We're not allowed to have this why?
So next year's Civic for the States is ho-hum, but the European version of the 2006 Honda Civic kills. The Euro-Civic has the Si-inspired hatchback-style rear, but that could easily be elongated for Stateside sales. Plus, selling the same style as the Euro-Civic would be very, very popular with the kids. Why oh why, Honda, are we not getting this car here? Update, 2:00 PM CST: It would appear we'll see the Euro-Civic in America as the new CRX, or at least a variation thereof. Still, the front end of the Euro-Civic needs to be standard across the board, not just on the sporty, hatchback coupe model.
When a serial number really isn't
I'm installing a new hard drive in my wife's PC, to replace the 5+ year-old that has died. I dutifully noted the part number and serial number for warranty registration purposes, since this drive has a 5-year warranty itself. Calling it a "serial number" may be stretching it, however: Y2CJECZE. Can you call a string a "serial number" when only one of the characters qualifies as a numerical value?
Our modern hubris
Senator Rick Santorum, (R-PA):
A generation ago, liberals figured out something that most conservatives couldn't have dreamed of in their worst nightmare. A few well-positioned autocrats can do what most Americans thought, and the Constitution says, takes two-thirds of the Congress and three-quarters of the state legislatures to do: namely, change the Constitution to mean whatever they want it to mean. The plan was simple. Put justices on the Supreme Court, backed up by lower court judges, to "modernize" our Constitution by fiat, with the claim that Supreme Court decisions, whether based on the words of the Constitution or not, have the same status as the Constitution itself.
How often do we hear that our founding compact needs to be a living, breathing document whose meaning changes with the times? Never mind what the words of our Constitution actually say; never mind the clear intent of the Constitution's writers and signers; never mind two hundred years of judicial interpretation; never mind the centuries-old wisdom of the common law: We are much wiser today than our predecessors. Or so goes the liberal boast. In fact, it is said, we are now able to see just what they were "getting at" even better than they could — as if the U.S. Constitution were only a "nice try" at a plan of government.
Jeff is bored
People from time zones west of here should iChat me immediately. Especially if they’re twentysomething women who like to tell weirdo Internet writers how great they are all the time.
Middle-aged men pretending to be twentysomething women are okay too, as long as it’s convincing. You let it slip just once that you’re actually a forty-seven year old tire salesman who’s sitting in his enormous store-brand boxers with a Gateway on his lap, and the whole fucking thing is just ruined. At least I can go to sleep tonight with something truly funny rolling around in my head. Come on, people, tip the man.
Conservative vs liberal approach to law
The characterizations we most commonly hear in contrasting liberal and conservative judges tend to use phrases such as "activism" vs. "restraint," and approaching the Constitution as a "living document" vs. focusing on "original intent."
However, I think asking a more fundamental question sheds light on why our society's most vulnerable _ the poor and otherwise disenfranchised _ need conservative judges. We should be asking: "What is the purpose of the law?"
In this sense, I would contrast a conservative-vs.-liberal approach as the former viewing the core purpose of the law as individual protection and the latter relating to law as a tool for social engineering.
A terabyte for less than a grand
OWC announced today it is now offering 1 Terabyte (TB) of RAID storage for $979.99. Wow.
Shreddin'
ATPM staffers lead glamourous lives, let me tell you. When we're not unemployed (moi), running our own businesses (Michael and Evan), or working for others (Lee, Ellyn, and practically everyone else), you might find one of us interning for a popular magazine. I thought Wes had hit the big-time when he got to wander around Manhattan, challenging perfect strangers to lightsaber duels. Now, in the August 2005 issue of PM (not yet online), Mr. Meltzer's in print, taking part in the "Shred Reckoning" personal shredder comparison. For the record, that is not Wes's photo used in the test document.
Arlo's revenge
What do you do when you perceive a major computer company has totally ripped off your software and tout their version as a major feature of their latest operating system? Why, you sell out, of course. MDJ publisher Matt Deatherage, ever the trooper, offers this bit of analysis on the MacJournals-Talk list, even though he's laid up with an illness:
Kind of a "widget wow" moment. Anyone think there will be about six billion more new Konfabulator widgets in the next 3 months? Apple just got trumped on the "we're making our widget format available for free to more users" strategy; now Dashboard may be the underdog in the long-term. (Just for the record, my original notification of the sale came from Matt's post to the list.)
Still useful
From Merlin's del.icio.us page comes a link to a Levenger 3x5 card How-To. The brief history of the index card is interesting, but I really enjoyed the tips. I know sometimes use the same card for more than one subject, and this is a habit that needs to be broken immediately.
Providing the tools for homeland defense
Yesterday's Federalist Patriot (PDF file) contained part two of the series on U.S. National Security. Titled "Homeland Defense," it discusses the steps taken since 9/11, including the Patriot Act, and looks forward. I've reprinted it below.
Why bother with CC?
Unlike Jeff, I don't hate Creative Commons. I just don't see the point. I believe we're much better off working with our legislators to getting copyright lowered, back toward something resembling what the Founding Fathers intended. Update, 8:45 PM CST: In the August issue of Wired (archive not posted online at the time of this writing), in the "Posts" section, there is a little blurb on Creative Commons, targeted at the right-leaning talk show host the left loves to hate, Mr. Limbaugh:
Hey, Rush! Ever Heard of the Creative Commons?
"There are some things [from my show] that we can't [podcast] yet, like music because of copyright problems. ... But just want to tell you we're continually working on it. ... I know the Millennium Copyright Act is what this is all about, and until that's changed, none of this is going to change."
