Wow. So I hear that Dale Earnhardt, Jr. had called a press conference this morning. I figured it was to announce his new contract with DEI for next year. Was I ever wrong. Continue reading “NASCAR: Junior Drops a Bomb”
Implied Consent
I started riding a motorcycle in 1974. I rode a Honda XL250, a street legal dirt bike (nowadays they’re called dual sport bikes). I rode that bike until 1981 (when it got stolen). In 2002, I got the itch again to start riding. I bought a Kawasaki KLR650, a 650 cc dual sport bike. Since there’s no dirt around Nashville, I ended up trading it in for a Yamaha V-Star 650 Silverado cruiser. I’ve been riding that bike now for almost 4 years.I’ve only had one incident where I actually needed the helmet. This must have been in 1976 or ’77 during the summer when I was on vacation from college. In the area of East Tennessee where I’m from, there are a lot of hilly areas. I was on a road near my parents’ house when I saw a little hill that looked like it’d be fun to climb.
The top of the hill couldn’t have been more than 20 feet, so it wasn’t a big one (I’d already had experience climbing bigger hills in strip mines that had yet to be reclaimed). I got a run at the hill and too late noticed it had a little hump in the middle. When the front tire hit that hump, the front end came off the ground. Next thing I knew, I was flying over the back end of the bike, like I’d been bucked off a bull. I landed on my butt and my head went backwards into the ground… right onto a big rock. If I hadn’t been wearing the helmet, I’m not sure what would have happened. At the very least, I’d have been knocked out. Worst case scenario is that I would have died.
You could say then that I know a little bit about motorcycles and helmets. Continue reading “Implied Consent”
Not So Freeware
Like most people, I have on occasion needed some software that I didn’t have, but also didn’t have money to buy. So I do a Google search for the next best thing: freeware.
Freeware is supposed to be just that, free. But it seems that there are some software authors out there who don’t have a clue. It always cracks me up to see statements like “to keep this software free, please donate”.
Either the software is free, or it’s not. You can’t have it both ways.
On a related note, the big dust up over at Digg a few days ago is still causing ripples to flow though the blogosphere. What’s amazed me most is that I’ve seen a few authors, of both software and books, come out in support of what the Digg owners finally did, which is to capitulate to a bunch of hooligans who have no respect for intellectual property. So I guess that means if someone steals their software codes and publishes it on the net, they’ll be all for it right?
Somehow, I don’t think so.