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Thomas Denton of comic blog Say It Backwards has a nephew who was diagnosed with cancer. A charity called Candlelighters helped his family out. Thomas decided to use his connections in the comics world to organize some charitable auctions featuring original artwork by various artists to give something back to the organization. Apparently Time Warner (who own DC comics, who in turn own Superman, Batman and most of the cool superheroes who wear capes) objected to the selling of the pieces featuring their copyrighted and trademarked characters on eBay, specifically Superman from what I understand.
Using characters owned by the major comic book corporations is pretty common in charity auctions at comic book conventions. This is not to mention that if you go on eBay right now there are a lot of auctions for artwork featuring those same characters, none of which Time Warner seems to be going after.

Thomas has posted a statement apologising to everyone involved in the affair (artists, bidders), but it doesn’t seem right that he’s been left holding the bag for trying to something for sick kids. Some letters to Time Warner’s PR department might make them think twice about sending out cease and desist orders so wantonly, and who knows, might even prompt them to kick some cash Candlelighters’ way.

Mr Denton documents the details here. It’s in reverse chronological order, so start with the bottom most post. In short, all received money that hadn’t already been sent to Candlelighters has been refunded, and all donated art that had not already been dispatched to buyers has been returned to the artists by Mr Denton. If I am mistaken here or misstating something, please let me know. I do not want to in any way spread false information.

Reading about this has left me feeling very upset. DC of course owns the rights to those characters, and has the legal right to sue if they are used by someone else to make profit as if they owned them, but that’s not what’s happening here. As the above bolded section notes, comic artists drawing these characters for charity is nothing new, and there are many such eBay auctions that Warner Brothers is NOT taking down, though they have nothing to do with charity. Those same artists drawing art for fans on paid commission is also not new, and DC doesn’t seem to mind that either. I’m not going to speculate on why DC chose to single out Mr Denton and his singularly thoughtful and interesting charity drive, which he actually managed to get professional artists to donate their time and effort for. What I do know is that there’s a difference between having the legal right to sue someone for something and recognizing when not to exercise that right for the mutual benefit of all involved, such as in the case of a philanthropic nonprofit effort designed to give aid to an organization devoted to children with cancer.

There is no danger of dilution of DC’s brand here, or loss of profit, or association with unseemly elements (unless the company does not want to be associated with charities). This entire situation suggests at best an overeager Warner Brothers legal department employee who wasn’t thinking clearly about the context. From a PR perspective, I would go so far as to suggest a successful charity auction would have generated positive press for the company. A clever spokesperson could’ve even spun something about their characters being used in the fight against cancer. This debacle, by contrast, won’t, and shouldn’t, generate anything but negative publicity for the company.

I leave you with a request, not just to my fellow members of all my fandoms but to everyone reading this. Warner Brothers has not so much dropped as stabbed the ball here, and this nonprofit has lost the chance for a sizable donation that it could have put to the care of sick children, but on the bright side many like me who follow this sort of news have today become aware of Candlelighters and their mission. If you have the resources, please make a donation. The donation options on the Candlelighters website is easy to use and automatically generates and mails out paperwork to verify the tax deductible status of your gift.

Please spread the word about this. Even if you’re unable to donate, someone who reads your blog might be, and the more people who learn about this and complain, the less this sort of snafu will be repeated. Complaining directly to WB, not just on your blogs, might not be a bad idea either, though I am not entirely sure whom one would contact about this particular issue. Even if they don’t shift their stance on this particular set of auctions (and they should), everyone involved would be served well should they make a formal policy statement about these sorts of fundraisers and how their legal department will react to them in the future.

Thank you for your time.

Technorati Tags:
cancer research, candlelighters, charity, comics, dc comics, fandom, warner brothers, superman, ebay

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For those of us using Apple’s Mail.app, there is no way to control this by default. The software makes decisions on its own, and doesn’t do too good a job of it. Lokiware’s mebeliMail Attachments Iconizer is a $15.00 dollar plugin that gives the user control over this behavior, and well worth the price for the convenience and control it gives, IMHO. It’s got an unlimited trial, too, so you can give it a whirl before you decide if you want to buy it.

