JetPens - Japanese Pens and Stationery

Here’s just what I needed before the holidays: a website that is devoted to Japanese pens and office supplies.  I’m particularly devoted to the first generation Zebra stick pens that made it to the United States.  Now discontinued, I’m not as fond of the newer generation of Zebra gel pens.  Still, this site has much to delight – no doubt I’ll be “forced” to check out here later.

JetPens - Japanese Pens and Stationery

The Last Tournament

This weekend is Keavy's last club soccer tournament. We're doing a road trip from Madison to St. Louis for two days and then driving up to the Twin Cities to visit Maccalester. The last tournament is a little bittersweet because, after many, many years, Keavy will not be playing competitive soccer. Her career has included a stint in the Olympic Development Program, two major surgeries on each leg, and a state championship. Last week she scored the game-winning goal in her last Regional League game.

This tournament was originally supposed to be a college showcase, but by now the girls know whether or not they want to play in college. Keavy's team has three girls going away to play in Division 1 soccer – a relatively small number for a team in this division. Keavy is definitely not one of them. She intends to have fun at college and not go through the rigors of being a college athlete.

Can't say that I blame her in any way. As much as I might have wanted to see her play at the college level, I also understand the desire to have a well-rounded life in college. Being a college athlete isn't an avenue that leads toward that.

So, it's off to St. Louis for The Last Tournament.

Ribbit SMS Widget

Blogs on Windows Home Server

Host Your Own Blog on Windows Home Server We Got Served is a useful post on We Got Served that shows how to set up a WordPress Blog on a Windows Home Server machine. It involves PHP, MySQL and WordPress and looks like it might be fun to do if I would ever move away from the very free Blogger!

Twitterholic

Twitterholic now reports that I am the 1,055,653rd most popular person on Twitter. That means that "millions are more popular than you." That seems like hyperbole come true.

Waterstone's in Amsterdam

Sunday afternoon in Spui means a visit to the Amsterdam version of Waterstone's -- the premier English-language bookstore in Amsterdam. It was crowded and so was the street outside. That didn't stop me from getting a present for Keavy there.

Chrysler Into Bankruptcy

It can’t be anything like a surprise, but the announcement that Chrysler is being forced to file for Chapter 11 protection is still overwhelming in scope and scale.  It is, of course, the product of unimaginable mismanagement in the face of obvious trends in the energy and consumer space.  But the effect on people’s jobs, lives and retirement is so profound that I can hardly get my head around the fact.

Nokia's profits drop 90% in Q1 2009

Nokia's profits drop 90% in Q1 2009 is a story at Engadget. I'd comment on it in a sympathetic and helpful way -- except I'm a shareholder (* sigh *).

Ian’s Shoelace Site

I know that there is a place for everything on the Internet, but occasionally I find something that is so amusing that it deserves mention.  That’s the case with Ian’s shoelace site which Ian points out is the Number One Shoelace site on the Internet.  Except for the secret ones, I suppose.  I mean, how many can there be?

Making Dinner and Telling No Lies

Just a couple of pictures of Keavy and friends making dinner last night.  There was pasta for thousands and Heidi and I left the premises before the assembled masses took to the table to celebrate the power of the pot.  Here are a couple of more pictures:

 

An Infuriating Problem - Part 1

It's with an iPhone (if you aren't interested, I don't blame you).

The problem is that, after an upgrade to the most recent version of iTunes, I can no longer sync my iPhone and one of my iPods. When I connect the iPhone to the computer, iTunes reports that it is "Verifying Mark McFadden's iPhone" and then iTunes freezes and nothing happens.

Remarkably, the same thing happens with my iPod classic 120Gb.

Looking online I discovered I wasn't alone. One solution was to deauthorize the iTunes program and restore the iPhone on another computer. Tried that. Same problem.

Another possibility was to do a clean installation of iTunes on the machine that I was trying to sync with. Tried that. Same problem.

I took the iPhone to a completely different machine and restored it to its facotry defaults. Then I reunited it with the machine running iTunes. Basically, I tired to have iTunes pretend that it was a brand new iPhone. Tried that. Same problem.

I actually called Apple technical support where a nice lady called Amanda -- I suspect that all the Apple Technical Support people are named Amanda -- suggested that I uninstall everything I have from Apple and do a complete reinstallation. Even though it broke my copy of MobileMe and left me without iTunes, I did it. Tried that. Same problem.

