DILBLOG: Dilly's Weblog

I'm putting the Dilblog into maintenance mode. As experiments go, nearly three years' worth of entries is a pretty good sample, and if you've been reading you pretty much get the idea. Thank you for all your comments, online and otherwise.

For now, I'll be focusing on The Cheap Seats, so pls. check there if you've liked some of the sports entries, or just want to try something new.

So far, doing The Cheap Seats with Tom is proving my hypothesis that it's easier to apply the discipline of a "themed" blog than to do free-form all the time (not to mention it's easier to do a shared blog!). Maybe I'll try something like that in this space in the future, perhaps with a recording project planned for later this summer.

In the meantime, I'll encourage those who can to sign up with their electric provider for wind power. Here's a certificate for my last years' participation, and I just increased it by 100kwh/month - which in total will likely exceed my use - for $2.50/month. Of course, as I've mentioned before, this kind of spoils the notion of wind as a "free" energy.

this was last summer, before it grew and came back it's bigger friends

Got a big surprise in my shed yesterday, but probably not as big as the 3 large corn snakes that were living there: I was replacing the mowing belt on my lawn tractor, and wanted to make sure the drive was working. Since it was well-ventilated and I had hearing protection, I started it up in the shed and verified the main pulley was spinning.

I went back to the house to get a tool, and returning to the shed I noticed the old belt was moving...or was it the new belt? I didn't remember the pattern...then I noticed there were three of them. Why does evolution make us go through this slow process of recognition when what we're seeing is potentially a poisonous enemy? Fortunately, corn snakes are harmless, though this one was plenty brave, peaking his head back through his escape hole to see if his friends made it out all right.

Today's Paul Krugman's column, while focusing on music and publishing, touches on the dilemna for Sun and companies like us: selling your product for more than a nominal fee when it's easy to distribute and copy. Digitization is the paradigm change discussed in his main focus: whereas (our products being inherently digital...more and more the case with music as well) it's more a distribution matter with us, but ultimately it comes down to an effect Esther Dyson predicted having to do with the ease of disseminating and copying digital media, so it serves as a good analogy for software in the internet age.

This leads to the more unlikely analogy of the Grateful Dead's business model: encouraging people to freely tape (often through the sound board) and distribute tapes of live shows, knowing they'd make a killing on concessions and concert sales. John Markoff's great book What the Dormouse said: How the '60s Counterculture Influenced the Personal Computer Industry, persuasively demonstrates how some of the values of that era can still be seen today (particularly in the Free Software community). But though they are mentioned for their entertainment value, Jerry & Co had not - in the period covered by the book - begun to become the business behemoth they would become.

From personal experience the Dead certainly didn't protect their brand or concessions seriously...at all, but year after year they were the top grossing live band, which alone pretty well validates the model. Ironically, in their case the internet provided a centralized merchandising location for the first time, and increased sales of *legitimate* concessions (such as the Jerry Garcia line of neckties) in the band's last days.

I've not (since my first day there) written about my productive and enjoyable trip to the Bay Area, but this site hasn't suffered for nothing as with my colleague Tom and I have just launched a *new* sports blog.

My hope is that not only will this make for more vibrant, interactive and humorous sports discussions (on the new site), but that it will help focus this, my main blog. On what, I'm not yet certain, but I'd expect more music and technology, starting with this *flash*.

touristy SF photo

Another architect of Rock has passed, in fact one of the designers of the foundation itself: Bo Diddley.

By the time I was playing guitar and scouting out old records, Diddley was already known as an influential songwriter more than a performer: though we all knew of his box-shaped guitar, few in our generation had actually seen him play it.

But we did see him get some overdue publicity and hopefully royalties in the "Bo (Jackson) knows/doesn't know Diddley" Nike commercials of the late '80s: As Diddley himself noted, it was hard to see where the shoes themselves fit in, but there was something about the ads that cut across the usual barriers: part was seeing the legend himself play guitar, part seeing his shameless namesake - not content to be a professional in two sports alone - wanting to do the same. It was all very, very 80's.

I was reminded of this simpler time earlier this year in a rehab hospital, where Bo Jackson had himself done a stint and left a signed picture in the gym as encouragement to all. At least that's how I took it:

a frustrating but ultimately amusing experience booking Giants tickets online on the train into the city on gameday: You are given 7 minutes after selecting your seat to complete the half dozen or more forms that follow to complete the transaction, or your reservation is lost and you have to start over. Given the added degree of difficulty of doing it on a cellphone and you've got your work cut out for you. I finally succeeded after 3 tries.

all was forgiven (though AT&T really should add the iPhone to the mobile ticket delivery option, no?) when I found my excellent seat. I was amazed to be able to get one right behind home plate on such short notice...until I saw the Giants' pitching... Stilll a thoroughly enjoyable game, where the Giants scratched and clawed their way back to catch up with the White Sox' sluggers, only to see their pitching fall behind again in the next inning. Final Score: White Sox 13, Giants 8. Lots of White Sox fans in the ballpark, but I imagine most teams "travel well" to S.F.

