A Free Report for Newbie Massage Therapists

I have finally created a nice report for those massage therapists who are just starting out in this career.

Essentially the report, called "How to Start a Massage Therapy Practice" is a guide to help them with some ideas on creating a successful practice right from the beginning.

No, it's not a bunch of lame stuff about printing business cards and putting an ad in the Yellow Pages. Those are NOT major strategies at all in the service business, like massage therapy.

Instead, I give solid ideas that not everyone is going to think of immediately. Hopefully, it is helpful.

And it's free, so there's no risk for the new therapist. They can just try it!

Here's a link to the download page - "How to Start a Massage Therapy Practice."

More Posts on the Wii Workout

Here are a bunch of posts around the 'net on the Wii Workout (see previous posts):

DS Revolution

Resident Gamer

Team Robot

Follow Up on Wii Workout

Here is another commenter on this blog a few posts ago, giving more great ideas for the Nintendo Wii Console and how it could help us work out while we have fun.

Thanks to dr1044 for this great idea.

"The Wii Workout"

The market is huge for workout videos/dvds because most people like the convenience and privacy of working out at home. This game could potentially give them that plus a personal trainer and more.

Basically aerobics game targeted (mostly) at females. Need four wiimotes ("remotes"). Strap two to your shins and hold the other two. Do common aerobic type workouts with Chuck Norris/Brooke Burke on screen encouraging/screaming at you.

Game is sophisticated enough so that you can enter your height, weight, gender, and goals, and the game will develop your ideal workout routine or you can set your own goals. If you want to burn say five pounds in a week just enter it in the game and it develops a plan. Norris/Burke gives you instant feedback on if you are doing the exercises right ("keep your arms straight", "your right leg is too far forward") or if you need to speed up or if you are doing good. If one limb is not moving right it gives you a little vibration there.

The number of reps you have done and the number that you have left are displayed and spoken to you. You can either use the preloaded game workout music or use your own that you uploaded. You can be rewarded with your favorite song (or maybe a Chuck Norris fact) or punished with some country music. The game stores your workout results in the memory and it computes graphs of all your workouts so that you can see how you are progressing. It also uses your results to come up with your next workout routine.

Also to motivate you even more you could tell it "I want to lose 10 pounds" and while you are working out it shows how many minutes you will have to work out to reach your goal. Going faster or lasting longer makes the number decrease.

Variations of the game can include yoga, pilates, dancing, martial arts, boxing, kickboxing, weightlifting, and I'm sure a whole bunch of other things."

You could also create a virtual self (like the Nintendo guy put his face on the wiisports). You could go online and compete with other people who match up with your current skill level. It could also big like a biggest loser thing where it's a competition to see who works out the best and loses the most weight.

I love this idea! So creative, dr1044. Any other ideas on how to use this new motion-sensitive remote (wiimote) to increase fitness? I am actually not a big fan of video games, I just get bored of them too quickly. But this game I think I would play!

Stevia Expert

Thanks to reader Eve, I've found another expert on Stevia who I might be able to interview. His name is James May and he wrote the book "The Miracle of Stevia" and is also the founder of SweetLeaf Stevia.

I was trying to contact the people at Stevita, but they aren't returning my e-mails so I've given up on them.

I'm hoping to have a very detailed interview with a stevia expert to get the whole background story and uses of this product for my podcast - Holistic Health Nation.

Thanks Eve!

How to Access Mac OS X Fonts from X11 Applications

Does anyone know how to access the Mac OS X fonts (listed in Font Book) from X11 applications like OpenOffice and the Gimp?

I having a lot of trouble finding information about this. The best so far was a posting at Mac OS X Hints, but it was from 2003 and nothing of those ideas worked on my up-to-date Tiger operating system.

If you have any ideas, I'd appreciate a helping hand on this. I found a great site with thousands of free fonts, but so far I can't access them in the apps I use most - OpenOffice 2.0 and the Gimp.

Thanks!

