Thursday May 05, 2005

its all about the content

In Getting Flat, Part 2 Doc Searls makes the comment

Though I doubt I'll live to see it, I am sure some day we will look back on massive TV consumption the way we now look back on drunk driving and ubiquitous cigarette smoking: as an unhealthy practice that, for a few dumb decades, was the norm.

The whole article (part 1 and part 2) makes some good points. But this one jumps out at me. My first reaction is "Yah"! Thats right! But hold on, I think maybe Doc is giving into blaming the media instead of the content. Much like most of radio programming today, which wouldn't have gotten my grandparents to wait expectantly for their favorite program, TV today lacks good programming. Maybe when the tools¹ and bandwidth are available video podcasting will provide some real diverse content for TV. I have hope for reasonable use of broadcast video media. I have little hope that the companies involved today will make the transition without a lot of external prodding.

¹ I'm not talking about production tools. They exist today and are getting better. For example my sister-in-law produced a workout video for my wife in an evening with her digital camera and some DVD authoring software. No, the barrier for both audio and video is search. Until its easy to search both won't be able to scale very well. ( May 05 2005, 12:35:25 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [0]

Wednesday May 04, 2005

I can't complain Another weight watchers meeting and down another 4.8lbs (down 17.8lbs total). On the plus side is the 4.8lbs and the fact I did it over a trip to the bay area which included several dinners out and an anniversary meal which was anything but light. On the negative side is the fact that it was over two weeks. 2lbs/week is a nice amount. I should be happy with it, but I'd hoped to get one more week well over 2lbs before settling down to the 2lbs/week grind. ( May 04 2005, 10:57:57 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [0]

Wednesday April 13, 2005

Forced to pay more for insurance or a less biased editor? There have been a couple of articles lately about the "right to die". Given the money on the opposition and the numbers of proponents (70% of the sample taken) is it clear there is a lot of money involved in this question? The article quoted adds some pithy comments over what is found in other places. One example from the first piece is "If a majority of doctors in the state are against assisted suicide, then the state's lawmakers and their constituents ought to pay attention to what the experts are saying, Leslie said.". I wonder how this got by any rational editor. The Doctor's are not the experts in when to die. They are trained to keep you living. I don't have a reference on hand but I've seen data which shows that most of us spend most of what we will spend during our lives on medical care during those last 6 months. Between their training and their livelihood why would you expect Doctors wouldn't oppose assisted suicide? ( Apr 13 2005, 10:53:21 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [0]

Thursday April 07, 2005

joining the light side Recently my wife, sister-in-law, and various friend have joined weight watchers. Since then I've been accused of being a "saboteur" due to not being part of the weight loss crew. 4 years or so ago I lost a lot of weight as part of a BARGE weight bet. Since then I've slowly gained back about 40% of my loss. So I joined. My initial weight in was 250.8 lbs. ( Apr 07 2005, 03:53:14 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [0]

Monday April 04, 2005

Down the dry side I drove from Gardnerville, NV down 395 to 178 (Walker Pass) this last weekend. The impact of human's on the landscape is much less continuous and far more stark then the drive down 99 or 5 making for a more interesting drive. ( Apr 04 2005, 10:58:30 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [0]

Thursday March 17, 2005

Make'ng money I subscribe to Make, the new technology "DIY" magazine by O'Reilly. The first issue was a nice magazine. There is a strong indication that it will be a very fun magazine to receive every quarter. Of course then I receive their bill. It gives you the choice of "1 Year subscription - 34.95 5 quarterly vol. (includes 1 bonus" or (in a box) "Save more: 2 Years - $64.90 9 quarterly vol. (includes 1 bonus)". Maybe they should have an article on DIY scam detection via simple divison (or the simple clue that the delta between twice the one year price and the two year "deal" was less then the cost of a single issue). At $6.99 per issue the one year offer has a lower immediate price then the $7.21 per issues 2 year offer. ( Mar 17 2005, 09:37:55 AM PST ) Permalink Comments [0]

