Say anything you want, just spell... oops.

The good news: our local alternative weekly, the North Bay Bohemian, has an article this week on Wil Wheaton as part of their Spring Lit issue, and even puts his name on the cover. The bad news: the cover shows his name spelled "Will." As someone whose name is also frequently mispelled, my condolences—but congrats on the piece!

Sony buys movie rights to Clarke's book

Sony buys movie rights to Clarke's book. My vote to play Clarke: Victor Garber. But should I close this post with a Titanic reference or a Godspell reference?

Stream Your Home Music to Work

I have a couple of questions now that I've read Jason Snell's piece Stream Your Home Music to Work... For Free. First, can a SLIMP3 do this as well as a Squeezebox? And if so, Tom, why did we need two SLIMP3's?

And for a bonus question: how much work would it be to set up ours so that I can get our music at my office? Just opening a port in the router?

$14 Steadycam

Because Tom's still working on getting our local TV station set up, this might be a useful link: how to build a Steadicam for $14. I say, talk to the high school shop teacher and have them take on making a few of these as a project.

Bush on vacation

Quote of the day, from the Washington Post:

[Bush] has spent all or part of 233 days on his Texas ranch since taking office, according to a tally by CBS News. Adding his 78 visits to Camp David and his five visits to Kennebunkport, Maine, Bush has spent all or part of 500 days in office at one of his three retreats, or more than 40 percent of his presidency.

So the "War President" takes off 2 days out of every five, huh? Actually, I don't have much problem with this. My preference, though, would be for Bush to have 100% of his time on vacation... starting next January.

MP3Concept virus

Mac users have a bad tendency to talk about how OS X is superior because it doesn't have any viruses, which isn't exactly the truth—Word macro viruses run just fine on OS X. But now, there's news about the first real OS X virus, MP3Concept. Intego (makers of VirusBarrier) report:

Mac OS X displays the icon of the MP3 file, with an .mp3 extension, rather than showing the file as an application, leading users to believe that they can double-click the file to listen to it. But double clicking the file launches the hidden code, which can damage or delete files on computers running Mac OS X, then iTunes to play the music contained in the file, to make users think that it is really an MP3 file . While the first versions of this Trojan horse that Intego has isolated are benign, this technique opens the door to more serious risks.

For those who depend on Virex (available free with a .Mac subscription), bad news: the most recent updates are from last month, and Network Associates (the makers of Virex) don't list MP3Concept in their list of newly discovered threats.

So be careful out there, everyone.

Later note: I wasn't going to say anything here about my suspicions that this is a put-on by an anti-virus company no one's ever heard of before, but I mentioned it to Susan via iChat and she outed me on her blog. So yeah, if you read this discussion, it all starts to sound a little fishy.

Do not taunt zombie badgers

Installing Linux on a Dead Badger: User's Notes, by Lucy A. Snyder

Let's face it: any script kiddie with a pair of pliers can put Red Hat on a Compaq, his mom's toaster, or even the family dog. But nothing earns you geek points like installing Linux on a dead badger. So if you really want to earn your wizard hat, just read the following instructions, and soon your friends will think you're slick as caffeinated soap.

Stopping bandwidth theft

Via Rebecca, how to Stop Hotlinking with htaccess!. We've had a problem with this from time to time, so I've now implemented this solution. If you notice any oddness with the images on this site (or any others we maintain), let me know, please?

It's not a metaphor. It's a simile.

On the off chance any of my editors read both this site and Crazy Apple Rumors, I would like to correct a small mistake they made today. I wouldn't know the difference between a metaphor and a simile if one of them bit me on the ass.

OTOH, yes, I am that anal.

More Waste, Fraud, and Abuse

This article from The Gadflyer Incoming! and this one from Slate discuss the folly of the continued push by the GOP (and foolishly, many Democrats) for ballistic missile defense. It would appear that the US has spent somewhere around $100 billion on this right-wing wet dream since the Reagan years. Bush wants to spend $11 billion on it this year, more than any other single weapons system. He wants to begin deploying the system this year. But here's the rub: it doesn't work. It has never had anything like a successful, realistic test.

In the past six years of flight tests, here is what the Pentagon's missile-defense agency has demonstrated: A missile can hit another missile in mid-air as long as a) the operators know exactly where the target missile has come from and where it's going; b) the target missile is flying at a slower-than-normal speed; c) it's transmitting a special beam that exaggerates its radar signature, thus making it easier to track; d) only one target missile has been launched; and e) the "attack" happens in daylight.

There's good reason to believe that it not only will never work, but that it is imposible that it can ever work. When will we stop throwing more money down this rat hole?

Bigotry at Home

I grew up in the town of Westminster, which is in Orange County in Southern California. Orange County has a well-deserved reputation for conservatism, and even right-wing wackoism. I'll sometimes joke about how I grew up as a Democrat behind the Orange Curtain, before making a daring break to freedom on Highway 405. I see now that right-wingers are alive and well in my hometown: Takeover of O.C. District Is Advocated [LA Times; free registration required]. That's a suggested takeover of the Westminster School District by the State of California because the district is the only one of the state's 1,425 school districts to refuse to adhere to a 1999 state law that allows students and staff to define their own gender, regardless of their biological sex. More details in this story [LA Times again].

