Category: 2004 US Election

Bush v. Kerry is nowhere near as divisive

Jeremy Zawodny’s blog:

I never realized how many folks in the blog echo chamber were so cost-sensitive and willing to jump the gun and turn their backs on a fantastic piece of software.

Well, now I know. So much for loyalty. The judgment has been largely instant and harsh.

Yet another “If you have a problem with the new license terms, you’re a whining parasite” post.

Compare it with this:
Daring Fireball: Like a Lead Zeppelin:

But the people who are the most angry at Six Apart are people who are willing to pay for Movable Type, and are willing to accept license restrictions. Many of them donated, voluntarily, for previous versions.

Continue reading “Bush v. Kerry is nowhere near as divisive”

strange times when you get ripped for what you didn’t say

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: May 09, 2004 – May 15, 2004 Archives

Josh Marshall responds to a reader who complains about not seeing any mention of the Berg execution.

If he was as regular a reader as he claims, he wouldn’t need to have it spelled out that the execution, its filming, and distribution are evil and deplorable acts. I don’t think anyone would assume that realizing one has nothing to add on a subject is the same as tacit approval of it.
Continue reading “strange times when you get ripped for what you didn’t say”

stumbling around drunk in the dark

Wired News: Apple Wants to Open Song Vaults:

On the conference call about the first birthday of the iTunes Music Store, Jobs said that getting [older, out-of-release, or unreleased-on-CD] songs online is one of the next hurdles for online services and the music industry. In general, he said, labels have less than a third of the music in their vaults available for sale because it’s too expensive to distribute such CDs to stores.

But to make songs available online, record companies wouldn’t have to press CDs, get them to stores and worry about returns. “It’s a one-time cost,” Luke said. “Once it’s been encoded and delivered, it’s in the digital marketplace.”

And if anyone can get the labels to open the vaults, Jobs can, analysts said.

“What Jobs is saying is, ‘We’d be happy to take all this content that is rotting away in warehouses and turn it into a new revenue source for you,'” said Barry Ritholtz, a market strategist with Maxim Group, a money-management firm. “It’s probably a bit much to say Jobs is saving the music industry, but he’s showing them the way into the digital age. They have been stumbling around drunk in the dark.”

Fancy that: a guy who loves music is working on making more of it available. Sad that no one in the RIAA cartel ever found this a worthwhile project.

my surging popularity

216.148.212.182 – – [11/May/2004:22:30:22 -0700] “GET /movabletype/index.rdf HTTP/1.1” 200 30034 “-” “Bloglines/2.0 (http://www.bloglines.com; 4 subscribers)”

Up to 4 subscribers on bloglines? Thanks to all of you: it was just 2 for the longest time. I’ll take a 100% increase anyway I can get it.

too much reality for me

I’m not going to link directly to the video clip: you can follow the link in the quote below.

The Nick Berg Video

I think you should see it.
[ . . . ]

[Oliver Willis: Like Kryptonite To Stupid]

I clicked through and saw the opening frame: a man sitting on the floor, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, and the masked men who would kill him lined up behind. That was enough for me.

I need a hobby. I’m tired of all of this.

new iPod

Well, I ended up getting a replacement unit for my misbehaving 10 Gb iPod. After sending it in for service and getting it back in not all that different condition, the nice folks at the Apple depot told me to take it and my case number to the local Apple store and tell them what happened.

They were reluctant to cough one up but I was more persistent than that. The Genius bar is pretty busy and in the grand scheme of things, this was rather low on their list of things to hassle with.

So I have a new one to play with. Among my lessons learned? Get some kind of skin for it so it doesn’t get as scratched up as it’s predecessor. None of them are very appealing: I’m not buying leather (unless it comes from windfall cows), so my options are rather limited.

Machiavelli said it best

Weekly Review (Harpers.org):

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld apologized for the torture of Iraqi prisoners and said that there are “many more photographs and indeed some videos” of American soldiers engaging in “blatantly sadistic, cruel, and inhuman” behavior; Rumsfeld took “full responsibility” for the abuse but still refused to resign. [ . . . ] American soldiers allegedly put a harness on an elderly Iraqi woman and rode her like a donkey. New charges included rape, murder, and child molestation. “The system works,” Rumsfeld told the Senate.

The end justifies the means?