rant
Reaction to offense: Muslim vs Christian
I'm sorry for another post from Best of the Web, but Taranto and company are simply on today:
Still, by way of comparison, recall that three years ago Palestinian Arab terrorists occupied the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Priests reported that "gunmen tore up Bibles for toilet paper," according to the Daily Camera of Boulder, Colo. The Chicago Tribune noted after the siege that "altars had been turned into cooking and eating tables, a sacrilege to the religious faithful."
Christians in the U.S. responded by declining to riot and refraining from killing anyone. They had the same response 15 or so years ago when the National Endowment for the Arts was subsidizing the scatological desecration of a crucifix and other Christian symbols. This should also put to rest the oft-heard calumny that America's "religious right" is somehow a Christian equivalent of our jihadi enemies. This goes hand-in-hand with what Jeff has been saying.
About that overvalued Euro...
...[A] study by a Swedish research organization, Timbro, which compared the gross domestic products of the 15 European Union members (before the 2004 expansion) with those of the 50 American states and the District of Columbia.
[...]
After adjusting the figures for the different purchasing powers of the dollar and euro, the only European country whose economic output per person was greater than the United States average was the tiny tax haven of Luxembourg, which ranked third, just behind Delaware and slightly ahead of Connecticut.
[...]
If the E.U. was treated as a single American state, it would rank fifth from the bottom, topping only Arkansas, Montana, West Virginia and Mississippi. In short, while Scandinavians are constantly told how much better they have it than Americans, Timbro's statistics suggest otherwise. [Via Political Diary.]
Closing the book on the metrosexual revolution
Thank God. Doug Giles:
Now, for all you Backstreet Boys who are wondering if, if, you are one of these metrosexual males from whom women, men and small animals are running, I’ve concocted a little test to help you shed your proclivities toward abnormality and begin to saddle up and ride in a more masculine direction. Are you ready? If you start to hyper-ventilate, just take a break and control your breathing. Here we go. Now did you think I was going to ruin it by posting Doug's test? That's why the article is hyper-linked, for crying out loud. Go. Click. Read. Laugh.
What would we do without stock analysts?
Today's MDJ provides good background information on Apple's quarterly financial conference call coming later this afternoon. Matt & Company's analysis of the stock "analyst" situation is spot on:
If Apple beats its own estimates by 10%, those results are merely "in line with analyst expectations." If Apple's estimates were spot on, then the company didn't live up to those "analyst expectations." In a sane world, the market would punish the analysts for missing their forecast, but that's not where we live. The analysts would blame Apple, not themselves, and issue feverish research notes accusing the company of "underperforming" and "bursting its bubble." The stock price, in turn, would summarily fall. [Emphasis added. --R] So like many segments of our society, the "analysts" will play the blame game if Apple's figures don't match up with theirs. It's not their fault their projections were wrong; it's Apple's fault for failing to meet the analysts' expectations, even if Apple's figures fall in line with Apple's projections. Much like how a certain Mr. O'Grady and other rumor-mongers blame Apple when new product specifications fail to match up to their caffeine-driven imaginations. MDJ's taking-to-task of the anaylsts continues: Still, one shouldn't ignore the possibility that Apple will post a solid quarter that looks "bad" simply because it doesn't meet the fantasies of analysts who are busily inventing video iPods, media servers, and Apple-branded cell phones in their feverish little heads. The exuberance has placed Apple in the uncomfortable position of needing to beat its own guidance by 10% or more just to keep up with expectations. UPDATE, 7:55 PM: It's all moot, at least this time, as Apple blows away everyone's projections. [Via Matt D..]
Chris Who?
Is there any doubt left that Chris Kattan is a third-rate hack whose career at Saturday Night Live only lasted as long as it did because he rode the coattails of the vastly more talented Will Ferrell? This was reinforced today when, while channel-surfing, I came across this tidbit: "Coming up next, SNL veteran Chris Kattan re-enacts a classic Ellen scene..." In my defense, I only settled on Ms. DeGeneres's show because at the time she was interviewing Sandra Bullock, the second-most beautiful woman in the world.
