August began in western Massachusetts this morning at 3:18 AM. That’s when Canada, after holding its breath all July, exhaled, banging the canvas awning next to our bed on the second floor screened-in porch. Whitecaps rattled the lake. Branches brushed their neighbors. Something vinyl blew off our shore.

This morning I opened the third drawer in my dresser for the first time and put on a sweatshirt. We’ll have to dangle our feet off the dock to get used to the newly chilled water and before the swim is over it will be time to take our children shopping for their new notebooks and bookcovers. My son senses this. He has formed the blankets around himself to trap the warmth as he reads in bed.

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Jamie McCarthy writes to a particular newsgroup:

Microsoft again wants root access privileges on your Windows machine in exchange for providing you a more-secure operating system.

To install Windows 2000 Service Pack 3, you must click that you agree to this text:

You acknowledge and agree that Microsoft may automatically check the version of the OS Product and/or its components that you are utilizing and may provide upgrades or fixes to the OS Product that will be automatically downloaded to your computer.

“Upgrades or fixes” will almost certainly include Digital Rights Management in the years to come; in short, clicking “I Agree” means you “agree” to have your computer transformed into a Gameboy that can run only whatever code Microsoft wants you to run and output only those bits Microsoft allows you to output.

And if you don’t install Service Pack 3, you are so totally screwed I can’t even tell you. So many security fixes…

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/26517.html

In an email giving me permission to run this tidbit, Jamie adds:

You might add that, reportedly:

a separate EULA for W2K’s SP3 contains this nasty bit: ‘You may not disclose the results of any benchmark test of the .NET Framework component of the OS Components to any third party without Microsoft’s prior written approval.’

Consider it added.

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Jeff Gates notes the dovetailing of my “Pray Faster!” bumpersticker and his own recent achieving Jewish manhood (at the age of 53) as chronicled in his weblog.

At the OuttaContext site you’ll also find Dichotomy, a nicely done site that keeps a human perspective on 9/11. And you’ll find a link to Jeff’s story about selling his demographic data on eBay.

In fact, there’s too much on Jeff’s site for those of us still stuck with 19.6bps dialup connections to explore. But I’m bookmarking it for when I’ve returned to civilization.

Adina Jumps In

Adina Levin, one of the smarter people around a strategist for a Well Known content management company, has started a weblog, mainly about what she’s reading. She is a keen reader, as her opening essay on the books Nexus and Linked makes clear.

Speaking of writing about books, my sister in law, the novelist Meredith Sue Willis, writes a newsletter about books worth reading that is enhanced by contributions from her readers. It’s very personal and personable and is infused with the love of reading.

Top Form Halley

Rageboy‘s right: Halley’s piece on her son’s theatrical performance is NYer-worthy.

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If you’re using XP, you may be wondering why your image files open with Microsoft Picture and Fax Viewer even though you have repeatedly used the File Types tab of the Windows Explorer options menu to tell it to use ACDSee (or whatever) to open them. No matter how many times you set the association the way you want it, Windows XP will open images in the Windows viewer.

At the very useful site Annoyances.org, a reader writes in with a solution that, unlike the initial Annoyances suggestion, does not require editing your Registry:

Select a file of the type you want to do, e.g., “MyPhoto.jpg”

From the right-click menu, choose Open With -> Choose Program

Choose the program you want to use to view images with and make sure to put a check in the box for “Always use ise the selected program to open this type of file.”

Done and done.

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Steve Yost has a nicely written meditation on Borges’ critique of the reification of the self, complete with a twist Aha ending.

Jonathan Peterson, contemplating the conversation on DRM at Kevin Marks’ MediAgora (and at Norlin‘s site), quotes a LawMeme excerpt of a Chronicle of Higher Education article:

Back in the 20th century, if someone had accused you of copyright infringement, you enjoyed that quaint and now seemingly archaic guarantee of due process. Today, due process is a lot harder to pursue, and the burden of proof increasingly is on those accused of copyright infringement. For the copyright act, in essence, makes the owner of every Internet service provider, content host, and search engine an untrained copyright cop. The default action is censorship.

Some high visibility folks are talking about “Technology’s Impact on Democracy” at the e-thepeople site.

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Forwarded via Tim Hiltabiddle via an unknown source, apparently initiating somewhere in Juniper Networks, here’s a map of the unfolding scandals. (Click on the snippet below to see the entire illustration.)

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Masha Geller, in her daily MediaPost mailer, writes:

Who said people would never pay for something they could get for free? The Online Publishers Association yesterday announced the results of its first U.S. Market Spending Report for paid online content, and as it turns out, U.S. consumers spent $675 million for online content in 2001, a 92% increase over 2000 spending levels. Further, industry growth accelerated into the current year, as U.S. consumers spent $300 million for online content in the first quarter of 2002, a 155% increase over the same quarter last year.

I’d point you at the source of this data but I’m still too bandwidth-challenged to do Google searches. Sorry!

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MoveOn.org, an email-based political group formed during the Clinton impeachment years (“Censure and move on!”), is asking us Americans to call our senators to register our protest against the upcoming war against Iraq. Although I can’t find anything good to say about Saddam, W’s longing to overthrow him seems to me to have one clear, under-riding motivation: We are watching a titanic Oedipal struggle over which of the George Bushes gets to sleep with Barbara.

Here are the operative bits of the MoveOn message:

The Senate hearings may be the last public forum in which serious questions can be raised about this upcoming conflict. Please call your Senators at the numbers below. Make sure each staffer you talk to knows that you’re a constituent, and that you understand the Senate has begun hearings on Iraq. State your deep concern and ask your questions. Ask if you will be receiving a written response from your Senator. Here are some sample questions. Your own words are always best.

What is the concrete evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction? How long will American troops be in Iraq? What’s the objective? What’s the plan to get out?

Do the State Department and Secretary of State Colin Powell support this war? What about the top military brass?

Why don’t our allies support this war?

If we attack, will Iraq find new allies in the region?

How many Americans will die in such a war? Iraqis?

How much money will such a war cost?

Why is America now attacking without explicit provocation?

President Bush is seen by people in other countries as pursuing a strange vendetta. Is the Bush administration pulling our country into a family grudge match?

You can reach your Senators by calling the Capitol Switchboard at:

202-224-3121 You can also call the other members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Their numbers are:

Chair Joseph Biden (D-DE) 202-224-5042
Ranking Member Jesse Helms (R-NC) 202-224-6342
Barbara Boxer (D-CA) 202-224-3553
Christopher Dodd (D-CT) 202-224-2823
Bill Nelson (D-FL) 202-224-5274
Richard Lugar (R-IN) 202-224-4814
Sam Brownback (R-KS) 202-224-6521
John Kerry (D-MA) 202-224-2742
Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) 202-224-4524
Paul Wellstone (D-MN) 202-224-5641
Chuck Hagel (R-NE) 202-224-4224
Robert Torricelli (D-NJ) 202-224-3224
Gordon Smith (R-OR) 202-224-3753
Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) 202-224-2921
Bill Frist (R-TN) 202-224-4944
George Allen (R-VA) 202-224-4024
Russ Feingold (D-WI) 202-224-5323
John Rockefeller (D-WV) 202-224-6472
Michael Enzi (R-WY) 202-224-3424

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