Blog: Archive for October, 2001

The big news today is that our satellite dish and TiVo system were installed. Yes, yes, decadent and bourgeois it is, but TiVos have just dropped in price. Faced with the horrors of continuing to pay for Claremont's awful cable (which, you'll recall, not only has an extremely limited channel selection and horrible reception, but also makes it next to impossible to watch one program and tape another), or paying a bit more and getting a vast number of channels, plus the ability to tape two programs and watch a third, plus all the deep coolness of the TiVo system itself, it wasn't that hard a choice.

Anyway, it's in. We were a bit disappointed because it could only use one satellite connection out of the box, which meant that we couldn't record some obscure program that sounded sort of interesting on Cartoon Network because we were recording Crossing Jordan on NBC (which I haven't made up my mind about. Upsides include: Jill Hennessy and Miguel Ferrer, who I like; and it's another coroner show. Downsides: Hennessy's character is awfully Ally McBeal-like (but angry instead of desperate); the office looks more like the office in Ally McBeal than the one in Quincy, M.E.; do we really need another show set in Boston?). We also couldn't watch anything else live while the TiVo was recording.

Some poking around on the web led me to discover that the dual-tuner functionality required a software update, and that that update could occur anytime before the end of November. Yikes!

Luckily, I kind of forced the issue by making the machine do its daily call for the third time that day, and it spend an inordinate time downloading the update, then installing. I made it reboot, followed the instructions to activate the second tuner, and viola! we had the full functionality. An additional plus—the things I'd scheduled to record that had triggered problem notices were no longer an issue.

Now all we have to do is wait for enough television worth recording to be recorded so that we have a pool of stuff to watch while the TiVo records other programs.

Oh, one other downside to the satellite service: None of them apparently carry UPN. Now, ordinarily, I wouldn't care. Once Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ended, I wouldn't have missed UPN at all. But they snagged Buffy and Roswell, and while I could easily live without Roswell, no Buffy would be a problem. So we're going to be taping Buffy the old-fashioned way—off a broadcast signal—until UPN or the satellite people get their act together.

The latest issue of Bruce Schneier's Crypto-Gram is well worth reading for his informed and intelligent views on airport and airline security, biometrics, the failure of the intelligence community, and the importance of protecting civil rights, in addition to his usual good sense on encryption issues.

If you're not sure why putting face-recognition cameras everywhere is a waste of money and energy, and what other alternatives there are for dealing with the real issues, now's your chance to learn.

Here's the text of a letter I just sent to Senators Boxer and Feinstein and Congressman Dreier via the ACLU's free send-a-FAX service:

The events of September 11 were tragic and horrible. Thousands of people died at the hands of an unknown foe. But the ultimate success or failure of those attacks from the terrorists' perspective depends on the actions taken by the American government in the name of its people.

The American government can act hastily or with deliberation. The military can attack ill-defined targets immediately, perhaps increasing support for the terrorists, or it can wait until enough evidence has been collected and verified before making decisive, limited, strikes to capture or kill the perpetrators and their direct supporters.

In much the same way, Congress can act with haste and desperation, stunting or destroying the civil liberties of its citizens in the name of doing something now, or it can take a deep breath, acknowledge the importance of our society's core values, and act deliberately and proportionately.

Absolute safety is an impossible goal—America will always have its enemies, both internal and external, and those enemies may be able to surprise even the best prepared law-enforcement and intelligence agencies. Restricting the civil liberties of American citizens and international immigrants and visitors will not, ultimately, reduce that threat.

The attacks have made it clear that law-enforcement and intelligence agencies need guidance from Congress to help them focus on the real threats and to use the tools they already have efficiently. Despite the vast amount of information these agencies had access to without some of the proposals currently before Congress, they were unable to predict and stop the attacks.

I also believe it is vital that any and all legislative proposals on these issues must be debated in public, and should include input from both experts and members of the general public. Please don't succumb to the corrosive proposals presented as “quick fixes”. The damage that can be done by such proposals could take years to repair, and may lead us down the road to destruction.

Although I am disturbed by the calls for increased surveillance cameras, random searches by authorities, and a national identity card, all of which have obvious problems and dangers, I am most disturbed by calls for the slackening of restrictions on wiretapping of telephonic and Internet communications and for the increase of restriction on strong encryption.

There is no evidence in the public domain that the terrorists who perpetrated the September 11 attacks used encryption. Indeed, the evidence I am familiar with makes it clear that they did not. Nor is there any reason to believe that the current wiretap rules would have hindered an investigation had law enforcement requested them.

Please carefully consider the dangers of granting sweeping powers to law-enforcement agencies in the name of safety when there is no evidence that such powers will have any significant positive effect on creating a safer world, and may instead create a much darker, less open, and less American society for all of us.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and watching your actions in Congress on this important matter.

