This page contains all entries posted to Manufactured Environments in July 2004.
John Kerry
Posted by Daniel Stout on Thu 29 Jul 2004 at 9:55 PM
John Kerry says: Go to JohnKerry.com!
Overall, it was a great speech. John Kerry was passionate and convincing and forceful. He articulated his vision for an America that is honest and compassionate. He rose to the occasion tonight.
John Kerry to speak
Posted by Daniel Stout on Thu 29 Jul 2004 at 8:14 PM
John Kerry will be speaking around 10pm Eastern at the Democratic National Convention. Check it out!
Get the scoop over here.
Energized
Posted by Daniel Stout on Tue 27 Jul 2004 at 7:57 PM
I’m watching the Democratic Convention in Boston, and I’m feeling energized. I participated in the Iowa Caucuses in January and helped put Mr. Kerry into the forefront. But now November is getting near and it is the time to get active and get involved. Be a volunteer or contribute to the Kerry campaign.
I watched Fahrenheit 9/11 this weekend, and it was good—really good. If you haven’t seen the movie, do yourself a favor and go and see it today!
States I’ve Been To
Posted by Daniel Stout on Sat 24 Jul 2004 at 1:42 PM
Here’s a little map courtesy of this site that documents the states I’ve been to (in red). All in all it’s a total of 28 states that I’ve traveled to thus far. What does your map look like?
Movies and Outlook
Posted by Daniel Stout on Sat 24 Jul 2004 at 10:03 AM
Last night we watched a movie called Swimming Pool. But what I really want to watch is this. [via diepunyhumans]
In other news, the university is in the process of switching completely over to Microsoft for email and calendaring. So we’re using Outlook and Entourage in a big way now. The good news is that there’s a “lightning-fast” search plug-in available for Outlook from Lookout. Actually MSFT liked it so much they bought the company. Anyway, it’s great google-like searching for Outlook. It’s made my life better. Find out more and download for free here.
Whole Foods to IC?
Posted by Daniel Stout on Sat 24 Jul 2004 at 1:31 AM
The word on the street is that Whole Foods is coming to our fair city on the river. Maybe it’s true and maybe it’s not. But it’s interesting to think about the possibilities. Of course, the first reaction of an community minded person here is “What will happen to NewPi?” That is, the New Pioneer Co-op, the local dominator of the organic foods market. They’ve got their busy Iowa City store of course, and the multi-million dollar Coralville satellite store. There’s an interesting article about Whole Foods in Fast Company here. At any rate, the word is that the Whole Foods store will be in that dual residential tower they’re building downtown, thanks to the moen group. Looks like the units are basically sold out already in the building except for one 1,700 sq ft unit going for $575K, which is high for this area. At any rate, I’m a member of New Pioneer and plan to keep it that way. Keep my food local. Keep my dollars local.
Web logs and Web sites
Posted by Daniel Stout on Tue 20 Jul 2004 at 9:47 PM
Jason Kottke reiterates his prior posting about the use of the term weblog. As we all know, the word blog is short for weblog. In the rarified world of newspaper copy editing (with only a hint of sarcasm), words like weblog become Web log. Kottke grieves over Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal, specifically page B1. In a headline the WSJ used Web log, as is their standard usage. But to most people of the technical persuasion this looks like poopy poo. There are two points to be made: 1) the WSJ tends to be excessive in their house styles—IBM is I.B.M., for example. Perhaps it offers clarity and perhaps, I think the New Yorker would agree on this, it offers distinctiveness. 2) The terms weblog and blog aren’t terribly descriptive and will probably be forever terms of jargon and not achieve universal usage.
Ah, you thought I was done? No, there is surprise point three: 3) Kottke’s obsession with Web log caused him to miss an even more grievous sin in the headline of the article right next to the Web log article. The headline reads “Mr. Edwards Intends To Sell the Web Site That Gave Him Fame.” The article itself is hilarious—it tells the tale of a man in Indianapolis named Kerry Edwards who owns the domain kerryedwards.com. Needless to say Kerry & Edwards are a now famous combination. But Mr. Edwards of Indianapolis is trying to sell his domain of three years for a cool $150,000. Think someone will take him up on it?
