Archives

Look Ma, No Wires

Belkin F5D7010After bringing home a DVR on Saturday, I made a second significant technological upgrade to our household on Sunday in the form of wireless 802.11b networking — finally. Our cable modem connection, which sits in the bedroom, now broadcasts a clean 802.11b signal throughout the apartment, thanks to a new Netgear MR814v2 wireless router which I managed to buy for a remarkable US$40, after rebates.

It astounds me that the price point for wireless networking has dropped so quickly, but it makes sense now that the slower 802.11b standard is rapidly being superseded by the faster 802.11g standard. At forty bucks, an 802.11b router is an incredible bargain, as most home networking needs will almost never exceed its 11Mbps limit. Even if, through some dramatic and unforseen alteration in my computing habits, my home network traffic demands 802.11g within a few months, then I’ll be able to comfortably discard this Netgear router knowing that it provided me a very economical entryway into the wireless world.

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Time Is on My Side

Explorer 8000 DVRMy dog has a habit of demanding to go outside during the eighth inning of just about every afternoon ballgame I watch on TV, but during today’s Yankees-Red Sox match I had a solution that suited both man and beast: digital video recording. I pressed ‘Pause’ on the remote control, walked Mister President out to the dog park and let him run around for about fifteen minutes. When we got back to the house I pressed &#8216Play’ and watched Jorge Posada hit a crucial home run to win it for the Yankees with a final score of 10-7.

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The Devil’s Advocate

Attorney General John AshcroftThe front page of today’s Washington Post features a lengthy article on “Attorney General John Ashcroft. The article covers an incipient trend among politicians from the center and right of the political spectrum who have recently begun to question the A.G.’s approach to combating terrorism in the post September 11th world: “…[Ashcroft] finds himself at odds with some fellow Republicans from Idaho to Capitol Hill who are troubled by the extent of his anti-terrorism tactics and angered by his unwillingness to compromise.” I won’t hold my breath, but I hold out hope that Mr. Ashcroft will emerge as a major issue running up to the November 2004 elections. In fact, I credit the man for inspiring me to get up out of my seat and resolve to do everything within my power to see George W. Bush unseated; in my estimation, there has been no greater threat to the civil liberties guaranteed under the Bill of Rights for the last thirty years than this failed senator from Missouri.

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Labor Day Weekend, Citysearch-Style

New York empties out for Labor Day weekend, when everybody who’s anybody heads out of town in order to avoid the ridicule of New York Magazine. Over the five years I’ve been here, I’ve actually learned that these are some of the nicest times to be here in the city (this partly explains why my girlfriend and I went away last weekend). Every year at this time, a general calm falls over Manhattan as there are fewer pushy assholes roaming the streets, less competition for the nine o’clock show at the movie theater, and thinner shopping crowds to take advantage of the temporary amnesty from taxes on clothing sales.

It’s also easier to reserve tables at the restaurants that stay open through the holiday, though finding a good restaurant through Citysearch remains as frustrating as ever.

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The Hog Ate My Homework

Hog Bay NotebookI had more or less given up on the idea that I was ever going to find a replacement for Stickies when I read a very interesting article by Matt Neuberg in this week’s issue of TidBITS. Neuberg, in this latest in a series of articles on a sub-genre of software that might be called ‘snippet keepers,’ describes a supremely simple application that “…you can learn to use in about a minute — and [that] has an elegance and visual clarity that is simply stunning.” The software he was writing about is called Hog Bay Notebook.

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Assemble the Deaniacs

Dean in New YorkThis morning at about t 11:00a, the Dean fundraising monitor sat at about US$750,000, which left me a little skeptical that it would actually reach the one million dollar target. But here at 05:30p, the total is a robust US$919,482.38. It looks like the goal is well within reach and I’m feeling pretty enthusiastic about the whole enterprise, though the nagging skeptic in me wonders whether I’ve set myself up to be ultimately disappointed by Dean’s evolving platform. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I guess. For the time being, I’m more or less easing into a commitment to this candidate.

If you’re in the New York metro area and you have even a passing interest in this man’s prospects for winning the 2004 election (and especially if you have an interest in ensuring that George W. Bush does not win another four years in office) then you should come to Bryant Park this evening at 08:00p. That’s where the Dean campaign will be holding the raucous culmination to its “Sleepless Summer Tour.&#8221 It’s going to be a full-scale rally with Dean campaign officials, special guest speakers and live music which I’m sure to find completely cheesey. It’s going to be very rock ’n’ roll, or something. The Governor himself is due to make a speech (the event runs from 08-11:00p, but he has a private fundraising event earlier in the evening so I’m willing to bet he won’t take the stage until 11:00p or even later), and that’s what I’m really going for; I’m hoping that Dean in concert is as good as the records.

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Dollar for Dollar

Howard DeanFormer Vermont Governor Howard Dean is accelerating the pace of his bid for president by trying to raise US$1 million before midnight tomorrow, ostensibly to match the enormous sums in big donor money being raised by President Bush during his highly specious, month-long vacation. This is a repeat of the stunt fundraising that the Dean campaign employed earlier in the year, when supporters unexpectedly raised US$500,000 in response to a challenge to match the US$300,000 then being collected from wealthy special interests by Vice-President Cheney.

It’s no secret that the Dean campaign has been getting progressively bolder as its fortunes rise, but this million dollar gambit is not only an act of political hubris but also a symbolic demonstration that individual donors — and voters — can successfully challenge the monstrous Republican money machine. Hopefully. The results are being posted hourly (or almost hourly) at DeanforAmerica.com, and even if the final total falls short of seven figures, it will be a substantial monetary boost and a nontrivial rally.

When I donated my US$25 this morning, the figure sat somewhere around US$450,000. As of 10:00p this evening, the officially tally is just over US$677,00. That figure is the result of over 11,300 individual contributions of, on average, US$59 each. Which means that, roughly, some three thousand voters donated two hundred grand in the past twelve hours or so — a stunning statistic. A few weeks ago I worried for the flirting-with-disaster quality of supporting Howard Dean, but with each day that worry subsides a bit.

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Taking the New Yorker Out of New York

030821_about_town.gifTomorrow morning, my girlfriend, my dog and I are taking a rental car up into New England to go stay with a friend at Martha’s Vineyard. This will be another one of my attempts to relax, unwind etc., and to shake myself free of this semi-confused haze that I feel like I’ve been carrying around for months. Wouldn’t it be great if I could return completely refreshed and with a renewed zest for life?

Curiously, I’m hoping to use this little getaway from the city to catch up on my backlog of New Yorker issues. It’s mildly ironic that the city’s most prominent periodical namesake is often best read when far away from its five boroughs. Actually, it’s going to be a “New Yorker”-themed weekend, as I will also be trying to make it through a big chunk of Ben Yagoda’s “About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made.” I’ve been stuck at the hundred page mark in this excellent chronicle of the development of that magazine for a few weeks now, and I’m actually quite anxious to get back to it. So now you know.

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BuyMusic.com’s Tin Ear

BuyMusic.comIf you’re a fan of Kelly Clarkson, Justin Timberlake and/or Coldplay, and you want to download their songs to your Windows computer, then you have my sympathies. Without signing on to one of the competing subscription-based services and committing to monthly payouts to the major label record companies, the only real choice you have is the recently launched BuyMusic.com, and it totally sucks. I know this because I used it for the first time today and my experience was very, very poor.

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