I read an article on NORML that sent me to an Idea to legalize marijuana that you can vote for on the Change.org site. The site is not to be confused with Change.gov, president-elect Obama’s new way of listening to the people. It is just a site that brings up issues, which it plans on presenting to Obama. It moved me to not only vote, but write a response, which I decided to also post here. I hope that you will also take action on the issue.

What right does the government have to tell anyone they can’t do something, unless it’s going to reduce someone else’s freedom? This is a personal, health-related choice and the idea that the government has any right to make any decision, regardless of how “dangerous” it may be (ha!), is positively insulting.

Let’s pretend for a moment that you don’t believe in the concept of freedom, so the above statement doesn’t apply. Still consider that cannabis is entirely harmless (you can shrug that off if you don’t believe me, or you can research it a bit and find out that it is entirely 100% true, there are NO harmful effects proven to be associated with cannabis). The lethal dose for marijuana is the essential equivalent of smoking 50 average-sized joints within a 2 minute period, assuming that NONE of the THC escaped in smoke. It is physically impossible. The only way one could theoretically overdose on cannabis is by way of intravenous conception.

The “gateway drug”, maybe (though I’ve never seen data proving it), but ONLY because it’s illegal. Be rational here, it’s not as if there’s something in the chemical compound of weed that makes you want to try harder stuff. The psychological response is obvious: “why not try another illegal drug? The government is probably lying about that too.” Tell the truth about the substance in the first place, make it legal, regulate it, and the thinking becomes: “if I am going to move onto another drug I’m going to, at the very least, give it some serious thought.”

Deaths from ALL illicit drugs COMBINED add up to only a tiny fraction of the deaths caused by cigarette smoking alone, not to mention alcohol and prescription drugs. Tobacco kills 450,000 people yearly and rising, alcohol poisoning (not even counting highway deaths!) kills 150,000, and legally prescribed drugs kill 30,000! For that matter, CAFFEINE kills around 7500! Illicit drugs combined kill 5000. Marijuana has never killed. The number deaths for illicit substances is completely disproportionate to the amount of people using these substances (as compared to the amount of people using licit drugs).*

These are just a few of many arguments for marijuana legalization. Let’s not forget that OVER HALF of people in prison are in there for one reason only: possession of marijuana, and it hasn’t even made a TINY DENT in the cannabis-smoking population (we can’t afford to enforce this!!!). Let’s not forget that regulation gives you a lot better control over a substance than an outright ban. Let’s not forget that it is not chemically addictive. Let’s not forget that personal freedom is what this country was founded on, and this ban spits in the face of the constitution.

It’s time to end this senseless “war” on drugs. The government does not have a right, and even if they did, what they’re doing about it DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE!!!

*Data from Surgeon General’s Reports and Life Insurance data averaged over the last 20 years.

Please go vote on the issue, and possibly add your two cents as well.

This is just a quick post to let you all know that I’m going to be phasing LuminousNerd out of existence. I haven’t been posting a lot lately anyway, so I suspect not too many people will be upset by this. However, you can still get your fix of writings from the LuminousNerd at my new blog, located at my new portfolio site, Why Wait Webs.

The Why Wait Webs Blog for Designers and Business Owners will have a more professional undertone than LuminousNerd has historically, and a narrower focus. It will focus on two distinct audiences: Designers and Business owners. It will offer Design and code tips for fellow web developers, and tips on getting your website out there and good computer practices for business owners. I started it in hopes of providing another great service to my clients and at the same time

I am retaining the LuminousNerd.com domain in case I ever decide to do something here again. Right now I am considering turning it into a political blog. As many of you know I have firm stances in politics, and it has shown through in many of my posts here. However, I’m still making up my mind on this, and it’s not going to happen for a while as I really have my hands full with Why Wait Webs right now.

That said, I will probably post here from time to time, just for the sake of having a place to organize my thoughts. Rest assured I have plenty of plans for the future. I have a number of web projects I’d love to get rolling, and I’ll be sure to update you guys whenever a new one takes off! I’d love to do a few more blogs, as well as some cool online games and some web-based tools for professionals.

