I was broke, I love my family and wanted to give them thoughtful prezzies, so I turned to crafts.  All of my creative energy was turned away from my writing and toward designing things they’d like and executing those designs.

To that end (and in planning on selling some of my crafts on etsy for a few extra dollars), I spent nearly the whole month obsessively pouring over crafting and foodie websites and working on finalizing some of my own designs.

And now I need to shut all of that obsessive browsing down. To that end, I’ve added all of those sites, my feed reader, and everything else digital that took up so much space in my mind over the last month onto the most restrictive time-block on LeechBlock. I can only visit those sites for 15 minutes a day total before they’re all blocked.

My brain is running low on RAM and had too many applications open at once. It’s time to shift that focus onto what’s really important and get back to writing, but I know that focus is a difficult thing for me so I turn to ways I’ve found to force it. Disconnect, Block sites, Avoid Information Overload.

Write.

So if I’m less active over the next little while in various online communities of which I am a part (Tumblr, Twitter, Forums) you can consider it part of my digital detox.  I’ll be back, once I get my writing back on schedule (including my poor near-abandoned blog). I just need a bit of time to refocus.

I haven’t talked much about the hardware that I use.  I am very much an anywhere-I-am writer. I write on the go and generally in spare moments between doing other things, rather than having a set period of time each day to sit down and do nothing but write. Part of that comes from having a full time job as well as a freelance writing career. I have to fit in bursts of writing where I can. I have to be able to carry my writing with me, wherever I go.

Tool One: Pen and Paper

This should be obvious, right? Pen and paper are the most basic “hardware” tools any writer has at their disposal. However, in practice, and with these nice things called computers around to spoil us, writing longhand can be difficult. In my case, my handwriting becomes an obstacle. It’s horrendous. It’s not unusual for me to write something down, only to come back to it later and be completely unable to read what I’ve written. But, though I’ll rarely write whole stories longhand, I still find pen and paper useful.

I keep a small journal in my purse and several more at my bedside, most of which are used to take notes in. Sometimes it’s ideas for a new story, sometimes some problem with a current story that I have magically managed to figure out how to fix in my sleep.  It’s often too bothersome to go find a computer to jot down that spur-of-the-moment burst of inspiration. By the time you get to a computer and get it booted up, it may even be completely gone.  I also use stream-of-consciousness journalling to put my own thoughts and emotions in order. It’s the last thing I do each night. I’ve tried and do use notetaking software, but when you need to jot something down fast, you just can’t beat pen-and-paper.

Tool Two: Flash Drive

I take my work to multiple computers, and not all of those computers have the software I need. The easy solution, of course, is to run these programs from a flash drive, usually one of somewhere around 4-8 gigabytes, which is more than enough to carry portable versions of Firefox, Dropbox, Scrivener, and FocusWriter, as well as copies of my current writing projects. I have no product preference here, as long as it is relatively cheap and reliable.  Of course, the downside is that you do have to have access to a computer to use your flash drive, and not all public computers will let you plug in.  This is typically what I use when I am writing during my downtime on my work computer.

Tool Three: Smartphone

I’ll be the first to admit that my ancient Blackberry Curve isn’t the smartest of the smartphones out there, but it is wonderful for what I need it to do. With the Evernote and Dropbox apps installed, it provides me with another always-with-me note-taking and storage option. I can post directly to WordPress with it, do research and access my Google Reader on it to scour for blogging ideas and read the news. I can, if necessary, use it for a secondary flash drive, and if I’m somewhere without WiFi, I can tether it to my netbook for internet access.  I think the fact that it is relatively low-powered compared to other smartphones actually works to my benefit. If I had a smartphone that I could fill with distraction-causing games and time-wasters, I would have so much trouble getting anything done. The last thing I need is a portable gaming device if I want to be productive.

Tool Four: Netbook

I’m a gamer. I enjoy an existence that takes place as much in cyberspace as it does in meatspace.  When I sit down at my home computer, I have universes  at my fingertips. Video games. Netflix. Hulu.  And I am very easily distracted. Like a ferret or a squirrel.

