the air

It seems that every day, peer to peer (P2P) traffic is on the rise. Almost every media company around the world has categorically illustrated P2P as the bane of the industry. However, very few companies have stepped up and proudly supported P2P technology. The question I pose to most individuals is, “could P2P technology be used for legitimate purposes?” My own answer is yes because P2P allows network traffic to move away from a central server and distributes the traffic over hundreds of network connections. This allows files to be readily available faster while easing network congestion and maybe even reducing costs. However, many companies are threatened by such a model because in its current state, it is actively destroying their commercial enterprise.

I came across an interesting article that looks at the MediaDefender - a company that tries to pro-actively thwart online piracy by flooding numerous sites with fake files - and how it fell from its pedestal through its own faults. MediaDefender and its clients simply fail to understand the basic proclivity of any consumer. This is summarized in thought by one of PirateBay.org’s founder:

consumers don’t care about how Hollywood wants to schedule its releases—movie theaters first, then pay-per-view, and so on. They want the content when and where it’s convenient and comfortable.

I’ve never thought of piracy like that, but I have to admit, he is correct. Consumers want to be able to access content on demand regardless of where and when. For instance, I want to be able to watch the newest movie in the comfort of my own home while the weather outside is freezing cold. Why should I have to drive out to a theatre that has extremely over-priced popcorn and other condiments in frigid weather? What if I could pay the $10 up front and be able to watch that movie in my living room the day it is released?

Piracy is convenient

Everyone can argue that piracy allows anyone to have access to the content for free. And I am not going to dispute that. However, another major benefactor of piracy is simply convenience. It allows me to experience the best without taking away from me too much. It’s far more convenient for me to go ahead and download a song that I heard on the radio rather than wait for it to appear on iTunes. Often, I have noticed that songs I hear on the radio are not always available on iTunes. In addition, “piracy” allows me to fully preview an album before I deem it worthwhile purchasing. The same can go for TV shows. If I want to watch a missed TV show, I can either wait a whole day before Hulu.com or some other site has it available. Or, the smart thing, is to just go on Mininova and download it within several minutes of the program ending on national television.

Companies need to champion convenience

Convenience is what the consumer craves and companies are not willing to provide any convenience. In fact, the only company that is even remotely close to understanding what the consumer wants is Apple. iTunes is a great resource for providing consumers with the content they seek. Moreover, Apple is beginning to tightly integrate several of their products (i.e. AppleTV & iTunes) to make it even easier for consumer to purchase content. If you disagree, just take a look at the onerous methods promoted by Microsoft.

Unfair pricing drives piracy

As a college student, I cannot afford many of the luxuries that try to seduce me. I cannot afford to spend $500 on Adobe software. I cannot afford to spend $300 on Microsoft Office. However, there are times when I absolutely must use certain products in order to successfully complete an assignment or project. The candid part is the fact that thousands of students across the US are in the same boat as me. So what are we to do? Companies would simply say “tough” and I say bullshit to that. I will never accept a company telling me that if I cannot pay an X amount of money I cannot get access to their software to pass a course. And the bottom line is that the damn prices are unfair. Prices should be far more reasonable for consumers in general.

Apple sells Mac OS X Leopard in version for consumers at a price of $129 for a single license or $199 for up to five licenses. Microsoft sells multiple different versions of Windows at different price-points. Windows Vista Ultimate, equivalent to Leopard in many ways, retails for almost $400 for the full version. That is a significant amount of money for any middle-class household. And these companies wonder why people steal. If they had fairer prices, people would actually pay rather than steal. Is that last statement true? Honestly….no

Piracy will never cease

No matter what type of technology is developed or coercive tactics employed by the government and/or companies, piracy will always thrive and lead the way in innovation. As long as their exists a price tag on a product, piracy will exist. The fact that every company needs to accept is that piracy will not go away. You can take steps to reduce its impact but you can never eliminate it. Once companies understand and accept that fact, they can then take the next step and focus on the consumer. Consumers want convenience and they will do whatever they can to ensure maximum convenience. Rather than spending money to eliminate piracy, more companies should invest in strategies that address consumer demands and interests to curtail the effects of piracy. Maybe one day, companies will turn around and listen to their customers. Until then, speak out so others can share your insight. What are your thoughts on piracy and its effects on the industry? What should the companies do? Why is piracy prevailing time after time? These are the questions we all need to be asking and answering.

photo courtesy of rebopper

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It seems that these days, almost everyone is aspiring for an Apple product. Don’t get me wrong, Apple makes a great product that is definitely worth considering. However, I’m not very enthusiastic when some folks decide to use Apple products in questionable ways. Recently, I came across a site that talked about how an aspiring model visited an Apple store frequently and exclusively used it to write her memoir. I think I smell a person trying to get a free Mac out of this.