So Amanda suggested that I completely delete iTunes and all Apple products from my machine and erase my copy of my media library (180Gbytes of media). I really wanted the iPhone to sync and, even though it seemed the option of last resort, I went ahead and did it. Tried that too. Same problem.

The amazing thing is that -- what should have happened -- apparently didn't. I got the machine to a state where there was no Apple software on it and no media of any kind. The "iTunes" folder was completely deleted. And, when I reinstalled iTunes it still didn't work. I can take a blank restored iPhone to a machine that is running a fresh copy of iTunes and still get the same problems.

Amanda and Apple haven't helped.

I'll reflect on this further as I try Apple again.

Chicago Sun-Times files for bankruptcy

Along with Charter Communications’ filing yesterday, this is the second of the big media companies to run for cover from their creditors in two days.  Neither was unexpected, but both show the changes that are taking place in the communications industry.  In Charter’s case there is some small hope that the reorganization (with the approval and willingness of the creditors) will result in a revived company with positive cash flow.  In the Sun-Times’ case there is no such hope.  What will be interesting is the knock-on effect for other, small communications companies – whether they are network providers or newspapers.  In either case, it doesn’t matter: if you don’t have a modern approach to building revenue streams you can’t survive.

Chicago Sun-Times files for bankruptcy - The CNN Wire - CNN.com Blogs

Encarta to be Discontinued

No doubt I am one of the few who will be disappointed in this announcement. I’ve been a user/purchaser of Encarta since it first appeared in the marketplace. While it’s hard to ignore the dominance of Wikipedia, Encarta had some features that made it a positively lovable application. I especially liked the interactive globe and the Encyclopedia based quizzes that tested your knowledge of both trivia and slightly more important things. However, as Microsoft itself admits, there are new ways for people to consume (and provide!) this information. So Encarta goes the way of GM (wait! not yet!).

It’s an unusual product announcement for Microsoft: a really good product that had a really good reputation – but whose time has passed. Microsoft has done the right thing, but Encarta will still be missed by some of us.

Important Notice: MSN Encarta to be Discontinued - MSN Encarta

Virgin eyes 150Mb broadband speed

What are you supposed to do with 150Mbytes?  Remembering that a user’s apparent Internet access speed is dependent on the speed with which information can be delivered, I can’t imagine how a 150Mbyte pipeline to the home would get filled.  Video and gaming you say?  Well, having the AT&T U-Verse access service for about a month convinces me that 20Mb is probably all that’s needed for a combination of Internet, VoIP and television.  I’m not subscribed to HDTV channels, but if I were would the bandwidth requirement double?  Doubtful. 

So, how in the world would you fill a 150Mb broadband pipe?

BBC NEWS | Technology | Virgin eyes 150Mb broadband speed

Apple Discontinues Bluetooth Headset

There are lots of products that Apple makes that should be (must be!) laughed at. But the iPhone Bluetooth headset was one of the few that I owned before I realized that it was intended as a joke. Too late! I had purchased it anyway! Now we find out that Apple has discontinued the headset. A few years too late for me; but now what am I to do with this tiny, black, overpriced piece of junk? Oh? That trash can? Okay . . .

On My iPhone (2) - Speedtest

A long time ago, on a distant blog in a far away galaxy, I blogged about Internet speed meters.  One of the ones I liked the best – and still do – is located at Speedtest.  Well . . . perhaps it was only a matter of time before they released an iPhone version of the Speedtest speed-o-meter!

Here’s what it looks like and it works as advertised. 

I especially like the version for the desktop/laptop and I’m glad that they have taken the time to implement a test for the iPhone.  That makes for some interesting comparisons and measurements.  I’ll post a couple of comparisons later: one of the most interesting is comparing a laptop with an iPhone on the same subnet.  The iPhone appears to be much slower.

Purdue and Post-Party

It’s the day after our annual party and the day that Gaelen returns to Purdue after a week for Spring Break. Time to reflect and record a few things while on the five hours to West Lafayette, Indiana.