I strongly recommend that everyone—U.S. citizen or not—do the same. Help Congress understand that sacrificing America's core values is letting terrorists win. Assuming you're not reading this in an ancient archive, you can click on the annoying flashy button to get to the right place on their site quickly.

[I hacked the page to create my own categories for the two senators, who apparently insist that all correspondence be labelled with their labels, but don't provide a label for anti-terrorist legislation or the events of September 11; you may want to do the same. It's easy: simply save the page to your local machine, then open it in an editor. Scroll down to where the drop-down lists are defined, and add a new one. I suggest something like

<option "Anti-Terrorist Legislation">Sept. 11</option>

More trivially, TiVo is cool, but video wiring is evil.

You probably already knew that.

Also: tonight is the Buffy season premiere.

Bits and pieces of my computer are starting to trickle in—the RAM arrived yesterday, the monitor, USB printer cable, and a “free” printer I didn't want (and will donate to someone at least semi-worthy) should arrive tomorrow. If we're really lucky, the computer itself might arrive on Friday.

I actually had to pay for it yesterday; charged it on my card, that is. We'd planned to put it on M's card, but WAMU's bozo credit-card affiliate bank is run by idiots. First, because M has “no credit history” (because she didn't grow up here, and the giant corporations can only shuffle information across borders for their benefit, not yours—note that her Canadian Blockbuster and Safeway cards work just fine down here in Lalaland), she has a pathetically tiny credit limit. Nevermind what her salary is, she has a card that your average teenager could max out in a week on clothes, shoes, and fast food alone. So she talked to them about alternatives, and they assured her that if she needed to make a big purchase, she could put a bunch of money in her account (building up a credit balance, you see), and then buy the thing. Only they lied. Apple charged her card, and the bank's computer said, “Oh, no, no credit left, so sorry!” and denied the charge. After arguing with several people at increasing levels of power, they basically said that's the way it is and that's all there is and we'll send you your money back via check. Which will take one to two weeks. Uh-huh. I think it's AmEx time. If they charged her again for “going over her credit limit”, WAMU may be kissing our banking business goodbye, too.

I'm about at the point where I can't listen to NPR at all. I shouldn't really be surprised, but NPR is every bit as jingoistic as every other media outlet. It's clear that the media is just champing at the bit for an all-out terrorist bombing campaign, or at least a good government crackdown on commie-pinko scum like those people in the ACLU, EFF, PFAW, and so on.

From what I can tell, the military and the Bush administration are being relatively careful about what they say and do. They aren't actually sharing any real evidence that Osama bin Laden was responsible, although doing so would be much more likely to get cooperation from various countries, but they also haven't nuked anyone, shot cruise missiles at anyone, carpet bombed anyone, or sent in ground troops to rape, pillage, and murder anyone.

But the media is busy imagining threats around every corner, and claiming that the government is on the verge of doing those things. It's especially disturbing in a third-rate burg like L.A. (hey, I still haven't been downtown, so all I have to go on is the local news media, and they're cheesier than the people in my hometown), where the “entertainment industry” is busy ducking and covering despite no obvious threats. No more studio audiences. Moving awards shows to areas without other businesses. Cancelling shows with dramatic potential and films that are “too violent” (because the terrorists were inspired by Hollywood, I guess). The initial crackdown in the city—putting the police on “tactical alert” and crippling LAX—was particularly pathetic. As if there are any targets here worth crashing a plane into. The closest thing would be Disney, and aside from the loss of life (which would still probably be much less than the WTC or the Pentagon), who would miss it? Probably not even Disney, who would be presented with a clean slate to build an all new theme park on, free of the remains of Walt's original vision.

Anyway, I was complaining about NPR. I find that I can only listen for an hour or so before someone says something so stupid that I have to turn the radio off. You know what I mean. Things like, “They should take away everyone's rights if it'll make me feel safer,” or, “George W. is so eloquent,” or, “If only we'd banned encryption and had a wiretap on every telephone and a Carnivore box in every ISP, this thing [alternatively, “the tragic events of September 11”] never would have happened.”

Alan Cox says it all in this post to the W3C Patent Policy list. (If you didn't know, the W3C apparently tried to pull a fast one by slipping a new policy allowing the integration of various patented IP into their supposedly open standards. Seems that some of the big corps aren't happy with having to compete with smaller companies and, gosh!, open source developers.)
Via Ars Technica.

Read this article to learn how to survive a building collapse. Summary: Don't dive under furniture—it'll be smashed flat when the floor(s) above fall on it, and you'll be squished. Instead, dive for cover next to some large, heavy, stable object—when the debris hits, the object may or may not collapse, but there should be a triangular space next to it where you can survive. (Really, it'd be a triangular solid, but hey.)
Via Rebecca's Pocket.

