Constrained Bliss Point

I’ve kind of lost my way. Over my past few months in grad school, I’ve forgotten my roots as a technologist, a techie, a computer nerd. I reconnected with my glorious past the weekend of Valentines Day, when the Free Culture Conference 2010 was held at George Washington University.

I haven’t thought about free culture and related issues in about eight months, since I started working toward my PhD in economics. Grad school doesn’t allow me much time to work on outside projects, and that’s a shame. I miss being surrounded by such good people, such technical people, having such interesting conversations, about such important and interesting topics. This past weekend showed me firsthand the massive opportunity costs that grad school entails. I really want to get back into coding or advocacy, but I keep running into that time constraint. What a damn shame.

I’m going to end with some advice. If you want to join a top-notch community, seek out those who identify with the free culture movement. You won’t find a more dedicated group of smart people with the tools and drive to make awesome things happen.

Friends, I have a story of an unlikely advertisement achieving its purpose.

Over winter vacation I purchased a netbook, a Dell Mini 10v. It’s an adorable little thing, really gets the job done, and it has a solid feel I haven’t experienced since the old Thinkpad T series, back when IBM made laptops. I’m quite happy with my little netbook. Alas, every copy of Windows needs its antivirus protection. I haven’t had to even think of antivirus software in about four years now: RPI students got a corporate version of McAfee as part of the laptop deal.

A trial version of McAfee came preinstalled on my mini, and I actively shunned it. I heard about a new antivirus called Vipre (like the snake), decided to give it a try. I wasn’t too happy with the trial, though, mostly because it kept deleting the BIOS update I was trying to download. I’m not sure if that’s standard practice, but I distinctly remember telling the program not to delete my BIOS update. It remained obstinate.

So I decided to do some research. Apparently Norton is still the best around, according to a few sites doing antivirus reviews, but one particular product caught my eye. Kaspersky antivirus jumped out at me, because of a ridiculous little video circulating around the interwebs:

That is insanely catchy, and awesome in a ridiculous way. You can see how Kaspersky was stuck in my mind this whole time, just waiting until I needed antivirus software. I also recall one of my economics professors lauding Kaspersky in his technological change class. He liked the idea that Kaspersky keeps track of which files change between scans, and only re-scans those that need to be. Technological progress indeed.

Anyway, I hope Kaspersky is as awesome as that video makes it seem.

Dear Microsoft,

I used to not like you a whole lot. I was kind of mean, too, sometimes calling you the Evil Empire or something similar. I want to take this opportunity to apologize, and to try to explain myself.

A whole lot of people used to not like you. I admit I got swept up in the anti-Microsoft rhetoric and jumped on the bandwagon when I should have given it more thought. You know the whole FOSS-vs-MSFT posturing, people hating on Windows because it’s not free, stuff like that. I even came up with a whole tirade about the economics of monopolies and marginal cost pricing, how charging so much for Windows is inefficient. I was petty, and it was silly of me; I recognize this now.

Here is why I came around:

First, you gave $15k to Creative Commons at the end of their 2008 fundraising campaign to put them above their goal. That was big. And I know you’ve been funding CC for a while. They’re a cause I really care about, so it means a lot that you’d be such a supporter.

Second, you’re really not that bad. I read an argument that the Microsoft Windows monopoly really amounted to extracting economic rents from middle-class Americans and, through the Gates Foundation, channeling those funds to aid efforts in Africa. Not to mention, Windows gave everyone a standardized platform in the meanwhile, and that is really valuable.

Third, you’re just a profit-maximizing firm, after all. You have a duty to your shareholders to make as much money as you can, even if sometimes that means using underhanded tactics. Spreading fear uncertainty and doubt, or engaging in “embrace, extend, extinguish“, while uncool, isn’t out of the ordinary in the business world. I can’t blame you for the system you’re a part of.

So it took me this long to realize that, no, Microsoft is not evil. You’re just doing your thing, you know? Maximizing profits and all is hard work. And right now Google is in a position to do a lot more damage to freedom than you are. I hear Windows 7 is pretty awesome, too.

I hope you accept my apology. Give Google a hard time for me, okay guys?

Amicably yours,

-Frank