Since I graduated high school and got into web design full time, I have learned a lot. Another thing I’ve learned is that while the hourly rates that many designers charge may seem like a fairly high price, I never realized how much non-billable work goes into being a freelancer! Especially when you’re just starting up, a huge amount of my time is consumed by writing documents, workflows, designing for my own company, brainstorming, researching, improving my skill, and other various things that make me and my business better. Up to now I’ve been ignoring many of these things that can help my business grow, but it’s definitely time for that to stop.

I have also reached a realization that I have a very long way to go in many areas! And I am excited for the journey that has just begun.

With that I bid you farewell, for the time being, but who knows what the future may bring? Keep an eye on my new Why Wait Webs Blog for Designers and Business Owners, and I’ll update this one with new projects that I start up. So long for now!

I was very pleasantly greeted this morning by iPhone 2.1, an update that, knowing Apple, I did not expect until this evening. But despite my doubts, here it is, on time and bearing an uncharacteristically long list of release notes. Instead of the usual “bug fixes”, Apple has chosen to fill us in on the juicy details:

• Decrease in call set-up failures and dropped calls
• Significantly better battery life for most users
• Dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
• Improved email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts
• Faster installation of 3rd party applications
• Fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes for users with lots of third party applications
• Improved performance in text messaging
• Faster loading and searching of contacts
• Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
• Repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
• Option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts
• Genius playlist creation

Now, this is obviously a big update, and as I mentioned before, I had very high hopes and expectations for this one. I was very excited for the update, and trusted that it would fix the major issues: app crashing, instability that increased with your number of apps, and rather frequent dropped calls. However, even going in with these high expectations, after downloading it I can honestly say that I couldn’t be happier could only be happier had they also implemented copy & paste.

Although I haven’t had enough time with it to confirm everything on Apple’s list, I can say that it is looking very promising. Here’s a rundown of the improvements I have found so far:

For starters, in my basement where I spend most of my time, I am accustomed to getting 2 or 3 bars of EDGE, maybe a bar or two of 3G if I’m lucky. Since the update, however, I have consistently had 4-5 bars of 3G! This is clearly a huge, immediate improvement.

When I synced my iPhone to the computer in the past, I always skipped the backup stage. I’m the first person to evangelize having some form of backup for EVERYTHING, but the iPhone backups used to take 4-6 hours to complete! You read that right! I’m sorry, I just can’t have my phone tethered to my computer for that long (and unusable as a phone during the process, I might add). But I figured I’d give it a chance after this update, and it is an INCREDIBLE improvement. The entire backup gook less than 2 minutes! Another clear improvement.

I also wanted to test the installation of apps. While not a huge deal, in the past it has taken just seconds to download most apps, but anywhere from 2-10 minutes before they’re installed and usable. Well, I downloaded an app, and to my amazement, after the download was complete it was completely installed in a matter of seconds! With this update, the App Store is approaching instantaneous delivery!

Genius Playlists, a feature new to OS X iPhone as well as the new iTunes 8, allow you to instantly create playlists of related music from any song in your library. I have no idea how it works, and Apple is as usual very vague about the details, but I can say that it works very well, at least for the songs I chose to test it on. I was excited about the feature in iTunes 8, but having it at my fingertips on the iPhone is even more useful.

And on top of all these great improvements, I’ve found one more surprise bug fix: improved keyboard performance. I suppose this falls under “Improved performance in text messaging”, but I wasn’t expecting it. The keyboard used to have a very noticeable lag, which was always there but got really bad at times. Since the update, the keyboard responds instantaneously, exactly like I would expect it to!

Update: There are also new icons for EDGE and 3G. They look much nicer, and are more legible. The top is the colorful version you’ll see in most apps; the bottom is the black version you see on your iPhone’s homescreen. You normally wouldn’t see both icons next to each other as in the picture above, but in the interest of space I edited them together.

I have been told by so many people lately that I am putting too much faith in a company. And while I’m most certainly not saying Apple is infallible, the reason I continue to trust them is because every single time I do, they come at me with something like this! They don’t always release perfect products, but given time, they almost always remedy any mistakes that they make.

Apple, this is a big, big win!

Today, for those of you who don’t know, there was an iPod event. While not a whole lot of the event was geared towards the iPhone, the smallest section of the Stevenote nearly made me wet myself.