It was disappointing to see only 1 kayak in the water my first time at the lovely AT&T park, but without Bonds, nobody was hitting it into the water, and without better players, boaters are unlikely to get themselves on TV. At least there was a pretty sailboat!

After a recent security update rendered my MacBook unbootable, I put off the reinstall/restore process as long as possible, in part because my only backup recent enough to be really useful was done after the update, thus the risk that I would restore the "bad" image and be back where I started.

However, while testing is not yet completed, the "Archive and Install" option described in this article seems to have spared me this fate. Of course this assumes a healthy, readable disk, but it was not nearly as "extreme" as expected.

We are warned that we may lose some 3rd-party apps: I lost the VPN client (icon still appears on the desktop), but still have Chicken of the VNC, with all my sessions. The password for my wifi network was lost, but I never saved it to the "keychain" so this makes sense. My Quicken data was up-to-date, but of course that's a 3rd-party app provided by Apple.

I think the main key to success (to the point where I'm considering not restoring from the recent backup at all) was that, for once, I kept all my data where Apple expected me to: in my homedir. I'll update via comments - as I put the system through its paces - any further surprises, pleasant or otherwise.

In the meantime, if you're not running Leopard's "Time Machine", I suggest you do what we all know we should: a full backup before mindlessly clicking "go ahead" with your next update notificatoin.

He will play shortstop six days a week, 
other positions on the seventh day.

Shortstop Jed Lowrie sounding somewhat godlike in his new assignment (though it's with the minor league organization, so we'll stick with a lower-case "g").

A friend and reader (!) noted the absence of new content in this space: I must admit to being "ttly lame". Part has been the usual stuff: busy w/work, just put the house on the market, etc. Part has been a determination not to post just for the sake of posting: novel ideas have - in the words of Scott McNeally - the shelf-life of a(n already-ripe) banana, so I've decided if I don't get them out right away, best not to.

But I must admit part was embarrassment at having used the condescending term "got their attention" when referring to the Hawks vs. Celtics in my last post, only to see Atlanta win another and force a game 7.

But that's silly: if everyone stopped blogging every time they were wrong, the average blog lifespan wouldn't even be the 3 months quoted some time ago in GMSV. And it has it has never stopped me before, if it's even slowed me down. Still, I can't help but cringe as I wonder how I ever let some of these utterances into the blogosphere:

• "(Doug) Mirabelli...is certainly no slouch at the plate" (Oct. 2005)
• "Once the Dolts always the Dolts" (Jan. 2006)
• Carl Pavano wasn't a complete mistake by the Yankees) (not actual wording, but implied. Mar. 2007)
• "I think we can conclude that the Patriots are not interested in Randy Moss" (Bonus! From the same entry!!)
• "the seeds for this sorry (Giants') season were sown ... when they inexplicably renewed Coughlin's contract" (Sept. 2007)

I can think of others, such as singling out Ron Artest for animal cruelty, of which he was subsequently acquitted, and even his alleged crime dwarfed by those of you-know-who. But that was more the classic blogger mistake of not having all the facts.

The moral here seems to be to better apply the golden rule: "write what you know"...or face the consequences.

Not that: the Celtics earned their big win last night (photos), with a big assist from the home crowd, and even from the Hawks for "getting their attention". No, their big break was the Wizards' clutch play at the end of their game 5, ensuring the Celtics' next-round appointment won't be resting and game-planning while the C's are stuck trying to finish off their pesky first-round one.

Of course many C's fans saw this live, as the strangely-timed Cavs/Wizards game was only in the early 4th quarter at expected start time of the second game.

In what I'm sure is a great relief to organizers and supporters, the Olympic torch returned to China with a somewhat anticlimactic quiet, after a friendly reception in it's last stop in North Korea.

For an event whose stated mission is non-political, the Olympics have certainly generated a lot of politics over the years. In this case some good may have come out of it: Chinese leaders have agreed to resume meetings with an envoy of the Dalai Lama, and it's hard to think widespread protests along the torch route didn't play a role.

If it is ever going to be a non-political event, it will be in two years as we prepare for the Winter Olympics in Canada, one of the least controversial countries ever. Then again, that's a lot of time to think of things to protest.

