John Borwick’s blog

Neat stuff John likes.

July 31st, 2003

roaming

Today’s Internet provided by Cafe Cyclo.

July 31st, 2003

Dean today

New York Times: Dean’s getting good press

Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire: Dean the front runner?

Dean Defense Forces has some good new “action items.”

July 31st, 2003

*Lots* of blogging about “gay marriage”

Well, both Bush and the Pope have come out (ha) against gay marriage this week. I read one article describing how President Bush’s press conference seemed to take Howard Dean on all points, especially this issue: Dean is the democratic candidate seen as “most for” gay marriage.

Tapped’s article about how this will influence the election is interesting… they say that it’s going to bring more conservatives out to vote in 2004. That other article (source unremembered) talks about how this is distracting people from the “Iraq yellowcake” story.

July 31st, 2003

the Politics we can’t do without

Closing the Washington Monument describes tactics that all government agencies have to embrace, if they want to stay away. The article describes how the National Park Service threatened to reduce visiting hours at the Washington Monument when asked to reduce their budget.

Maybe NC State and other groups (in this bankrupt state, at least) could take this ball and run with it.

July 30th, 2003

the Internet leads job seekers astray

It is misleadingly simple to apply for jobs on-line.

You can spend a whole day just looking for sites that might post jobs. After the initial invested effort, you can return each day to those sites, e-mail a few resumes, sign up for a new “robot” that sends you jobs as they become available, and wait.

The problem is that you and the organizations with the jobs have no personal connection. You never even shook anyone’s hand. You feel bad because your resume (which may have taken several hours to prepare) has disappeared to jobs@acompany.com; there’s no sense of accomplishment with at least having done something. The people hiring have never met you or talked to you, so they don’t feel at all bad in rejecting you (seen by them as “the unqualified applicant”).

This hits home for me because I’m reading The Rainmaker by John Grisham. He talks about how hard it is for his main character to get jobs. The character’s job leads (with strangers) develop when he gets a chance to really connect with potential employers.

July 30th, 2003

Helios CDs

Helios has blank CDs available for if you’d like to burn one and contribute to their collection. I’m not totally convinced of the legality of the situation.

If I *were* to make a CD, it would look something like this:

1. Hyper-Ballad, Bjork
2. Nagi / Hoshizukiyo, Out Of Perspective
3. 4, Aphex Twin
4. Kalpol Introl, Autechre
5. Maybe I'll Come Down, Soul Coughing
6. Flim, Aphex Twin
7. Les Yper-sound, Stereolab
8. Autechre - 04 - Slip, Autechre
9. Hunter, Bj�rk
10. 06, Aphex Twin
11. True Dreams of Wichita, Soul Coughing
12. Tone Burst, Stereolab
13. Communication Network, Out Of Perspective
14. All Neon Like, Björk
15. Polska Release, Sanna Kurki-Suonio
16. Strong Bad Techno, Strong Bad
July 30th, 2003

The Internet’s Hard to Find

Without a cable connection, I’ve been stuck trying to find places I can get wireless access.

Yesterday (and today), I went to Helios Coffee to use their free wireless Internet. Well, I guess you get what you pay for… although I’ve been able to use their wireless Internet in the past, it hasn’t been working these last two days.

It did sputter on long enough yesterday for me to receive emails, but weirdly it cut off again before I could send the two emails I’d queued.

How am I getting access, then? We’re at the NCSU Libraries.

July 29th, 2003

Jack Kerouac and iTunes

I’ve got a 3-CD collection of Beat Generation material in iTunes. When you add a CD to iTunes, it goes to CDDB and tries to figure out what ID3 tags to put on the song.

Whoever submitted their data to CDDB said that the Jack Kerouac interview on this CD is “unclassifiable.” Yet, they themselves classified it.

This is what happens when I lose the Internet connection.

July 29th, 2003

No Cable, No Phone

While in the midst of talking with our landlord, the phone cut off. I thought it was just a weak connection–but called from my cell phone and the line just kept ringing. Then I went to check my email–and something was wrong with the internet connection. I went downstairs, and found we have no cable.

Either the utilities were scheduled to be cut off today (we’re moving out on July 31) or maybe someone accidentally cut the cables while doing construction work or something.

Nevertheless, a large part of my life for the last year–the Internet, cable television, and the land line–are gone.

July 29th, 2003

Defense Dept. Program Taking Terror Bets

To quote Senator Dorgan,

“I think this is unbelievably stupid.”

WBAL article.