As of 2009, I have owned a dual core processor machine, with 4GB of ram and a 500GB hard drive. It is called Magrageeves (I give my computers weird names) and at the time it was a godsend. My old single-core computer, Albatross, was getting very, very old, and had experienced a bad static electricty problem oh, nearly six years ago now, and thus would freeze up randomly, forcing me to restart frequently. The only reason I stayed with that computer is because I was too poor to buy a new one. It was college, what can you do. So the purchase of a brand new system was exciting to me, but also kind of nervewracking. I had to buy something relatively cheap, but something that could do what I wanted, namely play video games. So I opted for a dual core, because quad cores at that time were super expensive. Five hundred gigabytes, I thought, would last me forever. How do you fill up 500GB of space? The cost of Magrageeves was $470.

Later on I purchased a “bare-bones” computer kit for $200. An AMD Phenom quad core processor, 2GB of ram that I upgraded to 4GB, a 500GB hard drive, power supply, a shitty case, etc etc. I was supposed to put it together myself. I was nervous. See, Albatross had been sitting in the garage for months now, collecting dust, and at one point I decided to turn it on. I turned it on and experienced a series of beeps and no Windows loading. After some investigating, I quickly discovered that Albatross was Dead, a lifeless hunk of scrap metal. So I did something that I would do frequently with toys as a child: I took it apart. God damn it felt good. I hadn’t taken apart anything for a long time, because at some point it became apparent to my developing brain that while I was good at taking things apart and investigating them, I was horrible at putting them back together. I distinctly remember the piles of parts of Transformer toys I disassembled and then kind of half-heartedly reassembled, and how they looked nothing like they used to. I then said, Well, let’s stop doing this.

So I took apart Albatross and looked at what made it tick. Of course, what was in that box and what is in my newer computers is a little different. Better technology, more upgraded thingymajigs. I don’t know the name of everything, but I know generally what goes where, how to plug in things, etc. And I used that information along with basic instructions to build the bare-bones computer. It was painless! The only issue is that the hard drive light doesn’t light up, despite plugging the right connecting pin (or whatever that’s called). But I did it. I constructed something. It made me feel good. It was as close to working on a car as I’ll ever get.

Now my plan is to upgrade! I was going to upgrade my dual-core to a quad-core behemoth, but thankfully through some research I found that the motherboard on that computer can’t handle more than 4GB of ram. So the next idea is to upgrade the quad core and make it the main computer in my house (the other being a guest computer/recording computer). I can add a 1TB hard drive, a shiny new ATI Radeon graphics card, and two sticks of 4GB ram (this mobo can go up to 8GB) for under $200, though I’ll probably have to chip in and get a new computer fan, too.

Oh, and randomly, I discovered that Albatross’s 80GB hard drive still works, and so I put it in the quad-core machine. Honestly, I’ve never had a hard drive fail on me, ever. People must be pushing those things like mad to get them to burn out on them.

I know this goes against the general patois of this blog, but I’ve become quite proud of my ability to deal with computers like this, and I can’t wait to buy the parts to upgrade my quad core. There’s something about getting your hands dirty and putting stuff together yourself that makes you more invested in those things. For some it’s gardens, for others it’s cars, and for me it’s computers. So there! Deal with it! *sunglasses fall onto my face*

There needs to be a universal program¹ that easily allows someone to grab your music and listen to it immediately.  Now you say, “Josh, that already exists, it’s called streaming.”  And I reply: streaming sucks.  Ideally.  Pragmatically, it’s a great way to instantly listen to music, but what if you want to put the track on your computer?  Especially if it’s a free track?  This isn’t too hard, you just download and click on .. you know what, I’m confusing myself with this worthless preamble.  Let’s just get on with my idea.

