SimpleWeblog

Motivated Movers

Well, the movers came, took all my stuff, and brought it to the new place. Almost done! A few miscellaneous things to move, and some vacuuming and scrubbing, and then it is all over. Whew.

The question, though, is how much are you supposed to tip movers?

Here's an answer: 7 - 12% for local moves. I tipped about 15%, which seems OK, although it was very hot. But it was a relatively small move. So maybe it is still OK.

Wish It Luck

The computer is going to be shutdown and moved.

Eeek!

I hope it does ok.

Then lots more packing and cleaning, and I'll be all set for tomorrow.

Packing

Packing is a terrible, terrible chore. Putting everything you own into boxes, trying to create logical groupings that conform to the size restraints, trying to justify why it is ok to keep that old, broken, 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System (because you have the original Tengen version of Tetris for it... which you justify keeping because you have the NES that you'll get working again someday...)

Luckily, I think I have enough boxes. And, I hired movers this time, so it should be relatively painless.

I still have to scrub the apartment down, though. That won't be fun.

And then it is on to the new apartment, the new beginning of... who knows?

Actually having time to put interesting things on here again?

Things to Remember

I need to remember that things were never perfect.

I need to remember that things will get better.

I need to remember that I like the way that I work.

Comic Review: Squadron Supreme

Hey, finally, a comic addressing some interesting issues, like free will, the use of force to justify authority, and the relationships between famous, powerful people and "ordinary" people.

Now, it wasn't a revolutionary take on things. Free will is good, modifying people's behavior against their will is usually bad, keeping secrets from your friends is bad, violence is bad... but to see it all in comic form was refreshing.

This is so much more along the lines of what I want to read about in comics - those questions of power and responsibility, when violence and force may or may not be useful, and how people with superpowers could try to change society.

But this series should have just been a beginning for further exploration of these issues. It was not. A few other pieces have been picked up, but there was no real change in comics as a result. In fact, it seems impossible to really address these questions when the characters need to remain unchanging, unaging, and inert.

So, the medium is not creatively bankrupt - but the major publishers may be. And that's not even saying anything about the possibilities for non-superhero stories.

Monday, but really Tuesday

You know, after setting foot in work every day this weekend, I am not very motivated to get things done today.

But I am making mental progress on the music review front.

Emotional Response

As hard as it is to tear down the walls between yourself and someone else, it is even harder to rebuild those walls again, all the while remembering the hope that led to their removal and the hurt that led to their reconstruction.

You'll have to forgive these little bits of random emotional outbursts. It sounds like teen-angst, bad poetry, and all that, but... everyone goes through that phase, right? And every once in a while, it comes back to surprise you? And even though you know it is happening, you can't fight it off? And even though you know it will end, you can't figure out how or when?

Not sure it is a good thing for the old weblog when I'm full of questions with no clue about answers.

Comic Review: Melmoth (Dave Sim)

It has been a while since I have read any Cerebus. And this "short story" (although, I read it in one sitting, so it really was) was a strange way to get back into it, since it wasn't really a Cerebus story. This is the story of the death of Oscar Wilde, who appeared as a character in the previous volume. And, to be honest, this volume didn't do much for me. The art, as usual, was excellent, but the writing was all reworkings of actual letters from Oscar's friends.

I can't tell if I was more of a fan of Oscar Wilde if I would have enjoyed this more or less. I mean, you aren't doing much to provide a new perspective on the story if you are using the original text and modifying it to set it in a fictional medieval world. I enjoyed the pieces where Oscar was interacting with the other characters (again, in the last volume) more than this story, which was essentially all about characters we had never met before and who were not very complex here. Which is why I wonder if I knew more about this if I would be able to read more in to it.

So I did a little research on line to learn more, but I think it would be better for me to actually find some of Oscar's works to read. Oscariana is a nicely done website, using letters and newspaper clippings to give a bit of an overview of Oscar's life. This is a good list of links about Oscar Wilde, including some pointers to online versions of all of his writing.

