...She lies in the Tehran street with her headscarf half-off, blood pooling around her jeans and white sneakers.

"Don't be afraid, Neda dear, don't be afraid," a white-haired man says desperately in Persian. Another man presses on her chest, trying to keep her alive.

Scarlet blood gushes from her nose and mouth and courses across her pale face. Men and women scream in horror as they realize she is dead or dying. - AP, 6/22/09

The murder of 27 year old Neda Agha-Soltan at a protest in Tehran likely by Basij militia or Revolutionary Guards has become a tragic yet equally powerful symbol for Iran's struggle for freedom and given her a martyr's status in Iran.In less than 48 hours, the 40 second video was all over YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter with over a million impressions (An aside: Social media has finally justified its otherwise navel-gazing existince). Old media followed soon after, spreading the video world-wide and into the mainstream consciousness. Nearly a week after the video was recorded it is still one of the most-searched terms on the web, and today alone over 14,264 blog posts and news articles have been written about her.

YouTube: Iranian woman killed June 20, 2009 by Ali Khamanei [WARNING: The preceding link contains the real and graphic death of a human being.]

But it didn't take long for comparisons of Tiananmen's Tank Man to start rolling in. I am not sure how accurate these comparisons are given many differences between the two examples, but as powerful symbols of the struggle for freedom they are close. One such difference is that images of the Tank Man have near-universal familiarity and meaning to the rest of the world; In China, however, the powerful imagery of the Tank Man, is largely baffling to the younger affluent and educated generation many of whom had parents at the protests. On the other hand, the images of Neda's death have become a rallying cry for protesters in Iran, and despite complete media control, seems to be having an impact on the greater Iranian population to the detriment of the Islamic Republic's authority.

Furthermore, while the unprecedented protests in Tiananmen Square failed to liberalize the government of China, as the protesters had hoped, they did lead to economic reform. These economic reforms were still a far cry from the freedoms and accountability originally sought and that are still far out of reach. Meanwhile, Iran by some accounts is still fluid situation - although the edge still certainly remains on the side of the Islamic Republic. But the facade is nonetheless cracked and Ayatollah Khomeneican no longer take his power for granted in light of a younger generation that overwhelmingly seeks reform.

I really want to hear what some of you are thinking about all of this.

What do you think of the comparison of Neda to the Tank Man from Tiananmen Square?Is this a fair comparison? What do you think will be the ramifications of the poignant, public display of Neda's sacrifice? Is she the Tank Man of the Internet-generation?

Originally published at Blueblooder.com.

Do you or anyone else you know have experience with Drupal? There's a project I am taking over at work that was made by a very special individual.

I woke up today and I decided I really wanted an iPod touch. I spent some of last night reading about the hacking community that has emerged around this device, and that as much as the device itself has me really excited. The announcement of Apple releasing an SDK for the iPhone/Touch next January also seems very encouraging. Such dreams will have to wait for some time.

The last week has gone by in a blur. Even working only "six" hours a day has left me with little time or energy for much else. If I have seemed distant or inaccessible it's just me still getting used to working and still dealing with some of the ongoing issues of home. Between the two of them I don't have much time or energy for anything else. Hopefully this will change very soon.

brigid referred me to a potential apartment prospect with one of her friends out in Central Square. We visited the same day and it was pretty much exactly what I was looking for. I would be right on the Red Line (the only part of the T I trust) and give me a really easy commute to work via the #1 bus. I am pretty excited by the concept of a graceful exit from things at home so I can focus a bit more on my own life. Also, the desire to want to get out into the world and be independent seems to be growing as issues at home seem to just be simmering until the next explosion.

The Job
I've already written about how work is going really well. In addition to my normal duties I've become the head of Alumni development and become the liaison to the Red Sox (Fenway Park is literally accross the street) and to their philanthropic arm the Red Sox Foundation. I've talked and met with a few people from both organizations which has significantly increased my love of the Red Sox. I now understand a lot more about just how much and how long they have been engaged with pretty amazing levels of philanthropy. It's also given me a context for understanding why many corporations and even other professional sports teams do very little or in the case of the Yankees do no philanthropic/charitable work. I'm also beginning to see and understand the differences between actual meaningful charitable and philanthropic work and what the flouted PR exercises that makes the bulk. Just another reason to appreciate and support organizations who actually make meaningful contributions.

( More on my Job )

If people are interested I could write about the school itself and its methods. But I worry that discussions of pedagogy and school-design might not interest most people on my LJ.

Anyone want to do something this weekend?

