Friday, September 22, 2006

Paul Krugman on 9/21/04: "It's hard to identify any major urban areas outside Kurdistan where the U.S. and its allies exercise effective control. Insurgents operate freely, even in the heart of Baghdad, while coalition forces, however many battles they win, rule only whatever ground they happen to stand on." 

The math of anonymous discourse on the Internet.  

Wired: "Apple Computer has slapped Podcast Ready with a cease and desist letter, claiming that the terms Podcast Ready and myPodder infringe on Apple's trademarks." 

A question about iPod that's sure to get me flamed.  

Jason Lefkowitz: "I do not agree that Microsoft has the right to 'turn off' my computer remotely if I've paid them for their OS, just because they don't like a new piece of hardware I've slapped in." 

Keith Veleba: "Like most 'activation' schemes, it's a grave inconvenience to the honest folk, and no concern for the pirates, cause they've already broken it." 

Jay Rosen says when he explains his NewAssignment.net to journalists, they predict, "If people do step forward to fund assignments, they will be interests with an agenda who only want results that support that agenda. Or they will be passionate believers in a cause who know the truth and won't accept an account that differs. By taking their money you're asking for trouble." 

BusinessWeek: "Google and Yahoo at times passively profit from click fraud and, in theory, have an incentive to tolerate it." 

Salon: "If one good thing can come from our country's apparent decision to legalize torture, perhaps we can finally agree to kill off the 'Myth of the Independent Republican Senators.'" 

Today is OneWebDay. Yaaay web. Go team! 

No doubt the Apple zealots are going to flame me for this 

But I swear I can't figure out how to copy some podcasts onto my iPod so I can listen to them on my daily walk.

Details. I hosed my Sansa by copying a 2GB folder on it. Now it just loops endlessly, refreshing the database, restarting, refreshing the database, restarting, until the battery runs down. I've been emailing with their tech support people, to no avail. The device won't respond to updating the firmware. I've tried all the magic incantations. Sansa == dead.

So back to Plan B. Try to use the iPod. It's plugged into my MacBook, not my desktop which is a few miles away at the old place. No problem, I have it configured for manual updating. But here's the rub, when I drag an MP3 file onto the "Dave's iPod" icon, in iTunes or the Finder, nothing happens. No file gets copied. I tried everything I could think of, honestly, so go ahead and flame me for being dumb, because I can't make this easy to use software do what it was designed to do.

Message to readers: Helllp!

Where do you want to go today? 

I had an exceptionally unpleasant experience installing Windows on my ThinkPad yesterday. I answered all the questions it asked, entered the long registration string from the back of the package, but then the OS refused to boot, saying that I had installed it too many times. I could re-enter the number (which I tried, same result) or call a phone number. So I called. On the other end of the line was a robot, of course I was talking to the same piece of software that already said no, so it wasn't a surprise when I got the same result. You've installed the software too many times. So I hit the O button on my phone. Nothing happened. I hit it again, and again. Finally a voice with an Indian accent comes on the phone mumbling so I can't make out what he's saying. I guess that he wants me to read him the number, so I did, and this seemed to make him happy until I got about half way through it, then the line went dead, and a minute or so later another Indian voice comes on saying "How can I help you sir?" So I explain, again, he responds, not mumbling, and we get through it, and no surprise, it doesn't work. He says that I've installed it on too many computers. I explain for the third time that I paid for the software, got it just that day, installed it on exactly one computer (which I might add, already had a valid Windows license, so they got paid twice for this machine). I guess there was something in my voice that sounded sincere, and they give the guys in India some discretion because he gave me a number, that I entered, it worked, and the software is running. Needless to say if the computer needs a fresh install of the OS I'm surely hosed.

Straight talk 

John McCain wants to be President.

The last thing he would do is cross the current President, because that might mean he doesn't get to be the next President.

So when he "fought" the President and then made peace with the President, they were obviously just doing photo ops for TV ads they're going to run next month that explain how American democracy runs just great with Republicans running the Senate and House as well as the White House. They were also shooting commercials for McCain's primary campaign which I guess has already started.

So John McCain is some different kind of Republican?

Nahhh. El Diablo. Capitol Hill smells of sulfur.