I really enjoy time in front of these machines, but even I would have trouble reading a novel online.

Book Review: Where Wizards Stay Up Late (Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon)

I got this book on the last trip up to Powell's. It tells the story of the various people that developed the Internet, from the ARPANET through about 1995. It was enjoyable for people who like reading the computer history books (which is me) but not particularly great. There was lots of information about the early days, Licklider and Taylor at ARPA, the "IMP guys" at BBN, and some of the colleges that were involved. But the growth during the 80's and 90's was not really handled at all, just breezed through. I was also bothered by the lack of actual footnotes, only some general endnotes and a very thorough bibliography. It seemed a bit unfocused, like they would use the great stories they got from interviews, but didn't try to dig into some of the items that didn't have those stories. Maybe they spared us from some boring details, but maybe important things were missed. Everyone was represented in a positive light, too, which may be true, but made the whole thing seem a bit artificial.

As to the stories told, it certainly seems like the typical strings of coincidences and too much hard work to get the very basic principles hammered out. I loved the comments about AT&T saying packet switching would never work - the same attitude I felt at my internship at Lucent. It was also surprising to me to see how hard it was to come up with the fundamental ideas of layered networks and gateways and TCP/IP, which I take for granted today. It seems like basic layers of abstraction, but I guess that is a concept from computer science that was developing at the same time. Does that not exist in other disciplines? Maybe some stretch from assembly lines and interchangable parts? It was nice to see that a lot of the people were dedicated to making a great network to foster collaboration among researchers and scientists, and not just interested in the business model.

Overall, I enjoyed it, but it wasn't a "classic" book of computing history.

Buy it at:

Powell's

Amazon

Soccer Game

It was memorial day weekend, so they had a combined game again, but the remnants of our team tied, 2-2. I had an OK game - played defender all game, had a forward on my side that was faster than me on every single play. I had one good stop in the middle, but nothing that great. I'm not sure why the last few games have been a little off. Well, I may have some idea, but don't want to admit to it. Anyways, only two weeks left and then the summer season. I hope the new team is as good as this one was. Although I wouldn't mind having more people show up.

New address

It looks like the domain name has made it through the DNS servers, at least to the phone company's, so the site is up and running again.

And next week I move to the new apartment. Last week we moved into new cubes at work.

And I'm still working on moving into this new phase of my life.

All this change, it starts making me a little nervous. I'm sure it's normal to want to have some stable things in life, but how much makes it unhealthy? Where's the line between routine and staleness?

Or is this really just a reflection of not wanting to have to pack?

Meta-Review

I just read an article commenting on Samuel R. Delany's book Shorter Views. Here's the quote they chose:

"If [critics of the paraliterary] could restrict themselves to the far more modest-seeming task of describing our objects of concern (like comics, SF, pornography...), describing never-before noticed aspects, pointing out the most interesting examples, describing the myriad and fascinating ways in which those aspects react with one another and how they interact with readers and the world, we would produce a far less arrogant, far more interesting, far less self-crippling, and finally far more powerful criticism-- as does McCloud at his strongest-- than we usually do, a criticism that would go far further towards effecting the revolution in esthetic values [emphasis Delany's] that McCloud (and I) would like to see." (Shorter Views, p. 237-238)

I think the article will be archived here (go here if it isn't).

Samuel Delany is a smart guy. I also think he is a very gifted author, although his later stuff is hard for me to judge, since he starts exploring semiotics a little too much for me to really understand. Maybe some day. But I know I am not getting as much from it as I could be.

Maybe it is also how I should try approaching this music review thing. I really like the idea of "describing the myriad and fascinating ways in which those aspects react with one another and how they interact with readers and the world."

It's back...

Well, I think a 9 day recovery time from that kind of emotional stress is pretty damned amazing. Of course, I'm not really recovered at all, but at least I can start this back up. Because I need to do something when I finish reading a book.

And I need to do something to keep my mind from wandering in those late-night what-if, why-me circles...

Apropos

It's stupid, but how could I resist posting this?

