Westercon so far

[mdlbear]

I've already mentioned the concesrt, which I think (after listening to the recording this morning) nwent fairly well -- only two or three major flubs. Moving on to the panels.

I misremembered on Saturday -- I only had three panels. They originally had me down for moderating all of them, but I insisted on no more than one per day. Next tine I'll also remember to make sure I don't have anything that starts after 4pm. It's hard enough squeezing in dinner.

Saturday's panels were, in order, "Open Source" [unremarkable], "Are You Secure?" [which I moderated -- tips on securing your PC; also unremarkable], and "Blogging" [Yeah, I do that. The latest LJ kerfuffle got a mention].

The really fun one was yesterday's panel on DRM [which I moderated]. I also proved to be the panel's resident expert on DRM technology, which I guess isn't too surprising considering what I've been working on recently. [No, not DRM, but secure docunent transmission.] The discussion quickly shifted into the economics of free media distribution, since everybody in the room agreed that the proponents of DRM are fighting a rearguard action against the inevitable. Some interesting input from Scott Sigler, a panelist who's making a living off Creative Commons licensed books, and AJA in the audience.

The most interesting thing to me was the fact that many people who download free copies of a book or song go on to order everything by that artist/author. Shouldn't have been surprising -- I've done it myself. AJA is now thinking about selling boxed sets of Heather Alexander's CDs. I think my idea about selling unmixed Audacity projects as "super singles" interested him as well. That one panel was worth the whole con for me.

The other panel yesterday was the one on History of Filk. Unremarkable, and rather thinly attended.

I wasn't on any panels today, but enjoyed the one on songwriting. And I've been enjoying the concerts, of course. Kat and Kendra's was particularly impressive -- these are kids I've known since they were little; they've become young women with excellent voices. I'm looking forward to hearing more from them.

I missed the final concert yesterday, and will probably miss the last one tonight -- I have to take the Y.D. home at 10:30 so I can get her out of bed in time for summer school. Grumf. And then there's that little matter of our new garbage collection service, which requires us to have the bins out on the curb by 6am in the goddamn morning on Monday! What corrupt political appointee had that brilliant idea?

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Monday garbage SUCKS! cflute and I feel your pain... although not presently, as we have *finally* escaped that hell in the Monster... but we had it in the Treehouse, and cflute had it before at 603... yea, verily, it doth blow chunks.

6am?! I agree. Need to go before whatever bureaucratic body accepted that and threaten to hang them all by their wobblies until they re-negotiate.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

then there's that little matter of our new garbage collection service, which requires us to have the bins out on the curb by 6am in the goddamn morning on Monday!

I don't get it. I just put mine out the evening before. Is there some reason that won't work?

[mdlbear]

Works fine if I remember (we've had the same collection day for thirty years), and if I'm not at a con that includes a three-day weekend.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Oh, now I understand better. You have my sympathy.

I cope with putting the cans out by having a little reminder in my PDA that jingles about 9:00pm the night before, but that wouldn't help if you had a 3 day weekend.

My situation is eased by the fact that Kip and I are a relatively small household and we recycle a lot, so going 2 weeks between pickups is not that big a deal.

[mdlbear]

I've moved my computer reminder, so I probably won't be forgetting all that often. I probably will be waking up in a cold sweat on the occasional Wednesday morning thinking I've forgotten to take the trash out...

Recycling helps, indeed, and we're not generating as much trash lately as we used to.