An open letter to Apple Computer

Dear Apple:

Won't you please make me the ultimate mp3 player for my stereo? It should have:

- a 100 gig drive (at least)
- 802.11 and Rendezvous technology, so it can store tunes and photos that everyone in the house can access
- a cd-r for importing and burning

How will I control it? Oh, Apple, you have already figured out all the interface issues. The remote can just use the ipod interface to access the tunes! To make it even easier, you can just put a little syncing plug on the front of the device, and put 64 MB of flash ram in the remote. The entire menu contents can be stored in the remote!

It would also be nice to be able to make playlists from the device, so some kind of full-color iTunes interface screen would be nice, too. Or you could just give us a program to make playlists on our computers, and tranfer them to this device.

I will name it Sparky. But you can call it PowerPod, since I know how you love the i/power system.

Cheers
Helen

P.S. If you could release it before Christmas, I would really appreciate it.

Dean, the Media and You

Many months ago, I thought to myself, Dean really has it figured out. He's taking his message straight to the people, insulating himself from the shifts in media opinion. Looking back now, I don't think I was wrong -- his core supporters were with him until the end, and they understood his message. Instead, I overestimated the number of people he was reaching with that strategy.

Obviously, the vast majority of primary voters to date were not devotees of blogforamerica.com. You can argue back and forth about whether the media took Dean down, but the huge upticks for John Edwards in states where he gets multiple major paper endorsements says pretty clearly that people still overwhelmingly look to the media for their opinions of political candidates.

Is it possible for a political candidate to do what I hoped Dean would do -- take his or her message straight to the people? Or are people just too lazy/apathetic/anti-politics to be bothered?

The changes never stop around here.

In honor of our refocus on text, we have changed the font of our blog. Hopefully, you will find it much easier on your eyes when Mary begins posting the thoughtful, dialogue generating posts she has promised me. And perhaps, you will be inspired by said posts to comment. She cries nightly over the lack of comments.

Local candidate or huge nerd? You decide.

My Democratic Candidate for State Legislature sent me a postcard. It read:

Dear Ms. Horstmann,
I hope you have a great birthday and a wonderful year ahead!
With all my best,
(name omitted to protect the sender)

Somehow, I suspect that my birthday is one of those pieces of information that most anyone can get their hands on.

retreat into the world of music.

I was talking to Sweeney the other day, and I told him coldplay (circa rush of blood to the head) reminded me of the postal service. I then played him some postal service, and he was a bit confused. What reminds me? The driving pace. See politik, clocks, god put a smile vs. such great heights, nothing better, clark gable, natural anthem. Sound is not really the same. Voices, no comparison. It's just the beat that reminds me of one another.

Also, god put a smile on your face -> cowboy junkies, common disaster.

Also, sondre lerche's human nature was in an AMC commercial. Good for sondre! Love that song.

For news on the trip to New Orleans, see Jane's blog for a far funnier entry than I could write.

bad things in threes

1. Crispy Pizza has closed.
2. Angel has been canceled.
3. Howard Dean has left the race.

The power to take this country back is in your hands now.

Janevasion 2004!

The advance team is already on the way for our storming of the French Quarter. Provisions have been laid in, our underground supporters are preparing rooms for us, and most of New Orleans is totally unaware of our secret plans. Next week on FOX, the new reality series....

WHEN GEEKS UNITE!