Archives for November 2004
Critical thinking
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- The Moleskine GTD tabs hack
- No choice but to get things done (on retro computing)
- How to subscribe to toilet paper
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…”Why are there so few American conservative intellectuals?” By intellectuals I do not mean propagandists or causists, who provide the party faithful with the party line on the subjects of the day. I mean independent thinkers, who may be “conservative” or “liberal” or “libertarian” or “socialist” in terms of their basic principles, but who are free to draw their own conclusions without looking over their shoulders and fearing punishment for heterodoxy. A conservative intellectual, thus defined, might agree with the political right 80 percent of the time, or 60 percent, or as little as 51 percent; but he would freely and boldly side with the liberals, or even socialists, when he thought the conservatives were wrong on a particular issue. At his best, William F. Buckley, Jr. occasionally demonstrated this kind of independence of mind; it is a quality completely lacking, however, in most of the prominent members of today’s subsidized conservative intelligentsia.
Indeed.
NPR : The ‘Ten Commandments for Diners’
Some great tips about eating out from restaurant critic Alan Richman.Continue reading this post »
Moleskine GTD tabs hack
Inspired by recent posts at 43 Folders, I thought I’d share my own little Moleskine hack. Basically what I do is tab my pocket Moleskine to fit the Getting Things Done system.
I divide it into five sections: next actions, projects list, someday maybe list, article ideas, and notes. I use Avery Write-On Tabs, which are removable and, well, movable. Plus they don’t smear when you write on them.
The first section is “next actions.” I don’t label it because it is the first thing you see when you open the book, and I use the cloth bookmark to indicate where the list ends. Halfway into the book I separate ten pages for projects and ten pages for someday maybe lists, and the rest is for article ideas. For my general notes, I flip the book to the back horizontally and vertically, and write from that point to the middle. All your info is now quickly accessible in one neat, minimalist package.
I try to keep my notebook with me at all times. To make sure I also have a pen wherever I go, I got a Cross Ion. This is a great pen that is only 3.5 inches long when retracted. It attaches to a keychain, so if you have your keys with you, you’ve got a good gel ink pen as well.
All you need to get started…
Getting Things Done by David Allen: Paperback | iTunes Download
Why all the wiki-hate?
Why is everyone so down on Wikipedia? Tech Central Station recently ran a story comparing it to a public toilet, and librarians galore have been going nuts about its reliability. The critique is that because it is open to change by anyone, its articles will be error-filled and biased. While I think that is an exaggeration, why get aggravated over such a thing? For one thing, it’s a free resource, and they make no secret about its public authorship. Anyone who uses it should know better than to cite it in their PhD thesis. Keeping in mind that it’s not perfect, it is a great tool for quickly looking up something you don’t know anything about. The alternative is Google, and because Wikipedia articles include links to other related sources on the Web, it beats Google at pinpointing the most relevant sites.
While the profit motive will produce the best products (and privately published encyclopedias and books are no doubt superior), the corollary that all publicly produced goods are worthless is a non-sequitur. That is where libertarianism misses the point of the Internet.
How to Seem Smarter
without having to read any books, listen to classical music, or depend on crutches like word-of-the-day toilet paper.Continue reading this post »
Google Scholar
launched today - enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research.Continue reading this post »
Dreaming of DRM
Yesterday in Prof. Berresford’s communications law class we talked about copyright, and it was a much more interesting discussion than we’ve ever had in copyright class. What amazed me the most, however, was how many of my peers understand that the music and movie industries, if they are to survive, will have to change their business models to account for digital distribution, but nevertheless assume that DRM can be a part of a successful long-term model.
They correctly point out that industry obviously got it wrong when it opposed home audio-taping and later VCRs and time-shifting, and that it corrected its mistake by subsequently embracing the new technology. The movie industry now makes by far more money from DVD sales than the box office. While the entertainment industry may be making the same error now by trying to thwart technology rather than using it to its advantage, I think it is a mistake to believe that the solution is simply to sell content online in some protected format. As I have argued before, there is no DRM that won’t eventually succumb to resourceful hackers, and if all else fails there is always the analog loophole.
For every study that says that online sharing does not hurt (or even helps) the industry, there is one that says the opposite. I tend to give more weight to the latter kind for three reasons. First, money talks, and the RIAA is spending lots of money in combatting sharing. Even if they are fighting a misguided fight, I don’t think they would be doing it if sharing was actually helping them. Second, as people who have never known a world without the Internet (and who see very little stigma attached to file sharing) begin to make a bigger part of the population, file sharing will increase. Third, file sharing technology will continue to become more effective and easier to use–the incentives exist all around for this to happen.
So if you cannot depend on a business model that relies on enforcing your copyright, and sharing will increasingly be a substitute for purchasing, media companies will have to compete on something else than just the actual content. I think it is possible for them to do this effectively, but first they–and everyone else–needs to give up the notion that you can effectively enforce your copyright online. For better or worse, technology has overruled the law.
Morrissey on David Letterman tonight
Continue reading this post »
England to ban junk food ads before 9 p.m., ban smoking in public places
(and that includes pubs)Continue reading this post »
FCC Indecency
Blogger files FOIA request and uncovers that the FCC’s record indecency fine against Fox was prompted by just three complaint letters.Continue reading this post »
Because she’s a real diplomat
While it is no surprise, it is a real shame to see Colin Powell go. He’s the only senior administration official with his feet on the ground. He would have made a fine president if his wife hadn’t stopped him. It’s doubly a shame that the Bush administration used him for his diversity cred and further took advantage of his loyalty. I can’t wait to read his memoir.