Tonight I went to the Red Sox game with my father, and it was a wonderful time (as going to a Red Sox game always is), even though the game itself was most disappointing with an 8-4 loss against the Cleveland Stereotypes (and breaking our five game winning streak). I finally got to see Matsuzaka pitch in-person and he's got gorgeous form, but gave up eleven hits before they pulled him. I think the game was lost because they didn't pull him soon enough. I took a lot of really lovely pictures that I'll start putting on Flickr tomorrow since its late right now.

I can't remember the last time I attended a home game that we won, well yes I do but I was a kid and I distinctly remember also getting a beer very literally dumped on me by an excited fan when Mo Vaughn got a home run. The drunken man was so embarrassed he bought me a souvenir ice-cream in a cheesy Red Sox helmet I still have to this day.

Despite this game being a loss and an underwhelming game as a whole, the energy at Red Sox games are just amazing and the people are so friendly. My dad bought me a new Red Sox hat a lovely Field fitted cap and I giggled with delight at all the multi-lingual Red Sox hats in Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, Gaelic, and Hebrew.

I glared at the ever-growing collection of those silly trendy designer hats that masquerade themselves as fashion accessories. I mean, let's face it baseball caps aren't cool or fashionable (nor should they be), wearing one is an expression of fanaticism and geekiness. Trumping them all up with weird designs, ugly colors, questionable designs, and an even higher price tag is the kind of consumerism that turns even me off.

That is until tonight when I saw a gorgeous Herringbone Red Sox hat and in a moment of weakness fell prey to its glory. But my strict self-righteously moral view towards fashion baseball caps kept me from throwing my debit card at the cashier and crawling over the till to get at the precious Herringbone glory. Luckily, I escaped with my dignity intact.

Also related to baseball, today all my wonderful MLB-related videos were pulled off YouTube due to copyright violations in one fell swoop. So I've officially sworn off the lameness of YouTube because they don't bother standing up for Fair Use and I'm already annoyed enough about the state of Copyright and all things related to intellectual property. So I'm now using DailyMotion and rebuilding my once brilliant collection of baseball delights. Here's to hoping the French have more sense than us Americans.

For the first time in more than a decade Steve Jobs (CEO, Co-Founder, Visionary, and Savior of Apple Computer) will sit down with Bill Gates (Co-Founder, Legendary Geek, and Microsoft Chairman) and discuss the future of technological innovation. The discussion will be a glorious unscripted free-for-all mediated by the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg.

The last time the two appeared on stage it was MacWorld Boston 1997, where Bill Gates appeared via satellite to announce Apple's darkest day: the announcement of Apple's settlement with Microsoft allowing them to "borrow" Apple's innovation wholesale in exchange for a $150 million dollar investment and a promise to keep delivering Microsoft Office for the Macintosh platform. It was an act of desperation by Apple to save the platform and the company, and for many Macintosh fans it represented Apple's defeat.

How far we have come from those days, from Apple as a small, floundering company beloved by legions of passionate fans to a much larger successful company with mainstream appeal, financial success, a darling of the Corporate world, but with a dwindling number of passionate devotees. I wont lie, I miss those days when being a Mac user was a cult where we looked out for our own and shared a collective sense of identity, purpose, and passion.

Well, that's enough reminiscing this forum is going to be about the most exciting thing to happen in the Geek world in quite some time and promises to be quite the clash of the titans. If we were scoring, I would without reservation say Steve "Insane Visionary" Jobs will crush Bill "Do What Apple Does" Gates. If we're really lucky a mysterious challenger (The Woz) will show up in Lucha Libre garb and give them both a little pain.

For almost ten years Steve and Gates have seemingly avoided meeting in public, although that hasn't stopped them from talking some great smack about eachother. Here's to hoping someone gets a whoopin' and my money goes on Steve.

Let us all pray to the Bit Torrent Gods to deliver us the discussion on Wednesday.

Hmmm, an unfortunate sequence of events occurred yesterday which included the seeming death of my trusty iMac G5. I left it alone until this morning when I woke up early to troubleshoot, and upon my first Google search discovered that the symptoms are very common for a particular (and expensive) hardware issue.

Short of bringing it in to be repaired, there's some poking around I can do within the computer's innards checking for loose connections and hard resetting the PMU and NVRAM. But those are a last ditch effort to avoid the expensive repair that will most likely be needed.

For you resident Mac experts, I am experiencing the issue where the system has a hard crash (frozen mouse, but error detection fails to recognize the kernel panic) and upon reboot I get the start up sound along with the fans running on high but with no video.

