Month: August 2003

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The Other Birdhouse

xian forwarded the URL to another blog called “The Birdhouse.” My blog is a general-purpose catch-all broken into loose categories. His is dedicated to the topic of mental health. Wasn’t sure whether to feel flattered or upset by the copycat name. Since we’re both not-for-profit, there’s no question of business trademarks, but it just felt odd to see.

Then I saw that both he and I have pages called “Why is this place called The Birdhouse?” (his | mine). After reading his, I’m convinced that his site is not copying mine – the title is sincere and the story of its origins are touching. There’s more than enough room for more than one birdhouse on the web.

Music: Hüsker Dü :: Everything Falls Apart
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Napalm Death

A piece in The Chronicle this morning says that U.S. Marines dropped napalm on Iraqis during the war. The Pentagon has claimed that they destroyed all their napalm stockpiles two years ago, and that this wasn’t napalm. Turns out all they’ve done is tweak the benzene concentration. The director of Physicians for Social Responsibility says that trying to distinguish between these incendiaries and traditional napalm is “pretty outrageous.” Said one Marine, “The generals love napalm. It has a big psychological effect.”

Bonus surprise: The U.S. has not agreed to an international ban against using incendiaries against civilian targets.

Music: King Crimson :: The Talking Drum
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awstats

Needed to set up traffic analysis for birdhouse customers and had heard good things about awstats. Decided to give it a shot instead of analog + report magic, which I’ve always used in the past (I’ve also used and liked AXS for smaller projects, though it requires placing custom code in each page you want to track, which makes it a non-contender for anything serious). awstats rocks. More succinct, easier to configure and customize, easy to create separate reports for specific parts of sites, just a generally clean and pleasant implementation. In fact, liked it so much I also replaced the J-School’s reporting systems with it today.

Music: T.Rex :: Salamanda Palaganda
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BeOS Zettel

Three bits of BeOS-related stuff bubbled to the surface today.

* Ludovic Hirlimann contacted me looking for a shout-out. He scored one of the really early AT&T Hobbit-based BeBoxen at an auction a while ago. Here is the version of BeOS it runs. Recently the hard drive died, and Ludovic needs to reinstall, and therein lies the problem — the machine won’t take any of the “recent” versions of BeOS — he needs the antique Hobbit-system install floppies, or a disk image from another machine. Contact him if you can help. He’s looking for the GUI version, not the early-early CLI-only system.

* While prepping some content for matthewsperry.org, got to corresponding with Matt Ingalls, who wrote some cool BeOS software for computer/human improvisation back in the day. Turns out that Ingalls now runs the Transbay Creative Music Calendar, and hosts it on Robin Hood for BeOS — the same httpd server that drove betips.net for years. I’m just amazed that there are not only still so many active BeOS users out there, but that there are still BeOS-hosted web sites. Groovy.

* Congrats to ex-Be employee and blogging friend Dan Sandler for being one of the Slashdot T-Shirt contest winners. I really do like Dan’s design the best, and I’m not just saying that.

Music: Yo La Tengo :: Our Way to Fall
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2nd Fracture

Doc found another fracture in my wrist – one he didn’t spot the first time around. Not uncommon to miss them, apparently (I’m amazed they can see fractures on x-rays at all — so subtle). While I’m able to to type two-handed now, I still can barely move a spoon into my mouth – anything remotely resembling twisting the wrist is painful. The frustration mounts, ready for life to return to normal. Want to work on the house, change diapers, push the stroller, throw Miles up in the air, run away and join the circus.

Disclosure: Wrist pictured is not my own.

Music: Yo La Tengo :: Let’s Be Still
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On Being P.C.

I’m sick of the term “politically correct” being used in the negative. The implication is that the person with the politically correct viewpoint doesn’t actually believe in their own position, but is just concerned with being sensitive, hip, diverse, inclusive, anti-establishment, or whatever. While there are people who take positions on things for the wrong reasons (e.g. to be on some bandwagon), the fact that a proposition is currently considered politically correct has nothing whatsoever to do with the truth value of that proposition .