As for his replacement, there goes any hope that the president might have taken the opportunity of a second term to clean house of all the folks who led him astray. Sadly, there really is a faith-based echo chamber at 1600 Penn, and the only consequence of incompetence is promotion.
If you have seen Condoleezza Rice being interviewed more than just once or twice, you will surely have noticed that she never gives a straight answer. And not in the same way that all politicians do, but in a really creepy manner. It’s like she knows that what she’s saying can’t possibly be the truth, but if she just repeats the talking point enough, maybe she will believe it herself. Perhaps it’s just that she’s been sent out to close the toughest sales, but her lack of credibility has been so well documented, and her weakness so underscored, that it’s hard to give her the benefit of the doubt.
Net-head lecture series
From November to March, the Library of Congree will be hosting a lecture series on “how the digital age is changing the most basic ways information is organized and classified.” The speakers’ list is a who’s who of net gurus and includes, David Weinberger, Brewster Kahle, and Lawrence Lessig. C-SPAN will broadcast the talks and take questions by e-mail. You can also attend the events in person—they’re free and no reservation is required. The first topic is blogging, tomorrow at 6:30 p.m.The embargo made me do it
Pro-embargo forces count Catro’s decision to ban the use of dollars in commercial transactions in Cuba, which took effect this week, as a sign that tighter controls are working. They are indeed working, but to what end?
The de-dolarization of the economy is a desperate grab by the government for hard currency. Who they are grabbing it from is the Cuban people, who must now trade in their dollars for supposedly dollar-equivalent pesos at a 10% charge. Castro has announced that the move was made necessary by new U.S. currency restrictions that make it harder for dollars to get to the island. Once again, the embargo has served as cover for Castro’s failed policies. If there were no restrictions, Castro would have no excuse and Cubans would recognize this scheme for what it is—naked theft.
Some would claim that the dire straits Castro is in are a result of the sanctions. But it is not 40 years of embargo that have weakened Castro, it is 40 years of communist central planning. Rising oil prices and the like are what have lost Castro hard currency. After the government takes 10% of the people’s dollars, remittances from overseas will continue in euros or pounds.
Slate on RFID chip implants
Someone finally makes the point in print that RFID chips cannot be used to track missing or kidnapped persons. RFID is not GPS.Continue reading this post »
Fox making mini version of the show “24” for cellphones
Continue reading this post »
On Arafat’s death
There are two things I don’t understand. First, why the U.S. is sending Assistant Secretary of State William Burns to Arafat’s funeral instead of Colin Powell? According to Reuters, “Burns is among the lowest-ranking officials sent by a major power to the ceremony in Cairo, which was expected to draw foreign ministers from many European countries and presidents of a number of Arab and African nations.” We get it; the Bush administration didn’t like Arafat. Why rub it in now? He’s dead. Why not take the higher ground and start off on good terms with whatever new Palestinian leadership emerges by at least avoiding the perception of a slight?
Second, what did Arafat die of? I would have to see very convincing evidence before I bought a poisoning conspiracy theory or the like, but it’s just curious that his illness is a total mystery. France’s strict medical privacy laws, and a tight-lipped widow, contribute to the dearth of information, but you would think there might be a general indication of what it was. Instead speculation has ranged from stomach cancer to Parkinson’s disease, and each has been denied by Palestinian officials.
Frank Rich: On ‘Moral Values,’ It’s Blue in a Landslide
An optimistic take on why we have nothing to fear from a second Bush term since conservative values are rhetorical and will never dominate.Continue reading this post »
Those barbaric red states
One post-election meme that I have noticed developing among Democrats is that red-staters are savages. Literally.
Jane Smiley’s article in Slate, “The unteachable ignorance of the red states,” got much attention. Among other things, she wrote that, much like Australia’s penal heritage, the citizens of red states come from barbarian stock:
Ignorance and bloodlust have a long tradition in the United States, especially in the red states. There used to be a kind of hand-to-hand fight on the frontier called a “knock-down-drag-out,” where any kind of gouging, biting, or maiming was considered fair. The ancestors of today’s red-state voters used to stand around cheering and betting on these fights.
Today Josh Marshall writes that while blue-staters might be condescending, the red-staters seem to stop just short of violence. “The oddity of this Red State moralism argument emerges most clearly when you look at statistics for virtually every form of quantifiable social dysfunction,” he writes. “Divorce, out-of-wedlock birth, poverty, murder, incidence of preventable disease — go down the list and you’ll see that they are all highest in the reddest states and lowest in the bluest.” He also focuses on murder, which is most prevalent in red states, and not as a means to a felonious end, but simply spurred by honor.
I’m not sure, but I don’t think murdering savages gave George W. Bush his victory. As tempting as it might be, it’s not very useful to rationalize which way a state swung in the Electoral College by its regional character. The blue-red electoral map has a way of making you think that they’re ignorant in the South. The truth is that they are only marginally more nuts in the South. About forty percent of southerners still voted for John Kerry (and Massachusetts exports only so many labor organizers and Americorp volunteers).
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This is the personal site of Jerry Brito, a lawyer and writer in Washington, D.C. He’s an academic researcher and the creator of Unclutterer and several other blogs. More »
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