As a bonus, Lokiware is currently sponsoring the RSS feed on the most excellent Daring Fireball Mac news and opinion site, and is offering thirty percent off through 24 March. On the order page, enter coupon code “DARINGFB.”

[tags]mac, macintosh, mac os, mac os x, email, e-mail, mail, apple mail, mail.app, apple mail.app, lokiware, mail attachments iconizer, daring fireball[/tags]

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This approach is not good for a couple specific use cases. iCal organizes events and todos by calendars (e.g.: work, school, sports events, etc.) that don’t necessarily interact well together. (For example, there’s no way to create a project that cross-references events and todos in multiple calendars.)

iCal fails more substantially is in making the creation of simple, cross-refenced todo lists simple, easy and fast. Creating a todo in iCal is a multistep process involving several clicks and decisions that, when you just want to put a list together, be it of groceries to buy, or small but important tasks, or whatever, is slow and overbearing and kind of like shooting at a fly with a howitzer: you can do it, but there’s got to be an easier, faster way, and precision might be difficult.

Luckily, there is. The Getting Things Done time management system was created with action management and large projects in mind, and provides the appropriate tools. For most people though, the full system is overkill. One should not need project management software just to manage a task list.

Hog Bay Software’s Taskpaper is designed to make the creation of task lists organized by project and descriptive tags on list entries as simple and painless as writing a text file. From the software’s website:

For Mac users who want a simpler way to stay organized and get things done. TaskPaper is a simple to-do list that’s surprisingly adept. Unlike the competition, TaskPaper’s text based interface is focused on paper-like simplicity. 

I’ve fallen in love with this software, but I’ve been sitting here for the last fifteen minutes staring at my cursor trying to figure out a concise way to explain exactly what it does and how it works that also conveys how cool it is. Saying “it creates cross-referenced todo lists” is technically true, but it doesn’t really convey why you’d want that. Indeed, this was the explanation someone gave me, and that was my exact reaction until I saw it in action. So, with no further blabber from me, I present this demo. I tried to embed it into this post, but the embed code they use is painfully bad, and appears broken, at least on Safari.

Watching that should tell you everything you could possibly want to know about the software. If it’s something you might find useful, give it a whirl. The developer is very open and communicates with his users frequently, and recently posted about the upcoming 2.0 release (a free upgrade) here, in the Task Paper forum.

I urge everyone to check this out. I can’t say for certain that it’s made me more productive (though I’m pretty sure it has), but I’ve certainly got a better idea at a glance of what I need to get done (and have actually gotten done) than I did before.

[tags]apple, mac, macintosh, ical, getting things done, gtd, hog bay software, taskpaper, applescript, organization, action management, time management[/tags]

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Unpacking and Renovation

Wallpaper started in the dining room today. It’s looking beautiful. I also went by the Circuit City and picked up some component video cable (orange, green, and blue plugs) for the DVD player hooked up to my TV, something I’ve been meaning to do for a year. I’ll finally be getting the absolute best video quality. Not that I’m likely to be able to tell the difference, given my less than stellar eyesight, but someone probably will, and it seemed like a fine time for an equipment upgrade. Aside from wondering just how the electronics industry gets away with so drastically overpricing audio/visual cables, I’m pretty happy with my purchase. Especially since I found an unopened Monster audio RCA cable in a box. Since I didn’t buy it, I don’t even have to feel guilty about using such an over-hyped, overpriced brand. Instead, I have the opportunity to bask unencumbered in the glory of audio cable so thick that it would pass for Indiana Jones’ whip.

Phones! Internets! TVs!

The AT&T tech came early for the jack repair, which unfortunately took a few hours. We have working jacks again. Turns out the phone wiring in the attic was accidentally cut by someone when they were removing excess and antiquated wires from previous, very old cable television and phone installs. Oops.

