Month: October 2007

Anyone have any good instructions on cracking open a 3G iPod? I have a replacement battery for it but getting it open seems to be trickier than advertised. The tools that came with it are too soft to really get in that almost invisible groove. Maybe I got one that was really finished well? I’ve hunted around on the Google: anyone ever done this or have any tips to <literally> crack it open?

Cory Doctorow offers an apology to Ursula K Le Guin.

After reading his piece and hers, it’s just a mess. He posts a very short work of hers in it entirety, and I think legally, though given his association with the volatile area of copyright and Fair Use, it may not have been all that well thought out (maybe one of the other principals at BB could have done it?). In reply, does she or her various representatives use any of the commonly accepted methods of communication, like registered/certified mail? No, she uses an intermediary who is an antagonist of Doctorow’s and whose email is discarded unread, programmatically. Some other of her peers and allies get their licks in, via their websites, but I don’t see any effort to contact the offender directly.

The discussion seems to be all about open letters and intermediaries. Don’t these people have telephones? Or mutual friends?

In my time at The Worst Job I Ever Had, the most antagonistic person I dealt with had a gift for epigrams, if not for self-awareness: the one I remember best was that people who are secure can be gracious. In other words, most of the petty squabbling we run into is all about power and status. Why, then, is someone like Le Guin being so mean-spirited about this to someone who is an avowed fan? Is it more about his positions on rights and usage than about his use of her work? Does she feel threatened by his public statements?

I’m not a huge fan of the pugnacious Mr Doctorow, though I agree with most of what he says on the issues of copyright: I have to take his side on this one, though.

Gruber quotes Fraser Speirs: ‘The Second Step in Photography’:

[C]onsider making heavy use of your camera’s Program mode. Then, all you have is your camera position and your sense of timing to play with. That’s really stripping photography back to its beating heart.

How is using Program mode — the camera makes all the exposure decisions, little details like depth of field and shutter speed — “stripping photography back to its beating heart?” The great photographs I have enjoyed — the likes of Adams, Weston, Cartier-Bresson, Capa — were all made with a complete understanding their equipment, their media, and their subject.

You wanna strip it down? Stop by your local Goodwill or Value Village and grab one of the throwaway 35mm cameras you’ll find there, fixed focal length and f/stop, no preview, and run a roll of off the shelf drugstore film through it.

I don’t say there is no place for fully-automatic cameras — I’d love a D50 or the like — but to say that surrendering the decision-making process to the camera is somehow getting back to basics is just silly.

• Andrew Sullivan and “Honesty”
  Ezra dismantles him neatly, completely and thoroughly. How do people like Sullivan and Kaus have jobs? What motivates them? Will they do anything for money and fame/notoriety?
  (tags: journamalism media lies politics values)
• THE DIANA-MORRISSEY PHENOMENON
  I suppose everyone needs a hobby.
  (tags: conspiracies fame celebrity)

see if you can guess the place thus described:

The [_______] government under [_______] has amassed so much central authority that the power-grab may undermine [_______]’s commitment to democracy . . . .

“In any country, if you don’t have countervailing institutions, the power of any one president is problematic for democratic development,” [_______] told reporters after meeting with human-rights activists.

“I think there is too much concentration of power in the [_______]. [….] Everybody has doubts about the full independence of the judiciary. There are clearly questions about the independence of the electronic media and there are, I think, questions about the strength of the [_______],” said [_______], referring to the [legislature]

Continue reading “irony, RIP”

This is some progress:

That’s what I paid in Nov 2003 for the iBook on my lap, with an 800 MHz G4, 30 Gb drive, 256Mb RAM, no camera.

The 60 Gb drive I put in not all that long ago is 95% full, the 640 Mb RAM is inadequate, and 800 MHz is just glacial for the almost-Leopard OS it’s running.

Any wonder why I’m trying to find some income? 😉 If I could afford it, I would replace the G4 mini with a Core Duo and the iMac G5 likewise. But me first: this is the oldest system I have and the one that gets used the most.

On Gore:

If half of what we think we know about global warming is true, people will look back fifty years from now on the claims that “War on Terror” was the defining challenge of this century and see it as a very sick, sad joke — which rather sums up the Bush presidency.

• is this the most accurate description?
  Al Gore won a share of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for what is essentially a PowerPoint presentation.
  (tags: climatechange culture)
• Gore has quite a decade: “Al Gore is enjoying a very good press day, and I couldn’t be more pleased. He’s not only earned a Nobel Peace Prize, he’s also established himself as a global leader.”
  has there been an American Secretary General of the UN yet?
  (tags: unitednations politics values culture)

Oscar Wilde:

“The aim of life is self-development. To realize one’s nature perfectly – that is what each of us is here for.”

Sadly, No! » Insert Clever Title, Pt. Eleventy-Whatever:

Now we’re getting down to it.

“Who deserves ____________________?”

“Who should provide _________________?”

I’ve written at length about these very subjects. Because, when you get all the racism and classism and hurt feelings and name calling behind you, the difference between Teh Leftâ„¢ and Teh Rightâ„¢ is in how they answer two questions.

1. What is the role of government in the lives of the citizens?

And

2. How does the government determine who “deserves” intervention in their lives?

And there you have it. On abortion, capital punishment, the draft, healthcare, subsidies, taxes, anything you can name, you’re really only providing your answers to those questions.

Fortunately, as vocal and unpleasant as the Malkin thing and her ilk are, I’m am convinced they do not represent the vast majority of the American population. Oh, I know they’re not as lefty as me, and racism and assorted hatreds has a profound impact on political beliefs, but for the most part americans want america to take care of americans.

I’m ecstatic there was a program to help the Frosts. And whether or not one cent of that money came from my taxes, I’m proud we as a people saw that as an important expenditure.

It’s about what kind of society we want to be. And the leadership has been dragging america in a direction the people just don’t want to go since the end of the second world war. We really don’t want to be a society focused on hate, scarcity and violent militarism. It may well be that some very smart people figured out a long time ago that without massive defense spending you don’t get this HUGE economy that has served five generations so well.

But the people have hate fatigue. They look around, and they realize that other nations, who are not spending trillions of dollars on armies, weapons, bases and wars, have better infrastructure, better communities, better education and health care and all the things america by all rights should lead the world in.

But america leads the world in war.

And while the malkin thing wants that, most of us do not…

Commenter mikey nails it.