McGee's Musings

I won’t have access to the net over the next week, so I won’t be posting. Scarier, I won’t be staying on top of the incoming information flow. As it is I’ve still got 150 items backed up in my aggregator that I want to think about and possibly comment on. More when I get back.

I’ll be following this closely. In the long run this may be the most important news of 2004.

SpaceShipOne blog, part 4. Ground crew member Alan Radecki says:

Hi All, The FAA spaceport license came through today, and almost immediately, signs went up at the airport. Pics are now up on the Mojave Airport Weblog as well as a couple aerials showing the parking & RV areas that I shot this morning from our helo. For those who’ll be in the RV park, sounds like the NASA interns will be throwing a big party with a band and all.

Link to part 3, Link to part 2, Link to part 1. Handy overview photo that shows the Mojave Airport scene where the ship will launch on Monday: Link. (Thanks, Todd Lappin) [Boing Boing]

I sure do miss Calvin and Hobbes. Always full of deep wisdom.

Calvin and Hobbes Struck Long Ago.

Anatol tells us that the Los Angeles Times’s op-ed page is way behind the curve in its attacks on “secular thought” as a religion. The definitive such attack was made by Calvin and Hobbes:

Calvin: “Math is not a science. It’s a religion. Here is a bunch of numbers, and by some magic they become another bunch of numbers. You either believe it, or you don’t. As a math atheist, I demand being freed of this”.

Hobbes: “In public school, no less. Call a lawyer”

[Brad DeLong’s Semi-Daily Journal (2004)]

I suppose I’d feel a bit paranoid if every action I took elicited the response that “Dave” gets. For all I know, I might well have one of those supposed 3,000 weblogs that momentarily have gone away. I chose to move on to my own site once I had developed a better sense of what I wanted to do.

I haven’t been a programmer for a long time and I was never as talented at it as many. But I do create things and I know that it takes real emotional energy to create. Far more than it does to throw stones.

I’ve used products from “Userland” as a major component of the creative work I’ve done over the last several years and I’ve paid for them, because that’s what you do to ensure that you have and will have the tools you need to do your work. I have never had anything but cordial and helpful interactions with “Dave” over that time.

I also agree with AKMA’s observations this morning.

The world is full of creators and critics. Spend your time with the creators.

What’s Wrong With Winer? / Pointless Battles.

I wish people would just get a hold of themselves on the Winer / weblogs.com thing… I mean all this ranting is just a waste of energy… it was a free service – it ended – stop complaining and using this as a bashing opportunity.

It also pisses me off when people write about Winer and, so-bloody-often, put in this ‘but if you know what he’s like’ type comment. Why do people think he’s so bad? I’ve been in this sphere for ’bout a year and a half now… reading widely… and I just don’t get it…

Pershunally I agree with a lot of what he says today. I wish people would expend their energy on more worthy issues!

[incorporated subversion]

Something on the lighter side

The Simpsons: The Map of Springfield.

This is so funny I was literally crying. Seriously, spend some time exploring.

[ComputerZen.com – Scott Hanselman’s Weblog]