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• Doug 3:56 am on March 30, 2004 | 0 | # |
  Tags: Books

  Mark Bernstein: Mar0401: Emma Bull’s 1987 War for the Oaks descibes the war in Faerie for possession of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Reading it in Rome, I was struck by the impression that the entire genre of elfpunk is really about the way intelligent and sympathetic Europeans and Americans view each other today. (This categorie excludes the Bushies in the US, of course, and the most virulent left and right-wing culture hawks in Europe)

  An interesting observation. In addition to the novels Mark suggests, I’d point to some of Michael Moorcock’s early works. Certainly there’s a suggestion of this in the Elric novels, and definitely in the Corum stories, particularly the second trilogy, where the elfin Corum is enlisted by the humans to be their champion in a war with dangerous magical beings, but after helping win the war is (willingly?) killed by his human friends because he no more fits into the new, human world than their enemies did.

  http://www.doug-miller.net/blog/archive/hisdarkmaterials/hdmredux.html
  Mon, 29 Mar 2004 22:44:22 -0500
  http://www.doug-miller.net/blog/archive/hisdarkmaterials/hdmredux.html

  Books

  demiller@gmail.com (Doug Miller)

  I finished the third and final book of the His Dark Materials trilogy last night, The Amber Spyglass. Highly recommended, even if you aren’t generally into fantasy. While ostensibly a series for young adult readers, this series is considerably deeper than this classification would suggest. Throughout, Pullman’s prose is exquisite,

  I finished the third and final book of the His Dark Materials trilogy last night, The Amber Spyglass. Highly recommended, even if you aren’t generally into fantasy. While ostensibly a series for young adult readers, this series is considerably deeper than this classification would suggest. Throughout, Pullman’s prose is exquisite, and the issues he raises provocative.

  To be sure, this isn’t Harry Potter. Pullman’s story is darker and more thought provoking, with a bittersweet ending that left me unsettled. On one level, Pullman’s story is a story about sacrifice, and it always bothers me a little to find characters that I feel I’ve come to know having to sacrifice something deeply important and cherished in order for a larger, more positive resolution. Pullman’s characterization is strong enough that I started to identify strongly with the main characters. Pullman’s world is one that cries out to be explored further.

  Overall, a worthwhile read, and one that will join a very few selected other works on my “favorites” shelf.

   

• Doug 2:09 am on March 29, 2004 | 0 | # |
  Tags: Pictures

  

  Now that I have a halfway decent camera, I’m resolved to take more pictures. Here’s one of today’s two Open Houses.

   

• Doug 1:55 am on March 29, 2004 | 0 | # |
  Tags: Politics

  The Agonist: Foreign Policy and The Democrats: There are so many votes out there to be had if only the Democrats would create an alternate vision for the U.S and the world. Instead of just criticizing things like falling military benefits, the War on Terror, the Middle East, Central Asia, casualties in Iraq and on and on, come up with a plan, a vision. Stop opposing and start promoting an alternative. If they came up with a hard-nosed, realistic vision of the world that is true to our core beliefs I think they can win.

  I just don’t see them trying.

  An excellent summation of my discontent with the current strategy of the Democratic party in general, and the Kerry campaign specifically. There is no leadership or vision, just opposition. I believe most Americans are desperate for that alternative vision and leadership, and would turn out in droves to vote for someone who displayed it.

  Bush is terribly vulnerable now, not just on the economic front but concerning foreign policy, as well. He’s vulnerable even here in die-hard Republican Indiana, where we’re reeling from continued economic malaise and just not too damn happy about seeing our kids shipped off to a war that seems increasingly an act of hubris and revenge. But…most people are concerned and confused that the alternative to Bush just doesn’t seem to stand for much.

  There are pragmatic alternatives to the current administration’s foreign policy. Democrats don’t have to be perceived as “soft on defense.” I’d like to see a strategy that reaches beyond pandering to the party’s traditional base - and I believe that such a strategy is the only hope the Democrats have for winning this next election.

  Bonus link: Kerry Under Pressure for a Blueprint.

   

• Doug 3:08 am on March 24, 2004 | 0 | # |
  Tags: World

  Mark Bernstein and Jay McCarthy both made recent trips to Rome, and both kept notebooks of their trips:

  Mark Bernstein: Mar0401: While in Rome, I carried a pen and notebook constantly, and found this gave me nice opportunities for reflection and introspection while also providing a good place to stash reminders, phone numbers, tickets, and other travel ephemera. Near the Pantheon, I bought a lovely leather-bound desk book to rest near my workstation and serve the same function — to act, in short, as a lab notebook.

