Over the past 10 years or so, my day to day life has been almost completely changed by the presence and evolution of the internet. I feel guilty for not reading as much as I used to, but really I read so much more- it's just spread out over countless topics and discussions and articles on the internet. It's a testament to the quality of Newsweek that I continue to subscribe to it despite being able to get almost all the news related and hell, anything related information I need from a computer.
Now, of course it's obvious my web habits have changed over the past 10 or so years, everyone's have I would imagine. Email, instant messaging, discussion forums, and now social networking have all shaped and changed the content I view on the internet. Now over the past 6 months or so and escalating recently I've finally jumped on the bandwagon of feed syndication (through RSS, and Atom, although the specific protocol isn't really the main idea here). While this hasn't changed the way I use the internet in the same way things on that previous list did, it has streamlined the way I absorb content remarkably. I'm already having trouble imagining using the internet without my feed reader.
Any time I find an interesting or funny article on a site or a blog, I immediately look for the feed to add. If they post infrequently, I don't have to remember to keep checking back. If it was one gem in a sea of crap, then I just remove the feed.
While the main use for this is syndication of articles, it's great for other things like web comics I enjoy, and keeping up to date on craigslist listings (I keep track of the musical instruments) and almost any other items of interest you can think of. I even have a feed that syndicated content on the frontpage of digg.com so I can browse over it and not miss interesting stuff that hits the front page, but the feed just gives me the link itself so I don't have to mess with all the mob mentality and general idiocy that goes on with sites like Digg.
Between social bookmarking sites, discussion forums, social networks, and my subscribed feeds, surfing the web is virtually dead for me. I don't have to go surfing, the ocean of the internet is pumped through a pipe right to me, and through those other social gathering places I can continually find new and interesting things to discuss, laugh at or just read and think about. My only concern is that eventually I'll build up too many feeds and not have time to blow through them all. As long as I still take time to focus on singular things like individual books and et cetera I don't think it's too big of a problem.
For those of you who havent heard of or looked into using feeds, or have and are just lazy like I was, I recommend using an online feed reader. Personally I use google reader (http://www.google.com/reader/) but I'm sure there are plenty of other options out there. There are also some great local readers, but I like having all my feed subscriptions available from wherever I am if I choose.
Also, the personalized google homepage (http://google.com/ig) allows you to add whatever feeds you want and arrange them how you like along with all sorts of other widgets for checking email, keeping track of notes, etc. I love it.
It'll be interesting to see what the next great phenomenon is that comes along and changes the way we use the internet, but I'm certainly happy to have the current experience streamlined a bit more in the meantime.
Friday, July 27, 2007
I've got issues
Political issues that is! This post began its life as a comment posted over at Jim Brown's Myspace blog, but as I started typing I got a little carried away (this can sometimes happen with me and politics) and it transformed into a big long post. But hey, more material for my shiny new blog.
What issues are important to me in the 2008 presidential election and who do I support? Currently I support and have donated money to Barack Obama's campaign- and a group from the political discussion forum I frequent recently hitting our fundraising goal of $10,000. Now, only $50 of that was my contribution, but it's still fun to be a part of that. Obama is not perfect however- he's doing a good job of talking the talk, but walking the walk is going to be a long, hard road.
As a side note, I personally believe that if you want things to change that directly affect you, getting educated about local politics is the best way to do so, because while the president and congress get all the attention, the politics that really affect the average American go on right in your figurative backyard.
Without further ado, the issues that matter to me in the upcoming election would be mostly the opposite of the Bush administration's views- not just to be contrarian, they really do just fall on the other side of my views almost every single time, except for the philosophy of giving out tax breaks. They just happen to be distributing them in a way I don't like.
It is important to me first of all to right the ship on our foreign policy, which has been a disaster, and end the politics of fear. Terrorism is a part of our world, and will continue to be that way for a long time- we cannot reduce our vigilance, but no 'war on terror' is going to address the root causes. I want a presidential administration that will do everything to keep us safe, but also set an example of not pandering to fear of terrorism to score political points. A president and administration that leads the country with confidence, not arrogance. One who can work within the boundaries of the law and civil rights, and restore Habeas Corpus.
