Getting out of the Miers Mess
By Brian | October 21, 2005
I haven’t written anything here about the Miers (or Roberts) nomination because, quite frankly, I don’t know much about Supreme Court Justices or how they should be chosen. I will say this, though:
It shocked me that there is no law (or at least an unbreakable tradition) that states that Supreme Court Justice nominees must be judges by profession. I’m told other non-judges have been appointed in the past, but on the face of it, it seems to suggest that there isn’t a single judge working in the U.S. today that is more qualified to be on the Supreme Court than this non-judge.
I’ve also been amazed at the reaction to Ms. Miers from those who call themselves conservatives. The concern seems to be primarily around her lack of qualifications as a conservative and her lack of stated conviction that Roe v. Wade must be overturned. Those who do mention her lack of experience as a judge tend to do so glancingly, either as an intro to the above two points, or as an afterthought. It makes me think that Bush could nominate a trained monkey for the court, and some people out there would complain that the monkey isn’t sufficiently pro-life.
Then there’s this (hat tip: InstaPundit). By asking Bush & Miers to violate attorney/client priviledge as part of the confirmation process, it seems as though Miers has to decide her first case before even broaching the confirmation hearings. The irony, of course, is that if she exhibits a strict belief in the right to privacy (which many advocate in a Supreme Court justice), then she’s forced to withdraw her nomination. If she’s willing to violate that right, then it could be used against her during the confirmation process as evidence of her willingness to legislate from the (hearing room) bench. All in all, a pretty slick political move for Graham & Brownback.
Finally, a question: if everyone (and it really does seem like everyone) thinks she’s a bad choice, shouldn’t the senate, who is hired to represent us, reject her nomination in a vote that resembles 100-0? Doesn’t the fact that, despite all the dissatisfaction, she still stands a pretty good chance of being confirmed bother anyone? To me, it calls into question the purpose of the confirmation process in the first place.
Categories: Political Rantings | 2 Comments »
Philosophical Questions for the 21st Century
By Brian | October 20, 2005
If the person you’re talking to sneezes with his phone on mute, do you need to say “God Bless You?”
And if you say “God Bless You” while you’re on mute, and the person doesn’t hear it, is he really blessed?
Discuss…
Categories: Random Acts of Blogging | 2 Comments »
Perhaps a giant India-shaped blanket?
By Brian | October 19, 2005
It seems the President of India is worried that terrorists will use Google Earth to attack his country:
High-resolution pictures are freely available on the Internet and are provided by many sites in addition to Google Earth, Kalam said. He cautioned officers during his speech to be aware of emerging “open-source intelligence.” He also showed the audience aerial pictures of some of the sensitive locations in India.
“When you look deeper into it, you would realize that the specific laws in some countries, regarding spatial observations over their territory and UN recommendations about the display of spatial observations, are inadequate,” he noted.
I thought we were past the days of “the Internet is only good for porn” and “How did kids survive before electric typewriters?” Look – all good technologies have the potential to be used for evil. The problem, in every one of these cases, is the evil. Not the technology.
Categories: Political Rantings, Tech Talk | Comments Off on Perhaps a giant India-shaped blanket?
Finally, someone said it!
By Brian | October 15, 2005
Categories: The World Wide Weird | Comments Off on Finally, someone said it!
Vista Watch – Beta 1.99
By Brian | October 12, 2005
InternetWeek has a review up of the latest Windows Vista beta. Some quick thoughts:
DISCLAIMER: It’s never a good idea to review software based on someone else’s review, rather than seeing the software yourself. So everything here is just speculation based on what the reviewer (in this case, Scot Finnie) wrote and the screen shots he’s included:
– Performance is better.
Good news. Not surprising, but still good news. I like the goal they’ve set for themselves – “Windows will turn on & off in two or three seconds – like a television.” I have no expecatations of that actually happening, but I like the way they’re thinking.
– Live Thumbnails
Hover over the taskbar, and you can see a minature version of the minimized window (complete with working video, etc. if it exists on the page). This sounds moderately useful, but I’ll need the actual user experience to know for sure. It also occurs to me that if your machine is a little light on memory, this is the kind of thing that could make the hard drive thrash just by navigating around. If it’s snappy, though, it could be a good thing.
– Flip
They built the same minatures into the Alt-Tab function (which I basically have in XP through some add-in someone sent me years ago). That’s probably more useful than the live thumbnails. Again, though, time will tell.
-Flip3D
Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s Expose. I liked Expose when I saw it, but Microsoft’s answer sounds better to me. Expose was a little invasive (all the windows moved all at once). This seems more seprated from the actual user experience – sort of a timeout while I select a new app. As above, we’ll see…
-Windows SlideShow
Finally, the ability to re-create those movies where the person’s screen saver says “You’ve got e-mail” over a floating envelope graphic or some such nonsense. Cute idea when integrated with other, non-PC devices. Another example of using the new OS as an opportunity to expand the human-computer interaction beyond the current paradigm (rather than just making everything faster or slicker).
-Windows Gadgets
Sounds like a direct competitor to OS X’s widgets. The review doesn’t say too much about them. I found them kitschy on the Mac, and expect the same on Vista.
Categories: Tech Talk | Comments Off on Vista Watch – Beta 1.99
Why Statistics Professors Don’t Enjoy Baseball Games…
By Brian | October 10, 2005
So, what’s more amazing? The fact that one guy caught two homerun balls in a single baseball game (alright, a double baseball game – it was 18 innings long), or the fact that the Chairman of the Department of Statistics at Stamford University calculates the odds of catching a homerun ball, without factoring in the thousands of seat-sized spaces in the outfield where a homerun could land and no one would catch it?
