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Archives: [+]
Friday, June 28, 2002
John Entwistle, legendary bassist of The Who, died today (age 57). His playing had a deep impact on me and the way I approach the bass. I'm sad to hear it. He'll be missed.
A few thoughts on the Pledge of Allegiance issue (via booknotes).
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John Entwistle, legendary bassist of The Who, died today (age 57). His playing had a deep impact on me and the way I approach the bass. I'm sad to hear it. He'll be missed.
A few thoughts on the Pledge of Allegiance issue (via booknotes).
[0 comments]
Wednesday, June 26, 2002
A few months back, I saw A Beautiful Mind and liked it quite a bit. There was a lot of talk at the time about Jennifer Connelly playing the role of John Nash's wife, who was born in El Salvador. This AP article discusses it, though briefly. I am a suporter of equal opportunity, but I remember thinking that complaining about Jennifer Connelly not being hispanic was incredibly stupid. And I didn't want to post about it until I'd had time to think it over a bit. So here are my points:
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A few months back, I saw A Beautiful Mind and liked it quite a bit. There was a lot of talk at the time about Jennifer Connelly playing the role of John Nash's wife, who was born in El Salvador. This AP article discusses it, though briefly. I am a suporter of equal opportunity, but I remember thinking that complaining about Jennifer Connelly not being hispanic was incredibly stupid. And I didn't want to post about it until I'd had time to think it over a bit. So here are my points:
- Actors are paid to portray roles--to become people they are not in real life. It's generally considered a strength to be able to portray a wide range of characters: rich, poor, young, old, etc. It is the essential role of actors to be able to become that which they are not. They take on roles and try to portray them convincingly. In the context of A Beautiful Mind, Connelly is not presented as hispanic. There is no reference to her race. The portrayal focusses on what is most significant about her: the strength of her character and her love for her husband. This was called by some a whitewash, but if Connelly had shown up for the part in dark makeup and put on a latin american accent, the same people would have cried that we were witnessing a return to minstrel shows.
- Race becomes a topic because it's obvious I've yet to hear anyone level charges against a film for using middle-class (or even ultra-rich) actors to portray poor people. The only aspects of any film visible to armchair social critics are the most obvious ones: skin color and gender.
- Reducto ad Absurdum The principle that there should be a close match--in terms of race, class, or whatever other quality you champion--between actors and the people they portray becomes absurd when you take it seriously. Henceforth, only young Danes will be allowed to play Hamlet (sorry, Mr. Olivier). [feel free to add your favorite example in the coments].
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Tuesday, June 18, 2002
A nice editorial on the first amendment's first application to film. Found it in my local paper, but I was sure it would be on the web somewhere.
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A nice editorial on the first amendment's first application to film. Found it in my local paper, but I was sure it would be on the web somewhere.
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Saturday, June 15, 2002
This pretty much sets the bar for bad page design (lame portal style, crammed with all sorts of irrelivant lipton-cup-of "content", more top-level links and flashing ads than you can shake a stick at). They even have a pop-under advert. I know these are lean times for web design departmetns, but SBC surely has enough bank to do a better job (compare their TV ads to this). On the upside, the login is near the top and there is a search box, but the overall effect of the page is to make me reach as quickly as possible for the back button.
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This pretty much sets the bar for bad page design (lame portal style, crammed with all sorts of irrelivant lipton-cup-of "content", more top-level links and flashing ads than you can shake a stick at). They even have a pop-under advert. I know these are lean times for web design departmetns, but SBC surely has enough bank to do a better job (compare their TV ads to this). On the upside, the login is near the top and there is a search box, but the overall effect of the page is to make me reach as quickly as possible for the back button.
[1 comment]
Friday, June 14, 2002
Wal-Mart made geek-news a few months ago by selling Windows-less PCs from their online store. We'll, now they've taken it a bit further: they're selling LindowsOS PCs. The boys from Redmond might think that Linux is some sort of communist plot, but it looks like customer demand for cheaper PCs will be the deciding factor. The savvy among you will recall that Microsoft is currently suing Lindows, claiming that the name is too similar to their Windows product. The case is still in court, but it doesn't look good for MS (via the register [primarily]).
