Fascinating little piece on Gizmodo on Apple’s Magic Touchpad and how it signifies the end of the PC user interaction paradigm as we know it. Maybe it’s not too late to buy that Apple stock I should have picked up in ‘97 or so.

The beginning of the metamorphosis

So if Apple’s Magic Trackpad is not really that good, why would does it mean the beginning of the end of Mac OS X as we know it? Because this is Steve and Co. way of telling us that the future is multitouch, and the mouse is death.

After the success of the iPhone, the iPod touch, and the iPad, Apple has realized that the consumer market is ready for a new user interface paradigm, centered around multitouch and the idea of fully database-driven modal operating system. The death of the desktop metaphor—that overcomplicated and stinking mass of hurt made out of a zillion folders and files—as we know it. It was good when the world ran on floppies and small hard drives, but it’s time to move on.

Apple wants to move everything to multitouch, iMacs, MacBooks, and Mac Pros. The problem is that they can’t do it like they did with the iPad. Perhaps the MacBook will see a hybrid touchscreen/keyboard design, but on the desktop this would be impossible.

Tell it like it is, Anthony. You are the Man.

This is a group that I believe will appreciate this latest discussion over at the Edge.

snippet 1:

“Behavioral scientists routinely publish broad claims about human psychology and behavior based on samples drawn entirely from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic societies.” The acronym there being WEIRD. “Our findings suggest that members of WEIRD societies are among the least representative populations one could find for generalizing about humans. Overall, these empirical patterns suggest that we need to be less cavalier in addressing questions of human nature, on the basis of data drawn from this particularly thin and rather unusual slice of humanity.”

snippet 2:

“The evidence reviewed here shows not only that reasoning falls quite short of reliably delivering rational beliefs and rational decisions. It may even be, in a variety of cases, detrimental to rationality. Reasoning can lead to poor outcomes, not because humans are bad at it, but because they systematically strive for arguments that justify their beliefs or their actions. This explains the confirmation bias, motivated reasoning, and reason-based choice, among other things.”

here’s the link

(isn’t this a wonderful shot? photographer unknown)

Italian grand opera was of course THE ‘multimedia’ dramatic extravaganza of its day… but I’m not much of a fan of traditional opera… in particular, I can’t usually get past the overblown vibrato that the singers insist on constantly using… It’s not like they can’t hit the notes cleanly! They’re good singers… I just don’t get it!

So I’m no aficionado… But be that as it may, I do know a good melody when I hear one, and Giuseppe Verdi turned out a few real beauties… as did his ’successor’, Giacomo Puccini…

But there is ONE ‘traditional’ opera that has never failed to touch me deeply. It is Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly”…

read more…

Julian Assange: WikiLeaks founder

The documents recently published on WikiLeaks have, if nothing else, embarrassed the Pentagon, CIA, State Department and the White House. They expose for all to see just how precarious things really are in Afghanistan. They also show us that the July, 2011 ‘pullout’ date has had exactly the opposite effect as intended on the fragile Afghan government. The Taliban is just going to patiently wait us out. That’s exactly what I would do…

As many Afghan experts and even the President himself have said, there’s no real information in the WikiLeaks documents (I’ve only skimmed about 1000) that diligent Afghanistan watchers didn’t already know about, but here it’s laid out in excruciating and depressing detail. As to the hysterical cries of ‘Treason!’ in some quarters, that is absurd on its face. People are just pissed off that the lid’s been very loudly blown off their charade, not too different (but to a less dramatic degree) from what Daniel Ellsberg’s leak of the Pentagon Papers did in the Vietnam era.

read more…

As always, the exclusive release on New Worlds. This is based on a true story, just alternate universe, byronstyle. The logline reads: ‘A family living in 1948 San Antonio nearly dissolves when the oldest son is killed by a drunk driver’.

Playland Park

My seventh screenplay, and my first family drama. Difficult to write. The story bothered me. Too close to home. The research was vast and intense for this one. I’ve listened to hundreds of hours of 1947-48 radio programming, read hundreds of issues of the San Antonio Light and Examiner, and talked to every living relative that was there. As close to time travel as you can get. Theoretically.

Off to the contests.

Next up: A Really Weird One, part of it sketched in Chortly Kills. After that: Albik Trizz?

PS: Radical Rules just hit the finals at a decent contest. Top ten, so far.

I just watched a shocking new video of right-wing activist Andrew Breitbart.

Breitbart is best known for using highly misleading video “hit pieces” to smear progressives, and his videos are shown widely on Fox.

Given that, you’d think he’d be more careful about what he’d say on tape. Guess again.

Check out this revealing video of Breitbart that MoveOn.org just obtained:

Watchmen: The Silk Spectre (’then’ and ‘now’)

There are many good quotes from the darkly brilliant film “Watchmen” (recommended), but one in particular (oddly not to be found on the IMDb ‘quotes’ page) has haunted me a bit since I first heard it. ‘Sally Jupiter’ is an ageing retired superhero… the ‘Silk Spectre’, now a somewhat bitter and alcoholic but more an ironic and cynical woman. At one point, she intimates… peering over the rim of a martini glass at her adult daughter Laurie (’Silk Spectre 2′):

“Every day the future grows a little bit darker, but the past just keeps getting brighter.”

I really gotta admit, that line hit me right where I live! The recent “Albik Trizz” ‘revival’ (LOTS of response!), hell, even “Jupiter Sheep” is now almost 20 years in the rear-view mirror! The fact that the music and related comments I post seem to all be of 1950’s to 1980’s (at the latest!) vintage… Even my Cub Scouts ‘career’ fer christ sake!…
What’s going ON here??
read more…

An important report on American racism from (of all people!) Al-Jezeera TV. But don’t let that put you off… it’s a very well done piece of reporting IMHO. Watch and judge for yourself!

Another article well worth reading is from the Southern Poverty Law Center:
Unsweet Tea.

And just yesterday, on CNN’s “Rick’s List” show, Mr. Sanchez interviewed another self-appointed Arizona ‘border guard’… who repeatedly denied that he was a ‘Neo-Nazi’, calling himself instead a ‘National Socialist’… After the interview, Sanchez expressed puzzlement to co-host Brooke Baldwin: “… Didn’t I hear that guy right? I thought that ‘National Socialist’ MEANS ‘Nazi’!?…”. Yes Rick, that’s EXACTLY what ‘National Socialist’ means! (BTW: ‘Nazi’ is a rather odd British contraction from ‘Nationalsozialist’… ’socialist’ in this context being a misnomer bearing NO resemblance to ’socialism’ as we know it. Nazis are virulently ANTI-socialist.)

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, it’s worth considering that ever since the rise of the Nazis in 1930’s Germany, there has ALWAYS been a strong streak of it HERE in America, where it found kindred ’spirits’ in the KKK and other white supremacist groups… xenophobic, rabidly racist, anti-democratic and often VIOLENT (one need only recall Timothy McVeigh’s OK City bombing)…

You take a bad economy, a rapidly changing demographic and (horrors!) a BLACK President… stir well and voilá! THIS is what you get. There are a LOT of racist white Christians (and I don’t mean the skinheads with the ‘ϟϟ‘ tattoos!) in this country showing up at these Tea Party rallies who would NEVER call themselves ‘Nazis’… but you know what they say: “If it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck… it’s probably a DUCK!”. (or perhaps I should’ve said “If it steps like a goose…” ;-})