Of course, there's Iraq. We're in kind of a lose/lose situation here and it's the guys on the ground and their families that are suffering right now. We need to start formulating a plan to get most American troops the hell out of there, but have forces nearby to assist in what the US Military is actually good at- striking quickly and with overwhelming force, rather than counterinsurgency. We cannot allow Iraq to become a new home base for terrorists (oh by the way the way Afghanistan is going we're going to have to make that a priority there too). We need to have a plan in place for the huge refugee crisis that will result, but things are not going to magically get better. However, even if President Bush woke up tomorrow and had a change of heart and signed the order to withdraw, it's still a long battle to be fought just to get all the troops out, not to mention the millions of tons of equipment that we can't leave behind for insurgents and extremists to get their hands on. No matter what course of action we take as a country, it's a long, long road ahead.
Health care is another huge issue. Normally I'm for fiscal conservatism in the government, but the health care system in this country is approaching a crisis. Costs are skyrocketing every year with no end in sight, and no manner of band aid is going to stop it. We need a comprehensive solution involving a single payer system of health care to provide base (and especially preventative) care along with private insurers providing supplemental coverage. The costs reduced by a single payer basic system of healthcare would be enormous, so long as they can keep the bureaucracy in check, which is always one of the great challenges of large government programs. However, the longer we wait the bigger and more expensive this problem is going to become.
On immigration I'm relatively ambivalent. Any large group of immigrants legal or not has faced a period of xenophobia and a backlash, and this wave will be no different- within a couple of generations they'll assimilate and blend in and it'll never be an issue again (until a new group of immigrants starts to flood in from somewhere else), that's the great thing about America. Some effort does need to be made to at least come to a stopgap solution, however. These people add a lot of value to the economy and it would be hurt tremendously if the flow of migrant workers was suddenly halted. They are here illegally yes, but there needs to be some method maybe not of amnesty, but of at least opening a path to citizenship for people who just want to come here and work minimum wage and send that money back home, just like many other groups who came here before that a large amount of people in America are descended from. We do need to secure the border, but we need immigrant workers too more than most people realize.
On energy policy, we need to form both a pragmatic and hopeful solution. Oil is the biggest concern, as it is the cheapest way we have to easily have portable energy, and there isn't a real replacement for that. We're going to need to devote a lot of resources in this country and around the world to solving that problem, but given how infrastructure in America is built on the foundation of cheap oil, we're the ones who need to take the lead, and fast. People also need to get over their fear of nuclear energy- it is by far the best option we have in the near term until solar, wind, and other new sources of power can be made effective, and we just don't have the technology yet. Nuclear is here now, produces ridiculous amounts of energy, and modern nuclear power ironically releases less radiation into the environment than coal. Waste disposal is still a problem, but a much smaller one than not moving back towards modern nuclear energy soon. The Japanese and the French are absolutely killing us on this front- and if hypothetically some new battery technology is invented that allows for electric cars on the level of internal combustion ones today, where are we going to get the additional energy from? We have enough coal here in the US to last us a long, long time, but increasing usage is a bad idea, and not just because of pollution and climate change, which is an important issue to get on top of, but I'm not even going to bother getting into here.
My pie in the sky issue is ending the war on drugs, one of the most wasteful programs in government. We waste so much money as a country investigating, prosecuting, and incarcerating minor non-violent drug offenders in this country it's offensive. I'm not much for drugs myself, because I know (and have seen) the destructive power they can have over people. But, no matter what you do, people are going to find a way to self medicate. You might as well de-criminalize it, regulate it heavily, and tax the hell out of it. Use a chunk of that tax revenue to fund programs to help people suffering from addiction. Prosecute violent offenders that are drug related just like you would other violent offenders that had nothing to do with drugs. Save billions of dollars, and cut out a huge reason for a black market and drug trade and all the violence that results from it to exist. Also, watch the Wire for a good dramatic representation of reasons that specifically is a good idea. That, and it's the best show on tv by far.
There are many other issues I care about, but those are the big ones. In summary, no candidate is perfect, but the one most palatable to me is Barack and Roll Obama. Whoever is nominated, I hope it's someone who will right the ship on foreign policy, roll back the authoritarianism, find a decent solution for health care, and generally be someone I can stand behind (Hillary does not fit into this category, even though I don't find her too offensive policy wise, and I just plain don't like John Edwards, he seems like too much of a pandering ass and not very genuine, but I would hold my nose and vote for him as well unless a Republican candidate surfaced more in line with my views, but right now this seems very unlikely). The rest would be a nice bonus, like reducing size of government and knocking off the nanny state crap. I plan on being wildly disappointed, but hey- I'm a political cynic.
