meta-roj

this isn’t a terribly inspiring thing to write, but it seems that brandon was outbid in his effort to acquire the fun manufacturer that made the weapon that changed his life.

see the press release for details.

there’s nothing quite like being your own worst reference…

Filmmaker Moore Quotes Goss on Lack of CIA Credentials [reuters, august 11, 2004]

U.S. Congressman Porter Goss, President Bush’s nominee for CIA director, could be his own worst enemy when it comes to making the case that he deserves to lead the U.S. intelligence agency.

“I couldn’t get a job with CIA today. I am not qualified,” the Florida Republican told documentary-maker Michael Moore’s production company during the filming of the anti-Bush movie “Fahrenheit 9/11.”

A day after Bush picked Goss for the top U.S. spy job, Moore on Wednesday released an excerpt from a March 3 interview in which the 65-year-old former House of Representatives intelligence chief recounts his lack of qualifications for employment as a modern CIA staffer.

“I don’t have the language skills. I, you know, my language skills were romance languages and stuff. We’re looking for Arabists today. I don’t have the cultural background probably,” Goss is quoted in an interview transcript.

“And I certainly don’t have the technical skills, uh, as my children remind me every day: ‘Dad you got to get better on your computer.’ Uh, so, the things that you need to have, I don’t have.”

Goss, who served with the CIA clandestine services in Latin America and Europe in the 1960s, was not immediately available for comment.

this could make the confirmation hearings very, very interesting….

Filmmaker Moore Quotes Goss on Lack of CIA Credentials [reuters, august 11, 2004]

A White House spokesman declined to comment specifically on the Goss interview but described the lawmaker as “the most qualified man for the job.”

that does not bode well.

generally, i prefer the idea of people who don’t want these jobs doing these jobs – that’s a strange comfort. but, if the “most qualified man” for the job thinks he’s not qualified for the job… i guess that means we need a woman? this politics thing is so confusing sometimes….

dj

composer

painter

blues

just a minor hassle, of course… nobody was arrested. yet.

today’s story of the supervigilant security forces protecting innocent families comes from new york, host of the republican convention.

i feel much better now. i wouldn’t want to be exposed to inappropriate reading material in new york city.

[via boingboing]

it’s been mentioned here before, but today we’ve got a new variation on the problem.

this time, it’s a discovery by our good blogger, frank boosman: you can’t always find barenaked ladies where you expect them.

the floppy is here, datamation special report on software and services, august 5, 1981

Al Alcala, president of Media Systems Technology, Inc., Santa Ana, Calif., forsees a day when a developer of an appliation program can walk into a computer store with his program on a floppy disk, say that he wants 50 copies, walk out and go about other business and come back in less than an hour to pick them up

this article, from 1981, when the question of making or buying applications was still pretty prominent. there was noise about programmer shortages and efforts to recruit talent from overseas. 1981 was also the birth year of the ibm pc (model 5150), which came with a cassette port for storing progams. apple had 23% of the pc market.

most importantly, if you weren’t in a large company as part of a “data processing department” chances are the software you used is stuff you wrote yourself, or maybe copied, by hand, out of a magazine. in this context, floppies were awesome – and they were also a major threat. there be pirates in these gentle waters…

the floppy is here, datamation special report on software and services, august 5, 1981

Alcala, who is a worrier about software piracy, emphasizes that if the day ever comes when copiers are installed in computer stores, they will copy only disks which have formats that are in the public domain. He also looks for a day when formatted disks will be displayed on counters.

The MST president said he has been contacted by “pirates.” They want to know if MST can copy this or that vendor, “thinking to make a lot of money for themselves. I tell them about our non-disclosure agreements and advise them to contact the vendors directly.

He said proprietary formats can present substantial obstacles to people contemplating unauthorized copying. He believes “there’s no way to completely eliminate software piracy. We can cut it down but we can’t stop it anymore [sic] than the recording industry can stop people from buying records and taping them for their friends.”

i leave you with that thought.

in the coming weeks (months?), when i get a chance… as time permits… i’m going to start exploring, in public, some moments from the history of computers and technology. i have an ulterior motive. this stuff isn’t linkable out in the great world wide web. since it’s not out there for me to link, i need to put it here so i can link it later.

i’ve got several threads to tie together here on the meta-roj blog – music, drm, culture, law. maybe i’ll even work in a few things that surprise even me. you’re certainly invited to come along the journey, sporatic as it might be, and cast your own interpretation on the threads i weave into this story as it unfolds…