This week we are out in Cape Cod with Frannie's family, hanging out at the beach in Truro (where, incidentally, there was a shark attack a few weeks ago). This week, we're renting a different house than normal -- it's an old run-down house next door to the cottages where Fran's family has vacationed forever, that was fixed up into rentable shape over the winter. Last night, as everyone was sleeping, a loud alarm went off. A few minutes later, it went off again. It woke us up and we started investigating. It turns out it was the smoke / carbon monoxide detector. We were a bit freaked out, because of carbon monoxide's reputation as the "silent killer" -- we didn't smell any smoke and couldn't detect anything out of the ordinary, but we also couldn't explain why the alarm was going off. Most importantly and disturbingly, neither of us knew what to do when the carbon monoxide detector went off. Do we call the fire department? Press reset? Call the person we're renting the house from (who is 200 miles away and sleeping?) How do we know this isn't just a bad battery? Ultimately, I pressed the "test / reset" button (that's what you're supposed to do, right?) and the intermittent alarm stopped, but we weren't even sure how to tell what that meant. We didn't know any of the answers. So, in the midst of a mild panic about the kids asphyxiating in their bedrooms, we turned to Google. We searched to try and figure out what exactly you're supposed to do when that alarm actually does go off. Turns
This week we are out in Cape Cod with Frannie's family, hanging out at the beach in Truro (where, incidentally, there was a shark attack a few weeks ago). This week, we're renting a different house than normal -- it's an old run-down house next door to the cottages where Fran's family has vacationed forever, that was fixed up into rentable shape over the winter. Last night, as everyone was sleeping, a loud alarm went off. A few minutes later, it went off again. It woke us up and we started investigating. It turns out it was the smoke / carbon monoxide detector. We were a bit freaked out, because of carbon monoxide's reputation as the "silent killer" -- we didn't smell any smoke and couldn't detect anything out of the ordinary, but we also couldn't explain why the alarm was going off. Most importantly and disturbingly, neither of us knew what to do when the carbon monoxide detector went off. Do we call the fire department? Press reset? Call the person we're renting the house from (who is 200 miles away and sleeping?) How do we know this isn't just a bad battery? Ultimately, I pressed the "test / reset" button (that's what you're supposed to do, right?) and the intermittent alarm stopped, but we weren't even sure how to tell what that meant. We didn't know any of the answers. So, in the midst of a mild panic about the kids asphyxiating in their bedrooms, we turned to Google. We searched to try and figure out what exactly you're supposed to do when that alarm actually does go off. Turns
-- amazingly, the whole manual has only one short paragraph on what to do when the alarm goes off. Eventually, we came across some information (somewhere; I can't remember) saying that in cases of power surges or interruption, the alarms can go off -- and I remembered that the lights in the living room had been flickering the night before. And to, in these cases, press reset to stop the beeping and wait to see if the alarm resumes. If not, then don't worry. Ultimately, this answer worked for us, and we were able to get over the scare and try and get back to sleep. But the whole experience was kind of dumbfounding. The fact that we really had no idea what to do in case of alarm -- how to tell a real emergency from a false alarm (especially when I've changed the batteries in 5 smoke detectors in my in-laws' house in the past few months to stop the beeping). How to interpret the beeps; who to call; what to do. What good is an alarm if you're not sure what to do when it goes off? It made me really appreciate all those fire drills we did as kids in school. All in all, it reminds me of the (old?) saying in computer land -- having backup procedures is good, but what you really need are
restore
procedures. A backup is no good if you aren't sure you can use it or don't know how.
