Category Archives: General Chaos

buzzword compliance, General Chaos

Live from Moscone, it’s iSight

I got a quick look at the keynote at Sun’s SunNetworking conference in San Francisco this morning, from my desk here in Baltimore. The view was courtesy of Simon Phipps and his PowerBook and iSight camera, via a wireless LAN connection at Moscone, to me on Apple’s iChat A/V.

This convergence of wireless networking and audio-video realtime conferencing is waaaay cool. It is portentous, in the same classs of developments as camera/phones and moblogging. It’s like peer-to-peer TV news.

I had been in doubt about how well my iSight camera was working with my old reliable G4 Cube; despite being able to conference within my LAN, my attempts to conferene with an old colleague had been discouraging. I was convinced the problem was the speed of the G4’s bus, or processing speed, or (worse yet) its cable modem connection being too slow.

It turns out, however, that it’s his problem.

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General Chaos

There's something blowin', but it doesn't smell like an answer.

As we here in the mid-Atlantic start battening down for the big blow, John Negroponte was administering a big blow of his own, vetoing a security council resolution condemning Israel's plans to exile Arafat. His reason? He used the “r”
word–it lacked a “robust condemnation of acts of terrorism.” Whatever.

And the Greenspan Gang decided that, since there was no basement left for short term interest rates, that they would hold them where they were–and said low rates can be preserved for a “considerable period.” That's a swirling vortex of hot air, as the interest rates that individuals can get have already decoupled from the short term rate, and are rising on their own without any help from the Fed.

Then there's the hot wind out of California, where it looks like the recall vote may or may not be delayed, depending on the actions of the Ninth Circuit Court, and possibly Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, or even the full Supreme Court. I can't get worked up about it either way.

There was some good news today from another usual source of hot air–the Capitol. The Senate repealed the FCC's proposed new rules for media ownership. Imagine my surprise to be on the same side of some issue as Trent Lott.

But the White House may still get its way on this despite popular opinion. The spinning winds from the White House: “The rules that the FCC came up with more accurately reflect the changing media landscape,''according to White House press secretary McClellan.

Right.

So, Isabel isn't the only destructive wind blowing around out there right now. And the people of this country not eligible for one of Dubya's sweetheart corporate welfare deals are the ones who'll end up getting soaked.

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