PCBEEUSA - Freedom on the Web

My wife and I saw Denzel Washington in “The Book of Eli” last weekend.  A couple of weekends before that we saw “Avatar,” in 3D.  Both great movies.

For the movies that we don’t get to see in the theaters, we have a Netflix account.  DVDs come in the mail and we can stream some movies online.  Not to be outdone, sometimes we’ll connect a computer to a projector and project it on the wall, a bigger image than the biggest flatscreen TV.

To me, a good movie is an experience.  I like to sit in the center of the theater when possible, to get the most out of the stereo.  And Donna and I are usually the last to leave the theater, because we’re part of a very small minority of people who actually hang around and read the credits. Sometimes the music is really nice, and  occasionally, we have been rewarded; the funny after credits ending of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” and the big hint after the credits in “Iron Man.”

So I really don’t get pirating movies online, especially before the film comes out.  I want to see the big movies on the big screen.  And then there’s the strange contradiction that I hear from some people.  ”Why don’t they make more movies like this?”  they say while watching a bootleg.  Well, if you watch a bootleg, no one makes money on it and there is just that much less incentive to make those movies.  After all, it is business.  Movies are made to make money.  If they don’t make money, they won’t get made.  If you don’t buy a ticket, buy a DVD or pay for a rental, they won’t make money.

Sometimes it’s just the “cool” factor.  That you managed to “beat the system.”  Years ago, before home video tape, a friend of mine got his hands on a pirated copy of “Star Wars.”  He was so proud of it.  No matter that you had to have an expensive, professional player to watch it.  He showed it to me.  It was noisy and grainy, and, since the person who made the recording did not have an anamorphic lens,  the Death Star looked more like the Death Egg.

Another strange story.  A young lady I knew was watching a bootleg copy of “The Passion of  The Christ” (that was wrong on so many levels!).  If you recall, everyone in the film spoke in Aramaic, the language of that place and time, meaning you had to read the subtitles.  The person who made the bootleg did it by sneaking a camera into the theater.  In the process of recording, he neglected to capture all of the subtitles.  So she got what she paid for.

Just returned from the first annual Chicago TechExpo.  They had a raffle where they gave away, among other things, Nintendo Wii and other videogame consoles.  Of course it all brought back memories for me.  The first home video game that we owned was the ubiquitous “Pong.”  We played it so much that the image of the game was burned permanently into the TV screen (that’s what screen savers were invented to prevent.)

Even more interesting; in 1971, I was one of the first people to play the very first coin operated video game.  A monochrome “Asteroids” game, it was in a colorful, futuristic case, and was installed in the recreation center at IIT.

I remember the students being impressed with the technology more than with the actual game.  Hey, had to start somewhere!

In my lifetime, I have met a number of famous and important people.  Political figures, from congressmen to Chicago’s Mayor Daley; legends, like James Earl Jones; and several stars from Star Trek and Dr. Who, from James Doohan (Mr. Scott) to Tom Baker (Dr. Who # 4, the most famous of them all).  I also had a chance to meet Joan Higgenbotham, a young lady from Chicago who was a Space Shuttle astronaut. (See my celebrity page: www.groupendeavors.com/steve )

Today I trumped them all.  I shook hands with Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin.  The second man to set foot on the moon.

And it almost didn’t happen.

I was taking advantage of a rare chance to sleep late when my dear wife came into the bedroom and told me that she had just heard on TV that “Buzz” Aldrin was going to be at the Adler Planetarium at 11:30 this morning.  I lay there debating.  Probably going to be hundreds if not thousands of people there.  At best, I might get to sit in the back of some auditorium while he spoke.  Was it worth the hassle?

An hour later I was up and dressed and gulping down breakfast.  This was, after all, “Buzz” Aldrin.  If I could get within 150 feet of him, I could get a good picture.

I took the Red Line subway to Roosevelt Road and got on the east bound Roosevelt bus.  Little did I know that the Roosevelt bus no longer went to the Planetarium.  Had to walk three blocks to get to a bus that did go there.

I arrived at the Adler, and got in line to buy an admission ticket.  $19.  Well, it was, after all, “Buzz” Aldrin.

I asked an attendant what ticket I would have to buy to see Mr. Aldrin.  She directed me to a special exhibit on Apollo, that had a big sign saying that it was closed until later in the day.  I asked a lady there who asked me if I was with the press.  I said no.  She told me that Mr. Aldrin would be making a brief appearance at the entrance to the exhibit in about 30 minutes.

