Today I updated my Yahoo Messenger and it came with a thing called LAUNCHcast Radio sure it is Yahoo pushing another of their services to their customers and shit. But since you can create your station for free and themusic quality is good, I gave it a try. And I must say this : COOL!!!
Their casting is smooth and works well. I already have something like 2-3 Gb of MP3s at my work computer just to keep the variety going, but withbroadband internet acess and the radio I'm pretty sure my horizon of musichas just exploded. Another thing on LAUNCHcast is that you can rate almost everything, from genre to artist, albums and song. With that in place they'll keep playing the stuff you like and avoid what you don't like. If they're going to sell that information, or use it to clean their buttocks I don't really care. I want a soundtrack to work with and I don't care about anadvertising here and there.So if you want to check my station click here
20.7.04
23.6.04
Copyright, GNU and Creative Comons
I don't know if you noticed, but now I have a footer on every page that looks like this :
Now what the hell is that? That is another bright idea that started on the internet and thru it became versuccessfulll. What that is? It is a copyright that allows the use of the work or part of it.
Let me explain this on a simple way. Everytime you create something, that automatically has a copyright on it. You made it, you spent your time in the creation, it's yours. No-one can copy, use part of it, distribute or any other thing without your consent. That is the '©' next to logos and on every book you'll find on a bookstore.
But since the popularization of the internet one thing came up quickly : cooperative work. We suddenly have lots of people from around the world working on the same program/book/music. And there was the single person that made something that he wanted to be distributed thru the internet. Be it a free software or a book. With that raised the GNU license that has it's pro's and cons and normally only applies to software.
Creative Commons created a few "copyright licenses" for normal people. That means no lawyers, nor confusions when trying to use someone's work. Each license has two versions, the easy-to-read-and-easy-to-understand one and the legal wording one. Both say the same thing one is for the average people (you and me) and the other is for the lawyers of the world that like to speak weird stuff and read 3000 lines affirming something that can be said in one line and without fuss.
So Creative Commons made the (CC), something that states: "I made this, but you can use it if you do this and that." Simple, easy and fair to all. And better yet CC covers from text to music and other stuff.
Clearly everyone that has something online should check Creative Commons so they can assure their rights and still allow people to use their work. Like I do.
My type of CC License, says simply that you can use anything on this blog and by use I mean : copy, distributexhibitbit, execute, create something using this as a starting point, and even use commerciallylly. But you have to give me credit for what is my work and everything you do has to have the same License. It's that simple.
Use freely but add my name to the damn thing so I get the credit I deserve.
Cool?
I know I am.
Unless otherwise expressly stated, all original material of whatever nature created by Diego M. Diehl and included in this weblog and any related pages, including the weblog's archives, is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Now what the hell is that? That is another bright idea that started on the internet and thru it became versuccessfulll. What that is? It is a copyright that allows the use of the work or part of it.
Let me explain this on a simple way. Everytime you create something, that automatically has a copyright on it. You made it, you spent your time in the creation, it's yours. No-one can copy, use part of it, distribute or any other thing without your consent. That is the '©' next to logos and on every book you'll find on a bookstore.
But since the popularization of the internet one thing came up quickly : cooperative work. We suddenly have lots of people from around the world working on the same program/book/music. And there was the single person that made something that he wanted to be distributed thru the internet. Be it a free software or a book. With that raised the GNU license that has it's pro's and cons and normally only applies to software.
Creative Commons created a few "copyright licenses" for normal people. That means no lawyers, nor confusions when trying to use someone's work. Each license has two versions, the easy-to-read-and-easy-to-understand one and the legal wording one. Both say the same thing one is for the average people (you and me) and the other is for the lawyers of the world that like to speak weird stuff and read 3000 lines affirming something that can be said in one line and without fuss.
So Creative Commons made the (CC), something that states: "I made this, but you can use it if you do this and that." Simple, easy and fair to all. And better yet CC covers from text to music and other stuff.
Clearly everyone that has something online should check Creative Commons so they can assure their rights and still allow people to use their work. Like I do.
My type of CC License, says simply that you can use anything on this blog and by use I mean : copy, distributexhibitbit, execute, create something using this as a starting point, and even use commerciallylly. But you have to give me credit for what is my work and everything you do has to have the same License. It's that simple.
Use freely but add my name to the damn thing so I get the credit I deserve.
Cool?
I know I am.
16.6.04
Free e-mail services...
Well I got me a gmail today thanks to José Rojas. How did I get it? Go to Gmail Swap and find out. But I'm here to talk about all the free stuff on the web.
What really is free in the world? I know of two things 1) Sindome and 2) Starwars MUSH. They are the only two things that are really free on the internet that I know of.
Why? It's simple, every free service on the internet isn't free. There is a cost to maintain a server and when there are costs there is money. Let's take e-mails for instance, there are web servers, data servers and personal to pay for. But you aren't paying for them, as neither am I. Or are we? Yes we are. Every time we access our free online e-mail we generate renevue for the ones that give us free stuff.
Renevue is directly connected to the number of times a web page is shown, but in this case it is advertising. If you thought banners, you're right. Every time you go to any website that has a service that is free there is at least one banner on it. And I must say that I love banners, simply for the fact that they just take a small portion of the page and do nothing until you click them. But I hate popups, popups are the devil spawn and should be forbidden of existence. They are simply the most annoying thing on the whole internet (apart from 13 years old boys who think they know everything).
But back to the topic, there is no such thing as free stuff on the internet. Someone is paying for it. Internet = cost. And whenever you see a banner you know that the page you're seeing right there was paid for the guy who ordered that banner. And by having that banner on the page, you increased that advertisement exposure by 1.
Multiply that one by the various pages an average user goes thru on a day and by the number of users that service has and you'll know that I'm talking about a lot of money. That pays your free service and even generates income for the company, lots of income... Trust me if there isn't profit they wouldn't do it.
Now back to free e-mails, Google's Gmail will offer 1Gb (one gigabyte!!!) of space for your e-mails and that's a lot! Yahoo has raised it's quota to 100Mb in response. So what's the deal? Is Google using all it's money from selling shares on the market to buy storage space?
Not really. The space you have in any e-mail account is virtual. That means that they don't reserve 1Gb or 100Mb for each account. They raise the account space as it is needed. Something like if you have 2mb of space used you'll have like 4mb freed for your account once it gets close to that they'll get you another 2mb and so on... That's how they can offer thousands of people 100Mb of free space. Most of the users stay on the 50% usage of a 4mb account just so they can receive larger e-mails when needed. But with 1Gb people will start to go nuts and pass on larger and larger e-mails. How Google will cope with that I do not know, but I'll be testing a big fat email soon. Maybe I'll send myself a DVD rip of some movie I have or something... 600mb on one e-mail. [Edit] It appears that the maximum size of any email you can send or receive from Gmail is 10Mb Still good enough [/Edit]
The catch of Gmail is directed advertising, they want you to keep your e-mails so they have a good base on what interests you have and other stuff. The procedure is totally automated and scans for keywords on your mails. It's neat stuff, revolutionary and will be a success. Imagine having banners that are pertinent to what you like without having some type of worm or cookie installed on your computer? The rate of clicks by ads shown will raise sky high.
Way to go Google.
What really is free in the world? I know of two things 1) Sindome and 2) Starwars MUSH. They are the only two things that are really free on the internet that I know of.
Why? It's simple, every free service on the internet isn't free. There is a cost to maintain a server and when there are costs there is money. Let's take e-mails for instance, there are web servers, data servers and personal to pay for. But you aren't paying for them, as neither am I. Or are we? Yes we are. Every time we access our free online e-mail we generate renevue for the ones that give us free stuff.
