Inside the mind of Jamie Starke

This webcomic (http://xkcd.com/488/) was released today, and I think it has a very valid point specifically in the context of what Mr. Prentice is trying to do to the Canadian Copyright system.  Although I myself still purchase large numbers of CD's and DVDs, there are those out there that do pirate media, or purchase their media through legal means which use some kind of Digital Rights Management (DRM).

The problem with what Mr. Prentice has proposed with Bill C-61 is that there are 3 Major operating systems (Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux).  The truely unfortunate thing is that these DRM based companies usually leave 1 or 2 of these operating systems out of their schemes, meaning, should any of these individuals that purchases their media through legal means end up on one of these systems (such as mac os x or linux), their media is now inoperable.  Lets look at one of these legal media systems.  For instance, lets take the Walmart music site.  This system uses WMA supported DRM.  Now, lets say when the user signed up for the site, this worked perfectly well for their needs, but last month, they purchased an iPod (The largest mobile music player on the market).  The music that they have legally paid for would fail to play on this major music system. 

Walmart is a classic example of why DRM is bad.  For DRM to function correctly, a server needs to maintain who is the legal owner of a music file.  Last week, Walmart decided to shut down their Music store, thus turning off this server, which in essense, made authentication of these users files impossible, and they lost the ability to play them, through no fault of their own.  Should one of these users try to 'break' this DRM to play a song that they legally purchased, under bill C-61, they would be liable for $20000 in damages. 

Now back to the cartoon (http://xkcd.com/488/).  As you can see, this cartoon is very truthful in reality.  Many users are faced with two choices, those that download illegal, DRM-free content (see piracy) or those that purchase their content legally.  Those that purchase legally have a chance that the situation will change (sometimes beyond their control, see http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/10/wal-mart-will-c.html), and their purchases will become obsolete, and be unusable, and any action to render these files playable, would be a violation under bill C-61, and would could face a $20000 fine, and thus make the person a criminal.  If the person instead downloads the content illegally to begin with, but DRM free, they will face a much smaller fine if caught ($500), but their content will be consistently, and often universally playable, no matter how their circumstances change.  Is this really the message we want to send to our citizens?  It is better to do the illegal thing first off, because if you purchase legally, and someone else changes how they feel the media should be used or your circumstances change, you'll still be more of a criminal anyway?

To anyone that things Bill C-61 is behind us, your wrong.  On October 7th, with the Conservative Party's platform they made a "pledge to reintroduce copyright reform".  This will likely again mean lots of Closed door discussions with Media lobby groups from south of the border, and no consumer involvement. 

Make a stand for Canada, and Tell Mr. Prentice that you think Canada deserves and Open Democracy, where Everyone gets a say.

Well, I was watching the beginning of the Oilers-Carolina Game 6, and during the national anthem, I have to say that I was proud.

The started with the American National Anthem.  You could hear the crowd singing along.  When it got the Canadian national anthem, it was amazing.  About 15 second in, the singer just held up his microphone, and let the crowd carry it on.  It was amazing, the entire anthem went on without a stop. 

When they showed the audience, that is when I saw that he is infact one of us.  Prime Minister Steven Harper was not in a private box, or in a sectioned off area, but he was right out in the middle of the crowd, like an average Canadian, enjoying our sport.

Go Steven!

So hydrogen fuel cell research has been around for years. Everybody knows about it. Unfortunately, the people putting the most R&D towards hydrogen fuel cell research are the big oil companies. If a smaller company makes and significant strides towards a working model, they usually get bought up by the oil companies.

Does anybody else see a problem with this? The people in control of the technology that is designed to replace Gasoline is the people that produce, market and sell gasoline? Does anybody else see this as a conflict of interest? I mean come on, do you honestly thing that these companies, that are seeing record profits, lead by people that are getting record bonuses (in an effort to pay less tax) are really going to release the technology that will kill their industry before they absolutely have to?

Of course not. So why are they the ones getting government grants to do all the R&D. I'm sure what's really going on it that their taking those grants, highering the researchers to solve the problem, then sitting on the solution till it's in their best interest to do otherwise.

Well, Luckily the US Government must have seen something like this happening as well. If your a researcher, and you happen to solve the problem for one of these big companies, do they need you anymore? Why would they?

That is why they came up with the 'H-Prize'. Basically, if your the person that comes up with the technology, there is a $10 000 000 grand prize for doing it. Of course, this is only open to members of the United States, but why doesn't Canada do something like this? I'm sure we'd see a solution a lot faster, cause if you were a researcher at one of these big oil companies, and you've completed the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technology, then your boss says, great, well, we'll release it when the time is right, and you know that it's worth $10 000 000 to you, will you say anything? Why wouldn't you?

