Small Mercies

Wozniak: “Apple is not the company I had hoped it would be. I always thought that a major player in the personal computer business, with its label on the products, would be composed of top engineers and multiple labs full of scientists developing new devices out of physics and chemistry.”

Woz? In general? STFU.

Horses, Pigs, Cows And Danger

Tara Hunt posted a while back something that has stuck with me:

... nobody has come forward to show me where it is unsafe for a woman to expose her life to a wide audience. I’ve only experienced personal and professional gain ...

The ACTUAL danger here is not the danger, itself, but the danger of silencing the myriad of voices through the threat of danger. And you know, I’m going to be the ballsy (dangerous) broad I am and continue to challenge every single person who even hints towards the theory that women are less safe than men online. Because, truly, I would rather die for my convictions than live in fear any day.

I don't know what it is that bothers me about this. Or rather, I find it difficult, morally sorting out all the bothersome things. The irritations from the deeper issues, the offenses from the common moral good.

Nor is it clear why Miss Hunt makes such a good Good Example. Perhaps because her heart is, of all hearts, so plainly, even sweetly in the right place. The sort of person who moves one, whose fallings short of the mark shows us something deeply human about our own. Of course, Tara Hunt may have quite other feelings about me, but hey. The writers' life.

For it's writers, don't you know, who see through walls, and let nothing alone. The unseen and the unspoken are what sets us to thinking, and that is our work and our pleasure. To think through the ghastly spell that grips American life, to illuminate something of the non-suffering world beyond.

And I don't mean the endless-drivel aspect of the web. It's the blog entries of people who have neither inclination nor, perhaps, that awful wherewithal to do the hard, often painful work to Think. (cf. Hannah Arendt.) Who churn out i the semi-truthful posts, drawing commenters happy to live in a semi-truthful world. Is everybody comfy?

I certainly hope not.

Not Getting It

From The Sydney Morning Herald Blogs

"No one can argue that Jobs is a visionary. He's also an enigmatic leader that has followers practically falling at his feet. While this might sound like an exaggeration, have a look at his Macworld keynote in San Francisco earlier this year (you can download it free from iTunes). It's like a group of devoted fans following their Messiah, cheering at every second phrase he utters and almost fainting when they find salvation in the much-hyped iPhone."

That in this predominately crappy world, some of us hang on to a pleasurable computing experience like life-preservers in a drowning sea of crap ... A world where things are routinely misrepresented, shoddy, and the people that sell them baldly lie.

Isn't it all really about lies and truth? About being marketed to and hoodwinked? Why a relationship of unusual integrity between maker and consumer should be so derided ... can only stem from the bitter, undigested truth that the world of Windows is right where this guy knows himself to be stuck.

I'm quite serious. Here on the web, is not this psychological phenomenon constantly laid out before us? Like some ghastly tableaux la mort: How humans behave when they can neither digest nor expel what's so.

Besides, the effort to do so, to cough up this little hairball by disparaging the envied, threatening Other, have you noticed, doesn't work, never has worked, never will. Furthermore, this is perilously close to the structure of Abuse, how it happens, who is the perp and why.

No wonder creative people wouldn't dream of working on anything but a Mac. It would be like inviting Uncle Fester into your sacred space.

My MacBook is the tool with which I daily navigate Winnicott's transitional space. Where we work to join what we wish, in dreams, with the world as it really is.

Like that's ever going to happen on a Dell.

Mercy Buckets

Madame Levy makes a connection that I at once both admire and wish to slip under the electronic doorway of every damn blogger involved in, yes, The Big Stink of 07 (Is it too, too egoistic to snap yourself?)

I find it astounding that the whole internets gets up in arms when a Tony Robbins'-like (need I say White) blogger has a photo of a noose posted, not next to her head, but in the same post (as a political commentary motivated juxtaposition), And It Is Called A Death Threat And she is afraid to leave her yard. Meanwhile 3 Real Nooses are hung (in the real world, under a tree that some Black kids just received permission (!!?!) to sit around and talk under), and this is dismissed as a ‘harmless prank’.

