03/02/2003 To be human
What does it mean to be alive on this planet today, February 6, 2003? Of course the answer to this depends on who it is that does the answering. A child in Iraq will certainly offer up something very different from a middle class father in suburb, U.S.A. Even in the same city or small town, the answers will have variation.
We are diverse. But certainly there are commonalities. It seems that we forget these commonalities and we forget that we share this planet together. Conflict has been emphasized by the media to fulfill certain agendas. We are divided from ourselves and one another. Told by the experts that we are enemies. That are interests are not the same. There’s some truth to that but it’s not the truth that is presented.
03/02/2003
Very, very scary
How far is the U.S. from status of police state?
03/02/2003
Something strange with this weblog?
Why yes… You’ll notice that there are lot’s of entries for March 2, 2003. Those are actually entries for February, all carried over from my previous blog hosted on my .mac account. The new blog is more customizable and is hosted via the MeDiA Co-op as you can plainly see! I’ve kept the same basic structure as before in terms of categories though some new ones are likely to be added.
For the geeks in the house, this new blog is powered by a super sweet application called blosxom. Unlike many blog apps blosxom does not use php/MySql but Perl and CGI which work in conjunction with your file system to create categories.
03/02/2003
New 12" Powerbook
The 2 week review
Perhaps my lack of confidence in my decision to get the new powerbook oozed into the experience of getting it… I’m not sure. It’s been rocky thus far though the road is getting better.
The arrival.
What fun it is to see the delivery truck park in front of the house! Of course unpacking the new machine is a fun experience. Mine was delivered during a rare Memphis cold spell…. outside temperature was 15 degrees. The powerbook was so cold so I didn’t start it up right away. Kinda funny actually, I let it gestate (warm up) by sliding it between my tshirt and jacket. Fifteen minutes later I could wait no more.
First impressions.
The 12" Powerbook has a very solid feel to it. It’s smaller than the iBook and is made of aluminum. The result is that it’s very light yet very stiff feeling. The screen is, to my eyes, identical to the iBook 700 mhz. The speakers are a definite improvement over the iBooks, probably due to an added midrange speaker. The keyboard is also an improvement over the iBook’s. Lastly, the heat issue associated with iBooks is also present with the Powerbook. Seems to heat up on the left side palm rest wear the harddrive lives…. also, a little in the back of the computer. It doesn’t feel any hotter than the iBook. The fan kicks on occasionally but isn’t too loud. Actually, it came on more often during the first 4 days of usage and has not come on much at all since.
Initial problems.
The default configuration includes 256 MB of ram. That’s not enough. The first week was disappointing in terms of performance. When the ram came in I installed 512 MB. The powerbook would not start. The Apple Store folk thought the ram was bad and they only had one stick so I went home without it. Went back 4 days later and tried again. Two chips would not work so they tried the chips in different powerbooks at the store and they worked. So, the problem was my pb!! After an hour it was determined they would give me a computer out of store stock as a replacement which was great because I hadn’t purchased it there. The hitch: I had to return to pick up the replacement because they had to wait for a phone call and paperwork before they could release it to me.
Clickety ccliclick
Picked up the replacement the next day with 640 MB of ram and all was good. My only problem with this replacement is the trackpad clicker which kinda sticks. Though after a few days of use it seems to be better.
A couple days ago I installed the airport extreme card and all is good. After two weeks we’re getting along just fine. The machine is as fast as hoped it would be though this requires maxed out ram. I would not want to use it without 640 MB.
03/02/2003
People in the Streets
People around the planet have said no to war against Iraq but the elite push forward…
Perhaps I’m hallucinating. Seems to me that there has been a global protest against war in Iraq. On the 15th of February millions of people in over 600 towns and cities around the world said no to war against Iraq. Yet one man and his cronies continue the push for war.
Not only is it sickening, it’s frightening… and it should be a wake up call for all of us. Democracy in the U.$. is a joke and has been for a long time. The beauty of someone like our current el Presidente is that he’s so arrogant in his disregard for public opinion and world opinion that he makes it so very clear that democracy does not exist.
He also makes it clear that the U.$. is indeed a rogue state… one might even say it is an empire.
Repeat after me: I live in a dictatorship, I live in a dictatorship…
03/02/2003
Heart Circle
How we share our lives…
I’m jumping ahead of myself here but that’s okay. I’ll need to explain about co-ops at another time. I live in a housing co-op and briefly what that means is that 5-7 people live together and are buying a house together. For five years a constantly changing group of people have been trying to learn how to live together in a co-operative, open, and life affirming way. After all this time we just recently tried something called the “Heart Circle”.
Imagine, sitting with a group of people at your dining room table. Each takes a turn speaking about where they are at in their life. It can be an amazing experience and a difficult one.
