Is someone watching what you're watching
This is a good column about the increasing pressure for the government to more closely regulate what we see and hear in the media. There was already plenty of pressure before to clamp down on the broadcast media, but now, there is a real danger that the chilling effect at least, if not the actual regulation, is moving toward cable and satellite as well. MTV is toning down its VMAs this year. There is discussion about whether cable shows such as Nip/Tuck, The Shield, Sopranos, Six Feet Under and other shows should be allowed.
If you add to it polls such as the one by the First Amendment Center which shows fourty percent of the public think the news media should be regulated by the government it starts getting kind of Big Brotherish.
Where does the problem lie? Is it in the eyes and ears of the viewing, listening and reading public? More than objections to material they find offensive, is the public reacting to the glut of new an information which is available to them today. Especially since, at least from the news standpoint, much of it is considered "negative." Is it that the media has become to overly invested in selling the public on conflict and controversy? Or is it something else? There seems to be a giant disconnect between the cries for increased regulation and the demand for increased sensationalism.
Or, are there forces out there playing the ends against the middle, doing everything they can to keep the populous atuned to what, in the scope of things, are trivial matters while the big picture matters go unnoticed.
These are the kinds of things that keep me up at night at least until I turn on the TV and pacify my brain with Comedy Central.
Speaking of dirty politics
I'm spending my Sunday evening watching the History Channel because I refuse to watch the MTV Video Music Awards. Just finished was a special about Lincoln, currently is a special about the relationship between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Just like almost everything that happens, history repeats itself. Stolen elections, dirty politics, pubic attacks on credibility and political smear campaigns to divert attention from the actual issues and to help bring down an opponent. I doubt the Bush or Kerry campaigns could hold a candle to the workings of Burr, Hamilton and the Republicans and Federalists back in the day.
While I'm delving into political history, The New York Times this past weekend had an excellent editorial about abolishing the electoral college. It doesn't really say anything new, but boils it down to a good argument. There are many arguments for and against, but, as I see it, our politicaly system should constantly be in flux. Some things which have been put into place in the past should be done away with and new things should be tried.
The portrait they keep showing of Hamilton looks more like David Ogden Stiers in his MASH days.
Warning!!!! Politics ahead!!!!!!
And now, a message from President George Dubya Bush.
Is this the iFuture?
Are these photos of the new iMac? Has Apple done something amazingly cool once again? Will we be shorting out our keyboards drooling over the iMacs? Is Steve Jobs worthy of being praised as a diety? If he were elected president, would he bring about the end to the war on terrorism, conflict in the Middle East, world hunger and sickness, all while colonizing other planets and discovering a free, clean source of unlimitless energy?
We can only hope.
Update: Apparantly, the photos are a hoax.
Best of luck, Scotty
James Doohan made what is being hailed as his last public appearance this past weekend. It would be nice for some of the footage of these final appearances to appear on some of the Trek dvds at some point.
Speaking of the newspaper business...
...I got to turn down an offer of a job this past weekend. Apparantly, one of my former co-workers had mentioned my name to someone opening up some new weekly papers in the state. It felt good to tell them I was absolutely not interested in being one of two people being hired to put out a paper each week.
The liberry rules!
I might want to return to journalism...
...if the newspaper world was more like this.
Hella funny
I bet this will be a a hell of a fun time.
War, what is it good for?
I'm glad someone is finally making a big-budget version of War of the Worlds. I'm even happier that it's Spielberg, but I could do without Tom Cruise.
Oh, the irony
I ran across this story last week about the colorization of Three Stooges shorts. While I'm not too concerned one way or another about offering colorized versions of Three Stooges shorts in addition to the black and white versions, I though the following was kind of amusing:
'Star Wars'' creator George Lucas, who testified with Steven Spielberg before Congress in the 1980s against colorization and other forms of alteration, said the process yanks such slapstick performers as the Stooges out of the black-and-white universe they belong in.
''Would color distract from their comedy and make it not as funny anymore?'' Lucas said. ''Maybe just the fact that they're in black and white makes it funny, because their humor is dated. But by putting it in black and white, it puts it in a context where you can appreciate it for what it was.
''But you try to make it in full living color and try to compare it to a Jim Carrey movie, then it's hard for young people to understand. Because you're then thinking you're comparing apples to apples, when you're not. You're comparing apples to oranges. I'm saying it's not fair to the artist."
The final step
It looks as though we're finally shedding the last vestages of our life in Aberdeen. We got word today that the sale of our house is finally going through. Can't wait until we can finally close that chapter of our lives.
Hoddy Toddy everyone!
Ole Miss is back in the top ten.
My Adventure with Apple
The day started simply enough. Go to work for a few hours then hop in the car, head to Memphis to the Apple Store to get a new iPod. The iPod is Rebecca's treat to herself for working at the law firm all summer and since school starts back in a week, what better time.
Now, we've resigned ourselves to the fact that a trip to the Apple Store tends to get expensive. We've gone once without out spending a penny, but every other time a game or piece of hardware finds its way home. This trip was no different. Rebecca got her iPod and I had found the cables I needed to better hook up instruments and headphones to the computer to use GarageBand. We also looked into getting an Airport hub so we could surf on the PowerBook from anywhere in the house. So the Airport hub then jumps into our arms ready to go to its new home.
