The Last Word from last.fm

Today the news broke that last.fm, the social music site, has signed deals with the four major record company and several indie labels to allow users to listen to full tracks of songs online for free. Users can listen to particular tracks up to three times. Shortly a subscription model will be offered that will allow unlimited playing of tracks online. Perhaps even more interesting is the news that now unsigned artists can post their songs to the site and receive payment when their songs are played. This potentially could allow artists to make money without the need of a record company, which is quite an interesting proposition.

Go check it out and play some Rush!

last.fm

rsync over ssh

Last week I had an interesting problem - how to sync two directories on two different servers in an automated and secured fashion. I remembered Hal using the rsync command to do this once before. A 5 minute Google search turned up exactly what I needed.

If server1 has a folder called foo that you need to sync with a folder called foo-copy on server2, use this command on server2:

rsync -ave ssh  --delete server1:/foo /foo-copy

This command will invoke the rsync program on server2 to make a connection to server1 via ssh (so it is encrypted), and synchronize the folder "foo" with the local folder "foo-copy". The "--delete" tells it that if a file was deleted on server1/foo to also delete it on server2/foo-copy.

Stick this in a small script called by cron and you have a quick and simple automated method to sync up directories on multiple servers.

WORD OF CAUTION - The command above includes the --delete option, which will delete
files on the target so that it perfectly matches the source directory.  Be careful
that you run the command from the correct directory (in this case the target directory)
or you could delete all your files!

Sun expands to engulf MySQL

Yesterday Sun announced it was purchasing MySQL for $800 million. Not bad for an open source - based company, but then again, MySQL has quite a name.

Robin Miller of Linux.com posted a news article and video clip interviewing officers of Sun and MySQL - including the inventor of Java James Grosling and MySQL creator Monty Widenius.

Old Unix Guys warning - several individuals in the video are obviously Old Unix Guys. OUGs often feature bald heads, long strands of whatever hair is left, awkward to condescending social skills, and a tendency to bash operating systems based on something called "New Technology (NT)". Luckily, these guys in the video seem to be friendly, although that may be because they are on their home turf.

The Perfect Thing

Today I finished reading "The Perfect Thing - How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness" by Steven Levy. Levy is a senior editor and the chief technology correspondent for Newsweek magazine.

Levy describes what he sees as the huge success and impact of the iPod not only as a personal entertainment device but as a force that has changed how we not only consume media but even create it. He describes the creation of the iPod as a saving angel for a struggling Apple when it began to design the product in the late 90s. He marks Apple's success as a combination of hard work nailing exactly the right mix of features and craftsmanship, artistic design, the no-compromise leadership of Steve Jobs, and a small dash of luck of having the right product at the right time.

Not only was the device a sales success, Levy argues, but it's software sibling iTunes paved the way for the music industry to save itself from the spiral decline of cd sales and rise of illegal file-sharing services.

He closes with a chapter on podcasting, which he says has leveled the playing field, allowing individuals to broadcast time-shifted audio or even video as easily as major corporations. He holds out high hopes for this democratization of media creation, and notes this as a major shift never achieved since the creation of modern electronic media.

I myself have found audio podcasts to be a major life-changer. From recording shortwave news broadcasts as a child in the 1980s, to recording real-audio streams in the late 1990s on a cassette recorder, I was forever looking for a way to record audio programs to listen to at my leisure. Nothing seemed to work very well - it usually took too long or too much effort to record something than it was worth.

Along came podcasts a couple of years ago, and suddenly things changed. I discovered I could subscribe to podcasts on topics that interested me, and listen to them whenever I wanted. Downloading the mp3s took literally seconds.

It may be exposing my nerdy side, but it is really something to listen to shows just about topics that I care about, and whenever I want. Household chores never seemed so...well, if not fun, then much more tolerable. It is still mind-boggling to me that I can listen to a lecture on economics by a Phd speaking at a London conference while folding my laundry. I find myself listening every chance I get - often thinking jokingly to myself when doing chores that I have to have SOMETHING to do while listening to podcasts :)

Overall, the book is an entertaining read. Then inner workings of Apple are especially interesting, highlighting the major impacts Apple has had on the computer and consumer electronics industry.

