Monday, 30 January 2006
Congrats, Oz!
The Ozabs saw Anna pop out in to the world from her warm, cozy womb, back on the 19th. What is it with ATPM staffers and early children? Congratulations, Mom and Dad, and welcome, Anna!
Friday, 27 January 2006
Rock me, Amadeus
I missed blogging about the 300th anniversary of Ben Franklin’s birthday, so I knew I couldn’t miss today. What’s today?
Today is the 250th anniversary of the birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. While Tom and I agree that Bach is the better composer (and I would rate Handel better, as well), Mozart’s body of work is quite an accomplishment, given what he produced before his death at the age of 35. There are composers today, living in to their eighties, who do not produce music with the depth and scope that Mozart did.
Monday, 23 January 2006
Deep Thinking
Things to think about that you probably have never thought about:
Can you cry under water?
How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?
Why do you have to “put your two cents in”, but it’s only a “penny for your thoughts”? Where’s that extra penny going to?
Why does a round pizza come in a square box?
What disease did cured ham actually have?
How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?
Why is it that people say they “slept like a baby” when babies wake up like every two hours? (Jim and Lissa, take note!)
If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?
Why are you in a movie, but you’re on TV?
Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?
Why do doctors leave the room while you change? They’re going to see you naked anyway.
Why is “bra” singular and “panties” plural?
Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?
If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a stupid song about him?
Can a hearse carrying a corpse drive in the carpool lane?
Why do people point to their wrist when asking for the time, but don’t point to their crotch when they asking where the bathroom is?
Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They’re both dogs!
If Wile E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that ACME crap, why didn’t he just buy dinner?
Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog’s face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him for a car ride; he sticks his head out the window?!
Do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune?
Why did you just try singing the two songs above?
[Via e-mail from my mom.]
Sunday, 22 January 2006
Happy News
HappyNews.com. Real News. Compelling Stories. Always Positive.
As opposed to the typical “if it bleeds, it leads” attitude of the major news organizations, Byron Reese believes, “News should give you an accurate view of the world.” It’s not all sunshine and roses, but it’s not all doom and gloom, either.
The site also offers a weekly online lifestyle magazine.
[Via Reader’s Digest.]
Saturday, 21 January 2006
Shouldn’t dynasties win more than one?
Above is the proposed billboard to be placed in a high-traffic area near the USC campus.
LSU grads in the Dallas area, annoyed by the media coverage over USC’s attempt at “a third-straight national championship”, have raised the necessary $10,000 for the proposed billboard, and are working with a Mobile firm in scouting for a suitable location. As you would imagine, even the Bruins are happy about it.
The message here, people, is that the Bowl Championship Series was created for the sole purpose of providing the means, in lieu of a playoff system, to determine the one, true national champion of Division I-A college football. God knows I have my myriad issues with the BCS, but it is, despite its faults, the system in place, and it should be respected. This is the vein of the message from Onepeat.com.
Thursday, 19 January 2006
The latest on mobile phone manners
Look, the world is not your personal playground. Do not share with us your musical tastes; do not share with us your latest wheelings and dealings. In public places, you have an obligation to hold up your end of the implied social contract by not imposing yourself on those around you. This is crucial to a civilized society and just because technology allows you to act like a braying ass in public doesn’t mean you should do it. Quite the contrary, in fact. You need to be more aware of your surroundings than ever.
I particularly liked one suggestion:
Ditch the ring tone and put the phone on vibrate. The only person who cares about an incoming call on your phone is you. Don’t worry, you’ll feel it. (It feels go-o-o-od.) Most ring tones are not only intrusive, they’re inane.
One feature I like on my phone, and I’m sure it’s on most new phones, is the option to have it simultaneously vibrate and ring. My phone vibrates first, then starts the ring tone, so I can usually nab it when only the first couple of notes are playing. It’s also dead simple to change from “Vibe & Ring” to “Vibrate” when the situation demands (church, movies, restaurants).
The fact that most ring tones are inane is why I roll my own. My “standard” ring tone is the opening twenty-two seconds of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley”. When strangers hear it, I always get a knowing smile, or a quizzical look that says, I know that melody, but I can’t quite place it… It’s certainly unique, and I won’t confuse it with anyone else’s ring.
