Aigarius Blog (Posts about bicycle)

Copyright infringement is like walking into a concert without a ticket

Aigars Mahinovs — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:12:21 GMT

In light of Ted's post on copyright, it is clear that we are bogged down by a hostile terminology.

Copyright infringement is more like sneaking into a concert. You enjoy the show, but did not pay for it. If the concert is held in a small venue then it is easy to spot someone who gets in without paying, but if you hold a concert in an open field, then expecting everyone in the surrounding area to be forced to pay you is rather absurd. If you have a concert in a field with a fence around it and someone makes a hole in that fence (posts a a recording to a P2P site), then the one making the hole might be punishable (property damage), but can any person that enters that hole really be prosecuted for theft, property damage and enabling further theft by not closing the hole (uploading that is inherent in the P2P protocols) ? I do not think so.

A similar analogy is using public transport without a ticket. If there is a bus that goes from A to B and I get on it without buying a ticket from the driver, then in the current copyright enforcement world I would get arrested by the police, prosecuted and get a fine that is tens of thousand times more than the price of the ticket. This has multiple problems - 1. the police has no way of knowing if I have some kind of legal right to use the bus without a ticket (monthly ticket, free ride for seniors, ...) before arresting me and bringing me to court, the police has no business wasting their time and taxpayer money until it is 100% certain that a crime has actually occured; 2. if a hacker disables the ticket composters in the bus and removes all signs about prices how am I to know that the bus is not free (like the park and ride buses in many locations); 3. the fines are excessive - I've not seen a public transport fine that is much more then 10 times the price of the ticket, and it only applies to one ride - you can not be retroactivelly fined for all free rides you took in the last year; 4. it actually is not possible to be 100% certain who is the person doing the act - you can only trace the IP which can be used by any number of computers and additionally the computers might be infected with a botnet acting as an unwilling proxy zombie. There is no way (except a confession) to prove that a particular person does a particular download.

Now we just need a short and simple word or phrase that describes that. Any ideas?

1, 2, 3, can this month soon over be ... ?

Aigars Mahinovs — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:07:53 GMT

Personal-life rant follows after a break.

At the beginning of this month life was great, then it all went went downhill.

First my cat is gone. He came home sick, he did not eat, slept a lot and he puked several times. After reading all kinds of articles on the net, I convinced myself that it is not as bad as it looks as there was no sign of blood in the vomit or any other symptoms. So when he demanded to be let outside, I let him out thinking that fresh air and possibly some kind of grass might make him better. And if not, I would bring him to the vet in the morning (it was Sunday). I went out to see how he was every hour. I found him the first three times, but since then I have not seen him anymore. And noone else has. We asked the neighbors, put out flyers, browsed the shelters. Nothing. Thinking back, he most likely had eaten some kind of poison or something that caused a hard bowel obstruction. Those things often are fatal even with surgical intervention. Two weeks have gone now. I am still hoping, but it is wearing very thin.

After that, last week my laptop broke down - power adapter failed and video card developed bad VRAM. Luckily I still have warranty, so it is sent in for repair. But still I am without my laptop for a week already and I am not sure how much longer Dell service will take. It was almost two weeks last time. Now I am stuck either using eeePC 701 with Debian or borrowing my girlfriends laptop while she sleeps or is out of the home.

The on Sunday a final blow came - my bicycle and my girlfriends brand new bicycle were stolen. In broad daylight, in the center of Riga someone cut a very thick hardened steel cable and took our bikes. We called police and filed the report, but the hope here is rather dim as well. We will only be able to afford spending on new (or used) bikes around spring now. Now we are reading all kinds of stuff about bicycle theft prevention that we did not know before. The only positive is that it brings us together almost as much as riding those bikes brought us closer together over the last month, since my girlfriend bought hers.

I think this is the most depressed state that I have ever been in.

I hope that my laptop comes back from the repair soon and that will end this dark streak in my life.

(Latvian) Velostāvvietas Rīgas centrā

Aigars Mahinovs — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 12:02:48 GMT

(This blog post is in Latvian and is about a public discussion that the capital of Latvia, Riga is having about where to put new bicycle racks in the center of the city. In the post I point to an article describing where to send in suggestions, point out a few possible locations for such racks and suggest installing racks with build-in locks that would require inserting a refundable coin to remove the key locking a bike in place)

Rīgas dome vāc ierosinājumus par jaunu velostāvvietu novietojumu Rīgas centrā. Es tur nosūtīju sekojošus ieteikumus, parosieties arī jūs.

Vislabāk velovietnes būtu izvietot tādā vietā, kas būtu pārredzama no ceļiem, pa kuriem iet daudz cilvēku un arī kur būtu novietotas drošības novērošanas kameras, lai minimizētu zādzību risku.

Viena vietne varētu atrasties Strēlnieku laukumā vai tā tuvumā, jo tur ir viegla piekļuve no Krasta ielas. Vieta starp RTU ēku Kaļķu 1 un
Krasta ielu varētu būt ļoti piemērota. Tas arī ierosinās studentus lietot velotransportu pa ceļam uz lekcijām Kaļķu ielā.

Alberta laukuma varētu atrasties vieta velosipēdu novietošanai - šī vieta ir viegli pieejama no Stacijas puses un ir tuvu vairākām viesnīcām. Ja ir plāni izveidot Pay&Ride automātisko velosipēdu nomu, tad šis varētu būt par vienu no vislabākajiem punktiem šādai iecerei.

Pils laukums ir viegli sasniedzams no Pārdaugavas pa Vanšu tiltu. Ja tur izveidotu velostāvvietu, tad tas ievērojami atvieglotu iespēju atbraukt ar velosipēdu pa Jūrmalas veloceliņu pāri Vanšu tiltam, nogriezties pa labi un uzreiz droši noparkoties.

Tāpat lūdzu apvērt ideju pielietot velovietnes ar iebūvētu atslēgu, lai nebūtu nepieciešams vest līdzi savu slēdzeni. Katrai vietai varētu būt sava slēdzene (bieza un pietiekoši gara cietmetāla trose) un atslēga. Atslēgu varētu izņemt no slēdzenes tikai tad, kad slēdzene ir aiztaisīta un slēdzenes mehānismā ir ielikta 1 Ls monēta. Atslēdzot slēdzeni ar atslēgu monēta tiktu atdota atpakaļ. Tas nodrošinās pret vandālismu, kad vienkārši visām slēdzenēm tiktu izņemtas atslēgas un aizmestas prom. Taču jebkurā gadījumā jābūt vieglam veidam kā aizvietot nozaudētās atslēgas gan gadījumos kad velosipēda īpašnieks to pieprasa (tas var aizņemt vairākas dienas un prasīt 5-10 Ls un iesnieguma uzrakstīšanu) vai arī kad velosipēds ir pamests pieslēgtā stāvoklī. Jaunas atslēgas izgatavošanai nevajadzētu prasīt vairāk kā 1 Ls no pilsētas budžeta, tad tas 1 Ls slēdzenē šos izdevumus atmaksās.