Copy Protection on Information Products

I've always felt that my information products, like e-Books and Internet-delivered reports, should be free of copy protection and digital rights management.

But listening to an attorney on a podcast recently (scroll down to "Inside the Net 023 - Michael Geist)"), I realized that my instinctive reaction makes a lot of sense.

My battle with getting paid for my e-Books is not against people who are illegally obtaining it. 99.9% of the people who didn't buy my book haven't heard of my e-Book! Therefore, if a few people steal the e-Book, and then the word gets out more and more about my e-Book, that will help more people know about it, helping me with my REAL battle - obscurity.

This leads me to state that putting copy protection on an independently produced piece of content (whether e-Book, music, poetry, stories, podcast, etc.) is an obscurity assurance program. Maybe copy protection makes sense for big companies, but for us independent producers, forget it. It is bad business.

Are Video Games the Key to Solving Childhood Obesity?

I believe I have seen the future.

Nintendo just released their "Wii" (pronounced 'we') video game console. It contains a wireless remote that is motion sensitive.

What this means is that to swing a bat in a baseball video game, you swing the remote over your shoulder and across in front of you. To clunk a villain on the head, you move the remote in a similar way.

When I think of the possibilities...

What about a video game where you have to do a certain amount of working out (push ups, swinging your arms, stretches) in order to do something fun in the game (go through to a new level, open a door, etc.). We are now able to link the fun of videogames with the need for physical activity. Indeed, it seems that all videogames will now have an aspect of fitness to them, making them more fun than before.

I've never been a gamer myself, I get bored of them very easily. But knowing that young children today often play games more than they watch TV or surf the Internet, this could be the opportunity we're looking for.

I'm not the first person to think of this. Note the comment at the end of this article on Wii.

Solving Immigration and Avoiding a Draft

Would this work?

Rather than goofy guest worker programs (which didn't work very well in France) or other ideas I've heard, could we set up a program where an immigrant from Mexico can gain citizenship by serving in our American armed forces for a couple of years?

It could work for individuals and also families. In a family, one parent would have to serve in the forces, the other could stay stateside with the family. The paycheck from service would hopefully (?) be enough to sustain the family back here.

This solves a bit of our immigration problem with Mexico, and it also brings home people into our armed forces for the time being, right when we need them.

What do you think? (It's my wife's idea.)

Holistic Health Nation #16 - Organic Insurance

My latest podcast is the coolest ever!

I interview Kathryne Auerback from Physicians Plus Insurance Corporation. She explains their new system of providing a rebate for their members participation in community supported agriculture. Isn't that great??

Listen here.

David Blaine Seeing Auras?

David Blaine, the magician who is staying underwater in a bubble this week, told a reporter yesterday that he could see a blur of red, yellow and blue around people's heads in the daytime. Do you think he might be seeing auras?

Just a thought.

Look at this link and play the video. The David Blaine segment is right at the end. The whole video is about 6 minutes.

Getting Rid of Dandelions Organically

Here is a very cool list of ways to get rid of dandelions without using toxic herbicides or "weed and feed" mixtures. My lawn is full of dandelions, and I really don't want to continue to use my toxic sprays and granules.

Let me know what you think of this list.

A quick update on this post. A listener of my podcast, Rob, gave me this link to a fertilizer company that also has a corn gluten based weed control product. Very natural, however you have to put it on before the dandelions germinate. And the fertilizer is made from chicken poop!

Bill Maher's Monologue Last Week

Bill Maher took another in a long series of potshots at Big Pharma. He really loves to go after the drug companies. He seems to be genuinely interested in promoting the organic food movement, as well as just simple eating right and exercising. He seems pretty fit so he probably practices what he preaches.

Just to prove he's not making this stuff up, I've put in links to Websites that explain each of these weird-sounding things. They're all true (except for Flaccidix).