A music bin. Which exists maybe on the toolbar, since toolbars are pretty universal.  When you come across a website that has music that you can download, all you have to do is click and drag the music link up to the toolbar, and it “dumps” the song into the bin². The song gets downloaded and immediately updated in your music program of choice (iTunes, Winamp, WMP, whatever [or maybe all three]). Maybe it has a setting where the song is played immediately. Either way, you have downloaded the song and don’t have to worry about finding it in your computer, transferring it, or really messing with it at all.

Now (and this is why I thought this up), if a person is offering a free ALBUM, or EP, they ususally send it as a .zip file.  This music bin program would unzip the file, extract the files to place in whatever folder you deem worthy, and updates your music program. This is important because it eliminates the stupid step of opening Windows Explorer, opening the .zip file, C&Ping the tracks, moving them to your folder, etc etc.

… wait a minute.  I just described a torrent file. Good god I’m an idiot.

What’s cool about my name is that it’s very difficult for people to remember how to spell.  Most people desperately want to spell my last name “Bellville”, but that’s just not how it’s spelled.  My name is spelled Belville and there’s just no way that’s going to change.  I don’t like the Bellville spelling.  It seems off somehow.  Belleville is better but I’m just not that French.  And so I have my bastardized surname of Belville, which is also a line of Lego toys for girls, if you didn’t know that already.

I bring this up because if you google “Josh Belville”, this website is the first result.  More importantly, the first page is all me: Myspace, Facebook, last.fm, thesixtyone, even burn out sites like The Next Big Sound and LinkedIn.  It’s all me.  Whoa, I even make the whole second page!  And the third page!  And the fourth!

Even if you don’t put quotes in Google when you search my name, it still is all me.  If you search “joshua belville”, the first site that pops up is my acting/music website.  Point being not so much that I have mastered the art of SEO, but more that I have just the right amount of Unusual to my name.

Unfortunately that means bunk if you don’t know how to spell it.

If you search “zornog”, with the notable exception of King Zornog from the Star Wars comic books¹, it’s all me for the first page.  And the second.

So the question becomes: how important is this?  How important is it to be so integrated into Google when no one knows how to properly spell your name?  Should I add “bellville” into my meta tags so that people can essentially misspell my name and still get to my website?  Actually … that’s probably a good idea.  But the point is, should anyone wish to find me through the internet, their chances of doing so are Extremely High, but only if they spell my name correctly.

Alternately, they could search for “zornog” and effectively find me.

… In other words, I’m doomed.

Well, the Age of Gondolora is over.  I have purchased a new computer, for nearly half as much money but twice as much power.  This computer is called Magrageeves, and it rises from the fiery ashes of Gondolora.  It has only one drive, but it is Large, and I need to name it.  Right now it’s called Pencil Bandit, which I think is kind of funny, but not really appropriate.  Suggestions?

The Fortress of Consternation is not dead, however.  From all ruins come new civilizations.  Gondolora and Panda Bears shall be razed, and on their ground shall be built new cities, under the watchful eye of Ubuntu, lord of Free Operating Systems.  There peace shall prosper and man shall learn how to access Terminal and receive Root.  And life will be good.

Really, I’m just stoked cause I can play Morrowind again.  Morrowind!

Most importantly, I have (finally!) registered joshuabelville.com.  This will now be the central site for my music and acting.  It will be a website resume, bascially.  zornog.net, meanwhile, will house my personal stuff, like this blog, and comics, and writings, and etc etc.  That doesn’t mean jb.com won’t be active, it’s just that it will be specific for my music and acting.

So!  Be prepared to bookmark that site.  I imagine it will go live in February or March, depending on how busy I am in February.

I have also, for my own protection, registered zornog.com and zornog.org.  My site used to be on zornog.com, before it expired and some bastard parked on it for years.  Now it’s free and I have it!  Hoorah.  (for the record: someone is currently parked on joshbelville.com, or else I would’ve bought it instead of joshuabelville.com).

Okay, so if you haven’t checked out Test Comic yet, you should click that link.  What was originally an attempt to make good speech bubbles has become a mind of its own.  I won’t explain anymore, I’ll just ask you to click the image and check it out.  I think it’s pretty funny.  But then again, I find it hilarious when I fart, so to each their own, I guess.

