We Are Responsible For Life

Man created god. Life created man. The universe created life. We are endowed by these rights because they foster the best life, and we are responsible for self policing the universe in terms of these rights. As creations of life, we are responsible for the fostering of our, other, and new life. Our rights come then from an understanding, which we have evolved the intelligence to obtain, of how best to maintain, continue, and improve all live among this and all worlds.

I am not a Party Goer

I have never been a party person. I can't say anything original about why the party system ruins our politics. No, the two-party system does not ruin it: the party system ruins it. They may be a natural growth of the connections and deals politicians will make to push their agendas. I can't associate with any party. I want to point out that I hate writing this, because while this may be a "rant" blog, I do intend to mean something with what I say and this is very hard to write without sounding like regurgitated echos.

I'm scrambling to describe my thoughts about this. I don't like not being able to pour the words into the <textarea> and just keep rambling on with at least some feeling that I'm keeping coherent thoughts.

I associate mostly with democrats, but its a deal made good by volume more than quality. I see benefits in ideals of democrats, republicans, libertarians, socialists, communists, etc. I suppose conservatives are the only group I can't find a shred of understanding with. Is The Right fighting the bailouts and government expansion in a weak attempt to push themselves back in power? I don't know. I do know that I see some merit. I want to socialize a lot of services, but I don't want to support the failing banks. The problem is not just the usual situation of no one party doing everything I like, but not even doing the few things I like for the reasons that I would. I don't want to let the banks and insurance companies fail because it is capitalism at its finest. I don't believe in loans and insurance and want to see them abolished, and if the free market has done that, so be it. If it won't, I support making them illegal and that is content for another post.

Obama has really disappointed me, sort of. I expected it, so i guess its not a disappointed to get the same frustrations you already expected. I did think that the support of Lessig would mean he gives a fairer chance to free software and the end of copyright chaos, but his RIAA friends are just going to run wild now. More later.

Bachmann is a crazy lunatic, but she's right about one thing: Orderly Revolution is good every now and then. Is it a revolution if you do it legally, within the powers of democracy?

The Return of the Rant

There is too much going on in the world not to rant anymore, and this is the place for me to do it. Will more come of this or do I simply need to vent? I neither nor or care, because at this exact moment there is simply the need to rant.

I don't know if the bailout was the savior or damnation of our society and I'm just going to come out and say that I don't care either way. The issues at hand are too complicated for any one or few people to really understand, and beyond the few people it is too complicated to coordinate them to do anything about it. The companies are not too big to fail, but any sufficiently large group of people is. What is being "too big to fail"? If you're one person and you loose your job or small business, you look for another job. Simple. A small company might look for acquisition and a non-profit for donations. International corporations and giant governments aren't too big to fail, we just have no idea how to go about it. They are giant complex beasts.

If our government "crumbled", what would happen?

The military would not go home, and without the budget and resource pipelines they would follow existing or spontaneous plans to secure the means to keep the armed forces active, because that is their job. Even if the people controlling them lost power, they can't just disband.

The post office operates under its own revenue, some years being more profitable than others. Without a federal government telling it what to do, there is no reason they would stop doing what they already do.

Regulatory bodies like the FCC and FDA would continue to exist, striking deals with the corporations they regulate to pay fees that keep their doors open, in exchange for an authority to rule in cases against their competitors. This is no different than industry groups that corporations form and use to make deals with one another for even playing fields. Well, even for the competitors you let in...

The same is largely true for corporations. People are going to try to keep doing what they do every day and the people "in charge" are going to be proven largely irrelevant, until there are disputes and we put new people "in charge" and forget all about everything and pretend like they have real authority again. In the end, the greatest authority is habit.

Why To Read "Help Is On The Way" Volume One

Oh, the time it has been since I've posted here! This is not my lately more-used blog, Raving Techno Rant. This is for non-software, non-technical postings. This may even become a more usual thing! Imagine, the scandal.

Scott Meyer is endorsed by Scott Adams. Scott Adams is both smart and funny. Scott Meyer is both funny and probably smart. Therefor, you should read Help is on the Way. It is an excellent collection of strips from his Basic Instructions web comic. I found myself chortling often.