So I went outside, walked around a bit and took some pictures.

Then it occurred to me, he probably was not there yet.  If I waited around I might get a shot of him before he entered the building.  I saw a couple of “important” looking people waiting out front, so I waited with them.

Soon, a black SUV pulled up and “Buzz” stepped out.  I got a quick shot of him getting out of the car.  As he was escorted to the side entrance I called his name from about 50 feet away.  Guess he didn’t hear me.

Inside, I was again told that he would be making an appearance soon.  So I waited.  An older Planetarium employee told me to be patient, that Mr. Aldrin would be there in 10 or 15 minutes.

“I’ve already waited 40 years,” I said. “A few more minutes certainly won’t hurt me.”

I mentioned that I was surprised that there were so few people here to see the astronaut.  Just me and a few people from the press.  He said that it was not supposed to have been announced on TV.  A couple of stations mistakenly released the information.  It was not supposed to be a public event.  Lucky me!

I was waiting patiently when a lady with a camera walked up to me and asked if this was where “Buzz” Aldrin was going to be.

“That’s what they tell me!” I said.

We chatted as we waited.  Her name was Denise, and she was a junior high astronomy schoolteacher visiting from California.  It was her first time at the Adler.   She had overheard someone say that Aldrin would be there.

For about 10 minutes we talked about Apollo 11 (she was a little impressed that I had watched it live as a teen), and astronomy (we mildly disagreed on whether Pluto should be considered a planet).

Suddenly, one of the ladies from the Planetarium approached us.  She acknowledged how long we had been patiently waiting.  She said that we would be allowed into the exhibit while Mr. Aldrin was there to take some pictures!

“Just don’t tell anybody else!” she said.

Lucky us!  Denise and I each agreed to e-mail whatever pictures we got to each other.

We saw “Buzz” enter the exhibit and take the reporters on a tour.

After a few minutes the lady came out again and told us to follow her.  As we walked through the museum, Denise and I decided that, if we could get a picture with “Buzz,” we take it together, with her camera, and she’d e-mail a copy to me.

We were hustled off to a doorway and asked to wait.  I suggested to Denise that we look as much like VIPs as possible (I was wearing my Johnson Space Center T-shirt, so I pretty much looked like a tourist anyway).

Then, he appeared.  We both tried to take pictures, but people were just hustling about too much, trying to get him out.

Then I remembered something my wife always told me.  You won’t get if you don’t ask.

“Mr. Aldrin?  If I may?”  I said as I held out my hand.

He turned, smiled slightly and shook my hand.

Denise tried to get the picture of it, but it was not to be.

After it was over, we had someone take a picture of the two of us and we parted ways.

I was halfway home when it actually hit me.  I had shaken hands with one of the most famous people who ever lived.  The second man to set foot on the moon.  An Apollo 11 astronaut.

That was cool!

I was working at a local high school, helping to train students on a new software application.  As I walked around the computer lab, I caught several students checking out their My Space page or, in one case, watching the new Spiderman movie online–a month before the theatrical release.  I mentioned it to the school’s IT coordinator. She explained that the servers are set to block those pages, but there are websites out there that help you bypass all that.

Not suprisingly, there are all kinds of things, legitimate and otherwise, that you can find online, free or for a fee. You could, for example, buy a term paper and save yourself the trouble of working for your diploma (I often wonder if a professor ever got the exact same paper from two different people?).

Well, today, I read of something that, I would never have thought of.  There is a website that sells corrupted word processing files.  You read that right.  Corrupted files that won’t open.  The idea is you have a report due soon, and you don’t have time (or you’re too lazy) to complete it on time.  So, you purchase a corrupt file, rename it and turn that in.  A couple of days later, when the instructor tries to open the file, he or she finds that it won’t open and asks you to send it again.

Meanwhile, you’ve had a couple of extra days to finish the assignment.

Of course, sometimes it is possible to fix corrupted files.  If the program can’t do it, there are services out there that often can.  So if the teacher is clever, the whole thing could backfire.

No, I won’t give you the url.

Sometimes the illegal is also dangerous.  Like every other major movie, the next Harry Potter film will  be available online long before the film is released.  It was announced today that illegal downloads of this movie are very likely to contain a very dangerous virus.

So buy a movie ticket or rent the DVD, OK?