I’ve started to think that the quality of a party is judged, not by how much fun the people who attended had, but instead by who did and didn’t show up. My thinking comes from conversations I’ve had after our Annual Spring Party: “weren’t you surprised that so-and-so came” and “it’s odd that so-and-so didn’t make it.” For example, our immediate neighbors have decided not to engage in neighborhood activities and a party is included. That’s interesting to me because the idea of “separateness” isn’t really part of the ethos of our neighborhood. The person in the next office from mine also didn’t attend. I got some confirmed "I will attend" from a variety of people who didn't show up. I know it isn't unusual -- just sets me thinking about the people who have the conversation "should we go or should we stay. . ." the evening of the party. If they answer "stay" then your party is disposable in some respects.

Neither of the alderpersons I invited could make it, but they get a pass because of how busy they are. I was thrilled to see Rich and Lori Hamann after many years – proof positive that the Facebook connection is not just for people in their twenties. Most of the success of the party – Heidi thinks there may have been 90 people there at one time, is built around getting the neighbors to attend. eVite proved to be unsuccessful for most of the people in their 50’s for a variety of reasons – for a combination of technical and social reasons.

The trip to Purdue started around 9:50am this morning – usually a five hour affair, even with minimal stops. Gaelen has the captain’s chair for the drive down so that i can blog a bit and make some notes. It’s March 22nd and it’s a cloudless Spring morning. In Madison there’s no snow on the ground anymore but the lakes are still covered by a thin glaze of ice. There’s open water right at the shore so soon the ice will begin to melt and we can think about throwing the pontoon into the water. The grass is still dormant in both Madison and all the way to the state line giving the landscape a brown. lifeless look. With no leaves or buds on the trees yet, southern Wisconsin has a pretty barren look to it. Purdue isn't that far south, but seems to be in a different world: the grass is green, the trees are in bud and folks are outside in shorts. The only people outside in shorts in Madison are people you wouldn't want to be with anyway.

Gaelen had a good week off but worries that his co-op program opportunity will not come through. It’s been a few weeks since his last interview and there have been no calls or further contact. He’s already thinking about alternate employment for the summer – too bad, because the co-op program is part of what makes Purdue special.

24 Books a Year (4) – Mrs Affleck

Mrs Affleck (amazon), a play by Samuel Adamson, is an adaption of Ibsen’s Little Eyolf.  The main adaptation is to take the already dark and spooky play and move it to the 1950’s where the sexual repression, guilt and oppression can be emphasized even more.  I can’t imagine that theater goers at London’s Cottesloe Theater are exactly singing the tunes as they emerge from the evening’s experience.

The experience is primarily this: Rita Afflect has been waiting for six weeks for her writer-husband to return from the hills of Scotland.  Presumably cramped by writer’s block, he has escaped to nature to re-start a book.  While waiting the beautiful and rich Mrs Affleck shares her days with a half-sister-in-law and a child with some extensive special needs.

But when Mr Affleck returns he hasn’t written a word.  Instead of the intense and sensual reunion she planned, Mrs Affleck is in for something completely different.  Mr Affleck’s return brings with it a revelation that is the entire engine of the second act of the play.  The whole play deals with guilt, responsibility and the need for committed love in exception circumstances.

There’s more than meets the eye to this story and I’d imagine that a cramped and claustrophobic style would suit this well on stage.  Not having seen it – and knowing that it was played in-th3-round at its premier – affects one’s imagined staging.

Naturally Ibsen’s powerful talk of sexual repression, desire and the consequences when the two are exposed, is a heady mix.  Choosing to set it in the 1950’s is a clever bit of distancing that might allow the unwary to believe that it isn’t a tale for our times.

But it is. Mrs Affleck is about responsibility and caring in the face of exceptional circumstances.  It is a condemnation of self-interested contentment over passionate commitment to others.  And, while this isn’t giving anything away, it is a lesson of the profoundly lonely consequences of not grappling and engaging with those we love.

Highly recommended.

First Thoughts on Hava

Jim Baskin is personally responsible for my buying a Have Platinum HD.  So far, I’m glad I did.

Gaelen helped me set up the place shifter on my basement DVR.  I have AT&T’s U-Verse service and was hoping that I could use it to watch recorded video and current shows on my laptops while travelling.  Set up wasn’t perfect: it turns out that one of the cables in the installation box was defective so that resulting in my having to buy a S-Video cable and an audio cable to replace them.  Once the cables were working we had the box working perfectly for local connections – for instance, to Heidi’s and Gaelen’s laptops.