It may be politically correct to suggest, for example, that the spotted owl is entitled to its habitat, and we all may be sick to death of politically correct bandwagoneering, but that has nothing whatsoever to do with deciding whether the spotted owl is in fact entitled to its habitat. Casting the issue as “politically correct” is a way of steering the discussion away from the issue itself and onto the character of the person holding the viewpoint. Political correctness has nothing to do with the price of tea in China (or spotted owls, or Nestle boycotts…)

Same with the way many right-wing commentators use the word “liberal” not as a description of political leanings, but as though it were an epithet to be hurled, an insult, an adjective just shy of “turd,” to be prefaced with adjectives like “bleeding heart,” “fuzzy,” etc. By casting “liberal” and “politically correct” as insults, discussion is tipped into the realm of name calling rather than issue analysis, and people are put on the defensive. It’s a technique for logjamming the dialog.

Sometimes “politically correct” is simply “correct” (and sometimes not).

Music: As One :: The Counterpoint
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Mac Market Share

Daring Fireball makes some good points about the shrinking Macintosh market share.

Fifteen or 20 years ago, personal computers were generally only purchased and used by people who were “into” computers. Today, however, many computers are purchased for use as generic business machines, modern-day typewriters and adding machines.

It does seem that the more people are “into” computers, the more likely they are to be Mac users (not suggesting a direct correlation, only a perceived correspondence). And it is gratifying to see some journalists grok that comparing Mac and PC marketshare is comparing apples and oranges, so to speak. Apple doesn’t try to compete in all computing market segments. May as well critique sports cars or riding mowers for not having the same marketshare as SUVs.

Music: Can :: Babylonian Pearl
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Miles’s Great Spectacle Prank

Like most babies, Miles loves to pull sunglasses off your face, lick them, wave them around, and eventually flip them absently out of reach. The last time I saw my sunglasses was about three weeks ago. We had returned to our old Raymond St. house one more time to dig up a plant (of ours) from the front yard. By the time we got home, they were just missing. Scoured the car high and low, but no joy. Could only conclude that the little stinker had flung them out the window. But yesterday when I got home from work, Amy had this photo up on my desktop. She had just gotten around to transplanting the bush, and in the process found my glasses tucked amidst its branches. Miles and the bush had shared the back seat on the way home.

At least he hasn’t yet flushed our keys down the toilet — a trick I apparently pulled twice on my parents at his age.

Music: Altai Hangai :: Khöömii
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End of the Road for SMTP?

CNET wonders whether SMTP has outlived its useful life. At first I assumed they were referring to the problem of open relays, but the gist is that SMTP is too trusting — it behaves as if you are who you say are. No accountability = spammer’s delight. In fact, the creator of SMTP is amazed it’s still around. I’m skeptical that a non-spoofable protocol could be developed, even in theory.

Music: Gorillaz :: Clint Eastwood (Ed Case/Sweetie Ire Refix)
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Notes on Matthew’s Benefit Concert

Hard to imagine a life better eulogized than Matthew’s was at tonight’s Matthew Sperry benefit concert at the Victoria Theater. A love vibe that filled the house top to bottom (500 seats, sold out and then some).

Orchesperry assembled just for the occasion — ~15 creative improvisers flying low under the outside umbrella. Pauline Oliveros Quartet with accordion, koto, shakuhachi, trombone — Oliveros one of the great American avant-garde composers, now in her 70s and keeps going deeper. Beautiful, meandering, meditative piece. Red Hot Chachkas with a rousing set of Jewish klezmer music. Matthew played with them too – even played bass at his own wedding with them. Very funny Yiddish song: How the Czar Drinks Tea.

Tom Waits appeared solo, on guitar first, then piano, played for around 45 minutes, mixed old songs and new, heart totally in it, genuine, loving, funny even when stumbling on older lyrics. Cast/band from Hedwig played a reunion — not the full show, but most of the songs from the show. Hedwig composer/lyricist Stephen Trask flew out from NY, as did musicians from the NY production. Strange to see the band out of costume and out of context – must have seemed really weird for those who never saw the show itself.

Matthew had played with every musician/group on stage tonight – his playing was so incredibly diverse. Never academic, always humble. No one there had ever seen all of Matthew’s musical involvements laid out all at once, in spectral contrast like that before.

By midnight, a wonderful but kind of unwanted feeling of closure. This was the final big benefit/memorial. Time for all of us to move on, and this night kind of makes it possible to do that, but I think we all sort of resist that feeling too — many of us not yet ready to “move on,” although we are and we must.

Waits sang You’re Innocent When You Dream:

It’s such a sad old feeling
the fields are soft and green
it’s memories that I’m stelaing
but you’re innocent when you dream
when you dream
you’re innocent when you dream

running through the graveyard
we laughed my friends and I
we swore we’d be together
until the day we died
until the day we died

Music: Can :: Full Moon On The Highway