Today is the last day to submit comments to the White House on its plans for Intellectual Property enforcement for the coming year. This is yet another act in the fight for the future of everything, and it's a relatively obscure and quiet one (as we expect many more will be, in the wake of the SOPA/PIPA blow up). A number of folks from the internet community are submitting letters to this request today, urging the WH to take a modern view of dealing with the challenges and opportunities in digital content creation, distribution and monetization. This afternoon, I am drafting a short response, which I'll post here when it's done. I'll be drawing a lot of inspiration from the terrific report by Professor Ian Hargreaves, which was commissioned by the UK last year: Digital Opportunity: A Review of Intellectual Property and Growth (PDF). This report is one of the best I've seen at laying out, in balanced and measured terms, what I consider to be an intelligent and progressive approach to IP management. In the meantime, I urge you to take a few minutes and respond to the White House survey. You don't need to write a long or detailed response, and it's important for the WH to hear from a large number of folks who understand the impact of IP enforcement on innovation and the web. Another point of reference is France's recent move to reduce its focus on strict enforcement as a way of dealing with piracy. Their work over the last three years has basically shown that the "three strikes" approach to policing piracy is both expensive and ineffective. This is an important precedent as the US considers how to allocate its efforts moving forward. Update: Here's the letter, signed by me, Brad Burnham, John Buttrick, Beth Noveck, and David Weinberger: Update 2: Here are a bunch of other letters submitted by internet folk:
-- amazingly, the whole manual has only one short paragraph on what to do when the alarm goes off. Eventually, we came across some information (somewhere; I can't remember) saying that in cases of power surges or interruption, the alarms can go off -- and I remembered that the lights in the living room had been flickering the night before. And to, in these cases, press reset to stop the beeping and wait to see if the alarm resumes. If not, then don't worry. Ultimately, this answer worked for us, and we were able to get over the scare and try and get back to sleep. But the whole experience was kind of dumbfounding. The fact that we really had no idea what to do in case of alarm -- how to tell a real emergency from a false alarm (especially when I've changed the batteries in 5 smoke detectors in my in-laws' house in the past few months to stop the beeping). How to interpret the beeps; who to call; what to do. What good is an alarm if you're not sure what to do when it goes off? It made me really appreciate all those fire drills we did as kids in school. All in all, it reminds me of the (old?) saying in computer land -- having backup procedures is good, but what you really need are
restore
procedures. A backup is no good if you aren't sure you can use it or don't know how.
Today is the last day to submit comments to the White House on its plans for Intellectual Property enforcement for the coming year. This is yet another act in the fight for the future of everything, and it's a relatively obscure and quiet one (as we expect many more will be, in the wake of the SOPA/PIPA blow up). A number of folks from the internet community are submitting letters to this request today, urging the WH to take a modern view of dealing with the challenges and opportunities in digital content creation, distribution and monetization. This afternoon, I am drafting a short response, which I'll post here when it's done. I'll be drawing a lot of inspiration from the terrific report by Professor Ian Hargreaves, which was commissioned by the UK last year: Digital Opportunity: A Review of Intellectual Property and Growth (PDF). This report is one of the best I've seen at laying out, in balanced and measured terms, what I consider to be an intelligent and progressive approach to IP management. In the meantime, I urge you to take a few minutes and respond to the White House survey. You don't need to write a long or detailed response, and it's important for the WH to hear from a large number of folks who understand the impact of IP enforcement on innovation and the web. Another point of reference is France's recent move to reduce its focus on strict enforcement as a way of dealing with piracy. Their work over the last three years has basically shown that the "three strikes" approach to policing piracy is both expensive and ineffective. This is an important precedent as the US considers how to allocate its efforts moving forward. Update: Here's the letter, signed by me, Brad Burnham, John Buttrick, Beth Noveck, and David Weinberger: Update 2: Here are a bunch of other letters submitted by internet folk:
In some small way, I feel like I arrived as a member of the internet today. Joi took some photos of me, which are now in his stream (along with photos of countless other internet heroes of mine). Thanks to Jess for making me smile and laugh as we got going. I am terrible in photographs. I always feel like I look stiff and awkward, and don't look like my real self. It's part of the reason why I use my simpsons avatar for everything. A whole lot of the photos Joi took just now look that way too, of course, but there were a few good ones which feel pretty real and comfortable to me (especially b/c I'm rocking my Chicken Adidas shirt). So, now I have a few real photographs of myself to use for important things like blog posts about those photographs :)
In some small way, I feel like I arrived as a member of the internet today. Joi took some photos of me, which are now in his stream (along with photos of countless other internet heroes of mine). Thanks to Jess for making me smile and laugh as we got going. I am terrible in photographs. I always feel like I look stiff and awkward, and don't look like my real self. It's part of the reason why I use my simpsons avatar for everything. A whole lot of the photos Joi took just now look that way too, of course, but there were a few good ones which feel pretty real and comfortable to me (especially b/c I'm rocking my Chicken Adidas shirt). So, now I have a few real photographs of myself to use for important things like blog posts about those photographs :)
