Google Books

I picked up a copy of "Balzac and the little Chinese seamstress" at Post Hip in Multnomah Village today for two dollars. I have been playing with Google Books lately, seeing what it can do and if it is going to work for me. I ran into a couple of problems today that I was not too happy about.

I entered the ISBN number of the book and it pulled it up, but it did not find an image of the cover, which is no big deal, but I could not find a way to load my own image. Admittedly, it was not my image, but one I got from the Barnes & Noble website. Still.

The other issue I had was that I wrote up a review of another book and there was no spell checker, and when I saved it, it eliminated my paragraphs and ran all the text together. Still no big deal, but these are not encouraging signs.

Sheep

"Finns' gun policies scrutinized after tragedy" was the headline on an article in the paper today. The title on the linked article is different, but the article is the same. I read it while I was eating lunch today and it occured to me, why did they publish this article? And then I realized that it served to fan the flames of the conflict between the pro-gun and anti-gun forces, which is one of the big hot buttons in American politics. Any time a newspaper can stir up trouble, it is in the interest of their business to do so. The gun control debate, like the conflict over abortion, survives at least partially on inflaming the passions of people. Impassioned people contribute to their cause. Whenever one side makes some headway, their opponents can use this as issue to rally a counter attack. Both sides gain adherents and contributions and the newspapers sell more papers. Neither side gains a real advantage, but everyone makes money. Everyone wins. Finland's geographic position between Nazi occupied Norway and Russia wasn't mentioned.

My son John went to Church camp at Lake Shasta earlier this summer. Someone compiled some video clips and showed them to the families involved. One of the more entertaining segments was of the whole gang singing "I just wanna be a sheep, baa, baa, baa, baa." I've thought about this since and I cannot say I am real happy about it. I just wanna be a sheep? Is that what our civilization is really about? Well, yes and no. Some people really take it heart, keep their head down, do their jobs, don't make waves, much less any trouble, and when it comes time to be shorn, or even butchered, they go right along with the plan. I remember a scene from Caligula, one of the most unpleasant movies I have ever seen, where all the members of the Roman Senate are baa-ing like sheep.

I went to see "American Gangster" a week ago Friday. There were two items that stuck in my mind about this film. One was the talk between the two protagonists in the police interview room after the arrest. Franks asks the cop what he wants. Arresting him (Frank) is not going to make any real difference, someone else will step in to take his place. Now this is a familiar theme in gangster movies, but for some reason his statement makes a bigger impact. Perhaps because he puts it all in business terms. Look at all the people who are going to be put out of business: the producers (in SE Asia), the smugglers, the distributors, the dealers, and all the cops who are employed tracking down all these other people, not to mention all the prison guards.

The other point is that when they busted Frank, they confiscated $250 million dollars. Wikipedia says only a 100 million, but lets not split hairs. He was only in business for six years. He claimed to be selling a million dollars of heroin a day, just in NYC! There is no way the war on drugs is every going to be won with that kind of money floating around. The drug war is another hot button in American politics, but it does not generate a lot of press on pro side, but then it does not need to. Most of the money is on the pro side. The drug war is basically a political move to provide more money to the police. Too bad they have to spend it on such a futile endeavor.

Wrong Again

We had two big measures on the ballot Tuesday: Measures 49 & 50. Wednesday's headline in the Oregonian summed it up pretty well:

ELECTION 2007

MEASURE 49
Yes: 61.9% $4.8 million spent
No: 38.1% $2.3 million spent

MEASURE 50

Yes: 40.5% $3.4 million spent

No: 59.5% $11.8 million spent

Just goes to show that if you have enough money you can pretty much get what you want, and the Measure 49 proponents (I am not sure who they are) and the Measure 50 opponents (the cigarette companies) got what they wanted.

Measure 50 issue is a little more clear cut, so I will start there. Measure 50 would raise cigarette taxes. The extra revenue would go towards children's health care. The money spent campaigning against this measure came from the cigarette companies. I voted for it simply because the cigarette companies were against it. Also, raising cigarette taxes would increase the profit margins for people smuggling cigarettes from Idaho, and we always need more good paying jobs. But it looks like the cigarette companies were able to persuade people raising this tax was not a good idea.

I remember visiting Canada 30 odd years ago and everyone I ran into up there rolled their own cigarettes. One truck driver I met had a baggy with about 30 cigarettes in it. He told me he and his wife would sit down and roll a thousand or so and seal them up in baggies. He would have enough to last for weeks. I do not think I have ever run into an American who rolls his own. The point is I don't feel bad about raising taxes for smokers. If they weren't so lazy, they could roll their own and save $4 a pack. Plain tobacco is not expensive, only when it is rolled into cigarettes does it get taxed.

