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November 29, 2004
Gnome 2.8 walkthru
Tectonic -- Linux and open source news
Karl Fischer takes a walk through the latest version of Gnome, version 2.8, to illustrate a few of the best new features of this very popular desktop environment.
Nice overview.
November 27, 2004
MSM
It just struck me that the TLA the wingnuts use to refer to the "liberal media" - MSM, for "mainstream media" - wouldn't that imply that they, and their "media," are out of the mainstream?
Field Guide to the Wingnut Blogger -
1. "BWAHAHAHA."
2. "MSM."
Hope I've saved you some time.
November 24, 2004
It's, like, a drug. In like, turkey. Hyuck.
Gothamist: Walk (and Nosh) It Off!
The tour lasts approximately two hours and covers 1.5 - 2 miles, so it shouldn't be too strenuous for those who may still be in a tryptophan-induced haze.
Ok, this was the tipping point entry for "obligatory trite reference to tryptophan in a Thanksgiving-related post" category.
Genug with the tryptophan, kitty.
Or, to indulge in one of the boogersphere's past linguistic winners:
Worst. Turn of phrase. EVER.
Holy crap
Holy crap. Again. Via Ed:
Statement on Ukrainian Elections:
The United States is deeply disturbed by extensive and credible indications of fraud committed in the Ukrainian presidential election. We strongly support efforts to review the conduct of the election and urge Ukrainian authorities not to certify results until investigations of organized fraud are resolved.
Do what I say, not what I do. I guess the Bush administration really is in loco parentis. Well, at least the loco part.
Great career move.
Jeff "Hector" Jarvis whips up the "Rather Must Die" frenzy while trying to figure out how to become the Citizen Kane of "citizen's media:"
The two posts below go together: The first is about the death of the Dan Rathers of news; the second is what should rise in their place.
Read the posts. They're remarkable for their utter arrogance while remaining smarmy in their use of the second-person plural. And for someone who complains so much about civility, Jarvis does a LOT of name-calling. But that "populism" gets you a lot of dead-media exposure though, eh, Jeff?
November 23, 2004
Blessed silence
Boing Boing newEstablishment man Cory Doctorow takes a vacation:
Cory offline until Dec 12
I'm off for my first multi-week, fully offline holiday since 2001, and it's about time. I won't be answering any mail between now and December 12th.
In related news, Google Superlative Inflation Index (covering postings using 'amazing,', 'incredible', 'fantastic,' and so forth to apply to just about any piece of crap you find) goes down 700%.
November 22, 2004
Mass hysteria
The saga of August's NYC Mass ride continues. A lawyer has filed suit against the city on behalf of 2k of the arrested:
Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | Lawsuit: NYC Created 'Guantanamo' at RNC
Moore said the treatment of those arrested violated ``a bedrock principle of our democracy that the police cannot simply sweep the streets because they find protest inconvenient or embarrassing.''
Well put. I wonder if the Mass rides will continue to see high turnout despite the weather getting colder.
November 20, 2004
Silly me.
Microsoft knows that its people are its most valuable asset. The company really takes good care of its people.
Too bad the customers don't get the same treatment.
Good and bad.
The Doc Searls Weblog : Saturday, November 20, 2004
Some links from the blogosphere, courtesy of Technorati, which seems much faster these days (disclaimer). At this point, a few hours after the event, there's much better thinking-out-loud in the 'sphere than in The Media (or so it seems to me, anyway).
Well, on the one hand, at least he sees fit to finally include a disclaimer, at least for his involvement in Technorati, though he still makes the assumption that everyone knows about his various friendships and doesn't need to post disclaimers for them.
On the other, we still get the heavy-handed value judgements. How is constantly comparing blogging with the Media and oddly always favoring your side any different from the Media comparing themselves with blogging and always choosing their side?
Answer: it's not. Meet the new media, same as the old media.
And he is us.
Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger
(remember, it is 2:24 a.m., and, no, there isn't a Microsoft PR guy looking over my shoulder as I type)
No, he's doing the typing.
November 18, 2004
Honest.
Powell Says Iran Is Pursuing Bomb (washingtonpost.com)
SANTIAGO, Chile, Nov. 17 -- The United States has intelligence that Iran is working to adapt missiles to deliver a nuclear weapon, further evidence that the Islamic republic is determined to acquire a nuclear bomb, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said Wednesday.
Really! It's really true this time! Honest! 'Q' and 'N' are right near each other on the keyboard! Alternate Universe Saddam has escaped from his thought prison and is helping them make weapons! They're aimed at Jeff Jarvis!
Call me when you have that other thing called "evidence." Nice note to go out on, Mr. Powell.