Okay, I’ve spent enough time here; I must go memorize lines.  Go read the comic!  Be ready for joshuabelville.com!  Do other things that are awesome!  Okay bye!

AND THE REST WAS HISTORY.

So I’ll just reprint what the article says, since it’s pretty short and some people (like me) don’t like to click on a bunch of links sometimes.  It reads:  

A few legislative notes:

Yesterday (the very day the CMA Awards were hosted in Nashville) Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen signed into law SB 3794, a bill that requires all public and private universities and colleges in the state to take proper steps to assure that their networks are not being used to illegally trade copyrighted material. It also requires each school to develop and enforce a policy for computer usage, network usage and ethics. The House IP subcommittee was abolished and will be bumped up to a full Judiciary committee.

My immediate thought upon reading this was: they’re gonna screw it up and get a bunch of college students pissed off at them.

Why?  Because politicians can be lazy.  They don’t want to explain what the policy is for computer usage, network usage, and “ethics” (what a gloriously general term that can be!), they just want you to make one.  Now.  So that they look good to the RIAA and MPAA, and can get re-elected by elderly people who hate rap music.

So they’ll throw this amorphous policy into the hands of a judiciary committee who will not take into account the fact that college students like to listen to music.  Rather, they’ll take into account that college students like to steal, which is simply not true.  Well, somewhat.  Anarchists like to steal.  I know a couple of college-aged anarchists, and they love stealing from “the man”.  But they’re a relatively small community of people, unless you go to Reed College, in which case they’re the entire student population.

In other words, instead of viewing this potentially devastating bill in a positive light, they are going to use it as an excuse to infringe on personal liberties.  Now, before you say, “Stealing is not a personal liberty,” let me say that I’m not talking about stealing.  Stealing is the tip of the iceberg.  The real issue here is the definition of terms — “computer usage”, “network usage” and “ethics” (especially ethics) – and how they choose to define them.  This will ultimately grant them the right to broaden their horizons, so to speak.  In essence, this bill could potentially further damage the music industry, instead of helping it.

So, as a bit of an open letter to the policy makers in Tennessee, allow me to explain to you exactly how you should use this bill, in a positive way, rather than a negative way.

It’s actually quite simple.  Throw away attempts to define “computer usage”, “network usage” and “ethics”, because you will spend more time quibbling over those definitions than you will getting things done.  Instead, do one simple thing: have the college subscribe to a licensed music distribution site, like eMusic or Rhapsody.  I’m sure they could get some kind of massive education discount for subscribing.  Then, put that subscription cost onto the student tuition.  ”Oh god no!” I hear you scream, but hear me out.  eMusic subscriptions start at $11.99 for 30 downloads, and $24.99 for 100 downloads.  One hundred downloads is a lot of songs, but it seems to be around what the average music listener might download, and it’s even pretty good for a heavy music listener/hipster.  So let’s assume a college opts for this.  Now let’s say it’s a college like Boise State, which has around 20,000 students.  Let’s also assume that since it’s a mass subscription, eMusic is awesome and knocks the price down to $19.99/month.  That’s $240 dollars per year.  $240 per year x 20,000 students is an egregiously large number — 4.8 million dollars.  That definitely sounds like a lot, but if each student is only charged $240 a year, then it’s not so bad.

Some schools might not like this, like Boise State, where tuition is only about $5,000 per year.  But other schools, private ones and ones with higher tuition costs might benefit from this added cost.  Imagine, colleges across the country spending upwards of 2 to 4 million dollars subscribing to your music service (I’m talking to you, eMusic).  The profit there would be incredible.  I’m sure eMusic could even lower their monthly price to $10 or $11/month and still make a tidy profit.

