Tough choices

While I was in California last week, I found myself deep in the reality distortion field induced by the presence of MacBook Airs. Alec bought himself one, and several of the speakers at Stanford were using them. The weight, screen, and keyboard are pretty damn near perfect…
I’m looking at two basic options for my next laptop. The first – the conservative approach – is to get a loaded MacBook Pro with a 250GB disk (or perhaps the 200GB 7200 rpm unit, for speed). Physically it’s a drop-in replacement for my PowerBook, but much, much faster. If I use it the same way, it will spend 90% of its time as a desktop system.
The alternative is to admit that I would rarely use all of the features of a MacBook Pro, and with a lighter machine I’d actually treat it as a portable. Of course I need plenty of disk space for my iTunes library and photos, but a 1TB Time Capsule (combination 802.11n base station and network disk) could solve that. I assume that iTunes will be able to work with its library stored on a network disk; I just need to be able to rip the occasional CD using the external SuperDrive, and then sync between my iPhone and the iTunes library.
In terms of price, the two options are roughly comparable. But can I really use a MacBook Air without a second computer? I guess I could pick up a second hand Mac Mini for a couple of hundred dollars…
One of the things that’s causing me to lean towards the MBA is this MacWorld review by Dan Frakes, who actually lived with one for a while. The comments on his piece are fascinating, including this wonderful bit of truth-telling by “OlsonBW”:

Most of my friends scoff at the MacBook Air. But you know what? The only time they pull out CDs, DVDs, or their video camera is rare.
“But I use it to edit our vacation video.” They claim.
BS, I tell them. Show me the videos from your last three vacations.
Uh … they blush and then admit they only imported it into their computer and never touched it after that.
[…]
When it comes down to it, “most” of the time they never need anything that the MacBook Air doesn’t have. Once I prove that to them they are surprised at what they actually do.
[…]
People lie too much about what they actually need. They lie a lot because they’ve got to have the biggest and fastest even when they don’t use it.

And it’s true. Most of the time I don’t use all of the features on my machine. But 3 lbs. (versus 5.5 lbs.) is a “feature” that I can really use.

Tor's strategy seems to work… with me, anyway

As I noted recently, the sci-fi publishing house Tor has started making some of its “classic” books available for free download. Obviously they hope that people will read the freebies and pay for more, and if I’m at all typical the strategy is working. First I downloaded “Spin” by Robert Charles Wilson, transferred it to my Kindle, and read it over the next week. By the time I finished, John Scalzi’s “Old Man’s War” was available. I installed it on my Kindle, read it during my trip to California, and was ready for more. No problem: a quick search and a couple of clicks located and purchased the Kindle edition of Scalzi’s “The Ghost Brigades”. Excellent!
I finished this over my breakfast coffee this morning, and went to download the third book in the trilogy, “The Last Colony”. Except I couldn’t… there was no Kindle edition. C’mon Tor: you don’t have to wait until the book hits paperback before releasing the e-book version. I poked around to see if “The Sagan Diary” was available… alas, no. Reluctantly, I abandoned Scalzi for now, and checked out other works by Robert Charles Wilson. “The Chronoliths” took my fancy, and by the time I finished my coffee it was ready to read on the Kindle. Unusually, it’s set in a very tight ((I guess “condensed” would be the right term.)) typeface that I haven’t seen before on any of my Kindle purchases. I normally read Kindle books at the smallest font setting; with “The Chronoliths” I may need to bump it up a notch. It’s very crisp, though, with better definition than most Kindle typefaces.
Before leaving the subject of the Kindle, it’s worth noting ((Noting? Celebrating!!)) that they’ve added their first UK newspaper, “The Independent”, for $14.99 a month. I’ve just started the 14 day free trial: so far, I’m impressed.

Schneier on "The Security Mindset"

Must-read piece by Bruce Schneier on what he calls The Security Mindset.

Security requires a particular mindset. Security professionals — at least the good ones — see the world differently. They can’t walk into a store without noticing how they might shoplift. They can’t use a computer without wondering about the security vulnerabilities. They can’t vote without trying to figure out how to vote twice. They just can’t help it.

And it seems that someone across the lake at UW is trying to teach it, and the students are blogging about it. Very cool.

Seeing red in the Green Zone

Like a number of other bloggers, I’ve pretty much stopped postings about the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Re-reading my blog entries from three or four years ago, the most common tag was “Politics” ((I didn’t add the “Stupidity” and “Violent world” categories until recently.)), and there was a constant stream of new outrages to get worked up about. And we did.
Five years on, everybody seems numb. There’s nothing new to write about: no political breakthroughs, no strategic shifts, no new insights. But the most telling thing is that people – politicians, press, candidates, the military – just keep steadily lowering expectations. Even the “Magic pony”, the marvellous “Surge” that would stabilize things to give politics a chance, is crumbling. There’s been no political progress, the US body count is up to 4,000, and yesterday the death toll was nearly 60. Remember John McCain’s jaunty walk through the Baghdad market last April? Not this time. And as Juan Cole reports, even the Green Zone isn’t safe:

The Green Zone was subjected to repeated mortar and rocket attacks on Sunday, which killed 1 American and 4 others inside, and at least a dozen on its edges (because those firing them were bad shots). The Green Zone is where the US Embassy and major Iraqi government buildings are. It had been a little safer recently, or at least the Pentagon was peddling that line to CNN during last week’s commemoration of the 5th anniversary of the war (see the CNN piece below). It is a measure of how the war objectives keep being defined down, that for the Green Zone to be relatively safe was trumpeted as an accomplishment. The “green zone” was always supposed to be safe, since it was heavily guarded and surrounded by blast walls.