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Wal-Mart made geek-news a few months ago by selling Windows-less PCs from their online store. We'll, now they've taken it a bit further: they're selling LindowsOS PCs. The boys from Redmond might think that Linux is some sort of communist plot, but it looks like customer demand for cheaper PCs will be the deciding factor. The savvy among you will recall that Microsoft is currently suing Lindows, claiming that the name is too similar to their Windows product. The case is still in court, but it doesn't look good for MS (via the register [primarily]).
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Thursday, June 13, 2002
PHP use surpasses that of ASP in a recent Netcraft survey. This makes me very happy, as PHP is my language of choice for server-side scripting. I think Steve will be happy as well (via dangerousmeta!)
The new Nancy is out the door. I'll have to set up some sort of online vending soon, but you can email if you'd like a copy ($10). For those of you who bought one at the StreetSide show on Tuesday, I've posted corrected traycard art (Adobe PDF, 415K) to replace the minor imperfections of that which came with your disc (this is what happens when deadlines are really tight).
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PHP use surpasses that of ASP in a recent Netcraft survey. This makes me very happy, as PHP is my language of choice for server-side scripting. I think Steve will be happy as well (via dangerousmeta!)
The new Nancy is out the door. I'll have to set up some sort of online vending soon, but you can email if you'd like a copy ($10). For those of you who bought one at the StreetSide show on Tuesday, I've posted corrected traycard art (Adobe PDF, 415K) to replace the minor imperfections of that which came with your disc (this is what happens when deadlines are really tight).
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Tuesday, June 11, 2002
The OS v. Proprietary security saga continues with this rebuttal from The Register (via rc3.org).
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The OS v. Proprietary security saga continues with this rebuttal from The Register (via rc3.org).
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Monday, June 10, 2002
More on the De Toqueville society and their "report" on open source security, this time from The Register (via dangerousmeta). A good article, and a good quick read for anyone unfamiliar with open source. (For those of you who converse in English rather than geekish, the term FUD stands for "Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt" and it used to label any oft-repeated but untrue--or at least, highly contestable--factoid: especially a propagandistic one).
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More on the De Toqueville society and their "report" on open source security, this time from The Register (via dangerousmeta). A good article, and a good quick read for anyone unfamiliar with open source. (For those of you who converse in English rather than geekish, the term FUD stands for "Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt" and it used to label any oft-repeated but untrue--or at least, highly contestable--factoid: especially a propagandistic one).
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Saturday, June 08, 2002
Okay, I got over my Acrobat angst, created some for-printing-only versions of my Pagemaker files, and exported them all (w/o a hitch) to PDFs. So now I await feedback from the other band members. There's one part of the layout in particular that I'm fairly sure our singer won't like.
Plugin help for Mozilla/Win32 users (the page is for 1.0rc3, but I'm assuming it will be replaced soon with info for 1.0 and most of it should work anyway).
May archives are up and I updated the bandography.
Antisleep.com was the first journal/blog site I ever surfed (here's the blog section). I thought it was defunct, but there's an entry from May 26, 2002 that wasn't there last time.
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Okay, I got over my Acrobat angst, created some for-printing-only versions of my Pagemaker files, and exported them all (w/o a hitch) to PDFs. So now I await feedback from the other band members. There's one part of the layout in particular that I'm fairly sure our singer won't like.
Plugin help for Mozilla/Win32 users (the page is for 1.0rc3, but I'm assuming it will be replaced soon with info for 1.0 and most of it should work anyway).
May archives are up and I updated the bandography.
Antisleep.com was the first journal/blog site I ever surfed (here's the blog section). I thought it was defunct, but there's an entry from May 26, 2002 that wasn't there last time.
