Author: David

Over-educated Curmudgeon, Bit-Bucket Tuner and Budding Brewmeister.
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A Little Give, A Little Take

Overall, the Amazon Kindle Fire announced today (available November 15) is net positive on the give/take from what was leaked and speculated about before the release announcement.

Minuses:

Amazon Prime membership is just the one month trial, instead of the rumored year. Add $80 to make it stay (for a year).

Rumored to possibly be available next month. Nuh-uh. November, as stated above, IF one gets in line now.

Pluses:

$200, not $250

Dual core, not the rumored single core

Email app (designed to import email from Gmail, Yahoo!, etc.); was thought that would be missing.

Also, net pluses (with a couple of privacy cavils) for the Amazon Silk Browser. Overall, probably a Very Good Thing for what the Kindle Fire will be asked to do by most users.

All the rest as rumored/leaked pretty much spot on. Tempting, very tempting.

Real cost for optimal use:

$200 for Kindle Fire
$80 for a year’s “membership” in Amazon Prime (something I have already been seriously considering anyway)
$30 for a zip sleeve (why pay $200 for a techie toy and transport it w/o some sort of protection? Yeh, I know people do dumb things like that all the time, but I expect my equipment to last until I tire of it. *heh*)

So, about $310 real up front costs. Back end costs for apps are an unknown at this point. Some will be free, of course; others? No real idea at this point. Books and other Amazon product orders are more than likely just stuff I’d be buying anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUtmOApIslE

Mini-update: While reading a Kindle edition of a David Weber book referenced in a later post, it came upon me again just how handy reading ebooks can be. While I prefer reading books in my web browser, the Kindle app for PCs is Good Enough, and does have the added advantage of slightly easier referencing (and syncing across devices), which I imagine would also hold true for any physical Kindle. For example, just now I ran across a word whose root I knew and which, from context and root, I was sure I understood; even so since I had never actually read this particular word before, I I CLICKed on it and immediately had the definition verifying my understanding. That’s slightly more convenient than my old practice of keeping a dictionary handy for similar use, although it doesn’t afford the enjoyment I frequently had from continuing to read on down the page in the dictionary (sometimes for pages and pages… ), etc. *heh*

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Music and Sensibilities (re-run)

[This is a repost from nearly three years ago, very slightly redacted]

One of the serious issues facing our society today is a direct result of what Ortega identified as but one of the undue effects of “mass man” on society: a coarsening of art in the public arena. Given my background and inclinations, I perceive the coarsening most often in the performance arts, particularly music.

Now, let me back up a bit and articulate a bit of what this lil rant was spurred by. I received a glurge-filled email today that went on about the life of John Henry Newton, author of the song most widely known as “Amazing Grace.” So, naturally, besides beginning an automatic critique of the glurge in the email text, my mind’s ear began replaying various performances–including choral, congregational and solo–of “Amazing Grace” and found, as always, that (almost) ALL of them fell short of the power and beauty of the lyrics, because the tune most commonly sung to the words is a lousy match for the words’ meaning and is not really very singable, to boot.

*sigh* And then there’s the fact that everyone and his untalented dog seems to think that they can improve the tune (and thus the song) by screwing around with it and mangling it badly. While it may well be proper to abuse poor tunes in such a way, sadly the abuse never seems to be performed by anyone with any real musical ability.

Well, that’s where this rant originated, at least. Now, what’s its point? Simply this: most folks’ ears are too deadened by crap sold as music nowadays that even attempting to point out the differences between good and bad prosody, between music/lyric marriages made in heaven and those made BY hell is almost impossible. Sure, if one is able to catch a child young enough, and feed the child a daily dose of well-wrought music, perhaps the child will attain adulthood with ears that can actually–at least–reproduce pitch and hopefully even desire music that feeds rather than craps on his higher nature.

But should that occur, then that adult will be an alien in our debased society.

And this alienation from “better things” in favor of scarfing up feces misrepresenting itself as art is symptomatic of the coarsening of every aspect of our society. The deaf ears that cannot even hear the difference between the musical feces that passes as most “music” today (and I include most contemporary soi disant “serious, academic or classical” crap as well) and real music cannot tell the differences between any of the other lies that the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind spews and truth, either.

*sigh*

And it’s all our fault for elevating the sensibilities of the common man to iconic stature, for whatever genuine virtues the common man possesses (and there are more than a few), lowering social sensibilities, and thus social virtues, to the lowest common denominator is a sure recipe for the demise of a society.

Teach your children well. The government schools and the Hivemind certainly will not.

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(Sung to the Tune of “O Christmas Tree”)

O clueless me
O clueless me
When will I use my storage?
O clueless me
O clueless me
When will I use my storage?

Yeh, for some reason I have 20GB of Amazon Cloud Storage available that I was unaware of until just a few minutes ago. Heck, that’s eight times more storage available than I have with Dropbox. Of course, Dropbox’s syncing app is too cool for school, but still…

And, oh yeh, I’m using only a tiny fraction of the 25GB (plus “unlimited M$Office and graphics files”) storage in my Skydrive accouint…

O clueless me
O clueless me
When will I use my storage?
O clueless me
O clueless me
When will I use my storage?

Meanwhile, I have several terabytes of local storage filling up with… stuff.

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Contextual

Excerpt from life:

“As my best friend, you get a star in your crown for being the BF of such a PITA.”

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Ask Not…

…on whom the greedy socialistas prey; They prey on thee.

Elizabeth Warren suggests–nay! blatantly proclaims!–that the greedy capitalists OWE the proceeds of their labor and risk to society (as if, as a “class” [group] they do not already pay a larger share of taxes, both in gross amount and in percentage of income, than other classes).

