Now we shall talk of many things

hello, hello, i really must be going.

2005-02-11T20:23:00.000-08:00

Well, I think I'm done here. My site is working nicely, even if I don't post enough, so I now officially declare this blog closed. It'll stay up, of course, if only so I can laugh at my old writing if I ever get famous.

goodbye

2005-01-29T19:17:00.000-08:00

Shannon, you are to be congratulated. A couple of words and you keep me posting daily for over two weeks. Still, everything comes to an end after a while. I've finally realized what I should have a long time ago, I suck at blogging. I can barely keep up regular posting, run out of steam easily, think every entry should be written for the ages (not that I'm any good at it), and quickly get an 'I could care less attitude' after reading too much news for a few days.

With that in mind, I quit. Forget regular posts, anything like that. When I post I'll do it on something that really does catch my eye, and if I don't show up for a while I won't be dead, just enjoying one of the many other aspects of my life. No more nasty one line, Instapundit-like posts either. I hate that guy.

And this blog is also dead, but you probably knew that. The new domain seems to be working well, got the Greymatter publishing thing working nicely, if a bit plain. (And it's free too) I'm still working on it though, probably won't have it ready to go for a week or so. I'll make an announcement here when it's ready, and then start the whole blogging thing anew over there.

still friday, right?

2005-01-28T21:57:00.000-08:00

Completely forgot about posting today. I've been trying to get the new domain up and ran into a few snags.

Anyway, no guest posts? Oh well, maybe next time.

And sorry for the lack interesting posts from me, haven't had much time for a few days.

my incredible laziness

2005-01-27T20:25:00.000-08:00

I'm lazy, but you already knew that. I'm opening up the guest account now because I don't feel like getting up at midnight and going to school on 5 hours of sleep.

Anyway go to blogger.com, log in with the account name 'iamaguest' and the password 'freefriday'. Click on the nice green cross and write yourself some words. Anyone is welcome, and I hope some new people stop by so I can add you to the blogroll.

Have fun, knock yourself out. Excessively obscene entries are subject to censorship, but I doubt I'll mess around with anyone's posts otherwise. Most importantly, sign the post and give a link back to your site (if you have one) so I can track you down after I read your brilliant writing.

no idea what i'm doing

2005-01-27T18:57:00.000-08:00

Did I mention I was a computer science major. Yeah, sorta. Only, I haven't taken any actual computer courses, just poked around through the basics. And going language crazy this semester hasn't helped much.

Why does this matter? Because I just got my domain about two hours ago. The clever, inventive, subtly amusing name of jshanks.com. How original and clever, eh? Still waiting for the thing to propagate, but I'm uploading a few scripts to see how things work.

Enough of that, though. Meet a little site called postsecret. Lots of people send anonymous postcards with a confession to an address. It is then posted publicly online. The idea is that this "taps into the part of each of us that needs to share; to confess."

Or the part of us that likes to pull people's legs. Still, neat to watch.

the guest account cometh

2005-01-26T15:25:00.000-08:00

Behold, the second bimonthly Free For All Friday approaches. It's supposed to be the last friday of every month, but you know.. stuff happens, and I never got around to it in December.

Never more, however. The lazy person that I am has discovered how hard it is to actually come up with even one post a day, as low as my standards are. I welcome any and all opportunities to get out of work, and look forward to dumping some of it on you.

This isn't making sense to you? Hmm, a little background then. Free For All Friday is a..

"unique blogging meme - it isn't about what you post, but what others post for you. You participate by allowing the general blogging public the ability to post on your blog via a guest account. As the blog owner, you get to set the guidelines - but it IS called Free-For-All for reason. FFAF is a tremendous opportunity to get to know your readers while they get to know you."

OrangeHairedBoy gets a little fancy with his words, but it's pretty simple, you come by on Friday, or 11:47pm Thursday, and log into the guest account with the handy dandy password I'll give you. You post anything you want, without making every other word one of them four letter ones. And best of all, after finishing up, you get to put a little link back to your blog, so the three people who read this thing regularily can come see yours. You, uh, do have a blog, right?

baby steps

2005-01-25T17:44:00.000-08:00

I'm thinking of moving away from BlogSpot. Unfortunately, I have a couple of problems. I'm an empty pocketed cheapskate, I'm too lazy to really buckle down and figure out CGI scripts and all that, and I have so many things I ought to be doing instead of blogging.

