Monthly Archives: January 2007

I remember…

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… when CNN used to actually investigate and report real news. Nowadays they just seem to parrot whatever the Republicans say is this weeks talking point. Case in point: the CNN.com headline right at the moment is Iran role suspected in brazen Iraq attack.

The Pentagon is investigating whether an attack on a military compound in Karbala, Iraq, was carried out by Iranians or Iranian-trained operatives, two officials from U.S. government agencies said. Five U.S. soldiers died in the sophisticated attack by men wearing U.S.-style uniforms, according to military reports. One official told CNN: “This was beyond what we have seen militias or foreign fighters do.”

Well, forgive me here, you nameless CNN reporter, but this is a little too convenient for the Republican agenda. Perhaps you’d care to identify those two “officials” (maybe Rove and Gates?) And it must be the Iranians, because no Iraqi could possible learn new and better tactics or steal uniforms during our four year occupation of their country. No, it must be Iranians; they’re tricky enough to sneak into Iraq, infiltrate Karbala, and attack a military compound, just to kill five more American soldiers. Yeah, that’s an effective use of resources.

New CDs

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I got a couple of new CDs this week.

Dixie Chicks – Taking the Long Way

I’m a Dixie Chicks fan from way back. I mean WAY back; back to their first incarnation as a festival band in Dallas, circa 1990 or so. This is the fourth studio CD from the current incarnation of the Chicks, and it expands on their complex pop-country style. Probably anyone who cares has heard the “Not Ready to Make Nice” track, which refers to the ongoing political controversy. (Which wouldn’t be a controversy anywhere but in the country music world…. somewhere along the way, the country music business in general and a few artists in particular– yes, Toady, err, Toby, I mean you– have lost track of what “free speech” means.) But I digress. Along the more interesting songwriting credits are pop rocker Sheryl Crow on “Favorite Year” and blues artist Keb’Mo’ on “I Hope.” Of particular note is “Lubbock or Leave It” a complex country-rock track that deserves to be a hit in its own right. For somebody who can see (that wouldn’t be me) this is a pretty nice sing-along album. All in all, I’d give it three and a half out of four stars. No DRM.

Bruce Springsteen – The Seeger Sessions

Oh, Bruce, Bruce, what have you done?!?

After nearly forty years in the music business, Springsteen has explored pretty much every musical genre. Most of it has been well done; much of it spectacular. The Seeger Sessions are no exception. It’s basically a selection of traditional American folk songs (despite the title, not all Pete Seeger songs) arranged by Springsteen & Co. Fair warning: fans of Springsteen’s rock style will hate it; much like “Tom Joad,” this sure ain’t that.

I originally heard this on one of the full-album Sirius stations, and knew I had to have a copy. Off to Amazon, and two days later I have it in my hand. But what showed up is a miserable piece of DRM-ridden crap that won’t play on my stereo. It isn’t recognized by my computer, either Windows or Linux. It won’t let me make a backup copy or rip it to MP3, as is my legal right. This is a deal-breaker. I listen to music mostly in my car, but as a matter of policy, I don’t keep my original CDs in my car. Not even for Bruce Springsteen.

This is in something called “Dualdisc” technology, which has a “DVD” on one side and an “audio CD” on the other side. (I put “CD” in quotes, because it isn’t a CD. There’s a lovely note inside the packaging that says “The audio side of this disc does not conform to CD specifications and therefore will not play on some CD and DVD players.” The Amazon web site mentions the Dualdisc technology, but not a word about the crippled DRM. The disc packaging itself only says it in four point type in yellow text on a brown background. I literally had to find a magnifying glass and a bright light to read it.)

So anyway, I gave it a listen on my DVD player (for some reason, the audio plays on my DVD player but the DVD side doesn’t. More DRM? Who cares?) Even with the crappy audio on my DVD player, I can tell this would be an impressive album if I could listen to it better.

Just for my own amusment, I set up my old $20 Walkman-CD with a cable to the line input on my computer’s sound card and recorded the whole thing into Audacity. A little cut ‘n’ paste, and guess what? It worked fine. So much for stupid anti-piracy schemes.

Alas, much as I might like the music, this one is going back to Amazon because of the DRM. (And yes, I deleted the analog copy.)

I’ll give this one star out of four possible. And that one is only for the pure irony of locking up the music of that old socialist Pete Seeger, behind stupid and useless restrictions that prevent music fans from listening to it, while doing nothing that actually prevents someone who really wants to steal this from doing so.

Bruce, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Childhood

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From a chain letter I got recently:

We survived being born to mothers who smoked and drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes, and gave birth flat on their backs– feet to the roof– hmmm, gravity wasn’t discovered?

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints, and given juice bottles to rot our teeth. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking. As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags. I remember just walking around in the back seat– and the front!

Riding in the back of a pickup on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the old garden hose and not from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one ever actually died from this. We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren’t overweight because, WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

We went to school and actually were taught how to read. Feeling “one” with the book didn’t teach us that! We listened to our teachers or got sent to The Office. There were no worthless “Referral Slips” or cheesy detentions. And those of us in Catholic School!? Ouch!