What issues are important to me in the 2008 presidential election and who do I support? Currently I support and have donated money to Barack Obama's campaign- and a group from the political discussion forum I frequent recently hitting our fundraising goal of $10,000. Now, only $50 of that was my contribution, but it's still fun to be a part of that. Obama is not perfect however- he's doing a good job of talking the talk, but walking the walk is going to be a long, hard road.
As a side note, I personally believe that if you want things to change that directly affect you, getting educated about local politics is the best way to do so, because while the president and congress get all the attention, the politics that really affect the average American go on right in your figurative backyard.
Without further ado, the issues that matter to me in the upcoming election would be mostly the opposite of the Bush administration's views- not just to be contrarian, they really do just fall on the other side of my views almost every single time, except for the philosophy of giving out tax breaks. They just happen to be distributing them in a way I don't like.
It is important to me first of all to right the ship on our foreign policy, which has been a disaster, and end the politics of fear. Terrorism is a part of our world, and will continue to be that way for a long time- we cannot reduce our vigilance, but no 'war on terror' is going to address the root causes. I want a presidential administration that will do everything to keep us safe, but also set an example of not pandering to fear of terrorism to score political points. A president and administration that leads the country with confidence, not arrogance. One who can work within the boundaries of the law and civil rights, and restore Habeas Corpus.
Of course, there's Iraq. We're in kind of a lose/lose situation here and it's the guys on the ground and their families that are suffering right now. We need to start formulating a plan to get most American troops the hell out of there, but have forces nearby to assist in what the US Military is actually good at- striking quickly and with overwhelming force, rather than counterinsurgency. We cannot allow Iraq to become a new home base for terrorists (oh by the way the way Afghanistan is going we're going to have to make that a priority there too). We need to have a plan in place for the huge refugee crisis that will result, but things are not going to magically get better. However, even if President Bush woke up tomorrow and had a change of heart and signed the order to withdraw, it's still a long battle to be fought just to get all the troops out, not to mention the millions of tons of equipment that we can't leave behind for insurgents and extremists to get their hands on. No matter what course of action we take as a country, it's a long, long road ahead.
Health care is another huge issue. Normally I'm for fiscal conservatism in the government, but the health care system in this country is approaching a crisis. Costs are skyrocketing every year with no end in sight, and no manner of band aid is going to stop it. We need a comprehensive solution involving a single payer system of health care to provide base (and especially preventative) care along with private insurers providing supplemental coverage. The costs reduced by a single payer basic system of healthcare would be enormous, so long as they can keep the bureaucracy in check, which is always one of the great challenges of large government programs. However, the longer we wait the bigger and more expensive this problem is going to become.
On immigration I'm relatively ambivalent. Any large group of immigrants legal or not has faced a period of xenophobia and a backlash, and this wave will be no different- within a couple of generations they'll assimilate and blend in and it'll never be an issue again (until a new group of immigrants starts to flood in from somewhere else), that's the great thing about America. Some effort does need to be made to at least come to a stopgap solution, however. These people add a lot of value to the economy and it would be hurt tremendously if the flow of migrant workers was suddenly halted. They are here illegally yes, but there needs to be some method maybe not of amnesty, but of at least opening a path to citizenship for people who just want to come here and work minimum wage and send that money back home, just like many other groups who came here before that a large amount of people in America are descended from. We do need to secure the border, but we need immigrant workers too more than most people realize.
On energy policy, we need to form both a pragmatic and hopeful solution. Oil is the biggest concern, as it is the cheapest way we have to easily have portable energy, and there isn't a real replacement for that. We're going to need to devote a lot of resources in this country and around the world to solving that problem, but given how infrastructure in America is built on the foundation of cheap oil, we're the ones who need to take the lead, and fast. People also need to get over their fear of nuclear energy- it is by far the best option we have in the near term until solar, wind, and other new sources of power can be made effective, and we just don't have the technology yet. Nuclear is here now, produces ridiculous amounts of energy, and modern nuclear power ironically releases less radiation into the environment than coal. Waste disposal is still a problem, but a much smaller one than not moving back towards modern nuclear energy soon. The Japanese and the French are absolutely killing us on this front- and if hypothetically some new battery technology is invented that allows for electric cars on the level of internal combustion ones today, where are we going to get the additional energy from? We have enough coal here in the US to last us a long, long time, but increasing usage is a bad idea, and not just because of pollution and climate change, which is an important issue to get on top of, but I'm not even going to bother getting into here.