Bunch a fuckin' hypocrites, my writing Id wants to say.

And since it is mostly her blog? I believe the sentiment shall stand.

Hey, I Got Early Dylan Too

 
Shout out to Jeneane and Madame Levy.

This is really very witty, great acting job, his expressions, the touches in the background ... Yup, I think all told I gotta go with Al.

Translation: Ruffianly Gossips

Now never you mind how long ago ... time doesn't matter in art. Not in the tiniest bit. What do you suppose people cut off, by way of what secretly engages them, in the name of timeliness. Since, as we all know, the Interwebs are both instant and eternal, seems to me (unless your job is at stake, and I wouldn't know about jobs) that this is the perfect opportunity to go deep. You'll never know what you could have done, had you followed your obsessions ...

So, WTFork was yesterday? Well, it was Bulgarian, in the flesh. Back In April, I posted Ten Questions For Tim O'Reilly, and was backlinked by Kultura.bg. Finally got around to feeding it into various really scrimpy Bulgarian-to-English services—guess there's not a huge demand—and here are the results. Granted, these are only machine translations—but isn't the essence soaked out. I love this kind of thing.

There are numerous, surprised But ... /censoring/blogs

In fact, that was thought long since The entrance of правилник for блогери. Necessary the occasion was, but he as well Consider, at the end of March Kate Sierra received a series of bawdy and heavy comments. They had seen about her those that did not be as well, seen who exists and how does it seem. Kate Sierra is not precarious. She is a girlfriend, as well Съратница of Тимо Riley, the site.

1. Everybody must take responsibility for a блога and the comments left to him. The one блог is impossible, when the threat of the personality or the personalities was used for badgering, stalk as well. Permitting slanders, it transgresses копирайта, the trademark, the trade secret or the patent of somebody third, When violating the obligation for поверителност, the personal space, the limelight, the morals ...

2. Everybody must mark his level to a tolerance to ruffianly gossips. [mean kids, no doubt]

3. It to eliminate conceivably the anonymous gossips.

4. To ignore троловете (to be called in Internet the toughs.)

Always things with that spirit! The questions right logically emerge in the comments: It is necessary On Some, To know has she done the inauguration of censoring in an internet ? If you stuff the mouth of somebody don't you harass him to more unacceptable acts of aggression? But Who will decide who is blasphemy?

I will not issue opinion on the idea of Tim ОРайли, even though it проличавам quite already. Nor I will show of examples some real situation in which I have fallen in part because point did not come, in part because fearing that my protest for the entrance of rules would have to be explained with my utensil to culture excessively different to the American. And so with position as well—Totalitarian know what ременености of mind, impulsive still to the subconscious anarchism. I will use the answer of one American блогерка:

I read the entered by Тим о'Riley draft on legal code of блогера, and бидейки writer, осъмвам with a few issues :

1. I frequently use The word “fucked.” Am I in conflicts?

2. Is it that regrettable content?

3. Does the fluency of the speech mean only kind humans?

4. But How the narcist can dance up one pin point sharply?

5. Does Mark Твен said thing funny for the sows?

6. I am not related with the business-party on an internet in no manner. Must you be only the captive mouth in that case?

7. The diaries online. When did they died? Possibly in 2003?
    . . .
10. Monitoring the behavior of professions during the big billowing to niff, you can imagine How uneasy becomes the personality as me, reading the word marketing?
Райна Маркова

Hey! I just realized ... I wuz used!

Култура

Брой 15 (2454), 17 април 2007 г.