  But these low-tech devices are for information capture and for the experience of writing; when you want to be able to analyze, reflect, and retrieve information, you want a tool like Tinderbox. This has always been true: Jefferson, a great note-maker, kept a vast range of diaries, record books, commonplace books, and vade-mecums, each with its own purpose.

  Mark describes a note-taking and record keeping system very similar to what I seem to be evolving - multiple tools and/or documents (I continually have at least three Tinderbox documents open at once) for different tasks. Add to this a growing collection of digital photos and digital video documenting more visual information. The challenge of course is going to be keeping all of this integrated.

  Jay, once again proving his credentials as a true Renaissance Man, is more of a detailed travelogue. His post, supported by copious photographs, paints a lovely picture of his trip and defies excerpting. As they say, read the whole thing.

   

• Doug 2:12 am on March 24, 2004 | 0 | # |
  Tags: Media

  CNN.com - ‘Morning Edition’ replacing Edwards - Mar 23, 2004: Bob Edwards, host of National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” since its inception in 1979, has been forced out of that job.

  The radio network announced Tuesday that Edwards, 56, will become senior correspondent of NPR News, with his reports being heard on various broadcasts, at the end of April.

  Boo, hiss. That, as we used to say at the good old Ohio State School of Natural Resources, blows dead bears.

  Via Groundhog Day.

   

• Doug 2:32 am on March 22, 2004 | 0 | # |
  Tags: Politics, World

  Hot damn! Saddam Hussein has been captured by US Forces outside of Tikrit:

  U.S. forces have captured Saddam Hussein in a late night raid near his hometown of Tikrit, according to the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, we got him,” L. Paul Bremer announced Sunday. The announcement was greeted with cheers from the audience.

  From the pictures I’ve seen, he looks like crap, and apparently gave up without much of a fight. He appears to be talkative and cooperative. It also sounds like the majority of Iraqis are overjoyed.

  Interesting. CNN just mentioned that there was no perimeter security surrounding Hussein when he was captured. That makes me wonder how critical the Iraqi resistance regards him. Of course, it could also have been a means of trying not to attract too much attention to him.

  Charlie Stross makes an interesting comment, as well:

  While shedding no tears for the beast of Baghdad — who climbed to the top of the Ba’ath party of Iraq over a pile of corpses, by way of the secret police — I can’t help wondering whether this is a good thing for the west. I suspect his being at liberty may have been a restraining factor on the various Iraqi factions jockeying for power — and taking pot-shots at the occupiers. Now he’s out of the way, the spectre of a revived Ba’athist dictatorship has lifted from the followers of al-Sadr and the various other Shi’ite factions and the communists and the nationalists and the just plain pissed-off that their country has been invaded. The factions who suffered under Saddam no longer have to worry about that stuff: we may just have released the brakes on the armed resistance. Moreover, if Saddam is smart enough (and I hope he isn’t) and the military authorities stupid enough (and after Gantanemo Bay I fear that they are), he may use a trial as an opportunity to wrap himself in the flag of Iraqi nationalism and turn himself into a martyr to the anti-American cause.

  Excellent points. The key will be in how the trial and its aftermath is handled. Somewhat like the situation in Yugoslavia after the death of Tito, if no steps are taken to moderate the forces pulling the nation apart, there’ll be chaos. The Coalition Provisional Authority hasn’t shown much ability so far in being able to manage this sort of situation.

  Another interesting report from the Telegraph this morning, Terrorist behind September 11 strike was trained by Saddam:

  Iraq’s coalition government claims that it has uncovered documentary proof that Mohammed Atta, the al-Qaeda mastermind of the September 11 attacks against the US, was trained in Baghdad by Abu Nidal, the notorious Palestinian terrorist.

  Details of Atta’s visit to the Iraqi capital in the summer of 2001, just weeks before he launched the most devastating terrorist attack in US history, are contained in a top secret memo written to Saddam Hussein, the then Iraqi president, by Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, the former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.

  If this proves to be true, it would be significant, particularly in conjunction with the trial. Expect the Bush Administration to claim vindication - and if true, they’d have some justification. The article goes on to discuss some evidence of WMD efforts:

  In the memo, Habbush reports that Atta “displayed extraordinary effort” and demonstrated his ability to lead the team that would be “responsible for attacking the targets that we have agreed to destroy”.

