Towards inter-dimensional travel

Today I took my laundry from the washing machine, and discovered a bright blue sock between my undies. All my socks are black, grey, or brown. My daughter’s socks are black, grey, or purple. Nobody else’s laundry ends up in my laundry basket. So where did that sock come from?

My sock drawer contains at least a dozen single socks; socks which, at one time, were part of a pair, of which the partner is no longer to be found. A few of these I threw out myself, because they had holes in them. But at least two-thirds of them just disappeared. My daughter’s sock drawer suffers from a similar phenomenon. And I asked a few friends, and they find themselves in the same situation. It looks like half the world experiences the mystery of disappearing socks.

But these socks cannot dissolve in the washing machine, can they? I mean, if socks could dissolve, then both halves of a pair should disappear. And still, whenever I do the laundry, I throw pairs of socks in, while occasionally singular socks march out. Until recently I assumed that these missing socks were caught somewhere in the inner workings of the washing machine, and I did not spend much thought on them (which I probably should, because that can’t be good for the machine). But with the appearance of the blue mystery sock, I have formulated a new theory.

Certainly, I have encountered socks in my laundry before, which I did not recognize. Single socks which I could not remember buying. But they were always black or grey, so I could have bought and forgotten them. But I never purchased a bright blue pair of socks, and neither did my daughter. From this I conclude that not only socks disappear in the washing machine: they materialize too!

Clearly, my washing machine, like many other washing machines in the world, contains an inter-dimensional portal which sucks up socks and deposits them somewhere else. And where does it deposit them? In another washing machine, of course! These portals connect washing machines to each other!

The potential benefits of this discovery are enormous! These washing machines could form the basis for a transporter system, much like the one used on Star Trek! Maybe they could even be the foundation for a new form of space travel! At the very least, they could become a modern communication and delivery system!

Still, that is in the future. First we need to answer many important questions. For instance, is each washing machine connected to one other machine, or are all machines connected together? If all are connected, can the target machine be selected? What is the speed of transportation? Is it possible to select one sock to send through the portal, or is it a random process? Can only socks be sent out, or other objects too?

I propose we will do a bit of research. From now on, in every sock that I put in the washing machine, I will place a message, written with permanent ink on a piece of plastic. That message will contain my email address, and the exact date and time that I put the sock in the washing machine. Should any reader of this blog discover one of my socks with such a message in his or her machine, please send me an email as soon as possible.

And if anyone is missing a bright blue sock, please send me an email too. If the one you still have matches the one I discovered, we could speed up the investigation enormously.

Building the Dutch wall

Recently a Dutch court summoned two Dutch Internet providers to stop providing access to The Pirate Bay, a torrent site hosted in Sweden. The case was brought to the court by Stichting BREIN, a Dutch organization which is mostly funded by the entertainment industry from Europe and the US. I am not a user of The Pirate Bay myself, so I had to check if my own provider was also forced to cut that site off, and it was. While this has no impact on my actual Internet use, this really, really bothers me.

Torrents are no more than short codes which identify a specific piece of data, shared over the Internet. The data itself is not necessarily hosted in one particular spot. Someone just starts hosting it and publishes a torrent, and then others grab the torrent and begin downloading the data. That way the data gets spread over the Net. As long as all the data chunks are available for download somewhere (not necessarily all in one place), anybody who gets the torrent can start downloading the data, and automatically becomes a provider of the data. The more people that are downloading the data, the easier and faster it can be acquired.

Torrents are actually a great and modern way to distribute data. Classic downloading requires the data to be offered in one spot. If many people are interested in getting the data, it will be slow to download, and probably cannot be accessed by most people who want it. Contrariwise, if accessed through a torrent, getting the data actually becomes faster when more people are downloading it. But since there is no central place for the data, if you seek a particular piece of data, what you need is a place that allows searching for an appropriate torrent. This is a service provided by sites such as The Pirate Bay.