Here it is:

New Rule:
Drug companies have to stop making up diseases! I don't know what the terrorists are planning next for America, but if I had every problem they talk about in medicine commercials: breathing, lifting, walking, sitting, sleeping, crapping, not crapping, getting a boner and male pattern menopause—I would welcome death. Bring it on! Deadly nerve gas? Please, I've got seasonal allergies!

I mean, it seems like every time I turn on the TV these days, I see some ad for some drug I never heard of, to treat some disease I never heard of. That's not a stomach ache you have from eating the chili-cheese fries at Johnny Rockets, it's Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Or I.B.S. Or as I call it, "B.S." Which would also apply to the dreaded "Social Anxiety Disorder." Or as we used to call it, "shyness." And we treated it with an old home recipe: scotch and water.

Your wife doesn't get turned on? Well, it couldn't be because you're a snowman-shaped sausage casing--so full of beer you sweat hops. It's because she has "Female Sexual Dysfunction."

And before they came up with "Restless Leg Syndrome," did that even exist? Did you ever hear someone say, "Sorry I couldn't make the party, Bill." "The old restless leg was acting up." You know, next time you have an uncontrollable urge to move your feet, maybe you should just...move your feet! Your feet are trying to tell you the same thing your dog is trying to tell you when he's been cooped up in the house all day: "I want to go for a walk!"

But be careful. There's a Tasmanian Devil living under your toenail.

I am waiting for the ad that tells me that my morning hard-on is actually "Superfluous Rigidity Syndrome." Or S.R.S. And there's a cartoon bunny who says, "Are you bothered by morning stiffness?" "Try Flaccidix." "Flaccidix is specially formulated to make your penis shiny and more manageable." "Side effects: you bleed from your pores and then explode and die." "And/or dry mouth."

Now, just in the last two years, the "medicines" that have made the headlines under the category, "Take two and call me in the morning if you're still alive," include Vioxx, Ambien, Zyprexa, Ortho Evra, Prempro, Zoloft, Paxil, Ephedra, Celebrex and Fosamax.

And yet it was marijuana last week that was declared by the FDA to have no known medical value. Actually, what marijuana has is no known lobbying value. And, yes - yes, back in 1999, when we still believed in science, the National Academy of Science said what millions already knew from practical use, that weed is useful in treating pain, nausea and weight loss. And that lab rats exposed to it were 38% more likely to forget the maze and just kick it old school.

Folks, drug companies are pushers, and Congress and the FDA are the cop on the beat who's been paid off to look the other way. New drugs used to have to go through a rigorous process of testing. Now they just give it to Courtney Love, and if she lives, it's approved.

And by the way, just to prove who has the power in this country, that fake FDA report about marijuana having no medical value was issued - on purpose, I am sure - on April 20th - four-twenty. And that joke only makes sense to stoners.

So, mom and dad, if your kid just laughed, you might need to search his room.

Minute Clinics

There's a new type of clinic where you can see a nurse-practitioner or physician's assistant for a reduced price for a specific set of low risk health problems.

It's called Minute Clinic. Check it out!

Project 730

I have an idea to increase my own productivity. I'm calling it Project 730.

I have a lot of trouble getting up and to work on weekday morning when I don't have any commitment that morning. If I don't have any meetings or phone calls at a specified time, I tend to sleep late and lose that productive morning time.

So I'm setting 7:30am as my wake up time every weekday morning. For me, that's the perfect time, not super early but not too late either. Hopefully I can keep it up. Today - so far so good!

Happy Birthday, Holistic Economy!

This blog is one year old! It's been a fun time adding posts. I'm definitely continuing for another year. Hope you'll stick with me!

The Individual Development Account (IDA)

I found out about this only because my sister-in-law is a banker...

There is a new type of bank account (set up in Federal law) called an Individual Development Account (IDA).

You can open this account, and it teaches you how to save. What that means is that for each dollar you deposit, it will be matched 1-to-1 or better (even 6-to-1 sometimes I guess). That's a great incentive to save! But it goes further. As part of this deal, the person who opened the account has to agree to save a certain amount every month (whatever amount), and also has to attend several training classes on compound interest, etc.