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all. You “eighties” might have played an Atari once in a while, but not all day! No 150 channels on cable w/ nothing on, no video movies or DVD’s, no surround-sound or CD’s, no cell phones , no personal computers, no Internet or chat rooms…. we had real human friends and we went outside and found them! We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. They weren’t put in self esteem class- they got better over that summer and tried out next time to get their self esteem! Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all! If you are one of us, CONGRATULATIONS! You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good. While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn’t it?!

Spasmodic dysphonia

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Scott Adams, who’s best known for being the creator of Dilbert, has been fighting with episodes of spasmodic dysphonia for the last two years.  He’s explored several treatments, including Botox injections into the throat.  He’s considered surgery.  He’s in the early phases of a non-medical treatment that seems to be working.  That blog entry discusses the problem and how all the info about treatment options is pretty much controlled by big pharma.

I find this fascinating.  I have an old friend who’s plagued by the adductor form of SD.  He’s not rich and famous and he doesn’t have insurance that pays for any kind of treatment, so he basically lives with the problem.  In a way, it’s kind of funny; if I call him and he responds in a kind of Gregorian Chant, I know it isn’t a good day.  And forget going out anywhere when he’s having an episode.  (He can’t talk and I’m mostly deaf.  Wasn’t that a comedy with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor?)

By the way, I recommend Scott’s blog.  It’s a fascinating look into the mind behind Dilbert.
 

Windows XP Hacks

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I’ve been forced to update one of my boxen to WinXP.  Welcome to Hell.  There will be a number of hacks appearing here giving details on how to make XP a little less friendly.

Turn off auto-expanding trees in Windows Explorer
1) close Windows Explorer if it’s running

2) go Start -> Run, then type “regedit”

3) Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvanced

4) Change the value of “FriendlyTree” to 0

5) close regedit, and start up Windows Explorer. Auto-expanding menus are now off

Turn off Notification Area Balloon Tips

[Start] [Run] [Regedit]
Registry Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvanced
Modify/Create the Value Data Type(s) and Value Name(s)
Data Type: REG_DWORD [Dword Value] // Value Name: EnableBalloonTips
Setting for Value Data: [0 = Balloon Tips Disabled / 1 = Balloon Tips Enabled]
Exit Registry and Reboot

Dad’s in trouble

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A little boy runs up to his mom.

‘Mommy, am I deformed?’ he asks.

‘No,’ replies Mom, ‘Of course not. Why do you ask?’

‘Because I only have one weewee,’ says the boy.

‘Honey, men only have one weewee,’ says Mom.

‘But Daddy has two!’ exclaims the boy.

‘Hah, no, Daddy only has one. Believe me, I know,’ says Mom.

‘Nuh uh,’ says the boy, ‘Daddy has 2. A regular one he goes peepee
with, and a great big one he brushes the babysitter’s teeth with.’


Recipe: Lemon Sponge Pudding

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Modified from a recipe at Joy of CakesLemon Pudding Cake

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup sugar, divided use
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 3 large eggs, separated
  • 1 t vanilla
  • 1 T lemon zest
  • 1/3 cup flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/3 cup lemon juice
  • 1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and place rack in the center of the oven. Grease six ramekins with butter.

Beat the egg whites until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add the 2 tablespoons sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

Cream the remaining sugar and butter. Add the three egg yolks, one at a time, and beat until incorporated. Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest. Add the flour and salt and beat until combined. With the mixer on low speed, gradually pour in the lemon juice and milk.

Gently fold the egg whites into the batter, in three additions, mixing only until incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared ramekins. (The batter does not rise much during baking so you can fill the ramekins almost to the rim.) Place the ramekins in a water bath so that the water is halfway up the sides of the ramekins.

Bake about 40 – 45 minutes or until the sponge cakes are golden brown and a toothpick is inserted into the cake portion comes out clean. Be careful not to insert the toothpick into the lemon sauce at the bottom of the ramekins. Remove the ramekins from the water bath and cool slightly before serving.

Note: You can also make this dessert in a 2 quart souffle dish.

Yield: 6 servings.

WTF Google

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This week it’s been widely noticed that Google had a hiccup and has downgraded the PageRank of a lot of well-respected blogs.  It’s been particularly damaging to well-respected sex blogs, like Violet Blue’s Tiny Nibbles and Susie Bright’s Journal.  It’s also affected independent content producers like Comstock Films.  It’s also hit major sex-positive sites, like BoingBoing.  Rankings for big commercial porn producers don’t seem to have changed.

As usual when something changes, no one at Google is saying anything.  While it may be coincidence, I’m finding it really hard to attribute this to an unintentional side effect of some minor change.  There’s a lot of speculation that this is the beginning of a major Google Porn Purge.  (Interestingly, a Google search for that exact string doesn’t bring up the site of the person who came up with it!)

If this is intentional, it’s the beginning of the end for Google as a search engine.  The geeks who made them successful will be the same geeks who kill them.  It’s happened before:  Netscape, Yahoo, and Alta Vista have all been on the top of the heap.  They’re all still around, but bad business decisions have made them minor players in the search engine world.