Comcast 2005 Customer Survey
Earlier in the week, we received a post card-based customer satisfaction survey from Comcast. We get ultra-basic cable and our high-speed Internet access from Comcast. I was looking forward to letting them have it, as we have been very displeased with their level of service the past few months. First, bad Comcast, bad! for not having a way to complete the survey online. This would undoubtedly have led to my being able to write more than I was able to on your flimsy little post card. Second, out of the four scores--Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor--Comcast failed to rate the top spot in any category, got a Good for it's Field Tech experience, and rated a Poor when it comes to overall Customer Service experience. My comment:
A way to speak to knowledgeable techs on the phone would be nice, since some of us know way more about how our high-speed Internet access works than the customer service reps. This would lead to faster problem resolution. Also, outages every other week are likely not winning Comcast many fans. That's all I was able to get on the card, because Comcast decided it needed to put its logo in the bottom right quarter of the card, eating up valuable writing real estate. I have gotten to the point where I start out any phone conversation with a customer service rep with something like this: "Our high-speed Internet access is down. I've reset the cable modem multiple times. The cable television is much fuzzier than normal. It's not a problem with the lines in my house, you have an outage." To which the customer service rep still insists I reset the cable modem again. Which I don't, even though I tell them I do, since I've already done it, as I stated "multiple times." In the past, well, ever, every time our access has been lost, it has been due to an area-wide outage. It has never been due to the lines in or connecting directly to our house. One would think this sort of thing would be noted in account notes. Then the customer service rep could see the outage history and reasonably conclude that I know what the hell I'm talking about when I call. We have some new neighbors just down the block who reported that they signed up with Verizon for local phone and fiber optic, which VZ has been laying all over town. Many of us in the neighborhood have been waiting for some sort of notification from Verizon that they were ready to offer us high-speed access via fiber, so we could dump Comcast. Where's that number?
If it's contraband, can we remove it from display?
Further proof that (a) I don't know much about and don't care to know much about "modern" art, and (b) that some people have too much time on their hands: Contraband. What rubbish.
You moved <i>Seinfeld</i> to when?
So our local Fox station has been advertising that they're bringing back King of the Hill to its late-night comedy line-up, following Seinfeld. Great, I thought. I like KotH, too, though I don't watch it nearly as much as Seinfeld. What I've been missing from all of these little ads was the decision to move my favorite television show from its spot at 10:30 PM CST, to 11. In its place? A Current Affair. Or as I like to call it, A Current Who Cares? Now to dash a letter off to the station manager...
Hack hack
Funny how differently colds affect folks. My son has been fighting one longer than I, and it manifests itself with a constantly running nose. Meds from the pediatrician are helping with that. And other than the runny nose, he's been in his usual great mood for the most part. For me, my nose doesn't run, but instead the congestion drains down my throat, meaning I'm constantly coughing. OTC congestion and cough meds haven't been doing the trick, and last night was the first with the new script from the doc. Still, I was lucky to have gotten four hours of sleep, the longest uninterrupted bit being around an hour and a half. Not to mention that the coughing lends itself to a near-constant headache, and I am not one who usually gets headaches. The good news is that I can feel the new meds working. As the saying goes, it just takes time. Right now, with an empty house, I think it's time for a nap.
Being hijacked
I am not referring to an airline hijacking. Michael informed me this morning that our host for ATPM told him we went over our bandwidth limit for the month of February by 17 GB. After further investigation, we learned that most of this extra bandwidth is going toward serving up various JPEGS to other sites. In other words, rather than downloading the desktop pictures we offer to our readers each month, and hosting it on their own server, people are linking directly to the file on our server for display on their sites. They are hijacking these images, and our bandwidth. This is nothing new. It's just never happened on such a large scale before with any site I've been involved in. People, this is not cool. First off, those desktop pictures are the copyrighted property of a photographer or artist who graciously donated their use to ATPM, and subsequently to our readers, as desktop pictures. This means if you want to use said picture on your web site, or any other medium, you should be contacting that photographer or artist for permission. Second, if said photographer or artist grants you permission for usage, you then host the picture on your own site. To link to the picture directly on ATPM means you are stealing our bandwidth, and driving up our costs. We are not a for-profit publication. Our staff is all-volunteer, from the top down. Any moneys generated from ads and sponsorships goes in to our hosting costs, and after ten consecutive years of publication, those costs can be considerable. Thus, bandwidth is not something we can afford to give away, and certainly not at the rate of an extra 17 GB every month. If you are one of the many persons out there linking directly to one of our pictures, please stop. You are violating legitimate copyright and stealing bandwidth from a group of people who do something each month out of love and joy.