But that disguised a larger problem: it wasn’t possible to use the machine remotely.  The Hava box tries to connect to a master server (presumably to keep contact with the master server and exchange information about the external facing address for the residential gateway.  On first installation, this simply didn’t work using the Hava setup.  I tried a second time and couldn’t even ping the Hava servers from inside my our residential network.

Gaelen convinced me to call for help (even going so far as putting the phone in my hand).  The technical support person (what time was it in Bangalore??) was friendly but forced me to register prior to doing any technical support at all.  Then after registering he asked me to do a factory reset of the box and start from the beginning.  I hate this approach from technical support – usually.  But in this case the device came to life immediately and was visible from remote networks.  I was impressed with Hava’s technical support.

Gaelen also spent some time experimenting with the Hava box and our downstairs television.  He thinks it is capable of HDTV and that he has things set up so that the Hava box is ready to provide an HDTV stream to the TV.  Unfortunately, I haven’t subscribed to any HD channels on U-Verse, so it’s hard to say if it works.  I’m suspicious, but maybe it will work.

The quality of the video on the local connections has been pretty good – I’m looking forward to seeing what it is like at Purdue or in my Atwood Office.  More about that later.

24 Books a Year: (3) The Queue

The Queue (amazon or borders) by Vladimir Sorokin is a simple tale of Soviet times: an enormous line appears in an unnamed city, people join the end of line without really knowing what it is they are waiting for.  The novel is the story of those people in line.  It’s almost that simple, but with a twist: the entire novel is rendered in the dialog of those who are in line.

It’s the speech patterns – and, being able to distinguish different threads of conversations from each other – that make the book such a delicious satire on Soviet life.  It doesn’t give the story away to tell you that the queue remains in place for days and its participants struggle to find food, child care, something to drink, and the odd carnal entertainment while they wait for a product “so good, I wouldn’t get out of line.”  The story even follows the queue overnight as they wait out in the cold to preserve their place in line.

For the prospective reader it’s important to remember that you have to supply the imagery yourself.  The reader’s imagination is almost as important as the story; that gives The Queue a deceptive train.  It looks like The Queue would be a simple and quick read, but it’s really not so: since you have to fill in many of the narrative and scenic details yourself – based on the dialogue – reading the book is very engaging (in the best sense of that word).

Of course, it wouldn’t be worth it if the story wasn’t good – and that’s where Sororkin delivers.  There is an engine in the story that makes it easy to turn the page; the satire is delicious in parts and laugh-out-loud funny in other places.  And, as a bonus, there’s a bit of a surprise ending for a payoff.

Would only a reader of Russian/Soviet novels or current affairs like this book?  I asked myself that question while reading it.  It may be the case that most American readers would be put off by the format (too much work) and the subject (a line for consumer goods in Soviet times?).  But that’s their loss.  I don’t know if it’s worth standing in line for, but The Queue is definitely recommended reading.

New gTLDs to Confuse and Amuse - III

There's a whole set of geographicly inclined gTLD proposals out there -- the most famous being .berlin

The intriguiging thing about these proposals is the different way they are being pitched to ICANN. Some are being done by private companies and are being supported by the local governmental officials. Others are being done by city/state or region itself. Other still are the product of cooperation between a series of regional entities (for instance, the well-intentioned .asia proposal.

Don't know much about .scot except that there didn't appear to be at ICANN and yet they remain one of the many proposals in this category. One of the criteria for acceptance is the avoidance of string contention or similarity. Which is too bad because .scoot might have been a fun proposal.

Back Home

I really enjoyed Mexico City, but I wish I had more time to explore.  The place is enormous and its colonial history shows on every corner.  Still, there’s an odd contrast between the old and the new in Mexico City.  It’s much more cosmopolitan than I expected and quite vital during the day.

Coming home was an adventure.  My flight left the Mexico City airport at 6:30am so I got up very early just to be prepared and ready.  I got up at 3am and was ready for my pre-arranged taxi by 4am.  It took less than 20 minutes to glide through the empty streets to the airport.  At 4:30 I was in line and ready to get my boarding pass.  I was happy to be a little early because American Airlines was fabulously slow: only two check-in agents for sixty people waiting for boarding passes.  Eventually I got my pass and proceeded to security and immigration.  Security, at 5am in the morning, isn’t a hassle at all, so I got through quickly even though the X-Ray operator was convinced I was carrying two laptops (I wasn’t).  A quick glance at my boarding pass indicated that I should head to gate 27.  I walked to the gate, took out the Kindle 2, and used it to keep me company for the rest of the wait until my flight.