We’re still very early on in this experiment. Tonight’s circle is only our third. But I can say with some certainty that the process has already had a significant change on our relationships. Something really beautiful happens when people trust each other enough to really open themselves to one another. It’s not the sort of thing that happens often in our society of insecurity. Why is that?
It seems to me that fear is so much a part of our lives. Would it be a stretch to suggest that fear is a primary element of our personalities and social lives? At the heart circle there is a certain acknowledgment of this and a refusal to accept it as necessary.
I suppose I’m interested in writing not only about the experience of the circle itself but also about why this kind of sharing is not a part of our everyday lives. I wonder, how would human life be different if humans were more open? How might entire cultures be different? How might governments be different? It seems to me that the kind of shift towards open sharing, of communal life, that I’m talking about, might be a fundamental necessity if humans are to survive.
03/02/2003
January 18 2003, 300,000 people, Washington D.C.
Check out the video… We left Memphis at 4am on Friday, 17th of January: 35 in 3 vans. Around 300,000 people protested the war against Iraq. It was an amazing day to say the least. It’s days like this that inspire and refresh me. Nothing like the occasional taste of freedom. Video
03/02/2003
iPhoto Book
Some thoughts on the iPhoto Book I just received my first iPhoto book and thought I’d post my thoughts here… a review of sorts. The process for creating the book is pretty straight forward. In iPhoto, create an album with images you want in the book. Choose book from the options on the bottom. Choose from the 4 styles offered for books. To change the ordering of photos in the book click back to organize and move them around. Once the order is set… choose the number of photos for each page. Then, the last step, type in your text. Preview your book. Once it’s set, click the share>order book option. If you have a 1-Click account at apple just enter the info asked for and click send book. My book shipped 1 day after the order was placed and arrived 3 days later.
03/02/2003
War
Why war with Iraq? Why war at all. It just amazes me that we’re still at this sick game. I’d like to propose a new rule. Instead of war, the “leaders” of countries that want to go to war should just fight it out with swords. So, in the current situation, let’s see George and Saddam just go at it in a street somewhere. Leave the rest of us out of it.
03/02/2003
The information society continues to develop…
The Internet and Information Exchange CNN. BBC. ABC. NBC. MSN. Indymedia. Indymedia? An upstart media network put together by anarchists during the WTO protests of 1999. The internet has become an important realm for the voices of dissent. Websites like Indymedia have played an important role in maintaining the dream of many that the internet would be a democratizing force in sphere of information flow. But even as these important projects have grown in recent years, so too has the commercialization of the internet. We are surrounded by information. In “Western” nations we are increasingly becoming accustomed to laptop computers, hand helds, and cell phones. When we use these devices together we can access the internet anywhere at all. Few limits remain for those who have money. Of course, not all have the money they need. Though it seems that access is increasing for all segments of society in many different countries.
03/02/2003
The media is ridiculous
The information control system… Oh where to start? The media is preposterous. I don’t go to cnn.com for real information… but entertainment. What’s scary is that many people are taken in by the propaganda that the corporate media broadcasts. It doesn’t really surprise me. I suppose what must really be critiqued is not just the media, but an entire information control system. It’s a very well developed system which permeates all spheres of our lives, especially in the u.s. Certainly a primary part of this system is the public school system which is really an indoctrination system. It’s here that children are not just given content but the structures for behavior and thought.
03/02/2003
Alone?
It’s strange to feel alone when I’m surrounded by people. People, who I live with and who I know love me… and I love them. We live together. Eat together. We share responsibilities. We share our day to day lives. Sometimes we struggle with one another. Relationships. I know that I’m not alone. But sometimes I feel lonely. Perhaps it’s a matter of perception, a matter of definition. How do we define ourselves? Who am I? What is me?
03/02/2003
Switch
Why Mac OSX… A long article which perfectly describes the beauty of Mac OSX: Switch. The first three paragraphs are an interesting way to lead into an article about computer operating systems. You’ll see what I mean.
03/02/2003
Has the Internet delayed war against Iraq?
Can’t pull the wool down… Of course I’m just speculating but I’m wondering whether the existence of the internet has delayed the war against Iraq? This seems plausible if not likely. Why? Quite simply because people with internet access now also have access to a wide variety of opinions. For example, I occasionally post to various Macintosh forums where there’s a real mix of people with a wide variety of political opinion. Here’s something specific that I’ve observed taking place at the forums at maccentral.com. People sharing information, discussing, and debating. The kind of discussion and debate that used to exist in cafes and street corners of history. In many communities those places have been replaced by strip malls and anonymity. These are places for consumerism, not political discussion and debate. In the lounge (anything goes) forum at maccentral people get into it. They share information. They quote Chomsky. They talk about the 300,000 people that protested in D.C. on January 18th. I can’t help but think that these interactions, likely happening all over the internet via forums and web logs, are having an impact. In 2003 it’s not so easy for the feds to beat people into submission with misinformation.