Read it. Laugh. Enjoy.

Resurrection

So I'm blogging again. See me blog? Here I am blogging. Blog blog blog.

I've been really neglecting my code blog and ignored this one for much longer. How to change that has been something that hits my mind often, and then I forget about it completely. This weekend I decided to take part in this year, and it seemed like a fitting event to renew my blogging efforts on. This is an annual event of thousands of writers, potential writers, and wannabe writers trying to write a novel in one month. The goal is 50,000 words. You don't need to submit your month-end work as a final revision to a publisher or even have to hit the 50,000 words at all. The point is the effort and the experience, and I need both.

If anyone else is paricipating, I'd like to have some writing buddies. Check out my author profile if you're interested.

Why Flip-Flopping Politicians Are Great

The term "flip-flop" is a political black mark, but one that is probably said (truthfully) about every single politician, at some point in their career. Still, we act surprised and hurt when one of our representatives changes their mind. Do you know what we get when our politicians don't flip-flop? We get people in power like George Walker Bush, our current Commander in Stubborness.

As a nation (or as a world) we need to learn to embrace the flip-flop. This is the great ability human beings, including politicians, need to have. This is the ability to change your mind. Be it because the facts changed, the information you had at hand changed, or because political pressure demands it. Now, I emphasized that last part. Why? Because flip-flopping for political reasons is the best reason to do it! As our representative, these politicians are supposed to stand for what their constituents want them to support. Swaying for political pressure is a sign that the politician knows their place in the machine: our voice. They aren't supposed to have hard-wired positions they won't back down on.

Embrace the candidate who changes their mind for the most votes, because that is the voter-pleaser. Bush doesn't care about pleasing the voters, and that fact is his biggest mistake. The lack of being able to change his mind when the people do is what continues to distance him from even those who put him where he is today.

Some People Say Its Good For Your Hair

Neil Gaiman To Release Free Novel | How To Split An Atom

Neil Gaiman To Release Free Novel | How To Split An Atom

One of my favorite author's makes moves are new release models. I really hope more big names can make a difference in changing the publication business for the better.

Why I Need To Stock More Alcohol

Why can't we make such honest advertising in the US? It doesn't do us any good. Maybe all those women on their knees after a dozen shots had no idea what would happen, because the advertising just told them it would be an innocent, conversation filled party. Truth is powerful!

Why My Weekend Is Lonely and Happy

This weekend is long and lonely and happy.

My weekend started very early on Friday night, getting Caelan dressed and in the car to drive his mother to the airport in Greensboro, an hour and a half away. Amazing what and when you'll drive for $25 dollar tickets. Heather has never flown before, so I did my best to keep her feeling confident and walked her all the way to the security check. Everything was in order, I took the baby home and went to sleep for the first time that night, and woke up with panicked messages from Brandy, who didn't know why Heather never got off the plane in Ohio.

Needless to say, I was curious.

Granted, Heather could have noticed the flight was not correct, but she was incredibly nervous and even fearful of her first time on a plane, so I don't blame her for it. The airline, however, really shouldn't let people on planes who don't have a ticket to be on that plane. Cried all her make-up when she got to Boston, 700 miles from the intended Columbus, OH destination. I was frantic up until getting that call from her, when she finally touched down at the right airport, hours later than expected. Poor Heather. At least she got there, eventually, and could start enjoying her weekend.

So, I'm on baby duty and getting work done from home over a four-day weekend. I'm keeping myself busy around the house, and at the computer, and with the kid. Trying to keep myself occupied. I don't sleep along very often, usually when I stay up very late and actually get a chance to sleep in the next morning, which is exceedingly rare. Several days alone, in a row, is a different thing. I'm glad that Brandy and Heather have this time, and at least they don't have to sleep alone. Get your mind out of the gutter, guys. I get messages from one or the other of them from time to time, so at least it is nice to hear that they are having a good time, and that Heather loves the kids, and that hopefully the carnivores won't mind a good dish of Soy Chili.