  The second part of the memo, which is headed “Niger Shipment”, contains a report about an unspecified shipment - believed to be uranium - that it says has been transported to Iraq via Libya and Syria.

  Clearly, all this needs to be viewed with intense suspicion, given the history of this sort of information in regards to Iraq. If true, this would be a fairly significant smoking gun. If Saddam is of a mind to be cooperative (probably in exchange for his life, or at least not being thrown to the Iraqi people for a painful, and undignified end), some explosive revelations along these lines could be on the way. If al-Qaeda hung him out to dry, these revelations are even more likely.

  All speculation, of course. Today, I’m content to rejoice in the fact that finally, we nailed one of these bastards.

   

• Doug 9:21 pm on March 21, 2004 | 0 | # |
  Tags: Apple, Mobile, Technology

  Charlie’s Diary:

  bq. In my dream, the tablet iBook would be exactly the same size as a current-model 12″ iBook, except maybe a couple of millimetres thinner. Instead of a traditional clamshell laptop body, with a keyboard/trackpad on the bottom half and a screen built into the lid, there’d simply be a screen with a toughened glass or plastic front on top, like the Tablet PC form machines from the likes of HP and Compaq (but without the whizzy bolt-on keyboards). It would have a pen, instead of a mouse, and Bluetooth; a keyboard would be an optional extra, connecting via Bluetooth or USB. There’d probably be no internal CD/DVD drive at all, but support for an external USB drive. The space freed up by the optical drive would both lighten the machine and make for a spare battery bay, giving a 10-hour road life. For handwriting input, let it use Graffiti; if it was easy enough for a million businessmen to learn it on their PDAs, it’ll work well on a tablet iBook today.

  Charlie Stross waxes lyrical on the design of an iBook Tablet. I’d shell out for one of these almost immediately - it’d solve a number of problems for me. Like Charlie, I need more than a standard PDA, but often find myself in circumstances where a traditional notebook doesn’t work well. A pen-based, tablet form-factor system running OS X would allow me to run the software I need while maintaining much of the functionality of my beloved Moleskine notebooks.

  Price, as Charlie states, is an issue. I think he’s dead on though when he suggests sticking to stock iBook parts and avoiding complex handwriting recognition software. The Windows Tablet PC’s are interesting devices, but there just aren’t many business people who are going to shell out the kind of money those things cost. Get the price under $1000 and I think you might have something.

   

• Doug 3:03 am on March 16, 2004 | 0 | # |
  Tags: Mobile, Politics, Technology, Work, World

  I needed a new digital still camera to take pictures of homes for work, so today I picked up a cheap Canon Powershot A300. It’s not the best of cameras, but it has the virtues of being a) cheap, b) superior to my ancient Sony Mavica 1.3 Megapixel camera, c) small enough to fit in my notebook bag, and hence, generally always available, and d) capable of transferring images to my PowerBook via USB, which the Mavica couldn’t handle. The Mavica uses floppies, a real problem in what is now a completely Mac-using household.

  For the first time, I can actually use iPhoto as Jobs intended - and I absolutely love it. This is going to be a huge boon to my workflow, now that I can easily store, sort, categorize, and search pictures of my listings. Being able to quickly export them to create fliers or e-mail them to clients is a huge plus, too.

  Frankly, I was reluctant to spend the money on a new camera if I couldn’t spring for something fairly high end. Not being able to easily shoot images and work with them was a major impediment to my workflow, however, and MLS photos don’t need to be magazine quality.

  http://www.doug-miller.net/blog/archive/theseguyswanttokillu.html
  Sun, 21 Mar 2004 22:51:27 -0500
  http://www.doug-miller.net/blog/archive/theseguyswanttokillu.html

  World

  Politics

  demiller@gmail.com (Doug Miller)

  The Australian: Mark Steyn: These guys want to kill us anyway [March 15, 2004]: If Islamic terrorism were as rational as Irish or Basque terrorism, it would be easier. But Hussein Massawi, former leader of Hezbollah, summed it up very pithily: “We are not fighting so that you will offer

  The Australian: Mark Steyn: These guys want to kill us anyway [March 15, 2004]: If Islamic terrorism were as rational as Irish or Basque terrorism, it would be easier. But Hussein Massawi, former leader of Hezbollah, summed it up very pithily: “We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you.” You can be pro-America (Spain, Australia) or anti-America (France, Canada), but if you broke into the head cave in the Hindu Kush and checked out the hit list you’d be on it either way.