It sounds like a revolutionary idea! So why didn't I hear about it until just now? Why haven't there been a million ads promoting it? Maybe banks wouldn't be too excited about promoting it, although my sister-in-law said that they want to encourage savings as much as possible, because their savings business is much more profitable than their loans business. Seems counter-intuitive, but when I realized that interest rates are quite low and the stock market is doing well, that explains it somewhat.

Anyway, here's a link to an explanation from the North Carolina government (best one I could find).

Some Good Advice on Multitasking

Sometimes you need to book a special "think time" for yourself. This article gives a great perspective on stepping back regularly to allow the space for new ideas to appear.

Click here for the article on the Fast Company blog.

My New Nephew!

Here's Timothy Kulak! He's my newest nephew, just born April 19, 2006. He is healthy, his mother (my sister) is healthy, everyone is fine, just tired. Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, but he will live in Drayton Valley.

He came out at 6 pounds, 15 ounces, despite the fact that he is 1 month premature. Big kid!

Congratulations, Shelley, and welcome, Timothy!

Growing Up

Advice on growing up, from That 70s Show. Here is Red's advice to Steven when Steven doesn't want to attend his 18th birthday party:

Red: "Hyde, get your butt upstairs and go to
your party."

Hyde: "I'm not goin'."

Red: "Steven, you're eighteen now. It's time to start
being a man. And the first rule to being a
man is, you gotta spend your life doing crap you
don't want to do. Like right now, I don't
want to be here, talking to you, but I am. You
don't want to go to a party, but you will."

A Story About the Power of the Mind

I read this story in Elaine Hruska's book "When Illness Strikes," although the story originally appeared in Bernie Siegel's book "Love Medicine and Miracles."

In 1957, the patient, Mr Wright, had advanced lymphosarcoma, with neck tumors the size or oranges and an enlarged spleen and liver. Treatments were ineffective, yet he had hope despite his condition. A new drug was being tested and he begged to be included in the study. Even though he didn't qualify because he was considered very near death, the doctors, at his insistence, gave him the drug anyway, expecting him to be dead in a few days. But he perked up considerably, the tumors were half their original size - a more rapid regression than could have been achieved with heavy X-ray doeses. Within ten days, he was discharged from his "deathbed."

About two months later, news reports carried conflicting stories about the usefulness of the drug, and Mr. Wright, very logical and scientific in his thinking, experienced a relapse. However, his doctor, seeking to explore what was really going on, explained that the early shipments of the drug had deteriorated rapidly in their bottling, but a newer, more potent strain was available, and gave his patient injections of this more recent preparation.

But it was really only fresh water.

Yet, the results were astounding, even more dramatic than his first near-terminal state. Again the tumors decreased in size and he appeared to be the picture of health. Continuing to receive the water injections, he remained symptom-free for more than two months.

Then the American Medical Association announced that the drug was indeed worthless and ineffective in the treatment of cancer. A few days later, Mr. Wright was readmitted to the hospital, his faith and hope shattered, and in less than two days he was dead.

This is very compelling proof that there is much more to our mental attitudes of whether we "believe" a remedy is going to work or not. "It's all in your head" might not be such a bad thing.

I've often thought that, in clinical studies, the miracle is not that a particular drug achieved, for example, a 22% decrease in symptoms, but that the groups receiving the placebo medicines achieved similar results in 18% of the cases. That's the real miracle! They got better and we didn't do anything! And yet, we herald the drug for exceeding the "placebo response." How locked into a "physical-only" model of medicine we are.

Community Radio Project

I'm working with a great group of people on a community radio project (low power FM) here in Columbus Ohio. It's going to be a "voice for the voiceless" type of project.

See more here.

Health Care Blog

Another great healthcare blog here.

Curing Healthcare

Here's a great blog called "Curing Healthcare" that I just found out about.