The solution to this, for me, was a secondary computer, a netbook.  One that doesn’t have the power to run my favorite video games. It can run Netflix and Hulu, but only if I’m willing to watch it very tiny and blurry. It has no mouse, so playing even the handful of games it can run is a pain in the wrist. At home, my internet is entirely wired, so all I have to do is not plug it in to cut out the web. Though I have read complaints that netbooks don’t have enough power, it was the lack of power that attracted me to it.  Without the power, it also comes without distractions.

I did choose a larger netbook, a 10 inch Acer One, rather than one of the ultraportable 6 or 7 inch netbooks, because I did need it to have a comfortable keyboard for typing. The 10 inch netbook’s keyboard is smaller than full-size, but large enough that typing for long periods on it does not hurt my hands.

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Many of the current ubiquitous features of the internet – websites that millions of people visit multiple times every day – could not exist in that fenced in world.  Facebook was created by a college student. Twitter by a few folks with a simple idea. The end of net neutrality would destroy that sort of invention. It would take innovation out of the hands of the individual and ensure that only mega-corporations could afford a place on the internet. Only they would be able to avoid the fees necessary to ensure that their content was accessible by the end-user, because the end-user would only be able to visit websites inside the fence that their ISP puts around the internet.

Now, this wouldn’t just affect internet startups and entrepreneurs.  There are real implications for creative professionals.  Independent musicians, artists, and writers would lose their ability to get their creative work out to the masses, without the benefit of having a major publisher backing them to pay those fees.  Likewise, the ISPs could potentially block websites they simply didn’t agree with – effectively applying censors to anyone with differing opinions or working with controversial subjects. They would be kicked outside the fence, their work left in the black hole of an internet unreachable by anyone.

This, along with certain legislation directed toward the Wikileaks scandal but with wide-ranging implications for freedom of speech for everyone, means that our first amendment rights are being beset on all sides. On one side, we have the greed of the internet providers looking for another way to make money, on the other we have politicians looking to destroy safe political dissent by removing the anonymity of the internet.

More and more, the internet is a place where even those from countries where freedom of speech is not guaranteed can have a voice.  The two things that make this possible are anonymity and the ability for almost anyone, regardless of the money in their pocket, to make a website. Take those two things away, and not only is the internet destroyed, but it will take one of our most fundamental rights with it. And let’s face it, that right is already tattered enough.

Let’s not go building those fences again.

Related articles

• Most don’t want the FCC to regulate the Internet (news.cnet.com)
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First of all, I’d like to thank Admiral Mike Mullen and Secretary Robert Gates for their recommendations regarding the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. It is a heartening sign of progress when it comes to the acceptance of homosexuality and bisexuality. Unfortunately, I don’t think the repeal process will be easy, and will likely take longer than the gay rights community would like, even with the support of high-ranking officers.  Even so, hope given is a wonderful thing.

On the new budget, I keep hearing all over the mainstream media about how NASA’s budget was cut. What they don’t say is that the NASA programs that were cut (specifically NASA’s Constellation program) were backwards-looking cost-hogs. Instead, that money has been put toward more innovative R&D, education, and the privatizing of space exploration. Already, we have seen private corporations doing much more effective work with much less money.  Rather than the new budget striking against science and research, it shifts the focus toward the sort of innovation and creativity in which good science can thrive.

Also, there’s been a great victory for fact over celebrity-fads this week, as the medical journal Lancet has retracted the faulty research  linking autism with the MMR vaccine, apparently finally realizing the fact that scientists and logically thinking people the world over have always known: Correlation Does Not Equal Causation.  At the same time, Meryl Dorey has stepped down as leader of the Australian ["anti"] Vaccination Network in the wake of the blame placed on her shoulders for the death of a 4 week old child infected with pertussis because there was no blanket immunity in her community thanks to the anti-vax movement. It looks like she may even be prosecuted for dispensing medical advice without any medical training. (Because, apparently, a lot of people don’t realize that taking medical advice from celebrities who have no medical training is a bad idea.)