George Orwell

I finished reading a biography of George Orwell (aka Eric Blair). I have to say I'm kind of disappointed in him. Before I knew much about him, I thought he was some sort of literary and philosophical genius - especially about political philosophy. However, after reading this biography, I'm not so sure. The book paints a picture of a very bright child from a respectable family earning scholarship to Eton, and beginning a solid career as an Imperial servant in Burma, who decides that he wants to be a writer. To the surprise of his parents, he quits his job and lives a poor existence, basically almost up to the point of his death. He writes some ok novels that don't sell very well, and mostly makes his living in journalism as a book reviewer and columnist.

In his adulthood he starts to pick up political viewpoints, and finds himself fighting in Spain, ala Hemingway, before escaping back to England, narrowly avoiding imprisonment amid the turmoil of the Spanish Civil War. That romantic swashbuckling episode over, he returns to a rather poor existence, his health continuing to deteriorate due to a life-long lung problem. His wife eventually dies while he is in Europe covering the end of WWII. About this time his first real success occurs with "Animal Farm". His health continues to deteriorate, to the point that he rushes to finish his masterpiece before he dies. At his death, the first reviews of "1984" were being published, and after he died his new widow (who he married on his deathbed) became wealthy due to this runaway best-seller.

What disappointed me about him is that he just wasn't all that wonderful. Everyone has personal faults, and I won't bother to go into his here, but the professional faults are what really disappointed me. I read one of his first books "Down and Out in Paris and London" and a book of collected essays. Although I read these almost 10 years ago, I can still remember some of the passages describing the terrible conditions of the poor in Britain, the horrible working environments of the British coal miners in the north of England, and the terrible state of the public school system in the essay "Such, Such Were the Joys". The author of this biography points out that all of these works have a kernel of truth, but are greatly exaggerated. I find these essays now to be too close to a lie. For real historical accuracy, I have to discount all that I read of his non-fiction work.

The happy exception, though are his fictional works "Animal Farm" and "1984". Since these works are ficticious, they are not subject to his eyewitness exaggerations. Growing up during the Cold War, I still have an interest in the workings of totalitarian societies. These don't really exist any more (or at least they currently don't exist), but for most of the 20th century it looked like the world was heading towards an authoritarian existence. I find them scary but fascinating, and wonder at stories of individuals coping in such a world, and finding ways to resist and lead some sort of independent life, even if only inside their head.

"Animal Farm" tells the story of a dictatorship arising out of a barnyard of animals, a not-so veiled critique of the Soviet Union at the time it was written. "1984", however, stands out as one of the classics of the dystopia genre, and is perhaps my most favorite book. Describing a world of three totalitarian superpowers who are continually at war with each other, it tells the story of an individual who fights to keep his individuality in a society where every move, every word is monitored, and the past altered to keep the party line.
While reading it, you can't help but note some parallels to modern society. I won't go in to a full review here, but I will say it did put Orwell on the map, unfortunately after he died. I guess in summary, that's the theme with Orwell - unfortunate disappointment. His life was cut short just when he was at the top of his powers, he suffered in obscurity until the end of his life, his wife died right after they adopted their first child. Add to that I found out his views on socialism and politics in general were really not that prophetic or expert. However, "Animal Farm" and "1984" alone make him an important literary figure, and the ideas and thoughts generated from these two novels are still with us today - from "1984" came the terms "Orwellian","doublespeak" and "big brother".