Still, delusions of grandeur keep coming up. And, I might have found the right place to use them, or at least leave them to die. DragonFort.net is a new hosting service setup by a Michigan college student that offers reasonable service, and for only a dollar. Yes, that's what I said. You get 300mb of server space and 10Gb of bandwidth a month. And it's only a dollar.

The guy seems nice enough, talked to him this morning on AIM. Apparently he works for this ISP in the summers, but they don't pay him, just give him server space. I know I get what I pay for, but it's a good place to test things out. Besides, if it goes under I lose what, 12 dollars?

One problem though. I need a good domain. I'm not sure if I want to transfer the liberalartsstudent line up to the big leagues, since it's a bit for people to remember and they're likely to forget the double S. The domains I could think up in the last 3 hours, johnshanks.com, allo.com, mediocracy.com, stickinthemud.com, cheesy.com, whee.com, and arggh.com are all gone. MyBlogAteMyHomework.com is available, but that might be a bit too long.

Whadya think? Any suggestions? Winning submitters will receive the gratefulness of a mediocrat and three blogs on the subject of their choice, not to mention an indepth interview via their IM program of choice. Apply now, win prizes, show them off to your friends.

hail the mediocracy

2005-01-24T17:17:00.000-08:00

With the end of the Blogging Journalism & Credibility conference, I'm reading through the posts, trying to digest it all. It's very interesting and has a lot of good lessons, it'll probably become part of my blogging bible along with Evangelical Outpost's How To Start a Blog Series

I do, however, disagree on one point, the characterization of the "wingers" as a problem. In this post, filed on the 22nd, Jon Garfunkel talks about his impressions of the first day. He comes up with a breakdown of the blogosphere into three groups.

We can speak as the blogs, bloggers, and the blogosphere as it had a stable definition. Except of course when these are criticized, people drop back into “blogs aren’t just one thing!”

So here’s how I break down the types of bloggers: Ringers, Stringers, and Wingers.

THE RINGERS
These are journalists who are now bloggers– apparently, the best authorities on this subject (cf. religious or party conversion) In addition, your authority on the subject of “Blogging, Journalism, and Credibility” is questioned if you do not blog, if you are not wholly transparent.

THE STRINGERS
People with local expertise in a given area, whether simply by living there, or having a vocation. These are the community of bloggers that everyone likes to talk about. It was suggested that local stringers could substitute for foreign correspondents. Rebecca McKinnon, with all due authority on the subject as a “ringer,” and having been a foreign correspondent, explained that the added value of FC’s is that they bring in the context for the home audience.

Also, the work of the Times’s Dexter Filkins in Iraq was explicitly saluted as stellar reporting.

THE WINGERS
I offered up the picture that a sizable portion of pundit-bloggers are simply “winging it"– on very little background information, context, reporting, etc. This is the most dangerous development in the blogosphere. No one has challenged this assertion yet.

Interesting concept, but it is naturally a very accreditation centered description, as one would expect from a group that is half journalists. I am certainly a winger; mediocre, uninformed, unaware of correct punctuation, no area of expertise, so I feel the need to answer Jon.

As I see it, the mediocre bloggers provide a valuable service -- authenticating the ideas provided my the experts. We get to do a gut check, as it were. Even with our a direct connection to the things being discussed by the stringers we can compare it to our meager experience. The collective statements of one thousand ordinary people saying their grocery prices are going up is at least as important as one well connected economist who can pull out an index. Probably more so, the index is a single statement, while the thousand have the raw data. Just because the economist has taken the time to draw conclusions from that data does not automatically give his view credibility. The vital assumption of the blogosphere, from the teenage girl's journal to a gardening group's blog to Andrew Sullivan's site, is that the collective thoughts of a great many people, each of which have a small piece of the puzzle, can be a greater aid than the formulas and presumptions of an elite.

Finally, the wingers allow the blogosphere to be much larger than would be possible if it were simply a community of experts. First, they absorb readers who would otherwise overwhelm the stringers and ringers and prevent the relatively close contact between writer and audience so important in the blogosphere. Second, wingers provide a bridge between the general public and the experts, putting the information in a context that is relevant to the public.