The most ironic aspect of all this is that Bush has been trying to talk up the situation in Iraq, and how the surge has “turned things around” ((By about 360°, as far as I can see.)), in order to distract people from the state of the economy. I imagine he’s trying to help McCain, who probably needs it: as Josh points out at TPM:

John McCain’s primary economics advisor, former Sen. Phil Gramm (R), is probably as responsible for setting the stage for this crisis as anyone in the country through his legislative role in the deregulation of the financial services industry.

UPDATE: For those who are not completely numbed, this piece on the reality of the “surge” is well worth reading.

How KKUP brought out the 60s in me

Last Saturday I was staying in Palo Alto ((I spent Thursday and Friday in business meetings in San Francisco, and Monday to Thursday at Stanford University. But that’s for another post.)) and I decided to drive down to Carmel Valley to visit Merry’s parents. As I headed over to 101 for the drive down, I hit the scan button on the rental car radio, and came across a Jefferson Airplane cut. I kept listening, and heard a steady stream of great psychedelic music from the late 60s and early 70s – bands like the 13th Floor Elevators, the Byrds, Iron Butterfly, and the Buffalo Springfield. (Even Blue Cheer!)
So what was this radio station, and where had it been all my life? It turned out to be “KKUP Cupertino – 91.5 FM – Non-Commercial People’s Radio”, and they were having a “Psychedelic Marathon” fundraiser. And fortune smiled: it turned out that KKUP covers both Silicon Valley and the Monterey Bay area, so I was able to hear them almost all the way there (and back, later in the day).
I meant to phone in to make a donation (and get the great Timothy Leary t-shirt that they were describing), but I got distracted by the time I reached my hotel in the evening. So just now, a week later, I visited their website, and the special shirt is no longer available… shucks. Anyway, I ordered a regular station logo shirt, to remind myself to tune in when I’m next in the Bay Area.
Now listening: “Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man” by the Byrds.

Obvious partner for the MacBook Air

How obvious is this? Package up a 250GB hard disk, a four-port USB hub, and a USB Ethernet adapter into a nice, small package (something like the latest Iomega “Silver Series”, slim enough to stick in your pocket – about 5″ x 3″ x 0.5″ and 7 oz.), with a captive USB cable designed to slot into the MacBook Air. External power option, in case we want to coddle the MBA’s battery. Give it a MBA-style brushed metal finish, and price it at $200. Who’s going to do it first? ((This neat unit is awesome, but a bit too big.))
Of course we still need Apple to fix iTunes, so that you can sync a subset of your full library onto a MBA, just like you can with an iPod or iPhone.

Patients come first – finally!

The Times reports that the GMC ((General Medical Council, the governing body for medical practice in the UK.)) has drawn up a code of conduct designed to prevent doctors from imposing their religious and ethical beliefs on their patients.

GMC guidelines on doctors’ beliefs include

  • You must not allow any personal views about patients to prejudice your assessment of their clinical needs, [including] patient’s age, culture, disability, gender, lifestyle, marital status, race, religion, sexual orientation, or economic status
  • You should not normally discuss your personal beliefs with patients unless those beliefs are directly relevant to their care
  • Patients may ask you to perform, advise on, or refer them for a treatment…to which you have a conscientious objection. In such cases you must tell patients of their right to see another doctor
  • You must be open with patients – both in person and in printed materials such as practice leaflets – about any treatments or procedures which you choose not to provide or arrange because of a conscientious objection, but which are not otherwise prohibited
  • If your post involves arranging treatment or carrying out procedures to which you object, you should explain your concerns to your employer or contracting body
  • It is not acceptable to seek to opt out of treating a patient or group of patients because of your personal beliefs or views about them

Source: General Medical Council

Not surprisingly, a bunch of Catholic and Muslim doctors are moaning. They seem not to understand that their primary duty as doctors is to their patients, not to their superstitions.

Segwayed!

I spent today hanging out with Alec, doing some shopping and spending far too much time in the reality distortion field of his new MacBook Air. (Kathy has one too, with the SSD option.) I must confess: I desire one deeply. Very, very deeply. If I can just figure out what to do with my iTunes library…
During the afternoon we bumped into an old friend and former Sun colleague, Lisa. Segway i2That was fun. ((Hi, Lisa!)) And then in the evening we went to Jim and Kathy’s for dinner, where we were joined by Robin (ex-Sun, now of Google). Jim barbecued big prime rib steaks to go with the vegetables that Kathy prepared, while we all rapped about Sun, past and present. After the steaks – but before dessert – Jim got out Kathy’s Segway and we all had a go on it. Initially it was really weird, but after a few minutes it started to feel quite natural. I wonder what the local rules are in Seattle about using Segways; it would be awesome to commute between PacMed and Uwajimaya on one. Oh well…..