Posts
I find this more amusing than my kids do
7 years ago
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Michael Kiwanuka
Michael Kiwanuka is an amazing young man of Ugandan heritage from North London and is making some beautiful music.
Listen and soak up some beauty.
And his trippy cover of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love."
An aside - why are bass players always such hotties? Did you see the one in my Aloe Blacc post?
Goggles and Facecrack
Yeah, I have to go there.
Lots of privacy issues are coming to a head.
"...Timeline allows friends to surf through all your posts going back to the beginning of Facbeook time. Graphically it can be a beautiful thing. Mark Zuckerberg calls it a chance for users to tell the stories of their lives. And over the next few weeks, users across the world will get it on their profile. But here's the important part — once you get it, you will have just seven days to clean up all your old posts and make it presentable to the world...."
Get busy cleaning!
And Google. <heavy sigh> Google. I was a very early adopter of Google. Very early. Like 1998 early. When others were using "Ask Jeeves" (yes, I'm looking at you, Bad Lisa) "Lycos", "AltaVista" etc. I was out there riding the new search engine frontier of Google.
"...Google, whose unofficial corporate motto is "Don't Be Evil," mainly uses this data for targeted ads. But this past week, it announced changes to its privacy policy in order to merge user data across its various services: Gmail, YouTube, Google Calendar, Google+ and Google search. According to the company, it's so it can create "a beautifully simple, intuitive user experience across Google." The changes go into effect March 1, and you can opt-out, but it means it will limit the usefulness of many of Google's services and even Android phones, which run on Google's operation system...."
As Gizmodo (the photoshopped images of Google's founders are worth a click!) perfectly summarizes:
‘So why are we calling this evil? Because Google changed the rules that it defined itself. Google built its reputation, and its multi-billion dollar business, on the promise of its “don’t be evil” philosophy. That’s been largely interpreted as meaning that Google will always put its users first, an interpretation that Google has cultivated and encouraged. Google has built a very lucrative company on the reputation of user respect. It has made billions of dollars in that effort to get us all under its feel-good tent. And now it’s pulling the stakes out, collapsing it. It gives you a few weeks to pull your data out, using its data-liberation service, but if you want to use Google services, you have to agree to these rules.’
In my early years (teens/twenties) I read "Brave New World", "1984" and "Farenheit 451" and after finishing each one, I always had the same questions. How could this happen? Why didn't anyone notice that craziness was happening and raise hell about it? How did these people lose their liberty/freedom/ability to choose? To not live in fear? To be so completely controlled?
These two stories today coalesced into an answer to all of these questions. Facecrack and Goggle make life "easier" and are addictive. Pixel by pixel, our freedom of choice edges away from us. With each click of the "mouse" we give up more and more of ourselves. That's how this loss of freedom subtly and gradually happens.
What's the solution?
I have absolutely no idea. I'm as invested in this technology as everyone. It's totally enmeshed in my life. I reckon we are on the cusp of Verner Vinge's hypothesis of technological singularity. I think there's a novel in this, assuming Kurzweil hasn't already gone there. I can't be bothered to check his body of work. Maybe I'll just create a Google News Alert for that.
Aw, hell.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Wait a minute, what? Apple?
I'm not loving my MacBook Pro too much right now.
Apple's China supply chain exposed
Kai Ryssdal: If you were asked to pick the iconic American company right now, right at the top of most lists would be Apple. Once a fringe, cultish computer company -- now maker of things that everybody wants.
It got that way with great design, an eye for perfection, and a whole lot of Chinese factory workers. Charles Duhigg has been writing about the economics of Apple's supply chain in the New York Times this week. In a story that went up online yesterday, he told the story of a 22-year-old man name Lai Xiaodong and the job Mr. Lai got at FoxConn, one of Apple's biggest suppliers.
Charles Duhigg: He was assigned to a room where they were sanding, polishing the iPad cases. As aluminum dust built up in the air from the polishing, it eventually got to a critical point where it exploded. Mr. Lai was killed along with three others, and dozens were injured.
Ryssdal: And the official response from Apple and from Foxconn on this was what?
Duhigg: Both of them said that they opened up investigations, although neither company has revealed any of the documents or any of the findings from when they sent folks in. Conditions in Chinese factories are harsh. They're much harsher than they are in, for instance, the United States or any Western nation. And when I talk to former Apple employees, what they say is that if Apple and Amazon and Dell and Hewlett-Packard, if they all came in and they insisted that conditions be improved to where there are no safety hazards, Chinese manufacturers would have to comply. But the problem is that right now there's not a lot of reward for doing so -- particularly when insisting upon changes would probably slow down the pace of innovation significantly and would very likely raise costs for a number of those companies.
Ryssdal: Let me explore that pace of innovation point because that is at the core of the article that came out yesterday and the one that came out over the weekend as well. And that is how quickly companies expect manufacturers to be able to turn to get what consumers want. And you tell a great story about the glass in the iPhone and when Steve Jobs said 'I want a glass screen, make it happen.'
Duhigg: Absolutely. And they were able to turn that around, overhaul their manufacturing process, and within 48 hours get these glass screens into workers' hands and start producing finished iPhones because there's this enormous flexibility. These factories can hire 3,000 people overnight. It's an amazing scale.
Ryssdal: Well here comes the look-in-the-mirror question because there is demand issue that's helping drive this whole thing.
Duhigg: Oh, there's huge demand. Right? We did a national poll as part of this story and we asked people, first of all, where do you think Apple products are made? Most people who responded didn't know that they were made overseas primarily or how much of them was made overseas. And then we asked: What's the worst thing that you know Apple? 57 percent of people couldn't think of anything negative about the company.
Ryssdal: Wow.