Now, it is definitely true that The Pirate Bay is hosting torrents that allow the downloading of software, films, and music, owned by people or companies that do not allow their property to be spread around in this way. Whether or not that means that The Pirate Bay is doing something illegal is debatable: it is not actually hosting illegal materials, and neither is it required to check whether the torrents that it hosts are pointing at illegal materials. The Swedish courts don’t think it is doing anything illegal. Still, this is a grey area, and I can imagine that the owners of the materials do not like to see The Pirate Bay offer the means for Internet users to get easy access to their property. The question is: what can they do about it?

Could they try to get their property removed from the Internet? No, that is impossible under the torrent concept, as the property is stored in many places in many different chunks. Could they try to get the torrents removed or disabled? Again, that is impossible as the torrents themselves are very small files which can be found on thousands of places on the Net, most of which fall under judicial systems which are not interested in helping the property owners. Their only option is to try to limit Internet access in places that they have some control over. And that is exactly what happened in The Netherlands, when BREIN, on behalf of organizations as the MPAA and the Dutch BUMA/Stemra, sued two Internet providers and got a court order for getting these providers to cut off access to The Pirate Bay.

As I said, this bothers me. A major reason is that besides providing torrents for illegal materials, The Pirate Bay provides access to legal materials too. Cutting off The Pirate Bay completely is like me going into a shop and find that I can no longer buy a knife, because someone was murdered with a knife recently and now knives are no longer made available, despite all their useful applications. A second reason is that, regardless of how one views The Pirate Bay, the Internet providers that allow us to access The Pirate Bay are definitely not engaging in illegal activities. And still the court orders them to change their activities.

But what I find most disconcerting is that this move of Stichting BREIN is completely ineffective. The Pirate Bay is not the only torrent site; there are many, many more. And the two Internet providers they sued are not the only ones in The Netherlands, not even the biggest ones. And there are many channels besides torrents by which illegal materials spread around. My main worry is: BREIN knows all this. So why did they sue and why are they so happy with winning this case?

They are happy because it sets a precedent. They have now made Internet providers responsible for ensuring that their clients are not using the Internet for downloading materials that are owned by their financial backers. So now they have some control over what users can and cannot do on the Internet. I call this the Chinese Solution. In China, Internet access is very limited, as the government has final say about what content from foreign countries their citizens get access to. The Chinese Solution is what BREIN wants to implement in The Netherlands, with themselves (i.e., the companies that they represent) in the role of the government.

Stichting BREIN has been able to force two Dutch Internet providers to remove access to The Pirate Bay. That is today. Tomorrow, they will identify one hundred more torrent sites, and with the precedent in hand, will force the providers to cut off access to those too. And then they will give the same order to other Dutch Internet providers, pointing out the precedent. Followed by expanding to the courts in other countries (through one of their sister organizations), as there is now a precedent in The Netherlands which they can refer to. Of course, during this process Internet users will still find ways to get access to torrents. Then it is time for BREIN’s next step: automatic control, at the Internet providers’ sites, of what users do on the Net: if they are downloading materials with torrents, they will be cut off automatically. Is that possible? Not only is it possible, it is technically easy to do. And after the torrents are gone, they will remove access to movies and music on the Net, unless provided by sites approved by Stichting BREIN. I have no idea how far BREIN will actually be allowed to go, but you can rest assured that they aren’t content with their first small victory — there is much more to come.

The Internet is a place of unlimited freedom. And unlimited freedom has its dark sides next to its shiny bright sides. There is no way to put a small limitation on that freedom which is effective in achieving the goal of removing one particular part from the Net. Thinking that you can stop users from downloading illegal materials by removing access to The Pirate Bay is the same as thinking that you can stop teenagers from looking at Internet porn by installing a CyberNanny. The only way to actually stop people from getting from the Internet what they want, is complete control over their access.

The choice is either total freedom, or a severely crippled Net, completely under the control of one organization, just like they have in China. It is clear that what BREIN wants in this respect is diametrically opposed to what Internet users want. But it is Cake or Death, there is no middle road.

Additional (May 10, 2012): As I predicted, Stichting BREIN has now sued the other Dutch Internet providers and got a court order for them to block The Pirate Bay too.