To all those members of the Alberta Provincial Progressive Conservative Party,

I've been a life long citizen of Alberta, Born at the Foothills Hospital, Living in Calgary, or one of the small towns around it. I am a Born and Raised Albertan.

Almost as long as I can remember we've had Klein as our Premier. I won't lie and say that everything he did, I loved.

Lets be honest, I was in school during the budget cuts of the early 90's. Hell, I've written a blog or two concerning them.

I remember, I even got to meet Klein once, when I was in grade 4 or 5, he was in Black Diamond, to do the ribbon cutting for a pedestrian bridge, so that all of the citizens going between Black Diamond, and Turner Valley wouldn't have to try to cross on the shoulder of the busy bridge.

Now, I may not have been extremely happy with the cut backs at the time. I was directly effected by them, but as I grew older, I realize that they were necessary. It is because of these cutbacks that Alberta has so many things that other provinces don't. We made cutbacks so that we could pay down our debt, and it is now because of this that we have one of the lowest tax rates in Canada. It is also because of this that we could receive things like the Prosperity Rebates. Had we not paid down our debt, guess where that money would go. Right away. No ifs ands or buts. Had we not paid down our debt all of that extra money would have been funnelled towards paying down our debt.

Klein has done so much for our Province in his 14 years. Ralph, you should be proud of everything you've achieved. The Lois Hole Campus Alberta Digital Library will be a reality in the next few years, the first of its kind in Canada, if not the world, and this is a legacy that you can be proud to be part of. Paying down our debt, keeping our taxes low, all things to be proud of.

To all of the people that forced Klein out, All the people that plan to run for the leadership, and the Alberta Provincial Liberals. Don't start counting your blessings yet. This might be a double edged sword. You have some Extremely large boots to fill. People have high expectations from such a great man, and if you don't fill those boots, I can guarantee that you will be getting the chop. However, I doubt you'll make it 14 years.

Well, it has officially began, the Government has fallen in a vote of non-confidence.

Party leaders came out swinging Tuesday after Parliament was officially
dissolved, triggering the longest federal election campaign in a
quarter-century that will end with a vote on Jan. 23 in the throes of
winter. -CBC

And ofcourse, what kind of a federal election would it be without a Federal Liberal FUD Campaign.

Jack Layton thinks government should do everything, even if it puts at
risk the nation's finances. Stephen Harper sees no role for government
and would turn his back on our investments in early learning, in cities
and communities and helping immigrants adapt to their new lives in
Canada. -CBC

Ofcourse, if you go to the main page of the Liberal Party of Canada page, you will already notice which direction they are going with their campaign.

As of the time of the writing of this article, 1/6th of the main page was devoted to the accomplishments of Paul Martin, Which let me just say, was 8 points long, and some of the points seemed pretty insignificant.

On the other side of things, along the lines of their FUD campaign, they have devoted 1/2 of the page towards an article saying that "Stephen Harper would roll back Charter Rights"

Now does anybody notice what is missing here? So they have talked about what they've done, they've talked about what other people are going to to. What they seem to be missing completely, what they would do where they in power.

What I find even funnier than that, is the lack of information that they have for a candidate in my area. Infact, all you can tell from their page is that the guy's name is Michael Swanson.

The NDP Party has quite a different focus on their Main Page. About half of their page is devoted to a section to Find your Candidate. About 1/6th of their main page is also devoted to What this Election is about. They also have a smaller section for Headlines, one of which is called Promise Made, Promise . . . Made, about what the Liberals have promised, and what they've actually done with it.

The NDP page also has a really nice biography for my local Candidate in Calgary Southwest, Holly Heffernan. The one thing that I feel that they are missing a little bit, is her personal views, and what she believes in.

The Conservative Party of Canada's Main page is larger than that of it's competitors, so it's a little hard to estimate how much of the page is used for different things. One of the largest elements is their Campaign of Accountability. They also have a headlines section larger then the NDP called Reality Check, where they have articles about things like Kenney Demanding an Apology for the Liberal Attack on Harper's Patriotism, and an article about how Liberals are Misleading Canadians.

There is also a nice Biography for my Calgary Southwest riding candidate, that includes things like, what they would do if they were in power, and what they believe in. But then again, my candidate is Steven Harper, so it's not exactly a surprise.

The Green Party of Canada, well, their page honestly makes me laugh just a little. The biggest section on their main page is titled "Yes, Virginia there really seems to be a grinch - three grinches to be exact." Other than that, they have the same kind of What's New Section, but nothing sounds all to exciting.

The thing I find funniest about their site, when you go to look up your candidate, you might run into something like I did in Calgary Southwest. When I went to the page, I got a nice message, saying "If you would like to be a candidate or volunteer for this riding,
please contact the National Office of the Green Party of Canada."

So needless to say, I'm still quite unsure about which way I would like to vote. If I have any candidates reading this, Get ahold of me, I would love to learn your views!