Noodles

I went to a Chinese noodle restaurant in Mountain View for lunch today. The noodles were decent - medium thick, a little chewy, inoffensive vegetable soup around it. But I couldn't help but think of all the fantastic noodles I ate while I was in China. Why aren't there any Chinese restaurants that serve more northern-style cuisine? The girl stayed in Luoyang, Henan province (see her China pages for more details) and I also got to eat a few delicious meals in Xi'an. Mmmm. Xi'an had the really great noodles in the Muslim quarter, and the thinner but spicy breakfast noodles, Luoyang had thick, delicious noodles hand-cut right in front of the restaurant, and the Luoyang sour noodles... And I may never get a chance to have them again.

So, the Chinese Noodle Restaurant goes on my list of ideas for a restaurant I would love to create. Right up there with the 70s restaurant. Heh.

Song Lyric Challenge

The Challenge: Create song lyrics that contain the word "laserbeam".

My results, from a single car ride home:

I wish you could focus like a laserbeam

To help me see my way at night

Of course, I have no idea if that fits with the melody that I haven't heard, but oh well. And it could be called "The Selfish Song".

Russian Anecdote

Here's something I heard from someone at work (who is from Russia):

A Russian spyplane pilot crashes in an enemy country. He is captured and put in prison. They interrogate him, asking lots of questions about the advanced spyplane he was piloting, but he says nothing. The interrogations get more and more intense, and finally they resort to torture. Still, the pilot says nothing. Then, late at night, a guard hears a strange sound coming from the pilot's cell. He goes over and sees the pilot hitting his head against the wall, murmuring "I wish I had learned that better..."

The person I heard this from said all Russian anecdotes were like this, sort of nihilistic.

Douglas Adams

Everyone is pointing to Douglas Adams quotes and obituaries, so I guess I should share my story.

The girl had brought him in to speak at school, and I was able to be one of the volunteers to guard the doors while wearing a dorky t-shirt with the weird tongue-face thing on it. The girl told me that he had gotten to the hotel room and needed an adaptor for his PowerBook, and I told my mac-friend, but M. Adams was able to get help from the hotel's electrician. Oh well. That evening, Mr. Adams gave a speech, it was ok, but uninspired. I made sure no one came in the door. Some of us stood around beforehand, discussing how irregularly we need to shave. After his talk, which included a reading from his endangered animals book, he answered questions. He hated the tongue-faced cartoon character. Someone gave him a little pig. He was excited about the prospects for the movie, which was being worked on with the guy who directed Austin Powers.

After the speech was the signing. I stood close enough to hear a lot of the questions. Some people went crazy and had boxes of stuff to sign. He managed to get through it somehow, but never seemed to particularly enjoy himself.

After the signing, the kids who helped organize it and myself took him out for dinner, to a pizza / brewhouse in a former church. I was one of the people with a car, so I drove. Since I was parked nearby, I got to drive Mr. Adams. It was raining. He seemed nervous. I was nervous. As I slowed to stop at a stoplight, I mustered the courage to ask him about the computer game he wrote that my mac-friend loved. While I asked, my foot relaxed on the brake a little and we slipped into the car in front of us. I felt like the biggest ass in the world. The woman in the car in front of us got out, there was no damage, I got back in. We rode the rest of the way in silence. I still felt like an ass.

Dinner was fine. Mr. Adams drank a lot. We ate. The conversation was a bit forced, although conversation with a large group of college kids is probably never too easy. But Mr. Adams came across as kind of a jerk. But I hadn't been a huge fan for a long while, and other people's attitudes towards him may have biased me. After dinner, we drove him back and that was it.

The next day I noticed he had left the pig that someone had given him in my car.

Hmmph.

After reading this article about him, though, I wonder if he was as uncomfortable with the whole situation as I was.

Pardon the Lyrics

But it's stuck in my head:

And then you may ask yourself, do you need a Talking Heads album?