This now solves two problems, not just one: it solves the problem of illegal downloading on college networks by establishing a certified, licensed music service which becomes the premiere way students get their music.  Perhaps they’re only limited to 100 songs a month —  I don’t think students will object to that.  Secondly, however, there is a bonus solution to record labels: a new, widely used place to promote their bands!  And not only that, a site that is 100% guaranteed to be used by all college students on the campus.

Even better, this promotes healthy capitalism because it allows the colleges to choose which music site they wish to subscribe to, which in turn forces the music sites to get off their ass and make their subscription programs better, which lowers prices and increases demand.  It’s economics in action!

Of course, there are still some kinks to work out: obviously not all of the 20,000 students at BSU want to download songs online.  There ought to be a way to waive their subscription fee, then, in much the same way one would waive health insurance.  Plus the server requirements would be off the charts, but that’s easily handled these days.

My idea right now is grand but I think it honestly could be done.  These policy makers have the ability to push music distribution truly to the new millenium.  They just have to view the situation in a positive, forward moving light, rather than thinking of all music downloaders as “pirates.”

So to Tennessee and to you, Governor Phil Bredesen, I say this: there is a fair argument that online piracy is hurting the music industry.  But the damage is beyond repair.  We are facing a new and extremely ingenious way for millions of people to listen to new, amazing music, cheaply and quickly, and that way is digital distribution.  Rather than try to fix a sinking ship, why not join the rest of us who are leading the way and build a newer, sleeker, stronger ship?  Only then will the music industry rebound, like a phoenix rising out of its own ashes.

1. Favicons.  For those of you who don’t know, favicon is that little image at the top of the browser, next to the name of the website.  It’s the tiny purple “f” on the Facebook site, the peace sign on Craigslist, the red “M” envelope on Gmail.  They’re called favicons because they are icons that show up on your Favorites list, obviously.  Favicons used to be a great idea, terribly executed.  Originally they were .ico files, which were specially designed by Microsoft.  Which meant that you had to make the icon with some Microsoft Icon Maker program, which meant that a lot of sites didn’t have favicons because they didn’t want to use Microsoft’s stupid program.  Also, there was no HTML support for favicons; originally you just put them in the root directory of your website and, I guess, the browser was supposed to say, “Hey, that’s a favicon!  Woo!” and save it for you.  This led to lots of inconsistencies.  Sometimes a favicon would work on my bookmarks, sometimes it wouldn’t.  Other times, I would have the wrong favicon for a certain site, or multiple sites would use the same favicon, which was the wrong one.

But now … now favicons have W3C support, and their own little bit of HTML, and they sit and stay perfectly on your browser, which means I can move on to my next point:

2. Bookmark Toolbars.  Now that favicons work so well, I don’t need to label my bookmarks in the bookmark toolbar anymore!  I can just have the icon sit there, instantly telling me which site is which.  This means that I can put twice, if not three times as many bookmarks on the toolbar, saving me, oh, about two seconds of navigation time, which is silly but still pretty awesome.  Another thing that helps me with this new awesomeness is

3. Better ALT tags!  ALT tags are the little popups that show up when you hover over a link, or an image, or a bookmark.  These used to suck.  I won’t go into detail, but just take it from me when I say they used to suck.  They were poorly supported, and sometimes were just worthless.  But now, if I forget what a particular bookmark is on my toolbar, I can hover over it and it’ll show me the URL, and I’ll instantly remember.  Thanks, ALT tags!

4. RSS feeds.  Again, another thing that was implemented before people really understood how awesome it is.  RSS feeds are like newspaper articles, and you’re building your own newspaper.  You pick and choose what you want to read, and set it up through RSS feeds.  Google, as always, has an excellent application called Google Reader which handles RSS feeds so well, you won’t need anything else.  And if you use Blogger to blog, the blogs that you follow show up on Google Reader automatically.  It’s almost magic.

5. Email.  Email used to suck compared to IMing.  But now both are integrated and everything is awesome.  That’s all I have to say about that, I just wanted to have five items instead of four.

Now, if only Torrents could be as cool as these things are now, the world would be a better place.  Someday, Torrents … someday.