12/13/2009

Phase one of the Christmas odyssey is complete. Today we wrapped, packaged, and addressed all of the gifts we’re mailing to friends and family. Laralee will brave the post office tomorrow, and they’ll be on the way.

Next is phase two: the Christmas cards. I’m putting together my list and checking it twice, and printing out hundreds of address labels. On Tuesday my professionally-printed custom cards (!) are due to arrive, and we’ll spend the evening stuffing envelopes. The post office loves that we spend a hundred dollars a year on stamps alone. And I’ve grown to love the pre-sticky envelopes, which may cost five times more than old-school lick envelopes but sure make up for it in ease.

Finally, phase three: gifts for the kids. For some reason we don’t get everything picked out, bought, and wrapped for our own kids until sometime in the evening of the 24th every year. But we’ve got some good ideas this year, and now all that remains is putting the plan in motion.

Ho ho ho!

12/09/2009

Today Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, said this:

If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place. If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines– including Google– do retain this information for some time and it’s important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities.

To which Bruce Schneier, renowned security expert and relentless crusader against government intrusion into our private lives, responded:

Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we’re doing nothing wrong at the time of surveillance.

We do nothing wrong when we make love or go to the bathroom. We are not deliberately hiding anything when we seek out private places for reflection or conversation. We keep private journals, sing in the privacy of the shower, and write letters to secret lovers and then burn them. Privacy is a basic human need.

Too many wrongly characterize the debate as “security versus privacy.” The real choice is liberty versus control. Tyranny, whether it arises under threat of foreign physical attack or under constant domestic authoritative scrutiny, is still tyranny.

It’s interesting to note that Bruce said this back in 2006. It was true then, and it’s still true now.

12/07/2009

I just read a great article by Seth Godin about why those who use trademarks, copyrights, and patents to intimidate and litigate themselves into positions of power are, in the end, doomed. In the Digital Age it’s increasingly difficult to truly protect your ideas, and the costs of doing so are mounting ever higher.

So, how do you protect your ideas in a world where ideas spread?

Don’t.

Instead, spread them. Build a reputation as someone who creates great ideas, sometimes on demand. Or as someone who can manipulate or build on your ideas better than a copycat can. Or use your ideas to earn a permission asset so you can build a relationship with people who are interested. Focus on being the best tailor with the sharpest scissors, not the litigant who sues any tailor who deigns to use a pair of scissors.

Amen, brother. Now hand me my scissors.

12/06/2009

Two months ago, Laralee asked me if I could grow a beard… more to see what it would look like than because she finds it irresistably sexy or anything. I figured I’d never really had a beard, so why not. Plus it was an excuse to be lazy and not shave as much.

Two months later:

Sadly, I just don’t get much along my jawline except a bit of scruff. I feel like a sixteen-year-old hoping to get some facial hair to prove to the girls that I’m a real man.

So I decided it wasn’t really making me look like a rugged mountain man, and figured I’d shave it off and go back to the ol’ goatee that I’ve had for about fourteen years now.

Maybe when I’m older I’ll get a distinguished-looking salt-and-pepper beard going, and women will swoon. Until then, it’ll be the goatee.

12/01/2009

Of all the enemies of true liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes. And armies, debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.

In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people.

No nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

Thus spoke James Madison two hundred years ago. Too bad Obama is walking the same path as Bush, dragging us deeper into the quagmire that is Afghanistan, ignoring the lessons of the past decade and the wisdom of men long dead.

11/29/2009

I really enjoyed the 2003 remake of The Italian Job. It had a good plot, exciting action scenes, and was well cast. And hey, Charlize Theron.

So for a while I’ve been thinking it would be fun to see the original 1969 version of the movie. I’d heard that version included the thrilling Mini Cooper chase scene, and it stars Michael Caine so it must be decent.

Umm, no.

Laralee and I watched it last night and I have to say that’s an hour and a half of my life I’m never going to get back. I can’t believe Michael Caine was even asked to play a role in a movie after that, it was so awful.

Let me put it this way: Benny Hill (yes, that Benny Hill) is one of the co-stars. The plot was so full of holes that you could drive a Mini Cooper– no, make that three Mini Coopers– through them. The Italian Mafia was supposed to be a bunch of scary bad guys but in fact just had dark suits and bad hairdos, eventually coming up with some kind of plan to steal the gold from Caine and his buddies but mysteriously disappearing from the final part of the movie. The Italian police were more like the Keystone Cops with their idiotic hijinks and complete ineptitude. The computer that controlls Turin’s traffic lights apparently makes a bunch of crazy hums and beeps when it reads the 18″ tape reel with the hacker program on it… which had to be installed by a highly skilled programming genius hired just for the job, because no mere grunt could possibly have switched the tape like he did.

The high point of the film was when the prison warden, who is involved in the whole gold heist for reasons beyond mortal comprehension, struts around the prison while all of the inmates bang their food trays and sing. I kid you not.

By the end of the movie I was really hoping the gold would slide out of the back of the bus and take everyone tumbling down the rocky mountainside in a flaming ball of destruction. Heck, maybe that’s what happens– the movie ends right at that point, and you never know.

Note to self: sometimes the original is much, much worse than the remake. Do we dare watch the original 1960 version of Ocean’s Eleven?

11/29/2009

“At Discover Card, online security is our top priority!”

Just tried to change the password on my Discover account, but was told that I can only use letters and numbers– no “special” characters– and it has to be between 5 and 10 characters.

Thanks, Discover! It must be a real challenge to allow a password that’s 12 characters long and contains special characters… like every other web site on the planet. I can understand why your top priority doesn’t include something as simple as that.

Grrr.

11/26/2009

Watching episode 3 of “V” tonight, at the end is a little chatty scene between Anna, the supreme commander of the Visitors, and Lisa, the cute peace corps representative who– for reasons beyond mortal comprehension– hangs out with sullen teenager Tyler. And as they were talking, Anna praised Lisa for the good job she was doing wooing Tyler or whatever. There was a pause.

At the same time, both Laralee and I said, “Yeah, thanks, Mom.”

And as if on cue, Lisa said, “Thank you, Mother.”

Whoa! The big climactic revelation of the episode! The cliffhanger that will leave us wondering until the next installment! La and I could totally write this stuff.

11/26/2009

Alex is reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy and has almost finished the first book. I’m so proud. He read The Hobbit a few years ago and found it so-so, but he says he’s really enjoying the full series. Unlike me, he reads several books at once so while he’s been plowing through The Fellowship of the Ring he’s also been reading various comic books and other teen stuff from the library.

The other day I asked him where he was in the book and he told me he was reading the second-to-last chapter “The Great River”. Then he commented, “How dumb are these hobbits, anyway? Frodo hears a splash and Sam sees a ‘log with eyes’ and none of them realize it’s Gollum? Sheesh.”

So true.

Speaking of which, here’s some Lord of the Rings humor: