On Sunday, May 7, 2017 John Oliver told his audience about Net Neutrality. During his 20 minute segment he indicated that gofccyourself.com will redirect people to the FCC page to leave comments. You can viewthe video clip, approximately 20 minutes long and definitely R rated and NSFW, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92vuuZt7wak Continue reading “FCC Declares DDoS, I declare Shenanigans”
Tag: Common Good
There are many things on my mind about David Bowie’s passing yesterday. I am struck by the loss and the suddenness of it. Mr. Bowie knew it was coming and wanted to be private about it. Perhaps that is what makes, I should write made, him so special.
One of my favorite songs is “Heroes”. Whenever a dear friend of mine asks for a favor, he asks, “Will you be a hero…” followed by the request. Those interactions are resonating in my head today even more. My goal is to be a Hero just for one day. I hope you will join me in the effort.
“We can be heroes
We can be heroes
We can be heroes
Just for one day
We can be heroes”
-David Bowie & Brian Eno
Below is a piece I commissioned Mike McKone to draw at C2E2 in 2015. I am not very glad I did. Thank you Bill for convincing me; you are Henchman #1.
David Bowie as the Joker
As I was taking pictures this weekend I thought about how I want people to be able to use my content and thoughts. Part of this was sparked also by my recent appearance on AVNation’s AVWeek Podcast Episode 189: I Know Who To Call. Tim brought up some topics that I have both experience with and opinions about, so I shared them with everyone. I was pleasantly surprised when I was also quoted heavily in an article on Commercial Integrator as well. So it got me to thinking, what are the rights I want to reserve or share? I am currently listening to Cory Doctorow’s book Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free: Laws for the Internet Age
I have already created some content obviously you are reading some now, I have have images available at photos.bradfordbenn.com that can be used. I have until now been keeping a tight leash on the images with watermarks and right click protection. I plan on keeping some protection in place, not quite sure how much yet or how it will be set up. However I want to share the information and experiences with more people. Yes, I would like to earn some money along the way, however at the moment that is not the key goal for me. I want to create things and put them out in the open for people to enjoy. I just want to know when things I create are being used.
So having said that you can see the description of the usage rights I have created at the page https://bradfordbenn.com/creative-commons/. The idea is that if you are using my content for personal use, you may do that with attribution. If you want to use my content for commercial use, there is still licensing issues to be discussed. I encourage you to consider how you want your content handled, keeping in mind that many of the tools we are open source and are being shared as well.
My faithful reader might remember that in August of 2009 I posted my Three Rules. These rules apply all the time, of course tempered by common sense. At the time I alluded to there being a fourth rule being considered. I am pleased to announce that after much testing and verifying that there is now a fourth rule.
The Four Rules are:
- I am not prejudiced, I hate everyone equally.
- Do not ask anyone to do something you wouldn’t do.
- If you are not sleeping with me, I don’t care who you are sleeping with.
- Don’t see anyone you work with, without their pants on.
Many people think I am being flippant with these Four Rules, but I can say that they have gotten me through life this far. I wish I could say I have followed these rules my whole life, but I did not crystallize them until I was in my 30’s. Now in my continuing effort to leave things (the World) better than I found it I am sharing my rules with you.
It seems like these don’t really make sense until you start thinking about them as they actually apply in daily life. Let’s take a look at each rule.
I am not prejudiced, I hate everyone equally.
This is my flippant or sarcastic approach to equality. I believe in treating people equally however as I have found from traveling, I dislike People. People are different than a Person. It does not matter their background, race, religion, creed, or gender they all annoy me. I see the Person for their behaviors and actions; that is what one should be judged on. People are all the same in my eyes, a Person might be different.
Do not ask anyone to do something you wouldn’t do.
This one applies in many situations and is very closely related to the “Golden Rule” of treating people like you would like to be treated. An easy example is the borrowing of money, do not ask someone to lend you an amount of money you would not be comfortable lending out. It can also apply to the work place, such as asking someone to work extra hours, if you wouldn’t do it why would you expect someone else to?
If you are not sleeping with me, I don’t care who you are sleeping with.
This one is not as straight forward as some of the other rules. However it still applies. It started with people gossiping about who was going out with whom. Relationships are hard enough why make it harder by gossiping about it. The additional application of this rule is toward LGBT couples. As long as things are between two consenting adults, why should it bother me. It is just the same to me as whether someone likes chocolate or vanilla ice cream. It is personnel preference and as long as you are not pushing your opinion on anyone why should I care?
Don’t see anyone you work with, without their pants on
This rule also requires a lot of common sense. I think everyone understands this one, don’t bring personal relationships into the office. It makes things harder, there are always calls of nepotism as well. Also I use this rule to explain to people why I won’t share hotel rooms. In my opinion when traveling everyone needs a little privacy and sharing hotel rooms can prevent that from happening. If you and your partner are starting a business together, that would be excluded. It is key to remember that the word with is in there, couples can work for the same company just I would avoid being in the same project.
It is important for each person to find their own code and rules to live by. These Four Rules are my guideposts. They have gotten me this far, however remember to temper all things with thought.
I recently was asked by one of my Twitter followers why I tweet once a day the date and to be nice to one another and to be polite. There are three reasons that I will share and the rest are conversations for later.
The first reason started during the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 events. I remembered how the world changed that day, but not just in the innocence and lives lost but for a brief period of time when everyone was nice to each other. I was not just the local community, it was wide spread to the country, and most of the world. I experienced it myself at Los Angeles Airport, LAX, the morning of Sept 14. I was on one of the first flights out of LAX. I arrived at the airport four hours before my flight. The place was packed. Security was tight, there were lines everywhere. However everyone was polite and nice. People in the line were sharing their food with strangers. There was no pushing and shoving or frustration at the security check point. Other than the huge time amount and long lines it was actually pleasant. People were nice to each other and for a few days, weeks, or months, the world was a better place in my not so humble opinion.
The second reason is that the Interwebs can easily become a repository of just negative things. I am guilty of it as well. Often people broadcast when bad things are happening and their dislike of a situation, person, or company. I am guilty of it with my rants about the NHL. However I tried to be polite about and nice to the person who was helping me, when I got help which was only once. See, I did it again. I try to be aware of it, it is part of the reason when I encounter problems I try to communicate directly with the parties involved. It is too easy for the dogpile effect to happen online, one person says something bad and then lots of other people chime in. It is nicer to allow the people a chance to fix the problem before broadcasting the issue. At times broadcasting the issue is a tool to try to get the issue fixed, but one should still be polite.
The third reason is that with how much I travel I see people behaving badly quite often. As an example I will use my most recent case of delayed baggage. When I arrived at my home airport, my luggage did not. This situation also happened to other people. What was interesting was watching a passenger yell at the gate agent about their luggage being delayed. The gate agent had nothing to do with the luggage being delayed. The luggage was delayed at O’Hare Airport in Chicago. The passenger was berating the person who could help them. Not the wisest thing ever. I got my bag a few hours later, I wonder if the “gentlemen” ever did…
Being nice to each other is just a way to make the world a better place for everyone.