Thankfully, no matter how bad this seems it is highly unlikely I'll experience any data loss; at most I lost the longish LiveJournal entry I was working on. I can breathe easy about my data being safe although this venture is sure to be frustrating, expensive, and just plain came at a very bad time when I was preparing to sell this computer to my parents to replace their ancient Snow iMac to help fund the purchase of a laptop for Korea.

Oh well, with this repair done they will be getting a computer (hopefully) free from one of the only issues this model seems to have. Good deal for them, less so for me. I suppose from a certain point of view, this couldn't have come at a better time since my Division III is finished, all my work is over, and when my parents get my repaired computer it will be as good as new.

But still: bleh.

Well, the response to Microsoft's much-touted Vista operating system has been tepid. The Nation's eyes turned to the self-proclaimed center of the universe, New York City, where Microsoft had big festivities planned, for the handful of people who showed up. Oops. Vista's release did drop Apple's stock down $0.39. Microsoft has Apple running in the face of their five year in the making "Revolutionary" innovative OS.


The mediocrity of Vista (2), its devaluing of the user in favor of copyright holders and security, its sad attempt at innovation (2), and most recently Vista's surpsingly weak launch, all remind me of what kind of company Microsoft has let itself become. The best, or at least the most noticeable outlet for the company's current state, are the videos Microsoft produces to entertain and show the company's human side. Most recently, Microsoft screened a Bill Gates / Napoleon Dynamite Crossover at a Microsoft Developer's conference. These videos combine Microsoft's awkward middle-agedness and forced (anti-)coolness with something that's trendy at the time.


This commercial may make you feel sorry for Microsoft as they try so hard but come up so short. Microsoft you are the anti-cool, and when you pretend otherwise we get crap like the Zune.

The iPod was talked about, some statistics showing the iPod's continued dominance were tossed out. A few sly jokes about the Zune were also made. No updates were made to the iPod, nor to the Mac. More content on iTunes was mentioned, particularly Paramount putting their movie library on iTunes. Apple showed off the iTV, renamed it Apple TV, and provided additional details (HDMI, 720p, shipping in February, yadda yadda yadda). Check out the website if you're curious. I'm not going to talk about it much since I wrote a previous entry on it and nothing significantly new was unveiled. Apple also quietly updated the Airport Extreme adding support for the speedy 802.11n protocol and a new design.

Perhaps, most curiously Apple announced they were dropping Computer from their name to become Apple, Inc. This was a long-predicted and rumored change, I remember the first prediction of this back when the iPod was first announced. Interesting that Apple waited so long to make the change. Some argue the change may finally point to a shift at Apple away from computers into other electronic markets where Apple could expand. I think, or rather hope, it points to Apple being more open to entering new markets and potentially making new markets altogether.

( Apple iPhone w/ Photo! )

EDIT: Real™ high-resolution pictures of the iPhone's hardware (See what the back looks like), and high-resolution pictures of the software have been uploaded.

Boston Rolls out Plans for Municipal Wireless
San Francisco, Philadelphia and other cities made big splashes with announcements, hooplah, and fanfare regarding their municipal wireless plans. Yet after the festivities and shoulder patting ended, all the plans went to hell. Well only once the lobbyists and select taxpayers were released from their cage foaming at the mouths. Their efforts thwarted rollouts accross the country and locked up the plans in their respective legislatures. At this point no city is poised to create the nation's first municipal wireless network.

Enter Boston's plan. Rather than relying on private Corporations looking to make a bundle off of yet another blank check from the State, Boston plans to create a non-profit agency funded by the state and businesses to build, operate, and maintain the city's wireless infrastructure.

Clever. By cutting out the legislature from the issue (mostly) it makes lobbyists powerless to slow down the deal. By cutting our Corporations you create new jobs, and significantly lower costs (especially since most companies oppose municipal wireless and have said such while applying for the lucrative contracts - sketchy).

Boston, well Boston proper is a small place, it gets pretty massive when you include all of the Boston area (or "Metropolitan Boston" or even "The Hub"). So a wireless roll-out for the entire City of Boston in two years is quite feasible. Additionally, it's rather feasible to see a gradual expansion of the system to Boston's neighbors, in particular the People's Republic of Cambridge.

In 2001, Boston made a small footnote in history when it became the host to the first public neighborhood wireless network called NewburyOpen.net. Since then wireless technology has improved dramatically, become much more ubiquitous, and has become much cheaper. Years later, the scene has been set for other cities to expand upon the idea and offer free wireless to an entire city, as opposed to just a neighborhood.

