Category: Internet & Blogging

Caveat: Internet Radio

Banalities & Journaling / Internet & Blogging

The internet is an amazing thing.  I can listen to radio stations in Minnesota, Los Angeles, or Mexico City, from where I am right now.  And I do.  I've been surfing around the internet radio world this morning, found a very strange, eclectic station in Bilbao, Spain, that played Aaron Copeland one minute and some kind of Catalan punk the next.  And then the Star Wars theme.

Yesterday was rainy, today is sunny – first really sunny day here – most days have been partly cloudy or overcast.   And it's Friday, so I'll get my first non-jet-lagged day off, tomorrow, a chance to get settled, go exploring, whatever.  Looking forward to it.  Not much to say.  Several people have accused me of being terribly "impersonal" here in this blog, but I guess I just don't know who is in my audience… could be anyone, right?  And in at least two occasions, utter strangers have sent me little comments on one thing or another.  So I guess that functions as a sort of constraint on my tone.  I'll save the personal stuff, as appropriate, for emails, I guess.

I was online a few hours ago and got a surprise IM (instant message) from a former coworker, Aurel, from HealthSmart (the Long Beach company I worked for up through April).  I hadn't heard from him since he left the company about a year ago.  So now, he's making hoards of money doing consulting – a Romanian-Canadian with a definite genius level of programming skill.  I was glad to hear he was doing well.  He didn't seem that surprised that I'd changed careers – I suppose it doesn't take knowing me that long to realize the extent of my wanderlust, eh?

Caveat: Obsolescence

Banalities & Journaling / Hiking & Travel / Internet & Blogging

I guess I was expecting this to happen, at some point. Last night, my beloved little laptop computer (a Sony Vaio) decided it was done. It's display gave up the ghost – I've seen LCD screens die like this before – something about a just-not-quite-right impact, or too much extreme of temperature (heat, in this case, sitting baking in the heat of my truck cab), and suddenly there erupts an orthogonal rainbow of colors, while the background washes out.  If you bonk it around a bit, squeeze where you know the contacts are inside the plastic case of the lid of the laptop, you can get the colors to come back and make out what's on the screen, but the rainbow remains, and each reboot brings in a few more streaks of color, widening from a mere inch to nearly 50% of the screen in the last 5 reboots.

I've managed to rescue my data, my website development files, pictures, email, but I don't think I'll be getting in there again.  I'm confident not to lose anything, as I'll extract the harddrive and slave it to my desktop when I get back to Minneapolis, but meanwhile, I'll be computerless for at least a short while – though I hadn't been planning on taking the thing to Mexico anyhow, and I leave for thereparts tomorrow morning.

It was a good run – by far the most pleasing laptop I've ever owned:  amazing battery life, compact and lightweight (under 4lbs) and with enough processor power and memory to run my database applications slowly but reliably.   I've definitely recommended Sony Vaio to many people because of the experience over the last several years.

So.  I'd actually been toying with the idea of buying a new machine before taking off for Korea next month, but this, obviously, decides it. The real question is whether, given my strong concerns about Windows Vista (which is the only Microsoft OS being offered now on PCs), do I make the transition to Apple?  I've been on-and-off considering it, but, given I just ported my entire website apparatus to a Microsoft-only platform (ASP.NET 2.0), I'm not sure I want to face re-migrating the thing to something I can maintain on a Mac.  Of course, there's the dual OS option, but there's a learning curve there, too, running some old copy of XP on a Mac – plus, I've heard about performance issues with Windows-on-Mac, even under dual boot (as opposed to virtual machine).

So… we shall see.  I have the next week, in Mexico City, to think about it, and meanwhile, I'll stay "connected" via internet cafes and borrowed computers – I'm writing this from my father's computer here in the hills of L.A.

Caveat: Migration

Internet & Blogging / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

I have finally decided to go forward attempting to build a website dedicated to the issue of free migration – see my post dated 2006.05.06.  It’s only a first draft, but it’s functional, at least.  After much time spent searching on the web, I have found nothing that coherently presents the issue as I see it, despite the overwhelming amount of content dedicated to immigration issues in general.
Now comes the process of identifying and placing appropriate content – there’s a book called “International Migration” by Jonathon Moses that advocates free human migration quite cogently, despite it’s nondescript title, which I may use as a sort of outline for the sort of content to put on the website.
The website’s “first draft” can be found at https://www.raggedsign.net/miahr, however, I’ve purchased the domain name migrationisahumanright.org and will be linking this domain into that website soon. [UPDATE: all this information is obsolete]
The recent failed immigration bill in congress (but endorsed by Bush) falls far short of the ideals for truly free human migration – yet I feel that, just like the abolition or sufferage movements, progress on this issue must be sought incrementally – for this reason I would hope that, in at least this one small area of policy, Bush will eventually get his way (this is very painful to admit, as, in most areas, the Bush presidency seems to have resulted in the greatest blow to global human rights in general in over a generation).
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Caveat: Ranting on behalf of a cat

Banalities & Journaling / Internet & Blogging / Passive-Aggressive Lunatic Ravings

I’m thinking that posting a myspace profile for Bernie, as part of an effort to get her adopted, has been a mistake.  Part of her having a myspace profile means giving her a blog of her own, and I had decided to include appropriate cat-behaviors such as eating, playing and sleeping in this blog.