  This seems to be exactly the case, to me. Another excellent quote:

  In his penultimate public appearance, the late Osama bin Laden, broadcasting from his cave in the early hours of the Afghan campaign, listed among his principal grievances “the tragedy of Andalusia” — that is, the end of Muslim rule in Spain in 1492. That’s 512 years ago, but the al-Qa’ida guys are in no mood to (as the Democrats used to urge Republicans in the Clinton impeachment era) “move on”. After half a millennium, even Paula Jones would have thrown in the towel. But not these fellows. They’re still settling scores from the 15th century. They might not get around to Johnny-come-lately grievances such as Iraq until the early 2600s.

  I could be wrong, maybe it is possible to negotiate with and/or appease Islamic terrorists. I see little evidence of it, however. This is the crux of my despair over this year’s elections - I can’t stand Bush, I think the Iraq war was a mistake in terms of countering Islamic terror, and I hate the police state he’s trying to create in this country. On the flip side, Kerry is quite simply a loser. He’s nothing but a Washington Democrat re-tread who hasn’t a hope of managing the difficulties we now face. He hasn’t a single creative, innovative idea. and I think he’ll be easy meat for the the terrorists. Frankly, I’d rather vote for my dog.

  Update: Just to clarify, when I say “I’d rather vote for my dog” I mean that I’d rather vote for my dog than either one of the current candidates apparent. In reality, I’ll certainly vote for Kerry, even though he’s far from my top pick. Voting for Bush would be like voting for Bin Laden as far as I’m concerned; I don’t frankly see much difference.

  It’s a damn shame Kerry is the presumptive nominee. Bush is in a very tenuous position; even here in normally staunchly Republican Indiana his name is mud. A lot of people here aren’t happy with how he’s handled the economy and how the Iraq war has been a distraction from hunting down real terrorists. They’re ready to vote for someone else. Unfortunately, in the drive to nominate someone “electable,” the Democrats may well have nominated someone incapable of pulling in the swing votes that could make the difference.

  As for being “easy meat for terrorists,” well, articulate some coherent strategy for dealing with the problem, and I’ll change my mind. Experience as the skipper of a brown water patrol boat isn’t enough of a qualification in my book. Tell me what you’re going to do, not who you were.

   

• Doug 2:41 am on March 12, 2004 | 0 | # |
  Tags: Whackos, World

  sunspot.net - print edition: If it were possible to wind back the centuries, Halima Umar’s village would probably look much as it does today. Umar and her neighbors fetch water by lowering a bucket into a hand-dug well, toil in fields of millet and guinea corn, and sleep in houses made of mud, leaves and animal hair, the walls sagging like sandcastles struck by an ocean wave.

  In January last year, Nigerian health workers knocked on Umar’s door, offering her newborn daughter a free dose of polio vaccine.

  But Umar turned the vaccinators away. Most of her neighbors did the same, some hiding children under their beds.

  They had heard a rumor circulating through the hot, dusty villages of northern Nigeria that the vaccine had been contaminated with an anti-fertility agent that would sterilize their children or perhaps infect them with the AIDS virus, all part of an American plot to depopulate the developing world. The villagers believed it.

  Evolution in action. Apparently, it’s never occurred to these deliberately ignorant, religiously deluded fools that if we really wanted to depopulate their country, the best course we could take would be to encourage them in their idiocies.

   

• Doug 2:39 am on March 12, 2004 | 0 | # |
  Tags: Politics, World

  Allah is a Pussy - Only a wimpy little girly-man deity would send car bombers to blow up innocent civilians. I mean, Jehovah slew entire armies, and he did it standing toe to toe with the heathen enemy like a real man-deity. Even David slew Goliath in a fair fight. You don’t read stories about David disguising himself as a woman and hiding a bomb belt under his hijab.

  Oh my - I laughed until I cried! This makes me think that maybe our problem is that Jehovah isn’t tough enough, either - after all, any number of religious types will tell you that Jehovah and Allah are more or less the same deity. Maybe what we need to do is go back to venerating some of the real tough old bad-asses. Odin, Thor, or Lugh were all rough and tumble types. Even better, let’s throw together an alter to one of the really scary ones like the Morrigan or Kali. That ought to get them to wet their caftans!

   

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