Sorry, I digressed. The point being made here is that Web Site is a common term that is understood even by people who don’t surf the internet. It is jargon that has achieved universal usage. My grandparents, who are in their 80’s, know what I’m talking about at least abstractly when I mention websites. Hence there is no need to separate the ‘web’ from the ‘site.’ In addition there is no need to capitalize the word “Web” either. What the WSJ and most newspapers call a Web site would be best rendered as a website. This has been my personal style for at least five years, and while I don’t imagine the WSJ will change it’s stylebook, I’d like to see popular usage drop the capital and the space.
Whew. Let’s not even talk about email…er, e-mail? I completely agree with Donald Knuth’s usage. And I’d like to think that Dr. Knuth and I have something in common: we both know what we’re talking about.
Dreams of you are in my head
Posted by Daniel Stout on Mon 19 Jul 2004 at 10:39 PM
I had a dream last night. I was sitting at a computer typing a search into Google. Instead of bringing me whatever I was searching for, there was a page of nonrelevant links—Google was returning junk.
In recollection it seems more a fragment than a whole dream, but are any of you good at interpreting dreams? Any theories on the import of this dream imagery? Well, besides the obvious ones, such as “The dream means that you’re spending too much time in front of the computer. Talk a walk, man.” If I recall correctly, my response to the page of junk links wasn’t one of frustration that I wasn’t finding what I was looking for, but rather it was puzzlement as to what had happened to Google.
In other news, Apple released 4th generation iPods today. Apple’s usual strategy after releasing a new generation of a product, whether it’s PowerMacs or iMacs or whatever, is to do an update a couple of months down the road—fixing problems and bumping up the specs. My guess? They’re sitting on a 60 GB iPod that will be released soon. (They released 20 and 40 GB models today.)
So this is West Branch. Tolerant West Branch.
Posted by Daniel Stout on Sun 18 Jul 2004 at 7:45 PM
“Breasts are not shameful nor dangerous” reads the sign. In local news, there’s a dustup in West Branch, just a few miles down the road from Iowa City. A woman was in a West Branch restaurant on July 3rd and began to breastfeed her baby. The waitress and then the owner of the restaurant told the woman, who was with her family, to get the hell out of dodge.
Well, yesterday there was a protest in front of the restaurant. Women breastfed their babies. The local yahoos drove by and told the women to “Go back to Iowa City” and “Show us your breasts.”
You can read more about it in the Press-Citizen article here. You’ll note an interesting detail later in the story: the “restaurant” in question, which wouldn’t allow a woman to breastfeed, had held wet t-shirt contests in the past. The hypocrisy is what got people especially riled up; here was a place of business ready to exploit and demean women. Enough said.
Doctorow’s DRM Talk at MSFT
Posted by Daniel Stout on Fri 16 Jul 2004 at 11:10 AM
On June 17, Cory Doctorow gave a talk about DRM (digital rights management) at Microsoft Research in Redmond, WA. Very interesting (and very accessible) if you’re at all curious about the growing restrictions on digital media. Doctorow has been active on intellectual property rights (he’s a staffer for EFF), and we need more people like him to get the word out that people don’t want restrictive laws preventing them from fair use of the media they’ve purchased. It’s important to note that the talk takes place at MSFT, a champion of DRM—I’d be curious to know if questions were allowed and what, potentially, Doctorow was queried about by the Softies.
MT-Blacklist
Posted by Daniel Stout on Fri 16 Jul 2004 at 10:11 AM
Do you have a Movable Type blog? Have a comment spam problem? This site hasn’t had too much comment spam, but it has been increasing. So I recently installed Jay Allen’s plugin called MT-Blacklist, and I’ve been very pleased so far. It’s basically eliminated the comment spam problem at this point. The logs show about 40 comments spams that were blocked by MT-Blacklist in recent days. It appears to be working nicely.