However, I just posted a “rant” there, in response to the frankly bizarre reception my cat’s myspace profile has gotten from the myspace “community” – whatever that may be.  I’ll not repeat that rant here – you can look at Bernie’s blog at https://www.myspace.com/berniethecat

Mientras tanto, la vida sigue sin novedades.

CaveatDumpTruck Logo

Caveat: nonsense

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Internet & Blogging / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism

I spent part of the day, yesterday, reading blogs. I really don't do that, very often. I had discovered (or, more likely, re-discovered) a review of the "Sokal affair" in which a physics professor at NYU had "hoaxed" the pomo (postmodernist) publication "Social Text" by sending in an article full of jargony BS and the editors let it through.   It was quite a scandal, as it allegedly proved just how vacuous pomo discourse really is – it was an "emperor has no clothes" moment. 

I also discovered an interesting little website that randomly generates a pomo article each time you refresh the page.   A lovely tool, but my first thought was – I bet some of the things that get said are really profound.  It's kind of like an instantiation of Borges' infinite library, for a particular type of discourse.  Another tool that has similar functionality is the Kant generator.  Again, my reaction, more than – wow, random BS! – is, instead – I wonder if this can generate real meaning?  Finally, there is a random generator of CSCI research papers made by some people at MIT.  Infinite monkeys, infinite typewriters, all that. 

Regardless, a review of the Sokal affair caused me to question the pomo allegiances I tend to take for granted in myself.   My affairs with Jameson, Deleuze, et al.   Are they really that impenetrable?  Or, contrariwise, am I really so deleuzional as to believe I "get" what they're trying to say?   

Currently I'm struggling through a kind of phase where I question just about everything – about what I believe, about what I want to do, about what I like  to do.  Ad infinitum.  So why no question what philosophical / lit. crit. authors I take seriously, too?

I have no answers, here.  Nor even any profound, clearly-expressed doubts.  But  I think back to Jean-Jacques LeCercle's Philosophy of Nonsense:  just because it's nonsense, doesn't mean it doesn't mean anything.  There's value and, ironically, meaning to be found in nonsense.  It's a worthwhile pursuit in and of itself.  So if the pomos are writing nonsense, maybe they've got a reason for it.   

 

Caveat: A somewhat liberal metropolis

Banalities & Journaling / Databases, Smartphones & Computers / Hiking & Travel / Internet & Blogging / The Wonders of Work

Dateline: Amsterdam

I arrived around noon, once baggage was gathered and immigration cleared. Very tired, as I failed utterly to sleep on the plane – too much anticipating or something.

I read a few chapters of Persiles, and still can't get over how peculiar it is. It ain't Don Quijote, we all know… but what the hell is it?

Amsterdam is about 0 degrees C – but after Minnesota last month it doesn't seem unreasonable in the least. I walked around quite a bit, located the hotel where Eurobob set up reservations, and proceeded to check in and sleep 4 hours. I'm more with it now, so I emerged in early evening darkness to find this internet spot. Logged on, looking for a nearby hotspot for my laptop – which will be much better. I was having some trouble with the yahoo email account yesterday and Sunday, but I think it's resolved.

I still need to send to Tom / Ravi @ Paradise Corp the write up on the reporting requirements that I promised before I left. I'll send that out tomorrow morning. While on the flight I also put some time in on the "white paper" I'm trying to write on Business Intelligence / Decision Support Systems. I think I have a long way to go, but I think I have a chance of producing something genuinely meaningful.

Guy Kawasaki asks, apropos the start-your-own-business thing, in an article I read in Entrepreneur magazine: are you creating meaning? That's the most important question, according to him. We shall see, I guess, but my business concept will proceed apace while I lollygag around Europe.

Caveat: And the final score was…

Banalities & Journaling / Hiking & Travel / Internet & Blogging

Dateline:  Glendale, CA

I zipped back west after my brief stay in Kansas City.  I had this weird, but gratifying and very deep, self-aware conversation with my mother's cousin Bill Brown and his wife, Sheila.  Most unexpected and cool.  Subjects ranging from Aunt Milly's politics to Michelle's and my own flirtations with death, the nature of depression and the ethics of psychoactive medication. 

Stopped in OKC at a Starbucks, but there was no WiFi.  After staying in Tucumcari, NM, in a motel, I went on to Albuquerque, where I was online but didn't post.  And that almost brings us to now. 

Last night had dinner with Phil and Andrew at Villa Sombrero – a trendy mexican joint on York near Figueroa.   I suggested we plan a trip in the Ford Model A to someplace like Alaska for Summer, 06.  That would be cool.  Maybe I'll end up financing, but that's fine by me. 

Meanwhile, this afternoon I just completed the GMAT exam, and wrote two good essays and scored a 740.  Wow.  Just think if I'd bothered to have studied, e?

I'm sure someone out there cares and is reading this.  Perhaps a lonely AI routine in one of Google's servers?  Ok then, more later.

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