From The Rush Limbaugh Show
June 14, 2005
Rush Limbaugh, talk radio host Now, unless I'm completely misunderstanding, I don't believe, Wired writers, that the Creative Commons would be of help in this situation. Whatever music Rush is referring to, my guess it is of one of two natures. First, he's talking about music they use to lead in and out of the show from commercial breaks. This music is more often than not popular music from the last three or four decades, and is the copyrighted material of those artists. Creative Commons would play no role. Second, the music referred to could be the parody songs some times featured on the show. More often than not, these songs are not the copyrighted property of The Rush Limbaugh Show or the Excellence in Broadcasting Network, parent company of the show. These parody songs are often the property of a third-party artist. Again, Creative Commons would play no role. So I'm not sure why Wired feels the need to slam CC on Rush...
Punny stock
Overheard on the Dow Jones Stock Report, on WRR, just a few moments ago:
"Maidenform is getting some firm support from investors..."
No Danny Boy
In an ADD moment late last night, I was flipping channels, and came across The Great White Hype. Having seen it on HBO or one of the other movie channels some time ago, I left it on, especially since my favorite part was coming up: when Brian Setzer does "Oh, Danny Boy." I won't bore you with details, but I really like Setzer's version of the song. Unfortunately, it is not available:
q) Is Brian's version of the song "Oh, Danny Boy" that appeared in the film "Great White Hype" available on CD?
a) No, it is not. The track is in the Surfdog Records vault, but does not appear on the film's soundtrack or any other released CD. There are no plans at this time to release it.
Who's really driving the wedge
Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., in today's Political Diary:
Based on scanty headlines, today's disruptions in London suggest somebody may be trying to demonstrate just how little it takes to shut down a modern city's public transport network. Early reports indicate smoke bombs and the like, with few serious casualties. Who knows, but let's riff anyway: Sooner or later, it was bound to develop that the target of Britain's homegrown Muslim radicals isn't British foreign policy or U.S. "imperialism." The targets are British Muslims themselves and their peaceful relations with the rest of British society. The goal is to make all Muslims suspect in the eyes of their fellow Britons, to punish those Muslims who favor quiet assimilation, to make their lives impossible.
We're talking about something quite different than the Osama bin Laden dream of mega attacks that unite the Muslim world in a showdown with Christendom. Today's attacks seem more attuned to the Zarqawi playbook in Iraq -- and, for that matter, Tamil tactics in Sri Lanka, IRA tactics in Northern Ireland, etc. Domestic terrorists are usually trying to drive a wedge of fear between one ethnic community and the larger society. Whatever the facts behind today's incidents, British Muslims may have to get used to the idea that they are being deliberately placed in the line of fire by their radical fellow Muslims, with the hope of defeating their intent to live happily, successfully and peacefully amidst a larger, polyglot world. This is their fight too, and perhaps most of all.
Retro-chic RV
The T@B. Teardrop-shaped, aluminum body. Too small for our family, and we're not in the market, anyway, but I thought it was nice looking.
Wherefore art thou, Bluetooth headset?
Great. After multiple usage so far today, it would appear the aforementioned problems with my Akono headset were not the fault of the headset at all. (Still, mucho kudos to SE for the replacement; at least this helps clear it up.) It looks like the problem is indeed with my T616. The phone is out of warranty. This is, as the Fontosaurus would say, the suck.
Types of Windows users and I wish we'd bought a Mac Mini
Wil Shipley, in a DrunkenBlog interview:
The two types of Windows users I've identified at my café are:
a. I use Windows to run Word and Excel and browse the web (and read e-mail in my web browser), and b. I'm a programmer and I spend all my time in a Windows IDE or hacking around with my system. I'm sure there may be a third category of user out there, but this has been my observation as well. My wife and parents clearly are the first type of users, and could just as well be served on a Mac. The SuperToad falls in to the second camp; he makes his living as a Windows programmer, but he does so with a Mac on his desk as well. Plus, he's still getting mileage out of a decrepit, original orange iBook. Since my switch to Macintosh over a decade ago, one of the reasons we have kept a PC or two in the house was due to my wife's work. She's a corporate attorney, and could always work from home, if need be. After our move to Dallas, the firm she worked for here had a VPN system set up, and she could work on items in the firm's document management system from home, just as if she was sitting in the office. Her new employer, however, being tied in to the stock market and the myriad regulations therein regarding insider trading, etc., does not have such a system in place. You work at the office, or you work on a company-provided laptop, or you don't work. Also, my wife's position also is not as intensive in outside-normal-business-hours work as her former firm life was. She doesn't need a PC at home any more. Last year, when her old desktop PC was giving up the ghost, and I set out to build her a new one, if we had known then she was going to change jobs, I wouldn't have bothered. I would have milked the old PC until after she moved in to her new career, then replaced it with a Mac Mini. Hindsight is always 20/20.
Why we hate you
Mark Yost, St. Paul Pioneer Press:
I'm reminded of why I became a journalist by the horribly slanted reporting coming out of Iraq. Not much has changed since the mid-1980s. Substitute "insurgent" for "Sandinista," "Iraq" for "Soviet Union," "Bush" for "Reagan" and "war on terror" for "Cold War," and the stories need little editing. The U.S. is "bad," our enemies "understandable" if not downright "good."
I know the reporting's bad because I know people in Iraq. A Marine colonel buddy just finished a stint overseeing the power grid. When's the last time you read a story about the progress being made on the power grid? Or the new desalination plant that just came on-line, or the school that just opened, or the Iraqi policeman who died doing something heroic? No, to judge by the dispatches, all the Iraqis do is stand outside markets and government buildings waiting to be blown up.
I also get unfiltered news from Iraq through an e-mail network of military friends who aren't so blinded by their own politics that they can't see the real good we're doing there. More important, they can see beyond their own navel and see the real good we're doing to promote peace and prosperity in the world. What makes this all the more ironic is the fact that the people who are fighting and dying want to stay and the people who are merely observers want to cut and run.