So this all leads to Friday, which was the 1st Annual Pinewood Derby at Ignited Minds. Everybody learned the Details of the race about a week ago, and all were in a mad race to build their cars. So i built a nice little car with a 7 inch propeller on the back end of it. Powered by a 9 volt battery and a small motor. My front bumper had a switch that would keep the motor off as long as the car was resting against the starting gate. As soon as the gate went up, the motor would start.
So during the morning, most people were checking out everybody elses cars and eating the country fair style cooking we had. We started the racing around 3 PM and ran a race every 5 minutes for 2 hours. My first race I had to challenge Keegs and his Pirate Ship. He and I took the two center lanes and we knew right away that his sail, and my prop were going to tangle. So as soon as the gate goes up, my prop kicks in and digs into his sail. The two cars get stuck together as they fly down the track. Then right before the finish line, my prop gets loose and kicks in. The car races ahead and takes the finish.
Then on the semi-finals race, i don't know what i was thinking. I put my car in an outside lane. The prop had no chance of clearing the starting gate, but i somehow seemed to miss this little detail. The gate goes up, and the prop digs into the bar directly next to it, pushing it off the edge of the track. No win for me.
But I won my first race. AND... Sylvia and Maria, my two teammates, also won their first races. So that made us the fastest team overall. So we all got trophies for that! :) Then i also won 2nd place for craftsmanship on my car.
The train on the way to the court was the way to go. No traffic, and the court building i'm going to is a block away from the Civic Center stop on the red line. So i don't have to go in tomorrow, so that means back to work for me. I got a dumpload of deadlines to deal with, and i'm not going to miss any because of this. Looks like its going to be a long weekend. Keegs is in Iowa for a wedding, so i've picked up his workload as well. Should prove to be a whole lot of fun fun fun.
I guess he was trying to keep it quiet, but i missed it completely cause i wasn't at work on monday. Its really strange when you take five minutes to read the news and the news is about a guy who works 20 feet away from you.
good luck with this Andre.
So Jen and I went to talk to a mortgage broker last weekend. We're ready to get moving on the search for a house. I just wish i had time to really start looking.
Jen's last day with the kids was yesterday. She's just in meetings today, so that means officially she'll have nothing to do starting tomorrow.
thanks andy
So house hunting took the better part of the morning. Then later that night we went over to Bob's for a little BBQ. Pete and Di were over with Di's two sister and Pete's sister, so it made for the normal greta family story-time. Bob pretty much killed himself preparing everything, but as usual it was amazing.
Sunday we dragged out asses out of bed early and started to clear off our patio. Our landlord is painting the house, and we needed to get EVERYTHING out of the way. So 2 hours later, we've got a clear patio, and Jen and I are both really fuckin dirty. Will calls soon after and we make plans for Batman later that day.
Will, Cookie, Steve-o and Juliet all meet us at Crown City Brewery and we sit down for lunch and a few pints. Then we meet Matt and Milkshake at the movie theater.
So after the 30 minutes of commercials....
Batman Begins honestly has to be the best super-hero movie i've seen since the original Superman. The movie studios have totally forgotten that a character-driven action-movie can actually be fuckin incredible. The character development does everything for the movie. Everything element of the movie took on a more realistic feel than any of the Tim Burtonesq films offered. I gotta go see it again just to focus on all the little details. Oh, and Cillian Murphy as scarecrow was a great casting job. He pulls off the performance with the most creepy personality. Before he puts on the mask and the FX take over, you're already scared of him.
Car makers also are required to make certain safety mechanisms on their products. Again, these items protect the USER of their products.
The list goes on. Household appliances, power tools, sporting equipment... just think about all the items that are made that include a simple safety mechanism to protect the person who uses these items.
The supreme court came down with a ruling this week on the Grokster case. (torrent) In a nutshell it says that computer software makers, if they do no include a mechanism that protects owners of all copy-written material, they are liable. They call it "inducing copyright infringement"
I think there is a contradiction of legal terms here.
A gun owner can buy a gun and use it responsibly. There is no problem there. But if they choose to use it to an ends that is illegal... they as an individual are responsible for their actions. The gun manufacturer is not required to build a gun that may or may not work based on a legal document thats purpose is to protect a victim of a gun injury. In doing so the gun manufacturer would be doing nothing more than making their product vulnerable to natural competition.
Computer software is susceptible to natural competition on a global scale. The new legal precedent that has been set dictates that software developers must now protect everybody that might be at risk by users that choose to use software illegally. So they might not enable features that would open them up to (now legal) law suits coming from copyright holders. Their software in turn will not be competitive in a global market due to the fact that foreign developers will have no legal limitations.
It comes down to this...
When a user of a gun chooses to make use of that gun illegally, the USER takes the responsibility.
When a user of software chooses to make use of the software illegally, BOTH the user AND the developer are responsible.
still many questions.