After making - and forgetting - a mental note to see Letters From Iowa Jima upon it's release, I finally did this weekend. If history is written by the victors, it's even more the case in the movies. So it's arguable Eastwood has made a real contribution by giving us some insights from a different perspective.

Criticisms I've seen that it doesn't much document the battle itself seem to lose sight of the fact - made painfully obvious in the opening sequence in addition to the title itself - that it is based on letters, mostly (for obvious reasons) written before the battle. Much as Flags of Our Fathers - also released in 2006 - was based on the six marines featured in the the US memorial.

It was interesting to see the Japanese (on site) memorial at the end of the film. It's occurred to me recently that I'd like to see some of the WWII memorials in Europe someday. I'll have to add the Pacific Theater to the wish list.

The "reunion tours" of bands from 20 years ago can at time seem as much of a curse as a blessing. But having just heard the story of Boston's Big Dipper - whose songs "Faith Healer" and "All Going out Together" dominated college radio in my first years in Boston - reunion, I must admit I was touched.

One of the members' (Gary's) wife was seriously ill, and asked him to get the band back together if she ever recovered, as she'd never seen them live. She recovered, and the band is indeed playing a reunion tour (including this Saturday - 4/26 - at the Middle East in Cambridge).

I have some experience in the interplay of the Boston rock scene and romance: a 5-year marriage, So I'm aware of it's power. I only hope this show lives up to expectations.

Having not that long ago sung the praises of my IOGEAR USB KVM Switch, I have to report that it's no longer working, and I'm again reduced to using VNC on my laptop to reach my Mac Mini-based media center. Disappointing in that I implemented it only fairly recently, after having had the switch for some time. I'm going to try and contact their live help now - wish me luck!

Haven't heard much from Dick Cavett lately but in this piece he leapfrogs William Safire and achieves parity with the late William F. Buckley in terms of pure literary wit and precision, as he reminds us that the Iraq war has cost us far more than 4000+ American lives, 1 trillion+ dollars, allies, progress on the Afghanistan/Pakistan front, and world esteem: it has also robbed us of any sense of irony, of the cutting honesty that comes with humor and with levelling with your audience. It has cost us our language, or at least the best of it, replacing it with an ornate system of smoke signals, which Mr. Cavett inhales to hilarious effect.

You can have my medal when you pry it out of my cold, dead hands

Apparently the late Charlton Heston bravado wasn't successful for Marion Jones' relay teammates, as their medals were taken away. I don't know that they actually tried it, but that's certainly what I would've said.

Your concert is good for just under 13 minutes

It makes me feel better about the limited amount of useable video taken of my performances over the years that - according to Peter King - U2 allowed 7 performances in South America to record a 90-minute concert film using what he considers to be an amazing 3D technology. If U2 allows for only ~13 useable minutes per concert, what can the rest of us expect? No wonder all the old clips of your favorite bands are 30 seconds long.

Red Sox self-absortion reaching critical mass

First there was the Bill Buckner forgiveness mini-opera on opening day. Then the narcissistic soul-searching on the part of Red Sox nation: they looked deep inside themselves and liked what they saw, all based on this contrived redemption story of a man who'd been (mostly) welcomed back to Fenway as soon after the '86 debacle as 1990.

I'd say a better redemption story for the moment is Dirk Nowitzki's last-second 3 single-handedly sending the Mav's into the postseason, after an entire season of hearing how he wasn't a big-time player in last year's playoffs.

Today the Globe looks at some past Boston rockers - such as Mission of Burma's Roger Miller - and the musical paths they've taken since first making their names on the local rock scene.

Taking it beyond the provincial level, who are some other notable performers who reinvented themselves, often to even greater success?

• Brian Eno: from mildly successful avant garde/early electronic musician to über-rich U2 producer.
• Ian MacKaye: the one-time potty-mouthed frontman for straight-edge pioneers Minor Threat is today head of one of the most politically-correct labels of them all, Dischord Records.

Anybody else have interesting examples to add??

Yesterday's reports of the imminent departures of Boston TV icons Bob Lobel and Joyce Culhawik follows last month's departure of a columnist and two editors (and more recently a longtime reporter who's name escapes me) from The Boston Globe . Obviously part of a well-known larger dynamic, but seeing it play out at home - or what was once home - is still a little wierd. Another case of life imitating The Wire.

Though the April 1st dating still leaves me some doubts about the veracity of this link, apparently the Microsoft -backed Office Open XML (OOXML) format has been approved by the ISO.