So will Boston's approach prove to be the path to making the internet accessible to all and helping to contribute to a more egalitarian society? Time will tell, but Boston's plan is really quite cunning and has overcome all the issues that has plagued similar plans in other cities. This is going to be interesting to watch unfold.

• One of the most kinky and overtly homoerotic fight scenes ever. Yes, this is THAT good. Bask in the 80's goodness! [SFW, Volume]
  
• The worst/ugliest MySpace pages in the world. All in one place, and ranked through a little thing called Democracy! [NSFW]
  
• There are probably three of you who haven't seen this: The best product naming, ever! [SFW, Volume]
  
• What do legitimate political candidates and the National Vanguard have in common? No, silly! Only terrible flash movies! [SFW, Volume]
  
• Ah, The Kids in the Hall. I can't say it's my favorite sketch, but it's certainly one of the weirdest other than the sausage factory one. [NSFW, Volume]
  
• Yeah, along the same lines as the guy who had his leaning tower of pisa knocked over by the guy interviewing him. [SFW, Volume]
  
• Old News is Good News: Greenwhich the country's richest town has hired people to literally keep Canadian geese out of their township. [SFW]
  
• Do you like Nintendo? Oh-ho-ho! Not anymore! [SFW, Volume]
  
• What's better than the Daily Show mocking the stupidity of Conservatives? Ohh, not much. [SFW, Volume]
  

I cannot believe how little free time I have, I mean I knew getting into residential education would eat my life but I never imagined it would be like this. I'm putting a lot more effort into my job and classes than my fellow interns as seen by me actually making lesson plans and full-page syllabi. On the other hand I feel as though I am learning an incredible amount and gaining really important skills and other than being exhausted I have really begun to like it here and to some degree how busy they keep me. For one thing, this job has made me really appreciate free time. Here I am stuck in my room working and preparing on the Fourth of July. I wish I could be in Boston celebrating like I'd like to be. Oh, well missing the 4th is a fair trade for everything I'm getting out of this internship. But man am I getting twitchy from being in this void. I miss Boston.

On a completely different note, I'm astounded by the level of information collection that Cushing does. I've always known that boarding schools keep detailed files on every student, but now in the age of computers and electronic databases every minor infraction from brushing your teeth after lights out, screwing around during study hall, to being late for class, every last bit of it is dutifully recorded and tracked electronically. Each kid has a file detailing every minor (or major) infraction. I feel almost devious contributing to this level of profiling.

It's just so weird and so wonderful being on the 'other side' of boarding school. I really do like it, although I'm not sure if I really want to make a career out of it.

( Videography nonsense and my thoughts on the Sony HDR-HC1 )

The son of the Japanese Ambassador to the US is in my class and two kids from the House of Saud are on my hall. This school is chock full of interesting and often extremely wealthy and influential foreigners. Then again, there's a few kids from a reservation in New Mexico and a bunch of inner city kids from Chicago and Detroit on my floor and the floor above me. I guess it all balances out fairly well, better than most places I've been.

Man the diversity makes Hampshire looks so pathetic in every way.

Oh, and Doctor Who fans might get a giggle from this.

• Oh, ho, ho! Take a ride on the penis roller coaster and learn the inner-workings of the homosexual lifestyle...IN 3D!!! [NSFW, Volume]
  
• Okay...Why does a suburban mom make a music video about her kids and Google?! I hate the suburbs... [SFW, Volume]
  
• I think the police officer was just looking for an excuse to cross-dress [SFW]
  
• Are SUVs *finally* on the way out? [SFW]
  
• Hitchhiker's Guide tells you how to detect lies.
  
• Do you love Sudoku so much that you need this? If you answered yes you're a freak. [SFW]
  
• The bathing suit of the FUUUUUTUUUUUURE! [SFW]
  
• Want some stranger to send you a picture in the mail? Then this site is for you. [SFW]
  
• Ewww, Bush and Koizumi should just get a fricken' room. This article was entirely too heartwarming for me. [SFW]
  
• Wow, Star Trek fans don't watch this...it's Star Trek crossed with Cribs. [SFW, Volume]
  
• "Your global resource for MySpace.com member obituaries" Yeah, um - thanks. [SFW]
  
• "As people enjoy barbecues during this summer we would like to stress that petrol should never be used on barbecues..." Oh, you know what happened. [SFW]
  
• Trees are dangerous: Take note! [SFW]
  
• Ah, the Japanese show the world once again that they have entirely too much time on their hands. [SFW]
  
• Whee, useless projects with paper! Make a "Paper Banger" German-style! [SFW]
  
• Hunh, why does the product 'Inflatable Chicken Protector' make me chuckle? [SFW]
  

For those who might be out-of-the-loop. Last week ThePirateBay.org, the Internet's largest public Bit Torrent site and tracker had their servers raided by plain clothes Swedish officers who shut down the site. You can actually view the disappointingly low-key raid on YouTube, at least until the police officers cover up the hosting facilities' security cameras. The site reappeared the very next day, and the day after was operational again with new servers co-located in different countries. The new graphic on the page shows the pirate ship destroying the Hollywood hills sign with cannon balls.

