What is DRM and why is it such a waste?

DRM is short for Digital Rights Management. It is an attempt to stop online piracy, and most commonly impacts music, movies, software, and video games.

Since you are using a computer now, I have no doubt that you have experienced DRM before. When you install software, and it requires you to jump though hoops like inputing a long alphanumeric code, that’s DRM. When you download music from any of the many legal download services and it doesn’t let you copy the music, that’s DRM.

Basically, it is anything that puts a barrier between you and making a duplicate of a specific product. 

At it’s core, the idea isn’t awful. Personally, I am not too big on illegal downloads. Call me old-fashioned, but I really do prefer to buy CDs, DVDs, and video-games. Which brings me to a side-note.

A little geek lingo for you:

Freetard – A person who goes to great extremes to download things illegally.

Some freetards will go so far as refusing to buy books, music, movies, and software altogether. I have met a couple freetards who download more content than they could ever enjoy. Some just collect stuff because they can – you know who you are.

Paytard – A person who zealously purchases everything, and refuses to ever download anything illegally. 

Back on topic now…

The problem with DRM is that it is usually breakable with a little bit of effort, and any self-respecting pirate will not only put in the effort to break the DRM, they will relish the process. 

If you have to reformat your computer and reinstall certain DRM protected software, you might be stuck with all manner of annoying phone calls to tech-support just to get a new license for software that you legally purchased. Sometimes it becomes easier to either buy new software or, illegally download a new copy of the software that you purchased legally, just to get around the DRM.

So, what we are left with is a big annoying hassle for people like me who actually do buy things. DRM isn’t stopping piracy. In some cases it encourages it because when DRM becomes a nuisance, it becomes a really big problem for users. Checkout what EA did with the DRM on their new games Spore.

There have been many problems with music DRM. For example, checkout the Walmart DRM debacle. 

DRM creation is expensive, and they are only creating new challenges that software pirates are all too happy to overcome. They only need to find one way to break DRM for it to become utterly useless.

So, companies should cut their losses, accept that piracy happens, and stop ruining the user-experience.

Maybe someone will come up with a non-obtrusive method of DRM that doesn’t break too easily, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Thou shalt not ignore software updates

I have been fixing computers ever since I was a little kid. I learned out of necessity because I would accidentally break my parent’s computer, and subsequently have to fix it before they found out.

When I started fixing computers professionally, most of the problems that I would fix were completely preventable. One way to avoid problems with your computer is to keep your software up-to-date.

Now, don’t lie, there have been times, probably many, where you were using your computer and saw Windows Updates, or Mac’s Software Updater pop up, and you thought to yourself, “This is stupid, useless, and annoying,” and then you promptly clicked the “X” in the corner and resumed what you were doing.

That’s bad! Don’t do that.

Software updates fix flaws with your system. Some of these flaws make your system run slower because of mismanaged resources, some make your computer crash, and some allow viruses to take hold of your computer.

Many viruses take advantage of vulnerabilities in software. If those vulnerabilities are eliminated by an update, then the virus cannot take hold and ruin your computer.

That is why it is critically important that you keep all of your software up-to-date.

If you must be lazy about this, then please, at the very least, run the updates on your operating system (Windows, or Mac OS), and your web browser (Internet Explorer, Fire Fox, Safari, or Chrome), as these are the most important and vulnerable pieces of software on your computer.

If you are too busy when the notification pops up, do it later. But make sure you actually do it.

Now, with that said, if you run Windows Updates, and you see that you need to install an update called a “Service Pack” (especially Service Pack 2), STOP!

At this point you need to make sure that your computer is virus, malware, and spyware free (I will be discussing virus, malware, and spyware in future posts). If you install a Service Pack on a contaminated computer, you will probably get a bad installation and your computer will not work very well at all. If you are uncertain about the health of your computer, hire a professional to make sure your computer is running properly.

Also, back up regularly (I will be writing a lot about backing up in future posts). If you have your data backed up, then you have nothing to worry about, because resorting your computers software is fairly easy. Recovering data is rather difficult.

So, keep your computer up-to-date, and as my Mother always said, “Practice safe computing.”

What does that button do?

Screen capturing is in essence, taking a photo of your computer screen, and it might be my favorite computer function.

I use screen capturing all the time to report technical problem at work, or to show friends, family, and clients how to perform tasks on their computer. There are many different and creative ways you can use this function.

Performing this task is a little different on a PC versus a Mac, but I will explain both.

On a PC it is ridiculously simple to do if you have a full size keyboard.

Step 1 – Look down at your keyboard. On the right side of your keyboard, you will see the number pad. Look to the left of the number pad, above the arrow keys. You should see a collection of six to nine buttons that you rarely ever touch. One of them says, “Print Screen,” or something close like “Prnt Scrn.”

Step 2 – Push the “Print Screen” button. Your computer has now copied the the image of the screen.

Step 3 – Open up Microsoft Word, Paint, or Adobe Photoshop.

Step 4 – Right click, and select “Paste.”

Things are a little less intuitive on a Mac, but still extremely simple. The hardest part is remembering what buttons to hit.