Mickey Mouse Musical Toaster
No, I'm not kidding. As if we needed another reason to lobby for copyright law overhaul.
Great moments in socialized medicine
Dave Murphy, for the San Francisco Chronicle:
From the time Tilly Merrell was a year old, doctors told her family she would never have a normal life -- or even a normal meal.
British doctors found that the food she swallowed went into her lungs instead of her stomach, causing devastating lung infections. They said she had isolated bulbar palsy, and their solution was to feed her through a stomach tube. Forever.
But having a backpack with a food pump wired to her stomach wasn't much of a life for a girl whose favorite smell is bacon frying -- a girl who once broke through a locked kitchen door in an effort to sneak some cheese. So her family got help from their community of Warndon, about 120 miles north of London, raising enough money to take Tilly, now 8, on a 5,000-mile journey they hoped might change her life, a journey to Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University.
Doctors at Packard were intrigued that she had no neurological symptoms often associated with the palsy. In all other ways, she was a normal child with a mischievous smile and a truckload of energy. After seeing her Feb. 7, they ran three tests and found out what was wrong with her.
Nothing. And you wonder why conservatives froth at the mouth over such nonsense as HILLARY!Care. [Via Jack on World_SIG.]
Congratulations to the NHL and NHLPA
The Stanley Cup is the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, a fact proudly touted in the sports world by the NHL. Now professional hockey can lay claim to another famous first in North American professional sports: it is the first to cancel an entire season. I was raised on LSU football, and later, during the Dale Brown glory years, LSU basketball. When I was a student at LSU, the Tigers began their dominance of the College World Series in the 1990s. Growing up in Baton Rouge, we had no professional sports teams, only the New Orleans Saints, an hour's drive away. Doesn't sound like much, but that hour's drive may as well have been an ocean. I didn't pay attention to the Saints until I was a resident of the New Orleans metroplex, and while I attended a few games, most were at someone else's expense. I got in to hockey my last year in college, when I had my own place and cable television. ESPN's National Hockey Night brought me at least a game a week, and I grew addicted. Maybe it was all the attention Pavel Bure received, but I found myself following the Vancouver Canucks, and thrilled to their Stanley Cup bid in 1994. Taking the Rangers to seven games, it was probably the greatest Stanley Cup series I've watched since I began to love the game. My first NHL game was in 1996, when my spouse and I ventured from New Orleans to Dallas to see the Stars play the Canucks. It was a memorable weekend for several reasons: it was my first time in Dallas; Dallas saw a big snow storm the night of our arrival, leaving us "trapped" in our hotel most of the next day; we saw our some friends we hadn't seen in three years; and the Canucks walloped the Stars. My wife was recruited by a Dallas law firm, and in July 1998, we made the move from New Orleans. I was at the first home game of the 1998-99 season for the Stars, and I watched or listened to every game that year. I stayed up all night long to see Brett Hull score the third-overtime goal (and sorry, Buffalo, it was a goal) to deliver the Stars franchise its first-ever Stanley Cup. I've been to a few games each year since then, mostly thanks to recruiting and client development efforts on the part of my wife's now-former firm. But I've also paid my own way on more than one occasion to see the Stars play. I've rooted for Mo, and Eddie the Eagle, Turk and Nieuwey. And now the players of the NHLPA have thrown away all of the good will they have built up over the years, not only with myself, but with millions of other hockey fans. Yes, I lay the bulk of the blame for this cancellation at the feet of the players and their union. If they were willing to concede to a salary cap at the eleventh hour, why were they not willing to do so earlier in the lost season, when there was still a season to be salvaged? Why are they letting this season go away because of 6.5 million dollars per team. That's right. That is the difference in the total salary-cap figures the teams want to impose, and the players are willing to accept. Six-point-five million. That's about a couple hundred thousand per player on each team. That's pathetic. As I've noted before, these guys get paid to play a game. They get to do as their profession in life something millions of people wish they could do as well for just one afternoon. We made you. Sure, you have great talent and skill. No one denies that. But where would you be without hockey fans? Playing pick-up games on the town's frozen pond in between gutting fish or delivering packages? Professional sports run on fans. Professional sports gain television contracts to reach more fans because advertisers are willing to spend money to reach those fans in an attempt to sell products. No fans means