Massachusetts Governor Tries to Undo Ban on Parting Gifts for New Mothers

Massachusetts Governor, Mitt Romney, tried to undo a ban on giving gift bags of infant formula to new mothers as they left hospitals in the state. The ban was put into place because it was felt that these infant formula trial packages would discourage mothers to breast feed, which is almost always more healthy for the mother and the baby.

Romney seems to be acting on behalf of the infant formula companies, not his constituents.

This will be a good thing to remember when and if he begins a presidential campaign.

Click here for more info.

Ohio Chiropractor Investigated by the Board

Following is a message from Deborah Lindsey about a chiropractor in Athens, Ohio who is being investigated by the Chiropractic Board.

I've personally spoken with Dr. Burda, the chiropractor under investigation, and I can say that he is NOT crazy, and the work he does is helpful to people (including my wife!) and he should not be put out of business.

/*Is it possible to heal people across space and time? Dr. James Burda, a licensed chiropractor in the sleepy town of Athens, OH, thinks so. The Chiropractic Board, however, does not. */

Earlier this year, Jim received a letter from the chiropractic board asking him to come in to answer some questions. When he got there, he found not just a few members of the Board asking a few questions, but a full out Inquisition led by the Assistant Attorney General himself. He was sworn in, without an opportunity to get a lawyer, and questioned for much of the day. The charges against him were unclear, but the tone of the hearing was not.

You see, Jim is not just a chiropractor. He is a healer. An energy healer to be exact. He has been called to do what is essentially ENERGETIC CHIROPRACTIC work. Through kinesiology (a.k.a. muscle testing) and intention, Jim is able to adjust the bones of the back without ever touching anyone. He simply intends them to move and they do. Or so he says. Moreover, Jim claims to do the unthinkable: he can treat someone from a distance and through space and time! Impossible? Jim doesn't think so and neither do his myriad of patients from all over the country. He calls him work Bahlaqeem.

The Board begs to differ. They say that not only is this work outside of the "scope of his practice," they claim he is crazy.

As a result of the first round of questions, the Board required Jim to visit a psychiatrist for a full mental examination. Now, it is important to note that THEY chose the psychiatrist AND they required Jim to pay for the examination, which cost $900!. (It is also important to note that Jim is practically a pauper from doing this work. He rarely charges for it and never charges if the person doesn't feel like they had results. Even if he does charge the cost is negligible. So for Jim, $900 is practically a million). If he didn't come up with the money for the exam, they would automatically revoke his license and label him as mentally ill in the records.

Fortunately, the energetic healthcare community came together and raised the funds for the exam. But as expected, the Board has now leveled charges against him that he is mentally ill and has made him a laughing stock by releasing information to the press which is not only illegal but slanderous in nature. Only NPR has managed to cover the story in a way that is even the slightest bit balanced, but even they didn't give Jim a real opportunity to tell his side of the story. I am writing in the hopes that you will consider offering a true examination of this question: is it possible to treat people across space and time?

New information in science is available to support Jim's claim. Even Einstein himself proved that time is NOT linear as we experience it, but it is actually vertical in nature. In essence, all time is happening at the same time. It's Science. It's Einstein. Not just New Age ramblings.

Also, the physics called Quantum Physics has proven that we are all swimming in the same consciousness, that consciousness is essentially non-local. As a story, there are some fascinating guests who you could call upon to corroborate this information. Most notably Dr. Fred Alan Wolfe, Dr. William Tiller, Lynn McTaggart, and Dr. Deepak Chopra come to mind. Both Wolfe and Tiller are featured on the recent movie sensations, "What the Bleep Do We Know" and "Down the Rabbit Hole." McTaggart is the author of the best selling book, "The Field." And Dr. Deepak Chopra is an expert in the field of consciousness.