I'm not seeing any internal response from Open Document Format evangelists, save Simon's notice from Yesterday of the imminent decision. Perhaps people are simply be too depressed to write about it?

Indeed, the portrayal of the ISO approval process being vaguely reminiscent of the Zimbabwe elections is in itself depressing. But the ODF Alliance appears undeterred in today's response to the ISO vote, noting that ODF is already ISO-approved:

Nothing about the process will provide governments with any more 
confidence in OOXML's openness and interoperability than they had 
before the vote.

Time will tell...

It's not Earth Day, much less Earth Month, but Earth Hour may do more good than either by actually turning out the lights for an hour in the event's founding city of Sidney - where it occurs at 8PM Saturday Night - and many other cities now observing it. It'll be easy to comply here where it's at 5 AM EDT.
your local Earth Hour

certainly one of the prettiest

...and heaviest, judging by the "roof" of the screened-in dog pen.

Another day, another cancellation: Tuesday night's season finale of the series Jericho was also the series finale. It kind of felt that way: many bridges were burned and demons were exercised.

I won't go far out on a limb to defend the show: it was a free online viewing option I'd found last summer, I was interested enough to look for it's the 2nd season, and it had been advertised just enough advertising for me to be aware it was on. Still, as someone who often has access to and avails himself of "premium" cable and many other entertainment choices but still watched, maybe I'm a part of a demographic of concern. Or maybe one they've already given up on?

The abbreviated 2nd season was good in that it zipped right along with few of the slow, relationship-building scenes from the show's first season (and I would guess it's original DNA). By the final episode, they were throwing plot complications overboard if they even threatened to slow things down. Still, this was incredibly refreshing in an era of perpetual plot-variation-machines such as 24 and Prison Break.

As for the fate of the show, the LA Times' Show Tracker blog explores its placement, the writers' strike, and other factors before coming to the pessimistic conclusion that the idea of a serial - e.g. anything having a plotline spanning multiple episodes - is asking too much of the audience, and it's just easier to have more broadcasts of Big Brother 9.

Pardon the glare: an investment I made in rehabbing my right leg: a fluid-resistance trainer from Cycle-Ops, which allows me to ride my regular bike in stationary mode with an "infinite resistance curve".

There are cheaper units available using wind and magnetic resistance, but the fluid (that silver cylinder to the right, rear of the bike tire) chamber is the quietest system as well as the best resistance. I've never liked exercise bikes in the gym, and surely hated a wind-resistance exercise bike I bought about 10 yrs ago: perhaps the worst thing is that it still takes up space. Riding one's own bike is a far better experience, and this unit barely adds to it's existing footprint.

It's easy enough to set up and break down quickly, but better still if one can leave it already set up and waiting. Luckily I have my "Florida room": a poorly-insulated addition with wall-to-wall windows which serves as nothing so much as a shed in the winter. The sun and cool temp makes for a comfortable virtual ride, yet the fact it's still indoors means one can crank the music like never before. If you're using it in a normal room you might invest in something like the mat shown in the above link. I would definitely recommend the climbing block: the various settings seem overrated as far as impact on your workout, but you'll want something to stabilize and level the front-end.

Bottom line: I really like it and can already feel it building up the strength in my leg(s). But the real test will be if I use it in subsequent winters - when life is back to normal but I still need cardio workouts - or if it becomes just another thing stored in my virtual shed.

Of course they didn't actually win their first-round game vs. Stanford, but congrats to Cornell University's mens basketball team for an outstanding season. 22-6 overall, undefeated in Ivy League play, it was their best ever, and their first invite to the NCAA tournament in 20 years.

And it seems appropriate their first-round opponents were fellow "brains", not just coming from a school built around a basketball program. This probably came as little consolation as they gave up height and experience at nearly every position. But C.U. will have an edge next year with 4 of 5 starters returning, including two from the All-Ivy first team.

Woe to the U.K. Wildcats for their first first-round loss since Cornell's last appearance in the tourney. Thank you coach Gillispie!

Finally, dropping the sarcasm momentarily, congratulations to the Celtics for going undefeated through the "Texas Triangle" (games @ San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas) for the first time since...once again...the '80s: the most influential decade ever.

First Robin of the year (more accurately, the first when I had my camera ready...sort of)

Late last week I came close to writing about what briefly looked like peaceful, meaningful protests in the Tibet and Lhasa regions. "They're beginning to understand civil disobedience" I naively reassured myself. Obviously not.

