There she goes, my beautiful world
A few days ago on my way out of the bank after making a deposit for a client (not the sort of thing I usually do, but if it helps the checks clear it’s time well spent) the branch manager (an overly friendly man, but that’s preferable to the alternative) said to me, «enjoy the game!»
I stopped to think and turned to him. «Game?»
«Yeah,» he chuckled. «There’s a football game. You might have heard?»
Of course by now I knew … Read the rest
Monochromatic Outlook is having some work done, and in the process, things might go totally wonky. You might see the site with a different theme or some parts missing or out of place. There is some exceptionally heavy load on the server that is causing my hosting rates to be about 120 times as expensive as it should be and I’m trying to get to the bottom of the issue.
Once this gets sorted maybe I can go back to writing … Read the rest
Today Gary Johnson, GOP candidate for President in 2012, announced that he is updating his position on same-sex marriages versus civil unions. I support the legalization of same-sex marriage in my own state so overall I’m pleased to hear this announcement. I am also a little concerned about the language Gov Johnson used when he said that marriage should be up to individuals rather than the states.
I’d like to see the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) go … Read the rest
Android is the platform of freedom and openness. Apple’s iOS by contrast is a «walled garden» in which Apple holds strict control over the tools of development and even the content available on its platform. Freedom is better than tyranny, so ideologically as well as practically everyone should abandon Apple and get an Android device so that they can live happily, productively, and freely ever after.
At least that is what Android supporters say. It’s rather troubling that there are Android … Read the rest
On the heels of last week’s death of the man who turned Unix into a popular consumer product, I am sad to learn of the passing of Dennis Ritchie, inventor of the C programming language and co-developer of the Unix operating system. He was a 1998 laureate of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation for his part in the invention of both C and Unix.
Many who aren’t programmers or engineers may not know Mr Ritchie’s name, but anyone … Read the rest
Yesterday Gov Jerry Brown signed into law AB 499 which allows minor children age 12 or older to give legal consent for treatment for sexually transmitted diseases without parental consent or notice. This bill (now part of the California Family Code) has gained tremendous notoriety because of its association with the vaccine Gardasil, the same vaccine for which Gov Rick Perry of Texas has endured criticism recently. Gov Perry signed an executive order in 2007 which mandated that girls … Read the rest
Today, the four California US Attorneys — at the orders of the Obama administration — are taking steps to shut down marijuana dispensaries in California. Dispensaries have been ordered closed. Federal prosecutors have sent letters to sixteen pot clubs and their landlords instructing them that their property will be seized if they don’t shut down operations.
Why the Obama administration thinks it’s important to waste resources on marijuana enforcement in California is unclear and frankly pathetic. The so-called war on … Read the rest
Steve Jobs died today.
There’s no use repeating what has already been said: that he was a visionary, a genius, brilliant, and so on. It’s customary to speak well of the recently passed, but the truth is richer and more nuanced. Steve Jobs did not make his contributions by inventing every last component or by making every design decision in Apple’s products, a fact his critics like to point out. But he did see things in a way too few of … Read the rest
My Palm Prē Plus is coming to end of its life. Even if HP had not abandoned WebOS all the development was going to be for newer versions of WebOS — versions HP promised I could upgrade to but reneged on that promise. So despite an operating system that I adore and a user interface that makes all other phones look clumsy and awkward, I can’t avoid the reality about this phone. The bugs will never be fixed, the apps … Read the rest
This post is the first in the Invisible Santa Bunny topic, so named because of a commenter’s wry query about how the «Magical Santa Bunny of the Free Market» would address certain problems without legislation, combined with Adam Smith’s famous «invisible hand» of the free market. It’s a chestnut of libertarian rhetoric that problems will resolve themselves with market-driven private-sector fixes, and that those fixes both will be more effective and will better promote freedom. This topic explores that idea … Read the rest