Now I want to say that this story is about MORE than Jim. It is about the right of people everywhere to practice alternative healthcare. The thing that is fascinating to me is that less than a decade ago, chiropractic care WAS alternative healthcare! And now that they have joined the mainstream, they have all of the rules and regulations that actually BLOCK them from exploring new ways to help people. I also think it is interesting that chiropractors all over the country are practicing Alternative Healthcare and they are ALL living in fear of losing their license by doing so. I know of several chiropractors in my own community who are offering NAET (allergy elimination), Reiki, Touch for Health, JMT, EFT, and other protocols. I also know of a chiropractor in Michigan who was fined for using WATER to help heal people (I'm not kidding) and no one came to his defense.

I also think it is important to note that while Jim is a talented healer, he is not so exceptional in the field of energy healing. There are thousands upon thousands of people in this country who are doing distance healing. They tend to hang out under the radar because people can be very judgmental about things they don't understand. If you choose to do this story, you help a lot of us, not just Jim.

Jim's trial takes place at the end of April.

You can reach him at 740-591-9857 or 740-594-3200. His email is bahlaqeem@frognet.net.

Thank you and Peace,
Deborah Lindsey

Self-Health and Awareness Center
6250 Grand Central Ave.
Vienna, WV 26105
304-295-8074

Thanks Deborah, for spreading the word about Dr. Burda. It seems that his case is becoming a national issue, thanks to people like you.

Spread the word! E-mail this post to your friends by clicking the little envelope below.

I'm Thinking About a Different Podcast (on UML)

Well, the Holistic Health Nation podcast is going great. I'm going to continue it with vigor.

However, I'm motivated to start another podcast. Based on the success of the first, I guess.

You see, I lead a double-life. Before getting involved in holistic healthcare, I was a computer consultant. A pretty good one, actually. I was a technical architect, project manager, requirements analyst and also involved in sales.

This side of my life still makes money for me, which helps me fund my holistic dreams. Anyway, I still have passion for that side of things too, and do some consulting and training here and there.

So, I've decided to start a podcast on the UML - Unified Modeling Language. This is an analysis and design language used in software development. I became very familiar with it back in 1999-2000 and actually authored a book on an aspect of UML.

I'm starting the podcast to express that side of myself. And since podcasting seems to suit me, why not?

Stay tuned. The new UML podcast will be called "UML in Seven Minutes" and will be at http://www.umlpodcast.com.

Dissecting the High Cost of Healthcare

When I hear politicians talking about the "healthcare crisis," I cringe. For all the usual reasons, plus this.

They're asking (and answering) the wrong question. They're all asking "How do we pay for healthcare in America?"

But that's not the question. It's just a symptom of the problem. (Hmmm.) The real problem is this...

"Why is healthcare so expensive?"

Let me itemize what I think makes it so expensive.

1. Doctors turn to expensive pharmaceutical drugs as a first line of defense for each patient, instead of prescribing cheaper, safer holistic alternatives.


2. We overuse healthcare when things are covered by health insurance.


3. The system pushes patients toward symptom relief, not healing the underlying causes. The top drugs of 2005 (Lipitor/cholesterol, Zocor/cholesterol, Nexium/heartburn, prevacid/heartburn, Advair Diskus/asthma) only treat symptoms, they do not do anything about the underlying causes.


4. Diagnosis is extremely expensive. Doctors routinely prescribe that patients submit to MRIs, CAT or PET scans, which use incredibly expensive equipment to determine the patient's health. The cost of these machines has to come from somewhere.


5. Modern medicine has taken a paternalistic view of medicine. For instance, when a patient has success with some type of holistic treatment, their doctor is likely to "poo poo" the treatment, saying that the patient imagined it or that it couldn't possibly be the reason for better health. The only "real" health result comes from a controlled study conducted by scientists. When a patient is no longer the expert on their own health, the patient feels they can't make a move without advice from the doctor - at $150 per 7 minutes.


6. Malpractice insurance rates have gone up dramatically in the past twenty years. Doctors, especially ob/gyns, pay tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars PER YEAR to stay insured against malpractice. Lawyers make livings from suing doctors for even the slightest mistakes. This causes medical licensure boards to hold doctors to strict "by the book" procedures for every type of disease, ignoring the patient's true needs and the doctor's instincts.