Duhigg: The No. 1 response at 14 percent was that their products are too expensive. Two percent of respondents mentioned overseas labor conditions.
Ryssdal: Play this out for me, then. If change is going to come, where is change going to come from?
Duhigg: Where change has to come from is it has to come from consumers starting to say, 'Listen, I really care about where my product comes from. I'm willing to pay more for it if it's built in a factory I can feel good about.' And more importantly, 'I'm willing to wait longer for a new version.' We live in a time when there's a brand-new device, it seems like, every couple of months. And they're amazing and wonderful -- but there's a price to that.
Ryssdal: Charles Duhigg writing in the New York Times with David Barboza about Apple and the iEconomy. Charles, thanks a lot.
Duhigg: Kai, thanks so much for having me.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Aloe Blacc is amazing...
And so is Ali for turning me on to this creative artist. I think you may have heard Aloe's music, but not realized who was behind it. The second song, "I Need A Dollar" was the theme music to HBO's "How To Make It In America" (great series). Once you hear it, you won't be able to get it out of your head.
<p>Aloe Blacc | I Need A Dollar | A Take Away Show - Part 1 from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.</p>
And then there's the rendition of Bill Withers' song "Use Me Up" - again the second song. Wow. Just wow. I think the filming, editing, and mixing on both of these videos is stellar. In this video, I like how Aloe is almost in a stealth mode, letting the musicians start it off, be a band on their own, finding their groove, and then winding into the action with his solid sweet voice, but still standing apart, creating walkthrough stereo. Man. Sometimes music is too perfect.
<p>Aloe Blacc | A Take Away Show - Part 2 from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.</p>
These two videos were featured on one of my favorite sites that I completely forgot about until today when Lina and Ali reminded me of it. They do funny little pop-up concerts called "A Take Away Show" all around Paris. Ali was gracious enough to pretend that I had found La Blogotheque years ago and introduced it to him, but really it was the other way round.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Adieu, M/V Rhododendron
So sad. The M/V Rhododendron is oldest ferry in Washington State's extensive fleet, and doesn't meet the Coast Guard's safety standards. Today was Rhody's last day and I was glad to have one last ride on her today.
Goodbye to classic old design, brass rails and all.
She will be replaced with the 64-car Chetzemoka, which was constructed in 2010. The Chetzemoka is named after an Olympic Peninsula chief from the mid 1850's of the Jamestown S'Klallam tribe. Chetzemoka (T'chits-a-ma-hun) was known as peacemaker. The name is about the only good thing about this new boat, as far as I can tell.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Snow!
I swear I moved up here to not have this kind of weather, but EVIDENTLY Mother Nature didn't get the memo. Max, moping in the door, shared my cabin fever. First we had a main course of about 8-10" of snow, and then an ice storm as dessert. About 280,000 houses were without electricity for days, the Tacoma Narrows (Galloping Gertie!) bridge was closed for about six hours yesterday due to falling ice. This closure resulted in two hour waits for ferries. Complex systems.
I won't go into long comparisons about how adorable these PNW folks are about imminent snowfall - closing schools the day BEFORE any snow shows up etc. I didn't get out of the house for two days, but by the third day it warmed up, started raining and washed away most of the snow. Unlike Kansas where sub-zero temperatures can cause the snow and ice to linger for weeks.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Smiley & West
One of the most stimulating hours of radio each week is provided by Tavis Smiley and Cornel West. I am consistently astounded by the breadth and depth of their knowledge, as well as their (com)passion. This week they provided an abbreviated version of their "Remaking America" (listening linky) with Michael Moore, Suze Orman, Barbara Ehrenreich, Majora Carter, Roger Clay, and Vicki B. Escarra recorded live in Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University.
I don't always agree with West, especially his harsh criticism of Obama. Unless our beliefs are challenged, how can we defend them? It's important to listen to other points of view and digest them, not just take in things that confirm what we already believe.
"...not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.."
I thought about posting the "I Have A Dream" speech but last night there was this very interesting article about the speech on one of my favorite radio programs, "On The Media" that took a different look at the speech. King wove into his speech themes he had used many times before. But on the fly, around about minute eleven, King departed from his written remarks and freestyled it: hence the quote that is the title of the post and is one of my favorites. The oral tradition of black preaching and the issues of copyright are also discussed.
Listen and enjoy this different insight. 13:24 minutes well spent.
"Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Public Imagination
Martin Luther King Jr.'s sermons frequently relied on improvisation - King drew on sources and references that were limited only by his imagination and memory. It’s a gift on full display in King's 'I Have A Dream' speech, but it also conflicts with the intellectual property laws that have been strenuously used by his estate since his death. OTM producer Jamie York speaks with Drew Hansen, Keith Miller, Michael Eric Dyson and Lewis Hyde about King, imagination and the consequences of limiting access to art and ideas."
"...not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.."
I thought about posting the "I Have A Dream" speech but last night there was this very interesting article about the speech on one of my favorite radio programs, "On The Media" that took a different look at the speech. King wove into his speech themes he had used many times before. But on the fly, around about minute eleven, King departed from his written remarks and freestyled it: hence the quote that is the title of the post and is one of my favorites. The oral tradition of black preaching and the issues of copyright are also discussed.
Listen and enjoy this different insight. 13:24 minutes well spent.
"Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Public Imagination
Martin Luther King Jr.'s sermons frequently relied on improvisation - King drew on sources and references that were limited only by his imagination and memory. It’s a gift on full display in King's 'I Have A Dream' speech, but it also conflicts with the intellectual property laws that have been strenuously used by his estate since his death. OTM producer Jamie York speaks with Drew Hansen, Keith Miller, Michael Eric Dyson and Lewis Hyde about King, imagination and the consequences of limiting access to art and ideas."
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