the art of writing is discovering what you believe
I have been trying to contribute something each day, which means sitting down with GarageBand for a hour or so and seeing what I can cobble together, given some drum loops and my own rudimentary skills. Some days go better than others 😉 All of these should exists as GarageBand projects so if something sounds worth hammering on, sing out.
A month of music-making on public display (the RSS feed is here).
So far, it’s mostly junk of mine up there, but this weekend should get interesting. I have been trying to contribute something each day, which means sitting down with GarageBand for a hour or so and seeing what I can cobble together, given some drum loops and my own rudimentary skills. Some days go better than others 😉
All of these should exists as GarageBand projects so if something sounds worth hammering on, sing out.
Without reading the NYTimes piece, I would guess that the Obama supporters are able to persuade/convert others to their way of thinking in the caucus, while primary voters are left to their own thought processes…. On it’s face, that looks like the idea of a woman president, even one with the negatives Hillary brings with her, is more appealing than what Obama has to offer, absent the gentle arm-twisting of the caucus environment.
What is it about the difference between the two that gives Obama the edge in caucuses and Clinton the advantage in the primaries?
Without reading the NYTimes piece, I would guess that the Obama supporters are able to persuade/convert others to their way of thinking in the caucus, while primary voters are left to their own thought processes. My guess is that Obama’s candidacy inspires more people and allows him to attract more votes at a caucus than a primary. He’s all about hope and optimism, something we sorely need.
On it’s face, that looks like the idea of a woman president, even one with the negatives Hillary brings with her, is more appealing than what Obama has to offer, absent the gentle arm-twisting of the caucus environment. I’m outsourcing the comparisons of the two, as they appear today, to Professor Delong.
Can voters ignore their memories of the past to vote for Hillary? Regardless of how they feel about her, she will attract so much obstructionist nonsense, so much hate and division, it might be a waste of a Democratic Administration.
On the whole, I feel more confident about Obama’s unknown future than Hillary’s known past, regardless of how blameless she might be.
When you have an obsolete, inconvenient physical product that nobody wants in an era of universal online access, the appropriate strategy is clearly to raise the price.
When you have an obsolete, inconvenient physical product that nobody wants in an era of universal online access, the appropriate strategy is clearly to raise the price.
[From blog.pmarca.com: Inaugurating the New York Times Deathwatch]
[ via ] I had never heard of the Aérotrain . If the rolling stock was all going to look like that, we lost out.
[via]
I had never heard of the Aérotrain. If the rolling stock was all going to look like that, we lost out.
Looks like the internets were down last night from 10:23 until 7:47, and this after that nice phone call from Speakeasy. <sigh> I did open a ticket to report slow connection speeds right before it went down, but I’m sure that was coincidence.
Looks like the internets were down last night from 10:23 until 7:47, and this after that nice phone call from Speakeasy.
<sigh>
I did open a ticket to report slow connection speeds right before it went down, but I’m sure that was coincidence. Anyway, things are looking up.
Since 2006 the project has helped fix 7,826 open source flaws in 250 projects, out of 50 million lines of code scanned, the company said.
…It is one of the few open source projects to clock in at a zero existing rate of defects for its 588,931 lines of code.
And in a good way.
They’re paying for open source software to be scanned for security bugs, and then fixing them.
All the software scrutinized was found to have significant numbers of security flaws, Coverity said on Wednesday. Since 2006 the project has helped fix 7,826 open source flaws in 250 projects, out of 50 million lines of code scanned, the company said.
They find, on average, one security flaw per 1,000 lines of code. And when the flaw is fixed, everyone’s security improves.
I was in the neighborhood and went into my local Apple store today (I had not visited since before Leopard shipped, and it was closed for remodeling then). I looked the iPod nano ($149 — less than the mini I bought a couple of years back and lightyears more advanced).
I was in the neighborhood and went into my local Apple store today (I had not visited since before Leopard shipped, and it was closed for remodeling then). I looked the iPod nano ($149 — less than the mini I bought a couple of years back and lightyears more advanced). Handled the iPhone and iPod Touch. It just didn’t seem real to be able to do what you can do with them. Looked at the MacBook Air. The store was quite crowded, even given the recent expansion.
Realized I am so far out of touch I’m surprised they let me in the door.
Reviewing my account with Speakeasy, I realize I am paying more than $50/month for a 1.5/384k connection…. It’s all very well to say that Qwest or other providers are worse because of their poor service.
Reviewing my account with Speakeasy, I realize I am paying more than $50/month for a 1.5/384k connection. (Wow, I must have really hated Comcast 😉 )
And lately, Speakeasy hasn’t even been that good. This is a test with their server in Seattle.
And one to Atlanta:
Not exactly brisk.
It’s all very well to say that Qwest or other providers are worse because of their poor service. I hate to ask “how bad can it be?”
This is a bit less for a lot more: I’ll take the same fraction of that service for the price they’re asking.
What to do? An unemployable guy like me doesn’t have money to waste on this stuff. But is my time spent wrestling with the telco worth nothing? I have to say that Speakeasy has been pretty easy to work with: even the recent issue didn’t effect my service, just my impression of their business.
Advice welcome: any satisfied customers of the faceless telcos out there?
So I get a cryptic voice message from Speakeasy last week (the 22nd) where the caller wants me to call him back about a security issue and reads back the phone number once too quickly for me to make a note of it without listening to the message three times.
Come to find out Speakeasy’s network support group have opened a ticket, noting an insecure/vulnerable password on an email account we never use (well, they send their invoices to it, but that’s it) on Jan 16 (six days prior).
[update] Well, that’s interesting. A VP at Speakeasy was trawling through the ticket database and found my string of unanswered replies on this issue, and he sounded more than a little embarrassed. The word unacceptable was used and many apologies were proffered. And a month of free service will be credited as well. it’s things like that — a 3 minute phone call and month’s credit — that can keep a customer. Do I really want to shop for a new provider? No.
So I get a cryptic voice message from Speakeasy (Jan 22nd) where the caller wants me to call him back about a security issue and reads back the phone number once too quickly for me to make a note of it without listening to the message three times.
Come to find out Speakeasy’s network support group have opened a ticket, noting an insecure/vulnerable password on an email account we never use (well, they send their invoices to it, but that’s it) on Jan 16 (six days prior). No email to the other address on the account and no other notification on that day.
So I spend quite a while on hold trying to get through, find myself able to exchange updates to the ticket(s). I opened one asking for more information, they responded by filing my questions on their original ticket which was the first I heard of it. And I eventually left them a note asking for someone there to call me, as I was not experiencing any hold times at all, unlike them.
The result? Crickets. Nothing. Nada. The vulnerable account password has been cleared and I can’t update it, so we’re frozen out of the one email address they use to contact us. And the two tickets are still open.
Color me underwhelmed. Might be time to look for a good competitive broadband service option. Lemme see, I’ve used Qwest, Comcast, now Speakeasy, who’s left?