tonari no shibafu

That's Better

I linked in to the router directly with an ethernet cable.

Speedtest

The upload speed seems a bit off. I know I've gotten quite a bit faster than that before.
I wonder if the wireless has something to do with it.
Hmmn.

That was easy

The guys installed the cable in about 30 mins.

I'm up and running.

Finally

The guy's coming in about an hour to install my fiber optic connection. I may be offline for the next two hours or so.

You only need one folder for this

The Wire as a model for creating enduring work, by Merlin Mann.

I guess I was a byte bit premature

As of Monday I will finally have a fiber optic connection. A possible 100 Mbps will be quite a step up from the heretofore 10 Mbps. But Digital World Tokyo informs us that my carrier KDDI is about to offer 1 Gbps. An order of magnitude difference? And I'm missing it by two days?

Feldercarb !

The Practical Nomad

recommends Chiba.

Catch phrase fatigue

I think if I hear one more person use the phrases 'Wall Street' and 'Main Street' in the same sentence, I'm gonna scream. Are all the political experts, pundits, and newspeople really so unimaginative?

Somebody buy a thesaurus.

Zizek Audio

Christopher Lydon talks with Zizek on Radio Open Source.

David Foster Wallace

I've never read any of his stuff before but this commencement address is compelling.

In looking around for stuff on Wallace I noticed something odd. In last November's Atlantic, Foster wrote:

Are some things still worth dying for? Is the American idea* one such thing? Are you up for a thought experiment? What if we chose to regard the 2,973 innocents killed in the atrocities of 9/11 not as victims but as democratic martyrs, “sacrifices on the altar of freedom”?* In other words, what if we decided that a certain baseline vulnerability to terrorism is part of the price of the American idea? And, thus, that ours is a generation of Americans called to make great sacrifices in order to preserve our democratic way of life—sacrifices not just of our soldiers and money but of our personal safety and comfort?

In still other words, what if we chose to accept the fact that every few years, despite all reasonable precautions, some hundreds or thousands of us may die in the sort of ghastly terrorist attack that a democratic republic cannot 100-percent protect itself from without subverting the very principles that make it worth protecting?

Is this thought experiment monstrous? Would it be monstrous to refer to the 40,000-plus domestic highway deaths we accept each year because the mobility and autonomy of the car are evidently worth that high price?

I could have sworn that Bill Maher (or perhaps one of his panelists) made this very case last week or the week before. I searched around the web and couldn't find the video to double-check.

Anybody know anything about this? Is someone plagiarizing?

Bill Maher, David Foster Wallace

10 things you forgot your Mac could do

From Lifehacker a million years ago. <link>

A dream come true for a hoops fan

Beating LeBron James in H.O.R.S.E

Wedding Blog

For those of you who haven't heard, Misa and I are getting married next year. We haven't yet picked a date, or a place, or much else for that matter. The planning is shaping up to be a lot more difficult than I would have thought.

Since I am of the brain dump school, I've created a blog so that I'll have a place to put information pertaining to the wedding. My hope is to create a resource for others' future nuptials and to thereby leave a trail of e-bread crumbs to navigate the labyrinthine path that is wedding planning in Tokyo.

Heyes's Meme

Rules: Take a picture of yourself right now.

Don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair...just take a picture.

Post that picture with NO editing. (Except to reduce its size.)

Post these instructions with your picture.

Heyes

Alaska did not...

...produce 20 percent of the US domestic supply of energy.

2008 Presidential Election, Palin

Setting the record straight

Here's what I expect to be the first of many pages about Sarah Palin at factcheck.org.

Live Green or Die

Mount Washington's Cog Railway is going biodiesel. While I've never ridden it, I have watched it from the hiking paths as it trailed black smoke to the summit.

50 great arts videos on Youtube

Because some of you don't read Kottke. Enjoy.

via Kottke

As good as ever

Thanks again Bill

Bill Moyers talks again with Kathleen Hall Jamieson. This time (mostly) about the Republican National Convention.

Charming

The waiting is the hardest part

3 more weeks until Iron Man.