Tuesday February 01, 2005

Nevada One of the cool things about Nevada is that due to its lack of population and its environment many things from the last century that would have been swallowed up in California exist in some (often dilapidated) form. One of my chief sources of information on fun places to check out are Richard Moreno's writeings both in the Nevada Appeal and in the collection's of those articles he did for the Children's Musemum of North Nevada entitled Backyard Traveler (about Northern NV) and Backyard Traveler Returns (About Southern NV). Another source of information about Nevada happenings is Scott Schrantz's blog. A recent post lists a series of Nevada Hauntings. Summer isn't that far away and I'm itchy to take some summer drives into ghost land! If you check out Scott's blog make sure to read the entries covering the Ormsby House. The history, both past and present, is interesting and his photo journal is cool! ( Feb 01 2005, 04:58:28 PM PST ) Permalink Comments [1]

Thursday November 11, 2004

the water of life, the dust of death?

This is an interesting look at the history of the Owen's lake and the effect of creating a city in the middle of an arid area has had on it. Mono lake is probably a better known victim of this problem, but having spent a lot of time in the eastern Sierra around Lone Pine, Owen's lake is closer to my heart. Mulholland might draw visions of richness to many, but to me it is the sound of destruction. ( Nov 11 2004, 10:06:53 PM PST ) Permalink

Tarred with the same brushbush?

I've been rewatching the Babylon 5 series lately. After reading this kind of silliness I wonder if Clark save himself with some help from Zathras as Bush. ( Nov 11 2004, 02:45:49 PM PST ) Permalink

Friday October 29, 2004

small town halloween My wife and I visited our favorite local lunch joint this afternoon. You know you are in a small town when the waitress you know and who knows you by sight gets you to offer to exchange the tie died t-shirt off your back for one of the restaurants!

See my t-shirt tending bar at the lake side on Sunday night :) ( Oct 29 2004, 03:57:05 PM PDT ) Permalink

Tuesday October 26, 2004

applying game theory to campaign strategy This article is a really neat description of how game theory can be used to find an optimal usage of campaign resources. Its pretty readable even if math is a little scary to you! ( Oct 26 2004, 12:06:47 PM PDT ) Permalink

Monday October 25, 2004

childhood memories... This reminds me of all the "xray specs" advertisements in the back of comic books I saw as a kid. I vaguely remember a story about my sister bulking up on extra underclothes in response to a classmates claims. Hopefully someday the world scoffs at the repressiveness that causes this silliness. ( Oct 25 2004, 04:53:14 PM PDT ) Permalink

Saturday October 23, 2004

Eric Blair was just two decades off... How could anybody think that scrubbing info off of the whitehouse webpage would confuse the world!? Given how cheap storage is and much caching is done I would think this would just be another way to lose "torn" voters. ( Oct 23 2004, 12:29:40 PM PDT ) Permalink

seasteading A friend is giving a talk on seasteading at the Civil Society Institute on Santa Clara campus. Patri and friends have more information at seastead.org. Its sad/interesting/something that in this time of diminishing freedoms that as fragile and interesting a concept as seasteading should become technically possible. Personally I'm afraid that when its needed most its would be most likely to be crushed by an imperialist power. ( Oct 23 2004, 08:25:05 AM PDT ) Permalink

Friday October 22, 2004

podcasting Since Doc Searls started mentioning it on his weblog I've been interested in podcasting. Initially somewhat put off by its apparent connection with the Apple iPod (nothing wrong with the device, just that I bought an early Creative Zen instead) until I realized its nothing more then broadcasting by agreed upon media format (mp3 currently). Its somewhat annoying that there are not any good unix tools for collecting podcasts but the mac and pc tools at ipodder.org are a pretty good start. There are already so many podcasts its easy to get lost. A good place to start is Adam Curry's "Daily Source Code" or the directory on iplodder.org. ( Oct 22 2004, 02:47:46 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [1]