Last Friday, a bumptious ignoramus hit me with a corollary to the old “Information just wants to be free” mantra, and I’ve been on a slow boil ever since.
“Information just wants to be free” has been the call to arms for every digital anarchist in the last three decades, and it is used as the justification for everything from hacker attacks to electronic piracy.
The corollary, with which I was hit on Friday, came in the form of a troll-post berating an artist who (gasp!) was charging a fee for her creative services. The outraged boob publicly shamed this artist, telling her that her “gifts should be given for free,” not hawked on the streetcorner.
In other words: Talent just wants to be free, too.
The idiocy of both of these rallying cries is blatant, and I’m bloody sick of it. (more…)
You’ve noticed it. Websites are more in-your-face, lately; in some cases, they’re downright adversarial. Navigating them can be an education in frustration. Ads, videos, pop-ups, overlays, log-in requirements–it’s ridiculous. Advertisements are no longer passive; they’ve even moved beyond passive-aggressive. They’re just plain aggressive, now.
Let’s take a break from news about my career change (because there’s no news to report) and turn to a quandary solved. I speak, of course, of the answer to the crucial question: “Xbox One or PS4?”
The 14th century was a seriously bad time marked by The Black Death and The Hundred Years’ War. After the plague, to combat the wage inflation caused by there being 30-50% fewer folks standing around, the nobility said, “Sure, I’ll pay you twice what I used to pay you,” and then they turned around and devalued the coins they used. Thus, even though you were now paid 6 sous each day, with their value cut in half they’d only buy you 3 sous worth of goods. Complain as you might, you were powerless to change it.
Example 1: When I got my viola repaired I purchased a backup-bow. It is not made of pernambuco wood. In fact, it is not made of wood at all. It’s made of carbon fiber. Carbon fiber!
Kurt R.A. Giambastiani 