Category: Outside the Box

Non-mainstream thoughts and musings

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Writing Is the Hardest Thing

You know, there are days when I think writing is a waste of time.

No, really, bear with me here. I know some of the greatest minds of all time (of all time!) expressed their thoughts through writing. But the more I try to write, the harder it gets. More and more, our life is run by 30-second clips of images, music, flashes of light, and maybe a brand logo or three. But very little thought matters in the regular world anymore, and I’m becoming more aware of it as I get older.

Most of the guys I work with (I work in a large factory that builds agricultural equipment) have never read a novel. A good chunk of them barely passed high school. So what good does it do for me to pour my soul out in words, page upon page, chapter after chapter, when almost nobody I know will read it? How will this affect people around me? Well, the truth is, it probably won’t affect them much. But for the few people who read my work, I’m happy they enjoy it.

I just wish I could reach more people with my writing, otherwise, why do it? I certainly would like to make a living at it, but that’s not why I write. I want to be able to reach people, and engage their minds in ways otherwise impossible. You can’t carry a conversation about morality, world events, and spirituality over a rushed 30-minute lunch break. Most of the guys I work with spend that 30 minutes eating and showing each other crude pictures from Facebook on their smartphones.

I guess I need to revisit why I write. Is it for me? If so, I need to not worry so much about how and what I write. Is it for others? If so, then I need to make more of an effort to make that happen, instead of wasting time.

Ah, joy. Yet another day of self-doubt as a writer. Time for some more coffee.

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Installing Adobe AIR 2.6 in Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit

Five years ago, I posted an article here on how to install Adobe Air (the discontinued native Linux version) on Ubuntu 12.04.

Everything that I had written here I decided to pull, because Adobe likes to do massive bulk DMCA Takedowns without actually verifying whether the reported page actually violated anything. They simply did a text web search, and smote down everything that looked even remotely offensive. And as an added note: this isn’t the first time they’ve done this with this exact page.

I can no longer recommend trying to get any Adobe products working on your computer for any reason. I realize that this page has helped hundreds (if not more) people to get Adobe’s horrible (and non-supported) Air platform working in Linux, just to be able to use third-party apps. But as useful as it might have been, I just can’t in good conscience help anybody with it any more.

Adobe falsely accuses me of stealing their property and has my page forcibly removed from Google searches? Yeah, okay, there’s enough links out there that I still got some traffic. I felt good in knowing that I was helping people (or so I thought). So I left the content up, exactly as it was, knowing that I hadn’t violated anything, in hopes that some people would still find it.

Fast forward a year, and I’ve been hit by another DMCA takedown, again from Adobe, for the same exact page. It’s become obvious to me that instead of making products that people actually want to use, they’re focusing their attention on punishing users who they think might have remotely stepped out of line. Now they’ve filed a complaint against my AdSense account, and are taking money from my pockets- and I still haven’t done anything wrong. At no point have I ever offered any of Adobe’s products for download here.

Google is as complicit in this as Adobe- don’t think I’m letting them off the hook. I went through their extensive review process last time, and they basically told me “Tough luck, buddy. Sucks to be you.” I’ll have a few more articles about how to break free from the many-headed Hydra that is Google in the near future. Their time is coming, as well. They can rot as far as I’m concerned.

Adobe can bite me. I’m through with them, and you should be too. As is fitting with a blog called “Living Outside the Box,” Here’s a non-extensive list of alternatives to Adobe products:

I’m sorry if you came here looking for help with getting Air to run on Linux. I really wanted to help you, but Adobe had other plans.

Please, urge your third-party developers to move away from anything having to do with Adobe. You’ll be better off for it.

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Bad Website Design

Do you think you can find which link on this page actually downloads the Wikipedia desktop app? Don’t feel bad if you can’t find it right away…

That’s right… if you said click on the tiny word “air” you’d be right. I don’t know what the two enormous “Download” buttons are for, and honestly, I don’t care.

If you design websites, please, please don’t ever do this. It’s evil.

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One-A-Day

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Today’s de-clutter: Plastic tubs. This one has miles of cables and wires in it. All good stuff, but not things I’d use on a regular basis. If it stays in the tub for a year, then it’s safe to say you don’t need it.

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One-A-Day

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Today’s one-a-day purge item: magazines! I have tons and tons of old car mags. The only subscription I currently have is to Bicycle Times (which is an awesome publication) and they offer it in digital form. How to minimise? Convert your magazines to digital form!

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One-A-Day

Some of you may have heard of the popular multivitamin One-A-Day. The premise is that you need to take one every day for complete health.I’d like to take credit for it, but my wife gave me the idea of getting rid of “one thing a day” to make simplifying easier. It’s genius.

I’ve been working on simplifying my life, living frugally, and generally just enjoying life more. The concept of simplifying everything at once is daunting, and most people never make it past the first day or two. But one thing a day? Just get rid of one thing a day? Anybody can do that. Right?

So here we go. I’m going to try to post up something I’m getting rid of or simplifying every single day. More or less.

Today’s purge item: an old analog 4-port KVM Switch from my computer business days.

4-Port KVM Switch
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Fellowship Of Misery

What happens when your heart is no longer in what you do? At what point do you still consider it “doing what you love?” 10%? 5%? I don’t have hard numbers, but what I “love” doing is no longer what I’m getting paid to do, by a long shot… somewhere down the road, computer techs have become secretaries and accountants, cause all we do now is answer the phone and fill out paperwork. I relish the few hours I get to actually fix things, while I spend 30+ hours a week just answering emails and filling out forms. And heaven forbid if I forget to fill in a blank on the form! And we have to remember not to use other blanks, cause they changed the process and didn’t bother to remove the blank.

So this is what corporate America has become. Companies pay $75 an hour for skilled contractors, and the actual people working get 20% of that if they’re lucky. Why not cut out the middle man? These staffing companies are getting harder and harder to work with. They are cutting deals with global companies to provide levels of service that we can’t achieve… at a price we can barely survive on.

I am firmly convinced that a corporate environment is dangerous to your spiritual health. There is nothing uplifting here, nothing good, just a bunch of dissatisfied people working out of force of habit. It’s a shame when a company remains running simply because all the workers share a “fellowship of misery” and stick together.

Note to companies: if you want your employees to enjoy their work, try actually letting them do their job!

The only thing keeping most computer techs like me from working on their own is more paperwork. If you can find someone to do your taxes and forms for you, then we’ve got the “fixing stuff” part down.