phik

I knew that this Congress would be just as big a disaster as the last, but I didn’t expect the caving to come so quickly and so completely.

If there’s one bill they have the spine to defeat, I thought to myself, surely it will be the wiretapping. There’s no way that will pass. Finally I can rest easy.

I was skimming an article about it; here is the money shot:

Government officials are apparently unhappy that details of the wiretapping program were leaked to the public.

Yes, who indeed had the temerity to leak the details of a government action to the governed. How dare they.

What a bunch of clowns.

I finally got around to finishing the writeup of my Australian adventure.

If you haven’t been keeping up — perhaps because, like me, your crappy RSS reader doesn’t show backdated posts — this is your moment.

From the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times: Man sentenced to 25 years in prison for possession of a drug… for which he had a prescription.

<shaver> Using words like “absurd” and “ridiculous,” three appellate judges said the state’s position would make patients with valid prescriptions criminals as soon as they left the drugstore.

<shaver> and phik’s not even on that appellate court

Of course, I don’t think people should need prescriptions in the first place, but that’s something I can only try to fix after you elect me to be your Governor.

I read with some interest about the new Universal non-crippled MP3 plan today, but it’s still clearly within the Music Industry Retardation Field on two fronts.

First:

gBox will offer an MP3 version free of copy-protection technology … A DRM-enabled version will be available at the same price.

If nothing else, the release of sales data could produce some fascinating insight into the irrational behaviour of real consumers. Is there any consumer for whom DRM provides positive, or even nonnegative value? Can we study that person under controlled conditions?

Vlad also made the point that if we could just get a list of who buys the latter, it would be a useful tool for purging the voter rolls of people who are clearly too stupid to participate in democracy.

Second:

It won’t be compatible with Apple’s Macintosh computers, however. Even though DRM-free tracks can play on any computer, the DRM versions won’t, and gBox didn’t want to confuse customers, [gBox Chief Executive Tammy] Artim said.

Let me make sure that I understand.

They built a Windows-only web site to prevent confusion about not being able to play crippled files that shouldn’t be there in the first place, and that nobody with an IQ above 60 will buy?

Also, just to be clear, even if this were a problem that needs solving — which it isn’t — can’t it be handled with four lines of JavaScript or PHP? The message to the user could read something like, “Because you don’t run Windows, you can only download MP3 versions of songs. You’re welcome.”

Some time last year, someone — I think that the blame can fall squarely on the shoulders of Alice and Zach without any undeserved harm — suggested that I watch Jeeves and Wooster, based on the stories of P.G. Wodehouse. I don’t even remember how it came up, but the result was to bring about over time a feverish fondness for Fry and Laurie.

The writing harkens back to pre-war Britain, and thus takes some getting used to (not unlike Deadwood, in a way) — but once you’ve done so, you’ll find that it’s sharper and funnier than you had any right to expect, delivered with perfection by these towering giants of British comedy.

In an effort to pass along to you this unrecognized icon of 1990s television, I give you five choice morsels from the Jeeves and Wooster platter.

First, a recurring theme in the series brings Bertie and Jeeves together around the piano. These two are among the best such moments:

Another recurring theme, perhaps my favourite, are the occasional rows caused by the clash between Wooster’s questionable modern fashion and Jeeves’ proper British conservatism:

Lastly, we catch a glimpse into the more usual affairs of Mr. Wooster, beset on all sides by unwanted matrimonial engagements, which he’s much too gentlemanly to decline outright:

Hugh Laurie, in the article titled Wodehouse Saved My Life, wrote that “P. G. Wodehouse is still the funniest writer ever to have put words on paper,” an assertion that is lent considerable weight by these four series of television.

He and I implore you to run, as walking simply will not suffice. Purchase Jeeves and Wooster from your nearest convenient entertainment establishment and report back on your findings without delay.