Measure 49 has something to do with land use laws. I voted against this one just because I do not like people clogging up the ballot with complicated measures that hold no interest for me. Oregon has a set of laws that are supposed to contain urban sprawl and preserve land for farming. A couple of years ago Measure 37 was passed that really upset the apple cart. Measure 49 was supposed to correct it. The whole thing does not make much sense to me. If it was really a case of the state taking away value from land, you would think the courts would have settled it a long time ago. And this business of preserving land for farming is a bunch of hooey. Would you like to know what the biggest agricultural crop in Oregon is? It is grass seed! Criminently, we are trying to contain urban sprawl so we can grow more grass seed for golf courses and lawns? Give me a break!

I do not like urban sprawl, but I would rather see us building compact cities that attracted people to live in them rather continuing on in our inept manner that causes people to move to the suburbs in search of affordable housing.

I saw one sign supporting Measure 49 that said Open Spaces or Urban Sprawl? Open spaces are an illusion, around these parts anyway. There are open fields around here, but they aren't really open, they belong to some farmer, and he has crops planted on it. So you can't just go wandering around in these fields. Of course, any kind of open land does not have houses on it, which means there are no people there, which means there are fewer cars on the road, but that is just a temporary condition. With more people, there are going to be more houses somewhere. Maybe not right here, maybe they will be farther out, which means people will be driving farther to work. I do not see a good end to this.

Update May 2022 reformatted headline.

SR-71

Ramon Itardes made a Google Earth Video that shows about a dozen SR-71's. Images from Google Maps are clearer than the ones on the Video. I could not determine where the planes were from just watching the video, so I stepped through the video and followed along on Google Maps and tracked them all down. Some of the them I was able to locate by stepping through the video and then following along with Google maps. This worked well for those locations that were close together, like the six in California. For the rest of them I had to track them down using the latitude and longitude posted along the bottom of the video, but the numbers were indistinct and hard to read. Sometimes I would guess right, sometimes it took two or three tries, and sometimes I had to backtrack and replay the video and watch the numbers change in order to figure out what they were. Google Earth lists the latitude and longitude in degrees to six decimal places. I only used the first three and that was adequate to locate the aircraft. One degree of latitude (anywhere) or latitude (at the equator) equates to about 70 miles. Two decimal places it gets you within a mile. The third decimal place gets you to within about 100 yards, which is close enough to recognize individual features in an aerial view at the resolution we are working with. Any closer than that and we are talking planning for wheelchair access.
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Big Bicycle Tools

If you do much work on bicycles there are two big tools that can make your life a lot easier: a work stand and an air compressor.

I made a work stand using some old steel and a "Park Tools" clamp. It was great. I still have it and still use it occasionally. I recommend a pro model that you can set up in your heated garage (or living room). Get one with a large flat baseplate. Do not get one with the tripod legs. Only useful for field work.

I have a 2HP Sears air compressor. To pump up road bike tires (100 psi), I have to crank the regulator all the way down, dump enough air to get the compressor to start, wait till it finishes and then pump up the tires. I have a 12v I use sometimes, but it is really noisy. The big compressor is very noisy as well, but you do not have to be around when it is running, you can go outside. The 12V runs while you are pumping and it is right there. It is obnoxious.

We had a compressor at work. It was really noisy. They built a big plywood box and lined it with fiberglass insulation to make it quiet enough to keep inside. The box wasn't big enough and it overheated and cooked itself. Then they built a dog house outside for it. Every morning someone wheels it outside to the doghouse, and every evening someone wheels it back in.

Most bike people recommend a good quality hand pump. I would like a quiet, high pressure compressor.

Used Handhelds

My brother Andy got a new job in Fairfield, Iowa, at

http://www.usedhandhelds.com/store/main.php

and

http://stores.ebay.com/usedhandhelds

and

http://www.pocketpcmag.com/defaults.asp

He is heading up the Used Handheld Division.

RIAA

Story in the paper yesterday morning: "UO refuses to ID people accused of music piracy"

I don't think the RIAA is too bright. They had this great deal going on, making tons of money off of a few recording stars. When the world changed, they were not able to adapt. They are struggling to try and hold on to the past and they are failing miserably.

The movie industry adapted. It used to be that when a movie was released on VHS tape, and even on some early DVD's, they wanted like $60 for a copy. Now there is a pretty standard release strategy:

1. Movie is released en-mass to multiplexes around the country. Depending on how well it does it may stay there from a couple of weeks to a couple of months.
2. Then it goes to the second run, discount theaters. Where it runs for another month or so.
3. Then there may be a dead period where you can't get it at all, and
4. Lastly it comes out on DVD for $20.
   

If the recording industry would cut the price on their CD's to $5 they would sell a whole lot more CD's. It costs less than one dollar to make a CD and put it in a box with a label. There is still plenty of room to make money. And the sales volume would more than make up for it. But they are stuck in the past and are unwilling to try and change.

It could be that they have some lawyers who see an opportunity to make a lot of money suing people. On the other hand they are mostly suing people who do not have a lot of money, so they are probably not making any money doing this, it is probably a net cost to the RIAA, which means they are hoping the intimidation factor will work in their favor. But I think that just irritates people.