(Side note: I bet the guy figured he had million dollar souvenirs on his hands. Must’ve been a letdown when someone offerred him $20 for the pair…
Categories: Sports Talk, The World Wide Weird | 2 Comments »
Al Qaeda – Take Your Business Elsewhere
By Brian | October 7, 2005
I’m writing this from on board the uptown E train, which started at the World Trade Center station and is heading toward my office in midtown Manhattan. This is the same subway I rode on the morning of September 11, 2001.
Apparently, Al Qaeda would prefer that I be too scared to ride this train today
Well, consider this a big, old fashioned !#*@(‘ Off, Al Qaeda. Take your terror threats someplace where people care, OK? It’s our subway, and we know better than to run scared from the likes of you
There’s my stop – I gotta go. You lose this round, guys…
Categories: Political Rantings | Comments Off on Al Qaeda – Take Your Business Elsewhere
TiVo In Your Pocket
By Brian | October 7, 2005
It sounds like there a still a few glitches to be worked out, but we’ve finally gotten to TV In Your Pocket.
It’s not exactly a click-and-go sort of thing, but neither is it very difficult to send your favorite programs to your Windows-powered mobile device.
Categories: Tech Talk, The Future is Now | Comments Off on TiVo In Your Pocket
DisneyPods…
By Brian | September 30, 2005
My friend Mike was just saying that the market is missing a digital music player just for kids. Enter Disney.
To be fair, this isn’t exactly what Mike was talking about. He was suggesting a more Fisher-Price like device, with large plastic buttons that automatically played the kid’s favorite song. A device that could be thrown around, dropped, kicked, and covered with all the various liquid and semi-liquid substances that always accompany small children.
So it’s not ideal. But the price point is pretty good ($49.99), the storage is OK (128MB, expandable to >1GB), and the Disney brand can only be a plus. Also, nothing mentioned about any technical details (i.e., how do you get songs on there? Will Disney be selling MP3’s online? What software will they provide?)
Still…interesting.
Categories: Tech Talk, The Disneyverse | Comments Off on DisneyPods…
Commander in Chief – A Review
By Brian | September 30, 2005
Two years ago, my wife and I became so inundated with the number of primetime TV shows we were taping & watching later, that we instituted a “no new shows” policy. We would only watch the ones we were currently hooked on, and avoid all others, despite any rave reviews. This is how we escaped shows like CSI and Desparate Housewives. Last year, a couple of our shows went off the air, and we got a digital video recorder, which allowed us to watch while taping (so we didn’t have to wait until 10pm to watch The West Wing if the kids went to bed at 9:05). So, this year, we added a show to our repertoire – ABC’s Commander in Chief.
I was impressed when I watched it, and have grown more impressed the more I think about it. Obviously, a show about the first female President of the United States is going to deal head-on with the issues of feminism and sexism. That’s to be expected. What impressed me was the unique way the writers went about it in this case.
Only one character on the show (the Speaker of the House, played by Donald Sutherland) is a blatantly sexist man (in the traditional “male chauvinist pig” fashion), and his character comes off as a cruel, ignorant, assinine sonofabitch. He tells the new president (Gena Davis), who has assumed office after the death of the president, that her nomination as vice-president was just “theater,” and that we couldn’t possibly expect the world to accept a female president. When Davis mentions the whole “might invade another country once a month” problem, he misses the sarcasm entirely, and invokes menopause as the saving grace, insulting her age as well as her gender with “it’s OK – in a couple of years, that won’t be a problem for you anyway.” We all think the same thing: What a jerk!
So we’ve established that MCP’s are jerks. No shock there. What is fascinating is the inherent struggle the rest of the cast has as they trip over themselves to redefine gender roles, pronoun usage, and stereotypes. One of her aides calls her “Madame President” and “Sir” in the same conversation. Her husband, who was her chief of staff when she was vice-president, is referred to as “FLOTUS” (taking the POTUS acronym, made famous on The West Wing, and extending it into something right out of a Japanese garden), is asked to set the dinner menu for the White House, and is warned against participating in speech writing or spending too much time in the west wing. His chief of staff keeps warning him that Hillary Clinton did those things and they “didn’t go over well.”
In addition to the many levels of irony here, I was impressed by the writers’ willingness to define two kinds of sexism – the mean, ugly kind that is generally driven by ignorance or stupidity (or both), and the structural kind, committed by well-meaning folks who are being asked to adapt to a situation that goes against their long-reinforced instincts. This second kind of sexism affects both the men and women on the show, and takes the form of over-compensation almost as often as it takes the form of pure prejudice. We feel for these people; we don’t hate them the way we hate the Speaker of the House (who, by the way, should be the SOTH, no?)
This approach gives the writers a huge advantage. They are in a position to make the politically correct Hollywood point (men who treat women badly are evil), without allowing that message to hijack the show. They can simultaneously make a second point – that we all have preconceptions about how the world works, and when these preconceptions are shattered, well meaning people may act insensitively without actually being evil. More importantly, being able to explore both paths will allow them to keep the show interesting for a much longer time, which will keep me watching. And that, after all, is the point.
Categories: ISBS Reviews, Primetime TV | Comments Off on Commander in Chief – A Review