Poor Judgement

So is this really the guy we want running the country? 

In an interview with reporters on the back of his campaign bus, the “Straight Talk Express” Monday afternoon, McCain said that even in retrospect he would still have voted to authorize the war, as he did in 2002.

“I think there's no question,” said the Republican's likely presidential nominee. “I owe too much to these young people who are serving there to let political considerations interfere with what I know is right.

The name of that campaign bus should be the "Crazy Talk Express" because that is just what John W. McSame is spewing: crazy talk. The article goes on to quote McSame several more times and he sounds just like George Bush. It's like Bush has his hand in the back of a ventriloquist's dummy and is just having a little fun. 

John McCain = George Bush, Part 3.  

Making the Magic Sounds

There's a great profile in today's SF Chronicle of Ben Burtt, the sound designer of the new WALL-E movie and on all the Star Wars films. 

Shooting Through The Fog

This past weekend I went down to Pier 39 here in San Francisco to shoot some pics of the sea lions. There weren't as many animals there as I had hoped, but I got some good shots. You can see the pics at my web gallery. 

There is more than one story here, as you can see. The first group of pics is obviously of the sea lions; not much excitement there; at least most of them were in focus. There was also some kind of sail boat races happening on the bay last weekend and I happened to capture most of an almost collision between one of the Alcatraz tour boats and a sail boat. I missed the most dramatic shot, unfortunately, but you can see the story pretty clearly. 

The most interesting shots I think were the ones I took of Alcatraz using my 300mm zoom. Because there was some thin fog sitting right on the water I thought the shots were just ruined and was about to throw them all away as crap when I started goofing around with some of the enhancement tools of Aperture. The results I got were interesting. Now, these are not all the same shot, but from a series of shots I took in burst mode to try to get the light on the light house flashing in my direction. 

The first photo in the group is unaltered, just to show what they looked like right from the camera. Pretty crappy, eh? Yeah, that's what I thought as well. The second photo is the interesting result of just letting Aperture automatically adjust the color levels and luminance. The colors obviously aren't real-life accurate (they're close), but they did come out interesting and the fog pretty much went away. The second couple of photos simply have a sepia-tone and a monochrome filter applied, respectively. I thought the effects were nice. I didn't have to adjust the exposure at all, so I got that part right. 

The last group of photos is just a handful of guys practicing their thrasher moves. 

What I liked about this experience is if I had been shooting in JPG (which is what most point and shoot digital cameras do) I would not have been able to make any of the modifications to these images. Only by shooting RAW did I get the flexibility to take a crappy photo and make it something interesting. 

Caught In The Pinchers

Following up on my post from last week about the Taliban moving to take control of much of South Western Afghanistan, the Globe and Mail is now reporting that the Taliban, along with other warlords, is also moving to take over the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, which contains the border city of Peshawar. 

PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN — Security around Peshawar, the provincial capital in northwest Pakistan, has been dramatically stepped up amid fears that the city could fall to heavily armed Islamic militants who have now massed around its outskirts.

From three sides, Peshawar, which borders Pakistan's wild tribal belt, is menaced by Taliban groups and other warlords.

If Peshawar is taken over by extremists, the rest of the North West Frontier Province is also threatened, raising the possibility that religious fundamentalists may gain control of a state on Afghanistan's border. The drama in Peshawar reinforces existing doubts about the new Pakistani government's policy of pulling back the army and seeking peace deals with militants.

If successful, the Taliban would be in the perfect position to threaten Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.  And there doesn't seem to be anything Afghanistan, Pakistan and NATO forces can do to stop them. Notice on this map the locations of Kandahar, Peshawar and Kabul: 


View Larger Map

We are going to pay for this lack of focus sometime in the future, and it will all be George Bush's fault. If Afghanistan falls into Taliban hands once again let's not forget that it was John McCain who has completely supported everything Bush has done the past 6 years. So McCain will just continue doing what Bush has been doing. Just remember that while he's on the campaign trail bleating about his "national security bona fides."

Gen. Wesley Clark was right: climbing into a jet fighter, getting shot down, and being taken prisoner does not qualify John McSame to be commander-in-chief.

Shut Up And Drive

Starting today, for all California residents, if you're caught yaking on a mobile phone, without using a hands-free device, while driving you will get a ticket. SFgate.com has the story. People under the age of 18 aren't allowed to talk on the phone and drive at all. It's about damn time. 

On a personal note, if one more of you idiot drivers talking on a mobile phone almost runs over me in the crosswalk, and you aren't using a hands-free device, I will smash your window with a hammer. No lie. 