In the aftermath of the assault, the mainstream press had some impressive coverage (all things considered) giving a lot of publicity to both the site and Bit Torrent. Meanwhile the internet has been consumed with the whole thing, specifically the legality of the attack according to Swedish Law and figuring out who ordered the thing to happen in the first place. After a great deal of research, a page has been compiled detailing the list - yes, a list - of the civil rights violations and lack of due process that the police used.

I'm just glad to see that we're fighting back, and winning on some level. After years and years of having the interests and rights of consumers horrifically eroded in the name of "Intellectual Property" (Corporate Greed). Until the companies learn to listen to the very customers they demonize they will never be able to eliminate the effect piracy has. They've created a world where piracy is easier and more flexible than the legal alternatives. They are just reaping what they've failed to sow. But, I bet The Pirate Bay is pretty happy with all the free publicity and even found itself a wealth of new members.

Microsoft Vista
It shouldn't come as a surprise to most people that, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (of Monkey-man fame) runs his home like a police state not allowing his children to use Google or own an iPod. What is surprising is how nonchalant he is about it in a CNN Money Interview. Superior products be damned, you have to use Daddy's crappier products because Daddy is insecure!

Of course, Microsoft isn't doing well with the recent announcement of yet another delay of Vista and of their cash-cow Microsoft Office. This has lead toa passing of blame throughout the ranks resulting in many workers becoming upset because the upper echelons seem intent on blaming them, in response they've began calling for a shake-down of upper management, including Ballmer himself. Currently, Microsoft is reorganizing itself for efficiency (for the third time in as many years). Has Microsoft gotten too big for itself? A recent column by Forbes Magazine paints Vista is not only buggy and incomplete but not 'people ready' - a scathing review coming from one of Microsoft's strongest allies. Very recently, Microsoft said it would consider "suing Linux" for patent infringement, a sure sign of desperation against the increasing popularity of the little system that could. With a strong anti-trust case rolling in the EU (which Microsoft's attempts to dawdle into a long protracted battle and eventual settlement have been met with stern rebukes). Could this be the beginning of the end? Here's another reason to hate Microsoft too!

Apple
On the other hand, Apple sure seems to be doing well especially with the iPod. Everything happening at Microsoft gives poises Apple in a great position to claim market-share this holiday season. There was a recent article detailing the market that Apple all but created. So far, the iPods only serious competition has been with Apple itself. No amount of blaming trendiness or social pressures can make up for the simple fact that it is the best product on the market for the needs of the majority of users. There will be a day when the other companies stop just trying to keep up with Apple by copying (often paling in comparison) and actually try and innovate, possibly even creating a superior product. But until then, the iPod will rule. Microsoft and Co. would do well to realize this (respecting consumers and the need for elegance would help too) if they want to be serious in unseating Apple's dominance of the digital entertainment sphere.

Sony UMD Format Tanking
I probably relish too much in reporting that yet another proprietary Sony format is getting ready to kick the bucket. Which one? The much touted UMD format for the PSP! While the PSP makes a little ground beyond its niche market, the market which to its credit it created, sales of UMD movies have been very poor. So poor, that most companies are getting ready to pull out of support for them entirely leaving Sony alone to provide movies for their users. Sales were initially strong for the movies, but once the novelty wore off as did the purchases consumers made. Sony plans to make their next generation device connect to the television, a stupid move which makes the device entirely redundant to superior technology such as a DVD player or a TiVo. (Sony, I'll give you a hint people don't like being ripped off. You'd make an absolute killing with a subscription movie download service, not by charging people more than they do for a DVD for less than they get with a DVD.)

Moments of Zen

• What could be better than the idea of Mormon Furries? How about a Mormon Furry community in LiveJournal? Let the trolling begin!
  
• Yay, another hand-picked Corporate band! Cringe at some awful flash, bad music, and hilariously awful bios written by a bunch of consultants. This thing screams soulless cog in the corporate machine, only with a huge dose of awful.
  
• If you're learning how to breakdance using nothing but your hands you are in great need of a hobby - like World of Warcraft!
  