Не, че има много изненадани, но... / цензура / blogs

Всъщност, това отдавна се очакваше – въвеждането на правилник за блогери. Нужен беше само повод, но и той взе, че се появи – в края на март блогерката Кейт Сиера получи серия неприлични и заплашителни коментари и така се разпищя, че принуди дори тези, които не бяха и чували за нея, да научат коя е и как изглежда. А Кейт Сиера не е случайна. Тя е приятелка и съратница на Тим О Райли. Сайтът й е със заглавие „Създавай страстни юзъри‛ и първото което виждаме, когато попаднем на него е изображение на доволна двойка в стил 50-те и надпис: „Scoble казва, че блогването ще ни направи по-богати и ще подобри нашия сексуален живот.‛ Хм, Scoble1! Само заради това, че ме кара да се питам кой, по дяволите, е твърдящият подобна глупост Scoble, бих пратила лично една-две смъртни заплахи на споменатата мис, пък макар и само за да се убедя в слабото й чувство за хумор. Но какво значи раздразнението на някой като мен, при положение, че самият Тим О Райли, възмутен от внезапното прозрение, че подобни неща се случват масово в мрежата, (при това не само на неговата позната и то не от вчера), решава, да изкорени злото от интернет чрез въвеждане на някои правила. Засега те са просто нахвърляни като чернова и се обсъждат. Обмислят се в няколко варианта, за да може всеки да избере своя набор правила в зависимост от търпимостта си, но общо взето става дума за следното:

1. Всеки трябва да поеме отговорност за блога си и коментарите допускани в него. А един блог е неприемлив, когато: се ползва за тормоз, дебнене и заплаха на личност или личности,; пускане на клевети; престъпва копирайта, запазената марка, търговската тайна или патента на някой трети; когато нарушава задължението за поверителност, личното пространство, публичността, морала...

2.Всеки трябва да отбележи сам нивото си на толерантност към груби коментари.

3. Евентуално да елиминира анонимните коментари

4. Да игнорира троловете (така в интернет се наричат грубияните)
Все неща в този дух! В коментарите съвсем логично изплуват въпросите: А налагането на някакви, какви да е правила не е ли началото на цензура в интернет? Ако запушиш устата на някой, не го ли провокираш към по-неприемливи прояви на агресия? А кой ще определя кое е клевета и кое не?

Няма да напиша своето мнение за идеята на Тим ОРайли, макар то донякъде вече да си пролича, нито ще посоча за примери някои реални ситуации в които съм попадала отчасти защото мястото не би ми стигнало, отчасти защото се опасявам се, че несъгласието ми с въвеждането на правила би могло да бъде обяснено с принадлежността ми към култура, твърде различна от американската, а също и с пост-тоталитарни и не знам какви още обременености на психиката, тласкащи ме към подсъзнателен анархизъм. Ето защо ще ползвам в ответ постинга на една американска блогерка:

Прочетох нахвърляната от Тим О'Райли чернова за кодекс на блогера и бидейки писател, осъмнах с няколко въпроса:

1. Аз често ползвам думата "еба". Подклаждачка ли съм на конфликти?

2. Това Осъдително Съдържание ли е?

3. Означава ли свободата на словото само мили хора?

4. А колко точно нарцисиста могат да танцуват на върха на една игла?

5. Казвал ли е Марк Твен нещо забавно за свинете?

6. Аз не съм свързана с бизнес страната на интернет по никакъв начин. Трябва ли по тази причина просто да си затварям устата?

7. Онлайн дневниците. Кога точно умряха? Може би през 2003?
...
10. Наблюдавайки поведението на блогващите web професионалисти по време на поредното голямо надигане на воня в мрежата, можете ли да си представите колко неспокойна става личност като мен, щом чуе думата Маркетинг?

Райна Маркова

"Dilly, Dally, Dolittle & Stahl" Is No More

Phil Frank has died, but a week after his announced retirement ... and no, this isn't going to sink in ... though the sadness has ... until spring, when the bears awaken from their winter slumbers at the Fog City Dumpster for their annual trip to Asphalt State Park (a.k.a.Yosemite) ... which demanded the annual commandeering of a Muni bus, complete with hapless drive (donning their bandolera first, of course) issuing, once more, the treasured line,

“Bodges! We don' need no steenkeng bodges!”