Which brings me to my own mobile phone usage tip: change your ring tone from whatever the default is. (If you can; I realize older phones still in use may not have that option.) I don’t know why, but I find it irritating when the default Moto or Nokia ring tone goes off. Find something else. Please.
Are you a kept man?
Are you a kept man? Living off the fruits of the labor of your wife, girlfriend, significant other? Married a trust-fund cutie or a wealthy widow? Tell the world with Kept Man Apparel!
Wednesday, 18 January 2006
Tuesday, 17 January 2006
Drive capacity envy
Seagate is now shipping 160 GB laptop drives. These are in the Momentus line, and run at 5400 rpm, with an Ultra ATA/100 interface. The Serial ATA version is coming later in the year. What’s interesting to note is that the drives are shipping, but no pricing is available.
I had thought I would rather a 7200 rpm 100 GB drive, over a 5400 rpm 120 GB drive, should I upgrade my PowerBook. Depending upon pricing, I would gladly run a 5400 rpm 160 GB drive. Lee, who passed on the above link via IM, is hoping this announcement will drive down the cost of 120 GB drives.
Update: Lee, again via IM, points to OWC’s listing, with a price of cough, cough $399.00.
Every rose has its thorn
If Tiff is feeling old, then I must be positively ancient.
Speaking of depressing age news, I have noted that I am now in another, less desirable demographic, what with the birthday last month.
Previously, when filling out surveys and such, I could confidently click on the age demographic buttons for 25-34, or 26-34, or however they broke it down. Now, it seems every single age demographic mapping I would fall in to is listed as 35-50. Fifty?
Granted, we do grow to be more like our parents the older we get, but from a pop culture standpoint, I can tell you I have little in common with my fifty-something parents. (No, I do not use the term “fifty-something” because I have no idea how old my parents are. I know exactly how old they are, but because they are not the same age, I thought the more generic “fifty-something” was more appropriate.)
For the record, Tiff, I’ve seen the same commercial, and come to the same realization. It’s nice to know another closet metal-head is out there.
Thursday, 12 January 2006
Hot Potato
Is it not enough that as the father of a two year-old, I already hear “Hot Potato” by The Wiggles in my sleep, that now Special K has to use it for their idiotic diet commercials?
Tuesday, 10 January 2006
MacBook Pro
MacBook Pro.
MacBook Pro.
MacBook Pro.
How soon do you think it will take for a spoof ad to show up that shows the new Intel-powered Macintosh portable, with the golden arches in place of the Apple logo, and the tagline “Do you want fries with that?”
I realize this may be part of some new marketing scheme by our favorite fruit company to get “Mac” into all of its Macintosh product names. It’s just shocking that Steve and Company would ditch “PowerBook,” which has for so long almost been a brand unto itself, not unlike “iPod”.
Monday, 09 January 2006
Reckless with the truth and national security
A Patriot Post reader:
In their eagerness to inflict as much damage as possible to the Bush administration record, the Democrats once again are being reckless with the truth and with national security. Some say that the president is spying on American citizens. The president has made clear from the start that the wiretaps were limited to targeting communications from outside the country to individuals in the U.S. with known links to terrorist groups. It’s not an “unreasonable search” to look for the bad guys when fighting international terrorism. The Democrats don’t have a leg to stand on in this issue…and they know it.
How can the Democrats in all honesty criticize the president for intelligence failures and then attack him for being too aggressive in doing surveillance? How do you explain dismantling protections in the midst of a terror war? The Democrats by their duplicity are playing a very dangerous game that could derail the president’s strategy to defeat a deadly enemy. The Fourth Amendment to the constitution protects its citizens from “unreasonable searches and seizures” but who will protect us from “unreasonable” self-serving, seditious and self-destructive politicians?” —Fredericktown, Ohio
Shocked—shocked!—we tell you
Dana Priest of The Washington Post sounds shocked - shocked! - to discover that George W. Bush ordered a complete remobilization and reinvigoration of the CIA immediately after September 11th:
The effort President Bush authorized shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, to fight al-Qaida has grown into the largest CIA covert-action program since the height of the Cold War, expanding in size and ambition despite a growing outcry at home and abroad over clandestine tactics…
This is news? Isn’t this just what W. told the country he would do in the aftermath of September 11th?
[…]
Apparently W. meant it. According to the Post’s Ms. Priest, the president signed an order six days after September 11th empowering American intelligence agencies in a way not seen since the Second World War.
