How much is too much?

In the complicated world of interpersonal relationships, there are givers and there are takers. I think I've always been more of a giver. What makes me happy most (other than a vintage chateau margaux on a cool autumn evening) is helping my friends.

One of these friends recently observed that I probably do that too much. This was not meant so much as a criticism but a comment about my character. The problem, she explained so succinctly, is that sometimes you have to say "no" simply so that people understand that you can -- and also so they can learn to help themselves. The end result is this sort of vague notion that I allow myself to be taken advantage of, by nature of being nice.

Do I do my friends, and myself, a disservice by always being available to help - with a project, a favor, a personal situation, a crisis? Does being a nice guy too much make one a pushover? And if so, then what are the consequences of this? There's obviously a line somewhere. Maybe I'm too far on one side.

Barack Obama Announces Candidacy

I just watched Obama's speech announcing his candidacy for the 2008 Presidential race. He denounced the war in Iraq in clear terms, and spoke against the petty politics that he believes prevent our leaders from coming together to solve big problems. This was quite a contrast to Hillary Clinton's speech.

I am no pundit and will not try to be, but I want to make one simple observation: this is going to be an incredible race. Hillary Clinton, a white woman, and Barack Obama, a mixed-race black man, are the front-runners for the Democratic ticket. The speaker of the house is a woman. I don't think I would have believed that even 8 years ago that we would be here.

Maybe this is just coincidence. Or maybe the country is just feeling like it needs something _really_ different to happen at the upper echelons of our government. We are actively rejecting the old-boy network. We are tired of the power-grabbing and manipulation. We want something that really feels different, fresh. Is the U.S., and the world, ready for a woman or a black man as Commander in Chief? Ready or not, it's coming, and it's about time.

The Long Cold Winter

According to NPR this morning, this has been the coldest February in something like 75 years. A fact that was not lost on me when I decided to go running for the first time in three weeks last night. Now, I've never been a huge fan of winter running. Call me crazy, or lazy, but when I wake up at 5:30 AM, the sun is not even thinking about coming up, and the thermostat says 9 degrees, going for a jog in the Iraqi desert in full combat gear sounds more appealing.

Anyway, I just finished replacing or refitting just about every piece of clothing I own following losing four sizes last summer. I'm happy to be a smaller version of myself now, and don't have any intention of slipping back to those bad old days. That said, with winter comes a lot of eating a drinking, and, as I mentioned, not so much running. So the most compelling reason to try to get a little exercise while I wait for warmer days has become my wardrobe. The pants that fit me well, even a little loosely in some cases, were starting to feel a little tight.

So there I was, pounding the pavement at 6 PM, in the dark. It was 19 degrees in the city. I saw exactly one other jogger while I was out, and I couldn't help wondering if I looked as deranged as he did. My route takes me by two metro stations on the way out, so there's a lot of foot traffic at this time as people return from work. Most people seemed to either ignore me entirely, perhaps not even noticing. It has been demonstrated that, sometimes, human beings can actually convince themselves to deny the presence of something that is completely improbable in a given situation. I suspect this is what was happening with most people; they just didn't see me. A handful of people would look at me quizzically from behind their enormous winter coats and scarves, wondering what sort of drugs I must have taken.

In any event, I got through a paltry 3.5 miles. The half-hour run itself was not bad. The 45 minutes of dry-throated hacking afterward, on the other hand, was bad.

In conclusion, this is an experiment I am not anxious to repeat. On the other hand, the waistline problem persists. As much as I hate treadmills, I am seriously considering exploring this as the only sensible option I have if I want to remain a reasonable size through the winter. Running on a treadmill is about as much fun as watching Barney and Friends, but at least I won't be scarring my lungs with arctic air.

DRM 2.5 - Apple Strikes Back

Steve Jobs has posted this essay, which appears to be a response to a growing consumer outrage about the pain that is digital rights management, known as FairPlay in the Apple world. He does a very nice spin job of blaming the music industry for Apple's business decision to have a single, proprietary DRM standard (ensuring that iTunes stuff only works on iPods).

His main points about why Apple is such a great company that's just doing it's best to look out for the music industry (as opposed to doing it's best to sell zillions of ipods) are essentially a crock:

SJ: Through the end of 2006, customers purchased a total of 90 million iPods and 2 billion songs from the iTunes store. On average, that’s 22 songs purchased from the iTunes store for each iPod ever sold. It's hard to believe that just 3% of the music on the average iPod is enough to lock users into buying only iPods in the future.

So, Steve is basically arguing that what amounts to a minimum $30-$35 competitive advantage per unit out of the door is unimportant. Additionally, his figures in all likelihood far underestimate the investment per user, since not all those 90 million iPods ever sold are in service. How many of you are on your first one...

SJ: The most serious problem is that licensing a DRM involves disclosing some of its secrets to many people in many companies, and history tells us that inevitably these secrets will leak.

Steve himself noted, elsewhere, that pirates routinely hack the existing system. What possible additional threat could come from a legitimate company, when the system is far from secure already? A single, centrally managed DRM system would be far more secure than many different systems.

SJ: ...Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store.

Well. Of course they would switch, because they'd have no choice!! Who would ever shop at iTunes again, if you could buy a non-DRM version of all the same music elsewhere? But to blame this on the record companies is a bald-faced lie. At this moment in time, Apple encrypts ALL music they sell on iTunes, even when the copyright holder does not require it (and, indeed, sells it elsewhere without encryption.) For example: They Might Be Giants, and a number of other non-major-label bands. If Apple is so anxious to embrace the free world, then why DRM stuff that doesn't have to be DRM'd?

Apple has nothing to gain, and a lot to lose, if DRM goes away. This is all PR designed to blame the music industry for their anti-consumer business model and try to come out smelling like roses. But I can't think of a single proprietary standard in history that didn't go the way of the dinosaur before too long, and obviously the backlash is starting to swell.