[0 comments]
I've been working all evening on the CD insert and traycard layouts for the new Nancy disc. And, a few minor tweaks aside, I'm finished with them. So it would be nice if I could export them from Pagemaker to PDF format and share them with the rest of the band, now wouldn't it? But you see, the layouts are in landscape format. And Adobe Acrobat, alas, is entirely too stupid to realize that or to give me any kind of option for processing pages that are obviously in landscape as, well, you know, LANDSCAPE. (Forgive me; I've been banging my head against this particular brick wall for hours now). Oh, sure, I can screw with my Pagemaker files, but why should I have to? Putting them in portrait layout will make editing the text and tweaking the design harder. I'd call this a bug, wouldn't you?
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Thursday, June 06, 2002
How convenient: Microsoft funds a conserative think-tank that recently released a 'study' saying open source software is inherently less secure than proprietary software (how 'bout that, an ontological argument in this postmodern day and age). So, what's the tally now? How many major security flaws have been found in IIS (compared to Apache)? [via dangerousmeta!]
Check out this little bit o' pro MS-propaganda from the same pro-proprietary folks listed above. I think De Toqueville must be rolling around in his grave right now. Found this interesting quote from him:
"As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?"
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How convenient: Microsoft funds a conserative think-tank that recently released a 'study' saying open source software is inherently less secure than proprietary software (how 'bout that, an ontological argument in this postmodern day and age). So, what's the tally now? How many major security flaws have been found in IIS (compared to Apache)? [via dangerousmeta!]
Check out this little bit o' pro MS-propaganda from the same pro-proprietary folks listed above. I think De Toqueville must be rolling around in his grave right now. Found this interesting quote from him:
"As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?"
[0 comments]
Wednesday, June 05, 2002
Mozilla 1.0 is out there! I've been using it since the M18 release. It's come a long way, baby. Grab it and see. (For my money, the Mozilla Mail client is worth the download. It's the only one I use these days. And that's a part of the program that has really grown up. It was pretty threadbare a year ago. But now it beats any commercial client I've ever tried).
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Mozilla 1.0 is out there! I've been using it since the M18 release. It's come a long way, baby. Grab it and see. (For my money, the Mozilla Mail client is worth the download. It's the only one I use these days. And that's a part of the program that has really grown up. It was pretty threadbare a year ago. But now it beats any commercial client I've ever tried).
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Nancy will be playing Jose's Streetside (here in Fayetteville) on Tuesday of next week. I'll be singing lead on a cover of Whiskeytown's "Houses on the Hill". I don't often have the balls to sing lead on anything, so this is a momentous occasion.
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Monday, June 03, 2002
Watched Vanilla Sky last night. Great movie. I can't say any more w/o risking spoiling it for someone.
Nancy spent Sunday finishing up vocal tracks for our new CD, to be released June 11 (there's a show that night at Jose's Streetside for you locals out there). Sean got the cover art together. I'm working on the rest of the design work. I'm very happy with the disc so far. We're doing the mixdown and mastering next Sunday.
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Watched Vanilla Sky last night. Great movie. I can't say any more w/o risking spoiling it for someone.
Nancy spent Sunday finishing up vocal tracks for our new CD, to be released June 11 (there's a show that night at Jose's Streetside for you locals out there). Sean got the cover art together. I'm working on the rest of the design work. I'm very happy with the disc so far. We're doing the mixdown and mastering next Sunday.
[0 comments]
Saturday, June 01, 2002
A victory for the American Library Association, and other fans of free speech in the US (via metafilter).
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A victory for the American Library Association, and other fans of free speech in the US (via metafilter).
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Some details on changes in upcoming versions of Windows XP. Note the section concerning complying with the anti-trust court rullings (via bump.net). Here's a question: how come no punative damages against Microsoft? If I were to steal a CD from the local Wal-Mart, I'd get punative damages and risk jailtime. But you can steal marketshare, put companies out of business with illegal business practices, and take your sweat time complying with court orders, and all you get is reminders from the court that you really should start obeying the law sometime soon. Sad. Does anyone out there who's been paying even a little bit of attention need any more evidence that MS is a big, evil, company in need of a good spanking by the DOJ?
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