Mistitled

BAR SOPA

Speaking as someone who’s made a living for the past 20 years producing content that is often pirated, I am strongly opposed to SOPA/PIPA. They are the wrong answer to the wrong question. They are an attempt to finish the work started by the repugnant DMCA.

The lobbyists of SOPA/PIPA are making a statement: “We’re not making enough money by overcharging for movie tickets. We’re not making enough money by weakening and circumventing the First Sale Doctrine. We’re not making enough money by making you pay for the same content multiple times. The DMCA didn’t increase our profits by a large enough amount. Our business model is based on avarice and greed, and not on integrity and creativity. So now we’re going to lobby to enact legislation which allows law enforcement to act in our business and financial interests.”

As the producers of intellectual property it is up to us to make sure that our businesses can survive the inevitable piracy of our product. A good way to do this is to make a product for which more people want to pay a fair price than who are willing to steal it. Another important step is to realize that the people who are stealing your product would, in all likelihood, not have paid for it in any event. (Obviously this applies to end users; and not to the criminals who are reselling pirated material. There are already laws in place that apply to criminal piracy.)

Take the money you would have spent on fighting piracy and use it to make a better product and/or service. Making more laws is not the answer.

Deployment Report: Humanscale M8 Monitor Arm

I have a 30-inch Apple Cinema Display, which has given me good service for many years; however, I’ve long desired greater flexibility of placement, more free space on my desktop, and generally a workspace that is a better ergonomic fit.

After some investigation, I settled on the Humanscale M8. One of the problems I ran into with monitor arms in general is that there’s such a dizzying array of models and options that “paralysis of choice” quickly sets in.) The M8 is rated for monitors up to 40lb, which easily covers the ACD-30 as well as current-generation iMacs and monitors. Also, it uses a spring-loaded tension system, instead of gas cylinders; this is marketed as being more reliable in the long term. Time will tell.

Installation was complicated by two factors: first, my desk is a granite table, which rests on a steel frame which is itself inlaid into a wooden leg structure. An edge clamp is not usable. So, I called a stone cutter to come and drill a suitable hole in the table to accommodate the M8’s through-hole mounting base.

The other problem I had is that the M8 (like every other arm that’s currently available) uses the VESA mount plate standard. Apple has a VESA adapter kit for its cinema displays — in fact, there are two SKUs. One of them fits the current-generation LED displays and iMacs, and the other fits the older aluminum-case displays. At the time I purchased the M8, the VESA kit for the older displays was not available in the US; oddly, the UK Apple Store did have it, so I enlisted the aid of a friend in the UK to purchase and ship the kit. Checking today, both versions are actually available in the US Apple Store: VESA kit for aluminum cinema displays and VESA kit for newer cinema displays, the Thunderbolt display, and iMacs.

With the desk drilled and parts acquired, installation was reasonably straightforward. If you’re using the bolt-through mount, I recommend the use of blue Loctite on the bolt so that you won’t have to worry about it loosening up. I also used blue Loctite on the bolts attaching the VESA adapter plate to the monitor. It’s also a good idea to have a helper to steady the display while you place the arm and adjust the pivots.

Once in place, fine tuning is pretty easy, and I’m very happy with the results. I can set the display a little higher and a little closer than the factory foot allows, and although it’s a small difference in placement, it’s a big difference in readability and comfort. Also, I can now swing the arm and display entirely off to the side (without really disrupting the basic adjustments). This is great for having conversations with the rest of the room, since the display no longer functions as a room divider.

Humanscale’s web site shows a list price of US$485. I got mine from ErgoDirectUSA for $285; you can probably find similarly discounted pricing through other outlets.

Deployment report: CarMD “Vehicle Health System”

Deployment report: CarMD “Vehicle Health System”

The CarMD product is a combination of a hardware product (an OBD-II code reader) and a web service, with a little bit of desktop software to tie it together. The hardware product is roughly the size of a fat TV remote; it fits reasonably well into one’s hand. On one end there’s a connector that plugs into the OBD-II connector on your car (present on all cars sold in the US from model year 1996-on); on the other end there’s a USB type-B socket to receive a USB cable (which is included in the package).

To use the CarMD, you plug it in to your car’s OBD-II port. Then you turn the car’s ignition to the “ON” position (without starting). In about a minute or so, the CarMD reads the data from the car’s onboard diagnostics, and beeps to indicate completion.

Given the typical variation in the locations of cars’ OBD-II data ports, and the relative inconvenience of those locations, the optional extender cable should be considered mandatory. (It’s available as a separate accessory, or as part of an “essentials” bundle which includes the reader and the extension cable for a slightly discounted price.)

After gathering data from the car, you start the CarMD application (that you have installed at some prior point), and plug the unit into your computer using the included USB cable. The desktop application connects you to the CarMD web site. Each CarMD unit has a unique identifier; if the web site doesn’t recognize yours, you’ll be asked to fill in some information: your name and contact info; the car’s VIN (from which the web site will determine the year/make/model) and the car’s mileage. Thereafter, the web site will recognize you from the unit’s unique ID, log you in, and display the information gleaned from the unit.

There are some rough edges on the software side. There were typos in the quick-start reference guide, as well as in the software UI itself. The CD included version 3.1.0 of the Mac application; but the web site offers up version 3.0.5, and nothing newer. (This could be a problem for users with MacBook Airs and other computers which lack a working optical drive.)

The UI of the Mac application makes only minimal use of standard OS look and feel; it looks pretty rough and lacks useful feedback such as progress indicators when loading data from the hardware and reading the diagnostic data (both of which took long enough for me to wonder if something was wrong).

A CarMD account is free, which is good — the hardware is absolutely useless without it. The unit does not display any human-readable information; nor does the desktop application. The web site itself displays only minimal technical information; either your car is working correctly (no codes stored in the OBD-II memory); or it needs attention (there are codes); or there’s a must-fix-before-emissions-inspection condition. This lack of detail is unfortunate as it makes the CarMD much less attractive to enthusiasts and home mechanics.

Although the basic CarMD service is free, the web site offers “premium” content for a fee. For example, any factory-issued Technical Service Bulletins are listed; but you cannot read them without first paying a fee for each one (currently US$2.99). A free account allows you to keep up to three cars; you can generate up to six reports per month (and you only need to generate a report if there’s a code stored in your car’s OBD-II memory). This is probably enough for most households.

Even so, CarMD offers a “Premium Vehicle Health Membership”, which for about $30 offers you access to several services not available for free accounts: “unlimited access to TSBs”, “unlimited access to warranty and scheduled maintenance intervals for all your registered vehicles”, “special private content”, “special discounts from partners”, “subcription to the CarMD newsletter”. Speaking as an enthusiast, the value proposition isn’t compelling to me; discovering the maintenance schedule is pretty easy for anyone willing to crack open the owner’s manual, and most enthusiast clubs (such as the BMW CCA) provide a great central resource for TSBs and other make-specific technical info.

One big shortcoming of the CarMD hardware is that it’s a static reader, and not a continuous monitor (such as the ScanGauge, which I intend to try out and write up). That USB port would be lovely for connecting to a MacBook Air or iPad and gathering all kinds of data as you drive. Again, that doesn’t make much difference to the target audience for the CarMD; but it limits its appeal to advanced users, enthusiasts, and tinkerers.

Even with these caveats, the CarMD remains useful as a way for you to know what’s wrong with your car, in more detail than you might get from a dealer service writer or independent mechanic.