First generation

With some envy I have watched people playing around with tablet computers. I am particularly envious because I know that I could make good use of one for my work, and I mainly see people using them for entertainment. I do not have sufficient means to spend hard-earned cash on a 500-euro toy, and my work already provided me with a laptop. That laptop is pretty powerful, but because of its graphics capabilities (which my research needs) it is also pretty heavy. And having to travel with it a lot, means that I would really like something reasonable equivalent, but much lighter. Ergo, a tablet computer.

Recently I decided to clench my teeth, and buy a tablet. I also knew what I wanted — I am not going to step into the Apple trap again, but the Androids are good enough now to warrant a purchase. So I went into a store and saw the Asus Transformer that I wanted. I slid my fingers across the screen, examined the webbrowser, and was pleased. Then I tried to lift it.

It was heavy! It was freakin’ HEAVY! I tried to lift some of the alternate offerings (including the iPad2), and they were all heavy! I mean, people talk about these things as if they are eBook readers. I have an eBook reader, and I can comfortably lie on my back, the reader in one hand hovering over my face, and read. These tablet computers I need to lift with two hands, and no way I can hold them over my face for any amount of reading time. Granted, my laptop is a bit heavier, but not much. No way I am going to drag both of these things around.

Reluctantly, I left the shop, deciding against buying a tablet now. Yes, I need one, but I need one that is light enough to drag around as an extra, and powerful enough to do my work on. That is not for sale right now. Why don’t these tablets provide what I need? Simple: because they are still a first generation. There is no doubt in my mind that within two or three years we will have powerful tablets that are also light.

There was a time that I went to work carrying a laptop, a phone, an electronic agenda, a GPS, a calculator, and a camera. I am really pleased that I now only need to bring a laptop and a phone, as all the other things are integrated in those. Recently I began to also take with me an eBook reader. As a tablet cannot be a replacement for any of these pieces of hardware, so as soon as I have a tablet, it is an extra piece of apparatus I need to drag around.

A tablet computer is an extra. It doesn’t replace anything. It doesn’t replace a laptop, because it hasn’t got a laptop’s power. It doesn’t replace a phone, because it hasn’t got phone capabilities. It doesn’t replace a camera or a GPS, because it is unwieldy. OK, it might replace a calculator, but I already have a calculator replacement in my phone. It is an extra, and as such it is merely extra weight. It doesn’t help me with my problem.

I will definitely get a tablet — once it allows me to leave other stuff at home. Such a tablet does not exist at the moment.

I now know why I see people mainly use tablets as toys. They are toys. Really, really expensive toys.

Spiralling downwards

Until now, I tried to add one new post to this blog each week. The idea being that a blog is only interesting if there is sufficient change of content to make people check it out regularly.

I did not expect many visitors for a young blog, and indeed, at this moment getting three unique visitors in 24 hours seems to be a good day. On bad days, I get none. That is slightly disappointing, but not surprising. I hope to get increasing numbers of visitors after a while, but it may take several months.

For now, I have a body of posts that people can check out. I will keep on adding posts regularly, but probably less than once a week. I think that, for now, one new post every two or three weeks should suffice. I have more than enough topics to write on, and I actually like writing, but I will do so at a slower pace.

In case the whole process of blogging dies for me, I will copy the most interesting posts to my other website and will close down this blog. But my intention is not to let that happen.

A blog

I am not very fond of blogs. In general, blogs are shouts which get drowned in a plethora of shouts of many people who have little of interest to tell. However, on my regular website http://www.spronck.net, I used to write Soapbox items now and again. I stopped doing that for lack of time, and because it takes too much effort to update my website regularly. A blog might fill the gap in easy-to-maintain manner.

In this blog I will write about several topics which interest me. These will mainly concern games in all their forms, and related material: classic and modern board games, video games, puzzles, party games, game theory, game research, artificial intelligence in games, and teaching with games.

I will usually write in English, but an occasional Dutch post might get passed.

We’ll have to see how long I manage to keep this up.