After a while I noticed lots of activity around me but none at my gate.  Just to be sure I checked my boarding card again.  Incredibly, I was assigned seat 27 and not gate 27.  Instead, I was supposed to be at Gate 36 – a ten minute run away from where I was.  When I finally made it to Gate 36 I was eight minutes too late.  My flight had just left.  The gate agent said he had called me several times – I don’t doubt it.  I’ve never done this in all the years I’ve travelled internationally.  The gate agent said I’d have to go back through immigration to the main desk to get a new reservation and a new set of boarding passes.

Once there I was asked about my bags: “You brought them with you, right?”  No, I hadn’t.  “Oh, well.  You will have to go through security and immigration again and retrieve your bags before we can re-check them to Madison.”  After about an hour of self-inflicted frustration, I emerged with a new set of boarding passes.  One for a trip to Dallas.  The other for a trip to Madison.  Unfortunately for me, the connections weren’t so good: six-and-a-half hours in Dallas/Fort Worth’s brand new airport.

And, all because of my Kindle 2.

Jokes My Mother Sends Me – (1) Ol’ Blue

A young cowboy from Wyoming goes off to college. Half way through the semester, he has foolishly squandered all his money.

He calls home. "Dad," he says, "You won't believe what modern education is developing! They actually have a program here in Laramie that will teach our dog, Ol' Blue how to talk!"

"That's amazing," his Dad says. "How do I get Ol' Blue in that program?"

"Just send him down here with $1,000" the young cowboy says.. "I'll get him in the course."

So, his father sends the dog and $1,000.

About two-thirds of the way through the semester, the money again runs out. The boy calls home.

"So how's Ol' Blue doing son?" his father asks.

" Awesome, Dad, he's talking up a storm," he says, "but you just won't believe this - they've had such good results they have started to teach the animals how to read!"

"Read!?" says his father, "No kidding! How do we get Blue in that program?"

"Just send $2,500, I'll get him in the class."

The money promptly arrives. But our hero has a problem. At the end of the year, his father will find out the dog can neither talk, nor read. So he shoots the dog.

When he arrives home at the end of the year, his father is all excited. "Where's Ol' Blue? I just can't wait to see him read something and talk!"

"Dad," the boy says, "I have some grim news. Yesterday morning, just before we left to drive home, Ol' Blue was in the living room, kicked back in the recliner, reading the Wall Street Journal, like he usually does. Then he turned to me and asked, "So, is your daddy still messing' around with that little redhead who lives
in town?"

The father exclaimed, "I hope you shot that SOB before he talks to your Mother!"

"I sure did, Dad!"

"That's my boy!"

The kid went on to be a successful lawyer, and then he went on to become the Governor of Illinois.

RyanAir to Charge to Use Toilets

Really? Or, is it a joke. If it's a joke, I laughed so hard I almost peed in my pants.

The Guardian reports that RyanAir's chairman has said that he would like to charge for using the toilets while a flight was in progress. His goal is to keep the cost of the air fare down and gives Liverpool Street rail station as the example of how you have to pay for this privilege in other transportation settings. There's no end to the possible puns for this story ("no relief for passengers on RyanAir" is a good start), but I can imagine a Senate hearing on this if any American airline tried it!

New gTLDs to Confuse and Amuse - II

Another entry in the new gTLD sweepstakes is dotSport -- as in poor.sport and many other inanities that I can imagine. I find this one interesting in that dotSport is apparently already trademarked. It's also being coordinated by someone who is pretty knowledgable about the ICANN environment. I wonder if this one has legs?

New gTLDs to Confuse and Amuse - I

Dot health is one of the organizations who is trying to convince us that the new gTLD process will lead to a ripening of the top level of the DNS and a series of useful and good DNS names.  I’ll try to provide a link to the .health support site when I find it.  I have no idea whether or not .health is a good idea (www.bad.health?) but I’ll certainly look forward to see if it has the money (ICANN) or traction to make it through the new gTLD process.

Guerrilla Knitting

I'd never heard of guerrilla knitting, but apparently this is a widespread practice. I've never seen such things in Madison, but perhaps I'm not looking hard enough. I wonder if there is a chapter of Knitta Please here in Madison. Naturally, I'm happy that such a practice is referred to as "fluffy" graffiti.

