] Apple Computer accused RealNetworks Thursday of adopting
] the tactics of a hacker and breaking into the technology
] behind its popular music player iPod device.

[ I think we all saw this coming. I'm not sure yet if I agree, not having any technical information and being up in the air on the ethics. I have mixed feelings over wether it's harmful to open the iPod to other music stores in the long term. I think i understand Apple's strategy of iPod + iTunes == (recognizing how badass apple is) ==} buying a mac, where the real money is. I guess, too, they want to position iTunes as *the* music store, even if they don't make money on it now, because they will someday, and they way they do that is to lock the most popular device with their service.
At the same time, we're back in the "if I buy a device, who can say how i'm allowed to use it?" mode.
Apple has always been extremely protective of their IP and their image, and seem, usually, to strike a balance which makes sense, i think. I'm interested to see what happens here. What I *don't* want is an endless patch-war between apple and real, as between AOL and Trillian, et al. -k]

Apple: RealNetworks is a hacker - Jul. 29, 2004

] In two separate incidents, parents in Irvine, California
] discovered notes inside jars of Gerber banana yogurt
] warning that the food was contaminated, an FBI spokesman
] said.
]
] A Gerber spokesman was not immediately available for
] comment. Gerber Products Company is a unit of
] pharmaceutical giant Novartis.
]
] ...
]
] Both notes also mentioned an Irvine police officer, but
] authorities were unsure whether the person who tampered
] with the baby food meant to retaliate against the
] officer.
]
] Neither of the families who purchased the tainted food
] had any connection to the officer, police said.

[ Wierd. Look for people to lose their minds over this. Pretty fucked up shit. -k]

Gerber Baby Food Found Laced with Ricin in Calif.

As someone who commutes to and from New York City every day, I would be willing to bet you any amount of money that my bus will be searched (as they are already being stopped) before it goes into the Lincoln Tunnel at least once during the convention. Why should protestors' bags be exempt from the rigorous security we'll all be subject to that week?

From NY1:

Judge Gives Police More Leeway To Search Protestors
JULY 28TH, 2004

A federal judge reversed himself Wednesday and ruled police can search protestors’ bags at the Republican National Convention if there is probable cause to believe they pose a threat.

Last week, the judge, Robert Sweet, had ruled officers couldn’t conduct blanket searches without a specific threat.

The NYPD says it needs discretion to conduct such searches since there is credible information that Al Qaeda is planning an attack sometime before the election.

The rulings stem from a lawsuit filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union in connection with clashes at an anti-war protest last year. Last week’s ruling also limited the use of metal pens to control demonstrators.

[ Yeah, i dunno, i mean, I was in DC over the weekend and they search your bag in every public building it seems like... all the museums, etc. had a table in the front hall and everyone's bags got checked. -k]

Searching bags at RNC: Why is this such an issue?

] Candidate for U.S. Senate in Illinois, Barack Obama,
] delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National
] Convention in Boston Tuesday night. Here is a transcript
] of his remarks.

[ This speech has been generating a great deal of buzz in the blogsphere (see for example, Kos, Andrew Sullivan, Slate, and our own Tina, to name but a few). The buzz is justified... this is one of the better speeches in recent memory. It manages to strike chords that should resonate well with all but the most radically polarized on both sides. Obama delivers better than anyone on the message of unity that the Dems are hoping to ride through November. Keep your eyes on this guy... he's gonna go places (like the senate, for one...) -k]

Barack Obama's keynote

] Time abuse is a symptom of a problem, not the problem
] itself. It is therefore impossible to cure a person of
] time abuse by actually managing his time. Instead, you
] must understand your time abuser's need for control and
] fear of evaluations.

[ *very* interesting article. i see a good deal of myself in the last type... worth a deeper analysis. -k]

The Time Abusers

Unfortunately, I missed Ted Kennedy and some other prominent speakers. However, I did get home in time to see the future first black president of America, Barack Obama.
This man was insanely charismatic and seriously made Clinton's speech fade in my memory. Like everyone else in the convention, he talked about unity and a return to a UNITED states, but he also touched on many issues that politicians rarely discuss. Most notably his mention of the media-spread perception that blacks with a book are trying to "act white" raised eyebrows and drew applause. My favorite moment was when he said that a problem for one person is a problem for everyone. He touched on gay rights, labor rights and due process. In fact, nearly every other sentence drew applause, and the whole convention completely erupted when he endorsed Kerry. Go watch the speech, I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. Geez, I'm smitten.

Ron Reagan gave an endearing, if somewhat sales-man like speech making the case for stem cell research. Dems clung on to any hint of dissent with Bush, and even if this was not an issue that garnered a lot of excitement, having the son of a former republican president clearly thrilled the audience.

Thereza Heinz-Kerry's speech was not quite as exciting, but remarkable for a few reasons.
First of all, she directly courted minority and immigrant votes by addressing the audience in many different languages and sharing her experience growing up abroad. To me this was also a message that she will bring a unique perspective to her husbands foreing policy.
Second of all, she started right off by bringing up women's rights, here and abroad. Her blatant feminism is risky in this country, but I dug it.
Third, she pointed to the peace corp as the image america should by trying to promote overseas. An America of hope rather than fear, is how i beleive she put it. A good, and again somewhat risky point to make as the Peace corp is also linked with youthful naievete in the minds of some. It worked for me, though.
Towards the end of the speech she started to falter, talking in vagueries and touchy feely language that was a weak way to end the speech. Overall, though, this speech showed off the possible first lady as an intriguing and bright woman who will bring women's and immigrants rights to the dinner table.