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As I grew up, I moved on to other fandoms and other shows – particularly the ones springing from the mind of Joss Whedon – and while I didn’t forget about those shows I’d grown up with, I wasn’t so excited about them anymore, beyond the usual haze of nostalgia.

The new Star Trek reboot brought the excitement back in a big way.  It was almost like returning to the embrace of an old friend.  Shortly after the movie, I discovered that the entire Star Trek Original Series was available streaming direct from the CBS website, and took the opportunity to watch it all over again – this time in order. I’d never seen it in order – the shows were reruns shown in syndication by the time I watched them as a child.

The magic of the internet has enabled me to reawaken my interest in Dr. Who as well – watching the new BBC production on  Netflix. It took me a bit longer to warm to the new Doctor than it took me to embrace the new Kirk and Spock, but after a few episodes I was firmly hooked.

I’ve rediscovered the fandoms of my childhood and found them new and fresh.  The reboots of each helped this, of course, but it occurred to me that it couldn’t have happened in such a way without the internet. The web gave me both the old and the new versions and ways to compare the two almost side by side through streaming media, websites and communities to renew my participation in, wikis to research, fanfiction to read and write, and of course, the inevitable visits to TV-Tropes.

You know, I kinda like living in the future.

But it left me wondering: Is there some fandom that you’ve had a reunion with thanks to the internet? Something that you’d almost forgotten existed and then suddenly became excited about again upon finding something in some hidden corner of the web?

Jenny: Honestly, what is it about them that bothers you so much?
Giles: The smell.
Jenny: Computers don’t smell, Rupert.
Giles: I know. Smell is the most powerful trigger to the memory there is. A certain flower, or a-a whiff of smoke can bring up experiences long forgotten. Books smell musty and-and-and rich. The knowledge gained from a computer is a – it, uh, it has no-no texture, no-no context. It’s-it’s there and then it’s gone. If it’s to last, then-then the getting of knowledge should be, uh, tangible, it should be, um, smelly.

–Giles and Jenny discuss computers and books, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “I Robot, You Jane”

I have to admit that the growing market for e-books and e-book readers has me feeling a bit split.  Like Jenny Calendar, I am a dedicated technopagan and geek, and I love new gadgets and embrace technology and innovation with no small amount of excitement.  However, I was a book lover long before I became a citizen of cyberspace, and like Giles, it’s not just the words, but the tangible pleasure of holding a book in my hands that gives me satisfaction in my reading experience.

Like a good gadget junkie, I’ve read up and researched the various e-book reading devices on the market today.  I dismissed the Kindle due to the fact that the only materials readable on it are those purchased through Amazon, a limiting factor I didn’t like much, since my local library offers e-book lending, and there are e-books available in so many other formats.  The fact that Amazon has already shown itself willing to reach out and take materials already purchased from the consumer also left more than a slight bitter taste in my mouth.

Of the two newer readers, the Sony Reader and Barnes and Noble’s nook, the nook seems the better option (though the quirky capitalization has my inner grammar-geek shuddering).  The nook allows media to be loaded on it in a variety of formats, including the most common e-book format: epub documents.  You can get e-books from a variety of sources with the nook, and aren’t just limited to Barnes & Noble for your purchases, and you can lend books to other folks with nooks too, though only those materials purchased from B&N will be saved to your B&N account for re-download should they be lost.

I read on the computer just as much as I read physical media. I make my way through somewhere around a novella’s length of blogs on my RSS reader each day, I download e-books to read on both my BlackBerry and my computer, and the majority of “magazines” I read these days are in electronic format.  An e-book reader for me would certainly not go unused.