I really don't see what Garfunkel's problem is. If a blogger is irrelevant, a bad writer, or fails to research his subjects, he will not get the same kind of attention a more careful blogger will. Even if someone like this becomes successfull, it is not going to be the kind of attention Sullivan or Kos get. Besides, the audience such a person aquires will necessarily be limited, getting it's strength from partisanship, and so limited in the umber of people it can acquire.

It just looks to me like this is an incredibly elitist misunderstanding of the value of different parts of the blogosphere. Now, back to my mediocrity.

carson dies, but I can't care

2005-01-23T14:30:00.000-08:00

Johnny Carson has died at 79. Michelle Malkin has a good wrap on him. He was a funny guy, who "brought joy to the hearts of millions". (No one has said that yet, but I'm sure someone will come up with it) I'm not being cynical, I've seen him in little clips too. I'm sure he was very funny, I just never saw him in person, as it were.

This is one of the more annoying things I know of. For years, I worked on the principle that if I just studied a little more, read a few more books, knew a bit more, I could catch up with everybody older than me. So I pushed myself. I read everything I could get my hands on, practically memorized the World Book and got started on Brittanica. I continue, always trying to learn more, break out of my daze.

Then I found the blogosphere. Thousands of people, just as good at bs as me, but who also had actual personal experience. Things like Carson dying have meaning to me. I know who he is, think he is alright, but I am missing out on something because I was crawling around on the living room floor. It sucks, like running into a brick wall. I can argue interpretations and implications till my head hurts, but I have no answer for when someone says "well, when I was there.." Not sure what to do. I always thought I could avoid that whole humility state.

But I'm starting my kid on late night talk shows and AP wire reports as soon as his eyes open.

countdown to freedom

2005-01-22T19:52:00.000-08:00

Here's the code for the countdown I have going up there. It's based on something I lazily grabbed from the Javascript Source years ago. Enjoy, tweak it, pass it on, whatever.

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">










</script>

2001 uses for WD40

2005-01-22T16:42:00.000-08:00

Spent the day trying to get my homework done like a good kid. Knew there was a catch to all that responsibility stuff.

The company may believe there are 2000 uses for WD40, but bartenders in England have apparently found another -- stopping drug use. WD40, it seems, breaks down cocaine.

"It congeals into a mess, it then semi-dissolves it and prevents it being sniffed," said Avon and Somerset (search) police officer Graham Pease.

Pub workers across the region have begun to spray the oily stuff onto all flat surfaces in bathrooms countertops, paper-towel dispensers ... and toilet seats. Yes, toilet seats.

[Insert humorous statement, reasonable appearing commentary, and halfhearted excuse for going to sleep for the next six months.]

breaks

2005-01-21T21:26:00.000-08:00

The 322nd commandment of blogging. Thou shalt not take a break for ice cream and a movie when thou is in the middle of a post and on a roll, for thou shalt be required to start the post from the beginning and it will never be as good as thou thought it would be.

So there.

text of 2nd inaugural

2005-01-21T08:50:00.000-08:00

Text of President Bush's 2nd Inaugural Address. Via Mecury News. Read it, it's great. If Bush was a Democrat they'd be comparing him to Kennedy.

Prepared copy of President George W. Bush's inaugural address:

Vice President Cheney, Mr. Chief Justice, President Carter, President Bush, President Clinton, reverend clergy, distinguished guests, fellow citizens:

On this day, prescribed by law and marked by ceremony, we celebrate the durable wisdom of our Constitution, and recall the deep commitments that unite our country. I am grateful for the honor of this hour, mindful of the consequential times in which we live, and determined to fulfill the oath that I have sworn and you have witnessed.

At this second gathering, our duties are defined not by the words I use, but by the history we have seen together. For a half century, America defended our own freedom by standing watch on distant borders. After the shipwreck of communism came years of relative quiet, years of repose, years of sabbatical - and then there came a day of fire.

We have seen our vulnerability - and we have seen its deepest source. For as long as whole regions of the world simmer in resentment and tyranny - prone to ideologies that feed hatred and excuse murder - violence will gather, and multiply in destructive power, and cross the most defended borders, and raise a mortal threat. There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of human freedom.

We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.