In some ways, having the TiVo is making it very clear just how little there is to watch on TV these days. We're mostly recording old Buffy episodes, along with a tiny handful of current shows (e.r., The West Wing, various Law & Order incarnations, etc.). While it's cool to have the Cartoon Network, they aren't showing much that's really that exciting, either; although I'm giving Cowboy Bebop, and Outlaw Star (which is apparently chopped to bits in its Cartoon Network version—scary), and Samurai Jack (I have mixed feelings about Genndy Tartakovsky's stuff—I don't like Dexter's Lab at all) a chance, I'm not convinced I'll actually bother. (OTOH, getting The Powerpuff Girls back is a Good Thing.™)

New discoveries include Errol Morris's (weird documentary) show, First Person on the Independent Film Channel, and, well, that's pretty much it. More channels does not necessarily equate to more worthwhile programming. Not that it ever has.

BBC America is a huge disappointment. M and I were expecting to be able to watch Horizon and Panorama documentaries and the like, but, no, BBCA shows the same crappy British sitcoms you can get on any PBS station. There are good British sitcoms and dramas, and British documentaries tend to be first rate, but they don't seem to get much play here in the States, presumably because some market research has shown that Americans are too dumb for the documentaries (try comparing the original UK versions of documentaries that are shown as Nova episodes sometime), and don't understand the humour in the comedies. The dramas make it through to Masterpiece Theatre (if they're based on Jane Austen or Wilkie Collins novels) and Mystery! (if they're mysteries), but it's very rare to see a UK drama set in contemporary times.

I realized this morning just how bad VHS recordings are, especially when they're made in extended play mode. We've rented (and bought) a few DVDs since getting the iBook, and now we have a satellite dish. The picture really is crystal clear, even during playback from the TiVo (which is saving the original digital signal, rather than converting analog signals to digital, and then reconverting them, so it's just like watching a direct feed from the dish).

We're already starting to use up some of the space on the TiVo, though, with two old Buffys and this week's Angel, so I decided to try the “Save to VCR” option and tape the Angel episode. At the start of the playback, the TiVo shows a black screen with white text identifying the show, episode title, length of recording, actor list, and description, along with some other information. That looks great in the original form, but playing it back from tape shows the limits of VHS recordings: the text is blurry, jittery, and just plain nasty.

Yay! The monitor for my new computer arrived, as did yet another inkjet printer and a box with a USB cable and AppleCare registration material. The computer itself is on a truck heading south, so should hopefully arrive tomorrow.

Damn. The totally awesome postcard shop in North Beach (SF) is closing, thanks in part to the Internet or perhaps the lame people who took over San Francisco during the dot-com boom. The store was amazing, thousands of postcards, magnets, and other wacky collectible things that were kitschy and fun. Many of them were downright weird, too.
Via Red Rock Eater mailing list.

Learn about the diabolical theory of “regulatory takings” and its incorporation into the NAFTA. The basic idea here is that when a government passes some regulation that costs a business money (real or projected), the government must, under the fifth amendment to the U.S. Constitution, compensate the business for its losses. Back in 1905, this argument was used by the Supreme Court in the Lochner decision, which said that a New York State law imposing a ten-hour day and safer work conditions for bakers violated the bakery owners' property rights.

And that theory is back, courtesy of Richard Epstein and some conservative groups (including those five noble Justices who pulled a coup d'etat last year).
Via Red Rock Eater mailing list.

Speaking of the Justices, John Dean has a new book, The Rehnquist Choice, that tells the story of Richard Nixon's nomination of William Rehnquist (currently Chief Justice) to the Court. Salon has an interview with Dean.

Nixon continues to be one of the most evil men in the twentieth century, although he's managed to elude that label better than almost any other candidate. I feel so privileged to know he's in the ground just a few miles away....
Via Red Rock Eater mailing list.

The new computer arrived Friday evening (apparently the driver had to make a delivery in Irvine, three hours out of his way). It's shiny, it's pretty, and it's worthless from my point of view. Mac OS X is essentially a completely different operating system from Linux, and—no real surprise—most of the plain ol' command-line tools I use everyday under Linux are not available by default on Mac OS X. Some of them have been ported, but not very many of them, and so far I'm not terribly impressed by the porting of the ones I've used (e.g., less, which is essentially useless without the lesspipe script that allows you to look at compressed files without uncompressing them first).

So, basically, the thing is a Mac, and other than Mac applications, the only thing the machine offers me that useful on a day-to-day basis is a choice of two standards-compliant Web browsers. Right now, I'm completely disgusted, and ready to give up on it altogether for a year or two, until they actually get some stuff of the stuff I need working.

Along the same vein, I'm generally feeling pretty sick and tired of computers (not to mention the “real world”), and I'm taking a break for a while. See you when the world changes dramatically in a positive direction, I've recovered some perspective, been heavily medicated, or am shocked and horrified by something new so much that I have to say something.

In the meantime, check out some of the blogs listed in the column on the right (at this writing), and be sure to check in on the Red Rock Eater list for more good coverage of lots of things I generally care about.