I then started talking to one of the sales guys about improving the performance of GarageBand and Rebecca was talking to another associate about accesserizing her new iPod. Then the two conversations came together and we discovered that if you buy an iPod and an iBook or PowerBook at the Apple Store, you get a $200 rebate. Ears perk up. But you know, $200 is great, but it's not enough to really justify getting a whole 'nother computer. Afterall, we just got the PowerBook last year when Rebecca started law school. The young woman smiled. "Oh, you're a student. Then you get another discount on top of the rebate." Another sales associate then looked up exactly what rebates we would get. Well, just last night we'd been talking about the fact that the eMac is great, but it's only 700 mhz and I've kind of hit a major speed bump when it comes to recording....
The long and the short of it is this: I'm sitting on the couch writing this post on my new 14" iBook using our new wireless network while Rebecca configures her new 40 gig iPod. Can't say I've ever bought a computer as an impulse buy before. And when the credit card bill comes in next month, I'll probably regret it (maybe just a liitle, but not much). But I've justified it by telling myself this: It looks like we're about to sell the house in Aberdeen and the money we have left over after paying off the realtor and paying the balance owed on the house will more than cover it. In the meantime, I've resigned myself to dining on warmed-over water and maybe the occasional pebble or clump 0f grass for the next few months. But at least I'm wireless....
A Better Time at the Movie
Last week, we caught The Bourne Supremacy. The Bourne Identity was a surprise favorite when it came out. Not a big fan of Matt Damon and couldn't realy envision him in the role of Jason Bourne, but it worked. And the The Bourne Supremacy works even better. After watching the movie, one thing popped into my mind - cars must be very cheap in Europe cause they sure wrecked a lot of them. That always makes for good watchin'.
Summer movie snooze
Finally made it to see the higly anticipated M. Night Shyamalan offering The Village. I must admit that this is one of the three movies this summer I had really been looking forward to. Shyamalan had previously made two incredible movies, The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable and one movie that sucked, Signs. Well, The Village evens out the score at two great movies and two that suck. I won't go into why The Village sucks because any real in-depth discussion would have to reveal spoilers and I don't like doing it. Let's just say that the main "surprise" becomes obvious less than halfway through the movie. Signs was awkward, The Village is just dumb. For his next film, I think I'll just wait until it comes out on video.
If anyone feels like a spoiler-filled discussion of the movie, let me know.
More computer "humor"
But most of it makes fun of Windoze
At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving
$25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."
In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics (and I just love this part):
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light.
7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.
Heeeey iAbbott
Got this in the ole e-mail...
LOU COSTELLO TRIES TO BUY A COMPUTER FROM BUD ABBOTT
ABBOTT (behind the counter at: Super Duper computer store): Can I help you?
COSTELLO: Thanks. I'm setting up an office in my den, and I'm thinking about buying a computer.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: No, the name's Lou.
ABBOTT: Your computer?
COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: I told you, my name's Lou.
ABBOTT: What about Windows?
COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?
ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?
COSTELLO: I don't know. What will I see when I look in the windows?
ABBOTT: Wallpaper.
COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.
ABBOTT: Software for Windows?
COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write proposals, track expenses and run my business. What have you got?
ABBOTT! : Office.
COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?
ABBOTT: I just did.
COSTELLO: You just did what?
ABBOTT: Recommend something.
COSTELLO: You recommended something?
ABBOTT: Yes.
COSTELLO: For my office?
ABBOTT: Yes.
COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yes, for my office!
ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows.
COSTELLO: I already have an office and it has windows! OK, let's just say, I'm sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?
ABBOTT: Word.
COSTELLO: What word?
ABBOTT: Word in Office.
COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.
ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.
COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows?
ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue "W."
COSTELLO: I'm going to click your blue "W" if you don't start with some straight answers. OK, forget that. Can I watch movies on the Internet?
ABBOTT: Yes, you want Real One.
COSTELLO: Maybe a real one, maybe a cartoon. What I watch is none of your business. Just tell me what I need!
ABBOTT: Real One.
COSTELLO: If its a long movie I also want to see reel 2, 3&4. Can I watch them?
ABBOTT: Of course.
COSTELLO: Great, with what?
ABBOTT: Real One.
COSTELLO; OK, I'm at my computer and I want to watch a movie. What do I do?
ABBOTT: You click the blue "1."
COSTELLO: I click the blue one what?
ABBOTT: The blue "1."
COSTELLO: Is that different from the blue "W"?
ABBOTT: The blue "1" is Real One and the blue "W" is Word.
COSTELLO: What word?
ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.
COSTELLO: But there's three words in "office for windows!"
ABBOTT: No, just one. But it's the most popular Word in the world.
COSTELLO: It is?
ABBOTT: Yes, but to be fair, there aren't many other Words left. It pretty much wiped out all the other Words out there.
COSTELLO: And that word is real one?
ABBOTT: Real One has nothing to do with Word. Real One isn't even part of Office.
COSTELLO: Stop! Don't start that again. What about financial bookkeeping, you have anything I can track my money with?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: That's right. What do you have?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?
ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer.
COSTELLO: What's bundled to my computer?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer?
ABBOTT: Yes. No extra charge.
COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?
ABBOTT: One copy.
COSTELLO: Isn't it illegal to copy money?
ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.
COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money?
ABBOTT: Why not? THEY OWN IT!
COSTELLO: How do I turn my computer off??
ABBOTT: Click on "START".........
