One Canuck's Radio Weblog

  Thursday, 23 September 2004

.< 11:51:20 PM >
MarsEdit and Radio UserLand

Donovan Watts wrote a tutorial on using MarsEdit to edit a Radio UserLand weblog. (We love Donovan’s domain name, by the way: becomethemedia.org.) [Ranchero.com]

< 11:50:25 PM >

Audio of today's Bush press conference, with comments by yours truly. This is a format I want to play with, I first heard Rush Limbaugh do it, artfully, with a speech by John Kerry. [Scripting News]

< 11:48:45 PM >

Bush says he gets the truth from the Iraqi Prime Minister. He appointed him. Geez Louise, call Central Casting. Who do we have to blow to to get a little truth around here? [Scripting News]

< 11:37:40 PM >

Speaking to a joint meeting of Congress, the interim Iraqi prime minister thanked the U.S. on Thursday for liberating his country, saying that despite some setbacks, progress is being made. FULL STORY [CBC News]

Ha ha ha ha ha. Yes, thank you for putting me in power.

< 11:35:01 PM >

The 86-year-old mother of a Briton held hostage in Iraq asks his captors to "send him home to me alive". [BBC News | World | UK Edition]

< 11:34:22 PM >

The former Soviet leader tells BBC's Newsnight terrorism can only be tackled by political means, just weeks after the Beslan school seige tragedy. [BBC News | World | UK Edition]

< 11:33:21 PM >

AP - Hungry, thirsty and increasingly desperate residents attacked each other in a panic to get scarce food and water Thursday as workers struggled to bury hundreds of corpses six days after the city was struck by Tropical Storm Jeanne. [Yahoo! News - World]

< 2:00:30 AM >

Argh

< 1:58:03 AM >

< 1:56:09 AM >

A U.S. National Guard unit assisted in the safe return of a Canadian woman who said she was held captive for 16 days in northern Iraq. FULL STORY [CBC News]

< 1:52:54 AM >

Bush's argument is tight, concise and, so far, impregnable. It is also a clever distortion of reality [TIME's Top Stories] 'Scott McClellan is beginning to sound like Baghdad Bob, the infamous spokesman for Saddam who announced hallucinatory Iraqi victories as the American troops closed in on Baghdad. [snip]
His argument is tight, concise and, so far, impregnable. It is also a clever distortion of reality. If the National Intelligence Estimate is accurate, we are facing a far more dangerous world than existed before the war. Many intelligence and military experts now believe that al-Qaeda has rebuilt its leadership structure and metastasized; that the U.S. military is overburdened and its leaders are likely to tell the next President that they lack the resources necessary to regain control in Iraq; that the U.S. government has lost the credibility to lead the world into action against future threats from, say, Iran or North Korea; that Iraq itself seems in danger of splitting into three chaotic regions, which—in the NIE's worst-case scenario—may lead to civil war.'

< 1:47:46 AM >

Iranian internet users start an unusual campaign against censorship - renaming blogs after banned newspapers. [BBC News | World | UK Edition]

< 1:46:11 AM >

Saying the United Nations needs to return "common humanity" to the core of its agenda, Prime Minister Paul Martin called for specific rules to intervene in humanitarian disasters. FULL STORY [CBC News]

< 1:44:26 AM >

US elections: Polls show president's support for Israel will not win votes from the traditionally Democratic mainstream who recoil from his religious zeal. [Guardian Unlimited]

< 1:43:30 AM >

Kidnappers release video of Briton's desperate message. [Guardian Unlimited] '"Please, you can help, I know you can. These people are not asking for the world, they're asking for their wives and the mothers of their children.

Earlier there were signs that at least one high-profile female prisoner might be released, raising hopes for Mr Bigley's fate.

A senior Iraqi minister said that a biological scientist, Rihab Rashid Taha, would be freed immediately. But although US military commanders had approved the release of the "high-value" scientist before the kidnap of Mr Bigley, they insisted she could not be freed yesterday, apparently desperate to avoid making any concessions to the militants.

The justice minister, Malik Dohan al-Hassan, promised to release Dr Taha as early as yesterday and said he would consider the case of the second woman, another scientist, Huda Salih Amash.

But yesterday US and senior Iraqi officials moved to dash that suggestion.

"We have not been negotiating and we will not negotiate with terrorists on the release of hostages," said the prime minister, Ayad Allawi.

But the Guardian has learned that Dr Taha was in fact approved for release by US commanders as long ago as last week, before the kidnapping.'

Save face. Lose life.

< 1:39:26 AM >

World: American officials divert transatlantic flight 600 miles in the belief that the presence of former popstar could pose an imminent threat to national security. [Guardian Unlimited]

< 1:38:06 AM >

Britain says it will not bargain with Iraqi militants holding a UK man, after he made a video plea to Tony Blair. [BBC News | World | UK Edition]

< 1:35:56 AM >

CSSEdit “features full-blown source editing for the advanced user.” Looks pretty cool.

(Via Backup Brain.) [Ranchero.com]

Dang. More really cool software. Why is it I have to work for a living?

< 1:10:05 AM >

Brent Simmons at Ranchero Software released MarsEdit yesterday. It looks really cool. He describes it as a weblog editor for Mac OS X that makes weblog writing like writing email. It offers spell-checking, drafts, multiple windows, and has AppleScript support.

Brent writes cool software. Apple makes cool computers. Prepare to fall in love . . .

< 1:08:36 AM >

News.Com: Sony to support MP3. Sony is revisiting its MP3 strategy at a time when competition in the digital music market is heating up and threatening to leave the company behind. The surprise move could portend a major strategy reversal for the consumer electronics giant... [Tomalak's Realm]

To be clear, Sony will continue to use ATRAC for its music store but they are considering making their players compatible with MP3. This would put them on the same footing with Apple's iPod which supports AAC for files from their music store and MP3.

< 1:02:45 AM >

“It has been a good year for Apple,” writes Wilson Rothman in naming the iMac G5 TIME Gadget of the Week. “Since the beginning of 2004, I’ve discussed GarageBand, AirPort Express and the latest iPod. If you go back 12 months, you can probably even throw in iTunes Music Store, the original G5 and the official release of iChat AV. This isn’t favoritism, I’m just impressed. Rather than spend money on its silly ‘Switch’ ad campaign, the company has spent it inventing actual reasons for people to switch from Windows to Mac, not least of all personal style. The iMac G5 is super suave, but it’s also a pretty good deal.” [Sep 22] [Apple Hot News]