Cell Phone 411
Posted by Daniel Stout on Wed 14 Jul 2004 at 8:53 PM
Do you have a cell phone? Do you want your name and cell phone number to be listed in a directory? So that anyone could look up your cell and call you? Well, that’s what’s coming.
Last year, I cut off my land line and went wireless. It’s great. Telemarketing calls dropped to none. And now my friends can reach me whenever and wherever I have my phone, even when I’m on the road like today when I had to drive over to Des Moines for a meeting. There’s nothing—that’s NOTHING—that I miss about a land line. At any rate, here’s a news brief via Edupage, an electronic publication of Educause.
CONTENTION OVER CELL PHONE 411 DATABASE
A planned directory-assistance database of cell-phone numbers is raising concerns among civil liberties groups and industry analysts about protecting the privacy of cell-phone users. Officials from the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) said the 411 directory would require customers to opt-in to be included and so presents no risk to individual privacy. Some critics, however, question whether the directory could have sufficient enrollment to be sustainable unless an opt-out approach is used. Verizon Wireless has said it will not provide its customers’ names and numbers to the directory, but the company’s user agreement says that Verizon may submit customer numbers to a directory unless users pay a fee to be excluded. According to Adam Goldberg of Consumers Union, in such a situation, Verizon could at any time decide to change its policy and the user agreements could be taken as permission to opt-in to the directory. Because of the uncertainties surrounding the directory and its implementation, some are calling on the Federal Communications Commission to regulate the directory. Officials from CTIA argued that government regulation is not necessary, saying the list will only be opt-in and that no fees will be charged to be either included or excluded from the directory.
Wired News, 13 July 2004
Thank you, no. I opt out.
It’s always better on Holiday.
Posted by Daniel Stout on Mon 12 Jul 2004 at 10:18 PM
I’m really digging this debut album. It’s music that makes me want to move—every time this disc finds its way onto the stereo I immediately get up and get physical; it’s that good. What is it? Well, it’s crisp, clear Britpop that’s a hell of a lot of fun. The band? Franz Ferdinand and their eponymous debut. It’s smashingly reasonable from Amazonica. The band’s website is over here. Oh, damn it! I just checked their website for the first time and they’ve stolen my word: eponymous. Okay, it wasn’t my word, but rather R.E.M.’s word. Hell, I’ve been using that little puppy since 1988. My next book: “The etymology and personal history of eponymous” by Daniel Q. Stout. So friends, check out Franz Ferdinand.
Take Me With You
Posted by Daniel Stout on Sat 10 Jul 2004 at 1:53 AM
As reigning champion of Mix Tape 2004, I’ve got a certain reputation to maintain. I’m pleased to announce another all-star fest that’s smooth and crisp—like drinking Cisk with friends at a seaside café. Of course, the title of this new mix, Take Me With You, alludes to travels abroad. It’s a mix of musical journeys. If you’re not on my mailing list and want a copy of this mix CD, feel free to get in touch via the contact page. There’s a listing of the tracks on this mix over on the music page.
ASCII Rock Videos
Posted by Daniel Stout on Fri 9 Jul 2004 at 7:02 PM
If you’re familiar with ASCII art (images rendered using only letters and symbols), you’ll love these classic rock videos. The music is MIDI’d and the videos are ASCII—actually, old-school green-screen-monochrome-monitor style. I liked “God Save the Queen” by the Sex Pistols—it sounds positively rinky dink, which I suppose it was originally. And “Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin—repetitive bliss.
The Gay Vote
Posted by Daniel Stout on Fri 9 Jul 2004 at 9:31 AM
It’s clear who’s a better choice this November for the queer vote. Do you remember that postcard/poster that had a very buff Clinton and Gore wearing short shorts? I suppose it’s only a matter of time until this happens to Kerry/Edwards too, but Kerry’s sizzle is with the older ladies or so my friend Jane indicates. Jane says that older women think Kerry is pretty hot. Somewhere in the thin, white duke/David Bowie ballpark I’d guess. In other news, David Bowie had emergency heart surgery. Get well, Davey.