America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one. From the day of our Founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the Maker of Heaven and earth. Across the generations we have proclaimed the imperative of self-government, because no one is fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave. Advancing these ideals is the mission that created our Nation. It is the honorable achievement of our fathers. Now it is the urgent requirement of our nation's security, and the calling of our time.

So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.

This is not primarily the task of arms, though we will defend ourselves and our friends by force of arms when necessary. Freedom, by its nature, must be chosen, and defended by citizens, and sustained by the rule of law and the protection of minorities. And when the soul of a nation finally speaks, the institutions that arise may reflect customs and traditions very different from our own. America will not impose our own style of government on the unwilling. Our goal instead is to help others find their own voice, attain their own freedom, and make their own way.

The great objective of ending tyranny is the concentrated work of generations. The difficulty of the task is no excuse for avoiding it. America's influence is not unlimited, but fortunately for the oppressed, America's influence is considerable, and we will use it confidently in freedom's cause.

My most solemn duty is to protect this nation and its people against further attacks and emerging threats. Some have unwisely chosen to test America's resolve, and have found it firm.

We will persistently clarify the choice before every ruler and every nation: The moral choice between oppression, which is always wrong, and freedom, which is eternally right. America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains, or that women welcome humiliation and servitude, or that any human being aspires to live at the mercy of bullies.

We will encourage reform in other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people. America's belief in human dignity will guide our policies, yet rights must be more than the grudging concessions of dictators; they are secured by free dissent and the participation of the governed. In the long run, there is no justice without freedom, and there can be no human rights without human liberty.

Some, I know, have questioned the global appeal of liberty - though this time in history, four decades defined by the swiftest advance of freedom ever seen, is an odd time for doubt. Americans, of all people, should never be surprised by the power of our ideals. Eventually, the call of freedom comes to every mind and every soul. We do not accept the existence of permanent tyranny because we do not accept the possibility of permanent slavery. Liberty will come to those who love it.

Today, America speaks anew to the peoples of the world:

All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.

Democratic reformers facing repression, prison, or exile can know: America sees you for who you are: the future leaders of your free country.

The rulers of outlaw regimes can know that we still believe as Abraham Lincoln did: "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it."

The leaders of governments with long habits of control need to know: To serve your people you must learn to trust them. Start on this journey of progress and justice, and America will walk at your side.

And all the allies of the United States can know: we honor your friendship, we rely on your counsel, and we depend on your help. Division among free nations is a primary goal of freedom's enemies. The concerted effort of free nations to promote democracy is a prelude to our enemies' defeat.

Today, I also speak anew to my fellow citizens:

From all of you, I have asked patience in the hard task of securing America, which you have granted in good measure. Our country has accepted obligations that are difficult to fulfill, and would be dishonorable to abandon. Yet because we have acted in the great liberating tradition of this nation, tens of millions have achieved their freedom. And as hope kindles hope, millions more will find it. By our efforts, we have lit a fire as well - a fire in the minds of men. It warms those who feel its power, it burns those who fight its progress, and one day this untamed fire of freedom will reach the darkest corners of our world.

A few Americans have accepted the hardest duties in this cause - in the quiet work of intelligence and diplomacy ... the idealistic work of helping raise up free governments ... the dangerous and necessary work of fighting our enemies. Some have shown their devotion to our country in deaths that honored their whole lives - and we will always honor their names and their sacrifice.

All Americans have witnessed this idealism, and some for the first time. I ask our youngest citizens to believe the evidence of your eyes. You have seen duty and allegiance in the determined faces of our soldiers. You have seen that life is fragile, and evil is real, and courage triumphs. Make the choice to serve in a cause larger than your wants, larger than yourself - and in your days you will add not just to the wealth of our country, but to its character.

America has need of idealism and courage, because we have essential work at home - the unfinished work of American freedom. In a world moving toward liberty, we are determined to show the meaning and promise of liberty.

In America's ideal of freedom, citizens find the dignity and security of economic independence, instead of laboring on the edge of subsistence. This is the broader definition of liberty that motivated the Homestead Act, the Social Security Act, and the G.I. Bill of Rights. And now we will extend this vision by reforming great institutions to serve the needs of our time. To give every American a stake in the promise and future of our country, we will bring the highest standards to our schools, and build an ownership society. We will widen the ownership of homes and businesses, retirement savings and health insurance - preparing our people for the challenges of life in a free society. By making every citizen an agent of his or her own destiny, we will give our fellow Americans greater freedom from want and fear, and make our society more prosperous and just and equal.