It is interesting to learn that an individual was able to visit an Apple store daily and write her memoir. I am surprised to learn that the employees at the SoHo Apple Store in New York did not deter her after some time knowing that she was just using their products but was not an actual customer. I have never been to this specific Apple Store, so I cannot comment on how many machines there were, but I would imagine that if a “customer” walked in daily for several months but never bought anything, they would be considered suspicious. Look at it this way, she used a machine that another customer could have looked at, but since she was on the machine, it can be argued that potential sales were lost.

My main disagreement with Isobella (the subject of this post) is the fact that she is willing to promote Apple products primarily because she used an Apple product to write her memoir. She even goes ahead and suggests that she grew up with an Apple II, a very old Apple machine. However, what she does not even bother to say or hint is HOW an Apple product influenced her to write her memoir. In a way, I think she is just trying to convince Apple to give her a free Apple computer and possibly a modeling gig. I’m not going to say whether they should or not, but what Isobella should do is focus more on securing a steady cash flow so that she does not have to visit an Apple store write her memoir but rather, visit an Apple store to purchase an Apple computer.

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It seems to me that a significant number of people write down or declare resolutions that they hope to accomplish when a new year begins. What is surprising is the amount of people who fail in their pursuit and then restate those same resolutions year after year. So this year, do yourself a favor and dump the resolutions.

Some Time Required for Assembly

Ask yourself this, “why am I making this resolution?” Often, I bet your answer will be along the lines of improving your lifestyle. While your resolution is admirable, is it realistic? You cannot expect to go from being overweight and shy to sporting a six pack and the center of attention all within a year. Some people will disagree, but here’s the dirty secret: change takes time. No matter what your philosophy is, changing your habits and lifestyle is a drastic option for your body and mind. Change takes time and energy.

Common Sense is Required

First off, don’t set unrealistic resolutions. Think baby steps when you are changing your lifestyle. This will reduce the likelihood of failing. If you want immediate results, take some pills and start dreaming. However, if you want lasting results, take your time and use common sense. Second, be informed. Always be aware of why you are changing your lifestyle and how your steps will affect your lifestyle. Some steps that you think may help your lifestyle could in fact hurt you. For instance, you may think that by eating less, you will be healthier. However, that is not the case if you are used to eating numerous times a day. Don’t strain your body unnecessarily Rather, you should let your body adjust to change and the same goes for your mind.

Fun It Shall Be

No matter what type of resolution you make, please make sure it is fun for you. If you want to spend less money or blog for money, make sure those events are all fun. I’ve noticed myself getting bored of some resolutions because they are boring and take too much time. To combat such an atrocity, I simply turn around and make the resolution more fun. For example, my resolution for 2007 was to brush my teeth at least twice a day. Two months into it, I was finding that I was lazy and not i the mood to brush at day and night. To make things interesting, I changed my toothbrush often and made sure that I drew a calendar on the mirror and crossed off the days I brushed at least twice a day. Soon, my mind started seeing many empty squares and fewer X’s on the calendar. All of a sudden, I developed an urge to brush at least twice and felt really good whenever I crossed off a day. Simple things and simple tweaks can lead to great results.

My resolution

Now that I told you to dump your resolutions, here’s my resolution for 2008: Make no more resolutions!

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One of the things I despise is censorship. I do not believe in censoring any form of media for the greater good. Rather, it is important for everyone to have access to lucid information so that they can develop their own opinions on a particular subject. Nothing angers me more than seeing the mass media censor reality yet promote fictitious entertainment in all its glory.

The image in this post (above), courtesy of Wonkette, demonstrates how mass media is willing to censor the brutality of reality. The image was shown by ABC and throughly censored; shown below is the actual image:

Sure, ABC can be considered a conservative media outlet, but aren’t these the same guys that promote the show Grey’s Anatomy? Grey’s Anatomy, a great show in my opinion, does have scenes in which characters are bleeding profusely and death is an important element. What I do not appreciate is ABC censoring information that they themselves support through their fictitious entertainment programming.