I hope this explains why Western medicine is so expensive. It is NOT because of excess greed on the part of the doctors, nor the insurance companies, nor the hospitals. It results from these, largely systemic, factors.

What can you do about it?

First, use holistic healthcare as your first line of defense. It's almost always cheaper and safer.

Second, try not to overuse the Western medical system. Consider the expense to yourself and to your insurance company.

Third, question your doctor's advice. If the doctor suggests an expensive diagnostic technique or an expensive drug, ask if there is some other choice. Start a discussion. You're paying him to talk to you!

Sometimes Giving the Customer What They Want Isn't Such a Great Idea

As a businessperson, I've always been trained to "find out what the customer wants and give it to them." This is a simple, but difficult process, but it is definitely good business.

However, it seems like this advice that I've held to so steadfastly is actually not always true.

Look at the pharmaceutical crisis in North America today.

Patients go to a doctor with a medical problem, let's say obesity. "Doctor, I'm too fat." Okay, so the doctor tells the patient, "To lose weight, you need to eat less and exercise more." Simple (but difficult --- again!).

So the patient says, "Hey doc, can't you just give me a pill?" And, in today's world, the doctor says "Sure, here's the prescription for Redux or Acomplia."

That's exactly the way business is supposed to work. But in this case, it's a bad thing for the patient. He got what he wanted, but he also got a rafter full of side effects that wouldn't be a factor if he had just taken the first piece of advice "Eat less, exercise more."

So, if the doctor was acting in the best interests of the patient, he would say "No, I'm not going to give you the pill. You have to eat less, exercise more, and I'm going to help you. Let's create a plan."

Can good business be bad medicine? In this case, I think it's true.

Podcast 11 - How to Afford the Holistic Lifestyle

In my latest podcast I interview...me! Well, not really, but it features a reprise of my talk from the Tri-C Holistic Health Expo this past weekend.

Also, I play music from Henta Ellis (I love her stuff!) and Black Lab, a band from Montana.

Please join me!

If Sony Had a Water Business

This comment from Slashdot.org about digital rights management (DRM) and how it would look if applied to the "running water" business. Very interesting and entertaining!

I just thought of what the media people would do if they were in another service industry. Lets take for example, running water. Lets pretend that Sony gets into the water business.

If they were in the running water business, they would probably be in other businesses as well. Like Sony does content, hardware, etc. So you could get a Sony sink and faucet with your Sony water.

The difference is that you would have to use your Sony sink, or Sony licensed sink to drink your Sony water. The Sony water would then have to be protected so that a Panasonic sink would not be able to dispense of the Sony water. How would they do that?

DRM. Yes, they would add a poison to the water, at great expense and danger to the public. The water would kill you in seconds of ingestion without the aid of a Sony sink to remove the poison.

Of course, you could license the rights to drink Sony's poisoned water, but all of the fittings would be nonstandard. You would have to get special tools to work on the sink. Oh, and Sony water would never just go through PVC or copper pipe. The Sony water would need an end to end transport system.

Thanks to "Hackstraw", a commentor on Slashdot.org.

Finding a Color in a Library of JPG Photos

Could anyone help me with this question?

My wife has a whole bunch of photos on her disk drive (Mac). These are mostly from a big set of CDs that we bought a few years ago that we copied onto disk.

She would like to be able to search through the photos (all JPGs) and bring up all the photos that feature a particular color - blue, let's say. This "color search engine" would be able to run through all the photos and find those that have a lot of blue, then bring them up in a window.

Google, are you listening?? This would be such a cool product to have for any kind of Photoshop person. Finding matching photos that you can use as backgrounds for stuff would be amazing. As it is, we search one-by-one through the libraries of photos, using our own visual recognition of the colors.

Ideally, this would be something we could run on her Mac Mini (OS X) and it could examine the photos on her own disk drive. Searching photos on the Web (like Flickr) would be nice too.