There are three women on the school board who say that the law affronts their Christian beliefs. But who gives a shit about their personal beliefs? They're using their majority on the board to push their religious agenda at the expense of the students and teachers for which they are responsible. The larger picture is that two of these three women took campaign donations from the Family Action Political Action Committee, a conservative anti-abortion, pro-gun political group. The right's agenda is to pack school boards with ideologues that will cheerfully pervert the school's mission in order to further their beliefs. And they don't care what happens as a result. Look at these quotes:

Ahrens [one of the three trustees] opposed funding for the Westminster School District's preschools and questioned the use of district money for private lessons for severely disabled students. Her stand against state funding for technology in classrooms was a solo effort and she failed to convince others that the district's drug abuse awareness program was a waste of money...[School Board President] Reed depicted Ahrens as an unqualified trustee who has repeatedly violated district policies by arriving unannounced for campus inspections and making public statements on behalf of the district.
...
In an interview, [Rutkowski, another of the trustees] described the district teachers union as a "communist" group that is "against any mention of God" and which has infused the district with a decidedly anti-Christian bias.

In 2000, at Rutkowski's urging, the district purchased more library books on various religions to balance what she said was an over-representation of Judaism in the classroom. And during her two terms as trustee, Rutkowski has called repeatedly for spring vacation to be scheduled just before Easter, so Christian students can more easily observe the rites of Holy Week.

"I am not here to promote Christianity or my beliefs," Rutkowski said, "but I will stand up to people when they ignore what I believe."

Yeah, she has no problems with other people's beliefs, as long as she gets to impose hers on them. I hope all of these right-wing bigots get recalled. According to an article in the Orange County Register, a group of parents are planning just that for the two trustees who have terms that would expire in 2006; the other one's term is over this year.

Free pizza!

Sean's English teacher has a habit of assigning essays to his students that do double-duty as contest entries, the most recent being this one, a promo for the upcoming flick, The Prince & Me. I'm sure the fact that the teacher and school also win prizes in the contest has nothing to do with requiring his students to enter, so here's another essay contest that I think that his students should be required to enter: "Why Pizza Hut Should Cook for My Mom'' Mother's Day Contest; Win Mom a Year of Free Pizza from Pizza Hut. Now that's one that my son would take very, very seriously. (Via PR Bop)

Two more quick Kos notes

Two more quick notes regarding the DailyKos situation described below:

• Matt Stoller has written an excellent overview of the situation at When Mainstream Political Kibitzing Comes Online. The essay is well worth the reading, the comments not-so-much.
• Jeff Seemann is running for Congress, and says:

  Our campaign has decided that because of the recent events we will step in and advertise on www.dailykos.com. We have made this decision for two reasons:
  
  1) We firmly believe in the First Amendment and everyone's right to say whatever he or she chooses on their own website.
  
  2) We refuse to allow our campaign to be bullied by the right wing like they bullied Kos' previous advertisers.

  Both Tom and I have given him money, and you should too.

Too Stupid for an iPod

Help me, I'm too stupid to use an iPod! That isn't the name of this article that claims "few realise how complicated it can be to operate," but it might as well be. At first, I thought that people were too dumb to use the buttons on the iPod itself, but it turns out that people can't figure out how to rip and transfer their music to the iPod. OK, maybe I'm spoiled because I use a Mac; I put in a music CD, iTunes launches, I click the Import button, and the next time I put my iPod in its dock, it automatically synchronizes with iTunes. Can it be that much harder for Windows users? From reading some of the comments in the piece, it's like people thought that all they had to do was wave the iPod in the direction of their CDs and all the music would magically transfer over.

Kerry campaign gives in

And with this blog post, the Kerry campaign starts up the usual Democratic circular firing squad, gives in to right wing wacko demands, and in general, shows that they just don't have what it takes to win, or even want to win. I was planning on donating money to him this quarter, but I don't think so now.

If you're new to this particular hoohah, what happened was that Kos, on his highly-regarded political blog, made a statement that (gasp!) he was sorry for the troops dying in Iraq, but not for the mercenaries dying there. His take, which I agree with, was that soldiers are patriots, go where they're ordered, and are defending their country as they agreed to do when they signed up. Mercenaries, otoh, are there because someone's writing them a big paycheck, and they're taking the risk that they're being paid for.

The right wing wackos got ahold of this, started screaming about how Kos was unpatriotic, and tried (in some cases, successfully) to get advertisers to drop their ads and other sites that link to him to drop their links. And the Kerry campaign dropped to their knees and gave in. Sheesh.

Other notes:

• This story, Hired Guns, by Tucker Carlson in Esquire is a pretty good background piece on the mercenary situation in Iraq. If you added alcohol and humor to it, it would rank right up there with something from PJ "Holidays in Hell" O'Rourke.
• One of the reasons that I'm so surprised that this happened is that Cam is currently working for the Kerry campaign in precisely this area, and he knows better than this.
• Kerry's blog still links to Scripting News. And we all know that Dave never says anything that's politically controversial...
• My political prediction is that Cheney will resign (for "health reasons") some time in '05 or '06, and be replaced by Jeb. The race for 2008 will be Jeb vs. Hillary. Double sheesh. Unless, of course, Kerry grows a spine and starts acting like a leader.
• Elsewhere: Value Judgement, Atrios.

Matias Tactile Pro Keyboard

I read last July that a company was (finally) coming out with a USB keyboard that was supposed to be as good as my old fave the Apple Extended Keyboard. I kept an eye out for it at Macworld NYC and Macworld SF, figuring that this was something that I'd have to try before purchasing, but I never saw any demo models. Adam Engst of TidBITS was able to get his hands on one and he's reviewed it at The Majestic Alps and the King of Keyboards. Now he's got me thinking about buying a Matias Tactile Pro Keyboard, sight unseen. Given the number of keyboards I have lying around here that weren't quite good enough, I hate making a decision without a hands-on test, but I'm really darn tempted.

Maybe it's a good thing that SmallDog currently has them on backorder and that Amazon no longer stocks them.

Bye, Wonderfalls

As expected, the idiot suits at Fox have cancelled Wonderfalls, only a week after they changed the show's night. The show will not air again, according to this post from Tim Minear, the producer. Perhaps the producers will be able to find a place to show the remaining episodes.