Some sites related to the protests and reactions to the protests currently happening in and around Tibet:

BBC News: UN Calls for Restraint in Tibet -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7301912.stm

Human Right Watch: China Restrain from Violently Attacking Protesters - 
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/03/15/china18291.htm

Associated Press: Tibet Unrest Sparks Global Reaction - 
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gSSpPcDOPMoAiRLhPUyezuCRiXBQD8VFDD680

New York Times: China Takes Steps to Thwart Reporting on Tibet Protests - 
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/world/asia/18access.html?ref=world 

In the US you can call government officials using this link to express your concern about this situation.

You can also contact your representative at the United Nations 
to express your concerns:
(212) 963-8687 - 250 E 39th St, New York, NY
(212) 963-6011 - 447 E 14th St, New York, NY

Some support organizations:
 The Canada Tibet Committee - http://www.tibet.ca
 International Campaign for Tibet - http://www.savetibet.org
 Good source for news links, CTAO - http://www.ctao.org

Also a petition to the Chinese Government calling for a peaceful resolution involving meaningful, direct negotiations.

And a (long)first-hand account of the first days of the crackdown, from Portland OR's Willamette Week.

So today may mark the end of Doug Mirabelli's time with the Red Sox. It's not accident that - at least for me - he came into the spotlight during Wakefield's great first season. For me he always stayed there, to one degree or another, for his smart hitting and tough defense in the '99 playoffs vs. the Yankees. He contributed on both these fronts, and with a throw to second which for a number of years surpassed The Captain's.

There was never really a downward trend on defense, but there was on offense and it was clearest to me during the playoff round vs. the White Sox in '05 when Francona pulled him for Jason during a key bat late in the series. "Mirabelli's no slouch at the plate" I complained at the time, but the next season, and the one after that showed that Francona had known what I had failed to admit at the time: Something, whether his batspeed, vision, or confidence, has faded, and he no longer provides his part of the one-two punch the Red Sox once had.

Of course the memorable episode of the Doug Mirabelli story was the ridiculously dramatic motorcade race from the airport to start a home Wakefield game in place of Josh Bard, who'd acquired a disturbing number of passed/dropped balls catching Wakefield during his few early games. But baseball is a sport of many, many games, and move appeared to backfire when we came to see how much we'd given up in Bard. We'd somehow engaged in the kind of sloppy sentimentality backward-looking fans would choose, instead of the shrewd and studied business move the Henry et. al are known for. But like all club owners today, they're all business: we saw with the names being put up for a possible Santana trade that they were pretty well over any sentimentality.

I'll remember Doug for the many happy times, and no matter where the team goes from here, he'll always be able to remember that he was here for their best days. But as we should also remember from the aforementioned incident, it's always possible that he'll be back in a flash.

A powerful man makes many enemies, and many are already crowing about the demise of Elliot Spitzer. And given the hypocrisy of one who eagerly prosecuted prostitution rings getting caught involved with one, their glee is somewhat justified.

But let's not forget that this is the man who - while New York's #1 prosecutor - basically did the SEC's job for them, during a period where investor confidence had been racked by corporate scandal after corporate scandal.

So let's hope those who benefit most from zero regulation can at least be non-biased enough to recognize that Spitzer is currently the chief negotiator in some critical insurance and banking cases, and that given the state of the economy, this could not come at a worse time. Much as I had to recognize that - as suspicious as the reason of the wiretap may be (e.g. I wonder if Republican governors are routinely investigated for moving large amounts of money around) - the fault ultimately lies at the feet of the Gov'nah himself, for letting his lust for high-stakes excitement go beyond the courtroom, and into the bedroom. And like the criminals he condescended to from his lofty perch, being arrogant enough to think he could get away with it.

The series finale of The Wire did not disappoint. In fact,everything that was done wrong in the long, slow unwind of The Sopranos was done right. The question is, what do we do to fill the hole now that it's gone? Read more? Spend more time helping others?? Or simply join the rest of the nation in watching "humiliation TV"???

Of course, another option is to just punt to Showtime, which - having seen The Tudors for the first time, and noting there's a new season just ahead - seems to be getting the knack of the original series. As noted earlier, Home Box Office seems to be ending good series more far quickly than it's adding them. But before giving up on them entirely, one may want to see the John Adams miniseries: based on David McCullough's excellent biography.

...any hope that the Olympic rings would serve as wheels 
of progress for the repressive Chinese government is dying.
Instead, the devalued rings will make a handy symbol for 
caricaturists, who can draw them to look like handcuffs.

Miami Herald columnist Linda Robertson on how - on the eve of the Olympics - the Chinese gov't I'd cracking down on dissent more than ever, and how world leaders, corporate sponsors, and the IOC are enabling them.