• HOLY CRAP! Kids are putting together their *own* computers and designing simple command-line operating systems? Sweet Jesus, what a revolution! They are totally going to be the next computer empire! (WHY are they making such a big deal about this?)
  
• Hint: Spammers are really, really, stupid. Does it surprise you that the very people who advertise to stupid people may be stupid themselves?
  
• Wow, I thought there were only crazy cat ladies. Apparently, there are crazy dog people too.
  
• One of the worst music videos ever made, seriously. I challenge any of you to watch the whole thing and not close the window in disgust.
  
• The greatest Russian Roulette simulator ever made.
  
• TrekPassions.com: Online Dating for SciFi Fans (Amazing Comedy Goldmine)
  
• What do the Japanese do to ruin Star Wars? Some mildly amusing and wildly disturbing photos featuring what the Japanese do to Darth Vader in their spare time[NWSF].
  
• Wow, sometimes Apple's attention to detail goes a bit beyond what it needs to.
  
• More creepy Japanese vending machines. Check out the Human Parking business and the live lobster UFO catcher.
  

Life is good, and it's Spring Break! My transfer to Merrill House as an intern got approved and I'm really happy about that. That's all from life, but I will say I'm glad things are slowing down (even if it's only for a week).

Apple's Planned Boston Flagship Store hits a Snag


Moment of Zen
Wow, are Russians really that dumb?
Can you really say Porn on television?
Let's study FREAKS! Sweet!?
"Not enough things have a laser sight...I know scissors!"
Another contender for best headline ever: "Flying Cow Leaves Two Police Cars in Flames".
Ever since the trailer re-edit of The Shining that made it seem like a family movie there's been a ton of copy-cats. But the best one is a re-edit of the Jaws trailer to make it a love story.

Fears About Pixar's Quality
Many Pixar fans are concerned with how Cars appears from the teaser trailer. I would invite them to take a trip down memory lane to see that Pixar movies make for poor teasers. If that's not enough to allay your fears, Cars was recently screened to an ecstatic audience of entertainment industry folks and theater-owners. The same day, Apple posted the official trailer (Also, in HD)which details a lot more of the plot and shows some of the clever and stunning design that has been put into this movie.

Cars is beginning to look pretty good, even though I myself care little for cars and find car races to be an offensively stupid affair. Even if the subject matter isn't to your liking the Pixarian plot sounds quite lovely and surely will resonate (if not a bit too inoffensively) with most people.

Moment of Zen
Well, that's uhh normal.
An amusing ad about the importance of fluency in language. (Courtesy of Stephen)
Another unrealistic sexualized beer commercial, but at least this one has an unexpected ending!
KAT KONG!
I can only imagine what would happen if this happened at Hampshire...How exactly does something liquidy like semen actually block a drain especially when there's lots of water.
This is already made it's rounds, but for those who haven't seen it: Blair and Bush "At the Gay Bar".
What happens when a player finally runs out of lives in Mario Brothers.
Microsoft tries a new approach to making themselves look less evil: Feed yuppies free buttered bagels. It tragically backfired when yuppies found out they had to actually pay to get their favorite sundried tomato pesto cream cheese.
A frighteningly realistic vision of what would happen if Microsoft designed the iPod's packaging. Funny but so painfully true!

I don't really feel like taking an official opinion on this one. I will say that people are being awfully selective and holding Google to a higher standard than other companies. Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Cisco are just a few of the other big technology giants that support China's oppressive policies. Yahoo! gave information to the Chinese Government that lead to several prominent Pro-Democratic Chinese 'disappearing'. I don't see anyone talking about that. Google was the *only* search engine that would only go to China if they were told exactly what specifically the Chinese Government filtered. Because of the information they obtained (and subsequently made public), various projects to assist Chinese citizens in getting past the Great Firewall of China have exploded. Moreover, Google is the only search engine company whom explicitly tells users that there results are being filtered "due to local laws." All the other companies bowing to pressure from Beijing try to pretend nothing uncouth could possibly be afoot!

Google also was the only American search engine company to defy the Bush Administration's request for disclosing the history of searches for every user. Guess what? Every other company (Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo, etc) happily gave that information over and Google is fighting the Government in court to protect our privacy (and also their trade secrets). But you don't see people talking about that, either. Westerners are yelling from their Ivory towers using hyperbole instead of research and actually knowledge of what is going on. So what do Chinese bloggers think of Google? Well, why not get it right from the source thanks to the BBC, why no one else thought to ask technologically-centric Chinese is beyond me and what they say may surprise you.