(We actually have some old four prong telephone jacks around. They’re absolutely useless, but kind of fun to look at.)

And now for the ceremonial rant. I checked with the DSL people again today. Lo and behold, our order for DSL service had been somehow cancelled. For the second time–the first time they cancelled it two weeks before we moved in. Bizarre. At any rate, I was told that things were straightened out (again) and that we would be activated for service by Wednesday at 8p, this week. I even got an order confirmation number, which I’ve not had before.

The Billing Department representative also tried to sell me a 99 dollar router/modem and installation (even though I’ve already got a wireless router), and more long distance. She did this while I was waiting to find out when our DSL would be provisioned, and was incredibly pushy. I actually felt like I was being pressured into buying more services after being thoroughly confused. I eventually just agreed to “think about the offer” so I could get her to shut up about it, finish filling my order and get off the phone.

I suppose a bad experience with a customer service representative was inevitable, as much as I’ve been calling them. And I’ve been talking to the Billing Department, which means there was bound to be some sort of tomfoolery eventually. Still, grar.

I’m beyond any sort of frothing rage at this point. Actually, I’m not even angry or as frustrated as I could be. It’s getting just a bit too bizarre. I wouldn’t be suprised if our order is somehow cancelled again or squirrels eat through the phone lines. I keep waiting for Ashton Kutcher to pop out and announce I’ve been punk’d. At which point I’d probably stab him, because I just found my knife and internet withdrawal is starting to make me a bit twitchy.

Our very friendly satellite TV installer is also going to stop by tomorrow to switch out the ViP 211 HD receiver in my office with the ViP 722 HD receiver/DVR in the master bedroom. I called him today and asked if this was something I could do myself, but quickly realized that was not the case when I was told I would have to go up into the attic and retone the line. I don’t even know what that means.

Once we have the internet, I’m going to research what it will take to connect our receivers to the home network, and if it’s even worth it. Seems like a fun project.

Father of the Bride II is over in fifteen minutes, then I’m going to bed. Peace out.

[tags]renovation, audio/visual cable, audio cable, monster cable, video cable, component cable, component video cable, component video, AT&T, at&t, phones, phone, phone company, phone repair, dsl, AT&T Yahoo! DSL, at&t yahoo! dsl, Dish, dish, dish satellite, Dish satellite, Dish Satellite, vip 211, ViP 211, VIP 211, vip 722, ViP 722, VIP 722[/tags]

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Baseboards Wednesday. Probably.

Got the phone message confirmation for our jack repair appointment today. I don’t think I mentioned before, but I scheduled this appointment for the 2-6p window. I thought the 8-11a option too dangerous, because we’re still going at odd hours here and I doubt anyone would be very happy on the odd chance they showed up that early. There was a later window as well, but I didn’t want to give anyone reason to show up at 9p if I didn’t have to.

My thoughtful scheduling was for naught. According to the phone message, the tech will appear sometime between 8a and 6p. ¿Que? That’s not so much a window as the entire day. What was the point of scheduling a window, then?

Yes, I am aware this isn’t a major gripe, as I plan to be awake and getting together by 8 tomorrow morning anyway. Yet after the aforementioned, continuing madness with the DSL line and the revelation that we will need to pay exorbitant fees to get the jacks built into our walls to actually work, I find myself somewhat less magnanimous than usual. We’re not quite to the straw-camel point, though. I know I personally don’t plan to raze any buildings to the ground with a BIC lighter and a straight razor unless the DSL isn’t working by Wednesday night.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll now go back to being distracted by the Food Network in high definition. Mmm. Designer Wedding Cakes.

[tags]renovation, moving, wallpaper, AT&T, at&t, customer service, phone, phones, phone company, phone service[/tags]

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Yes, I’m scraping the bottom of the double entendre barrel. Not a whole lot going on today. More boxes continue to be unpacked. Board games, clothing,
master bedroom stuffs, and other goodies continue to show up. Giving a full, exact detailing of everything that’s been unpacked would, as stated previously, be just about as enthralling as listening to Ben Stein read the phonebook, so allow me to state simply that we’ve been busy.