I will accept the fact that gruesome images from reality should be kept away from children. However, aren’t these same children exposed to graphic images in their own cartoons? Perhaps, or maybe we should just stop censoring media and let the parents control their children’s exposure.

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It seems like one the hottest topics in the world is Global Warming. No matter where you obtain your news, it seems that almost every news media in the world is writing about the harmful effects of pollution. Let’s face it, even members of our communities are pitching in to do every little part to combat global warming. So I have a proposition for you. Why don’t you trash all the paper in your life and move towards a paperless one? I started moving myself towards that and I can proudly say that my life is far more organized than it ever was.

What many critics of the “paperless office” concept won’t tell you is that the transition can be as easy or as hard as you make it. The transition can be done in phases and if you give it a chance, it can actually make your life far more easier to manage than ever before. Here are the key things I changed:

• I have a FranklinCovey paper-based organizer
• I have 3 digital calendars, all synchronized
• I only print documents if a hard copy is required
• I “jot” down notes on my computer

The Paper Organizer

While I’m on the move, I don’t necessarily have my laptop with me. For those times, I keep a FranklinCovey organizer with me (any organizer will do). This helps me quickly write down appointments, glance at my schedule, and quickly plan out the day. Since I don’t have a PDA, the paper organizer substitutes nicely. The only trick here is that every night, I update my calendars and task lists on my laptop. Needless to say, if I didn’t do this, it would totally defeat the purpose of a paperless based life.

3 Calendars Surround Me

The first question that probably comes to your head is, “why do I have 3 electronic calendars that are all synchronized?” The answer is simply, it offers me the greatest flexibility:

• iCal: the primary calendar
• iPod Touch: the mobile calendar
• Google Calendar: the web-based calendar

Most of my calendar events are created in iCal, the calendar application included with every Mac. Every night, I manually type in new events that I wrote down in my organizer; even if the event has already elapsed. This helps me maintain a record of all my scheduled events and pinpoint any meeting for future reference. By putting a copy of my calendar on my iPod Touch, I am able to keep my calendar with me no matter where I am since my iPod goes everywhere with me. I generally don’t create events on my iPod because it is unable to handle multiple calendars. Finally, I keep another copy of my calendar on Google Calendar. This ensures that I have access to my calendar in some form, even if I forget my iPod Touch and do not have access to my laptop.

I do keep a copy of my calendar on my cell phone, but I happen to leave my cell phone at home quite often, so I don’t necessarily think of it as reliable. Furthermore, I maintain separate calendars for my courses so that I can further see how my day is scheduled and plan more efficiently.

No Wasteful Printing

I do not print documents unless I need to submit them in paper format. Even if I am working in a group, I will always make my comments and markups in electronic format. This cuts down on my printing expenses and ensures that I reduce paper waste. Just this past semester, I introduced my groups to the robust reviewing features found in Microsoft Word. All my group members were surprised at how easy it was to view the different changes we all made to the document and quickly accept or deny the changes. It doesn’t matter if your word processor of choice does not have those robust reviewing features. Just make sure that you can peer edit your papers electronically in some form. Another great thing that has helped out is the ability to “print” documents in PDF format. This way, I can have my papers electronically “printed” so that even if I have to pass my document to someone else, all they need is the free PDF viewer to view the document.

Make Notes Electronically

We all have a need to make a quick note somewhere. Why not do it directly on your computer or your paper organizer? I have several “post-it” like notes on my desktop that help me remember things. Every time I need to jot something down, I just use my computer to create the note. Now if I’m in a complete hurry, I’ll use the “scrap” section of my paper organizer, but I never waste my time with sticky notes. They not only make my desk look messy, but they are prone to falling down if the adhesive does not adhere well.

You may never have a truly “paper-less office”, but you can work towards reducing waste and improving efficiency. By just making the alterations I mentioned, I was able to accomplish more work in the same amount of time. Furthermore, my desk was starting to appear more cleaner and more organized. The changes won’t happen overnight and some may not even work for you, but there is no harm in trying. Give it a shot and let me know how it works for you. What other changes do you suggest that would improve efficiency or organization? What are your thoughts on the paperless office concept?

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