My pie in the sky issue is ending the war on drugs, one of the most wasteful programs in government. We waste so much money as a country investigating, prosecuting, and incarcerating minor non-violent drug offenders in this country it's offensive. I'm not much for drugs myself, because I know (and have seen) the destructive power they can have over people. But, no matter what you do, people are going to find a way to self medicate. You might as well de-criminalize it, regulate it heavily, and tax the hell out of it. Use a chunk of that tax revenue to fund programs to help people suffering from addiction. Prosecute violent offenders that are drug related just like you would other violent offenders that had nothing to do with drugs. Save billions of dollars, and cut out a huge reason for a black market and drug trade and all the violence that results from it to exist. Also, watch the Wire for a good dramatic representation of reasons that specifically is a good idea. That, and it's the best show on tv by far.
There are many other issues I care about, but those are the big ones. In summary, no candidate is perfect, but the one most palatable to me is Barack and Roll Obama. Whoever is nominated, I hope it's someone who will right the ship on foreign policy, roll back the authoritarianism, find a decent solution for health care, and generally be someone I can stand behind (Hillary does not fit into this category, even though I don't find her too offensive policy wise, and I just plain don't like John Edwards, he seems like too much of a pandering ass and not very genuine, but I would hold my nose and vote for him as well unless a Republican candidate surfaced more in line with my views, but right now this seems very unlikely). The rest would be a nice bonus, like reducing size of government and knocking off the nanny state crap. I plan on being wildly disappointed, but hey- I'm a political cynic.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
All Time Top Five Vol. 1
Inspired by the one and only Todd:
One thing High Fidelity is good for besides creating a window into the relationship mind of the modern male is inspire dorks like myself to rattle off top five lists the way Rob and his record store employees do. While this isn't exactly the most original idea for a post ever, responding with my own list was a good motivator for getting this blog started, and gives me an excuse to write about things I feel strongly in favor of. Also, in case anyone is wondering (hint: nobody is) yes I know it was a book, but I saw the movie first.
Top Five Side One, Track Ones
5. Privilege - Incubus - Make Yourself:
One of the best ways to start off a rock album is with a catchy hook that still rocks pretty hard. this song fits that bill like few others and kicks off a pretty surprisingly good rock album despite being from and slightly contributing to the rap-rock era. I wonder what their DJ does all the time now.
4. The Best Ever Death Metal Band Out of Denton - The Mountain Goats - All Hail West Texas
There's nothing quite like a song about a teenage two piece death metal band recorded in low fi and performed on an acoustic guitar. Great songwriting and the almost monotone but very emotive singing of John Darnielle make this probably the best song on the album.
3. Welcome to the Jungle - Guns & Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Not really the best song on this record, but a great way to start off probably the strongest debut album of any rock band ever, and to let loose a war cry that basically told all the hair metal guys to grab their mascara and get the hell out of the way, G&F'nR are coming to blow you off the stage. Also works as a great way to imagine what it must have been like moving from West Lafayette, Indiana to LA in the 80s.
2. Whole Lotta Love - Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II
From Robert Plant's laugh at the start of the track, to the opening riff, to the thumping bass that quickly follows, to the crazy aural simulated sex, to the jackhammering drum fills, to the blistering solo, this opening track stands out to me as the best of all their record openers, and they have a LOT of good ones (Immigrant Song, Black Dog, Good Times Bad Times, etc). This song is just dripping with overpowering sexuality and energy. There's a reason why a huge number of 15 year oldish males think Zep is the best music ever created.
1. Everything in its right place - Radiohead - Kid A
This song is like being wrapped in an aural cocoon. Radiohead managed to not only continue to bring in electronic instruments and influences into their rock sound, they went full steam ahead, and the result makes for one hell of an opening track, along with the rest of the album. I hated Kid A at first, but with all due admiration for OK Computer, it's now my favorite Radiohead album. This development seems to coincide with me buying a really good pair of headphones, and a chapter out of Chuck Klosterman's Killing Yourself to Live wherein he makes a very convincing argument that the album is accidentally about September 11th despite being released in 2000. It's one of my favorite chapters of any book, and just another reason why this song is my favorite album opener. And also what Todd said.
One thing High Fidelity is good for besides creating a window into the relationship mind of the modern male is inspire dorks like myself to rattle off top five lists the way Rob and his record store employees do. While this isn't exactly the most original idea for a post ever, responding with my own list was a good motivator for getting this blog started, and gives me an excuse to write about things I feel strongly in favor of. Also, in case anyone is wondering (hint: nobody is) yes I know it was a book, but I saw the movie first.