Or perhaps it was badges ... no matter. The title, above, is the name of the law offices—Dilly, Dally, Dolittle and Stahl—of the feral pigs, who, being in the profession, carried fine briefcases and drove fast nasty cars. Beemers, of course. Frank had a way of weaving the actual pests of nature hereabouts into the world his strips created that utterly suited them. Utterly. Feral pigs, for those of you who don't live in Marin or Sonoma County, are ugly, merciless, ever-hungry animals who will rip up anything to get at what they want, who will kill your dogs and are otherwise extremely single-minded.

And sweet Orwell, the feral cat who lived in Golden Gate Park, who embodied the left-over hippie-ness of the Park as well as the homeless who live there, with one eye out for the deal, but basically good of heart, in a way that ... well, Frank always drew the truth. 

Baba ReBop, sigh, whom we shall consult no more. Baba wore a propeller beanie, along with his flowing, guru-like robes, and always displayed his fax number ... and damn it, I never faxed him. Farley himself, Frank's alter-ego, played both observer and fool, and held the whole thing together, in his reportorial way.

Frank said in an interview that unlike Garry Trudeau, he didn't skewer his subjects. Ah, yes, but he did. True, not in the fashion of Uncle Duke ... but showed the foolishness of us all—including aging hippies. But most of all, Frank used us, human and non-human alike, in the same way he used himself ... as instruments, gorgeously drawn instruments, of an apparently endless wit.

And then it ends. And we try to cope with that.

Gus, You Dawg

So Gus Mueller interviews this mystery developer, I call him Mr. Redacted:

MUELLER: So you figured, what the heck—why not make another redacted?
DEV: Sure. There's a ton of Mac users out there now, we can all share. A rising tide lifts all boats, right? Plus, the problem space just really interested me. It was a ton of fun to write.
MUELLER: I've played with redacted a bunch, and it's pretty nice. I like it. But it's obvious that there are some missing features. Why are you shipping a 1.0 without redacted, or even redacted?
DEV: It's a 1.0, remember? Redacted is coming in a future release, but I can't tell you when that is. It's high up there on the todo list for sure. That was one of the big challenges with redacted; what goes in a 1.0, and what doesn't? It's almost a philosophical question.

And tonight (mid-September) in the middle of the night, bing-bong, in comes the mail ... and it's Gus, announcing what he and his alter ego have been up to ... Acorn! Beautiful new Mac graphics app, so smooth, so uncluttered.

I admire Gus, he's the only person whose funnies are dryer than mine. Gus is a master at having people on, but also, I suspect, so fundamentally goodhearted, he tends to drop more clues. But not many. This kind of thing, you have to keep 'em guessing. Unsettle the little buggers. Leave 'em never quite sure. That's the whole point. My, how some of us do play at the disguise of creative aggression.

You might even say it's an art.

Leaving

That Was Easy

Question from Sergio:

“Would you wear a LinkedIn silicone wristband?

“I just remembered that it could be cool to have an ‘I am LinkedIn’ silicone wristband. What do you think about it? Would you pay 5 USD for it with your name on? Would you pay 2 USD for it without your name on? I'm curious to know if you love LinkedIn so much that you would show it to everybody through this silicone wristband.”

Reply from Zo:

“No f. way. Those are for causes, man. Charities. And even then ...”

Reply from Sergio:

“Thank you for your honest feedback! You can't get more honest then that!”

Does this need any more from me? Maybe an explanation of my truly poor manners? On the other hand ... poor Sergio, from Latin (or was it South) America ... not so much.

Tony Met Sartre?

Gary Kamiya, who, after he writes, there isn't much left to say:

Tony callously murders his nephew Christopher—then in the next moment reveals his most wounded, deeply sympathetic side, wrapping his arms around his suicidal son while groaning, “My baby, my baby.” Neither of these is the “real” Tony, for there is no “real” Tony—there are a multiplicity of Tonys, and at every moment he is free to choose. The Sopranos is existentialist TV: To paraphrase the legendary French capo Jean-Paul Sartre, Tony's existence precedes his essence.

Yeah, right. Whatever.

Except also, I miss the fuck out of him.