In America's ideal of freedom, the public interest depends on private character - on integrity, and tolerance toward others, and the rule of conscience in our own lives. Self-government relies, in the end, on the governing of the self. That edifice of character is built in families, supported by communities with standards, and sustained in our national life by the truths of Sinai, the Sermon on the Mount, the words of the Koran, and the varied faiths of our people. Americans move forward in every generation by reaffirming all that is good and true that came before - ideals of justice and conduct that are the same yesterday, today, and forever.

In America's ideal of freedom, the exercise of rights is ennobled by service, and mercy, and a heart for the weak. Liberty for all does not mean independence from one another. Our nation relies on men and women who look after a neighbor and surround the lost with love. Americans, at our best, value the life we see in one another, and must always remember that even the unwanted have worth. And our country must abandon all the habits of racism, because we cannot carry the message of freedom and the baggage of bigotry at the same time.

From the perspective of a single day, including this day of dedication, the issues and questions before our country are many. From the viewpoint of centuries, the questions that come to us are narrowed and few. Did our generation advance the cause of freedom? And did our character bring credit to that cause?

These questions that judge us also unite us, because Americans of every party and background, Americans by choice and by birth, are bound to one another in the cause of freedom. We have known divisions, which must be healed to move forward in great purposes - and I will strive in good faith to heal them. Yet those divisions do not define America. We felt the unity and fellowship of our nation when freedom came under attack, and our response came like a single hand over a single heart. And we can feel that same unity and pride whenever America acts for good, and the victims of disaster are given hope, and the unjust encounter justice, and the captives are set free.

We go forward with complete confidence in the eventual triumph of freedom. Not because history runs on the wheels of inevitability; it is human choices that move events. Not because we consider ourselves a chosen nation; God moves and chooses as He wills. We have confidence because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind, the hunger in dark places, the longing of the soul. When our Founders declared a new order of the ages; when soldiers died in wave upon wave for a union based on liberty; when citizens marched in peaceful outrage under the banner "Freedom Now" - they were acting on an ancient hope that is meant to be fulfilled. History has an ebb and flow of justice, but history also has a visible direction, set by liberty and the Author of Liberty.

When the Declaration of Independence was first read in public and the Liberty Bell was sounded in celebration, a witness said, "It rang as if it meant something." In our time it means something still. America, in this young century, proclaims liberty throughout all the world, and to all the inhabitants thereof. Renewed in our strength - tested, but not weary - we are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom.

May God bless you, and may He watch over the United States of America.

the committee

2005-01-21T05:56:00.000-08:00

Meet a little three day old blog called the Committee to Protect Bloggers, reporting from around the world on attempts to silence bloggers. Right now the big story is two jailed Iranian bloggers, Mojtaba Saminejad and Arash Sigarchi, which is why you see the big banner on the top of this site.

They even have Queen of the Sky, the Delta Airlines flight attendant who was fired over her blog, on board.

those brilliant brits

2005-01-20T19:53:00.000-08:00

I never believed in symbols very much. They're too easy to manipulate. Wear the right clothes, say the right things, keep your image intact, and no one can tell the difference between you and who you claim to be. No one reading the papers, at least.

Someone in the UK likes meaningless actions like these, however, enough to think they actually change who someone is. Some ministers and secretaries, I never really understood the Brit system, want to start "citizenship ceremonies" for 18yr olds to "celebrate their transition to adulthood as part of an official drive to improve community cohesion." Setting aside the problems of trying to legislate "community cohesion" and going on, the Guardian reports that Fiona Mactaggart thinks the measure will "increase voting among young people, for example. It might increase their interest in contributing to society." Brilliant, right? They're supposed to think voting is a good idea.. because you say so? The naive Mactaggart thinks these ceremonies will be helpful because "New entrants to citizenship who come from another citizenship have been given a rite of passage and it has worked, despite the cynics."

The Brits miss the point however. Those immigrants didn't love the country because of the symbol but because of what the symbol stood for. So they cried when they took their oath, so what? It mattered to them because they had a basis of comparison. If the throngs of apathetic teenagers don't care right now, imposing a symbol will not resonate with them and will last only until people figure out that nobody else cares either.

