Here's another reason I like Peter Gabriel:
Gabriel to launch musicians' union [BBC]
In short, he is pioneering a union of musicians with the purpose of helping artists get in touch with digital distribution channels while still maintaining some semblance of an honest day's wage. Hopefully his efforts will help persuade less forward-thinking associations to move into the new century.
Last night I read the highly-acclaimed (and unusually titled) Who Moved My Cheese?, by Spencer Johnson, M.D. This book is, in short, a parable about dealing with change -- be it change in your family, your workplace, a relationship, or anyplace else that change happens.
At less than 100 pages, it is a quick read (60 minutes or less). It tells the story of two mice and two "littlepeople" who are confronted with a major change in their lives... if you were to guess that their cheese had been moved, you would be correct (actually, they just ate it all -- but the two littlepeople were sure that someone had just moved it and would probably bring it back if they just waited long enough). The book uses an almost childlike approach to telling the story, but the implications for individuals and organizations are unmistakable. The book offers good advice about change; it shares not only that change can be a good thing, but also that there is a way to mentally steer yourself through times of change so as not to grow despondent.
In general, I am a person who enjoys being comfortable. I would even say that I fear change in many areas. The one sentence that has left the greatest impression on me from the book is this:
This book doesn't have all the answers about change, and doesn't suggest that change can be made quick and painless. It does, however, offer hints for dealing with it and making the best of it in order to realize the long-term good that change often brings.
If you've got an extra hour sometime, I'd recommend it.
I am a subscriber to Bruce Schneier's monthly security-related newsletter, Crypto-Gram. He has been involved in the cryptography field for a number of years, and his writings on the topics of information security and security in general are very well done.
In this month's newsletter, he authored an essay on the US Government's system of color-coding terrorist threat levels. The point he makes in the essay is that the color codes are, overall, meaningless as far as the American public is concerned. He writes, in part:
Living under Orange... didn't mean anything. Tom Ridge's admonition that Americans "be alert, but go about their business" [is] nonsensical advice. I saw little that could be considered a good security trade-off....
I tend to agree. In his book Beyond Fear, Schneier indicates that, unlike the US Military's DEFCON level, there are no set procedures in place that dictate what happens when the color level changes: People are left to worry, or are given nonsensical instructions to buy plastic sheeting and duct tape.
He concludes the essay by postulating the reasons he believes the government has chosen a somewhat juvenille and impractical color-coding scheme to represent the threat our nation faces from terrorists.
I personally have a slightly different take on the color-codes. I believe that there are actually two separate "threat levels" from terrorism -- the color-coded level (public), and a level available only to those with appropriate security clearances (restricted). The public level is used to give the citizens a sense of well-being ("The government is looking out for me."), and by changing it every so often the appearance is made that intelligence is being uncovered or that threats are being alleviated. Any terrorist who is worth his salt would most certainly avoid attempting any sort of treachery if he happened to notice that MSNBC is now reporting an "Orange" threat level.
The restricted level, on the other hand, is likely available only to senior administrators in Homeland Security, US intelligence agencies, and the White House. This level would have more definitive procedures tied to it, not unlike the recent grounding of certain international airline flights. I also believe that this level would not have any given relationship to the public level -- indeed, it may well be almost entirely opposite. If the restricted level is low, the government may still choose to manipulate the public level to give the impression of the "continuing" war on terror. If the restricted level is increased, the government may do nothing at all to the public level, preferring instead to act secretly on intelligence in the hopes of thwarting attacks and capturing would-be terrorists.
Is Schneier correct? Am I? The US public will never know. The thought, however, that the President and Cabinet staff make decisions based on the color of the day is a frightening one indeed -- one can only hope that there is a good bit more structure than it seems.
It has often occurred to me that the song title I hear most often is some variation on the theme of "I'll Be There". Off the top of my head, I could think of perhaps half a dozen different songs with that same title.
I paid a quick visit to one of my favorite music-related informational websites, Allmusic.com, and did a song search with "I'll Be There" as the search string.
And wow.
There are 389 albums listed that contain a song named "I'll Be There". And while some of them are no doubt covers or re-recordings of the same tune, there are enough different composers listed to indicate that it is a very common theme for songwriters.
If you add minor variations to the theme, such as "I'll Be There For You", "I Will Be There", or "I'll Still Be There", the total jumps up to over 800 albums.
Perhaps music majors in college have to compose a song based on that theme for a senior project?
Another tip related to the Captain Morgan Private Stock.
It is very tasty when mixed with ginger ale.
About once a month, there is a somewhat large computer show/sale in nearby Monroeville, PA. I have often wanted to drop by and take a look around, but usually I have neither the time nor the money to make it worth my while.
As it so happens, there was a show scheduled for the weekend after Christmas. Since I had a bit of Christmas money burning a hole in my pocket, I decided to head over with a friend of mine and check it out.
Overall, I was impressed with the variety of items available. There were new and used items including: complete desktop systems, laptops, printers, motherboards, software, monitors (CRT and flat-screen), and a host of other bits and pieces all laid out in "flea market" style. I browsed a couple of the booths selling laptop computers, and ended up going home with a very modestly-priced ($150) IBM ThinkPad 380D. Circa 1997, it sports a Pentium 166 processor and 80 MB of RAM. It is (so far) in good working condition, and even has a battery that still holds a charge (a good catch on my part, as I thought to pull out the power cord as the sales lady was writing up the sales slip -- the original battery did not work on its own). The system came with Windows 98 SE installed, but it wasn't long before I decided to wipe it out and put linux on it.
My first idea was to install the newly-released Lindows Laptop Edition, which I downloaded and burned to CD. Upon attempting to install, I learned two things:
1. The original ThinkPad 380ED BIOS did not include the ability to boot from CD. This was quickly remedied by visiting IBM's download center and flashing the BIOS to the latest revision (which enables booting from CD).
2. It does not appear to be possible to install Lindows in any way other than from the CD. There are no directions anywhere on their site or support forums for using a boot disk, network install, or anything other than CD-ROM.
Attempting to boot off the Lindows Laptop install CD gave me the oft-encountered L 80 80 80 80 80 80 80 ... message. Since I didn't feel like trying to troubleshoot, I decided to try Mandrake (my preferred distribution) instead. I found a "how-to" page describing someone else's experience installing linux on a ThinkPad 380ED, which I was able to use for reference (as an added bonus, the author of the page installed Mandrake as well).
The install was successful, and I am enjoying my new linux laptop. It's not an especially fast machine (takes a while to compile apps from source), but it will be fun to play with until it breaks.
This summer, I participated as a groomsman in Mark and Angie's wedding. As is the custom in weddings, we in the bridal party received gifts from the bride and groom. The gift I received was a bottle of Captain Morgan Private Stock rum. I decided that New Year's Eve would be an appropriate time to crack open the bottle and sample its flavor.
Overall, I am very impressed. Private Stock is a very smooth rum with minimal "burn". I enjoyed it straight, though I would imagine it flavors a Cuba Libre (that's a "Rum & Coke" for you casual drinkers) quite well. It is a very nice "sipping" rum. Thanks Mark & Angie!
I also received a tip from a friend at work that adding lemon juice to it prevents a hangover the next day. I did not drink enough that this was a concern, although I am passing it along as a public service.