Renevue is directly connected to the number of times a web page is shown, but in this case it is advertising. If you thought banners, you're right. Every time you go to any website that has a service that is free there is at least one banner on it. And I must say that I love banners, simply for the fact that they just take a small portion of the page and do nothing until you click them. But I hate popups, popups are the devil spawn and should be forbidden of existence. They are simply the most annoying thing on the whole internet (apart from 13 years old boys who think they know everything).
But back to the topic, there is no such thing as free stuff on the internet. Someone is paying for it. Internet = cost. And whenever you see a banner you know that the page you're seeing right there was paid for the guy who ordered that banner. And by having that banner on the page, you increased that advertisement exposure by 1.
Multiply that one by the various pages an average user goes thru on a day and by the number of users that service has and you'll know that I'm talking about a lot of money. That pays your free service and even generates income for the company, lots of income... Trust me if there isn't profit they wouldn't do it.
Now back to free e-mails, Google's Gmail will offer 1Gb (one gigabyte!!!) of space for your e-mails and that's a lot! Yahoo has raised it's quota to 100Mb in response. So what's the deal? Is Google using all it's money from selling shares on the market to buy storage space?
Not really. The space you have in any e-mail account is virtual. That means that they don't reserve 1Gb or 100Mb for each account. They raise the account space as it is needed. Something like if you have 2mb of space used you'll have like 4mb freed for your account once it gets close to that they'll get you another 2mb and so on... That's how they can offer thousands of people 100Mb of free space. Most of the users stay on the 50% usage of a 4mb account just so they can receive larger e-mails when needed. But with 1Gb people will start to go nuts and pass on larger and larger e-mails. How Google will cope with that I do not know, but I'll be testing a big fat email soon. Maybe I'll send myself a DVD rip of some movie I have or something... 600mb on one e-mail. [Edit] It appears that the maximum size of any email you can send or receive from Gmail is 10Mb Still good enough [/Edit]
The catch of Gmail is directed advertising, they want you to keep your e-mails so they have a good base on what interests you have and other stuff. The procedure is totally automated and scans for keywords on your mails. It's neat stuff, revolutionary and will be a success. Imagine having banners that are pertinent to what you like without having some type of worm or cookie installed on your computer? The rate of clicks by ads shown will raise sky high.
Way to go Google.
15.6.04
Colors
I like black. I have black as the background of my computer screen, on the background of my NetBeans and text editors. I love it. But I am not fond of pastel greens over black, don't ask me why. Maybe it's just too much Cyberpunk influence, but for me green on black has to look like it will burn your eye. Full glowing green with the faint ones being at 70% when on the minimum.
And I like blue, and blue on black too so I took some time from my working day to make this thing blue on black. Gave it some fades and tried to make the colors on the sidebar not get more attention than the post itself. So there you have it, new colors and duotoneish style.
Oh yeah, if you can't read the darker stuff, your computer screen isn't set up correctly. It's not my fault. I can read them all. Fix your brightness and contrast, I won't change it back.
And I like blue, and blue on black too so I took some time from my working day to make this thing blue on black. Gave it some fades and tried to make the colors on the sidebar not get more attention than the post itself. So there you have it, new colors and duotoneish style.
Oh yeah, if you can't read the darker stuff, your computer screen isn't set up correctly. It's not my fault. I can read them all. Fix your brightness and contrast, I won't change it back.
14.6.04
A thought on roleplaying
Sometimes when I'm playing RPGs (either online or not), I get the feeling that everyone is an elf. Really, most of people describe their characters as beautiful people, thin, tall and even tanned! And when I say most people, I'm talking about a big fat portion of them, if the ones that don't have greek gods as their characters would be put on a pie graph, their slice would be slim.