There’s also the fact that e-books provide a low-cost means for me, as a writer, to gain exposure and readership. I’ve come to refer to this as the “Cory Doctorow” method of publishing, as he is one of the best writers to come out of beginnings in digital media and one of the biggest success stories.  I’m already beginning to release some of my own work as digital media, as I get it formatted and edited.  What better way to convince an agent or publisher that they might want to take you on than to point to a website full of examples of your writing?  The coming of the e-book revolution hasn’t filled me with the same horror as it has other writers and publishers, because I decided early on that something of that sort was inevitable, and it would be better to embrace the format than to fight it.

But, the Bibliophile in me can’t help but speak up.  To even contemplate the purchase of one of these e-book readers seems a betrayal to the shelves upon shelves (and boxes upon boxes) of books scattered about my home, and car, and office, and pretty much anywhere else I spend any significant amount of time.  Nor do I think that an e-book reader will ever be a replacement for those books.  Never will I stop reading or buying traditional books just because it’s more convenient to download them immediately over the ether. An e-book reader wouldn’t go unused by me, not by a long shot, but it will be more of a supplement to my regular book buying practices rather than a replacement.

Because try as they might, innovate all they want, they’ll never be able to make the experiences the same, even if they added some sort of smell-o-vision to make the e-book readers give off a musty-old-paper smell.  There’s nothing out there like the pleasure of holding a well-crafted book in your hand and flipping the pages and, yes, smelling that smell.

Data devices give you data, and that’s all it is, floating out in the ether, moving in bytes over the airwaves or through the landlines, and it can easily be lost or changed or even taken from you like a physical book cannot.  Like China blocking any negative references of Tiananmen from the internet there, data is easy to control and block, but no matter how many books are burned, there’s likely to be another copy of it floating around out there somewhere.

And one of those guys has a book coming out this week. You might’ve heard of him, here and there.  Wil Wheaton.  Yes… that kid from Star Trek with the bad sweaters and really annoying sense of superiority.

Wil Wheaton may be a bit famous (or infamous).  He is somewhat like a demi-god among geeks. He, also, isn’t a fan of DRM, though I would understand why he might want to look into trying it, since his book, Just a Geek, has been pirated and offered up for free.

Now….this isn’t some tremendously wealthy celebrity or best-selling author for whom a bit of book piracy is just a drop in the bucket, because they’re making millions anyway.  This is a man who still has to work for a living, and and who just happens to do that work with his pen or in front of a camera.  His books are even self-published and promoted out of his own pocket, so any piracy directly affects him in a way that it never would a large corporation.

The same goes for the majority of authors and actors and musicians out there.  Because the majority of creative professionals are not wealthy. Most of us will never see even a shred of the type of celebrity that Wil might enjoy. We have to work for a living, and we offer up that work to the public, for your enjoyment.  If you do enjoy it, we ask a little bit of compensation. Not because we’re greedy bastards, but because we need that money to put food on the table and clothes on our backs, to feed our children, to pay for our shelter.  We may offer some content for free, and ask you to share it with your friends, because there’s no better advertisement than free advertisement.  But when we ask you to pay, all we are asking is compensation for our work, the same as you would pay farmer for his vegetables, or a butcher for his meat.

When you seek to profit from a pirated item, or when you purchase or download a pirated piece of work, that’s just like running into that farm stand and grabbing a bushel of vegetables and running off.  If the farmer’s a big industrial farmer, well, he may have several tons of vegetables to sell, and be able to shrug off the loss of that bushel, but if it’s a small family farm, the loss of even one bushel is a huge loss.  That’s the way it is for all of the other little guys out there too. Just because what we produce is something less tangible – a song, a movie, a book, an hour’s entertainment – doesn’t mean that we don’t need that money just as much or work just as hard to produce what we have.

So think about it, next time you head to your favorite torrent sites. You may enjoy the thought of “sticking it to the man” by pirating things produced by huge corporations, but sometimes the person you’re stealing from is the person next door.

Oh, and…if you’re a Star Trek fan? Head over and buy Memories of the Future.  It looks to be a good one.