Gosh, just as if we had suffered a surprise attack and thousands of our people had been killed in a second Pearl Harbor.
Do you think maybe the president decided to fight this like a world war because, far ahead of his critics, he realized we were in one?
On truth being stranger than fiction
What do the senior senator from Massachusetts and quadruple murderer Stanley “Tookie” Williams have in common? The Associated Press provides one answer:
Meet the latest children’s author, Sen. Ted Kennedy, and his Portuguese Water Dog, Splash, his co-protagonist in “My Senator and Me: A Dogs-Eye View of Washington, D.C.”
Scholastic Inc. will release the book in May.
So Ted Kennedy has a dog named Splash? How witty.
Mary Jo Kopechne’s children could not be reached for comment.
Saturday, 07 January 2006
More miscellany
I would be more excited about Google Pack if (a) the Google-specific apps worked with Mac OS; (b) I didn’t already have some of these apps, or equivalents, installed on my wife’s PC; and (c) if she had any interest in the ones that are not installed.
I believe John is being very kind when he describes the latest shots of Windows Vista as “really ugly”. My reaction contained the type of words my mother told me were not nice to say aloud. Or even think.
Speaking of his Gruberness, it doesn’t sound as though he’s impressed with Kodak’s new logo either. I know I’m not. That font is hideous.
Today’s miscellany
Ron Moore, creator and executive producer of the best show on television, shares his favorite science-fiction tomes.
From the “You’ve Got to Be Kidding Me” Department
“Hi, we’re Western Digital. Since our hard drives are slightly above average in performance and reliability, rather than making them top-notch, the industry’s best, we thought we would throw our research and development in to making clear cases for the drives, so you can see the inner workings…”
It actually is a rather impressive drive, specification-wise. I just prefer Seagates, when I can get them.
From the “You’ve Got to Be Kidding Me” Department: Part Two
The mail arrived at the house today at approximately one o’clock this afternoon. I know this only because I was walking down the stairs at that moment, and saw the postal worker depositing today’s mail in our box.
Within today’s delivery was my latest order from the BMG music club of which I am still a member. I don’t order from them very often, waiting for the really good sales they have from time to time, but that’s not really the point here.
The point is that at approximately two-thirty, an hour and a half after I pulled the order out of the mailbox, an e-mail from BMG hit my In box, informing me my order had shipped.
Way to stay on top of things, guys.
Friday, 06 January 2006
Google Apple’s best friend?
Tim Beyers ruminates that if the rumors are true, and Google is set to introduce either a low-priced computer running the “Google OS”, or roll out the Google Pack software package, or a for-pay video download service, or any combination of the above, this could drive more Windows users in to the open arms of Macintosh.
Cleaning house
Today’s featured article on OpinionJournal, while highlighting the Abramoff ugliness, shows why many conservatives, this one included, are relatively unhappy with the Republicans in Congress:
The party that swept to power on term limits, spending restraint and reform has become the party of incumbency, 6,371 highway-bill “earmarks,” and K Street. And it’s no defense to say that Democrats would do the same. Of course Democrats would, but then they’ve always claimed to be the party of government. If that’s what voters want, they’ll choose the real thing.
[…]
Republicans won’t escape voter anger by writing new rules but only by returning to their self-professed principles. Gradually since 1994 they’ve decided they want to reform and limit government less than they want to use government to entrench their own power, and in the case of the Abramoffs to get rich doing so. If Speaker Dennis Hastert, interim Majority Leader Roy Blunt and other GOP leaders are too insulated to realize this, then Republicans need new leaders, and right away.
What’s the adage, “Lead or get out of the way”? That’s what the Republican congressional leadership needs to do. Show some backbone and lead, or let a willing someone step up and take over. There should be no more talk of DeLay returning to the Majority Leader position. Even if Mr. DeLay is found to be completely innocent (and in the case of the Texas charges, I believe he is), he has been tainted by allowing himself to be put in that position in the first place. Mr. Blunt or another Republican congressman needs to be named the new Majority Leader, so the floundering of the party can be put to a stop.
The Republican Party, lead by Reagan, and then briefly from ‘94-98 by Gingrich, was the party of smaller government. This message resonated with the American people, and this put and kept the Republicans in power so long as they abided by that message. If Republicans are so interested in remaining in power, as the OpinionJournal piece opines, perhaps they should look to their recent past.
