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A friend of the U.S. gave me a present some time ago: the Macromedia
Adobe Dreamweaver 2004 program. Yes, with a serial number. Absolutely legal. Now I want to upgrade it and buy the whole MX suite.
(Voices from the crowd: “You fool”)
I still want to buy it. Yes, I still live in Greece. But today I saw I can’t. It is impossible. Here is why:
I connect with the Adobe website and I login with my
Macromedia
Adobe username/password. The system recognizes that I come from Greece. But there is no way I can download any software by charging my credit card. If a was a Turkish, a Bulgarian etc. there would have been a link for me. Most of the times software vendors do not care about your nationality. They just charge your card and they provide you a download link. Simple as that.
Adobe wants to “push” its clients to the local e-store. Fine. But this blessed country, Greece, is nowhere in the virtual map. Instead you need to contact the reseller of Adobe products in Greece. The reseller claims he can undertake the procedure. What a lousy lie! His so-called e-store doesn’t provide a link for the specific product.
What alternatives do I have?
To order the suite from the U.S. – forget it. I ‘ll have to wait for weeks before I get the damned software in my hands.
To login as a U.S. (or whatever) client and cheat the system – it doesn’t work. You need to provide a valid U.S. credit card number.
To visit the local reseller in order to learn how much it costs (because these guys do not even inform us about the price) and buy it – no way. I don’t want to give you a cent.
Hey guys are you listening to me? I don’t want to crack, patch, fuck your software. I want to buy it! It seems you don’t want me to. So I ‘ll crack, patch, fuck it. Or I ‘ll buy something else.
The other day I was walking to my car. It was a distance of approximately 100m to be covered. In my way I saw Chinese people pushing carts, black people selling watches and walkmans, I saw gypsies on their lorries, I saw people from neverneverland. It seemed I was the only native among familiar foreigners. The clumsy host among his guests.
I am so lucky my country can invite so many different people to share its happiness. I am so lucky we are so generous and hospitable nation. If only we didn’t push these people to the poorest area of the city. If only we didn’t look down on them. I forgot, we are superior. Sorry.
I often hear people say: “I only need some inspiration” or “This designer is really inspired”. What they actually mean is that suddenly an idea falls from the sky and by using it they manage to solve all of their problems no matter what.
I don’t believe in this. It took me years and some meditation to have a structured opinion about inspiration. Inspiration is not an abstract matter which springs from the void. Inspiration has nothing to do with our beliefs. There is no super creature (you may call it god) who sends it.
Inspiration is a result. Let me clarify this. Suppose you design things. What do you need in order to design? What do you need in order to design well? You need:
knowledge (such as color theory, geometry etc)
skills (which means you have to do a lot of practice among others)
sources (something to start from and a pile of ideas already used by someone else)
to work hard (enough said)
So you start creating things. Mixing ideas. Putting all of your knowledge in action. You do and you don’t. You carry on and you withdraw. All at the same time time. And one day you are stuck. You are left high and dry. You think you can’t go on. You need a bit of inspiration.
Then you go to bed. And at 4:00 am you wake up with the perfect design in your head. This vital bit of inspiration emerged at last. Who made it come? You. It’s only you who did it. You just gave yourself some space. The critical piece of the puzzle came out of your mind. It is the result of the previously done work.
There ‘s no metaphysics or abstractness here. Inspiration is you.
I wish we only had the proper amount of time to give ourselves a break in order to gain the indispensable space mentioned above. Because it often makes the difference.
- Hey pal, wanna do business with me?
- That ‘d be cool! What business?
- Don’t know, anything. I put the bucks you bring people. You know so many.
- OK. Won’t we need more cash?
- We ‘ll borrow some. I know people too!
- Great. It will be legal, won’t it?
- Sure. And if we have hard times we ‘ll bribe some people, we won’t pay some others, we ‘ll get through someway - anyway.
- Done deal.