I started reading Breakup Babe, a Novel, and aside from being slightly annoyed at the pretentiousness of those who think appending “a novel” to the title of a book is a good idea, am generally finding it an enjoyable, well-written work, even if I don’t just adore the main character. Let’s be honest: even if I don’t particularly like the main character half the time. Which, I think, is a sign of just how well-written she is. More on this later, perhaps. I don’t want to attempt even a ten-second book review until I’ve actually finished it. It could go either way at this point.

The wallpaper installer from the painting crew is here, which is news. It’s also, just to be clear, the source of this entry’s questionably tasteful title. He’s currently fitting out the master bedroom, and will then move onto the dining room. Then baseboards just as soon as my cousin is available. All that remains after that, to my knowledge, are a number of electrical outlet faceplates, a few vent covers, and some paint that needs to be fixed, and renovation/construction will be complete. Just a few more days, and I’ll be able to unload the rest of my books and equipment, and actually feel like I can touch my office furniture without fear of knocking it over and being crushed under its tremendous, well lacquered weight.

If I sound like I’m fixating selfishly on my suite while ignoring the accomplishments in unpacking and decorating going on in the rest of the house, I probably am let me assure that this is not the case. I simply don’t feel the urge to comment on the rest because it’s going so well and already looks so amazing, especially considering we really only started in earnest on Thursday. Also, I don’t feel like I might possibly be killed or maimed by falling ten-foot-plus solid wood bookcases in any other part of the house. And let’s be clear, fan of luxurious office furniture I may be, but if I’m to be smashed into oblivion, I demand at the very least a more exciting instrument of my undoing.

Get me some rampaging giraffes or Steve Jobs in an Aston Martin fleeing from paparazi, and then we’ll talk. Because seriously, giraffes.

Edit (Sat 1 December 2007, 7:42 PM US Central): Wallpaper in master bedroom is done, except for a bit of faulty paper we couldn’t use. Replacement roll will be installed later. One of the flooring company staff is here removing the baseboards from the dining room in preparation for the painter/wallpaper guy to come back tomorrow and do that room.

[tags]renovation, moving, wallpaper, breakup babe[/tags]

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Moving, Continued…

Unpacking of boxes continues apace. What follows is not a complete progress report, but rather some highlights, as I (a) don’t have the stamina to write it all down (b) haven’t even bothered going into a couple of the bedrooms, so I can’t say what’s going on in there, and (c) don’t won’t to bore everyone to tears, which I’ve probably done already, if we’re being completely honest. The kitchen is virtually completely unpacked and set up, save for later rearranging and the retrieval of more pottery and implements from the storage on the coast, and the dining room is well on the way. My bedroom is now mostly free of cardboard containers, save one I’m holding off on until my office is ready to be stuffed full of my assorted electro-mechanical stuff. Clothing and other assorted goodies, like a very fashionable set of leather bound encyclopedias and history and law books, have resurfaced, as well. Like most other rooms in the house, save for one, it’s also free of baseboards (the trim around the bottom of walls), which means we can’t slide any furniture into place until my cousin comes up, probably this weekend or early next week, to install said baseboards, which won’t happen until the painting crew installs the wall paper in the dining room tomorrow morning. If we put my furniture in place now, we’d just have to move it again, which is a nonstarter, as it’s the Heaviest Solid Wood Furniture in the Universe. Our other pieces might not have quite the mass, but would be similarly cumbersome to prematurely move, and no one wants to risk accidental damage to the walls that were just repainted, at any rate. The downside to this being that we are currently camped out in the guest bedrooms, as ours are either filled with furniture stuck in the middle of the floor waiting to be put against the wall, filled with boxes, or otherwise not quite ready to be lived in. It doesn’t help that we don’t have beds for those rooms yet, either. The perils of moving from a place with two bedrooms to four and deciding the beds you already have look better in the guest suites.