And yet, North Korea continues to actually have a known bomb.
November 12, 2004
Nostradamus
As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
--H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
November 11, 2004
MSN Search like roolz.
totally 1337.
November 10, 2004
The man without a country
When the majority of the country who voted for Bush talk about being demeaned it's not really about religion (we're not a nation of Bible-thumpers), it's about being from the boonies. The city slickers look down their noses at us 'burbans. They don't venture out here. They act as if it's a wasteland when it's our home. They are out of touch with the majority of America. The cultural reality yields the political reality.
Remember, kids, when the terrorist is piloting the plane straight at Jarvis ("there is the one called Jarvis. His invention of Entertainment Weekly is all we hate about American freedom! Get him!") then Jeff's a New Yorker. Tough, urban. We New Yorkers are like that, you know. Even the New Yorkers who live in New Jersey.
But when it's time for some good ol' faux populism and citerzen journalizin', you won't find a more humble, straight shootin' media executive of the Peeple than Jeff Jarvis. Versed in the simple, humble, middle American values of that salt of the earth suburb in New Jersey.
Somehow I don't think that Basking Ridge is exactly the heartland's idea of "rural."
Broken Mirra.
Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger
Interesting comment from Chris Kinsman. The Mirra is overpriced, he says.
That's a common complaint from customers. They think they could do it cheaper. Probably so, but make it easy enough for a dentist who just wants to back up all his dental records in his office? Isn't that worth $400?
What I find interesting is that here, in less than an hour, we've gotten most of the objections to a new product out on the table.
What I find interesting is the illusion of the marketing "revolution" being broken here. What's Scoble's takeaway from this? That "marketing has changed.' Right, in marketing's favor, not the customer's.
Most of the comments I've seen about this Mirra thing (in short, it's a backup hard drive in a box targeted as a simple solution for home users) on Scoble's site have said, 'Geez, it's too expensive.' Were Mirra the truly revolutionary bunch they're being touted as here, they'd at least take this into consideration. Yet, instead, what you get instead is Scoble telling you why you're wrong to think it's too expensive.
So the real nature of the revolution appears to be the ability for corporations to ignore you in real-time.
Incidentally, nice disclosure there that Mirra was founded by ex-Softies. Though that explains the Windows-centric nature of the product.
He's baaaaaaaaaaaack
Yahoo! News - Falwell Plans for 'Evangelical Revolution'
Falwell, a religious broadcaster based in Lynchburg, Va., said the Faith and Values Coalition will be a "21st century resurrection of the Moral Majority," the organization he founded in 1979.
It's like Groundhog Day. In hell.
November 5, 2004
We never saw it coming.
Why are we still hearing this:
Bonus link: Internet empowers grass-roots politics, in the Seattle Times, features both Sifry brothers.
out of some quarters, when this:
And meanwhile, unknown to Alex and me and Glenn Reynolds and Kevin Drum and most operatives of the Democratic Party, the important campaign was the one we were barely watching at all. This one was taking place in "low church" pews and the basements of Catholic Churches; on Christian radio and among prayer groups. It was a ground-level meatspace operation that may have left cybernetic traces, but not where we, the vaunted blogosphere, were looking.
hits it right on the head. While we were typing crap into windows, obsessively refreshing Kos, and hanging around in the self-congratulatory chambers of interactive democracy, the Republics were out organizing actual living, breathing, animate people to travel to a location, vote, and win the fucking election.
And we missed the whole fucking thing, because their grassroots stained your knees. Talk about your end-run.
The real story is NOT connected democracy. It's a part of it, but it's not the whole story that everybody online wants it to be. The story remains democracy, as it always has.
November 4, 2004
A uniter, not a divider
Fanatical Apathy: Concession Speech
There are some who would say that I sound bitter, that now is the time for healing, to bring the nation together. Let me tell you a little story. Last night, I watched the returns come in with some friends here in Los Angeles. As the night progressed, people began to talk half-seriously about secession, a red state / blue state split. The reasoning was this: We in blue states produce the vast majority of the wealth in this country and pay the most taxes, and you in the red states receive the majority of the money from those taxes while complaining about 'em. We in the blue states are the only ones who've been attacked by foreign terrorists, yet you in the red states are gung ho to fight a war in our name. We in the blue states produce the entertainment that you consume so greedily each day, while you in the red states show open disdain for us and our values. Blue state civilians are the actual victims and targets of the war on terror, while red state civilians are the ones standing behind us and yelling "Oh, yeah!? Bring it on!"
Alaska gets $92 per capita from Homeland Security. NY gets $32. Well?