The idiots are trying to legislate culture, like what they see on the outside is all there is.

comments

2005-01-20T17:47:00.000-08:00

Notice the new comment link. It's based on a java hack by Ebenezer Orthodoxy over at Blogger Hacks. Haloscan drops comments after a couple months so I decided to stick this little thing in. Haloscan comments are still there, but I'm going to see if there's a way I can move them over. Ebenezer made promises of a PHP program to do just that, but he doesn't seem to have been around for a few months.

picasa returns

2005-01-19T19:15:00.000-08:00

Remember Picasa? The photo organizing, enhancing, sharing, totally free, so cool program Google put out a while ago? It's back and better, and as I speak I am downloading it as fast as my mediocre connection will let me. PC Magazine has a review out, though, and picasa has a walkthrough on their site.

Breezing through it, it looks awesome. Even more ways to organize the pics, rotate pics (something I've wanted for a while), tweak the pic a bit... It even seems to have an RGB histogram, so you can bring out the red or blue in a picture to make it just a bit better. Very neat.

I remember when my brother and I got a camera. It was an old thing, not even a 35mm. The film came in this strange cartridges and the flash was a little rotating thing that was good for 4 pictures. I wasn't very impressed. We got newer cameras quickly, but I still never liked taking pictures. You took the picture, let it sit around for a month or two, got the film developed, found out half of them were too dark to come out, and tried to remember where the others were from.

Digital is so much cooler.

a nice shiny new..

2005-01-19T17:58:00.000-08:00

Blogroll. See it over there? So tiny I'm ashamed. At least it's there to build on. I tried to be all clever and everything; "The Symposium" is still a bit of a stretch for genlife blogs though.

Also jumped on the bandwagon and signed up for the TTLB Ecosystem. Now the one person that links to me (why, I don't know) is out there for everyone to see. But thanks, Shannon.

Whaa? You want, like, a real post? Just give me a minute.

bookflix

2005-01-18T17:19:00.000-08:00

No blog tonight, working on the template and watching an old Clint Eastwood movie. To mend this terrible wrong, I offer sacrifice. A site, netflix.com for books. 40 thousand titles, free shipping, and you keep the books till you're done. The cheapest plan they have is a 7.99 monthly fee and lets you have two books out at a time.

Interesting, but books should be pored over, examined slowly. You should read them through and then leave them around to poke your mind every once in a while, then come back to them in a few weeks to see what you missed. That's why I don't like libraries, you have to take them back. Bookflix doesn't change my opinion much; even if I get to keep them as long as I want, I still end up paying 8 dollars a month for it. If I'm going to keep it for a month or two, I might as well buy the thing.

With movies I don't care. For an hour or two you get a nice, self contained set of ideas with a predetermined ending. All you have to do is go along for the ride; boo the villain, cheer the hero, ogle the heroine. Simple, and then you get to walk away. Marx was wrong, movies are the opium.

Books are different though, at least the ones I read. They're meant to fit into the way the world is, serve as a holding place for information -- always offering a different perspective.

Still, the site will probably succeed, judging by the ~~crap~~ stuff people are reading for quick fun. Anyway, that was a bit more than I planned to write.

the music bot

2005-01-17T14:08:00.000-08:00

Quick note so I can get back to pretending to be responsible.

The music industry is apparently using a computer program to predict whether or not a newcomer will do well. It's called HSS, Hit Song Science, and it compares the recording to the last thirty years of Billboard hit singles and places the song in a cluster with others to show likely niches, and chances of success.

Hit songs, typically, fall into one of a number of groupings - there are around 50 in the US and 60 in the UK where, traditionally, tastes have been more diverse. Belonging to the same cluster does not mean songs sound the same, though, more that they are mathematically similar. And the analysis has thrown up some very unlikely musical bedfellows: Some U2 songs are in the same cluster as Beethoven, while spandex ultra rocker Van Halen sits right alongside MOR piano babe Vanessa Carlton. It is for this reason that Polyphonic are confident their software won't homogenise our already stratified and similar sounding charts. They are already working with one radio station to expand their playlist without losing audience share by selecting songs with the correct mathematical rhythms. In a world where drearily repetitive playlists have become the norm this could be the answer to an oft-uttered prayer.