The Decline of Reading
Posted by Daniel Stout on Wed 7 Jul 2004 at 8:39 PM
The NYTimes has a great article today about the decline of reading in America. (Reg. Req’d.) Apparently the decline cuts across all ages and economic groups. To quote some statistics:
Their answers show that just over half — 56.6 percent — read a book of any kind in the previous year, down from 60.9 percent a decade earlier. Readers of literature fell even more precipitously, to 46.7 percent of the adult population, down from 54 percent in 1992 and 56.9 percent in 1982, which means that in the last decade the erosion accelerated significantly. The literary reading public lost 5 percent of its girth between 1982 and 1992; another 14 percent dropped away in the following decade. And though the number of readers of literature is about the same now as it was in 1982 — about 96 million people — the American population as a whole has increased by almost 40 million.
So what do you think? Do computers (e.g. the internet) cut into your reading time? Or is TV more of a culprit in that area?
That reminds me, I need to update my reading list page over in the books section of this website. I started keeping a reading list this year to see what I’m reading—and I can see how computer time cuts into reading time. I’ve been reading 1 to 3 books a month this year, but my optimum level is 3 to 4 books a month. The most recent book I finished was a funny one called Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. Perhaps you’ve heard of it.
A few months ago, I made a conscious decision to increase the time I spend reading in the evening. I started getting my favorite newspaper again (the WSJ of course), which keeps me occupied for a good hour each evening, various magazines that I keep up with—especially Columbia Journalism Review, Fortune, Print, Newsweek (a gift — thanks T & T!), the New Yorker (which John nicely passes off to me) and Bomb—and coming in third right now is my book reading. Maybe I need to adjust the percentages a bit, but mostly it’s a compromise with my computer time. I’ve cut way back on the number of blogs I’ve been reading—it had to be done. I’m gradually unwiring myself.
Mass Email Season
Posted by Daniel Stout on Wed 7 Jul 2004 at 6:10 AM
One of the advantages of having the same email address for 6 years has been that people who I haven’t talked to in ages can still get a hold of me. Case in point, Brian sends word from Madison that the Senate is voting on the Federal Marriage Amendment (he’s against it).
There must have been something in the air last month because I got a whole slew of mass emails from a bunch of people I haven’t talked to in ages. It’s summer, right? People having too much time on their hands? So I’ve had the same email address, and it’s been passed around. I suppose that’s life on the internet—getting random emails from acquaintances I knew years ago. I suppose it’s good to feel connected, but this kind of thing takes effort if you want it to work. Mass emails can seem like an intrusion; I noticed that several people sending them were self-conscious about it, which didn’t used to be the case. People used to send mass emails more indiscriminately. But dare I say it, I’d rather have these old acquaintances send email more frequently because I find it interesting to hear about people’s lives, and cramming the past two or three years into one email, one loses a lot of the granularity of more frequent missives.
Take Me With You
Posted by Daniel Stout on Thu 1 Jul 2004 at 7:53 PM
Take Me With You - 1 julio 2004
~ A mix of musical journeys ~
TRACKS
- Plug It In Basement Jaxx
- Night Nurse Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham
- Consolação Sylvio Cesar & BossaCucaNova
- Don’t You Worry The Beloved
- Bell Bottomed Tear The Beautiful South
- Don’t Panic Coldplay
- I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do) Daryl Hall + John Oates
- Don’t Go Yaz
- Jackie Bossa Nostra
- Love And Music Rithma
- Non Sarai Mai Bandabardo
- 60 Miles an Hour New Order
- Drive That Fast Kitchens of Distinction
- Eat For Two 10,000 Maniacs
- One Louder Solex Solex
- Subterranean Homesick Alien Radiohead
- Up, Up and Away (Happy Sexy Mix) The Beloved
- Circles Adam F
Running time: 79 minutes, 32 seconds.
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