DIMINISHED THOUGHT

So Dumbledore is gay. Literally according to JK Rowling. So does this change your impression of his and Harry's relationship?

Good lord! Al Gore just won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past two weeks you've probably heard about how Radiohead has decided to release it's album through the internet AND allow the fans to name the price which they think is fair. This is the first time in years that I've actually wanted to support an artist by giving them my money unfortunately the website being used for distribution is poorly designed and there were reports last night that it went down for a time. I doubt that this will revolutionize the music industry but maybe it's a step in the right direction? Check out this discussion on a piracy site regarding the relative merits of paying for the album vs. stealing it.

Labels: Copyright, music, radiohead, RIAA

I am an asshole. I should alway remember what my mother told me. She told that as a lawyer you never ask a question that you don't know what the answer will be. I burned someone today. Damn.

So after getting all my possessions jacked I've been replacing a few of them as I was able or as it was sensible. I got a great deal on a last generation 80gb video ipod (still an upgrade from my 30gb photo) because I'm a student and I had to buy a macbook. Unfortunately, as of last night I was convinced that I was going to have to return it. There was a significant amount of distortion when listening to louder music!

Once again I turned to the almighty google and found my fix. Did I find it on the apple site? No. For the record I think Apple is just as much an evil empire as Microsoft. Sorry all you hippies out there who think Apple is the counterculture alternative, it's not. It's a multinational corporation that is interested in protecting it's own interests. So what was wrong with my ipod?

I found the answer on a blog. It appears that apple has produced a product that can't use it's equalizer because it pushes the sound up past the level at which it can be played with appropriate fidelity. Hence, the distortion. That in my opinion is a major design flaw. Any DECENT piece of audio equipment should be able to handle whatever mass market produced music or recordings I throw at it. At 350$ it's got to be able to rock and roll without sounding like I already have tinnitus. I'm saving that experience for later.

I love ipods. They have an idiot proof user interface and apple has continued to be innovative in their design with the release of the touch version (although it is essentially an iphone without the phone...I mean come on if you want one just spring for it). Anyway, enough ranting. I turned off the equalizer and it sounds fine now.

Labels: apple, crap, distortion, ipod

I saw them cut down a palm tree the other day. One thing that struck me when moving to Los Angeles was all the palm trees. I should have expected it. I'm told they're a type of grass and looking at them surviving in this concrete jungle I can believe it as they seem able to sprout from any crack the sidewalk provides them. They are ubiquitous. Still I remember hearing on NPR a while back that they're not native and that many of them are sick. It's not hard to believe as they often have dead fronds hanging from them even as they tower over all the single and double story buildings that seem to make up LA. I guess that's why when I saw them cutting one down it seemed so interesting. They're not going to replant them and as they die they'll slowly disappear from the cityscape. The workers in hard hats had stopped traffic on Flower Street behind my parking structure and were using a sling attached to a crane to lower it to the ground. The palm was springy, wobbling a little bit in the air as the crane slowly lowered it the pavement and dropped it so carefully that it was almost possible to believe that it didn't make a sound. Of course, I couldn't know that. I was in my car with the windows up and the air conditioner blasting.

Perhaps one of the scarier things about my new home.

Labels: bad things, LA

Howard Rheingold linked to a seminar paper I wrote last year for Perspectives on Communication and technology. You can read his blog post here. You should follow the links on this post.

Labels: smart mob, social interaction, social psychology

So this morning I woke up, went downstairs to the parking lot which lies beneath my hostel to find my door open and my trunk ajar and all my stuff gone. I've lost somewhere between three and four thousand dollars worth of stuff and I'm unlikely to see it again. Oh well.

The most surprising thing to me is how I'm taking it. After the initial "oh shit" moment I've been pretty laid back about it. I mean it's not coming back. You can't cry over spilled milk. Still I liked my clothes, my pictures, my journal, and my computer. I loved my ipod and the little mementos I've picked up throughout my life. They're gone now. In some ways it all makes a sick amount of sense to me. I'm in a new city, a new school year, and whether by force or choice my life has been washed clean of a lot of it's former trappings.

Wish me luck.

I’ve been traveling all summer and I’ve come to the conclusion that the tourism industry is really all about who is the most skilled at cultural pimping. The worst thing is that they often destroy, modify, or subvert the very landscapes and cultures they are attempting to sell. They should remember what every good pimp knows: Discipline the ladies but never on the face.

Ok, so what brought this tirade on. Well I’m back from China and I’m roadtripping across the United States in my little Nissan Altima praying that the little engine holds out till I get to California. I’ve already passed through Oklahoma (flat with funny looking trees compared to Arkansas), through Texas (home of W), and I’m currently in New Mexico.

Last night I stayed in Tucumcari at a 1940’s motor court complete with little drive in garages. Bill, the owner, struck as an aging hippy that was extremely glad to be living a laid back, small town life. Today Paul and I went and saw petroglyphs that were chipped into black volcanic stone. The designs were pretty cool and hopefully I’ll get a chance to upload some pictures before too much longer.

Currently, I’m at the Acoma Pueblo. I haven’t been up but down in the visitors center they have chanting and drum beating playing through the PA. It strikes me as a little cheesy.