Musicians and Music

I keep thinking about trying to start putting up music reviews here. And I keep remembering that I don't write good ones yet, but they won't get better without practice. And even though no one reads this (yet) (except you! hi!) the archives will proabably haunt me in the future.

I'm not sure if reading more reviews by other people is helping or hurting the whole process for me, but I do it anyways.

This morning's NYTimes had an interesting article on Miles Davis (it also had an less interesting article about him) and how the views of music critics and the public influenced the perception of his work. I can't intelligently comment on Miles Davis in particular, since I have only made it through a small piece of his catalog, but I think it is an interesting topic.

Does what you know about a musician's life influence how you view their music? Is that fair?

It influences me a lot. I remember reading my first interview of Trent Reznor and being disappointed at how shallow and... similar to the people at my high school he came across as. This was the guy whose songs I listened to over and over? He didn't really have anything profound to say. Maybe he captured an emotion really well on an album (Broken) that resonated with my teen angst self, but there wasn't any more than that. And I was disappointed with his next album, which covered similar territory, and haven't bought another since.

Of course, NIN was also becoming really popular at that point, which is another big factor for people, both for and against. Did I not like Modest Mouse's new album as much since I knew it had been produced for a major label? Do I not like the Backstreet Boys just because they are popular? Does Fugazi sound better because I respect their commitment to their principles? How can I identify with sad songs from musicians that are wealthy and famous?

This issue of The War Against Silence (great title!) talks about some of those issues in the Guided By Voices review. Except he takes a different route - he wonders how our musical preferences shape other things. Should we not buy music from people whose lives are being damaged by their popularity? Is buying the major-label music supporting an industry that shouldn't be supported?

I think I try to strike a compromise between the music and the musicians. Yes, I am likely to prefer music by musicians that I respect and agree with. But my knowledge of that isn't the only criteria. I am sure I enjoy songs by people that I find reprehensible. And I am sure there are people that I would respect as a person that make music I don't care for. So I will keep trying to learn about the background of the musicians to gain a better sense of where the music is coming from, but I will try to keep from pre-judging it. Only pre-biasing it.

Soccer Game

We lost the soccer game today. We didn't have enough people, so there were some people from other teams on both sides, which made it a little more difficult, although it probably did for them as well. But once again, the other team had better communication and passing, a little more speed, and enough people to keep the ball at our end of the field most of the time. Ugh. I had a few good sprints, but that seemed to wear me out for a few of the other plays.

Mother's Day

Yep, it was mother's day. I don't really appreciate such forced forms of appreciation, but my Mom does, and I probably don't do enough for her anyways, so I guess it is OK. If you are curious, here is a history of Mother's Day. I like this quote: "I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit!" - Anna Jarvis, who got Mother's Day to be an officially recognized holiday.

one last day

The girl is leaving for the land of cheese tomorrow. It is one of those emotionally confusing times, so I'm not sure what that means for the kinds of things that will be posted here.

Moving

We're moving all the cubes around at work today. Even though we've got professional movers, everyone needs to have everything packed in boxes by 3pm. And you know what? I don't think any work really happened after noon. Which is even more than a half day, since most people don't show up until around 10. Do they factor the loss of work time in to the cost of moving? Can we push the schedule out a half day as a result?

Important news update

Sure, the federal execution of Timothy McVeigh may be stayed because the FBI withheld evidence from his lawyers, further showing the problems with the death penalty, but that isn't nearly as important as this: the XFL is no more. Will we remember what a monumental achievement this was for our civilization?

I guess we can all hope that the WUSA does better.

No plan

I'm really trying to put up a new entry everyday this month.

Sometimes that is more difficult than it should be, since I don't have anything to really say.

So here's some random thoughts:

My row at work is having a margarita party tomorrow. That should make for a little bit more exciting project management class, although I'm not sure if that is really necessary.

I haven't been posting my notes from the class because I decided I really should ask Chris for permission, since it is all his work going in to it. So I have 3 or 4 weeks of notes waiting, since I forget or am reluctant to ask.