no professional sport. I'm not saying the team owners and the league get a pass, please don't misunderstand. I'm a good little capitalist, and believe both the owners and the players should try to make as much money as possible. But everyone negotiates their salary; first, when you gain employment, then thereafter based on your performance and later experience. It's the same whether you're working at McDonald's, coding for a Fortune 100 company, or playing a professional sport. And sometimes, the business just doesn't have enough money in the bag to pay you what you want--and believe you deserve--to get paid. Maybe the answer isn't a salary cap. Maybe some of these smaller market teams in the NHL should be allowed to shrivel and die, even in the birthplace of hockey, O Canada. That would be good capitalism. It would also mean a smaller marketplace in the NHL for players, so maybe the players and their union should think twice before embarking on a course of action which would lead to that outcome, as fewer of them would be employed. When the Stars began play in Dallas in 1993, many people thought they'd never see the NHL below the Mason-Dixon line. Today, you have five NHL teams in the old South: Dallas, the Florida Panthers, the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Nashville Predators, and the Carolina Hurricanes. Two of those teams have won the Stanley Cup. Those people who thought "What is hockey doing in Texas?" must be out of their minds wondering "What is hockey doing in Tampa Bay?" Never mind the fact that the Lightning now have their name on the Cup. Three years ago, however, Tampa Bay would have been a poster child for the NHL chopping block. The Ottawa Senators have always been so (in my mind, at least). After a wildly successful inaugural season, attendance has been disappointing at Nashville games. I'm not hearing much from the Columbus Blue Jackets, and I can't imagine that market supporting a NHL team in the long run, unless they can consistently begin making long playoff runs. Maybe some of these teams should never have been allowed to be. Maybe some of them should be allowed to fold. None of that really matters now. There will be no 2004-05 season for the National Hockey League. A suitable compromise could not be reached by the two sides. Both sides have gotten rich at the expense of the one thing they cannot afford to lose: fans. It will take years for the NHL/NHLPA to win back the fans it is going to lose with this utter nonsense. I don't particularly care for basketball, other than to actually play it. The NBA holds no appeal to me, even less so now that I've actually attended a NBA game. While I'll watch the NFL, I don't follow a specific team, and I much prefer the college game. I think Mark Cuban and Jerry Jones are both incredible egomaniacs, and could care less about the Mavericks or Cowboys while either is running his respective show. That leaves me with hockey and baseball. My winter, as far as sports are concerned, is shot. I think MLB (talk about a league needing a salary cap) spring season starts next month...
In my right mind
So I've been thinking about Daniel Pink's article, "Revenge of the Right Brain", over the past couple of days, and it's amazing how much my own feelings toward a future career mirror his piece. One would have to consult my parents as to when I may have first exhibited artistic sensibilities, but as I grew up, I was very fond of writing, drawing, and music. I was always doodling, tracing, sketching. Making up stories, or just bits of stories. In seventh grade, I started playing the clarinet in band, was quickly moved to the bass clarinet by Mr. Dawson, our fantastic teacher-director, and continued all the way through high school. I did not attempt to gain a music scholarship to LSU; I had a partial academic scholarship, and the Air Force wanted to pay the rest of my way, so long as I was willing to be an electrical engineer. By the end of my freshman year, my Air Force scholarship was gone. My grades tanked, and they yanked it. I was not a party animal, I did not go hog-wild upon becoming a college student. I simply goofed off. Looking back, maybe there was a subconscious effort on my part to sabotage my academic and future professional careers. I was a right-brain person, suddenly thrust in to a left-brain world. No longer burdened with studies related to engineering, I remained in Air Force ROTC, and switched majors: criminal justice. When LSU's Criminal Justice department was terminated as a separate division the following year, swallowed by the larger Sociology department, I was forced to change majors again. Not particularly interested in a sociology degree, I opted instead for political science, a decidedly more right-brained course of study. I minored in history. I excelled in English classes, testing out of Freshman English 101, or whatever it's technically called. The large part of my professional career since college, however, once again led me in to left-brain land. I have been involved with computer technology, troubleshooting, and support, for over a dozen years. When I was laid off in October of 2003, I was both devastated and optimistic. My son was