And boy is this a gem.

MIT OpenCourseWare

The MIT OpenCourseWare, as i’ve found recentl is an amazing collection of lecture notes, projects, exams and other resources from MIT courses. There’s an incredoble amount of information here, on a lot of subjects. This is definietly a must see for any of you who are interested in something on that kinda level but don’t really want to go to school, or for those of us, like me who just like to soak up as much information as possible into our skulls. Subjects include Computer Science, Engineering, Architecture, Biology, Chemistry and a whole lot more. Click the link above to check it out…

Learning about this stuff is like drinking water from an oasis after being stranded in a desert for so long.
This is the course I’ve been checking out:
Structure and interperetation of computer programs

Have fun

openMosix is a Linux kernel extension for single-system image clustering. This kernel extension turns a network of ordinary computers into a supercomputer for Linux applications.
Once you have installed openMosix, the nodes in the cluster start talking to one another and the cluster adapts itself to the workload. Processes originating from any one node, if that node is too busy compared to others, can migrate to any other node. openMosix continuously attempts to optimize the resource allocation.

Source

How neat is that? Networked computers sharing resources, sharing the workload. Say there are a few computers on a network, one is dying under the pressure of a million processes and another is sitting there doing nothing. Why shouldn’t these two computers share their workload?

Now right off the bat you can see a million uses for this. Got a few old pc’s? Get openMosix on them and get great performance out of one when the other’s aren’t being used. Ever notice that school pc’s always suck? Throw openMosix on them. And ofcourse the bigger the scale, the better it works! Imagine an entire campus running this.

So check it out.
http://openmosix.sourceforge.net/
If our IT education at school wasn’t so windows based this would be awsome…. sigh…

Anyway, today I’m here to talk about the future of copyrights, digital protection and all kinds of stuff in that nature (I can tell this is going to be a long post). After having an odd discussion with my cousin over creative commons and the like, I was inspired to look into it all and truly find out if there is a place for free software or creative commons in the world.

My cousin’s stand point (and she’s probably going to correct me on this) is that: why change the license to give the consumer/end user more freedom when they are going to find other means to get that freedom anyway? Why specify in the license that you are free to remix this song if people are going to do it anyway? Why bother have a license that says you cannot distribute this piece of software, or you can distribute this software, or you cannot copy this dvd when people are going to distribute your software and pirate you movies anyway?
I don’t see the logic in this. I am a big fan of open source software and creative commons but I always wonder if there really is a place for these things in the world so I sat and thought about it for a while.

If we look at it from a music stand point, I’m sure not all artists care if you copy their cd to give to your friend or remix their songs and put them on your cd as long as you give them due credit, or even if you play them in your store. This is why I love creative commons so much. Their licenses vary to suit all kinds of needs and preferences and are highly and easily customizable.

So how do I see things? The way I see things is that giving people more choices and more freedom will encourage not to break the law (that wasn’t said very well). Here’s an example of my point of view looking at it from a music perspective once again… In a world where artist license their music in more creative ways than just the average copyright (i.e. here’s the song… you can listen to it from the cd and that’s ALL you can do with it) where some artist allow people to use their music in the background of their flash animations, or to remix their song or share them with their friends on their wifi-enabled media devices then people will be happier to abide by the rules of the license.
If someone is looking for music to put in their low budget movies, then the first place they might look is for music that allows you use it in a movie or on a website, as long as you give them credit. If someone is looking to remix some music, then the first place they might look is for music that lets you modify it and call it your own. There are endless possibilities when it comes to creative commons. If people have more options, they are going to find one that suits them, instead of using things in ways that the authors didn’t intend.

That’s why from now on, every website I make, the code is going to be free to copy and use anywhere else. What better way is there to learn than from observing other people’s code? If someone has found a new way of doing something, I think that information should be free or at least more of that kind of information should be free. Why struggle to figure out how to create a similar layout to one you’ve seen on a site before when you can copy that code and modify if to suite your needs?