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I didn’t post yesterday because Senator Baucus released his proposal for healthcare reform, and I wanted to have a good chance to look it over before posting any remarks, since I’d prefer my opinions to be formed based on the actual document rather than what people tell me it contains.

The Chairman’s Mark  (a vernacular version of the bill) is available for download as a PDF file here: Baucus Proposal PDF

It’s a 223 page document comparing the provisions of the law as it stands now with the reforms proposed by Senator Baucus. It’s intended to be a starting point, a first draft, of sorts, for the new healthcare legislation.

It does not include a public option.  After reading through it I decided the best way to form a good opinion on the matter was to classify what it said in terms of pros and cons, the things I liked vs. the things I didn’t, so I made some lists.

Here’s a quick summary of the main points after the more tag. (This is going to be long!):

THE GOOD:

• The Baucus plan would limit the ways in which insurance companies can deny coverage, drop coverage, and hike rates extensively, including denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions.
• Those who are pleased with their current coverage will be allowed to keep that coverage.
• A health insurance exchange, run by the individual states, will make it easier for patients to shop for plans themselves, comparing coverage and premium rates among the available options.
• All insurance plans, at all benefit levels, must provide primary and preventative care, without cost-sharing passed on to the patient for that care (deductibles, co-payments, etc.)
• Plans that increase rates for tobacco use must cover programs to assist in quitting smoking.
• No lifetime or annual limits for benefits.
• Tax Credits and cost-sharing subsidies to help pay for healthcare for policies bought through the state exchanges. (But they’re severely limited! See below)
• Small businesses would be eligible for a tax credit for providing insurance to employees.
• Insurance co-ops to promote creation of not-for-profit insurance providers eligible for federal grants and loans.
• Creation of an ombudsman program to represent and act as an advocate for those insured in the individual or small group markets.
• Insurance companies will be required to report the amount of premium dollars spent on things other than healthcare, and enumerate what those things are. Health providers will be required to provide lists of the standard charges for individual services.
• Prescription drug coverage will be mandatory in all plans

THE BAD:

• The subsidies to help with the cost of premiums have been reduced for middle class families making more than $50,000.00/year, removing sorely needed assistance from a large segment of the population.
• Under the plan, every individual will be required to have health insurance.  However, the subsidies provided will not guarantee that everyone can actually afford that health insurance. Compliance will be enforced by forcing uninsured people to pay a fee – an exorbitant excise tax.
• Though not as expensive as the detractors might claim, there is no possible way that this or any such plan will not cost the taxpayers a great deal of money.  It’s still doubtful if they’ll be getting their money’s worth back in the services provided.

THE THINGS THAT COULD BE GOOD OR BAD:

• The Non-Profit Re-insurance, intended to replace the function of the public plan in providing a low-premium competition with for-profit insurance companies, by keeping premiums low by helping to minimize risk to the insurance companies. (I’d still prefer a public option)
• People with certain pre-existing conditions will have to acquire their insurance through a “high risk pool” where premiums will be higher. Subsidies are promised, but it’s unclear how well they’ll help. They could either make the premiums affordable, or offer a bare minimum of assistance and still leave sick people going bankrupt on medical bills.
• You’ll be able to buy coverage across state lines under set circumstances, which could increase competition and provide better premiums to the patient.  There will also be an opportunity for national plans. This is intended to create competition, but since it’s still pretty much the same companies (which have separate state branches now) it is uncertain how well it will work. What it will do, especially with the national plans, is increase the number of people grouped into the risk pool, which could help with premium cost.
• The “Young Invincibles Plan” for adults under 25.  It offers a low-premium catastrophic coverage plan for students no longer covered under their parent’s plans. They’re a low-risk demographic, but that doesn’t mean they don’t get sick, and there are already folks falling through the cracks and ending up in horrible debt this way.