Fighting on many fronts
Not content to see the U.S. surrender in Iraq, the “peace” activists want us to lose in our own hemisphere as well. Notes Mary Anastasia O’Grady:
Congressional proposals to cut and run from Iraq are not the only dumb ideas emanating from Capitol Hill that threaten the security of Americans. Another is the insistence that the U.S. should stop its training efforts to increase the professionalism of Latin American militaries.
Since the late 1940s, the U.S. has operated a training facility at Fort Benning, Georgia for Latin American soldiers. Prior to 2000, it was known as the School of the Americas (SOA). Today it is the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, or Whinsec. Some 60,000 Latin military professionals have come through the two schools in the past six decades to improve their warfare skills while imbibing U.S. respect for democratic values.
In a region flush with political instability and insurgent activity, promoting military professionalism among our Latin allies might seem like a good idea. But Rep. Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, and 122 other House members have a problem with Whinsec. In March 2005, Mr. McGovern sponsored House Resolution 1217, which called for a suspension of the Whinsec program and an investigation of human rights violations that it allegedly contributed to.
It might be tempting to climb on board this “peace train” if not for the low credibility of Mr. McGovern and his activist admirers. The National Journal recently named the Massachusetts congressional delegation the most liberal in the nation and Mr. McGovern one of its most liberal members. Not incidentally, many of those demanding that Whinsec be shut down on “human rights” grounds are wholesale opponents of U.S. policy in the region.
One of the favorite targets of our adorable pacifists is the Colombian military, which a Gallup poll two years ago found was the most respected institution in that war-torn country with an 87% positive image (beating even the Church). Since Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has committed to raising the professionalism of Colombia’s armed forces, the country’s bloodthirsty guerrillas have been set back on their heels. That seems to make Mr. McGovern’s supporters very unhappy.
There is also the habit of linking U.S. training to any misdeed committed by any individual that passed through the school. For example, SOA Watch, a Web site dedicated to closing Whinsec, blames the killing of a leader in the “peace community” on “troops commanded by General Luis Alfonso Zapata Uribe.” Whether that’s true or not is a matter for Colombian investigators. However, as evidence of U.S. complicity, SOA Watch cites Gen. Zapata Uribe’s SOA attendance. What it doesn’t mention is that he was there for six weeks in 1976 just after cadet school, according to Whinsec records. Even if Gen. Zapata Uribe — who may well be innocent — did spend six weeks in Georgia 30 years ago, does that really have any bearing on what constitutes good U.S. policy in the region today?
The notion that the U.S. should simply withdraw from military relationships in Latin America, abandoning not only alliances but also its role in promoting a U.S. human rights agenda, is about as stupid as, well, the Democratic idea of withdrawing from Iraq.
Thursday, 05 January 2006
What is it about people named Barbara and Dean?
John Fund has a note on Barbara Boxer’s Bush obsession in today’s Political Diary.
Some Democrats have become so obsessed with President Bush’s National Security Agency surveillance activities that they are putting the most rabid of the anti-Clinton Republicans of the 1990s to shame. Take Senator Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat who serves as her party’s Chief Deputy Whip. Last month, during the holiday season, she sent a letter to legal scholars asking their opinions as to whether the Bush NSA program should compel Congress to start impeachment hearings.
With the 2006 midterm elections now upon us, if the Democrats want the American public to take them seriously on matters of national security, perhaps they should quietly decide to make someone else the Chief Deputy Whip.
Ms. Boxer’s letter had been prompted by a December 16 appearance she made at Temple Emanuel in Los Angeles with former Nixon White House Counsel John Dean, who has since become a sort of understudy to former Attorney General Ramsey Clark in his willingness to ascribe all manner of evil intent to conservative presidents. Mr. Dean, who declared the Bush record on civil liberties “worse than Watergate,” told the Temple Emanuel audience that Mr. Bush is “the first president to admit to an impeachable offense.” Ms. Boxer called that “a startling assertion” worthy of Congressional attention. During her duet with Mr. Dean, she made her own startling statement, blurting out that she feared Mr. Bush “would prefer to do away with Congress,” calling for the House and Senate to be disbanded during wartime.
The “worse than Watergate” assertion would be one of the funniest things I’ve read today if it weren’t for Boxer’s own comment about Bush wanting to disband Congress. One has to wonder if she’s truly serious when she utters such nonsense, or is she simply playing to the anti-war radical left? Either way, I think it shows that Boxer isn’t fit for such a high position in one of this country’s two major political parties.
