Lee.org

2 years ago my old company considered distributing demos and content on DVD discs but I determined that it wasn’t cost effective and the disc formats had compatibility problems. DVD discs cost $17 apiece, recorded only in DVD-RAM format (only playable on DVD-RAM drives… no you don’t own one), and the burners cost $6,000.

Moore’s Law has been working overtime… Today, DVD media now costs as low as $0.79 per 4.7 gig disk. Recorders cost $350 for a 4x drive, recording onto DVD+R (the same format as your computer and DVD video player)

Here’s a burner: Sony DRU-500A Here’s some media: (0.47 terabytes for $90!)

Of course, this makes DVD copying tools like this one very popular The world is evolving at a lightning pace!

Kindred spirit: Penn, the larger half of Penn and Teller.

I had my first classes today… Math is (surprisingly) going to be a challenge while Child Growth and Development will be an excellent opportunity for me to polish up on the fine art of BS. I haven’t been in a classroom in 10 years. This will take a little getting used to!

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I put some more spit-polish on my “I hate NERO” page after a friend asked me about NERO. I startle myself at how much of a grudge I’m still holding over this thing. I guess my “counter-betrayal mechanism” has been working overtime since Cha. I have to vent the toxic fumes in some direction. So, come one, come all, step right up and see the gruesome object of my disgust.

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I’m still in the Wavexpress beta program… which mostly means that I write to them when I find a bug. I’ll always love poking at things and making them break. More than that, I love taking all the failure modes into account to try to figure out exactly what’s broken on the inside…. you know… like shaking a present at Christmas 10 different ways to try to figure out what’s inside.

A friend wrote to me about Nooks & Crannies ™

>Not exactly, Lee. CLAIMING ownership, and actually owning something are two
>different animals. Just ask the folks at Enron.
>
>In this case, Registration No. 2614090 (NOOK & CRANNIES) (Ampersand, not
>”and”)is owned by “MEGARGY LICENCIA HASZNOSITO FELELOSSEGU TARSASAG,” a
>Hungarian holding company which licenses the mark back to Unilever
>Bestfoods, the parent coporation of Entemanns, which makes Thomas’ English
>Muffins.

and my response:

Hahahah! That’s hilarious! It sounds like the little old lady that swallowed a fly! But in this case, she probably swallowed the fly for tax purposes, yes?

[This was written in 2001 or so. I haven't updated it but present it here for posterity. - Lee 9-20-05]

Politics

I am a soft Libertarian. I could talk for a while about this but I’ve got more important things to do than argue over the internet.

I’d rather yell at you in person.

See what being a Libertarian is about.

Hey, want to know what our congress is doing (or not ;-) right now? See the actual text of bills and find out what bills are coming up for legislation. Go talk to Thomas.

Here are some important documents:

• The Declaration of Independence
• The Constitution
• I’m Just a Bill

Lee on Philanthropy

A while ago, I ran the web site at the Coolidge Corner Theater in Brookline Mass and until September 2001 I ran their mailing list. I haven’t been to the theater in several years now… I’ve been living near NYC and don’t get up to Boston that much.

Several years ago, Julie and I decided to do volunteer work. We couldn’t think of what organization we wanted to volunteer our time to. We thought about Habitat for Humanity, soup kitchens, helping the homeless, and the like but it just didn’t get us excited. We thought about it a while and knew that we had to pick a charity that we felt good about. It’s easy to pick something that’s hard to do. If you are doing something that you’re not really good at, it’s easy to feel like you’re “working hard” at it. When actually, you’re just a thorn in the side of your charity. The goal here is to -do- something, not just feel all warm and gushy inside.

We also thought a long time about the kind of charity we wanted to donate our time to. We had to feel good about what we were accomplishing. If we helped build a house in Kentucky, then some guy or family a thousand miles away will have a roof over his head. Of course, that’s a good thing, but it doesn’t do much for my world. Saving starving children in Ethiopia, Bangladesh, or China is nice but getting a couple pictures and a story from the Save the Children Fund is still a bit distant.

We wanted something:
- hands-on - signing a check is too quick
- present - helping people thousands of miles away just isn’t satisfying
- that used current skills. My charity doesn’t want to have to teach me how to use a bandsaw
- that we could appreciate - after helping, I want to be able to stand back and admire it a little

It was a difficult choice, putting that last one on the list. It sounds too vain. But we figured out for ourselves that it’s ok for a component of philanthropy to be vanity.

So Julie and I began helping the Coolidge. I helped to run their web site and fully administered their schedule mailing list. Those were things that I was good at and they needed. It felt pretty good. I’m glad I did it. It feels good knowing that I helped The Coolidge stay around.

We picked the Coolidge I volunteered my services there because:

• Indie film takes risks. Big Cinema often caters to the least common denominator. That usually makes it boring. It’s really quite frightening how people are attracted to such dreck. At least when Indie film is bad, it’s REALLY bad, and you still have something to talk about.
• The Coolidge is an authentic 1920’s Deco Style theater. It’s just plain cool inside. There’s all these details and cool features that make me feel like this place was really made for the theater-going experience
• They have pretty good popcorn.
• The occasional live performance and event at the theater is always cool. They have folks like:

• Annie Sprinkle, Sexpert
• The Alloy Orchestra performing for silent films. Seeing them perform for their print of Metropolis in ‘94 was an AMAZING experience. I heard a piece about them on NPR recently (4-20-02). They’re famous!
• Each year, there’s the 24hr Science Fiction Marathon