London and the Snowstorm

Another picture from the snowstorm that brought London to a standstill in early February.

Snow Shuts Down London

24 Books a Year: (2) Borkmann’s Point

Added to the long line of Swedish police mystery series, we now have English translations of the Inspector Van Veeteren mysteries by Hakan Nesser. The first of these to reach English translation is his second book: Borkmann's Point [ amazon.com or borders.com ].

Borkmann's Point is more in tune with the sorrowful and lonely Kurt Wallander series by Henning Mankell than the older Beck series by Sjowall and Wahloo. The principal, Van Veeteren, has the same detached approach to working through the mystery, but Nesser focuses on the drudgery of the work needed to find solutions to crimes. That drudgery doesn't get in the way of a good story and the principal vehicle for the story is a set of characters who shift back and forwards in the story's frame almost as silently as wolves in a Swedish forest.

In this case, the mystery involves sending Van Veeteren to a tiny police force to assist in the investigation of two ugly axe murders. Van Veeteren leaves during a vacation and the investigation is colored by the loss of his vacation and the difficulty of making progress. The story follows Van Veeteren's emerging relationship with an older chief of police and the sheer grind of attempting to get enough information to draw conclusions about the axe murders. The half of the story line that follows Van Veeteren's relationship with the aging cop is bittersweet and unusual in a police procedural. The other half, following the investigation itself, is simply less compelling stuff.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is that, for the alert reader, the murderer is identified about two-thirds of the way through the book. This makes the last third a story of finding the evidence needed to compel the murderer to confess or to confront them with their guilt. It's this last third of the novel that is worth the price of admission. The grace and light style of this final part of the story is exceptional. This makes the book seem like part of a series that will certainly be a worthy addition to the remarkable tradition of Swedish police procedurals. Nesser uses this last third of the book as a meditation on how difficult investigations can be and how they are both a physical and mental exercise. There's not a huge set piece at the end, just the inevitable and gradual accumulation of information and personal characteristics that leads to a very surprising but believable conclusion.

Here's hoping that there's more Van Veeteren to come in English. Recommended to mystery readers.

[ 256 pages; ISBN 978-0333989845; read it in the Hardcover version ]

Switched from TDS to AT&T

USB Fever

I'm as geeky as anyone else, but this site is a terrible temptation. My absolute favorite is the USB slippers (Blue) and the customization that says: "Today is Saturday, Feb 21 109." Hilarious.

On My iPhone (I) - Jott

There was a survey published yesterday that suggested that iPhone users download/buy applications, use them about once and then never use them again. My experience with games is somewhat similar to that, but not regular applications. Instead, I tend to find iPhone applications that I really like and then use them daily.

One of those is Jott. Jott has a simple premise: it integrates the phone with the web. Sounds simple? It's actually pretty elegant: you use jot to record notes ("jotts") that are then transcribed and returned to you. Where Jott is particularly successful is in linkages to other services. I can "jott" my updates to Twitter, Facebook, or Remember the Milk! Jott transcribes the 15 seconds that I speak and then directly updates the online service I choose. If I want to simply leave myself a note, Jott records, transcribes and then returns the note to my device.

There's a traditional component called "Jott Express" that you can download to your computer so that you can manage and use your "jotts" on the Web. I don't use that as much as the iPhone component which has recently been updated. The screenshot show the different categories that you can upload your "jott" notes into as well as the "Jott Links" to other Web applications. One of the remarkable things, which I don't use much is the ability to have a set of Jott contacts which can recieve your Jotts after they have been transcribed.

For me, Jott is one of those essential iPhone applications: it's one of the favorite sixteen apps on my front page. Highly recommended.

Big Brother? Yes, you!

cnet reports on a new bill by Republicans to have ISPs, owners of hot spots and yes - you - be forced to keep records of Internet access to aid "law enforcement." I'm not sure how much data 2 years of DHCP and NAT records would be for my home network, but I'm not sure if the government wants to fund this nightmare. Let the government pay to educate my 80-year-old mother-in-law on how to set up a syslog. Let the government pay for the terrabytes that it would take to store the average coffee shop's access logs. Let the government deal with the problem that the logs are easy to edit and manipulate. Why does the Internet attract so much regulatory nonsense? What's next? A modem tax? Oh, wait . . .