Before I go on just let me say that I don’t speak as a fanboy. I don’t simply like Apple because I can. There are clear reasons for my Apple preference. I used PCs, I’ve seen the alternatives. I know how Zunes (don’t) work. The fact is, Apple has an unprecedented attention to detail, and they back it up with awesome support. I have literally never had a good tech support experience…Except with Apple. Every company makes mistakes, but Apple is the only company I know who has a near perfect record for fixing things they royally screw up (when I say “near”, I’m looking at you, mis-contorted mini-bluetooth keyboard of doom and suckiness).

So based on their track record, I’ve always trusted that over time Apple would work out all the things I’ve come to hate about my iPhone. I figured 2.1 would address the words of them: random app crashing, and the overall instability that occurs when you have a lot of apps (like I do). But I had no idea that Steve Jobs would get up on stage today, and tell me that every single little thing I hate about my iPhone will be no more as of this Friday (well, I shouldn’t say EVERYTHING…there’s still no cut and paste!!!).

No 4-hour-long backups, they’ve revamped that backup system. No starting from scratch at least once a week because my iPhone refuses to boot up after installing one too many apps. He even says there’s going to be significant performance improvements, and significant battery life improvements. Based on the demos, I’m guessing that means faster app installs, but it’s always hard to tell with demos

Another great thing they did with this event today was clearly label the iPhone/iPod Touch as a gaming platform. Apple themselves has finally acknowledged the potential for gaming in their device, and this is groundbreaking for consumers. It means that game developers will be willing to look at it very seriously; and the answer will usually be yes! Take EA for example, they’ve been putting out tons of games for iPhone and doing simultaneous release for iPhone with big names like Spore and Need for Speed! It’s fantastic for us gamers, because we get AMAZING games on the iPhone, and it’s great for them too, because development time is tiny in comparison to other platforms; and yet there is a huge profit potential. Win/Win.

They’ve also made significant progress in making the iPod Touch and iPod Nano more green. I am always all for keeping this world a habitable place! It always baffles me that people label Apple as a non-eco-friendly company. They are a tech company, and nearly every piece of tech has strange chemicals in it. It is true that Apple does some not-so-great stuff, but from where I’m sitting, it’s also true that they are the ONLY tech company actually working towards improving on that front.

Wow, Apple. I trusted in you, and I don’t regret it. Today is a great day. Here’s to one of the finest companies I know.

Hello,
So you guys sure seem to be proud of your decision to support a ridiculously restrictive DRM format. I just wanted you to know a few things, you really should consider them before you move forward.

The first is that, I promise you, piracy will still happen. It always happens. There is absolutely nothing you can do about it. DRM just makes it a pain in the ass for those who purchase it legally, making piracy all the more tempting.

For those of us who don’t have moral convictions preventing us from stealing from a giant machine such as many of your clients, the one and only draw to not engaging in piracy is that it makes it easier on us. When you intentionally include a piece of spyware whose job is to hassle the user through hell and back, it doesn’t make it very easy on them.

The second thing I want to warn you about is that you will make less money. Statistics show that DRM hurts sales (here is one of many articles on this: http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/24/sins-publisher-stardock-keeps-piracy-in-perspective/). Aside from statistics, I can tell you first hand that I am one of them. I am making you a promise right now that I will NEVER buy ANY of your games that include SecuROM (I make no promises as to whether or not I’ll acquire them, you just won’t make any money off it if I do).

So, I hope you can see now, DRM is going to hurt you dramatically. And for trying to take away consumer freedoms, and putting your concerns of piracy above the will of your PAYING CUSTOMERS, your company deserves to go under.

Thank you
Jt Hollister

P.S. Your ports aren’t very good anyway.

Phil Hassey, a dedicated and excellent programmer who authored the original Galcon, has put out my favorite app for the iPhone so far. The iPhone and iPod Touch are, in my opinion, the ideal platforms for Galcon. Touch controls are simpler and faster than using your mouse, making the gameplay absolutely incredible!

No multiplayer, as of yet, but I have word from Phil that he plans on putting that together later this year — after he recuperates from the porting process!

I would love to see some more controls implemented, but for a first release this is absolutely gorgeous!

Galcon Touch can be had from the iTunes App Store or in the App Store on your iPhone/iPod Touch.