Looking forward to Heather's return, but I'm really happy she is enjoying herself. I like the one-on-one time with Caelan, anyway.

On a side note, I'm planning to blog more on here, now. I have too many times I want to write about something that just doesn't fit for the tech blog, so I need a revival here.

Presidental Approval Over The Decades

There is an interesting article over at The Best Article Every Day that plots the approval ratings for US Presidents from Truman to Bush Jr. I wanted to comment on some interesting trends I noticed.

• From Truman to Reagan, every President ends with a much lower rating than they begin, and their replacements always come into office with a higher rating than who they replaced.
• Clinton is the only one to leave office with a higher rating than he entered with.
• Somehow, Clinton's rating climbed when the Lewinski allegations were made and yet dropped when he was cleared of charges. Do we actually want a dirty President?
• Bush is the only one to enter office with a lower approval rating than who he replaced.
  
  

Upgrade Your Democracy

Seth Godin is a bright guy. I thought so yesterday and I think so more today. Having your views paralleled and expressed when you haven't found how or where to do so is great. Few other experiences are as refreshing as unannounced, welcome company.



Read is post on why our outdated politics need to adapt, which a far truer thing than most of us realize: Seth's Blog: 1840s democracy



My favorite two points involve the outdated geographical systems of our districts and candidate ranking versus voting.



To quote Seth, "Our issues aren't farm-based any more." I agree on more issues with people in entirely different locations than I ever will with people next door or even in the same town. New communications make connecting those people all the more easy, and yet we need to struggle, all of us, to gain ground mixed in with so many people in our locale. Popular opinion does not walk or run, but it does fly right over your neighbor's head and to you.



Saying anything about how bad our bipartisan system is won't do any good and won't include anything original, but candidate ranking replacing candidate voting would only improve the situation. How many of us either throw out vote away on a minor-party candidate or refuse to give them any help at all out of fear of throwing away that vote? Ranking solves the issue, because even if the Greene Party has far too few votes to get an official elected, they can still get their second choice into power. Bush would not have happened with a ranking electoral process. Period.



Definitely some things to think about.





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First Sketch in Probably a Year

I honestly can't remember having sketched anything in at least a year, much less completed any artwork for quite some time. I grabbed some paper and a pencil and just did this because I had to. Hopefully I can start to pry open the gates of my artistic well again.

The Collector of Junk

I am the Wonderful Collector of Junk You Never Wanted. Being a bit of a packrat was handed down to me by my father, who has a garage and a large, two-story shed full of "junk", and that's when keeping it at bay with near-daily yardsales through spring and summer every single year. Obviously, I've got some strong habits to break this Cycle so that Caelan doesn't have to. We're trying to get things shaped up and ready so we can deal better when he is born.

I have a very large collection of movies, and its been the subject of "discussion" several times in the marriage, if you know what I mean by "discussion". Needing to get things organized and prepared for the baby, and my wife spending 90% of her TV time watching TLC's Clean House, has brought this subject back into the light. Of course, I rejected any thoughts of getting rid of my wonderous collection. Why, I have movies in there you could never find. I have both editions the classics Hercules and Hercules Unchained. I have Barbarella and Forbidden Planet. I even have movies so obscure, that I don't even want to watch them! Yeah, maybe I got a problem.

The thing is, I really like having the movies. Not the individual titles, and not to be able to watch them, which I admit I rarely do, but to have the collection as a whole, is a very nice thing, which I enjoy, for some reason. Rationality ate at my unnecessary ties to the collection and I may or may not have gotten overly mad at the idea of getting rid of them. I may or may not have thrown the first VHS I decided I never watched and never wanted to and never will watch into the box. Twice...

Packrats out there, we got a problem. Do what I did, and what I need to keep doing. Go through one group of things at a time, and really consider if you need each individual one. Try and cut it down by at least half, and later you can even cut that half down another 50%. Progress is the keyword here, and eventually that progress will lead you to something you never knew you needed: spacious tranquility.

I feel better looking at the shelf without two layers of tapes of DVDs on it and more stacked ontop of each row and on top of the whole shelf unit. Yick.

