8 Sep 2003 (updated 8 Sep 2003 at 17:56 UTC)
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Once again my weekend was eaten by weasels. I did not get my website set up, nor did I get any work on my essays done. A friend came over on Sunday, and my wife and I spent most of the day with her; it was fun, but it was no help in getting my "geek stuff" done.
I did buy another 25 ft. ethernet cable for my computer room to replace the one that broke. Here's a tip: never buy cables at Radio Shack. They clipped me $15 for a lousy Cat-5 patch cable! I should have just gone to some internet-based cable outfit and got one for $5 or so, but I was in a hurry. Still -- fifteen bucks for a damned cable! That's highway robbery! (And that's why I haven't shopped at a Radio Shack in years. How quickly I forget.)
[UPDATE]
I just sent $100 to the EFF. I had this money earmarked for music CD's, but the RIAA Lawsuit clusterf**k is under way, and I have no intention of funding their actions. Screw 'em. I'll buy my CD's used from now on; most of the music I like is old stuff anyhow.
Let me be clear: I support the idea of copyright. How could I not? I am a writer, and I would vigorously defend my own copyright against infringers. But this is little more than a dying industry trying to bully its customers into supporting its ludicrous business-model.
I have no problem in paying the artist for their work. I'm even willing to pay a distributor a value-add if they can package and promote the given work in a way that makes it more attractive or easier to use. But I refuse to pay what is in essence a tax simply to prop up a bloated do-nothing bureaucracy. There's no earthly reason a music CD should cost $18, and yet most new releases do (in fact, I've seem some that are as high as $21!). That's highway robbery.
So: I will either buy my CD's used (thus giving my trade to local businesses and depriving the RIAA of revenue all in one shot), and I will patronize artists who sell their own music over the web.
To the RIAA: that sound you hear is your doom approaching.