Category: Uncategorized

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Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…Joe Biden on Barak Obama: I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.

Oops. I think I know what he was trying to say, but even that would have been inappropriate and bigoted. What he actually said was just flat out idiotic. *shrug* This media stuff is tricky, isn’t it Joe? Buh bye.

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Here is the blip.tv page, and direct MP3 download link for the January 30th episode.

I listen to Cameron’s G’Day World #176, and comment on some of his questions as well as Bruce Sterling’s post of the Vernacular Video essay. Also some thoughts on podcast workflow, and title updates.

(Note: by the end of the interview, I was liking Ross Dawson’s points a lot better. Sorry for dissing him based on the early part of the interview! Bygones. I may check out his blog.)

Links:

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Found a couple of potentially useful sites today; both look pretty interesting. UseAMap is a free service that provides you with a map that has a short URL, You can create a map, annotate, add directions, etc., then generate a short, easy-to-remember name for the result (based in the useamap.com namespace). Pretty cool!

Many Eyes is another Yet Another web-based data visualization tool. It’s from IBM (skunkworks of some sort I suppose), and it looks very cool. You can view and discuss visualizations, and upload your own data sets if you register. I really believe that tools like this will fundamentally change how we deal with large amounts of data. As they improve, it will become easier and easier for the average citizen to evaluate the data behind complex political, economic, and scientific debates. (as well as track price trends in the Orgrimmar Auction House…hey, a Tauren’s gotta eat!)

UPDATE: *grumble*…Many Eyes requires a Java plugin…this is teh suck. Google showed the capabilities of Javascript with the Gapminder World beta; no need for a plugin to do this! -1

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A while back, I moved my 2002 essay on tipjar payments for artists to sourceforge, as part of a project (called indiemuse) that would build tools for such a payment infrastructure. Eh….indiemuse never went anywhere, I don’t even think I own the domain anymore (still a good idea, though!), and eventually, my project was culled by sourceforge. Ick!

So I just realized a few weeks back (while reviewing my 404 reports from this site) that my tipjar essay link at my rants page was dead. All hail version control…I pulled out the copy that went to sourceforge, updated it a tiny bit (fixed email address and formatting), and put it up here. Enjoy.

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Charlie Stross is GOD. If you like thought-provoking science fiction, just go starting buying his stuff right now. (He’s got links at his site. And while you’re waiting for the Amazon overnight package, you can start Accelerando online!)

I’m presently re-reading Accelerando (for I think the 5th time) on my Nokia 770, my paperback copy of it is out on evangelical loan, I’ve finished The Atrocity Archives and The Jennifer Morgue since Christmas, and I just started Glasshouse. Whew! Nothing dings less than a 9 out of 10 on the Ken-meter so far.

I’ve read Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise as well, but I’ve worked around his parallel universe series (The Merchant Princes) so far, because fantasy tends to be a lot harder for me to really dig (I think I unconsciously don’t want to break the spell of Charlie-worship). But I’m going to have to go buy The Family Trade and give it a whirl. The man is too good.

Of course, I’ll wait a bit. I’ve got other ass-kicking authors (Ken Macleod and Alastair Reynolds for starters) still left in my Christmas pile. Joy.

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One of my resolutions for this year was to develop an informed position on universal health care. While I’m best described as an anarcho-libertarian nutball, I’ve always wondered about our health care system. I’ve also personally watched as people I know (without insurance) got sick, went into the hospital, got well, and had to declare bankruptcy to get out of hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. These are people who have regular jobs, pay their bills, and are pretty conscientious about their finances. But they didn’t have insurance, because they couldn’t afford it, and their employer didn’t provide it.

After seeing this happen more than once over the past few years, I’ve started poking around a bit and thinking about it. This is the most powerful and wealthy country in the history of the world…certainly we can figure out a way to make sure that people who get sick don’t lose their life saveings? That people won’t avoid going to the doctor because they feel they can’t afford it? Surely there are opportunities that we can explore, both in the standard government-sponsored universal healthcare realm, and in others.

I realize that some people may be thinking they COULD have bought insurance and chose not to, you know? I bet they have a nice cellphone plan. While to a certain extent I agree, I also see that as the kneejerk response of a flinty-hearted bastard with employer-subsidized health coverage. Coverage that a) is a tax benefit to the company, b) a hiring perk, and c) CAN’T BE DENIED to the new employee. So it’s not like we’re talking a level playing field here. If person works for a company that doesn’t health care as a perk, the decision to purchase insurance is quite a bit more expensive than for someone who does. Companies benefit…but not people. I like people more. *grin*

So with this already in my list of things to research this year, I’m pleasantly surprised by reading that the State of the Union address may include a new prosposal on healthcare. First glance, it looks good; a proposal to give taxpayers a new standard deduction for healthcare sounds like a good leveler. I may actually watch the SotU for the first time in several years. The proposal may go nowhere, but it’s certainly worth listening to.

If what I’ve seen so far this week is any indicator, Dubya would have done well to have had a Democratic Congress for his entire term of office. He might have focused a bit more on actual Republican small-government fiscally-conservative policies, and strayed a bit less into whacko territory. Corollary: as bad a President as I think Bush will be considered by history, our recent Congresses (in particular the 108th and 109th) may very well be even worse. No oversight, no thoughtful deliberation…no work. Maybe, just maybe, our democracy is creaking back into gear again. One can only hope.

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Here is the blip.tv page, and direct MP3 download link for the January 16th episode.

It’s been awhile, and I actually have several recordings in the player that I’ve decided to toss (at least for now) because of the amount of time that’s passed since they were recorded (days or weeks, even). As of right now, I’m not going to upload unless I can do so within a couple days of recording. Hopefully, this restriction will get me back in gear!

Just a stream of consciousness rant about Accelerando, by Charles Stross. I wax on the coolness of his ideas on the exocortex.

Links:

Hopefully I’ll stay more up to date!

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OK…it apparently never really left. But around the time the host, Cameron Reilly, headed across to the US from Australia last October in search of VC money, I stopped getting new podcasts on the feed. It took me a bit to notice…then I guessed that Cam was just heads down in meetings and such. But I finally went and looked, and there’s new stuff up! So it appears the podcast feed moved slightly around that time, and I didn’t catch it. Good news is, I’ve got about 20 episodes of my favorites Aussies to catch up on!

I’d say welcome back, Cam…but you never really went anywhere. So I guess it’s welcome back for me instead!