Cringley doesn't think Google is doing TV right

In a conviniently timed article, Cringley talks about how the server-client methodologies will not hold if internet distribution of video is to reach any ammount that would impress the media producers. Since I was just posting about Google TV, I thought I'd put up some related thoughts.

There are a lot of things to agree with and to disargee with. On the one hand, I can see that the current methods wont last if the userbase grows large enough to care about. On the other hand, I know those execs are afraid of the term "P2P" so lets keep away from it, or it just won't happen.

The majority of the content is pre-recorded, so we aren't talking about live streams; this is stuff that can be downloaded ahead of time and watched from your local cache, so that's in our favor. Also remember that current broadband can bring in a lot video faster than you can watch it, so the servers aren't even supporting the users for the entire duration of their entertainment time. This, at best, can double the number of viewers a data center can support.

So the current ways might live for a little longer than Cringley thinks, but in the long run he is probably right. Of course, this kind of thing won't be available easily and universally until its built in at a lower level. What we need is something like HTTP can operate very easily, be implemented quickly, and adopted by everyone. Most importantly, it needs to be transparent to everyone but the network admins and browser/player developers.

Grid Networks looks cool. When I get my new Windows box, I'll try out the demo and see what kind of content they have available.

Google Video needs to be Google TV

With Google Video, the G People are already building a humble video distribution chain, but they have some steps to take before it is ready for prime time. Here is just what I think would make Google Video worthy of being called Google TV:

• At least a Mac OS X player, if not a Linux player, too.
• Ad-supported viewing of for-pay content for one-time-view only. In other words, watch an advertisement before a set of music videos you want to see.
• Channels. Although "On Demand" video services are a wonderful thing, sometimes I just don't want to decide and I want to watch "whatevers on".
• Original Programming that isn't just a collection of internet clips. We need to see the formation of a Google Studios, that would produce news clips, documentaries, a sitcom, a drama, a cartoon, and a soap opera, to start with.
• The ever-predicted Google TV Box for my grandmother.

Pandora, Personal Media, and Integration

I have two wonderful sources of music while I'm on the computer and working: Pandora and my personal MP3 collection. Now, often when I am listening to Pandora, I think to myself "I'm in the mood for a few songs from Tangible (of 8bit People)" and sometimes, when listening to my MP3s of Harvey Danger's latest release, I get in the mood for some songs from my personal Ventures radio station on Pandora. Makes me really wish there was someway I could keep a list of Media Resources registered on my computer, with a player that can be set to randomly request tracks from each of them, randomly. Request a random track to be played from Pandora, then one from my own collection, then play a song from one of my favorite Shoutcast stations, a few from Pandora and my harddrive again, then maybe something from my computer's Radio Tuner. Anything like this around? Does anyone know where to look into this sort of thing, existing or in some form that could evolve to this?

Less signs, less accidents

Less signs, less accidents: "Roads Gone Wild is a piece in Wired from December 2004 that a reader just brought to my attention. I love it. Here’s why:

Hans Monderman is a traffic engineer who hates traffic signs. Oh, he can put up with the well-placed speed limit placard or a dangerous curve warning on a major highway, but Monderman considers most signs to be not only annoying but downright dangerous. To him, they are an admission of failure, a sign - literally - that a road designer somewhere hasn’t done his job. “The trouble with traffic engineers is that when there’s a problem with a road, they always try to add something,” Monderman says. “To my mind, it’s much better to remove things.” "

Signal vs. Noise is a great blog about well thought design, and although it is the blog of 37 Signals, a software company, they appriciate design in all of its forms. For some reason, I really liked this piece, talking about the designers of roads. Who ever really thought of traffic as a medium of art? Well, when you read this, you can see how one would think that way. I enjoy finding something that I don't normally find interesting turned on a new corner to suddenly become interesting from a context I can grok and appriciate.

Blog Splitting

I've started a second blog for programming related posts over at (http://ironfroggy-code.blogspot.com/). Start reading there. This blog will remain for social commentary, political outbursts, and personal reflection.