Saturday, June 05, 2004

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Auto black boxes record speed, acceleration, braking, curves. I've long thought that, by the time my 9 year olds were driving, that there would be means to monitor their driving habits. Now how about a governor on the gas pedal? 10:45:47 PM    comment []

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Remembering Reagan I've been struck by the number of reminiscences about Ronald Reagan, who died today. The breadth and depth of the media coverage took me by surprise. It also felt like something I hadn't been through before. After a while, I realized that was because I hadn't been through it before. Quick, how long has it been since a beloved ex-President passed away? All the way back to Eisenhower. Ford, Carter, Bush I and Clinton are still with us. Nixon was clearly not beloved. Nor was Johnson before him (and that was before the Robert Caro biography came out). Kennedy was cut down in office.   10:21:22 PM    comment []

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Evil Movie Industry Prevents Scene-Skipping on DVDs Every time I pop in a DVD and can't skip over the splash and the FBI no-copy warning, I get seething mad. The problem is only getting worse. I am finding more DVDs where I can't even skip over the previews (I actually like previews in general). This nuisance reaches its apogee when you watch half a movie, take out the DVD, and then go to watch the last half and have to go through it all again. This outrageous manifestation of contempt for the customer makes me livid. When I'm in this mood, I wish the RIAA all the ill fortune in the world, and hope third-world pirates ruin the bastards. What's next? No fast-forwarding through those scenes in the movie which happen to contain paid product placements? 4:04:06 PM    comment []

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Pleasures of Backup to DVD I just backed up all my data to a DVD-RW. How nice! Everything, all my data, including several thousand digital photos, on a single DVD-RW. 8:32:36 AM    comment []