Wednesday, July 23, 2003

wondering about big media biases (with a postscript about left & right tactics) I wrote earlier about the unlikely story of how I first experimented with AOL. I’m surprised to say that I still use it from time to time – on a plan which gives me a very small number of dialup access hours. The reason is that now my iBook doesn’t seem to work well with any other dialup ISP. I would be tempted to think that this is something that AOL did to my computer, except that I remember that this problem predated the first time that I used AOL. It’s probably a hardware problem – but because most of the time I use a broadband connection without any problems on my iBook – I’m reluctant to send it in if it’s not really urgent. My first use of AOL coincided with the beginning of the Iraq war. At the time I noticed a real pro-war bias in the way the war news was reported. It’s interesting to see how this has changed lately. Last week, they reprinted Salon’s article about John Mellencamp and patriotism. Am I paranoid to wonder if AOL Time Warner decided to pander to the government’s dogs of war in the lead up to the execrable FCC decision about media ownership, to show the Republicans in power that big media could be supportive of their interests? And that now the FCC rules have been released, AOL Time Warner can be a little more centrist (definitely not left-wing). Postscript: Along with the Salon article, AOL had one of their ubiquitous polls. The question was along the lines of “Who is more patriotic? – a) the Left, b) the Right, c) Neither – each side is patriotic but they have different opinions.” My recollection of the result was that almost 50% answered “C” for neither, 40% answered “B” for the Right and a measly 10% chose “A” for the Left. I chose the Neither answer – because I do think that many of the Right-wingers genuinely care for their country, even if their methods or goals are misguided. My reading of this poll – and be assured that I don’t put too much stock in its results – is that people on the left are more reasonable and are mature enough to admit that the other side might sometimes have a point, or at least a legitimate concern. Whereas people on the right (I choose not to call them Conservatives because they a radical agenda of tearing up long-standing social supports and threatening civil liberties) are more fanatical – and refuse to see any good in their opponents or flaws in themselves. I know, it’s kind of petty to be fighting over the high moral ground but it’s still legitimate point. What do you do against an opponent who refuses to play fairly? Do you to stick to your principles and lose (praying that someday the wrongs will be righted) – or adopt their rough-handed tactics in the hope of beating them at their own game? 9:18:41 AM

	Wednesday, July 16, 2003

patriotism corrupted I did take one little vacation to Iowa, south eastern Iowa to be exact. I attended my first ever Fourth of July parade in the small town of Morningsun. I enjoyed the experience, although it made me feel very much like the foreigner (or resident alien, as the INS prefers to call me). I was struck by the sense of community that I saw. I have never seen so many John Deere tractors in a single day, or beautifully restored old cars, beauty queens of all ages or American flags. Almost every single car or person in the parade bore an American flag, usually with a slogan such as “Support Our Troops!” Sometimes there was a variation, such as “Support our troops, they support you!” Other slogans mentioned the words Freedom and Liberty in connection with the supporting the troops. At this moment, I felt very bad for my American friends who went to the parade with me. They had no Real Freedom or Liberty to say anything like, “Support Our Troops, Bring Them Home!” without being shunned and excoriated by their community. Of course, they could think such thoughts, but that would be setting themselves against the clear message that their community was saying in this parade. The message was that patriotism means wholeheartedly supporting President George W. Bush’s decision to liberate (i.e., invade and occupy) Iraq. It must be hard to love one’s country when patriotism has been hijacked and defined to be jingoistic warmongering. So when did being a true American become reduced to loyally supporting the nation’s secretive and deceitful leaders? I may be an idealistic foreigner, but wouldn’t the true spirit of the Fourth of July involve demonstrating independence of thought from one’s leaders, as did the signatories of the declaration of independence? This travesty made me feel glad that I’m Australian, where there is a long-celebrated tradition of taking the piss out of our leaders, whether in good times or bad. (“taking the piss” might be described as irreverently putting people back in their place) Music: Liz Phair, Liz Phair, Insanity 12:28:05 AM

