Listics

Now is the time on Sprockets ven ve pick apart Vista and comment on the huge security holes and such.

Call it grateful acknowledgment, call it a modest flash of self awareness, but I would be remiss if from time to time I did not reflect on the amazing creative power of Locke, Searls and Weinberger, and the inspiration and creative arousal I get from their work.

My buoyant mood may of course also be influenced by having finished yesterday a three week round of smearing debilitating poison on my arms. Hey, I may be all scabby now, but I used to look really cool hanging a sunburned forearm out the window while lipping a Pall Mall and driving low and slow down the avenue.

Art-centered artificiality theory? Going mental? Want to be happy when you get there? Check in with the exceptionally hygienic Ms. Herding at the front desk at the Boulder Office of the Mystic Bourgeoisie Lab of Fastidious Mental Hygiene.

How does she find time for it all?

Molly Ivins died. This from John Nichols column memorializing her today…

When Washington pundits started counseling bipartisanship after voters routed the Republicans in the 2006 elections, Molly wrote, “The sheer pleasure of getting lessons in etiquette from Karl Rove and the right-wing media passeth all understanding. Ever since 1994, the Republican Party has gone after Democrats with the frenzy of a foaming mad dog. There was the impeachment of Bill Clinton, not to mention the trashing of both Clinton and his wife - accused of everything from selling drugs to murder - all orchestrated by that paragon of manners, Tom DeLay. … So after 12 years of tolerating lying, cheating and corruption, the press is prepared to lecture Democrats on how to behave with bipartisan manners.

“Given Bush’s record with the truth, this bipartisanship sounds like a bad idea on its face,” Ivins continued, in a column that warned any Democrat who might think to make nice with President Bush and his team that “These people are not only dishonest - they’re not even smart.”

…and this…

“I know that sludge-for-brains like Bill O’Reilly attack the ACLU for being ‘un-American,’ but when Bill O’Reilly’s constitutional rights are violated, the ACLU will stand up for him just like they did for Oliver North, Communists, the KKK, atheists, movement conservatives and everyone else they’ve defended over the years,” she told them. “The premise is easily understood: If the government can take away one person’s rights, it can take away everyone’s.”

Apple, the upscale Cupertino, California toy maker, widget factory and tireless enemy of open standards and free speech lost in court this month and has agreed to obey the court and just pay the legal fees of the bloggers they tried to intimidate. The alternative to paying up now was paying up later after losing an appeal, or — just as bad — winning an appeal but losing even more respect for playing the mean bully against their own fan boys. The fee judgment caps EFF’s May, 2006 victory in the matter by adding some minor consequences to the Cupertino toy maker’s bullying behavior.

During the time Steve Jobs has run the company, Apple has been hostile to truly independent journalism about its products and policies. This current attack on journalism — and that is precisely what is going on here — reflects the side of Jobs that will someday lead the company back down from its current heights. He is a genius, no question, but he is a control freak who doesn’t seem to care whatsoever that he’s infuriating some natural allies.
Dan Gillmor

File under: stuff I wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t read Doc Searls this morning