...more recent posts
Fun bits from the Daily Koss coverage of the California Democratic Party's annual conference:
But then Edwards spoke in support of the Iraq war and all hell broke loose. The entire convention hall resonated in boos, the crowd chanting "no war! No war!" It was an amazing sight, and Edwards seemed a bit taken aback. Jerome thought it looked like '68. Edwards recovered with a line about Ashcroft, but the damage was done. The 20 or so brave souls waving Edwards signs were suddenly radioactive.And on the Dean speech:
But the most amazing part was the finale, with a fiery Dean pounding the podium:Note, of course, that CDP crowds probably don't track with the viewpoints of a majority of voters. Even democratic voters. Still.I want my country back!When Dean uttered this last line, the whole place went nuts. Utter pandemonium....
I don't want to listen to fundamentalist preachers anymore!
From the undisclosed location department: OK, I admit it, we snuck out of town last night. We're holed up at the secret Long Island headquarters. Be heading back in a few hours. Also, sort of pleasantly, my cell phone doesn't work here. But email is firing and jabber is on.
Kevin Sites is a CNN reporter on the ground in the Iraq region. He's been contributing blog like reports which have been posted intermittently on boing boing. But now he has his own page where he is audblogging (a service which allows you to post audio to your blog from any phone) from his satellite phone.
I can't find the link now, but I read yesterday that the U.S. military has warned the press that any satellite phone connections they sense from the battlefield will be immediately targeted. Yikes! I better find the link because that sounds a little hard to believe. But anyway, my point is that I don't know how well he'll do once the war (officially) starts. I don't think this is going to let him break any real information. But it's a pretty exciting read (and listen) right now.
This is really starting to bug me. Safari won't load google.com. I'm using version .64 although I believe it's always been this way. And, of course, it isn't really necessary because there is a google search bar built right into the browser. If I type my search there it will immediately load the results page from google. But I can't load the blank google front page and perform a search from there.
Hmmm. Since I know google has no javascript or other fancy weirdness on their page I'm inexorably drawn to the rather conspiratorial conclusion that Apple built it this way to force you to use the bulit in search field. Could this be true? Are they (either Apple, Google, or some combination) collecting search histories the way google does with the installable (on internet explorer) google bar? I mean, and not telling us?
I won't be happy if this turns out true. In fact I'll be very unhappy. And I'll switch immediately back to Camino. (I'm sure Cupertino is quaking at that threat.) But maybe there is a more reasonable explanation? Anyone?
Looks like there is water flowing on the surface of Mars. At least occasionally. Wow. We'll need some confirmation on this, but it sounds like they're pretty sure.
I hope we do a better job interacting with alien life then we're doing interacting with each other down here. Maybe we can learn something from the caution (and respect) that will be necessary. Even where we are just meeting an itinerant brackish water dwelling bacteria...
Frog Design and Motorolla have teamed up to produce some amazing wearable computing prototypes.
Yes please.
Well, his message is getting through. Salon has an introductory piece on the "there's enough bandwidth for everyone" utopian arguments of the oft mentioned David P. Reed. Still, the actual math is so hard - assuming you dig in deeper than the Salon article - that I doubt many people have much beyond a metaphorical understanding of what he's talking about.
Slashdot posted the story. Here's the +5 rated comments (the best comments.) They almost universally savage Reed (in the best/worst tradition of /. commenting.) The message here seems to be: "this guy doesn't know what he's talking about" which is sort of what I was scared of.
Still, while a close reading of all the objections is instructive, I do think most people misunderstand his point. No doubt Salon's intro isn't the best text to base a technical refutation on. Sure, we can't do what Reed says with today's radios. But Reed isn't claiming we can.
Part of what he's saying is that software defined radios are going to allow this sort of thing to happen. Assuming we can build (program) them. And assuming we can change the (soon to be) out of date broadcasting regulations that would disallow such devices. And the first step in changing such regulation is to have people believe that something better is possible.
So perhaps he's overly optimistic (as most /. comments complained) but I don't think he's wrong. Or at least not yet. Let's see how the software comes along over the next year. But a little optimism might well be warranted. I think getting the idea that something wildly better is possible into non technical people's heads will be for the better. And it sure won't hurt anything, since all these claims will have to be demonstrated eventually anyway. It's not like we're going to dismantle the FCC until there's some running code and working gear.
Is this thing on?
I downloaded fire in an attempt to experiment with jabber instant messaging. Of course I can't really do much experimenting because I don't know anyone else who uses jabber. Do you? IM me at jimbass@jabber.org and help me get up to speed.
Or, if you don't have it and you're slightly adventurous, download the jabber client (windows, linux, Mac.) Then you just connect to one of the many public servers with a name/password you've made up. If the name isn't recognized it will simply ask you if you want to make a new account. Nice. Simple. Free.
And then IM me.
Speaking from experience, it's best not to still be in the bar when the roll downs roll down. Continuing for another hour or so after this point is, of course, even less advised. Still, I guess the possibility of doing such a thing needs to be confirmed from time to time. So yes, if you're wondering, it is still possible. And still not that good of an idea.
What the heck is happening in Turkey?
Recep Tayyup Erdogan was banned from running for election last November although his Justice and Development Party won a landslide victory. That ban has expired and he will run for a seat in parliament on behalf of the southeastern Siirt Province in the provincial election Sunday, March 9. From there, he will jump straight into the prime minister?s seat as head of the ruling party.I haven't seen this anywhere but Debka, so confirmation is lacking. But they tend to be correct about such things, and often a day ahead of everyone else.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly?s Ankara sources quote prime minister Abdullah Gul as informing confidants that he has agreed to step down and serve as deputy prime minister and foreign minister in the Erdogan government. It is all settled between them.
We are also informed that Erdogan has meanwhile informed Washington that, a week after taking office, he will have completed the process for gaining a parliamentary majority to allow US troops to use Turkey as a launch pad into Iraq, overruling the March 1 defeat of that motion. This would mean that the second front, which was thrown in doubt by the first vote, can go into operation around mid-March or shortly after.