September 30, 2003
September 24, 2003
neil stephenson
got to see neil patrick stephenson speak today at a book signing put on by powell's. he talked about the wiki they'd setup to help annotate the book, did a little reading, then answered some questions. i wish i'd taken some notes, parts of it were pretty interesting. he made it clear that snowcrash and the diamond age inhabit separate universes, the suggestions to the contrary were just mischief on his part.
September 20, 2003
taking another go at "under god"
a new lawsuit challenging the pledge of allegiance's phrase "under god" has been brought in texas. i'm all for dropping it. here's an onld slate piece on the history of the pledge.
dan at the wto protests
after mentioning dan, i decied to check up on his blog and see how the wto protest went. i found the following bit very funny:
aaron later pointed out that that is a problem with the left, that while we have meeting after meeting to decide what we are going to meet about, the right wakes up, decides to screw over a bunch of poor people, does it, then goes to sizzler.
living off the land
here's a link dan will appreciate. a student at uc santa barbra set out to live off the suburbs for 80 days. he spear fished and gathered neighbor's fruit and vegetables but (strangely?) avoided dumpster diving in a journal entry writing:
If I had two more weeks here I'd have to reduce myself to the level of an animal, going through garbage bins at night, living in fear and hunger.
personally i find that kind of funny. after seeing the bounty that's left in grocery store dumpsters (people won't buy avocados once they're ripe so they just get thrown out). i'd call sneaking into people's yards to steal their prickly pears on the level of an animal... anyway cool article.
declaration of independence (and voting machines)
today i saw got to see one of the original dunlap broadsides as part of the declaration of independence road trip. i was really impressed with the way the organization running the tour presented it. instead of just reducing it to a simple patriotic moment they used it as an opportunity to urge people to become politically involved.
ironically enough in the middle of the exhibit they had something that got me all fired up: electronic voting machines. the idea is to provide a user-friendly way to cast your ballot the problem is that unless they're physically printed out it's extremely easy to tamper with the votes. you are literally at the mercy of the company who designed the machinery (one is also left wondering about any allegiances the manufacture might have formed in the process of wining the contract to provide the machines). below is the letter i sent to my representative, congressman wu, who spoke at the opening.
Today I had the pleasure of seeing Congressman Wu speak at the Oregon Historical Society's presentation of the Declaration of Independence. I've written and called several times about various issues but this was the first time I'd seen the Congressman speak. Every time I've seen his views in print I've been pleased to discover that they mirror mine. I'm proud that him as my representative.
I'm writing today about an issue that is central to democracy, the right to have your vote counted. After viewing the Declaration of Independence I came to a set of computerized voting machines donated by Elections Systems and Software. Currently, I'm a college student at PSU studying Computer Engineering. Prior to that I spent four years working in the industry so the equipment interested me professionally and academically.
The machines are designed around an LCD touch screen used present the voter with a description of the ballot item and small blurbs for and against the item. It was a well-designed interface that made the voting process simple and understandable. After making their choices the voter clicks a vote button and is left to assume that their ballot was cast. The problem with the device is that there's no voter verifiable record of the vote. At least with the punch card ballots the voter can inspect their choices and get to see it go into a ballot box. In a purely electronic system the voter can only hope that their vote was recorded correctly (and for that matter recorded at all).
A better solution that is supported by most computer professionals�at least those who aren't selling voting machines�is to use the device as a ballot printer (for more details see http://www.acm.org/usacm/Issues/EVoting.htm). The voter selects their choices on the computer and then after reviewing their choices, their votes are recorded electronically and printed onto a sheet of paper that the voter can review before depositing it into a ballot box. The electronic results can be used to speed the initial counting but the paper ballot is a permanent and record available should the need for a manual recount arise.
