Chris.Weekly.org - A Web Space

A small team of coworkers and I have been working around the clock (literally) to get a huge release — a project we’ve been working on for over a year — out the door. A few of the late-night email threads have generated a bit of profanity; not the kind directed AT a coworker, but the kind that emphasizes something’s importance or severity. At one point I apologized for using the acronym “WTF” in an email subject line, after the issue had been resolved. But no one had been offended, and a few other folks pointed out that they’d used stronger language (e.g. sans acronym). That conversation in turn caused some jokes and chuckles, and was a good stress-reliever. There was clearly camaraderie at play. So this 37signals blog entry I just now read really resonates.

David writes:

I’m a big fan of swearing. Not in the derogatory, directed-at-you kind of way (“hey, fuck you!”), but as verbal marker to underline key concepts, create emphasis, and express passion. It certainly doesn’t work in every environment nor should it, but there are plenty were it does.

Here’s the full post:
http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1214-profanity-works

Warrantless, illegal preemptive intimidation and harrassment of suspected (peaceful) protestors in MN:

Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com reports that protesters in Minneapolis, where the Republican National Convention will soon begin, have been subjected to massive, pre-emptive police raids. Those arrested include members of Food not Bombs, and a group calling itself the “RNC Welcoming Committee,” and a group that uses video to protect civil liberties by documenting police activity at first amendment events.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/30/police_raids/

Hi
If you’re reading this would you do me a huge favor and just email me? I have chosen not to implement user tracking on my blog and do not try to figure out who’s coming here by analyzing the web logs… but I’ve had a couple people mention reading my writings here and I’m very curious (and flattered) that anyone bothers. I write this stuff mostly for me, to get things off my chest or to clarify my thinking, and to have a record of thoughts and events years from now… but I am happy that anyone stops by, and very interested in knowing who visits chris.weekly.org, so please shoot me a quick email (chris at weekly.org) and let me know! Thanks

The worse Bush gets, the more McCain supports him… unbelievable.

I haven’t gotten really excited about the Olympics since I was a little kid — and frankly I’m more interested in the NFL preseason than most of the events in China — but I have to say, the amount of high-quality footage available on http://www.nbcolympics.com/ is remarkable. There’s nothing on TV to compare to this (including on demand, Tivo/DVR, whatever), and it’s about time. This is what the web is all about: finding what you want when you want it, and finding interesting things you didn’t know you wanted. For example, with TV I never ever would have recorded — let alone sat through ads to watch — the men’s 4×100 free relay swim event. But watching this http://www.nbcolympics.com/swimming/news/newsid=194272.html#smashing+performance+u+s after reading the accompanying writeup sure got my adrenaline flowing.

In most contexts I dislike nationalism, it’s too fascistic, too easily used as a tool for harming people of other nations (see e.g. the etymology of the word “Nazi”) … but for these Olympics I’m temporarily putting aside my concerns about our Imperial ambitions and all that. Our kids are putting on a show and giving it everything they’ve got, and I’m psyched to be able to see it on my terms. So, go USA!

On windows, setting an iPhone in a sync cradle will trigger a modal dialog window “Camera Connected - Select the program to launch for this action”. This is an annoyance. Here’s the solution:

1. Run "SERVICES.msc"
2. Find "Services (local)" > "Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)"
3. Right-click it and choose "Properties"
4. Set "Startup type" to "Disabled"
5. Stop the service.

I wrote a lengthy comment in response to another great post from Jon Taplin here:
http://jtaplin.wordpress.com/2008/08/03/anthrax-the-lure-of-big-military-money/
and wanted to share it.

I agree there’s no chance McCain would do anything to correct the many egregious changes we’ve seen in our government’s relationship to the Constitution during the Bush administration. And like you I think this country badly needs Obama and the change his candidacy generally represents. But I’m also deeply disappointed in Obama for his recent vote on FISA. See http://getfisaright.net/

Even if an Obama administration conducts itself with orders of magnitude more integrity than the current one — as I believe it will — this kind of erosion of civil liberties and privacy are like a ratchet, they only change in one direction. So while Obama’s administration might not abuse its power, at some point in the future there will likely be other terrible, even Bush-like presidents who will take every opportunity to do so. At that point, if the constitutional mechanics of checks and balances have already been dismantled or reconfigured to grant essentially kingly power to the executive branch, and we’ve all gotten used to the idea that it’s ok for the government to spy on all of us all the time, we’ll be in even deeper trouble than we are now, when there’s still at least some outrage at this illegitimate, illegal, un-American, fascist behavior of our so called leaders.

Perhaps Obama will reconsider when he becomes president; he did express concerns about the bill and certainly seems interested in listening to his supporters (virtually none of whom support the position, and nearly all of whom, if aware, oppose it). We need to pressure him to do exactly that.

I also have some hope that our maturing collective ability as citizens to use similar tools of transparency to shine a spotlight on what our elected representatives are actually doing, to turn the tables and essentially “spy” on our (supposedly open) government, will help. Jon Udell’s recent writings on GovTrack and MAPLight are relevant here, see e.g. http://blog.jonudell.net/2008/07/23/kudos-for-maplights-visualization-of-congressional-activity/
and the Change Congress movement founded by Larry Lessig http://change-congress.org/ is a force for good… but given the public’s lack of outrage against Bush et al, this may not be enough. If those of us paying attention do nothing, it certainly won’t be. So:

Write! Talk! Take action!