Here it comes
Read this for a little preview of what we have to look forward to:
As soon as the theocrat majority is esconsed in the Supreme Court, Congress will pass three key theocrat bills, which already passed the House this time around and will pass the Senate next time around:
The Marriage Protection Act, which would bar federal courts, including the Supreme Court from intervening in cases involving a state's recognition of another state's civil rights bills regarding marriage;
The Pledge Preservation Act, which would bar the federal courts, including the Supreme Court, from hearing challenges to the "Under God" part of the pledge;
The big one, the Constitution Restoration Act, which would bar the federal courts, including the Supreme Court, from hearing any challenges to violations of the Establishment Clause, the bill having been written by Harb Titus, who defended former Judge Roy Moore, the "Ten Commandments" judges. The bill goes even further, potentially barring challenges to the constiutionality of state laws, for example, mandating stoning for adultery, if such laws are based on Old Testament rationale.
That's 'Old testament' (as against 'New') rationale, not Talmudic, not Upanishadic, not koan. Welcome to Christian America.
Resist.
And we should be thinking about the indispensable work of resistance. We need to identify legislative and administrative choke points where Bush's initiatives can be blocked, and make clear to both legislators and their constituents that the days of go-along in the interest of non-partisan comity have to stop.
We need to give a clear sense of priorities and red-lines so that people aren't fatigued by constantly being asked to protest--and we need to identify and work for some early victories, at both the local and national (and international) levels...BECAUSE we all need to remember, and remind ourselves, and everyone else that there are two Nations--not Bush's America and some dissenters-- especially since I'd be willing to bet that numerically there are more of us.
Via Kos. This point in history needs to be when we stop agreeing and start fighting. Bullshit like Jeff Jarvis' "pledge" is just more of the "Shut up, you lost" crap the Republics have been pushing on us for years. I'll be civil when they act more like my countrymen and less like a conquering army. Until then, expect muttered imprecations and roadblocks.
Read this whole piece, it's worthwhile. It's not that we're out of touch with America, it''s that we continually get outmaneuevered. Time to start acting like it's politics.
Talking pointers
Joho the Blog: Terms we need to re-own
Democrat (adj.). Listen, schmucks, the adjectival form of "Democrat" is "Democratic," as in "the Democratic representative from Colorado." It is not "Democrat," even though the Republicans prefer that you use that term so, God forbid, you don't give anyone the impression that Democrats favor democracy. Either get this right or let's start talking about the "Republic representative from Louisiana."
Hear, hear. This stoopit usage has always annoyed the living crap out of me. Not to mention the fact that people sound like utter morons when they say it.
November 3, 2004
The coming work
Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall
President Bush and the Republicans now control the entire national government, even more surely now than they have over the last four years. They do so on the basis of garnering the votes of 51% or 52% of the population. But they will use that power as though there were no opposition at all. That needs to be countered.
Leave today for disappointment. Tomorrow, think over which of these various groups and organizations you think has made the best start toward what I've described above, go to their website, and give money or volunteer. After that, okay sure, take a few more days for disappointment, maybe a few more weeks. But this takes time. And you shouldn't lose heart. The same division in the country remains, the same stalemate. The other side just got the the ball a yard or two into our side of the field rather than the reverse. And we have to deal with the serious consequences of that. Tomorrow's the day to start.
Now is the time to build on this. Yes, it sucks. But it was too early in the rebuilding. That it came this far at all was remarkable. Tears and then work.
November 2, 2004
I voted
In New Rochelle, NY. Was in and out in 15 minutes, but I heard poll workers saying that turnout seemed pretty heavy so far and that if it kept up it'd be a very busy day. My district didn't have much of a line, but the other districts there had longish lines. Saw one voter wearing a Kerry button. Everything very civil and polite, as it should be.
Today you finally get to remind everyone involved who this election is really about - the American electorate. Don't miss your chance. Vote. Remember, regime change begins at home.
November 1, 2004
GOTV
textism: Actually:
From Dean Allen:
The fundament of democracy.
Often people act as though their vote has little effect on the outcome of an election. Recent events have shown this not to be true. Even now there are people standing in horribly long lines for hours waiting to cast their votes. There is likely to be astonishingly high turnout tomorrow.
It is vitally important that you go forth and do likewise. I have never missed voting in an election, and this time -especially - will be no exception.
Please vote tomorrow, and especially if you are voting to rid the White House of its current tenant. Talking tough is no protection.
The bastids.
Lately I've been getting a lot of comment spam. At least 2 or 3 attacks a day, sometimes 40 or 50 spams at a time. I've been wasting too much time deleting the comments and rebuilding the entries. So I'm turning off comments on all but the last 7 days worth of posts going forward, automated by a trusty cron job.
All the more reason to check back often.