What gives the feds the right to set your clock for you? It's tyranny.
Author Archives: Kyle Kimberlin
9/11
So I was just sitting here doing some computer stuff, listening to the Grateful Dead sing The Wheel. I was thinking that sometimes male and female voices just don’t mesh as well as they should, in the digitally compressed MP3 files we’re listening to these days. I brought up iTunes to see more about the song.
I have several versions of The Wheel, and this one was recorded at Swing Auditorium in February 1977. In the next minute I learned that Swing Auditorium was in San Bernardino, CA. It was built in 1949 and could hold 10,000 people. Check out all the famous groups who played there.
The auditorium was struck by a small plane on 9/11/1981 and had to be demolished. Imagine that. 20 years to the day before the day we call 9/11, there was a 9/11. Not a terrorist though.
I can’t quickly find any photos of Swing Auditorium in Google Images, and frankly this post isn’t worth much more time. But here is a photo of The Dead playing there in 1977.
Click here to see it full size.
Yep, that was taken on the very night I’m listening to, in Feb. 1977. The voices I was hearing are the guy 2nd from left and the girl 3rd from right. Jerry Garcia and Donna Jean Godchaux. He’s dead, she’s not. So it goes.
The wheel is turning
and you can’t slow down
You can’t let go
and you can’t hold on
You can’t go back
and you can’t stand still
If the thunder don’t get you
then the lightning will
Would you like to hear that recording of The Wheel too? Click here. That should open your computer’s music player and play the song. If not, go to this directory page and right click the link that says “the wheel ….” Select Save Target As … or Save Link As … depending on your browser, then download it to your hard drive.
Small wheel turn by the fire and rod
Big wheel turn by the grace of God
Everytime that wheel turn round
bound to cover just a little more ground
ad issue
So I was at the local gym today, treadmilling earnestly along, and listened to a podcast about advertising on the Internet. Seems a lot of people these days are using software that blocks the advertisements on Web sites from appearing. This is a concern to people who operate the Web sites.
I’ve tried such programs – which are add-ons to Web browsers such as Firefox – and generally they didn’t work as well as I wanted them to. I installed one recently in hopes of blocking the gynormous and vulgar ads on Yahoo Mail, but it didn’t work. I have a program running now, which is just for Gmail. It does a lot of things to make Gmail less cluttered, more minimalistic. One of the options is to remove all the Google ads that appear on the side of an email. It works perfectly.
The Web site person being interviewed, who is from a site called Ars Technica, explained something that I didn’t know before. They get paid when we look at their ads, not when we click on them. I always thought that since I wasn’t going to click on any ads, it didn’t matter if I blocked them. The Web site was getting the same money from my visit – or not – either way.
When people use ad-blocking programs, his Web site gets no revenue, the man explained. They are spending money to produce the content of the Web site, and paying for the bandwidth to show it to people for free, and losing money from ad-blocking people in the process. That’s not cool.
Which brings me back to Yahoo Mail. I don’t use it, I use Gmail. I might use Yahoo for some types of email, but don’t because of the massive, hideous, stupid advertising there. Yes, I could pay Yahoo $20 a year for ad-free e-mail. But no. I’m already paying them almost that much a month for hosting my Web site. That fee includes premium business email. I don’t use that, because I can’t effectively merge it with my old free Yahoo mail account.
The Ars Technica guy said this is the best way to deal with ugly advertising: don’t use the Web site, and tell the Webmaster there why you won’t. They will pay attention to complaints, he says. Well, Yahoo won’t. Totally oblivious.
ArsTechnica, by the way, is a tasteful and useful site, with tasteful, unobtrusive advertising. I wouldn’t block them.
Gmail’s ads are on the side, in text and links with no gaudy images. They’re fine. And Gmail is probably the most useful thing online for me. I’m using it now to type this blog post. So I’ll probably turn off the ad-blocking feature I’m employing there.
It seems only fair, really. If we’re getting the free gratis benefits of professionally-generated Web content, which is paid for by advertising, we should be willing to keep ads visible. But I think fair is a street that runs both ways. Keep it tasteful, no pop-ups, and none of those flying, gliding annoying things that drift across what I’m trying to read. Or I’ll block yer a–, see if I don’t.
pink noise
“The person and the various parts of their brain and the mouse and the monitor are so tightly intertwined that they’re just one thing,” said Anthony Chemero, a cognitive scientist at Franklin & Marshall College. “The tool isn’t separate from you. It’s part of you.”