Democrats such as Ms. Boxer are in danger of being viewed as overheated and irrational in their reaction to the NSA story.
Ya think? I think we’re well past the “in danger of” stage.
A new Rasmussen poll finds that 32% of voters think our legal system worries too much about individual rights at the expense of national security. Another 27% say the current balance is about right. Only 29% say there is too much concern for national security at the expense of individual liberties and only one-third of Americans believe that Mr. Bush broke the law by authorizing the NSA to monitor phone calls between terrorist suspects. Only 26% believe that President Bush is the first to authorize a program allowing the NSA to intercept such calls.
If Ms. Boxer and Mr. Dean continue to urge Democrats down the impeachment route, they should recall how much the issue flopped for Republicans in the 1998 mid-term elections. Mr. Clinton became the first president since FDR to see his party gain seats during a mid-term election, in part because voters felt Republicans were spending too much time attacking him rather than addressing other issues.
I thought we were painting our faces for the Tiger game
Have you seen the McDonald’s commercial with the face-painting football fans? I just about lost it when Tiger Face licks the back of his hand at the end.
Letterman’s swing to the left
This morning, while dropping the little phisch off at school and running an errand, I caught a bit of Laura Ingraham. She was discussing and taking calls about David Letterman’s treatment of Bill O’Reilly when the latter appeared on the former’s show earlier this week.
I’m not an O’Reilly fan in the least, and I am an infrequent watcher of Letterman, but when I have tuned in, I too have noticed the late night host’s slide toward the radical left.
The late night shows, Leno and Letterman, have always poked fun at whomever is the current President, and the Congress. That’s not the issue here. Carson did the same, and it’s to be expected. They are public figures, and one of the great things about our country, as opposed to, say, the workers’ paradise ninety miles off the coast of Florida, is that we can poke fun at our leaders without fear of reprisal. We have come to accept, and expect, such fun-poking from the late-night hosts.
Within the past couple of years, however, both Leno and Letterman have increasingly been slinging barbs, instead of zingers, with regard to the President in particular, and conservatives in general. Leno, at least, remains funny and charming about it, and tries to be balanced. Letterman, however, appears bitter, his comments aren’t funny, and he certainly isn’t interested in trying to be fair.
From the clips I heard, O’Reilly was trying to keep things light, quipping that Dave should tune in to O’Reilly’s show, and maybe they would “send him a hat.” Letterman’s response was something along the lines of, “So long as it’s a Cindy Sheehan hat.” Cindy Sheehan, Dave? She’s so last year. No one even showed up for her book signing.
Letterman’s strength has always been his and his staff’s writing. Among the reasons I’ve tuned in less and less to Letterman is that strength is waning, and he’s allowing too much of his political beliefs come through in what is supposed to be an entertainment show. No one tunes in to Letterman or Leno to listen to political rants, from either perspective, or to discuss world events. People tune in to get the latest entertainment gossip, watch the “interviews,” and get a good laugh. Letterman has become fallow ground for the latter.
Socialism: never a good idea
Socialism is a nice idea, in theory, they tell me. I won’t be conceding that point anymore. Too many have conceded it for too long, and too many have been fooled into thinking it can work — again. And, the costs of that particular thought are just too high.
Calendar fun
In my pursuit to not renew my .Mac subscription this year, I decided to install PHP iCalendar. Since we use only SFTP on our box, and none of the the iCal FTP apps out there support that protocol, I was left with publishing from iCal via WebDav.
After I confirmed with him that WebDav was available on our box’s installation, Jim, our sysamdmin, walked me through setting up authentication for publishing and viewing. This was not without its little hiccups.
Being the brilliant guy he is, Jim soon figured out the issue, and now I am happily publishing my calendar to the web. A quick bookmark, named oh so originally “Cal”, in Safari’s Bookmark Bar, and I’m set.
On those Wikipedia ills
Given Ellyn’s column this month on Wikipedia, I thought this Penny Arcade was apropos.
[Wave of the phin to Dan.]
Wednesday, 04 January 2006
Tuesday, 03 January 2006
Documenting bad grammar
Lee and I share a pet peeve relating to grammar, and he has chosen to begin documenting finds in meatspace.