The girl and Ed and I went out for Vietnamese food tonight. Sometimes I am in the mood for it and it is great, other times it kind of makes my stomach queasy. Tonight was a queasy stomach. My fortune cookie said "Your efforts will be rewarded".

I still haven't figured out what to get with my gift certificate to the comic book store. I'm waiting to use it as something to cheer myself up with after the girl leaves.

I've had two succesful searches through all the papers I keep archived in boxes over the past two days, which makes me feel like a little bit of packrat behavior might not be so bad. My threshold may not be in exactly the right place yet, but I can keep refining it.

The apartment looks much emptier without things hanging on all of the walls.

It is starting to get hot and stay hot. Can't wait for those regular rolling blackouts...

Tea House Review: Lucy's Tea House (Mountain View, CA)

The girl and I had lunch at Lucy's Tea House today. It was reasonably tasty. They serve a meat and a vegetarian option every day, either as a sandwich or as a plate with rice and vegetable and salad and hard boiled egg. We both got the vegetarian plate, which has tofu. It was OK, it reminded me of the chinese food flavors I don't really like, especially things that are a bit too salty. But it was all well-prepared, and with the rice things were fine. After the food you get jasmine ice cream, which was very tasty. Mmmm.

But the tea was most excellent. I had "Molly's Honey", a jasmine tea with honey, served hot. I enjoy tea, but am not a huge tea fan, but this was really good. It was even served at a more reasonable temperature, so I was able to drink it without too much waiting. The girl got the "Sweet Memory", which was orange juice with tea, served cold (you can choose if you want the tea served hot or cold). It was very refreshing, but not overpoweringly flavorful. I thought it was nice, but not as good as my choice.

The service is fairly slow, since it consists mostly of a single older woman taking orders and bringing out food, but it creates a friendly, relaxed atmosphere, of which there is not enough in this area. The menus are really neat little books with a page devoted to explaining each tea.

I look forward to trying out more of the tea selections in the future.

Prostate Cancer

A good friend's dad recently died of prostate cancer. There are a number of organizations dedicated to fighting prostate cancer, like CapCure and Prostate Cancer Research Institute. It currently appears that genetics and age play a large role in determining who gets this type of cancer, but proper diet and exercise do help reduce the risk. Prostate cancer also usually has no symptoms, so it is detected by tests performed during a doctor's visit. More information is available at the American Cancer Society's Prostate Cancer Information Page.

So I guess this entry is a helpful reminder to visit your doctor regularly.

Soccer Game

My soccer team finally won a game! Go team 5! We've had a few ties in the past, but today was our first real win. We had a reasonable turnout finally, and played a solid game. Things turned ugly in the second half, with lots of questionable calls by the refs and lots of arguing. I'm not sure why that happens in a "less competitive" recreational league, but it does. I even got to block a shot while playing the post on a corner kick. Ooooh. Now, if only I had stopped that one that I got my foot on at the line...

Russian Photographs

I said I didn't want to just repost links from other weblogs, right?

Well, I'm going to anyways.

This is too cool to not post. The Library of Congress has a web site with full-color photographs taken from 1909-1915 in Russia. The photographer, Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, would take three pictures in rapid succession using red, blue, and green filters. He travelled all across the Russian empire, taking photographs, so he could leture about the empire. He would use a special projector with three lights to show the photographs in color. The website has digital recreations of the color, based on the three negatives for each. It's really strange looking - the colors don't seem quite right, and sometimes they are not, but it is strange to see old things in such a crisp, colorful format. How much does the medium we have for viewing evidence of the past affect our ability to understand it?

Summer's Here

I went for a walk with the girl, and it finally felt like summer. The weather has been nice for a while, but the smells and humidity and temperature all finally achieved that summer balance.

I can understand why so many people want to move out here.

Book Review: Rim (Alexander Besher)

I have a weakness for "cyberpunk" novels. Blame it on my late eighties - early nineties upbringing. I read Neuromancer in seventh grade and never looked back. So when I was in Powell's and saw this book for a few bucks, I couldn't resist. Someday I will own all of the trashy cyberpunk novels.