As I said earlier this issue is central to the successful functioning of democracy. Citizens don't need another excuse to think that their votes don't count. Say what you will about the debacle in the 2000 Florida election but at least a recount was possible. In a computerized election you're left with only the unverifiable word of the company that produced the machinery. Congressman Russ Holt introduced HR 2239 to remedy these problems. I hope you will join with him in supporting this bill.
Respectfully,
Andrew Morton
September 19, 2003
the changing view of copyright
yesterday the nytimes did a piece on the views a group of middle school students had toward downloading mp3s and the riaa's lawsuits. the majority of them find no problem with downloading as long as you're not selling it. i view this as a positive sign that in ten or twenty years we'll have a reasonable copyright system in place.
September 18, 2003
another one speed revolution
bill spaceman and i spent a chunk of the day today working on this year's issue of one speed revolution. it's going to be a split-issue with our new zine bui (biking under the influence) which will have a more general audience than osr.
a side note: i updated the pdf on the website. i'd gotten some reports that the old one would crash acrobat on page 7. if you had this happen you might want to try this version out.
supply side jesus
i'd love to encourage everyone to go read the supply side jeusus comic strip from al franken's new book lies and the lying liars who tell them. it does a magnificent job of showing the hypocrisy of compassionate conservatism. (via boingboing.net)
September 17, 2003
i'm back
krista and i got back into portland last night. i'm always a little depressed after a trip. i'm happy to be home but can't help but feel a little disapointed. my friend chris larson always said that the best time to move is after you take a trip. it's much easier to fall into a new place and new habits when you've got no ordinary.
September 12, 2003
johnny cash is dead
after june carter cash died i didn't think he was long for this earth. i've been a big fan of his since my freshman year in highschool when i came across i walk the line in a thriftstore. i already knew the name because social distortion had covered ring of fire. i fell in love with that album. over the years i've collected every song on that album other than troublesome waters. i've never even been able to find an mp3 of it.
i suppose it's both sad and fitting that his last album the man comes around, has found a new audience in the mtv kids. i hope some of his new found fans will go out and locate his older music, it's all amazing.
September 11, 2003
the other september 11th
the nytimes has an editorial on the other sept 11th, when pinochet came to power in chile.
disneyland
krista and i have been on the road for the last week. we stopped in bishop and lone pine to do some climbing before heading down to la to see her friend patrick who works at disneyland. he hooked us up with some super cheap tickets to the park, err... passports to the resort in disney speak. i was pretty cool touring disneyland with our own personal tour guide pointing out all the hidden jokes in the rides. we even got to ride in the wheel house of the mark twain (the steam ship that circles around the river of america). as always pictures will be in the gallery shortly.
September 04, 2003
one more picture before i go
krista and i are headed out of reno today. we're doing down to la and then back up cali to portland. reno's been a blast as usual.
here's a photo matt took of dan at burning man:
September 03, 2003
the last failed "war on"
reason has a thought provoking piece on the former drug wariors who now say we need to try something different.
As an attorney quoted in a recent Seattle Weekly article about LEAP observed, "The news story is not that the war on drugs has failed. It's who's saying it now."
September 02, 2003
one for the neil patrick stevenson file
while i was out on the playa i re-read neil stevenson's zodiac. it's a great read and it got me thinking about what an amazing author he is. today i came across this article in wired about a cdrom set that will teach you to read the small emotional tells.
Ekman [the creator of the cdroms] knows emotions and expressions. He has spent nearly 50 years studying them and has trained police officers, judges and lawyers, as well as FBI, CIA and ATF forces to detect deception in the faces of criminal suspects. He also has worked with Pixar animators and Industrial Light and Magic technicians to help them craft facial expressions in movie characters.
He was a pioneer in the study of facial expression and emotions in the 1950s, when many of his colleagues felt he was wasting his time.
it sounded very similar to the juanita character's focus on facial expressions in snowcrash.
back from the playa
i'm back from burning man. first, a funny link for all the returning burners. second, the first of the photos are in the gallery, the rest should be up soon.