So I'm not taking a position, other than I think some people are being a little to quixotic with this whole Google thing and expecting more from a Corporation than any Corporation deserves. Don't forget Corporations care about only one thing: Money. Google is no exception.

But for amusement and reference let's compare differences between Google Image Searches for "Tiananmen":

Tiananmen - Google Image Search
Tiananmen - Google 图片搜索

See? Censorship can be pretty hilarious (sort of)!

The last few days have been pretty busy. Somehow, I feel like I've been writing that a lot lately. My big accomplishment has been finishing all but one of my summer applications. They are sitting right now on my desk all sealed up a pretty ready to be sent out tomorrow!

I don't know quite how I feel about my final semester as a Division II. I'm pretty happy with all my classes, but I'm wondering if I could do more and what I might do. Right now, I'm taking a storytelling class, finishing my TESOL teaching certificate, and taking a class in Improvisation. The latter of which is fulfilling my big goal of wanting to take an off-campus class I like at my favorite of the Five Colleges which is Smith. I'm hoping I am able to make an off-campus friend or two in the process.

Things are all-around pretty good these days. I just wish I had more time for lazing around. I hardly have time to seek out Moments of Zen, so it's a good thing I have a lot stored up!

Steve Jobs
Following Steve Jobs all but public take-over of Disney poorly guised as Disney's purchase of Pixar a flurry of articles have been written about his rather meteoric rise to fame in the mind's of the public. He's always been well-known to the technophiles but has just become to be a household name.

Beyond the standard articles in TIME Magazine and Newsweek there have been two particularly interesting pieces written recently. The first is a Businessweek article covering an "Insider's Take" on Steve Jobs recounting some of the history and a little about the man himself. The second article by Wired compares Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, discussing how Bill Gates is very public on a range of political and social issues and is even more conspicuous (rather deliberately) in his philanthropy. Steve Jobs on the other hand is an enigma, keeping his opinions to himself and most likely giving to social causes privately (a very out-of-style thing to do these days).

Moment of Zen
Cocaine the Musical!
Jesus Christ The Musical!
Proves that men from the New York lack any semblence of class.
Imagine raisins crossed with horribly ugly kittens.
Knitting gone horribly, horribly awesome.
Giant Evil Stuffed Pandas: Time to DIE...Elvis.
eBay: Sexy nude body painting - Erotic Abstract Outsider Art...Actually it's just a turtle who was forced to waddle back and forth over a canvas - but whatever.

D1 has once again joined civilization and has toilet paper dispensers! Last week, the school decided we needed new bathroom stalls. Sounds simple? Oh, not for Hampshire. To set up one partition and two doors took three days. Then it took four more days to install toilet paper dispensers. Holy God, this school is inept.



Which Doctor Who are you?

this quiz was made by Auntie Krizu(:>)

Whoo! I got my favorite Doctor! This is related because I'm going to Arisia this weekend and am deeply saddened by the lack of Doctor Who there - stupid Americans! Oh, well if I get bored at the Con at least I can be in Boston.

Ah, Neo-Nazi's are coming to Boston again and the People Against Inbred Fascist Dickhead Losers (Best organization name, ever - but not much of an acronym) will be there to greet them. I remember the last time they came to Boston to "protest" the New England Holocaust Memorial. Apparently the group was from Arkansas according to one of my friends who was present. Which raises the question: Are things really so dull in Arkansas that flying out to one of the most Liberal cities in the country to protest something which is universally viewed as fact is a good use of one's time? This helps prove the theory that Neo-Nazi's are just attention whores and will take whatever they can get be it Boston or Gretna, Lousiana...?

Microsoft has officially canned Windows Media Player for the Mac. No one weeps, it was a terrible, awful, unforgivably bad application to begin with (the Windows version wasn't much better only it worked better). In it's stead they have licensed a 3rd party Quicktime plug-in from Flip4Mac. The basic plugin which allows the viewing of Windows Media content is now available for free.

Moment of Zen
Only one today because it's totally nuts (and from a legitimate news source):

Google is already working on a massive and global computing grid. Eventually, says Mr Saffo, “they're trying to build the machine that will pass the Turing test”—in other words, an artificial intelligence that can pass as a human in written conversations. Wisely or not, Google wants to be a new sort of deus ex machina.

- "St. Lawrence of Google", The Economist

So in other words, Google wants to create a global electronic artificial intelligence...yes, that's right reread the quote. It's scary how fast this is all turning into a cheesy 80's dystopian vision of the future.

Yesterday was a really intense day in Theatre of the Oppressed. It was really the first time I realized just how powerful Theatre of the Oppressed could be. I got pretty emotional and it was pretty embarrassing, although a little cathartic. Afterwards, I was totally exhausted. Remarkably, I'm still getting over my cold as well.