only two months old, and I was looking forward to spending a lot of time with him, which has been great. Perhaps this was the opportunity to move in to a new field as well. I have not kept completely out of the right-brain sphere these past twelve years, however. I began volunteering as a copy editor with ATPM in the summer of 1998, and began writing the occasional review or opinion piece shorly thereafter. Today, I'm the Managing Editor, and quite happy to work with the fine staff of our little publication, all of whom do what they do because we enjoy the Macintosh platform. I also believe a goodly number of the staffers are like myself, and enjoy having this right-brain outlet, compared with the left-brain professions they may be involved with. This blog, like its predecessor, is nothing more than an outlet for those right-brain skills yearning for exercise. Which brings us back to Pink's article, in which he hypothesizes that the coming "age" will be devoted to more right-brain activities, as opposed to where we currently are now, and have been, where more left-brain occupations have reigned supreme. I'm all for it. I feel as though I have a couple of books in me, and I love the editing thing. Just ask some of my online friends and acquaintances how many times I've annoyed them over misspellings and other grammatical gaffes on their blogs. Likewise, they are quick to point out my own brain burps, in large part because they know I care about such things. (Though with Lawson, I suspect it's just out of spite.) There is a part of me which has enjoyed my past dozen years in the tech field, and I would heartily welcome another job in that arena. Yet another part of me yearns for something different, something more right-brained, and this is reflected in some of my Monster search agents. In the mean time, I'll concentrate on editing, writing, digital photography, and most of all, being a dad.
Annoyance: CD security tape
I can appreciate the little sticky security tape on the tops of CDs sold to consumers. I realize it is a preventive measure against the CDs being stolen from out of the cases in a store. However, I am quite sure that over the past year or so, the tape has gotten increasingly more difficult to get off. It used to be, if you were careful, you could pull up the tape on one side of the CD, and slowly pull the entire thing off. Not any more. Now, the tape splits at the slightest hint of intolerance to being pulled. It took a good five minutes to get all of the security tape off Amy Grant's latest. Normally, this should be a 30- to 45-second process. I realize someone out there will say something to the effect of, You wouldn't have this problem if you just ordered the entire album from the iTunes Music Store. I like having the physical CD, with liner notes, thank you very much. The process of opening said CD did not used to be this annoying. Now it is. That is the complaint.
Such maturity for a CEO
Lee points to another Silicon.com article which reveals Steve Ballmer is even more of a childish imbecile than was previously thought.
Memo to Steve Ballmer
Mr. Ballmer:
Despite your reckless and libelous statements regarding Apple and the iPod, please note that your 12-year-old is likely hiding stolen music in all kinds of places, given that your 12-year-old is likely much smarter than you are, having grown up with the technology your company had to steal copy "innovate". (He's also probably hiding a lot of other stuff he has found on the Internet.)
A challenge then, to the CEO of Microsoft: without any warning whatsoever, conduct a full-scale examination of the hard drive of every Microsoft employee, including every PDA, every digital music player, every MP3-playing mobile phone. Cross-check the findings of digital music with each employee's personal CD collection. Report the findings of how much stolen music is residing inside Microsoft itself. That is, if you're not too busy dancing around on stage like a fool and flinging your feces at your competition, monkey-boy.
(Via MacMinute)
Welcome to the 21st century, Mr. Gates
Six years after Steve Jobs and Apple declared the floppy disk dead, with the release of the iMac, Bill Gates states the same:
In some ways, I think this is the first time I can say that the floppy disk is dead. You know, we enjoyed the floppy disk, it was nice, it got smaller and smaller, but because of compatibility reasons, it sort of got stuck at the 1.44 megabyte level, and carrying them around, and having that big physical slot in machines, that became a real burden. Today, you get a low-cost USB flash drive, with 64 megabits on it very, very inexpensively. And so we can say the capacity there for something that's smaller, better connectors, faster, just superior in every way has made that outmoded. So I suppose now that the tech industry pundits will proclaim Mr. Gates as a tremendous visionary for getting rid of the tiresome floppy disk, when in fact, Mr. Gates' company is one entity responsible for extending the floppy's life. (via RAILhead Design)
It's about time
Pixar dumps Disney. Pixar will be the better for it. Eisner is an idiot. I hope the Disney board roasts him on a spit. (Thanks, Michael.)