NOT talking about DRM (was: Re: [lug] FSF plans Apple Genuis Bar "denial of service")

Nate Duehr nate at natetech.com
Mon Jul 28 18:54:47 MDT 2008


dio2002 at indra.com wrote:

> I actually agree with you.  But before you condemn someone else.  Curious
> if you have done any of the above yourself?


Into my home, no.  Not quite prepared for that.

Volunteered in an inner-city homeless shelter in Chicago, yes.  Learned 
a lot.  Also a long-time financial supporter of the Denver Rescue 
Mission.  Denver's real cold in winter-time, and people need shelter and 
food.

Had a friend's father end up having hard times a while back, and I 
didn't even know it until years later, but he ended up there... no where 
else to go.

Turns out he called his son, my friend, and told him he had no place to 
go, but was in his car downtown.  Son told him to come over, but he 
wouldn't "intrude" on his family, so the next best option was to tell 
him to get on over to DRM.

(A little ironic it's the same initials, now that I see that in print... 
isn't it?  Interesting.)

They helped him with getting medical attention and a diagnosis of a 
mental health disorder that completely changed his life.  He had this 
mental issue since his discharge from the Army after the Korean War.

He had lived with it for over 30 years at that point undiagnosed -- but 
they'd seen it before, and recognized it immediately.  It had finally 
come to a boil when life's stresses overwhelmed him, and circumstances 
found him sitting in his cold car with no home, downtown late at night.

Recently when I've seen him, I hardly recognize the happy grandpa he is 
today... the sour face and worry (and many other problems) he had when I 
was a kid watching him, are gone.  Truly amazing.

So yeah, homeless people is a soft spot for me.  I've spent a lot of 
time with people who had to come to shelters and food kitchens.  The 
diversity and reasons for being homeless truly are amazing.  Seeing 
single moms with little ones always tore my heart out.  Still does.

I also will never forget the three guys I used to talk to on the street 
corner near the shelter and soup kitchen I worked at in Chicago who said 
they weren't interested in the slightest in getting homes, because the 
other guys were their FAMILY.

They were hard workers, got day labor jobs all the time, and made enough 
money to hold down an apartment by themselves, but never thought about 
doing it TOGETHER... their "home" was a corner not far off Wacker Drive 
(or Lakeshore -- whatever that road is that runs along the edge of Lake 
Michigan) just slightly on the North Side... and that's how they liked 
it.  (And if you think Colorado winters can be bad, Chicago in January 
is the coldest I've ever felt.  Humidity and cold.  Great combination.)

Kinda a shocker for me back then... but maybe now I get it.

I also remember the tension in the neighborhood, a neighborhood where 
abandoned buildings and townhouses were being scraped off a couple of 
blocks up and replaced with lavish new townhomes with iron bars around 
them.

I remember the guy who hung out as a fringe "fourth member" of the above 
group of guys, only known as "Red" because he was such an alcoholic he 
couldn't remember his own name.  I also remember the morning some of us 
found him beaten with a baseball bat to his head, and driving him to 
Cook County Hospital, clear across town for free medical care.  He was 
never the same after that, but it did curb most of his drinking, strangely.

I remember seeing the dead suburbanite lady (anyone from the West side 
of the EL tracks dressed better, probably lived in one of those new 
townhouses, and had money in that neighborhood, but everyone uses the EL 
in Chicago, and it was the boundary line... poor folks on one side, rich 
folks on the other -- the cops were around, but not often).  She was 
dead in a very small pool of blood, lying on the sidewalk as I drove by 
the ATM one day... you see, the ATM/bank was right under the EL tracks, 
right in the "crossroads" between two neighborhoods, so to speak.

I later learned that a desperate drug-addict from the "bad side" of the 
EL tracks said, "Give me all your money" after she made a withdrawl -- 
never heard how much, but it wasn't worth her life, that's for sure -- 
she had defiantly said, "No."  Bang, shot in the head.  No discussion, 
no feeling.  The junkie was later caught and imprisoned.

The cops had just arrived as I drove by, and no one in the neighborhood 
was too surprised -- the ATM was a dangerous place, I never used it.

I also remember my only trip ever to South Side Chicago.  A friend (and 
one of the biggest black men I've ever known) invited me to go have soul 
food and chicken at his "favorite restaruant"... and then warned me on 
the way there in the car that if I didn't stick by him, I'd be dead -- 
where we were going.  Great...

I survived, we had a good laugh with some very tense folks in a 
neighborhood who didn't tolerate white people all that well, after a few 
jokes on my friend's part and a little self-deprecating humor on my 
part... "Yeah, I came down here for lunch with my friend, because I 
needed someone to kick my ass..." with a twinkle in the eye and a smile, 
and a very big friend standing by to throw down if he had to, to get me 
back to the car.

Was the only time in my life I've ever truly felt like a minority.  Very 
enlightening for a kid from the Golden/Lakewood 'burbs growing up.

I only mention the above stuff to answer your question -- not to brag.

I'm pretty generous to a number of charities when I can be.  Probably 
beyond what I can truly afford at times.

Some people are, some people aren't -- it doesn't make anyone better 
than anyone else.


> I personally would've prefered that you would have spent your weekend of
> service helping by going to cambodia, africa or inviting a homeless person
> into your home as you suggested above.  But that's just me.  The choice is
> yours.  (pun intended).