Why So Complicated?

So we've finally gotten some concrete info on what the monthly bill for an iPhone 3G will look like. After going a little insane and making the plans for the original iPhone pretty easy to understand and including things like a limited number of SMS messages per month, AT&T has reverted to it's giant corporation self and decided to screw iPhone 3G users, as well as confuse them. AppleInsider has the whole sordid tale: 

All of AT&T's individual iPhone 3G calling plans have risen $10 when compared to those offered alongside the original iPhone. That's because AT&T is now charging $30 for the bundled unlimited data plans rather than $20, as it expects subscribers to increase their internet usage and throughput as a result of the new iPhone's 3G chip, which downloads about twice as fast as the EDGE chip in the original iPhone.

At the same time, however, AT&T has obnoxiously reduced the number of standard SMS messages included with each plan from 200 to zero. To get those 200 text messages back, subscribers will have to pay $5.00 more per month. As such, we've factored that added fee, along with the additional $10 data charge into our chart (below). The chart compares the original iPhone plans offered by AT&T to the new iPhone 3G plans with the added costs required to maintain basic text message capabilities and unlimited data downloads. All iPhone monthly plans MUST include the $30 data plan.

Now, in all fairness AT&T isn't charging more for a 3G data plan for the iPhone than they are for any other 3G capable mobile phone. But the fact that they do charge for more 3G is, well, slimy. Just like all big corporations they are charging this premium for their services because they can and they know people will pay it. 

The problem arises when someone in an area that AT&T doesn't cover with their 3G network buys an iPhone 3G they still have to pay the premium, even though they may never get 3G speeds. 

And what is up with dropping SMS messages from the data plan? Oh, I get it... just more slimy behavior. Why not just come up with 3 or 4 or 6 plans that are easy to understand and offer those instead of this ridiculous nickel and diming crap? 

We need some common sense regulation on these giant corporate behemoths to protect the consumer from crap like this. 

Whose Responsibility?

So there's been a lot of talk in Democratic circles lately about Sen. Obama getting his supporters and donors to help Sen. Clinton "retire" her debts that were run up in her primary campaign. The Washington Post is reporting: 

He [Obama] also sought to lead the move to unite by example, announcing that he had personally written a check for $2,300, the maximum he can give, to help retire Clinton's more than $20 million in campaign debt and that he had urged his biggest supporters to follow suit. The announcement drew a standing ovation. More than 200 Clinton fundraisers were on hand for the emotional event. Clinton supporter Terence R. McAuliffe, who emceed the event, said that the people in the sparse conference room had helped to bring in $230 million for her campaign.

What I don't understand is why is this Sen. Obama's responsibility? I thought Democrats were supposed to be the fiscally responsible ones, yet here's Sen. Clinton and her supporters demanding that Sen. Obama get his supporters and donors to pay off her debt. Didn't she run up that debt herself by staying in the race after it became evident that she couldn't win the nomination? Where's the responsibility? 

Right now I'm not seeing Sen. Clinton take much responsibility for her own actions. 

iPhone As Remote Control?

So I think this idea is interesting:

Tucked away in Apple's pre-release version of iTunes 7.7 is word that the iPhone and iPod touch will soon act as remote controls for nearby computers.

I frequently listen to music piped from my MacBook Pro to my AppleTV wirelessly while I read across the room. And if I can use my iPhone as a remote control to change albums that would be very, very neat. 

Contemplative Canine

I took this great photo of my dog, Friday, yesterday afternoon in the backyard (at least I think it is great).

Not An "Enemy Combatant," Yet Still Not A Free Man?

This is what this country has come to? ThinkProgress is reporting that a Chinese man who was picked up in Afghanistan in 2001 as an "enemy combatant" has been found to not be but the government won't let his lawyer tell him.

Despite the ruling, Parhat has yet to see any of its benefits. In fact, he doesn’t even know about it. Parhat’s lawyer told CBC radio’s As It Happens last night that Parhat is currently being held in solitary confinement and “has no idea” the appeals court ruled in his favor because, he added, “I’m not allowed to tell him”

So, here's this guy, he's been held for about 7 years, as a terrorist, with no charges and now he's been found to not be a terrorist but we won't let him go, or even tell him. Plus we won't give him asylum despite him being in danger of persecution (and possibly execution) in his native China. No one else wants him, apparently, either. So what do we do with him? Keep him in solitary confinement at Gitmo for the rest of his life?

Pardon me for saying so but that's fucked up.