HSS aims to become a generic term, as Hoover is to vacuum cleaners, and a standard part of the signing and creative process for labels and producers. "'What's the HSS score?" should be in the first line of questions of any band at any stage of their career, says Tracie Reed of HSS. "We promise 100% success rate for songs released rather than the usual 20%.

Interesting. And now, back to work, sort of.

unplug the MATRIX

2005-01-16T16:33:00.000-08:00

The ACLU can be, shall we say, out there sometimes. Sometimes, however, they hit the nail on the head. Carnivore is apparently dead, but there's a new program, MATRIX, which is intended to "combine state government records, such as drivers license information, with commercially available data to create a vast database capable of compiling and analyzing a profile of every American".

Think the video exaggerates what will happen a bit? Social Security numbers were once intended to be secret. Now, however, I spend every other day checking videos in and out for all the friendly college students at my school. Know what sits on the screen in front of me? Yup, the SS numbers of every student in school, and the teachers, and the faculty. All I need in order to find out their number is their name, thanks to the handy search button.

Being the Libertarian that I am, I think this is a little excessive. Not to mention completely exploitable by the powers that be, and sets a dangerous direction for what remains of the American Republic.

Fight UNI. Go to the bottom of this page, type in your zip, and send a message to your representative.

of greyhaired judges

2005-01-16T11:32:00.000-08:00

Linda Greenhouse has decided there is a problem with the Supreme Court. It is too old, too out of touch, and needs a radical makeover. Those pesky Founding Fathers didn't really mean for judges to stick around, now did they?

WASHINGTON — Lifetime tenure for judges was "the best expedient which can be devised in any government," Alexander Hamilton wrote in The Federalist No. 78, defending the Constitution's provision for judges to "hold their Offices during good Behavior." Of the wisdom of that proposition, he added, "there can be no room for doubt."

But an ideologically diverse group of legal scholars is now not so sure. Judicial tenure? Definitely. A long one? Probably. But life tenure, which increasingly translates into 25 to 30 years on the bench, extending into extreme old age? When it comes to the Supreme Court, at least, there seems to be plenty of room for doubt, and the doubts are growing.

Judges depart from the lower federal courts with regularity, assuring a steady turnover. Supreme Court vacancies, on the other hand, are rare events. It has been nearly 11 years since the last one, when Harry A. Blackmun stepped down at age 85 after 24 years on the court. The trend is clear. From 1789 to 1970, the average Supreme Court justice served for 15.2 years and retired at 68.5. But since 1970, the average tenure has risen to 25.5 years and the average age at departure to 78.8.

That is very interesting, I'm sure. However, I can look stuff up too. John Marshall, the only early justice I could think of on such short notice, stayed on the court for 34 years. When I first saw Greenhouse's article I was inclined to buy into it, since people tend to live longer now, right? Marshall comes forward on that point as well. He lived from 1755 to 1835, a period of 80 years. Looks pretty similar to that 78.8 figure, especially since if Rehnquist is as bad as they say, he'll probably leave us completely in a few more years.

Back at the ranch, Greenhouse continues.

The academic critics see a variety of negative consequences from life tenure. One is that the scarcity and randomness of vacancies promise to turn each one into a galvanizing crisis. Other drawbacks include the temptation for justices to time their retirements for political advantage; an overemphasis on youth and staying power as a qualification for nominees; the likelihood that even those justices who escape the infirmities of old age - and, predictably, not all will escape - will tend after many decades to lose touch with the surrounding culture; and the fear that if the court is seen as out of touch and unaccountable to a democratic society, its legitimacy will erode.

A galvanizing crisis, you say? I'd be more inclined to believe her if I didn't think it was code for "oh no, Bush is going to stick another conservative on the court". Supreme Court Justices live just as long as everybody else. It's not like these people have been sitting there since the Middle Ages, and the rest of the nation is just waiting for them to die off so we can get someone who understands this new, greater society.

Since life tenure is specified in the Constitution, most proposals for modifying it call for a constitutional amendment. But the Carrington-Cramton proposal is for ordinary legislation by Congress that the two professors believe would withstand constitutional challenge.

They propose giving Supreme Court justices lifetime appointments to the federal judiciary, but not specifically to the court. The president would be entitled to appoint one new Supreme Court justice during each two-year session of Congress - two nominees in each presidential term - without waiting for a vacancy.

