Category: Uncategorized

I found 4.64.66.208.in-addr.arpa in my log files. According to .arpa – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia I shouldn’t be. It doesn’t do any harm, I know, but it seems odd that an organization that came along long after ARPA’s day was done would still be using that nomenclature.

Is There a “Liberal Professor” Problem?:

I don’t think any institution anywhere has a too-few-Republicans problem: universities don’t need more believers in intelligent design or the appicability of the Laffer curve or the unitary executive or the genetic inferiority of Africans or more disbelievers in global warming. Do other disciplines have a too-few-conservatives problem? Perhaps, but I don’t think it can be solved: I cannot think of a sociology department that would be improved by hiring Charles Murray or a philosophy department that would be improved by hiring William Kristol or a Middle Eastern studies department that would be improved by hiring Daniel Pipes.

This just in — Republicans Distrust Media:

Republicans “remain deeply distrustful of the national news media — in sharp contrast to Democrats, who have a great deal more trust in the media’s accuracy,” according to a new Gallup poll.

“Overall, less than half of Americans, regardless of partisanship, have a great deal or a fair amount of trust in the mass media. Nearly half of Americans — including over three-quarters of Republicans — perceive the media as too liberal while fewer than one in five say the media are too conservative. Americans are less likely to perceive bias in their local news media than in the national news media.”

Akin to “all politics is local,” local news is always understandable because you know the people and places involved. Your tribe, your local neighbors, are unlikely to be much more liberal or conservative than you are. The stuff that airs on New York stations might not be popular or even possible in Peoria.

The flip side of this? As everyone eventually learns, there is nothing more discouraging that reading a general news article about your area of expertise, as it makes you wonder how many of the other articles you’ve been read are just as fact-free. I suppose a lot depends on how much depth and breadth the local newspaper features: if everything you read reinforces what you already know, you’re not really being informed. This is the benefit to having more than one local newspaper. What big cities in the US have two or more independent (ie, without conjoined business operations) newspapers? I know most cities have a large daily and a few smaller free papers, and the free papers do add some balance, but home delivery builds a habit.

New York has the Times, The Sun, The Post, Newsday, and probably more I don’t know about. What other US city has more than one?

Do Amazon’s new license terms mean an end to Fair Use provisions?

Business & Technology | Unlocked music isn’t unlimited | Seattle Times Newspaper:

When Amazon.com launched its MP3 store last week, I thought the Seattle company had found the perfect formula for selling digital music.

Prices are lower than Apple’s iTunes, audio quality is generally higher and none of the songs is embedded with obnoxious copy-protection software. I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon leapfrogs into first place in the downloadable-music business that Microsoft, Sony and others have struggled with for years.

Does that mean it’s time to say goodbye to the neighborhood record store?

I’d say no, after reading the fine print in Amazon’s user agreement. That’s when I decided to keep buying CDs, maybe forever.
[…]
Amazon’s contract says you “may copy, store, transfer and burn the Digital Content” for personal use. But then it goes further and specifies restrictions, saying you “agree that you will not redistribute, transmit, assign, sell, broadcast, rent, share, lend, modify, adapt, edit, sub-license or otherwise transfer or use the Digital Content.”

I suspect this won’t hold up, if contested. And unless there are some hidden watermarks, I’m not sure how they can enforce it. They do store a Song ID in the metadata

but that just takes you to the track. I suppose a comparison of a ripped-from-CD file to a purchased one might reveal something.

• Holga Images
  Just to show it’s the photographer, not the camera. These are great images, enhanced by the crappiness of the Holga.
  (tags: Holga photography Art media)

Robert Reich explains Why Charity Doesn’t Begin at Home:

It turns out that only an estimated 10% of all charitable deductions are directed at the poor.

So here’s a modest proposal. At a time when the number of needy continues to rise, when government doesn’t have the money to do what’s necessary for them and when America’s very rich are richer than ever, we should revise the tax code: Focus the charitable deduction on real charities.

If the donation goes to an institution or agency set up to help the poor, the donor gets a full deduction. If the donation goes somewhere else — to an art palace, a university, a symphony or any other nonprofit — the donor gets to deduct only half of the contribution.

The money that goes to a Lincoln Center gala or naming rights to an opera house would do a lot of good if given to a real charity.

• ZIPskinny
  how does your ‘hood look? This is all 2000 Census data, so it might be a little off.
  (tags: maps census society science)
• Mr. Romney’s eldest son, Tagg, 37, says that back in the early 1990s, he told his father privately that he was thinking about becoming a Democrat . . .
  first, what 37 year old still needs approval to choose a political party? Oh, right, one with a trust fund . . . .
  (tags: politics culture values)

Looking at the pictures I get from my Nikon P&S (POS is how I usually think of it) and I think more and more of a dSLR. It looks like D50 and D70 are holding their prices pretty well, but I found a D70 with some water damage. I need to call my local authorized Nikon repair center and see what a rebuild would cost, but what do you think? Is that a good plan or am I asking for trouble? I assume the repairs will make it as good as newâ„¢ . . .

And re-reading the description of the 5400 at Amazon reminds me why I picked it. What a disappointment. It sounds like a different camera to me.

Rafe learns that The North Carolina lottery is a bust:

Bottom line: lotteries don’t achieve much in terms of funding schools, are a regressive form of taxation, mislead voters into thinking that schools are mostly funded by lotteries and that taxes and bond issues to fund schools aren’t needed, and contribute to gambling addiction. Who ever thought they were a good idea in the first place?

Of course, most of the issues can be traced to the fact that NC was late to the game. And not all lotteries are run the same way: some send quite a bit of money to schools (I think Georgia’s lottery was only allowed to start after that was written into the authorization). But the regressive tax thing is a killer: the people who can least afford to play are most likely to.

California – Joel on Software:

the iPod slogan Designed by Apple in California triggers a flood of emotional responses that just make you happy to have selected this MP3 player.

Of course, Microsoft’s Apple Envy is so impossible to disguise that the back of the Zune says, “Hello from Seattle:”

California covers a lot of ground: Seattle, not so much. MSFT isn’t in Seattle. So the envy extends to California and the Big Smoke across the lake.