Well, it looks like Alienware has introduced the Predator case, see it in all the different colors [here] [ 3/25/2003 09:51:19 PM ] [ ]
Maybe I don't need the Newton after alll...
Not only is Danger on the verge of releasing a new color hiptop, but they have released their SDK (with an emulator for the color device) to anyone who registers for free on [their developer site]. Here are some [screenshots] of the UI in color And here is the [SSH app]
Nope with all these things going for it (like the anywhere connectivity, color screen, j2me SDK), if the keyboard is usable I could see myself using this a lot more than my Newton. Hmmmmm...
[ 3/25/2003 01:47:03 PM ] [ ]
Whoever does not have the stomach for this fight, let him depart. Give him money to speed his departure since we wish not to die in that man's company. Whoever lives past today and comes home safely will rouse himself every year on this day, show his neighbors his scars, and tell embellished stories of all their great feats of battle. These stories he will teach his son, and from this day until the end of the world, we shall be remembered. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; for whoever has shed his blood with me shall be my brother. And those men afraid to go, will think themselves as lesser men as they hear how we fought and died together... Henry V, Act IV Scene 3
[ 3/25/2003 12:02:20 AM ] [ ]
Monday, March 24, 2003
Ug. Some time ago, Chelle pointed out that most of what I write about our relationship here is bad stuff, so I've kind of avoided writing anything about it since then. Today she managed to inadvertantly remind me again that I'm not much of a part of her life though, and that hurt. It was one of those things where if she had just talked to me about it first that I would feel a lot better, but since I'm not right in front of her every day, she didn't, and that just makes me feel much farther away from her, from her thoughts... And it sucks.
[ 3/24/2003 05:20:57 PM ] [ ]
"Become the Change" indeed
A few months ago, a number of activists in Europe, the United States, and Canada began organizing trips to Iraq as "human shields" - the idea here being that they were willing to "die for peace" and put themselves in harm's way to prevent US/UN bombing of Iraqi targets.
One the the groups that received the most media attention was lead by a former US Marine who lead a group of about 35 in double-decker buses from London to Baghdad
After more than a month in Iraq being used as human shields, a number of those volunteers have come back - in shame. Several of them left in protest of the fact that the Ba'athist minders who controlled where the shields could go in Iraq made sure that the shields were protecting not civilian areas but military facilities, regime bunkers, and WMD sites.
As if that was a surprise. Iraq is a country that knows no freedoms. The people cannot protest in the streets or voice their opinions in the press like these activists can in the West. In Iraq, that kind of thing gets you executed by the SSO. For whatever reason, these "shields" did not realize that until they had been in the country for a month. Of the group that most media outlets followed from London, at least one member returned before hostilities began. His story is interesting...
I was shocked when I first met a pro-war Iraqi in Baghdad - a taxi driver taking me back to my hotel late at night. I explained that I was American and said, as we shields always did, "Bush bad, war bad, Iraq good". He looked at me with an expression of incredulity.
As he realised I was serious, he slowed down and started to speak in broken English about the evils of Saddam's regime. Until then I had only heard the President spoken of with respect, but now this guy was telling me how all of Iraq's oil money went into Saddam's pocket and that if you opposed him politically he would kill your whole family.
...
I became increasingly concerned about the way the Iraqi regime was restricting the movement of the shields, so a few days later I left Baghdad for Jordan by taxi with five others. Once over the border we felt comfortable enough to ask our driver what he felt about the regime and the threat of an aerial bombardment.
"Don't you listen to Powell on Voice of America radio?" he said. "Of course the Americans don't want to bomb civilians. They want to bomb government and Saddam's palaces. We want America to bomb Saddam."
We just sat, listening, our mouths open wide. Jake, one of the others, just kept saying, "Oh my God" as the driver described the horrors of the regime. Jake was so shocked at how naive he had been. We all were. It hadn't occurred to anyone that the Iraqis might actually be pro-war.
Which, honestly, should not have been that much of a surprise. Yes, you take your freedoms for granted, dickhead. Those people do not. They live a whisper away from death by one of the Ba'ath security forces.
Try not to be so ignorant of the rest of the world, ok? (note: "become the change" is the name of one of the human shields groups)