I was pretty bored last evening having grown tired of the amusements within my room. World of Warcraft. Battlefield 2. Reading. The entirety of the Internet. None of it was serving my entertainment needs, but after the day's intensity I was very tired. I hadn't done any graphic design work in awhile and thus proceeded to pretend I had some idea to what I was doing when it comes to graphic design - Sweet. My head full of neat ideas little ideas only one of them ended up being worth showing off. It's utterly useless but pretty nice looking thing that pays homage to my home and two of my favorites of its multitudinous latin mottos: "Ense petit placidam libertate quietem" (By the sword she seeks peace under liberty) and "Sicut patribus sit deus nobis" (May God be with us as he was with our fathers). It's transparent (perhaps for use as a forum signature - I don't know) but I set it over a nice color so that it would be visible. I don't care what people say, Latin is wicked fun.


Bah, MacWorld
MacWorld was a total disappointment, I can't believe I wasted a picture of Dieter on crappy announcements like a slightly upgraded iMac and a bunch of predictable software updates. It's taken me a few days just to build up the energy to write about it since it so disappointed me. The only exciting thing turned out to be unimaginably lame: iWeb works ONLY with .Mac and is even less customizable than RapidWeaver, a product it is almost identical to. I was totally hoping for something along the lines of Claris HomePage, which is to this day the most powerful and most easy-to-use WYSIWYG HTML editor. Bah, Apple! Bah!

Steve Jobs announcing with glee the death of the Powerbook ended what was already the crappiest MacWorld in years with a sour taste in one's mouth. The Powerbook name was to be superceded by something so painfully bad you think it came from Dell: The MacBook Pro. Are you kidding me? Where's the elegance of the name? I guess we can expect the eMac to be renamed "You don't want to buy this one." Well, I for one refuse to bow to the new name - No way in Hell! Long live the Powerbook! Bah, Apple! Bah!

The lack of predicted (and logical upgrade) to the Mac mini which was expected tells us that Apple is planning something big. We know the Duo can fit into the enclosure so it isn't a matter of engineering and if it was Apple has the best engineers in the industry to deal with Steve's perfectionistic mule-headedness. I think it means something big, and I imagine it will be something soon. Perhaps they delayed its release to get more people behind a movie download service? Or for a faster wireless technology to stream media from your computer to your new Mac mini set-top. Either way, they can't leave the Mac mini the joke of their line like it is now. Not for long, anyways.

In something that pleases me more than Apple, the people behind the Optimus keyboard concept. The site's been updated with a cryptic message hinting at a release date of February 6th, 2006. The FAQ also points out that the SDK and drivers will be open-source. A good move considering this keyboard is for the geekiest among us, and many of us are open-source supporters.

Moment of Zen (This week we've got some great ones!)
What the fuuuuuuck? Another Japanese television show. Just happens to involve a large topless black man covered in beachballs who chases a bunch of screaming Japanese women around. Yeap, just another day in Japan.
A hilarious movie spoofing the Vista presentations. Think Microsoft doesn't rip-off Apple? This movie will settle the dispute.
What the? Drunken Ping Pong...giant checks...International Championships...Suddenly, I feel better about spending half my life infront of a computer.
What the hell is up with this website? They make nice products, though.
Finally, a compiled list of why we should hate diamonds. And why no wife of mine is never going to get any.
How long until this becomes the den of sin like Craigslist? Goodwill towards men and lots of pity sex!
I'm not sure if living is Alaska is worth having your pizza delivered by plane for free.
PARK(ing) a temporary urban park. Wow, what a fantastic idea. Those wily folk of San Francisco!

So it's been about a week with my computer. I still have yet to name it as a dominant personality has not yet emerged. Macintosh HD will have to suffice as a name for now. I have to say, this is the first Apple desktop I've ever owned and I'm really impressed. It's pretty amusing having everyone come into my room and be like "Whoah, that's a nice monitor!" and then Kelsey squeaks from beneath the bed: "It's not a monitor, it's the whole computer!"

This week Apple has also filed a patent that may explain why the switch to the Intel platform has taken so long and how Apple plans to protect their integrated (hardware and software being designed for one another) approach to making products.

I have a scheme. It involves saffron, using the greenhouse mod to grow something legal for a change, claiming the harvesting of Saffron as a part of my Division III, and making lot's of money somehow. It's a brilliant plan, but I need to iron out the details.

Otherwise life is pretty good, if not a little busy...

( Quiz Time! )