After Obama, I honestly can't see how the RNC can possibly outdo this show of excitement and hope.

Night two of the DNC!

Decius wrote:
] Is it possible that the english language does not have a word
] for someone who is opposed to organized politics? Anyone got
] any suggestions?

[ When you say you're opposed to organized politics, i think you're being a little too general. Politics is sort of definitionally a system by which you determine the governance of a thing.

What you mean, i guess, is that you're opposed to the concept of political parties, which are of course little more than schoolyard cliques, all growed up. Alas, it's a little like saying you're opposed to air, since people will probably always cluster and group themselves according to the various laws of psychological gravity... I may be too cynical to believe this will change.

Still, it's a valid position to take, and one which I fairly agree with... to take the vast spectrum of standpoints available for all of the uncounted topics we deal with and extract only two distinct sets is absurd. It's only marginally tractable since many standpoints are relatively codependent, a fact which helps lead to the ultimate distillation into 2 sides.

I think what you are, and what we all should be, is Independent. I realize that that term is used to mean "not Democrat or Republican" to most, but it really is the essence, i think, of what you're saying. "I'm an independent. I'm my own party. I have a platform based on my opinions. It my be more or less similar to another set of opinions, but it's still uniquely mine, because it was developed by my unique rationale."

Of course, the better question than how to label onesself is how to put the spectrum back on the table... how to enable a system which can represent more nuance than Red vs. Blue. I'm sure there are political scientists and technologists and bright folks from Edge and the Well and all sorts of think tanks who've bandied this about before... what's been said? Can we get to the kind of quorum system envisioned by Brin (Earth) and Card (Enders Game) among others?

Sadly, in the meantime, we may debate nuance all day long, but at the ballots, we have to decide which side of the singularity we're on... it's pretty easy for me these days, but that doesn't mean i wouldn't prefer a more nuanced system. How do we get there? -k]

RE: Help, I need to invent a new word.

Ok, so now that I've had night's sleep and time to get out all my gushing, here is what I think was going on last night, strategy wise.

...

[ Tina, Good work keeping us up to date on the convention... it's appreciated.

I can add only very little, but here goes...

The main reason you're not hearing about education is that it's not on people's radar. The polls (and yes, i know, you can't go with polls all the time) indicate that the top three issues are the Economy, Iraq and Terrorism, in that order, and that these three overshadow the rest. I may agree that education should be a HUGE priority in this country, but most people aren't thinking about that.

I think Kerry needs to remind people how bad his opponent has done, not always directly, and not angrily, but enough to keep it present in the mindshare. The rest of the time, he needs to give people reasons to think he'll help them financially, and put the economy in order, and he needs to highlight ways in which he can deliver on the homeland security promises yet unfulfilled.

As we keep hearing, re-election battles are always a referendum on the incumbent, so in some sense, you're always trying to sell the "I'm *not* the incumbent" more than the "I am, X, Y, Z." It sucks, but i don't think there's much alternative.

Incidentally, I still hope for KE04 ads which play the "I'm a uniter not a divider" speech over a scrolling list of highly divisive actions we've seen over the past 4 years.

Anyway, i look forward to more discussions... it's gonna be a hell of a few months coming up! -k]

DNC analysis

For your reading pleasure, "pretty girl" Ann Coulter's article on the DNC that USA Today passed up. Proceed only if you have a strong stomach.

As usual, Coulter presents the worst of conservatism, wasting time calling democratic women ugly*, hybrid cars "dinky", and the speakers "nuts." Why make real criticism when you can name-call!?

I totally agree with USA Today's decision in not printing this unprofessional, petty, vapid piece of pseudo-journalism.

-Tina

*For the record, I know plenty of cute democrats. Anyone seen Maggie Schutz or Chris Heinz?

[ At various times in my life, i've been considered among my peer group as the undisputed king of fury, the one guy who could always be counted on to erupt in rage, sometimes at the merest of proddings. These days, i feel like i'm a great deal more centered, less prone to anger and generally more accepting of the world at large. Yet, if there's one creature on this earth who can bring back the old me - the racing pulse and steaming forehead, the expletives and anger and, i can't deny it, a little dose of what may be pure, unfiltered hate - it's Ann Coulter. My dad has always advised me to "Suffer fools gladly." It's good advice, and i do my best to comply with it, but what about evil? Ann ejects the kind of rubbish that only serves to evoke more of the same with the opposite slant, bases her words on some brand of perverted faith which apparently construes "fact" as an intolerable concession to the heathens she opposes.

She has as much right as the next person to open her mouth and spew forth whatever hateful bile comes naturally to her warped mind, but I long for the day when everyone on the planet stops paying attention to her, so she can retire to some happy bastion of ultra-conservative values where she can cook, clean and raise children, follow her husbands orders, revel in the surveillance and jackbooted Order... let her bask in the warm glow of American thermonuclear supremacy, and wrap herself in false Christianity and our sullied flag whenever it gets a little chilly. -k]

[edit: I think i've said all i can about Ms. Coulter. From now on i think i'll try to take my own advice and ignore her very existence. -k]

Ann Coulter's USA Today Column

] The project is an organized sampling of the world. There
] is a confluence within 49 miles (79 km) of you if you're
] on the surface of Earth. We've discounted confluences in
] the oceans and some near the poles, but there are still
] 12,888 to be found.
]
] You're invited to help by photographing any one of these
] places. Read the Information pages, and contact us if you
] have questions.

[ What a cool idea! -k

Just for fun, i thought i'd note that the one closest to where I grew up is at 42°N 74°W -- within a few miles of Kingston. How bout you all?]

the Degree Confluence Project