One reason I don’t slog through comments on most blogs is because the respondents apparently didn’t learn anything in third grade, or since. “It’s” means “it is,” and “Its” denotes the possessive case. “There” denotes a place, while “Their” denotes a plural possessive. Those are the two major mistakes I see, which irk me to no end.
If Karl Rove Leaked the NSA Story, He’d Be a Media Hero
[T]he establishment media clearly leans toward the view that the NSA leak was in the public interest. Unlike the Plame probe, the Justice Department career employees trying to investigate the NSA case can expect no laudatory editorials urging them to pursue their job relentlessly and, above all, no media bloodhounds conducting their own parallel investigations.
The old adage that politics should stop at the water’s edge was abandoned long ago. Now the idea that all of us, regardless of political stripe, have a stake in preventing harm to national security from unauthorized intelligence leaks seems to have similarly entered the dustbin of history.
Another reason to love the Scots
The Scottish accent—when it is comprehensible—is better for business than a regional English accent.
If you want to get ahead in business and don’t speak the Queen’s English, it is better to sound as if you are from Scotland, or indeed from America, Europe or India, than from any English region.
Those Brits sure can be a wee odd at times.
[Via AWAD.]
Monday, 02 January 2006
Why you should not use your mouth before engaging your brain
Scene: my wife and I are sitting at our respective desks in the study, doing our respective things on our respective computing systems.
Her: “Wow. There are thirteen miners trapped in a mine in West Virginia.”
Me: “What the hell are a bunch of minors doing…”
That was the point I shut up and then started laughing. Then I had to explain the insanity that took place in my mind, to which my smiling bride stated, “Doofus.”
Doofus, indeed.
No Dr. Phil hockey
Apparently there is some whining going on regarding the fact that hockey is the only sport which actually has rules for fighting, and Razor explains, as only Razor can, why this is such a good thing:
Baseball would have more fights than it already does (which by the way is on par if not exceeding the number in hockey) if the runner had to face a base guarded by a player with a bat. And since I’m on the subject, just stop with the bench-emptying stare downs when a pitcher throws a ball near a batters noggin’. Either throw-down or sit-down.
Football would be a fight-filled extravaganza if each guy packed a club and the game was played in an arena (Hey, wait a minute. They do play in arenas in the appropriately named Arena League. Oh, that’s right, they pad the boards for the big tough footballers.)
Basketball? Well we saw last year that it doesn’t take more than a flagrant foul and a cup of beer to send players into fight club mode. At least hockey has the brains to thank its fans and beat each other up rather than the other way around. Again, give the players a foreign object, a cage around the court and a ‘no blood no foul’ governance, and I’ll show you some lanky, bomb-throwing fisticuffs.
[Emphasis added. —R]
War has solved plenty
The last major war the United States was involved in was Vietnam. The modern Democratic Party leadership all came of age during that war, as did most of the editorial staff in the manistream media. It wasn’t just a defining moment in the modern American left, it was the defining moment, the prism through which the left would view the world from that moment on. Vietnam was justification for every pacifist tendency that every liberal has ever had. When they said that war didn’t solve anything, they could point to Vietnam. When they wanted to show the consequences of war, they could point to Vietnam. When they wanted to show the failure of military force as a tool for political change, they could point to Vietnam. It was the last major war this country was ever involved in. Sure we’ve had military operations, from Grenada to the Gulf War to the Balkans, but Vietnam our last big one, and it was a war we ended up losing. Vietnam has been their de facto answer for everything for the past 30 years.
Iraq threatens their entire belief system.
[Emphasis added. —R]
The Broker
The last John Grisham book I read was The Summons, and it was a decent read. Before that, the last Grisham book I had tackled was The Chamber, but I got bored and put it down before I was even a fourth of the way through, and have never picked it up again.
Now, as far as decent fiction you don’t have to really think about, the kind of books perfect for waiting around in airports, flying, or while on your daily bus or train commute, Grisham’s work is usually perfect. I adore The Pelican Brief, not only because of the the writing, but also because my wife went to Tulane Law, and we were living in New Orleans when I read the book and when the movie came out. It’s the only Grisham novel I have in hardcover.
However, like I said, with one exception, it’s been awhile since I picked up a Grisham book. That changed two weeks ago.