THE THINGS OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT IT THAT ARE EITHER WRONG OR OUTRIGHT LIES:

• Nowhere does the plan extend coverage to illegal immigrants, regardless of individuals who seem to want to insist it does. Individuals will have to prove their citizenship before being allowed to purchase a subsidized plan.
• The plan will not mean that abortions are paid for with tax dollars.  Plans accepting federal subsidies will be prohibited from funding abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or if the mother’s life is in danger. (YAY, more welfare babies, just what we need.) Any plans appearing in the clearing-house that offer abortions beyond that will not qualify for federal funding.
• “The bill would create 53 new government bureaucracies.” – Nope, nowhere near that many. It’s mostly an expansion on pre-existing and already established agencies.
• There are no death panels.  There never were.  Even the very desirable provision covering counseling on end-of-life care options has been removed entirely due to right-wing protests.
• “They’re going to mandate circumcision!” – Uh…yeah, Rush, where exactly is that? Circumcision isn’t even mentioned. (That people actually believe anything that comes out of that man’s mouth makes me weep for the intelligence of our society anyway, but that one was just funny…)

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If you don’t know what a podcast is, well, it’s like a radio show that you can play on an MP3 player (any MP3 player, it doesn’t have to be an ipod) or your computer.  I’m one of those odd people who concentrates better when I’m listening to something, so I listen to a lot of podcasts at work.  I’ve tried, discarded, and become a devoted listener to quite a few.  Naturally, thanks to my interests, they are all suitably geeky in nature.

For the Book / Writing / Grammar Geek:

• Grammar Girl: Quick and dirty tips for those persistent grammar-related questions, done with a sense of humor.
• The Writer’s Almanac: A short little daily show from public radio regarding what’s going on in writing on this day, what has occurred in writing history, and always ending with a selected poem.

For the History Geek:

• Hardcore History: This is my favorite of all of the podcasts, and seems to be one that even non-history geeks might enjoy just because of the way it’s presented.  Dan Carlin goes beyond the pages of the history book and guides you through imagining what things were actually like for the people who lived them.

For the Gamer Geek:

• Analog Hole Gaming: This podcast is definitely not for ginger ears, but it’s the best general-gaming podcast that I’ve come across that, more often than not, leaves me chuckling.
• Game-Specific Podcasts:
  • World of Warcast: This is possibly the oldest continuing WoW podcast, and is a lot of fun. The hosts, Starman and Renata, are both older gamers with Jobs, Families, and Mortgages, so it’s nice to get a more grown-up point of view on gaming.
  • The Instance: The instance is the most popular of the WoW podcasts, it tends to focus on news and strategy discussions with more of a raider point-of-view.

For the Whedonverse Geek:

• The Signal: You can’t stop the signal. This podcast definitely deserves the awards it’s won, and the hosts are well on their way to becoming “celebrity fans” in their own right. They have interviews with whedonverse stars, a radio melodrama based on the Serenity/Firefly universe, and good music.  What’s not to love?

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Then I noticed that those same sites weren’t pulling up on my blackberry and that other sites were operating just fine, though, with a few exceptions, the sites affected seemed entirely unrelated.

Turns out there was a pretty wide-spread DDoS attack (that is, Denial-of-Service Attack) that seemed to be specifically targetting social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, and successfully took down Facebook for a short while during the morning and Twitter for most of the day. Unfortunately, the general overloading of networks was enough to cause difficulties on some completely unrelated sites.

That’s fine, I can do without Twitter for a day, and I don’t bother with Facebook, but it is worrying.  If an attack is able to do this to big-name but relatively unimportant sites like Facebook and Twitter, what’s to keep them from targeting financial websites and banking institutions? The network infrastructure of the US was, for the most part, built to withstand traffic that is less than a tenth of what it now is forced to support, and while banks and high security networks are built to withstand hacking attempts and attacks intended to steal information, most are not equipped to deal with the pure server overload that is the typical DDoS attack.

If someone can shut down Facebook and Twitter so successfully and for so long just by over-loading their servers with traffic, how long will it be before they can shut down something much more important?

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