lundi 22 décembre 2003

Serious questions and trivial pursuits Since I had a beloved uncle who knew the country extremely well, I am not among those who consider that "China is the greatest threat to the future of the West". Such assertions are boring, banal paranoia. This view, however, does not make 'Save Tibet... Why?', a Portland IMC (Independent Media Center) briefing, any the less valuable. It brings some of the facts and figures about China's destructive role and practices up to date, and links to a good -- and apparently unique? -- Tibetan photo project. zzz Though a very tragic tale in the past half-century, Tibet and its culture is still an important part of many people's mental maps. But what of Everything2.com (link to "new nodes"?!!) This must be the place Anthony in Nairobi was recommending to me months ago. "E2 can be a very, very confusing place at first," explains the E2 FAQ page, and it can say that again! "This website has grown from being a very simple user-written encyclopedia (see E1) to a very complex online community with a focus to write, publish and edit a quality database of information, art and humor. When you make an account here you join not only a team of dedicated writers but an entire micro-society and community with its own pop culture, politics, beauty and blunders. It's not perfect. In fact, it can be pretty messy. It's cool, though..." Very cool, by the look of it. But also the kind of place you could get lost in for months on end. zzz Which reminds me that somebody who's certainly better off nameless only two years ago asked one forum I frequent, "What's so interesting about the Internet? I can't find anything of any use on it." A flurry of questions established the fact that A. Non was being perfectly serious! There was a dull moment at work today. So I caught up with some of my 'blogging friends and then took a look at the 2003 Weblog Awards (when's somebody going to invent an "experimental" category?) at Wizbang. Some of the category names are entertaining, but a "Best Female Authored Blog" (tie) without one for the blokes strikes me as political correctness yet again taken beyond that point of silliness where it usually starts... 7:47:16 PM  link   your views? [] Special dawn, plus a thought on (OS X) security Correction: so I didn't know what day it was. So what else is new? This morning's sunrise was radiant, with a host of colours so rare in Paris skies that I did wish for an instant that I had a digital camera. The spectacle came as a complete surprise, given the week's dingy weather forecast, and it broke a pattern. I am becoming convinced, with no hard evidence apart from that of my eyes over the months, that this city is almost as lunatic as I am. For most of the year, good weather in Paris seems to come around the period of the full moon and its dreary opposite with each new moon... Andrew Marr, fine political correspondent and presenter of the Beeb's Monday morning cultural adventure, Start the Week, found a nice turn of phrase in today's trailer for the programme. "Today is the midnight of the world," he announced. Well, Andrew, in our hemisphere at least. You can't have forgotten that "down under", it's Midsummer Day. zzz "From the securing-your-porn-collection-one-bit-at-a-time dept: "nix writes 'Over at the macdevcenter there's an article on Filevault. Author argues it's past its growing pains with 10.3.2. He also offers a good overview of security and Filevault technology in particular'." (Via MacSlash.) Nix is right. The MacDevCenter's article, by François Joseph de Kermadec, was an excellent overview. I haven't bothered to mention the latest slew of updates from Apple -- including QuickTime, iTunes, and OS X 10.3.2 -- because all were installed on my Mac, for once, without incident, left no trouble in their wake and brought minor improvements. De Kermadec's piece has convinced me, however, that it is not in my interest to switch on the FileVault encryption feature, whether it's past its appalling teething trouble or not. And my own enormous porn collection is, of course, pointless if kept to myself. For users of portable Macs, however, FileVault does make sense and now so more than ever. 10:22:23 AM  link   your views? []

nick b. 2007 do share, don't steal, please credit under artistic licence terms; contributing friends (pix, other work) retain their rights.