Readers of Jerry Pournelle’s Chaos Manor blog (and Pournelle himself) point out a few obvious flaws in Warren’s pronouncements on so-called “fairness”.

UPDATE: Although many other sites go into great detail demolishing the sugar-coated toxic proclamations Elizabeth Warren
is making, Roxeanne, over at Datechguy’s Blog has a very readable version of the major arguments. Good reading. A sample? Sure:

According to Elizabeth Warren, the moment you first flip a switch in that factory and start producing a good, you are an evil rich person who needs to “give back”, because building that factory just sort of happened, without effort, intellect, financial risk, or the employment of others. Had this chickie even run a lemonade stand, she would understand the fallacy in her thinking.

Glenn Reynolds suggests Elizabeth Warren do some remedial reading (below the fold)

I would suggest we start by confiscating all of Warren’s assets to go toward achieving the social ends she seeks. I mean, it’s not as if she’s ever done anything substantive to “give back” to society. Lawyer? Law professor? We have too many of those already.

And another UPDATE, this from Jerry Pournelle on 09/28/11:

As to Ms. Warren’s viral speech about how others paid for the roads and the schools and the police force, I would have thought those are mostly paid by local property taxes, and if the factory owner has got away with not paying those he’s pretty clever. I would have thought that factory owners paid a lot of property taxes. How much of that is fair is, I would presume, a matter for local communities. Raise them too much and the factory moves elsewhere, as Massachusetts has long ago discovered. Of course the remedy for that, according to liberals, is to eliminate competition – make the taxes national so they can’t be escaped. Oddly enough that was all debated as part of the Convention of 1787, but you’d never guess that from listening to this Harvard Professor, who doesn’t seem to have read The Federalist Papers or Tocqueville. But then that’s not too surprising.

Indeed. (BTW, you’re up pretty late, Jerry, “Get some rest. If you haven’t got your health, then you haven’t got anything.” ;-))

And do not neglect Ms. Warren’s remedial reading, below.
Continue reading “Ask Not…”

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Dumping Time?

For some years I’ve been a member of a discussion group that has seriously deteriorated over time. Examples abound, but here’s a question from a guy–one of his most literate examples–that illustrates my growing frustration with the discussion group (slightly redacted to make it at least understandable out of context):

“[Do you] believe in the history as taught in school or revisionist history?”

First, what history? The author uses the definite article with the construction, “the history” but does not designate the history of place or period. Absent such designation, it should read, still goofily, “believe in history as taught…”

Next, what school? Where? What level of schooling? I could go on with that point, but perhaps you get my drift, eh?

And “revisionist history” as the “or” option in an “either/or” proposition? WHAT revisionist history? Many, many many revisions of history occur throughout the course of examining events of the past. Some represent particular points of view. Which “revisionist history” does the author refer to? Revision of what exactly?

The question itself reveals a particular POV–that of an historical/literary illiterate pretending to knowledge he does not have.

Irritating.

And such interlocutors are coming to dominate the discussions. Between them and the folks who know quite well how to use Google and how to cut and paste and use such “skilz” as a substitute for knowledge and reasoning to make dishonest arguments of misdirection, hand-waving, burning of straw men, etc., I begin to think it’s time to move on and leave the space to Ortega’s Mass Man.

*sigh*

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100%!!!

Amazing. Most politicians will score at least 3 out of 9, but our current p-resident of the White Café Au Lait House scores a perfect 9 of 9, as far as I can tell from what is on the record of his past and present behaviors.

1) has a grandiose sense of self- importance ( exaggerates achievements, and talents, expects to be recognized as superior )

2) is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love)

3) believes he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people or institutions

4) requires excessive admiration

5) has a sense of entitlement, i.e, unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his/her expectations

6) is interpersonally exploitive, ie, takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends

7) lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings of others

8 ) is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her

9) shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes.

5 of 9 comprise a definitive diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (DSM-IV, 301.81). Treatment, while primarily via hospitalization with medical personnel who essentially humor the grandiose delusions of these people is essentially just long term “talk therapy” in one-on-one and group babble as the only real treatment options offered.

Personally, I think these sorts of people should just be drugged and warehoused for the protection of society.

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Tech Lust Drool

Update: While I’m not exactly holding my breath in anticipation of the presser this A.M. (just 5 or so hours away at this time), I do eagerly anticipate getting some hard news on this device. Of course I’ll at least wait until the first revision hits sales (by some reports already semi-halfway scheduled for Q1 2012), V.1 of almost any new hardware is a silly purchase, IMO. And again, maybe this is not the tablet I have (not) been looking for… *heh*

Amazon has been holding its cards pretty close to its vest, as these things go, but Amazon isn’t exactly Secret Squirrel, now it it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXZNkxJFiQ0

This could be just the thing to get me to change some priorities (including sadly consigning my lust for the Notion Ink Adam’s transflective screen to the back burner *sigh*).

The Kindle Tablet will sell for $250, much cheaper than competing tablets. It will come with an Amazon Prime membership which provides free shipping on some Amazon purchases, a $79 value. Amazon will likely tie other purchase incentives to the Tablet, and will likely integrate Amazon’s Kindle library book service.

*feh* That’s just $60 more than the 3G Kindle. Of course, the Kindle Tablet is Wi-Fi only making a comparison to the $140 Kindle more proper, but still… It also has no eInk capabilities, but still…

*heh* The feature list and description here does make the ole tech lust saliva run.

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Ah Yes, Monday…

Different things to different people; different strokes and all that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnKKlf_FGwg

And apologies for the citation of Bangles boring tooth decay cotton candy crap:

At least it’s not Vevo’s “Hey Monday” or the even worse Death Cab for Cutie’s “Monday Morning” or the stab-myself-in-the ear-with-an-ice-pick “Blue Monday” by New Order.