Screw Florida

We all know that our nation's primary election system has its idiosyncrasies. It is partly run by the state governments and partly by the two political parties. Well, today one of those political parties (the one I happen to support), decided to exercise its authority over the matter.

The State of Florida recently moved its primary election date up for 2008 to before January 28th, in violation of Democratic party rules, rules which are, despite anyone really being aware of this, actually enforced. According to a ruling today by the Democratic National Committee, the State of Florida has 30 days to move its primary election or face disenfranchisement. That's right. As it stands now, no Democrats in Florida will be able to vote in the upcoming presidential primary.

While it makes sense for the DNC to enforce its rules, it seems to me to be a risky move to toy with the state that, just six years earlier, cost Al Gore the election. As one Florida Democratic Committee member put it, the DNC voted today to effectivly disenfranchise the fourth largest state.

Jerked Around from an Ivory Tower

The Great University of Pennsylvania (of which I am a student) saw it fit to cancel one of my classes today. No problem, I registered for another one. I pity those who won't check their schedules again this summer, they would show up at "Goddard Building" on September 6th and find no one (of significance) there.

DJRSNews: Al Gore III

The Al Gore we all know and love is really Al Gore Jr., making his son Al Gore III. Today, this son was arrested for allegedly driving in excess of 100 mph...while intoxicated...with prescription drugs and marijuana in his car. Ladies and Gentlemen, don't do that.

Also, have a happy and, in the case of Philadelphia, windy Independence Day.

What to make of a Scooter?

First, for those of you who have not been keeping up on the news, here's the lowdown. The justification for the war in Iraq was, for the most part, made up. A dipolomat by the name of Joseph Wilson knew this, and when an investigation he conducted into the Bush administration's claims that Africans were shipping nuclear weapons components to Saddam Hussein turned up nothing, he issued a report to the New York Times. The Bush administration, acting out of a desire to discredit Mr. Wilson's report, dispatched I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby to reveal to the media that Mr. Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, was in fact an undercover CIA spy. This plan backfired, making the Bush administration (especially Dick Cheney) look like scheming crooks and forcing US attorney Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate. The source of the leak was never found, but Mr. Libby was convicted of obstruction of justice after repeatedly lying to FBI investigators and a grand jury. Mr. Libby was sentenced to a fine and 30 months in jail, a jail sentence that was, yesterday, thrown out by George W. Bush.

What is the opinion of DJRS on this issue? Unfortunately, there are two, and they are conflicting positions.

One- George Bush should not give his cronies special treatment

It angers a lot of people, including me, to think that any buddy of George Bush should be subject to a special brand of justice. Mr. Bush has practiced cronyism in the past, for example his nomination of the clearly under-qualified Harriet Myers to the Supreme Court bench. It is clear that George Bush has set the public interest (not exposing the identities of undercover agents) behind his own personal interest in protecting his "family".

Two- What George Bush did is typical of what every president has done

One of my favorite political figures of all time, Bill Clinton, is dubiously famous for pardoning scores of people in his final hours in office, including international fugitive Mark Rich. What George Bush did, while morally questionable, is by no means unprecedented. In fact, most presidents, especially two-term presidents, issue pardons numbering in excess of 300.

What was unexpected in all of this is that George Bush did not wait until after next years elections to his commutation, choosing the interest of Scooter Libby to not serve a single day in jail over the interest of his party, the Republicans, getting elected. In fact, the Democrats are already using this incident in an attempt to garner votes. In a release today, the Clinton campaign stated that:

"There's no time for change like the present. Just look at what President Bush did yesterday, commuting Scooter Libby's sentence. Isn't it time we had a president who respects the rule of law and who works for average hardworking Americans instead of political cronies?"

Take from that what you will, the election is still a LONG way away.

DJ.nTech: Enslaved AirPort

For those of you who are regular readers of this blog, you are well aware that it's theme is usually confined to the topics of politics and cultural analysis. Sometimes the fictional (???) adventures of one Alice Coldridge are also discussed, but that is rare (look forward to just such a discussion in the near future). This evening, however, I make an entry completely unrelated to the normal subject matter of this blog. I enter this information into the record in the hope that, when someone is looking for just this information, they will be lead here by a google search. If you are such a person, we encourage you to remain as a reader of DJRS. Once again, I apologize for the narrow relevance of this post.

A question:

Is it possible to connect an Apple AirPort Express to an existing, wired router to create a wireless network?

Answer:

Yes, I did just this. Say you already have a wired (linksys, perhaps?) router and want to get a notebook computer. Just plug the AirPort Express unit into the wired router and the AirPort utility will automatically detect the [slightly gerrymandered] configuration and "disable IP address assignments". You will then be able to access the internet through the AirPort and then the wired router. The only downside is that you are, for reasons unknown, seemingly unable to network with other computers that are connected to the wired part of the dual-router complex. You can network with other wireless computers, and the wired computers can network with each other.

I cannot stress how easy the setup of this is. Even though the configuration is so bizarre it is not even listed in the AirPort instruction manual, the AirPort Utility (Applications->Utilities->AirPort Utility) automatically configured the proper setup. In case there is a problem, remember that disabling IP address assignments is key. If you think about it, that makes sense. Good luck!

DJRSNews: Clinton, Edwards in Philadelphia Today

Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Dennis Kuchinich will be giving public speeches at the Hope Baptist Church at 1601 N. Church St. in North Philadelphia at 1PM this afternoon. The event is open to the public and Michael Nutter will also be speaking. If you do choose to attend, spend your thoughts to Radio@DavidJacobson.net and they will be published on the blog.

Unfortunately, I will be unable to attend.

Does your phone do this?

There is a new phone on the market, something called an iPhone. Have you heard of it? You may have; you may have even gone so far as to purchase one of these so-called "convergence devices". I would have, but $60 dollars struck me as a bit much to pay on a monthly basis for a [really elaborate] telephone.

There is a history of convergence devices in the past, devices that tackle in a single machine that which is typically done by multiple devices. The most prominent of these devices is the modern automobile and, in particular, the modern General Motors vehicle. These cars typically combine the functionality of a car, telephone, AAA membership, GPS receiver and satellite radio into a single "unit". There is a "spare baggage" issue, however. Most people who drive a GM car will never use their car's "OnStar" safety system, "Rand McNalley" navigation system or "Sirrius" or "XM" satellite radio. What is fortunate for these people is that GM allows them to purchase their car without subscribing to the various services need to activate its convergence functionality. This is not the case with the iPhone; it's all or nothing. Don't plan on writing email on a keyboard the size of matchbook? You still have to pay for it. Don't plan on watching video of a skateboarding dog? You still have to pay for it. This is fine for some people, but it drastically diminishes the base to which Apple will be able to sell its phone-of-phones.

If you're looking to make the next great thing, I would look towards "divergence devices" for the answer. Cell phones (vs. car phones), iPods (vs. computers) and magazines (vs. daily newspapers) have all been examples of the successful marketing of divergence.

At the same time, there is one convergence device that has enjoyed unimaginable success. The personal computer. What started as a calculator can now complete nearly any task imaginable. I think this illustrates the benefit of a convergence device with a pay-for-what-you-want paradigm. In the same vein, if iPhone were to allow robust 3rd party software-development it could become a great success, with nearly every person carrying an iPhone in the capacity of a small computer, doing a wide variety of personalized tasks. On the other hand, iPhone's current, closed-structure model will also be successful, but not to the degree it could. Some people will carry iPhones; under other circumstances, nearly every person could live by the iPhone, just like they live by their personal computer.