There’s other little random stuff, like a floor needing to be fixed where a doorway was widened, some fans needing to be hung, the fact that none of our windows has any dressing except for some giant sheets of plastic hung in the bedrooms for modesty’s sake, but that’s really transient stuff. After all, we have satellite TV and surround sound speakers built in to the walls, so we’re easily distracted.

Painting has turned into a nightmare, but the less said about that the better.

Come and Swim in My Pool…Or Not

I’ve made much over the last few weeks of the pool we’re having installed, going so far as to pimp questionably exciting pictures of said water hole’s construction cycle in this space. Construction ground to a halt after the safety fence mandated by city ordinance apparently didn’t pass inspection, but that was apparently an error or has been otherwise taken care of (and if I sound vague it’s because I really don’t know what’s going on; the pool people didn’t really tell us much, as taking care of inspections and stuff behind the scenes is supposed to be part of the package. Today the plumber came out and turned the gas back on for the water heater in preparation for the final inspection, after which the plaster will be poured and the construction will be complete. So when I post a vague entry in a week or two proclaiming nothing more and nothing less than “IT’S ALIVE!” you’ll know what happened.

Infusion of Comfort and Joy and AT&T/Yahoo DSL (Or: The Time of Ranting is Upon You)

What follows is a brief description of my infusion that devolves into a lengthy rant about the not-quite-fun I’ve had trying to get our internet and phone jacks up and working. Let me preface my griping by noting that while I’m more than a little annoyed with ATT as a corporate service entity at this point, the support technicians I dealt with on the phone were friendly and did their best to help me. I’m ranting at the system, not them. I am also putting the rest of this entry under a cut, because it’s really just an evolved form of whining, and I am aware of that.

[tags]moving, pool, AT&T, at&t, dsl, yahoo dsl, yahoo DSL, yahoo, AT&T dsl, DSL, AT&T DSL, at&t dsl, at&t DSL[/tags]

Remicade infusion on Thursday. Aside from combining with my exhaustion from not getting very much sleep Wednesday or Tuesday (sleeping has got to be the worst part of the hotel experience) to leave me exhausted to the point I slept almost till noon today, it went well. They have wireless internet, so I also managed to get a little work done. I changed the mailing address at my bank, scheduled an ATT tech to come out on Monday and fix our phone jacks (only two of which actually work, which is not only annoying but means our alarm and satellite can’t function properly), and spent at least ninety minutes on the phone with the DSL people trying to figure out why the self-installation kit they sent me failed. By the time I got to the internet staff, I was already highly annoyed from being told that I would be charged exhorbitant fees for the jack repair, as I didn’t bother to have that taken care of by the tech that came out to install our phone service. This was total bull, as no one actually came to our door when they turned on the phones — they just magically started working on Tuesday. But the hospital I was in played havoc with my reception, and I saw no point in arguing, so I let it go. Maybe that was a mistake, but I couldn’t negotiate very well with a phone with a dying battery and virtually no signal. It barely held on long enough for me to make the service appointment.

All the AT&T DSL Support department could tell me Wednesday night was there was a “facility problem,” the repair of which would take an unknown amount of time. I was told to contact the Billing department, which was closed by then, and did so yesterday during my infusion. They informed me said facility didn’t have anything to do with our house (my first assumption) but couldn’t really say more than that. I once again left the nice tech some cell phone numbers to contact me with more information about when our service would be ready to roll, and went back to watching the IV machine pump my miracle drug into my veins, hoping I wasn’t starting down the road to reliving any of the nastier DSL installation horror stories I’d heard. Then one of the nurses came around carrying a plate of cookies, and I stopped caring, for a while at least.