And this was pretty trashy. Somewhat enjoyable, but nothing profound. It took a while for me to get over my distaste for all of the unexplained chi-energy powers that characters possessed, along with the offhand comments about the value of other alternative medicines. After I got over that, I could focus more on the other weak qualities of the book. The writing was not very good (maybe it has improved for his later novels?) and the plot was a little disappointing. But it was cyberpunk - belief in the dominance of Japan, megacorporations, cybernetic enhancements, androids, space stations for civilians, battles with high-tech versions of ancient weapons, sex scenes with female assassins, and lots of computer stuff.

The book is about a professor who happens to be one of the world experts in chi manipulation, apparently, and he gets involved in a rivalry between two megacorporations. A globalwide virtual reality system crashes, and thousands of lives are in danger, including the protagonist's son, although you never really worry about that since the son is the supposed author of this "historical" document. Which could have been a fine ploy, but it wasn't pulled off. There is also lots of coincidental action between characters, which is supposed to be karmic, I think, but comes off as lame, especially at the end. The middle of the book has a reasonable climax, but the intended climax at the end falls flat, with shifting perspectives that don't enhance the story and a lack of tension. The main character is the only one explored in any depth, and you never really understand him. The female characters are all one-dimensional, but so are the rest of the characters, so maybe its not intentional. The technology is not very interesting, since it mostly depends on this unexplained chi-manipulation. Which I understand comes from the Tibetan Buddhist thread of the book, but it is never explained how that stuff actually started working, or how our world became so dependent on it within about 30 years of when the book was written. The idea of Tibet having a thriving software industry after being freed from China was neat, but the whole "consciousness processing" software didn't work for me. And I'm not sure if the real world / virtual world distinction issues were supposed to be a surprise at the end, because it didn't seem like it, but it sort of seemed like it was supposed to be since the protagonist didn't know.

And on a side note, my copy has a sticker on the front proudly proclaiming it to be a nominee for the "Philip J Dick Award". Ummm, right.

Fighting Ignorance

Far too often, it seems, you encounter people telling a story you know isn't true. Maybe it is an urban legend you heard your uncle talk about years ago; maybe it is a conspiracy theory about faked moon landings from a co-worker; maybe it is a pseudo-science argument about how crystals will help fix what problems you are having. How do you respond?

Carefully, of course. Telling people they are stupid and wrong isn't going to help anyone. So you try to explain why what they say might not be true, which requires some background info. And where do you get that?

On the internet, of course.

Here's some useful starting points:

The Straight Dope is a column that appears in the back (with the personals and phone sex ads) of a lot of alternative papers. The author receives questions about all sorts of things, especially about pseudo-science and junk science, and does a fair job of digging up good information to respond with. The site also has good search capabilities, so it is good to check out. It's also where I stole the title for this entry from.

Bad Astronomy is the web site of an astronomer, who spends time explaining why much of the physics and astronomy shown on TV and in movies is incorrect. But he also has arguments against common misconcetions, like standing an egg on its end on the equinox, and things like that. It is a really nice web site.

SNOPES is a project to collect information on urban legends. It also has started covering internet urban legends, like chain letters and things. This is a great place to go when you hear that story about a friend of a friend who had this crazy thing happen...

For more traditional pseudoscience claims, like UFOs and bermuda triangle stuff, you could try CSICOP for some introductory background material. I think a lot of the best material for this stuff is in book form, but if I find good web sites I'll be sure to add another entry.

Death Penalty

Last night the NPR had a show called The Execution Tapes, which played an audio recording of an execution in Georgia. It then played a clip of a "botched" execution that needed to be redone, and some final statements by the "condemned". I found it terribly disturbing. The audio clips (and more) are available on that website.

For some more general background on the death penalty in the U.S., try the Death Penalty Information Center, which compiles a lot of information.