How Can Anybody be Interested in Baseball?

I no longer understand how anyone can be interested in baseball as a sport. Baseball has reached the same level of credibility that cycling and professional wrestling have -- albeit on a much larger scale. The A-Rod revelations aren't the tipping point -- it's just an example of how the sport doesn't get the point. How can Cal Ripken say he is "shocked and surprised?" Are we supposed to laugh, like that moment in Casablanca when Capt. Louis Renault says that he's shocked to find gambling in Rick's casino?

And then Bud Selig says, "I don't want to hear the commissioner turned a blind eye to this or he didn't care about it." He's joking, right? Right? Jose Canseco wants an apology? He's joking, too -- right? Roger Clemens? Please stop.

How can anybody be interested? Except those who find legal reality shows on CourtTV interesting.

24 Books a Year: (1) Dear American Airlines

You should be able to read at least a book every other week, right (okay, so that's twenty-six – give me a little break here)? Well, let's find out this year.

Dear American Airlines (amazon.com or borders.com) is a short novel in the form of a complaint letter to American Airlines. That, by itself, would make a great start, but Jonathon Miles turns the premise into bad tempered, but hilarious, gold. The narrator/author of the poison pen letter to American is stuck at O'Hare in Chicago on his was to his estranged daughter's wedding. When the flight is cancelled, his one chance to reconnect with his past – and atone for some of that past – is lost. Hopeless adrift in the airport he reflects on his life as a failed poet, middling translator of middling Polish literature, and hopeless husband and father. It's the voice that Miles conjures up: so hopeful at the prospect of meeting his adult daughter, so hopeless as the airport clock inexorably makes the meeting impossible. While it's a short novel, the voice given to Bennie is unique in its anger, regret and wit. The idea that a complaint letter would be the foundation of a regretful look back at a life that could have been better (not interrupted, delayed) is a wonderful conceit and Miles handles it perfectly.

Most online reviews fail to mention the inner story in the novel. Bennie brings forth quotes from a Polish novel he's translating to illustrate the fates that befall us as we become responsible for our choices -- and for those fates for which we have no responsibility other than being in the right or wrong place at some time. This novel is brought into the letter several times. Each time with the point that an obscure life (even if it is a novel) sometimes illustrates and illuminates the fates that condemn us to either happiness or otherwise.

Dear American Airlines is one of the few books in the last five years that I've pushed on a friend. I almost never do that and it's a tribute to how bittersweet and wonderful this short novel is. Highly recommended.

[ 192 pages; ISBN 978-0547054018; read it in hardcover ]

Primary Election Day in Wisconsin

Not too much to get excited about here. In my district there is only a primary for State Schools Superintendent and a primary for a Circuit Court. The turnout is likely to be very low. While a number of local primaries are on the ballot in other districts in Madison, Marsha Rummel is running unopposed in District 6. That's fine by me.

Running for state superintendent are current deputy Tony Evers, virtual schools advocate Rose Fernandez, Concordia University professor Van Mobley, National-Louis University professor Todd Price and Beloit Schools Superintendent Lowell Holtz. I plan to vote for Mr Evers. We'll see what happens.

The general election is on April 7, 2009.

Blogging from an iPhone

. . . Ought to be a lot easier! I'm using a tool called iBlogger, but it doesn't support pictures. It's fine for text and links, but one of the nice things about an iPhone is the camera. Any iPhone blog tool ought to have camera and GPS integration. iBlogger does have a tool to use Google Maps to show where you are blogging from. As in this . . .

Mobile Blogging from here.

I hope the developers continue to update this little app. With picture support it would be pretty useful.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

The Dreaded Wrong Passcode

The "Broken" Internet - I

Is the Internet so broken that it needs to be replaced, not fixed? A pretty alarmist - and very short - article in the New York Times suggests so. It's a pretty conventional diatribe against the current security arrangements and trust models on the Internet - with an emphasis on what anonymity implies for security.

The problem with "sky is falling" articles like this is that 1) there's no rational model for replacing the current Internet, only evolving it; and 2) even if you could build version two, who and what would move to the "New Internet?" In fact, there's a much more fundamental problem for the replacement of the current Internet and that is the depth and extent of the current Internet's infrastructure. The financial and technical underpinning of the current Internet makes a "lift and shift" approach to a new Internet impossible.