Top Five Side One, Track Ones
5. Privilege - Incubus - Make Yourself:
One of the best ways to start off a rock album is with a catchy hook that still rocks pretty hard. this song fits that bill like few others and kicks off a pretty surprisingly good rock album despite being from and slightly contributing to the rap-rock era. I wonder what their DJ does all the time now.
4. The Best Ever Death Metal Band Out of Denton - The Mountain Goats - All Hail West Texas
There's nothing quite like a song about a teenage two piece death metal band recorded in low fi and performed on an acoustic guitar. Great songwriting and the almost monotone but very emotive singing of John Darnielle make this probably the best song on the album.
3. Welcome to the Jungle - Guns & Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Not really the best song on this record, but a great way to start off probably the strongest debut album of any rock band ever, and to let loose a war cry that basically told all the hair metal guys to grab their mascara and get the hell out of the way, G&F'nR are coming to blow you off the stage. Also works as a great way to imagine what it must have been like moving from West Lafayette, Indiana to LA in the 80s.
2. Whole Lotta Love - Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II
From Robert Plant's laugh at the start of the track, to the opening riff, to the thumping bass that quickly follows, to the crazy aural simulated sex, to the jackhammering drum fills, to the blistering solo, this opening track stands out to me as the best of all their record openers, and they have a LOT of good ones (Immigrant Song, Black Dog, Good Times Bad Times, etc). This song is just dripping with overpowering sexuality and energy. There's a reason why a huge number of 15 year oldish males think Zep is the best music ever created.
1. Everything in its right place - Radiohead - Kid A
This song is like being wrapped in an aural cocoon. Radiohead managed to not only continue to bring in electronic instruments and influences into their rock sound, they went full steam ahead, and the result makes for one hell of an opening track, along with the rest of the album. I hated Kid A at first, but with all due admiration for OK Computer, it's now my favorite Radiohead album. This development seems to coincide with me buying a really good pair of headphones, and a chapter out of Chuck Klosterman's Killing Yourself to Live wherein he makes a very convincing argument that the album is accidentally about September 11th despite being released in 2000. It's one of my favorite chapters of any book, and just another reason why this song is my favorite album opener. And also what Todd said.
Chasing the Rennaissance
My entire life I've had two great loves outside of my interpersonal relationships, science / technology and the arts. Both have encompassed a lot of different areas that expand in some areas and wane in others, but both remain constant on a base level.
Since I have chosen to make a career out of a specific aspect of technology (software development), I have been neglecting the arts a bit. Not completely, of course. I wrote the occasional myspace blog, I go through the occasional reading binge, I play and listen to an awful lot of music, etc. But, the goal of this blog is to step outside of the walled gardens of social networking and write about things that I find interesting just for fun, mostly falling under the umbrella of the technology and / or the arts.
I've always wanted to be a renaissance man before I knew what the term meant or before I had any idea who Danny DeVito was. This new blog is an attempt to brighten up my slightly tarnished writing skills indirectly, as well as maybe providing something interesting to somebody somewhere, but I'm aware of the odds of that. I'm hoping to level out my personal see-saw a bit even if not a single person subscribes to my feed.
Anyhow, I'll probably be writing about my occasional tech projects, my band, books I'm reading, movies, television, a little bit of sports, the occasional excitement and intrigue associated with the glamorous life of a software engineer, an odd bit of amateur punditry, and who knows what else. I'll try to keep the echo chamber crap to a minimum, but I'm mostly a doofus so who knows.
Since I have chosen to make a career out of a specific aspect of technology (software development), I have been neglecting the arts a bit. Not completely, of course. I wrote the occasional myspace blog, I go through the occasional reading binge, I play and listen to an awful lot of music, etc. But, the goal of this blog is to step outside of the walled gardens of social networking and write about things that I find interesting just for fun, mostly falling under the umbrella of the technology and / or the arts.
I've always wanted to be a renaissance man before I knew what the term meant or before I had any idea who Danny DeVito was. This new blog is an attempt to brighten up my slightly tarnished writing skills indirectly, as well as maybe providing something interesting to somebody somewhere, but I'm aware of the odds of that. I'm hoping to level out my personal see-saw a bit even if not a single person subscribes to my feed.
Anyhow, I'll probably be writing about my occasional tech projects, my band, books I'm reading, movies, television, a little bit of sports, the occasional excitement and intrigue associated with the glamorous life of a software engineer, an odd bit of amateur punditry, and who knows what else. I'll try to keep the echo chamber crap to a minimum, but I'm mostly a doofus so who knows.
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