In all of these button sequences, it is important to hold all of the buttons down at the same time.

Press Command (the button with the apple on it), the shift key, and the number “3.” If you have your speakers on, you will hear a little camera shutter click sound.

If you want to capture part of the screen, press command, the shift key, and the number “4.” A cross-hair will appear as your cursor. Use the cross-hair to click and drag the box to select the area of the screen you wish to feature.

If you want to capture a window, like the web browser window you are looking at now, press command, the shift key, and the number “4” and the space bar.

There you go, you have successfully performed a screen capture. If you wish, you can edit the image in any way your heart desires.

Google, thanks for the chuckle

I really like and use a lot of Google products… but every once in a while they do something that is really out there.

Enter “Mail Goggles,” the new Gmail feature that, if enabled will make you answer a series of simple math equations before you may send an email on the weekend. 

Why do you need this? 

It is to prevent you from sending regrettable emails while intoxicated (for the record, April Fools Day has long past). 

Now, as a general rule, I want to stay away from matters of politics, religion, and social commentary on this blog… but I can’t help myself.

Seriously, Mail Goggles!?

When I look at this I think of archeologists thousands of years from now. They are looking over the software and other creations of our wonderful society, and they find this… Mail Goggles. This top team of archeologists study our email system, and find this piece of functionality that makes users answer simple math problems before they can send an email… on weekends. They subsequently publish a paper titled, “Elementary Math: 21st Century Humans Enjoy Basic Arithmetic in Spare Time.” In this paper, they ponder how such a technologically advanced society has created this complex email software, yet finds amusement in basic math. Then one day, some young PhD looks over the software and realizes that we are not amused by math… we just lack discipline.

Thank you Google for releasing this software and making me cringe and laugh at the same time. Now if you just add this feature to the Google Android cell phone platform, you can keep drunk people from calling and texting their former significant others. Throwing small rocks at their window in the middle of the night may have a resurgence!

“Technically correct is the best kind of correct”

In the immortal words of Bureaucrat #1.0 from Futurama, “Technically correct is the best kind of correct.”

All of you file sharers out there should be aware of an epidemic that is flooding our iPods with false information.

A long time ago when Napster was cool, some people misnamed a few songs in their share folder. As time passed and more people downloaded those misnamed songs, they began to multiply, spreading their heinous falsehoods throughout the Internet.

Today, there are thousands of people suffering from misattribute-itis. A common disorder whereby the victim thinks one artist performed a particular song, but it really was someone else. 

This stops today my friends. Here is a short list of some of the most common songs that have been misattributed as a result of file sharing:

• Carry On Wayward Son is performed by Kansas, not the Eagles.
• The way cool theme from Top Gun was performed by Steve Stevens, not Eddie Van Halen.
• We Built This City was performed by Jefferson Starship, not Journey.
• Eric Clapton’s song Tears in Heaven is not called Would You Know My Name.
• The Red Hot Chili Pepper’s song Under the Bridge os not called City of Angels.

I am certain there are more out there. I will add them if I find any more. 

Check your iPod friend. Make sure you are not an unwitting victim of misattribute-itis.

It’s what the kids are doing.

What is the difference between social web, web 2.0, and social media?

Nothing, they are all synonyms for the same concept.

Social media (the term that I prefer) is centered on the ideas of community and user-created content.

The most common examples of social media sites are

Social networks (Facebook and MySpace): Sites where users can create a profile and post on other’s profiles. They can create and become part of a larger community.  

Wikis (Wikipedia) – Communal collections of information and knowledge.  The idea behind wikis is that they are the creation of the collective wisdom of the masses. The group is smarter than the individual.  Any user can add to and amend a wiki. Sometimes this system falls apart, but that is a discussion for another day.

Blogs (what you are reading now) – An online diary, log, or personal publishing site. The topic of discussion is up the creator, but any user should be able to comment on the site’s content.

Sharing sites (Flickr, Google Docs) – Sites that allow users to generate all of the content by posting their own material for public or private viewing.

Here is the confusing part. Not all blogs, wikis, and social networks are social media.

For instance, if I were to create a blog and block all or most users from commenting on the content, it is not social web. It is just a normal old-fashioned web site because the communication and interaction only flow in one direction.

Sender –> Receiver

Writer –> Reader

This essentially no different from a newspaper or TV broadcast in that the user has no ability to interact with the content.

The same can be said for Facebook groups that only allow certain special members to post comments on the boards.

The word “social” in social media is literal. If a site does not foster, or at the very least, allow for the creation of a community, then it cannot be social.

Why is this distinction necessary?

Corporations and government are becoming active in social media. However, there is always the urge to control the message by business and government. Control of the message provides protection and power to the creator.

Social media is not about control. It is about transparency and honesty. When people try to hide the truth on the Internet, the truth has a tendency to break free. When the truth breaks free of a cover-up, the fallout is usually worse than it would have been if the party at fault had been upfront in the first place.

Just because social media is new, and “hip” doesn’t mean it is ripe for exploitation. If an organization wants to have a successful foray into social media, it has to play by the rules.

Be honest, be transparent, and a social media site can be a real boon.