Circle Park's Shamrock Shuffle

I'm trying to get a neighborhood group together to do a group run/walk on March 15th. If you're interested, contact me. It already looks like there may be three or four runners and maybe eight walkers. There's prizes for the best costume and the fastest runner, but I can't imagine that any of us will qualify as either "best" or "fastest" in any category.

The Lure of Big Boxes - I

I listen to lots of music and since I have a little background in classical music, some of that music is traditional. Classical music recording companies are in trouble of course - the audience is graying, getting smaller and spending less of its disposable money on classical music. My listening habits are changing too. I used to be an energetic collector of classical, with thousands of CDs in my collection.

Times are changing for me as well as the industry. Classical music companies have started pulling together large collections of older recordings and putting them in large collections of CDs - the Big Boxes. The result is interesting, inexpensive and large collections of classical music that you might have to pay two or three times for if you bought the boxes individually. I'm a big fan of The Big Boxes.

This one, Solomon, the Master Pianist, is currently one of the playlists on both the CD player in the house and on the iPod. It's a perfect example of what EMI and others are doing right. It hardly costs EMI a thing to produce something like this from the archival tapes. By offering it inexpensively, I can dip into repretoire - or in this case, a pianist - that I might not have been able to listen to before. Not everything is perfect in this release: some of the sound quality is ancient, for instance. However, the chance to listen to a virtuoso from the 1950's is a real treat; especially since Solomon's approach is so less clinical and measured than most pianists today.

EMI has a winner with this series. I'll talk about others in the series in other posts. If you are interested in what virtuoso pianism sounded like at the end of the Second World War, then this (and its comapnion Lipatti box) are for you.

Olbrich Park Master Planning

I spent most of last night at a meeting talking about different plans for Olbrich Park. The meetings would have never taken place without some intervention at the previous Park Commission meeting and I'm suspicious that the result, overall, is not going to change despite the intervention of two neighborhoods.

Betty Chewning gave a presentation on an alternative neighborhood plan. Of course the "neighborhood plan" was cooked up by about three people and doesn't really represent the "neighborhood" at all. Instead, it is better to see it as a more "alternative plan" with another set of warts and wrinkles. The problem is that the Parks Commission is under pressure to do something with the Master Planning process so that the Garver Building reuse can continue. The Garver Building reuse is dependent on something good happening with the deed restriction Olbrich Gardens has over that property. Until the deed restriction is lifted, the Garver Building process will not continue. Olbrich Gardens is unlikely to lift the deed restriction until they see a Olbrich Park master plan that meets their needs.

That brings us to the Parks Department. They've failed the neighborhoods in this case and been pretty unresponsive the public input they received from neighborhoods and major user groups. It is still to be seen if they will be responsive as a result of last night's meeting.

Taking recent evidence into account, it seems unlikely that they will be.

Day Two

It's day two of having Keavy back from surgery and day two of another round of steroids for a respiratory infection that has become seriously out of whack. Keavy is lucky to have a bunch of friends coming over to cheer her up and cook a ton of less-than-wholesome food for her. Pretty nice for her since she's making slow progress toward getting mobile again. There's no substitute for your own friends when you aren't feeling well and I'll bet that Keavy really appreciates not having to spend another evening just talking to her parents!

Where I Plan to Be at ICANN in Mexico City

Besides being the Secretariat, I have an interest in many issues at ICANN. Here’s a list of places where you may find me during ICANN week in Mexico City:

Sunday, 1 March 2009
At-Large Summit: Workshop 2: Future Structure and Governance of ICANN
At-Large Summit: Workshop 5: DNS Security Issues within ICANN's Mandate
At-Large Summit: Workshop 3: New gTLDs including IDN gTLDs
GNSO Fast Flux Working Group

Monday, 2 March 2009
SSAC Open Meeting
New gTLD Applicant Guidebook Q&A
Joint SO/AC Public Meeting

Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Cross Constituency Meeting"Users House" Meeting: BC/IPC/ISP/ALAC/NCUC
Internet Service and Connectivity Providers Constituency Meeting
GAC Meeting with the ICANN Board

Wednesday, 4 March 2009
GNSO
DNSSEC Workshop
Workshop: SSAC Review
Workshop: NomCom Review
IPv6 Workshop
GALA EVENT at the San Hipolito Convent

Thursday, 5 March 2009
Public Forum
SO/AC Chair Reports