Help Welcome Carly Fiorina to the 2016 GOP Clown Circus

Carly Fiorina has joined the GOP Clown Circus today and her most prominent web presence is at CarlyFiorina.org.

But we can't expect Carly Fiorina to understand technology can we?


Unfortunately, Carly Fiorina hasn't been effectively Santorumed yet. CarlyFiorina.org isn't showing up as the top search result for Carly Fiorina on this first day of her campaign, and it won't unless her name is repeatedly linked to it.

"...I want my...I want my...I want my dumb TV..."

The following two quotations are from WNYC's The Takeaway today, "Your TV Is Listening to You. And Messing With It Could Be a Felony" about Samsung's new smart TV and its built-in camera and microphone. 

The first quote is from the Samsung privacy policy packed with your new smart television:

“Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party through your use of Voice Recognition.”

The second quote is from George Orwell's 1984 (the future simply arrived three decades later than predicted):

“Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork.”

Here's the full radio segment for your listening pleasure:

"Turn Off, Unplug, Drop Out"

I'd like to present, as a gift to 21st-century youth, the slogan above modeled on Timothy Leary's advice  ("Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out") to those of my generation.



I was on a train this morning where everyone was either looking at or speaking into a phone and I thought once again about how much better the world was before those electronic leashes were invented. People in their teens and twenties today will never know the freedom of traveling for months with no one back in the States expecting any more than an occasional letter or postcard. Then a few minutes ago I stumbled upon this article about a device parents can now install in their teenagers' cars to keep track of them and all of their experiments with speed or other deviations from the norm. The article ends with a warning couched as a simple statement of fact:

"Teens, get used to it. This is America; someone is going to be spying on you for the rest of your life."

It's hard to imagine that some young people (and many of us older people) won't look for at least temporary escapes from corporate, governmental, and familial electronic tethers from time to time, but will we ever see a mass movement to Turn Off, Unplug, and Drop Out? And if that movement develops, will it take place entirely beyond the range of the social media and mass media radar?

My Luddite Resolve Is Weakening

I may finally have to get an e-reader.

I've been lugging the heavy hardcover version of Mason & Dixon in my computer bag lately. Its rewards are worth the effort, but I'd love to be able to carry all of Thomas Pynchon's novels at once, and all the time, without a wagon.

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

Here's a great video of the late Steve Jobs (strange to use that formulation, with pancreatic cancer just having taken him today) in 1984, introducing my first home computer, the original Macintosh.

It's been a long time since I've used MacPaint, played Alice Chess, or heard that Mac speaking voice (which I now associate with Radiohead's "Fitter Happier"), but this presentation and its reception bring back exactly how revolutionary it seemed compared to the gray business machines of "real" computer companies.
Rest in Peace Steve.

For political bloggers who have considered e-suicide when the apathy is enough.

You have to admit that it's sort of cool (and a little clichéd) to see that the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine is crashing from overuse today, in this festive week between Xmas and New Year's Day.
You might have to wait until after the holidays to off your Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn selves.

My First BlackBerry Sighting

The little BlackBerry breakdown yesterday, which substantially slowed the moving and shaking of movers and shakers all across this great continent of ours, reminded me of my first sighting of one of these devices in use. I wish I had noted the date of this incident, but I didn't think at the time that this little gizmo would take quite the prominent place in our culture that it has in the past few years. So the date is inexact, but here's the scene:

Time: Around 2001, during the evening rush hour.
The Place: A New Jersey Transit train leaving New York's Penn Station
The Characters: Middle-Aged White Man in a Dark Suit #1 & Middle-Aged White Man in a Dark Suit #2

Man#1 is watching Man#2 type on a tiny keyboard with his thumbs.
Man #1: What's that thing?
Man #2: A "Black Berry".
Man #1: What are you doing?
Man #2: I'm talking to my boss right now!
Man #1: Why the fuck would you want to do that?

Why indeed? thought the man sitting across the aisle from them who was trying to read a book.