LOL!  I'll work on that... well, probably not.

The point was, there are a lot better things than "fighting" the evil 
DRM boogie-monster to be fighting for.  Lots worse stuff happens to lots 
of people here in the U.S. alone, every day... than being "forced" to 
use DRM.  Seriously.

I wasn't giving a "here's your checklist for how to better society" or 
saying that those things were a definitive list.

It's a very personal decision each person makes, first as to whether or 
not they even want or care to help anyone, and then it goes from there. 
   Getting involved with stuff like the above, sometimes really is more 
than some people can take.  I saw a couple of volunteers break down 
crying and just leave, never to come back to serve free lunch or supper. 
  They just couldn't handle seeing the reality of it.

And I know that we all have "silly causes" we fight for... but this DRM 
thing sucks in some awfully good talent that could probably be spent 
better elsewhere.  In my NOT so humble opinion...

But deep down, I know it doesn't matter, really.  It just seemed "rude" 
of them to go after Apple Stores.

I believe there's a list member here who works at one of them, and I 
know he knows DRM issues and has zero control of what Apple as a 
corporation does -- just like everyone else in the retail stores.

Apple corporate ain't gonna care -- they'll just have a manager pull 
aside the people blocking customers from getting service, and if they 
won't leave, call the cops on them for Trespassing.

The whole thing will be very non-effective, both in tactics -- and 
because for the moment, the market has already decided, and the market 
has said, at least for the moment... it doesn't care.

It wants the drug the media makers are pushing.


> fwiw, I googled USO..
> 
> top hit: USO == United States Oil Fund LP
> 
> Any connection? ;-)


LOL!  Nice.  http://www.uso.org/ if anyone cares.

The reasons I support them are silly and selfish, but it's mainly 
because my dad has shared stories from his Navy days when the local USO 
was the only place that he felt good in a foreign land.

A couple (?) of beers, a pool table, some normal discussions amidst 
military life and its built in insanity... I can only imagine, since I 
didn't serve.

But it's got to be doubly-true for soldiers in an immensely foreign and 
hostle place to Americans like the Middle East.

Having a cold coke amidst smiling faces, probably means the world to 
some of those guys.  Seeing a show, whatever.  A way to remember "home" 
and be better equipped to come back to it, after the hell of war.


> I'm not sure whether your perceived good deeds have anything to do with
> the post which is why I thought I'd point them out.  In fact, what you
> think might be a good deed, someone else might actually think is
> relatively meaningless or even a waste of time in terms of good deeds.  As
> your earlier examples suggest, someone that actually quit their job and
> risked 6 months of their life to help free someone in Africa might think
> you spending your weekend helping the USO is rather laughable.  Before you
> get pissed at that statement, I think you should reread it and just accept
> that there might be some truth in it.


Nope, I get it.  It is EXACTLY my point.

There's a "scale of usefulness" when it comes to doing good things, and 
DRM fighting is probably a millimeter or two off the floor, as far as 
that scale goes... to me anyway.

But for some, it's the passion of their whole life, I suppose.  Never 
met anyone THAT zealous about it, yet.  But they're out there, I'm sure. 
  I haven't looked for them.


> Although i agree with many of your points made throughout the posts, I
> think you've strayed from your original topic in an attempt to try and
> prove your right. Much like your assertions about the DRM issue, you
> proving you're right on this issue isn't going to change the world and is
> of relatively minor importance in the bigger scheme of things.  Let her
> rest.


Done, man.  Totally agreed.  Just wanted to answer your questions.

No more "argument" meant by any of the above.  Not said in anger at all. 
  Just "stuff".

You dragged up a lot of memories with that question.  Replayed some good 
and bad things in my head.  But the good far outweighed the bad.

(I was reminded of the donuts.  Hadn't thought about them in years.  Did 
you know that in most cities, bakeries all donate anything that's "day 
old" or slightly stale to homeless shelters?  There may not have always 
been money for the shelter to buy great food, but there was always a day 
old donut around to hand someone with a cup of coffee.  Sometimes there 
were so many there was plenty to go around, and I tried one -- not bad 
at all, really.  Donuts.  Over-baking.  A way to feed hungry people. 
Lots of "might go stale, we don't want to waste it" baked goods... 
breads, pastries, cookies... carbs weren't such a bad thing for folks... 
we'd pass out extra baked goods after meal time as people filed out and 
they'd stuff them in pockets for later.  Bakeries also often screwed up 
custom cakes and those were delivered by taxicab in Chicago, of all 
crazy things.  Cabbies running cakes around to feed the homeless, often 
on their own dime, too.  Good people.  Very good.)

The "wastefulness" of the big donut shops and supermarkets in trying to 
always have extra product on hand, helped a lot of people eat a late 
breakfast every morning in Chicago who otherwise wouldn't have had one.

Another lesson learned back then -- Beans and rice go a LONG ways when 
feeding a lot of people you weren't expecting or when funds are low at a 
shelter/kitchen.

Everyone, truly -- I would be very happy if you all enjoyed your Monday 
evening, stay safe, and I wish the very best to all of you and yours.

Good discussion -- sorry I got a little fired up there.  DRM is a lame 
thing to argue about, sorry!

Nate



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