That means, of course, that the court's total membership would grow. Under the plan, the nine most recently appointed justices at any given time would constitute the court's active membership; the rest would be "senior justices," performing temporary service as needed on other federal courts, much the way senior federal judges do today. Effectively, each new justice would be active on the Supreme Court for 18 years, before reaching "senior" status and being supplanted.

The proposal doesn't actually sound so bad. It prevents domination by a single set of minds, and might actually let us get a Libertarian justice up there. The thing is, the Supreme Court isn't supposed to be a barometer of public opinion. It is not intended to change every two years. Public opinion is fickle, and we do not want a fickle Court. If this succeeds, the court will become even more of a battleground, with every new majority trying to overturn the work of the last. That, would be even worse for the public perception of the legitimacy of the Court.

thou shalt be connected

2005-01-15T11:16:00.000-08:00

Ahaaha. This is so neat. Why, I don't know. But there seems to be a free service called TeleFlip which will forward messages sent to (your victims number)@teleflip.com to their cell phone as a text message. Completely free, no sign up required, just email the phone. Based on my extensive testing of the two closest phones it seems to be a fifty-fifty thing, but because of the cheapskate nature of one of those people, it probably has a bit more coverage than that. Still, most services have an email assigned to a cell phone already, so this, while very cool, is probably mainly useful when you can't remember more than their number.

Maybe it's actually time for me to get a cell, I've got to be the last person in the US, right?

Link via Adam Kalsey

on airport screeners.

2005-01-14T21:06:00.000-08:00

Gee, I seem to have a pattern of posting right after I swear it off for a while. I'm still working on the new setup and all, but I came upon this, via Maverick Philosopher. Interesting, right? It goes on for a bit longer that needs too though, so I'll skip down to the bottom.

[...]

8. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by:
a. Richard Simmons
b. Grandma Moses
c. Michael Jordan
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

9.In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by:
a. Mr. Rogers
b. Hillary Clinton, to distract attention from Wild Bill' s women problems
c. The World Wrestling Federation
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

10.On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take out the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US
Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers.Thousands of people were killed by:
a. Bugs Bunny, Wiley E. Coyote, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd
b. The Supreme Court of Florida
c. Mr. Bean
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

11.In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against:
a. Enron
b. The Lutheran Church
c. The NFL
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

12. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:
a. Bonnie and Clyde
b. Captain Kangaroo
c. Billy Graham
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

Nope, .....I really don't see a pattern here to justify profiling, do you? So, to ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile certain people. They must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, secret agents who are members of the President's security detail, 85-year old Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winning and former Governor Joe Foss, but leave Muslim Males between the ages 17 and 40 alone because of profiling.

Now I'm as annoyed as you are. Three out of the last four times my brother has flown, the screeners decided a 2nd Lieutenant in the Marine Corps was deserving of a full check. The thing is, Arabic (I assume that's what you mean, since you can't really tell a person's religion by their ID) males between 17 and 40 are not the only Muslims in the world. If we started pulling out all the Arabic looking males of that age, don't you think Zarqawi or whoever the poor guy running Al Qaeda right now might send some blond guys? Maybe someone with a cane and a Santa Claus beard? The point of having a completely, illogically random selection process is that whoever is trying to break through can't rely on profiling to give someone special a blank check.

But my brother looks vaguely Middle Eastern, so it looks to me like they're running a mix, tagging old grandmas and MOH winners as well as likely Arabs. Which I think is the ideal plan.

growing pains

2005-01-12T07:43:00.000-08:00

So, I've been doing this blog -- sort of, since August. When I started I kind of jumped in, not knowing what I was going to talk about, how much people actually expected me to post, or basic blog courtesy. In addition, I've noticed that this blog has come to resemble a diary much more than I wanted it to. This isn't what I wanted to happen, and now that I have a little experience I think I should take some time to redo things -- make it into something I can keep up and actually contribute something with.

I've decided to take a break, first of all. I plan on experimenting with some different layouts, finding some niche I can slip into, and getting a row of topics in the queue so when (if?) I come back I can do this right. I'm planning on taking off till sometime in February. I think that'll give enough time to work on the template, find some people to learn from, etc.

See you then, hopefully.