OLGA’s in trouble (yet again!)

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Mark shares that OLGA.net is being threatened by legal action (yet again). They’ve dodged many bullets in the past, but in this legal environment, this could be the end.

You’ve probably improved your guitar playing by using tablature from OLGA. Make a donation to help support their legality.

Speaking of Rock and activism: Salon has a story on Audioslave’s Tom Morello and System of a Down’s Serj Tankian and their thoughts about what’s going on.

Update: Mark corrects a couple of my misunderstandings in this postings comments. Nevertheless, it’s still a good idea to donate to assist Olga.

“the Internet is counterproductive to peace”

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Hey it’s not me, it’s John Perry Barlow saying that in a recent interview. He precedes this by saying, “There are a million virtual streetcorners with a million lonely pamphleteers on them, all of them decrying the war and not actually coming together in any organized fashion to oppose it. It strikes me that existing political institutions — whether it’s the administration or Congress or large corporations — only respond to other institutions. I don’t care how many individuals you have marching in the streets, they’re not going to pay attention until there’s a leader for those individuals who can come forward and say I represent the organization of those individuals and we’re going to amass the necessary money and votes to kick you the hell out of office. Then they pay attention. But not until. And so right at the moment it would strike me that the Internet is counterproductive to peace.”

Wow! Great quote!

John Perry Barlow, if you are not familiar with him, is co-founder of the Internet-legendary Electronic Frontier Foundation and a former songwriter for the Grateful Dead.

The interviewer says he’s shocked that Barlow would say this. He should read David Shenk’s 1998 classic, “Data Smog”. Time to read Bowling Alone. I’ve been putting it off for a little too long.

Update: Some Slashdotters take it personal while at MetaFilter they argue themselves into a circle.

Will there be a mass movement to utilize tools like MoveOn.org or will the prevailing me-too trend continue where individuals refuse to come together and decide to create their own competing efforts? Everyone shouting the same things – but seperate from each other. Barlow says there needs to be a leader to represent an institution. What I think he fails to see is that we’ve been taught not to trust leaders, even from amoungst us. Leaders fail and leaders fall. So do institutions. So we go our own way and trust in only ourselves. You can’t attribute that to the Internet. It’s the way our generation thinks. Decentralized. Individualized. The Internet is an expression of that. A multitude of choice and the freedom to us it.

The demographic trends do not favor one-size-fits-all news products,” said Peter Francese, founder of American Demographics magazine, which tracks population changes. “There isn’t one community to serve. It’s gone. … It’s now a matter of serving niches rather than trying to be all things to all people,” he said.

That’s from an article about 18-34 year olds rejecting traditional media and switching to the Internet for their news. The same trend has taken place in TV and Music. More choices. Smaller audiences. Less and less shared experience and information. It’s all out there – but it’s up to you to find it or the martketers to find you and lead you to it.

February 1st, 2003: Columbia

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No, this is not the Challenger. We’ve grown too coarse, too cynical, and too jaded. The NYTimes says, the nation’s instinctive reaction was to ask, “What’s next?”. Talking to friends and family leads me to believe the NYTimes got it right. Many discussions were attempts at avoiding the subject. Our skin just got thicker. Our wagons circled tighter. Most parents I know didn’t allow their children to watch TV and they didn’t hear the President’s attempt to comfort the nation. In fact, one said outright, “I just don’t want it on TV. What else is there to talk about? Get it off the news”.

I’m going to take a moment not to think about tomorrow, but to say a prayer for those who just lost a loved one and ask for the strength to not further recoil into my own skin.

Garret says, in my favorite weblogger essay yesterday, “there are a lot of ways to die, some ‘good,’ some ‘bad.’ these astronauts lost their lives in action, doing something they loved. in the midst of our horror at their fates, their sacrifice deserves respect, and honour.” Indeed, “space travellers are a special breed; and they come from all nations”.

And that is where Man’s destiny hides. Across the boundries. Not hiding in caves from the coming storm. In a day where personal trust is at an all time low, a generational trend that started 30 years ago, it’s a fight that always deserves to be waged.

Links:
Scripting News – Terrific linkage at a time of sorrow. Many of the links below are pulled from here. I couldn’t find the will to post yesterday.

Similarly, Metafilter was very active yesterday in it’s discussion threads.

MP3 (right click and download): Julia Ecklar singing “The Phoenix” via Code the Web Socket. A touching and powerful folk tune that fits the moment.

Don’t miss reading Meryl’s “Requiem for Columbia” and Shelley’s “What the Shuttles have given us”. You’ll get some indicators as to why I feel the way I do from what some have posted in Shelley’s comments.

In the 80s: I Remember the Challenger. Hundreds of personal recollections of that terrible day.

Go at Throttle-Up, “It would never occur to a baby-boomer that anything associated with the shuttle could have historical significance. Having lived through the heady excitement of real history-makers like Mercury and Apollo, boomers see the shuttle as an afterthought, an unglamorous eighteen-wheeler hauling satellites to and from orbit.”

Poynter Online – a huge collection of related links.

Just as after the Challenger accident, a chorus rises for the Shuttle program to end.

From 1980, Washington Monthly, Beam Me Out Of This Death Trap, Scotty.

The Corner thinks out loud about perfectly normal people starting to think about “Signs” and links to a 1998 Peggy Noonan article.

Finally, the obligatory, they were warned story. It’s always the same isn’t it?

In His Time of Dying

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… ”I’m on the periphery of a lot of despair, of course,” he said. ”You’d have to be stupid not to be. I have my moments when I’m not too thrilled about this whole deal. But at the same time, the songs have never come like this, so I’d have to feel more gratitude than anything else. I’m probably in the intensest creative period of my life.”

Zevon and his longtime bassist and collaborator, Jorge Calderon, have been writing whenever ideas strike them — including, Zevon says, via cellphone conversations ”from the aisle of the health-food store. I have to move fast, because I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Read the rest over at the NYTimes. via Code the Web Socket (not a bad name – heh).

For Job Hunters, Stability Is the Thing

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…Employees are staying at their jobs much longer, not necessarily because they want to, but because they feel they have to, according to interviews with employees, human resource managers and employment experts. The number one concern among employees today is job security — not stock options, not career growth.

…Employees accustomed to job-hopping are in danger of falling into a boredom trap — or of simply feeling trapped, even if they are with a job and career they like. That there are not messages from recruiters on their voice mail means those options, and the excitement of new possibilities, aren’t out there. That has been a painful change, even for those who might not want another job. Those feelings can translate into low morale and low productivity, companies have found.

Read the rest at the WashingtonPost.

Recently, a co-worker and friend found a new job after a nine month search. Unlike many job seekers out there he is currently employed. He needed to find a new employeer since he recently moved two hours away from us. With skill, experience and references beyond my own – he still had a difficult time.

Congrats to the Bucs

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They beat the Raiders real, real, real bad. Don’t think I’ve seen a Super Bowl that one sided. What else can you say?

Well for one thing – twice in a row did the majority of sports commentators agree on the outcome of a NFL game and twice in a row they got it wrong.

Pundits – if they can’t predict the outcome of a football game how well do you think they are going to do with something like war or the economy?