	Monday, May 19, 2003

confessions of a Mac user who doesn't hate Microsoft + rant against brushed metal interfaces Maybe before I nervously start, I should say something about my Mac head credentials. Most of my computers have been Apples: starting with an Apple ][, a Mac classic, a colour Mac classic, and a PowerPC - an awful mid-1990s lemon which turned me off Apple for a few years. All was forgiven with OS X. I'm fortunate that I work at a place which allows me to bring in my iBook for my work. I can do 95% of my work on the iBook. I hardly ever need to turn on that noisy boring beige fan in a box that's disguised as a computer :) Mac users often feel like an oppressed minority, united by their stubborn resistance to the Wintel Borg. This is where I encounter difficulties. Although I'd never willingly buy the Windows operating system, I don't hate all things Microsoft. It's like being a very lonely minority within a minority. I'm not here to defend M$'s business practices, just to state the fact that sometimes they make decent software, including their software for the Mac. It's ironic that what's brought me to this point has been my move away from my Windows PC at work. One of the whole reasons for this transition is that I loathe the GroupWise email and personal information management (PIM) software that my university uses. I wanted to combine all of my stuff under the one roof - and the one thing that worked for me was MS Entourage - their Mac equivalent to Outlook. I felt very guilty about this. I so wanted to rely on iCal, iSynch and Apple's Mail programme like the rest of the Mac faithful. I wasted many an hour trying to find the proper solution, but I missed synchable notes and the symplicity of categories - the elegance of having multiple calendars was wasted on me. Since I've already sold my soul to Bill Gates, I might as well admit this: now that MSN for OS X has been released, I've decided that this works better for me than the traditionally more-Mac-friendly Earthlink. Sure it has added a few training wheels to get the AOLers, but I can ignore those. In true Microsoft style, the MSN email intregrates very nicely with Entourage - although not the address book or calendar, which is quite annoying. Something that MSN for OS X does - as well as AOL for OS X - is look very nice in the Mac's new operating system. I recently read an opinion - but cannot remember where so I cannot credit it - wondering why Apple made such an elegant and visually appealing operating system only to ignore it in all the software they produce for it. This is the beginning of my rant against brushed metal. It was a novelty in iTunes, but now it's also in iPhoto, iCal, iSync and now Safari!! Maybe it appeals to Steve Jobs' sparse aesthetics, but I think it looks cold & unfriendly. Microsoft did much a better job with its Office X suite and MSN browser. And so I'm torn between feeling unworthy to use my Mac - and reveling in my blasphemy. 11:38:23 PM

	Tuesday, April 15, 2003

ranting about the language and symbols of war & peace It's too bad that Radio doesn't offer a feature similar to LiveJournal's "LJ-cut". I'm improvising an equivalent by posting this potentially inflammatory posting as a story. 12:53:44 AM

	Wednesday, March 26, 2003

catsitting and war First I was away from my main computer catsitting for some friends. Then this inevitable war broke out - which was always going to happen, despite the opposition of so many "focus groups" in the US or the rest of the world. No, I haven't been spending all my time following this Glorious Showdown with Saddam. I just needed to take a little break and switch off from these depressing, disheartening times. But now I feel ready to get back into the fray... 11:53:09 PM

	Wednesday, March 5, 2003

my silly little obituary for bookmarks When I first started browsing the web, I was infatuated with bookmarks. Bookmarks were always bookmarks then, never "favorites", because Netscape was the only show in town - unless you counted Mosaic. This was when Microsoft was still in denial about what the web was about. It was so difficult to find anything on the web in those days. All the search engines seemed inadequate in major ways. So the trick was to dilligently bookmark anything you came across which could possibly be of use, because you never knew if you'd be able to find it again. I was such a nerd (and still am) that a good set of bookmarks seemed almost like a little treasure. Sometimes to be shared, sometimes hoarded, always valued. Things are different now. The only bookmarks that I care for are the ones that go along the top of the browser. I would only bookmark a small number of sites that I use a lot - which have URLs which are difficult to remember. None of these would be other blogs, because I keep track of those in my news aggregator. I generally don't bother with blogs that don't have RSS feeds. It's just too much extra work. I know that I miss out on the some good stuff because of this, but there are only so many hours in a day. There's nothing more annoying than accumulating so many bookmarks that it takes longer to find a site in your list of bookmarks than it would to look it up on a search engine. One part of the problem is that I frequently use at least three different computers. My home computer, my main work computer and the reference desk computer. I know that there are services for storing your bookmarks on the web, but they seem kind of clunky. Maintaining bookmarks is annoying. They get outdated so easily. It's the nature of the web. The whole idea/metaphor of web bookmarks is wrong. To compare a web page to a fixed page of a book that can be marked does not match what the web is really about. Imagine a tornado inside a library. Books and pieces of paper are flying everything. Sometimes new things enter the swirling maelstrom, sometimes things leave it, but things are always changing. It is in the nature of URLs to change - except for the ones so stable that they could easily be remembered anyway. I guess another reason why I no longer rely on bookmarks is because I blog. If I find something interesting on the web, I'll blog it. I know that the link will go out of date, but I trust to be able to find it again. Because of the symbiotic relationship between bloggers and Google, I know that my act of blogging a site will help keep it on Google's radar. 9:10:04 PM

	Wednesday, February 12, 2003

following up: arbitary & political distinctions between essential & non-essential services By pure chance today, I stumbled over the website of the League of Minnesota Cities. I was interested to see that they had quite a scathing response to the State Auditor's report that recommended that state government aid to Minnesota cities be severely cut. Here are some gems from the LMC's response: The state auditor is generally charged with auditing local government finances. This report goes far beyond the traditional role of the auditor and ventures into the policy arena. ... [my thoughts exactly!] The report's distinction between essential and non-essential spending is arbitrary and ignores the fact that cities across the state are facing very different circumstances. [my emphasis] The auditor's report is built on several false premises - ... Services such as airports and transit and libraries, because they are provided by counties or regional governments in some areas of the state, are not essential services anywhere. Yes, the State of Minnesota is in deficit, like many other states. It's one thing to give libraries a "fair share" of the pain that must go around. It's quite another to give libraries an extra helping of the pain because political leaders are pursuing an extremist agenda to keep taxes low for the rich and punish all the others who actually like some of the things which government can do. Minnesota may become a cultural & educational & environmental wasteland - but hey, at least we'll have low taxes and nice roads to drive our gas guzzling SUVs on! 10:32:37 PM