So long as the results of our interaction with everyday tools are as expected, we are atoned – symbiotic – with them. When the results are not, we are not. We become aware of the disconnect between us and the tools.
Believe it? Read the short article linked above; otherwise, you’ll never know what pink noise is.
wealth
"Many writers upon the science of political economy have declared that it is the duty of a nation first to encourage the creation of wealth; and second, to
– Leland Stanford
direct and control its distribution. All such theories are delusive."
Boy, you can say that again, Leland, you old Populist.
There is something intensely ironic here, but it's a little too late on a Monday for me to put my finger on it.waste not
I sent the following message electronically to both of my senators and my representative today.
Dear … today I received a letter from the US Census, telling me they are going to send me a census form in a week. This is ridiculous. The paper industry is a top polluter, a top contributor to climate change, and they are laying waste and devastation to our wilderness to harvest pulp. The wastewater effluent resulting from sending this sheet of paper, in an envelope, to many millions of homes, is staggering. And of course, they are all going straight into the landfills. And this isn't even the Census, it's just needless note that the Census is on the way. A note on the importance of participation couldn't have been included with the Census itself? What a waste of resources. When we re-elect you, I hope to see a higher environmental conscience in Washington. Respectfully ….
failure to launch
Doc Searls takes an interesting look at the cold war, and how crazy we are.
Dave Eggers: Interview
An interesting interview with the writer and published Dave Eggers, in the Guardian.
His books, publishing empire, human rights, and stuff for kids.
magically suspicious
Many of us in Carpinteria got another reminder of our abject dependence on electricity tonight. Power went off to the eastern half of town today about 3:00pm. Large residential neighborhoods, the shopping center, city hall, and business/industrial park were effected at first. Some people got their power back in about an hour, while many of us waited about 5 hours.
Arthur C. Clarke said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Electricity is pretty close to qualifying, don't you think? Despite its ubiquity in every vaguely civilized corner of the world, it's still a little amazing. From bare light bulbs over barn doors to server farms, to the electronics on a jet, to the pacemaker in Dick Cheney's chest, we have learned to do practically anything with electricity.
My power is finally back on, thanks to a crew from Southern California Edison, who had to climb down in a damp electrical vault up the street from my place. I certainly appreciate that. My Dad worked for Edison for over 30 years, and I know it's a hard job.
Still it seems like something in that same vault goes kerflooie about once a year. A transformer, a circuit switch, I don't know. But I'm really beginning to wonder what's going on down there. Is there some kind of lingering defect beneath the pavement? A curse? A malevolent mole? Do we need to send Karl Kolchak down there to investigate?
Maybe they're just getting replacement parts in boxes of Lucky Charms. It's Magically Suspicious.
Maybe they're just getting replacement parts in boxes of Lucky Charms. It's Magically Suspicious. get me stats, stat!
This is very cool. As of last night, Metaphor has received 14000 visitors and counting. The blog had 450 visitors in February, and readership has climbed dramatically over the past few months. 125 visitors this week, and people are spending longer here to pause and read.
Thank you all very much! I know there's an almost infinite selection out there, and I appreciate you making Metaphor one of the places where you alight.
a little sensitive
Ever read the comic strip Pooch Cafe? Today's is kinda funny. Poncho the dog is marooned in the cafe during a blizzard, with his nemesis the mailman.
design changed, again
Metaphor has metamorphosed, new colors, new header, and it’s much wider on your screen. Hopefully this makes it more readable. Feel free to comment on the changes.
Also, there is a Follow Me button for Twitter. Maybe I’ll tweet a little, maybe not. I read an article that said Twitter is used now for serious news gathering and adult professional networking. I checked out the public timeline, and if that’s serious about anything but caffeine and teenage hormones, I’m a gold medal speed skater. But what do I know.
Also, there is a Follow Me button for Twitter. Maybe I’ll tweet a little, maybe not. I read an article that said Twitter is used now for serious news gathering and adult professional networking. I checked out the public timeline, and if that’s serious about anything but caffeine and teenage hormones, I’m a gold medal speed skater. But what do I know.
Update: Nope, Twitter is still at waste of time for me. Do not follow me, for I shall not lead.
Metaphor 