And do your own homework…

I used to laugh at movies like “Colossus: The Forbin Project”,”War Games”  or even “The Terminator” series where  supercomputers or robots are given so much power and control over our lives that they decide that they know what is best and take over.  I used to laugh beacause, I would think, “who would give that much control to a machine? Who would trust a machine to such an extent?”

I just read a story about a demolition company that actually tore down the wrong house because, as they claim, their GPS system sent them to the wrong location.  According to the story, they were just given the GPS coordinates.

What?  No one looked at addresses?  Were there no descriptions of the property?  They put so much absolute trust in the technology that there were no checks and balances?

The problem is a man’s childhood home (which was empty at the time) with all of the photos, keepsakes and memories are gone.  Because of, supposedly, a technical glitch.

I don’t laugh at the “computers take over the world” movies anymore.  No, I don’t think there are any super-intelligent machines out there, nor do I think there ever will be.  But we have gotten so lazy that we happily turn control of our lives over to the machines.

Young people no longer know how to do simple math.  In elementary school they use calculators, in high school and college they use computers (I used a slide rule). Those that get jobs at fast food chains and retail stores only have to press the buttons on the register. All of the math is done for them, and it tells them how much change to give.  They don’t have to think, so they don’t.

I teach computer technology, and I am constantly counseling people to not trust the spell checker and grammar checker in thier Word Processor.  They are only there to make suggestions.  When I teach spreadsheets and databases, I often have adult students who are suprised and disappointed when they learn that they have to think before building a solution; the software can do the work, but you have to tell it what work and how.

A computer can never replace the human mind.

Of course, the whole idea of computers was to make life a little easier, and to make the complex possible.  But we have allowed ourselves to become a “spoon fed” society of people who choose not to think.  So now we go to the movies and see super robots, warp speed space ships and light sabers and think it all possible.

Now I am a little scared.

I read an article the other day where a man was showing off his Blackberry handheld to the friends over lunch. Suddenly, he felt a vibration at this side. He reached down for the Blackberry that was not there; his friends were looking at it.

And I thought it was only me. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=3740984&page=1

Apparently many people have felt these “phantom vibrations” for years. Some claim they are akin to “phantom limb syndrome” where a person who has had an arm or leg amputated still feel the sensations, as if the limb were still there. Your cell phone or PDA becomes, in effect, a part of you. Take it away, and you still experience it.

Until recently, I had a T-Mobile phone that rang with their trademark 5-tones. Even when I had the thing, I would jump when I would hear other phones ringing or even TV commercials. Now, though I no longer have the phone, I hear, and react to the tones– even when they are not really there. Sometimes it is something that sounds similar; sometimes it is just in my head. That phone had become part of me, and I still experienced it, even thought it had been “amputated.”

I am not a big fan of cell phones and connected PDAs. Not because of any perceived technological danger. Almost 30 years ago, I had a job where I was essentially on 24-hour call. As the company grew and had more systems installed, the probability of getting after hour calls increased exponentially. It got to the point where every conceivable activity had been, at some point, interrupted by that damned pager. While in church or in the movies, I would set the thing to vibrate, and I would jump when it would go off. They only time I did not carry the pager would be while I was on vacation or on weekends, and still, I would be sitting, having dinner out with my family, having left the pager at home, and I would jump because I felt a vibration.

As we become more and more dependent on technology, the more these strange effects are going to be seen.

Sometimes, it is just weird.

I was at work one day, several years ago, when all of a sudden; I started to hear this faint, very high pitch sound. I occasionally suffer from a ringing of the ears, tinnitus, as it is called, but this was different. In fact after a few minutes, it became clear that my co-workers were hearing it also. This was an electronics repair facility so, we assumed that some test equipment had gone flaky, but, after we shut everything down, the noise was still there. I went into the next room. The sound was there, as strong as ever. When returned to the repair shop, they were staring at me, wide-eyed. They told me that the noise went away when I left the room–and came back with me.

For a moment, I freaked. I had been reading of bizarre conditions where people with tinnitus had it so bad that others could hear it, or people mysteriously generating sounds from inside their bodies, and nothing could be done about it. I began to imagine that I was going to go through the rest of my life dealing with some crazy, untreatable condition.

That’s when I thought to look at my digital watch. When I removed the battery, the sound went away. I put the battery back in and the watched ran perfectly for years afterward.