I mean, come on! Why does everyone need to be gorgeous, sexy and fit? I'm known to have some of the weirdest characters all around and I play mostly for the fun, than for giving my ego a boost up. People, please get real and break that barrier where your character is a representation of yourself like you would like them to be. Some of the players of both online text based RPGs that I play (Sindome and SWMUSH) are already there and it's a bliss, but even in those places much of the options on character creation are left behind and overlooked.
Why? People like to look good, they feel pretty... It's the subliminal connection between yourself and your character. You want to be accepted, you want to be among the 'cool people'. Well guess what? You don't! It's a game, make your character so you get the most of it, and in the RP focus make him different. Always remember different doesn't mean better, never. On a world of elves the dwarf stands out. If everyone is gorgeous, tall and fit as a bull. Create something different, give them scars (and not those cool ritualistic ones), make a Sloth from goonies and see how much fun you'll have everyday instead of the same thing day after day.
But as far as looks goes, it isn't the biggest of problems. One of the biggest I found everywhere is what I call over-especialization. It's like you have one character and all that he can do is this and nothing more. He's the best on this but if he's ever alone and he needs to do that, he's doomed. It's like having a car jacker that only drives automatic cars, once he gets his hands on an expensive as hell ferrari he's done. He'll never take the car out... RPGs are all about diverse situations where you'll need to use lots of skills in order to get away in one piece.
On Neverwinter Nights there are loads of people that create a character that is the best at fighting and can kill a dragon alone... Guess what? One trap on the floor and he's history. Why? No variation, the same thing over and over again. See monster, knockdown, devastating critical, rinse and repeat. Even mages on nwn are repetitive as hell, the guy doesn't even change his spells to see what he can do. No it's bigby's, bigby's, bigby's, bigby's, missile storm, missile storm, rinse and repeat on the next target.
And people say that the game is getting dull. Why? Because of you ( and sometimes me too, I admit ). Try to broaden your RP by thinking outside the usual box and aiming for something that makes you unique. Once you got that, no day will be dull.
I mean, come on! Why does everyone need to be gorgeous, sexy and fit? I'm known to have some of the weirdest characters all around and I play mostly for the fun, than for giving my ego a boost up. People, please get real and break that barrier where your character is a representation of yourself like you would like them to be. Some of the players of both online text based RPGs that I play (Sindome and SWMUSH) are already there and it's a bliss, but even in those places much of the options on character creation are left behind and overlooked.
Why? People like to look good, they feel pretty... It's the subliminal connection between yourself and your character. You want to be accepted, you want to be among the 'cool people'. Well guess what? You don't! It's a game, make your character so you get the most of it, and in the RP focus make him different. Always remember different doesn't mean better, never. On a world of elves the dwarf stands out. If everyone is gorgeous, tall and fit as a bull. Create something different, give them scars (and not those cool ritualistic ones), make a Sloth from goonies and see how much fun you'll have everyday instead of the same thing day after day.
But as far as looks goes, it isn't the biggest of problems. One of the biggest I found everywhere is what I call over-especialization. It's like you have one character and all that he can do is this and nothing more. He's the best on this but if he's ever alone and he needs to do that, he's doomed. It's like having a car jacker that only drives automatic cars, once he gets his hands on an expensive as hell ferrari he's done. He'll never take the car out... RPGs are all about diverse situations where you'll need to use lots of skills in order to get away in one piece.
On Neverwinter Nights there are loads of people that create a character that is the best at fighting and can kill a dragon alone... Guess what? One trap on the floor and he's history. Why? No variation, the same thing over and over again. See monster, knockdown, devastating critical, rinse and repeat. Even mages on nwn are repetitive as hell, the guy doesn't even change his spells to see what he can do. No it's bigby's, bigby's, bigby's, bigby's, missile storm, missile storm, rinse and repeat on the next target.
And people say that the game is getting dull. Why? Because of you ( and sometimes me too, I admit ). Try to broaden your RP by thinking outside the usual box and aiming for something that makes you unique. Once you got that, no day will be dull.
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