On Sunday, December 18th, while browsing the books at Costco, I happened upon The Broker. I read the synopsis on the back cover. It sounded intriguing. Certainly more intriguing than the synopses for the other Grisham books I’d picked up and not purchased for the past decade or so. It went in to the cart, and I started reading it a couple of hours after we got home.
I finished it Monday night. Yes, that Monday, as in the very next day, the 19th. I told my wife how good I thought it was, and she started it three days ago, and finished it off last night.
It’s as if after a long dry spell of just churning out books because that was what was expected of him, Grisham decided to write a book he would enjoy writing (which it sounds like he did, based on the acknowledgments) as well as one he would enjoy reading, and it shows.
Most of the book takes place in Italy, which Grisham traveled through as part of his research. This could very well have a lot to do with why I enjoyed the book, as the author transports you to the cities and towns of Italy, and it gave my imagination a workout. Yet it has to be more than that, and I believe it’s because it has the Grisham flow that made his early works so popular.
The Broker is not going to win any literary awards, but let’s face it: as with the Academy Awards, awards don’t often reflect the reality of the marketplace. It’s a fun book, and Retrophisch™ Recommended.
Smooth Guy
Do you want to know why Guy Kawasaki was made the head evangelist by Apple in the mid-1990s? Because Guy’s so smooth:
You should give your ten slides in twenty minutes. Sure, you have an hour time slot, but you’re using a Windows laptop, so it will take forty minutes to make it work with the projector.
Actually, the entire post is about Guy’s optimal PowerPoint presentation. (He sees a lot of them as a venture capitalist.) If you give presentations, it’s a worthwhile read.
ATPM 12.01
About This Particular Macintosh begins its twelfth year of publishing with the release of the January 2006 issue.
Ellyn starts things off by noting something is rotten in the state of Wikipedia. Personally, I try to avoid linking to Wikipedia, and encourage fellow bloggers to do the same. Wes has a round-up of the latest Macworld Expo/Intel-based Mac rumor-mongering, something I simply cannot condone. (The rumor-mongering, not the gathering thereof. I believe it’s important to know, and point out, how badly these rumor sites hurt Apple and rarely help consumers.) Sylvester ponders how even long-time Mac users can encounter newbie moments.
A rare treat for the ATPM readership: publisher Michael Tsai returns with a Personal Computing Paradigm column on coping with Mac OS X’s font rendering. Michael and I share a common Microsoft love: Verdana. It’s my main screen font, too, and the first one I specify in the stylesheets for my blogs. I also like Microsoft’s Georgia, and use it as my main serif font. Look for Georgia to make an appearance in an upcoming redesign I’m working on.
Your humble author again submits some photos from Wyoming as this month’s desktop pictures. These feature the Jenny Lake area of Grand Teton National Park, the part of the vacation I believe I enjoyed more than our time in Yellowstone. This could largely be due to the differences in weather we had between the two parks.
This month’s Cortland, rated PG-13 for violence, attempts to allude to as many science fiction motion pictures as possible, as several plotlines converge.
Tom kicks the reviews off with the software I wish I had the hardware to handle, and that’s turning the digital photography world on its ear, Aperture. Ellyn listens different with Griffin Technology’s EarThumps, while Matthew examines Quicken alternative iCash.
Tom continues to make me jealous with a review of the hardware I hope to be able to run Aperture on in the future, the 20-inch iMac G5. Yours truly got to make a few other staffers jealous with my own product review, that of Tivoli Audio’s iSongBook. While the review was turned in before the Christmas holiday, we did take the iSongBook on the road with us, and it proved its worth for us during our stay at my grandmother’s. It pulled double duty as bedtime lullaby player for our toddler, and alarm clock for us.
Lee, who got plenty of experience with virtual tours last year during his house hunt, looks at an alternative to QuickTime VR for creating virtual tours, Mapwing Creator Pro. Chuck wraps the first reviews of the year up with an examination of the latest version of REALbasic.
Our thanks to our readers who have stuck with us for the past eleven years, and we’re looking forward to the next eleven!
Sunday, 01 January 2006
Happy New Year
For New Year’s Eve, my wife and I went out to dinner, toddler in tow. Over our meal we toasted the new year, praying it would be better than 2005, which was better than 2004, which was only slightly worse than 2003.
My prayer for my family, my friends, and you, dear reader, is that 2006 is a better year for you as well. God bless, and be God’s.