On the night of Thursday, July 10th the rest of the household was getting ready for bed. I, on the other hand, was getting ready to head out the door to the local Apple store at The Gateway. I arrived at 2:30 AM to something I didn’t exactly expect: a rather long line of people who, like myself, were waiting for the iPhone 3G to hit the shelves.

Throughout the morning, the line continued to grow to a point where I couldn’t even see the end of it. As 8:00 drew nearer, even more people began to arrive in droves. I’ve never seen such a huge crowd lined up for a product before, but then, I’ve never lined up for a product as exciting as the iPhone 3G (although I must admit, Leopard comes close).

After a long, grueling wait, the black veil was dropped and the doors were opened. The first group of people was let in, but it was clear the wait was going to extend for a bit longer. Luckily, Apple employees brought two iPhones out - one white, one black - for those of us in line to glimpse.

Apple was also kind enough to bring coffee and bottled water to those who wanted it. Talk about classy. It was a hot morning, and the water was a welcome surprise.

While most of us waited in line for iPhones, one individual came looking for something else. I watched as this man walked up to one of the Apple reps at the door, entered the building, and minutes later exited the building with a brand new MacBook Pro. Even with hundreds of people lined up outside the store, pining for glimpses of the shiny new toy and shouting out superfluous questions, Apple was able to help someone who wanted nothing to do with the madness! If you ask me, that really speaks to quality service.

After a two hour wait, I entered the building and purchased my new iPhone. The activation servers were down at the time, and I was told to activate it from the comfort of my own home. The process failed a couple times, but within 10 minutes I was good to go. Compared to the time spent in line, this wait was hardly something to complain about.

The first impression of the iPhone 3G is: WOW! I’ve seen the imagery and advertisements put out by Apple, but none of it compares to holding the device in your hand. I can’t say a lot about the new iPhone at this point, but the first impression is definitely there. Here’s to hoping it’s everything it promises!

I just got an unbelievable email from NORML. For the first time in 25 years, there is an actual piece of legislation before congress which would COMPLETELY REMOVE the national ban on marijuana!

Keep in mind, though, it would still be up to each state individually to legalize or criminalize it, or something in between.

However, this bill, if passed, would be a GIANT LEAP towards freedom (as the title suggests). It would mean that marijuana is FULLY LEGAL in California, and it would give states the right to choose whether or not it is okay.

There’s not a whole lot else to say on this matter, so I’ll get to the important part: celebrate 4/20 tomorrow, and the day after that, on 4/21, we’re going to let Congress know that this bill needs to be passed. How are we going to do that? Here’s an excerpt from the NORML Newsletter I received:

Guys, I urge you to help out with this effort to restore freedom to America. If you are interested in receiving updates like this from NORML, I also suggest you join NORML’s newsletter (it is near the bottom left of their page).

Thanks guys.

Hey everyone, PLEASE read this as it is by far the most important blog I have ever written. I don’t wish to come across as a fanatic, but for this particular issue, I am one. I hope you will be as well after you hear what I have to say. This is about doing your part to Save the Internet.

I sincerely believe that the Internet is humanity’s single biggest resource. It is bigger than human beings, bigger than corporations, bigger than even countries. The Internet binds the entire world together in a way never before seen.

It is not the right of any individual, corporation, government, or entity of any kind to stifle the freedom of the Internet.

Big phone and cable companies are trying to get rid of Network Neutrality, the fundamental principle that prevents them from discriminating against your favorite Web sites and services.

Unless we speak out to our members of Congress they could move to allow large telephone and cable companies to control what you do, where you go and what you watch online.

Ultimately, because of the power of the Internet, those who are allowed to control the Internet will have the power to shape the future of humanity. Think about it. Culture, commercial enterprise, freedom of speech, religion, politics. All of these things can be controlled with the Internet. Those who seek control do so according to their own desires and lusts, NOT what is in humanity’s best interests.

This is not a difficult issue. Nor is it to be taken lightly. Please, help protect the Internet, which has transcended national borders and pushed humanity to its golden age.

Visit this website, sign their petition, and send a letter to congress (they make it real easy with a simple form). The world needs your help to keep the Internet free.

Visit www.savetheinternet.com to learn what’s at stake and send a loud message directly to the Congress.

I doubt anyone actually believed me, but just in case, yesterday’s post was a joke. Spielberg has no idea who I am, and the blog’s not shutting down. Sorry to disappoint on both counts.