January 29, 2003

On the Way to Work

This morning, I heard on the radio that a state trooper had been killed at the Gaskins Road north ramp on I-64 Westbound. I get off at that exit every day to go to work. The radio recommended commuters get off at Parham and drive down West Broad to Gaskins, a long detour filled with traffic lights.

I ignored the radio and tried to get off at 250 East and 64. I had no luck. Shortly after Gaskins Road, about even with the side of Deep Run 3, the traffic in the right hand lane came to a halt. When most of the employees of the largest employer in Richmond (Capital One) and the third largest (Circuit City), try to use the same exit, you get an impressive traffic jam. I passed the solid line of cars getting off at 250 East and got off at 250 West instead. I had to take a U-Turn to head back towards Gaskins.

I didn't hear of any details until later that afternoon. The picture of Trooper Blanton looked like the officer who had stopped by the side of the road during my accident last year. At this date, I don't really remember the officer's name. However, that memory makes me think how we rely on police for the most mundane incidents as well as the greatest dangers. No matter how bad the economy gets, I don't think I will ever need to worry about being run over on the job. It's one of the numerous danger that police officers face every day.

January 28, 2003

The State of the Union

Okay, so Bush flubbed the salutation; out of "Distinguished Citizens, Fellow Citizens", I would guess that I am the latter. He also keeps saying "nukular". I'll leave the rest of the commentary to the pundits – I trust that intelligent Americans will make up their own minds. Frankly, I'm going to sleep on it.

Best Coverage – C-Span

You would think that coverage for the speech would be identical – which it is for every network except C-Span. Because they have their own cameras in the chamber, they shot President Bush from their typical ¾ raised shot. I prefer that shot over the other channels' talking head shot with the the flag in the background. The red stripes gave many of them had a hard time getting the white balance right – Bush looked especially flushed on PBS. I also enjoyed C-Span for its lack of commentary before and after the speech. Their audio for the speech was quite good. However, for some reason, the audio on C-Span 2 was rather distorted.

C-Span also had a transcript of the speech available shortly after. If you're still undecided on how Bush did, you can even read the speeches from previous years. They also have Gary Locke's response (pdf).

Worst Titles – Take your pick

The worst titles under the President's head was a tie between MSNBC and FoxNews. Both had garish animations - Fox's was in the lower left corner of the screen – MSNBC's was to the right. The best title was PBS, which only used a little translucent logo in the lower right corner of the screen. C-SPAN had a title in the lower right hand corner of the screen with another tag in the upper right. NBC deserves a runner-up here; they managed to take up more of the screen than any other network.

Best Television Discovery

While I was waiting for Locke's response, I watched a little Sister Yafa on Richmond Community Access TV. She has a good little program and read from a timely article in Style weekly about the Richmond peace movement.

January 27, 2003

I found a stack of misplaced Magic cards and my mising Interpol CD tonight. There were both in a duffle bag buried under a pile of dress shirts that I need to take to the cleaners.

Music Links

I am in a Java Server Pages class this week. I've enjoyed today and am looking forward to hours of uninterrupted tinkering. It's also looking like a good week for Slashdot - lots of music news.

Ethernet Gibsons

Gibson is protyping electric guitars with digital RJ45 plugs - in short, guitars with Ethernet network connectivity. These "digital guitars" allow for digital effects to be tied to separate strings and provide control for other devices from the body of the guitar. The most interesting quote is

Gibson shares the hope that Magic technology will someday be used in home automation, consumer products and telecom gear in addition to digital music products.

So I guess that means you could use your magic guitar to change channels on the TV or turn on your hot tub. In that way, I guess it's safer than an analog guitar. After all, an old SG plugged straight into a Marshall stack is only good for one thing – tearing shit up. Vox amps do nicely as well.

Paying Is Better

Slashdot and others are covering Echo – a joint venture by several retailers and record labels to sell digital music online. Given that previous digital music sales were hamstrung by copy protection and ridiculous prices, I have my doubts that anyone will want to buy music online this way. The entertainment industry – both music and movies – seem highly adept at creating restrictive and awkward transactions for getting music. Also, it smells like further lobbying on their part that digital piracy instead of poor product selection and the poor ecomony is the problem. What they don't get is that half of the appeal of Napster and Kazaa are their ease of use – the price (free) is simply icing on the cake. In any event, I don't see my browsing and buying habits changing.