When I was a phrap, I got untold pleasure from waking up and seeing a fresh blanket of snow, um, well, ah...blanketing the ground. That meant no school. That meant frolicking around all day in a winter wonderland. That meant shoveling snow, not because I had too, but because I wanted to build a snow castle.
That pleasure hasn't gone away with age. In fact, I just might go back upstairs and surprise my wife with a fresh packed snowball.
I still want to be married.
Still, I like this getting up early, thing. Puttering around the house. Works delayed, so I've got about four hours of "me" time. Nice. Coffee in hand, computer on the lap, brain firing on all two cylinders. Nice.
Nibblets.wife with a snowball. Or maybe not.
So Steve Jobs, from whom all gadgets flow, finally released the iPhone. Finally.
I couldn't find any links to the release on the interwebs, so you'll have to take my word. But it's a sweet piece of tech. Truly, a little all in one. Video, phone, organizer, full up Mac OS, music player and decent storage. It's a little beyond my price point, but maybe if I save my quarters, then Christmas will come early
.
OK. This scares the hell out of me: "It's a gorgeous work of art. The colors in the bus windows are appealing" Link.
Now I love the British. Island folk. Sunny disposition, gorgeous women, every meal an epicurean delight. A happy people, running naked along sunkissed beaches beneath gently swaying palm......
Wait. I love the British. Everything I know about civilization comes from the British. They did a lot of the hardwork (a revoltution here and there) in establishing what works in creating a civilized society. Like the rule of law. You need it, see, even when you're "trangressive hipster doofuses." Breaking societies binds wot binds you is cool, but at the end of the day, it is nice to know who to sue.
The Brits are early adopters. They can't he'p it.
When the Brits started out with speed camera's, they were among the first. Then they put camera's just to, you know, watch the streets. Given that the natural right of self defense is questioned in England, maybe they'll find a way to hook camera's onto telly's, to protect against home invasions.
An ever watchful government.
Orwell had it wrong. The future is HDTV and a smiley face.
Speaking of Brits, Belmont Club links to and develops this Samizdata article about the revolutionary effects of cell phones in third world cultures.
It's like the old internet saw, about how "the internet treats censorship like damage, and routes around it, until it recieves a restraining order or is in someway influenced by business contracts in China or has entire ports shut down in Iran." Technology is having that affect on the system of societies, and it's nice to see it happening.
When I told my wife, last night, that Russia had cut off oil to Europe in a dispute with the White Russians, she asked, well, where else can Europe gets it's oil? Um, House of Saud. Not a lot of good options, there.
She then went on about how Russia could be a great society, if the oligarchs spent the money on developing the Russian economy. Well, it's "reign in hell, serve in heavan" dichotomy. Societies that treat wealth as finite (those are usually your resource...oil, diamonds, timber... boys) tend to hoard and become oppressive. Societies that treat wealth as infinite (the idea boys) grow and develop.
Least that how it makes sense to me. But remember. Only two cylinders going, here.
That technology will bring change is a given. How, well, now that's the fascinating part.
Look forward to seeing iPhone in the hands of dissidents, psuedo and actual, worldwide.
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