Saturday I listened to a podcast of a speech given by Mark Adams, the head of a British shelving company called Vitsoe. His speech dealt with the idea of having too much choice as a bad thing. He referred to a 2004 book called "Paradox of Choice" which theorized around the same idea - that at some point, too much choice becomes detrimental. As options increase the effort involved in making decisions increases, with the corollary that sometimes less is better. At one point in the lecture he referred to a visit to a UN biosphere reserve (I take it something like the equivalent of a national park) in Europe. Many people were enjoying the sunset, but a few spoiled it by operating jet skis and creating noise. Economics would suggest that the more jet ski people the better, as they pay money, while several hundred people looking a sunset does not make money But the more jet ski noise, the more it is ruined for others. This makes me think often of when I notice more traffic here in town. I find myself at first disappointed that the traffic is increasing, but then I think, the more people, the more economic benefit. But at what point would you trade the economic benefit for a more relaxed lifestyle? Extrapolating further, this can become the age old argument of rural vs. city - the rural life offers perhaps a more laid-back lifestyle with less crime, drugs, etc. but the city offers more job opportunities, consumer goods, etc. History has shown that most people cast their vote for the city. I notice that the few times that I do travel to a large city, I can almost feel the social anomie of being one among many with little social ties to the community. This is a well-worn theme, studied by even the first "real" sociologist, Emile Durkhiem in the 19th century. From this concept of loss of social ties found in modern, industrial cities peopled by small nuclear families, comes the theory that crime, mental disorders, and other anti-social behavior increase. What I take from all this is that on some scale, in our technological advance across time, we have rarely failed to trade our more simple lifestyles for more complicated ones offering more choice and creature comforts. We can't turn the tide around at this point - we need large cities and continuous technological advancement to feed, clothe, and care for us in this world of 6.6 billion people. When I see or hear that number, I often think back to junior high when I learned that a petri dish sprinkled with bacteria will become so full of the bacteria that they eventually die in their own waste. While that is obviously an exaggeration of our world, I can't help think about it on Friday afternoons when I can't pull on to the road due to the heavy traffic.

Another point mentioned in the lecture, which in reality was about marketing, was the concept of product attachment. Instead of creating cheap, throw-away goods as has been the theme for the past 60 years or so for consumer items, instead make products that people become emotionally attached to. They will stick with the product, repairing and/or upgrading it, expressing brand loyalty through emotional attachment. Mr. Adam's company makes only 2 or three products, some of them originally designed in the 1960s. Their idea is concentrate only on a few items, allowing them to make them be the best in the market. They are able to make money selling the whole service relationship instead of just a product. By focusing on making their customers happy with great service and very well made products, they are able to do well in niche markets. I was reminded while listening to this of the original philosophy at Volkswagen. When they began selling the Beetle after WWII, there was a conscious decision not to go the Detroit route of "planned obsolescence" but instead continue to make improvements to the same car. Granted, they may have come to this philosophy out of necessity as they did not have the resources to design many new models. However this idea was successful for a long time and played a large role in the historic success of the Beetle. However, in the end VW became like every other large car company - their product lines are refreshed now like any other. That begs the question - how many of us would, say, use the same model cell phone for three years if while the outside was the same, the inside was continually upgraded? I doubt that many (myself included) would do so, as we are so attuned to having the latest fashions.

What did I get out of this lecture? Live in a small town, and feel guilty for all the junk you buy :)


Yesterday I listened to a podcast which contained an interview b Richard Selzer, a retired surgeon turned writer. During the interview he read several passages from the half a dozen or so books that he has written. The prose he repeated caught my attention - it was a rare match of detail mixed with exquisite word choice, dealing namely with the subject of surgery. Afterwards I looked him up on wikipedia and found an article he had written for the New York Times back in 1986 dealing with a malpractice suit. A couple of lines that he used in the article that I especially liked: "My spirits do not soar at the prospect of a battle. I am Ferdinand the Bull. I much prefer to lie down and smell the flowers." Another line: "New Haven goes on being New Haven, the way a watch keeps running in the pocket of a dead man." A third line describing an expert witness: "His voice is deep and meaty. Immediately having left his mouth, it sinks to the floor and spreads out across the room, drifting among the benches". Wow, I wish I could write like that.