This brings us to something else I was thinking about… If you have found a way of doing something, or even a better way of doing something, why should you deprive humanity of that? If you find a way to make a light bulb that saves more energy, why should you be the only, one that can make and sell that? Why not share it with the world, and allow other people to improve on these ideas, while you in turn improve on theirs? Isn’t it all about the advancement humanity? What better way is there to further our advancement in all areas (science, medical, technology) than by sharing information and allowing others to improve on it. This is why open source software wins in my book.

Ok… This is post is going on very long and I want to finish it up, but there’s still one more thing that has been bugging me. That is, how do you make a living off open source software? Well I’m sure there are many ways, and none of them are perfect yet, but right now I think the best solution is enterprise software. Allow people to download the software for free and view and use the source code. Allow them to contribute to the development of the software. Then charge money to people and businesses who wish to use your software for a profit. It’s not a perfect model, but it works. Mozilla makes money every time you do a google search using firefox’s built in search bar. Google is benefiing from mozilla’s product. Red Hat linux has an enterprise version for companies but also a free version (fedora core) for non commercial users. So there is money in free software to a ceratin extent. I recommend subscribing to FLOSS weekly (www.twit.tv), a very interesting and informative podcast on open source.

www.creativecommons.org
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

In the end, the world isn’t perfect, but I think working in harmony will bring it a little closer.

So ready to get down and dirty (not really.. QTFairUse6 has a nice gui).
1) Download the latest version of QTFairUse6 here.
And extract the files wherever you like.
2) Open up the QTFairUse program. For most users the default settings will be fine. If you don’t want to convert all the protected files in your library then select “process just the files I drag into the window” and drag your files.

3) Press convert.
4) The program will not go ahead and unprotect your library (or just the selected files) and update iTunes. It will also back up all your protected files to a backup folder on the desktop so it’s risk free.

You loose no sound quality when yo do this. So it IS better than burning and ripping CD’s (what a waste of time).
Enjoy freely listening to the music you PAID for.

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Ok here’s the deal:
1) If you have an ipod that has the notes feature (go to extras>notes) you can do this.

2) Plug in your ipod and open iTunes. If you have a newer version of iTunes go to the ipod tab and select enable disk use, then click apply. For older versions of itunes I think you can find it in edit>preferences. Remember when you enable disk use you have to manually eject the ipod (in itunes right click on the ipod and choose eject)

3) Now you can put any .txt file on your ipod by finding the ipod drive on our computer (in windows go to my computer and click ipod) Then go to the notes folder on your ipod and place any .txt file in that folder. You can also create folders in your notes folder for organization on your ipod. .doc and .pdf files can be comverted to .txt files in the programs that open them (most times) but you will loose all images and formatting. The problem is the ipod for some reason only loads .txt files less than or exactly 4kb so you need to split up that huge ebook into 4kb chunks. Luckily there’s software for that.

4) Ok you have a giant e-book you want to split up into those tiny chunks. Once you’ve converted it to a .txt file there’s loads of software to split it up into 4 kb chunks for you.
The one I use is Ipod E-book Maker Once that program is downloaded and installed, any .txt or .html file can be split up into nice chunks for your ipod. Just input the source (where the file is) and the output (make it your ipos notes folder) and viola it automatically splits up the file and puts it in a folder on your ipod.

1) Blue Jeans Pizza – Moe
Awesome jazzy tune. I just found moe on the iTunes store recently. They’re a breath of fresh air from the mediocre mainstream crap that’s being dished out these days. Check out their latest album, The Conch.

2) Snow – Red Hot Chili Peppers
I love this song. Nice bass riff, nice electric guitar riff. RHCP are one of my favorite bands of all time. I’ve been trying to play the main riff…. very hard, especially fast :S

Video (just press the little play button)

Read the rest of this post There are more videos.

3) When The Sun Goes Down – Arctic Monkeys
Ok song. One of my fav’s from their album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. Gotta thank Gen for that CD
Video

4) Here (In Your Arms) – Hellogoodbye
I was addicted to this song for a while. As I always am with hellogoodbye songs and anything that has beeps baps and nice electronic effects. Thanks Jazmeen for introducing me to them, they actually pretty neat.
Video

5) Famous Last Words – My Chemical Romance
Well what can I say. Another MCR Album…. This one I don’t think is better than Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, but whatever. However this song I do think is one of their best.
Video