Red Sweater Blog – I’ve Been Transmit’d:
I’m not anti-Linux, I just have other things to do
Category: Uncategorized
recommendation time
And the Nobel prize for literature goes to….Doris Lessing.
So what’s a good book of hers for someone who can put up anything if the writing is good (I recently read McCarthy’s Border Trilogy, though I am no fan of the Western).
Looks like the Golden Notebook is considered the strongest of her works: agree? Disagree?
links for 2007-10-11
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“If the photo accompanying this story doesn’t move you, you’re not hooked up right. ” That picture/1000 words thing rings true . . .
attempted adams
Ansel Adams, that is. I used a red filter with this roll of film, to see if I could get some better separation in the sky’s tones. Earlier results look good. A 29 Red might be even more persuasive. This was made with a Holga on Ilford HP5+, souped in Rodinal 1:100 for 2 hours.
quote of the day
“President Bush has essentially told American kids to drop dead, and we are not going to let that happen.”
Chuck Loveless, Legislative Director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which is running eight targeted television ads.
links for 2007-10-10
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Excellent. The Busheviks broke a window into bin Laden’s operations, making them aware of a security breach, and wasting several years work. Heckuva job, dubya . . .
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yeah, I always chuckle at that one too.
adventures in online commerce
There I was, poised to buy the new Radiohead release. But wait, what’s this? I can’t see the image of the security code I need to key in!
Eventually, with several reloads of the page, I got both a graphic and an error-free page (some elements were failing to load over a secure connection). Not sure this has been all that well tested . . . why do I think they could have simply asked Amazon to handle all the backend magic? True, Amazon isn’t much on the “set your own price” business model, but the association with this experiment might have been worth it.
I paid US$9.99, near enough. Five quid, plus a £.45 service charge. I’ll have the full release in about 5 minutes, all 48Mb of it. My hunch is, we’ll see more of this. If, as Alex Ross suggests, the order numbers are sequential, they have made connection with a lot of fans (mine was WAS4413188).
money-grubbing
One of my kind Flickr pals (who happens to be local as well) may be able to hook me up with a Nikon D50 that will be some surplus to his requirements in a few weeks. That means I need to dig up some scratch.
Ideas welcome. Maybe I’ll start ghost-writing kids school papers. Nah, mine aren’t old enough yet.
I wish I could count on some passive earning, like the real estate I give to Google on every page, but it’s so hit and miss: I may get a $1 a click on some things and then a whole lot of nothing. Right now, I am about $23 away from a check from them since Nov 14 2005 (!!). At $77 over 694 days, that’s $.11/day.
Once middle school is in full swing, life should become a little easier, as they will start earlier and I won’t need to do fetch and carry duties. But that’s almost two years away.
gerrymandering
Beyond Red & Blue: America’s 10 political regions redefined:
“Beyond Red & Blue” was conceived about four years ago, in anticipation of the 2004 presidential election. The idea was to divide the United States into 10 regions of equal voting power, each with a distinct history and political bent.
I have recommended the Nine Nations book to people for ages now, since I found it to be a pretty convincing way to understand the continent. I’m not sure I see how this map works: is the Spanish-speaking population of the Southwest really considered a bloc with the Spanish-speakers in So Florida? They do come from different places, after all.
I understand that it’s a political map but I’m not sure I understand the breakout of regions all that well. It’s really just a gerrymander.
I can agree with the western version of the Upper Coasts, as it maps well to the Ecotopia nation from Nine Nations (and I live there, so it’s home). But do the sons of the pioneers out here really share all the much with the sons of the Mayflower back east? This area was settled by Midwesterners, in large part, perhaps explaining why it went with the Union in the War of Southern Secession.
I think the idea of geographically coherent regions that share political and cultural interests makes more sense to me: lumping people together seems counterproductive.
links for 2007-10-09
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this is why camera phones are a good thing.
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An interview with comix master Alan Moore. it’s not all underwear perverts and magic, you know.