solely because of their bandwith needs.

One place where the FCC and Google agree, however, is in pricing. Both entities believe that as it currently stands, we are getting taken advantage of by ISPs for broadband access. Google said they aimed to keep pricing “competitive,” which hopefully makes ISPs feel like they need to up their standards. The FCC agrees, with one major aspect of their broadband plan “lowering the cost of both wired and wireless broadband.” Hopefully with the backing of the FCC and the pushing of Google, we can get to Japan’s level, where the average connection speed is right around 60 megbits per second.

Keep in mind this one caveat though, the FCC still has not specified how it expects to pull off this plan and bring the internet to everyone. This means we could very well see a dumbed down version of this plan by the time it is actually enacted. Here’s to hoping that not the case.