December 14, 2012
Dear Everyone:
Last weekend was the final, for this year, “Release” in the software
that we’ve been testing for the past six months.
And, for the record, there were very few “mishaps”, so there’s
not a lot of cleanup to do.
Needless to say, no one is eager to start anything new this late.
It’s kind of like the last week of school:
Hurry, hurry, hurry, stop.
Don’t start anything you can’t finish before the door closes, so
to speak.
“Ludmilla” claims to have lots of things to finish up, but nothing that
she can take the time to show me so I can do it for her.
“Babette” contacted “Matilda” in “Hobby” to send me “stuff” to do
that has something to do with telephones.
But “Matilda” has been in last-minute meetings all week.
“Babette” found something for me to do yesterday.
Then she realized that I could do some “data scrubbing.”
I can “scrub data” with the best of them.
So that will keep my busy for the next week.
After that, it’s
Christmas Vacation!
In the meantime, I’ve been “playing” with my new
cell phone.
So many features to try and figure out.
Just when I get the hang of something, I accidentally make it
disappear. Oops.
When I’m at work, the phone is on my desk, so it doesn’t ring.
A couple of weeks ago, I was at home, so the phone was plugged
into the charger on the kitchen counter.
By the time I realized what that funny noise was in the kitchen
and got there, the phone had stopped “ringing”.
Yes, it told me who had just called, but when I tried to return
the call, I got a busy signal, because the person was leaving me a
voicemail message.
So I took a stab at downloading some new ringtones.
This becomes a little tricky because of the
Copyright Laws.
These, like the publishing industry in general, are sort of on
“tumble dry” because of the
Internet, which makes disseminating and
copying information so easy.
When it comes to music, you may think, “Hey!
Beethoven,
Bach,
Mozart, etc.
They’re all in the
Public Domain, right?”
Well, yes. The
original composition is. But
that CD that you bought, or
MP3 file that you downloaded, was
orchestrated, conducted, performed and recorded by a producer who holds
the copyright to that recording.
And what about the
person who composed the theme to the TV series,
The Munsters?
Think he’s getting a piece of the
action from that snippet that plays when your brother-in-law calls?
Of course not.
For one thing, there’s the “30-second rule” that implies it’s OK to use
less than half-a-minute of a piece of music.
Not really true. Just
Google “30 second rule” and see how many hits you get.
(Query: When did
“Google” become a verb?)
In the meantime, you’ll notice that most ringtones “based” on actual
music all last no more than 30 seconds.
And they’re “free”.
Actually, they’re a way for someone to get their little patty-paws on
your email address so they can send you annoying messages about more
“free” stuff.
Nevertheless, I now have a bit of “music” that is distinctive enough
that I’ll know it’s my phone that’s trying to get my attention.
Years ago, with my first cell phone, I picked a ringtone that was
actually a bit of opera (also in the Public Domain).
Worked great until “Frankie” and I were in the same place at the
same time. Turns out she had
picked the same ringtone because it was
Italian opera (from when she lived in
Italy, some decades ago.)
And so it goes…
Love, as always,
Pete
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