During the broadcast I couldn't help but think of the book Ordinary Men, about a "reserve police battalion" from Germany in World War 2. The book investigates how ordinary people can do horrible things. That's what I was reminded of as the execution used the skills of the guards, the government officials, an electrician, and doctors. All these people that did their little part to make the execution happen. All these people that accepted the authority that this was the right person to kill, that killing them was an acceptable thing to do.

I do believe the more practical anti-death penalty argument, that it is too costly and doesn't deter crime and can't make things better for the victim's survivors (although I would like to see a study of the mental health of victims and victim's families for similar crimes where the criminal was and was not killed). That life in prison without parole is better, because we can undo mistakes and learn from the criminals to try prevent these horrible crimes from happening again. But I can't really get around the emotional argument, that the death penalty seems so wrong. The people on the radio show discussing how vengeance is an appropriate thing, that death is an appropriate punishment, that somehow killing more people makes things better - it was very disturbing. And the levity after the execution, the enormous relief that the participants seemed to feel, seems to me to mean that we shouldn't make people participate in such a traumatic process. Turning it into an offical, step by step process, trying to make it seem calm and orderly and humane makes it all the worse. How can people trust the government to take this step? How can individuals comply with this?

It makes me very glad that I am a member of Amnesty International, which opposes the death penalty worldwide. They have a death penalty page.

Just for a minimal attempt at balance, take a look at Pro-Death Penalty.com. They challenge some of the DPIC's assertions and try to focus on the victims more.

So, for the record, if I am ever murdered (or the victim of another death-penalty crime), I don't want the criminal to be executed. I would like the criminal to be captured and put in prison so they serve an appropriate punishment (and the situation inside american prisons is a topic for another day) and are prevented from harming others. But not killed.

And some other brief things from my history online that related to this topic for me that I wanted to capture the links to.

"As an atheist, I view every life as *incredibly* valuable because we only

get one turn around the merry go round, and then it's over; no backsies,

no second chances, no heavenly choir to sing one into the pearly gates

no matter how terrible or abusive a life one's led as long as at the end

one chooses to Believe. Every life is rarer than the rarest diamond, and

since the only future we have is that which we make, the only signs we

were here are that which we create, life must be preserved, nourished

and given the chance to grow." - jms

Dave Winer's essay about Karla Faye Tucker

Lack of Ideas

I think of lots of things to put in the weblog when I'm at work, or when the girl is on the machine, and then when I wake up early and have time to work on it, there's nothing.

Or I get distracted by reading other web pages.

I've decided to try to not post links with little or no commentary. There are plenty of other weblogs that can do that more regularly and comprehensively than here. So I want to point out things I have found or am thinking about.

It becomes difficult when I am spending more time on work, since I haven't quite figured out how much to include about that here. Probably more than I have been, but I don't want to get anyone into trouble.

But I will keep trying, and hopefully get into a more regular habit where I remember the stuff I wanted to write about here.

Anonymous Speech

This topic came up the other day - what rights should people have to anonymous speech? It can easily be used to slander someone, who doesn't have much recourse against anonymous sources. So what should be done? Supposedly impartial people that filter what anonymous messages are allowed? Non-anonymous individuals vouching for anonymous content? No anonymous content?

I do believe in some form of anonymous speech, to encourage more people to share their opinions without fear of reprisal from more powerful individuals or entities. But I haven't had much personal experience with hateful anonymous speech, so I'm probably underestimating the negative effects of that. And I'm sure the "right answer" depends on the particular situation and environment.

So it is time to do some research on the topic.

Here's an ACLU case about protecting anonymity from meritless lawsuits. Here's a case about preventing Yahoo from disclosing a member's identity without telling the member.

The Global Internet Liberty Campaign (which looks like a neat coalition of groups that I hadn't heard about before) have a page with resources about anonymous speech, especially on the internet.

EPIC has a page with free speech resources, including some Supreme Court decisions upholding the right to anonymous speech.

I think the internet brings up some interesting issues, since online anonymous speech may be available for people with more technical knowledge and not available to others.

If I figure out an answer, I'll make sure to post it here.