Which brings us to this morning. Someone from AT&T called whilst I was trying to sleep off the effects of aforementioned hotel insomnia/drug induced drowsiness. From what I was told, this area was oversold, and there was literally no more room on the Rube Goldberg machine they plug houses into to give them DSL access. Joy. They said they’ll have it resolved within five days, either by somehow fitting us onto the existing network node or running us our own private path to the network. The geek in me kinda hopes it’s the later, just cause it would be cool to say we had our own node on the network, but the rest of me is still annoyed enough that I just want it done, and I still feel kind of jerked around since no one could figure out what was going on and tell me on Wednesday. How is that the technical support department didn’t have a way to determine that there wasn’t enough room on the network for us? When I call support, I want more than vague mutterings about facility problems. I already knew there was something wrong, which was why I called the first place. It definitely felt like a case of the left hand not knowing what the right was doing, in this case tech support and billing not knowing what was going on with provisioning, which is actually a sub-department of billing. Grar.

I wish someone would come around with another plate of cookies.

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I spend a disproportionate amount of my day in front of a computer, so I’m a bit of a keyboard geek. If I’ve got to use something for hours at a time, I want it to be top quality. For me and many others, the epitome of keyboards were the IBM Model M and Apple Extended Keyboard/Apple Extended Keyboard II, the latter of which was the keyboard I had on my first computer.

Quoting Steve from the Apple Extended Keyboard II page linked above, these keyboards are relics from a time

when building a keyboard actually meant building something that you could, in an emergency, reliably use as a blunt weapon.

Most modern keyboards would shatter if you attempted to use them to defend your person, and that’s just not acceptable. But I would wager that for most, it is not these relics’ value as melee weapons that makes them desirable. Rather, it is the mechanical, spring-based key-switches. These, as their name implies, spring back up immediately after they are pressed, which gives a much more solid feel–the user knows when a key has been hit, because it’s already trying to come back up.

Theoretically, and anecdotally in my usage, this results in a more pleasant typing experience, as the user expends much less energy pressing the keys, resulting in less hand strain and perhaps faster typing. By contrast, most modern keyboards use very cheap rubber/silicone membrane switches that are, for lack of a better word, mushy. There’s no real response in many of these cheap boards when you hit the keys, making it difficult to train your muscles when to know to stop, which means much wasted, superfluous effort and mashing.

There are a number of options for getting high quality mechanical keyboards today. I prefer the Das Keyboard. Out of all the boards I’ve seen currently in production with mechanical switches, it’s one of, if not the, sturdiest, and as such serves very well the keyboard-as-blunt-instrument-of-destruction ideal. It’s built with high quality mechanical switches, and doesn’t try to hide the fact that these switches are loud. When I really get going, it sounds like a tiny airplane is taking off, which I like to imagine impresses onlookers and passerby. Plus, there isn’t a single keycap anywhere on the entire keyboard. I’m enough of a nerd that I count that as a feature. And here’s a neat thing that those classic keyboards didn’t have: the keys are weighted. It takes less pressure to hit the keys meant for your pinky than for your pointer finger, etc. There’s even a nice chart on the we site illustrating the pressure zones. Cool! (Bonus: Casual usage of your computer by those just passing through is discouraged, as newcomers are thoroughly intimidated, even if they already know how to touch type. It’s kind of funny to watch.)

The keyboard does have two caveats potential buyers should be aware of. First, it’s rather expensive: 69-80 dollars retail, depending on where you shop. I don’t consider this a negative, per se: it’s a high quality piece of equipment and should last for years. You get what you pay for.

Caveat deux is a genuine negative, one I hadn’t discovered until tonight. The Das Keyboard is designed for Windows devices but since it’s just a USB keyboard there’s nothing to stop you from using it with a Mac. However, two of the key mappings are hardwired to be in the wrong place for a Mac user. Specifically, the Option (Alt) and Command (Windows)* keys are swapped. Since the latter is the key** to 95 percent of all keyboard shortcuts on the Mac, this is a bit of a problem, though it’s certainly not insurmountable. Quite the contrary, the solution is simple: using the Control Panel, it is very easy to tell the system to read a Command signal as Option, and vice versa. I did this several months ago when I got the keyboard and never thought about it again.

But as I mentioned in my last post, we’re moving, I’m writing this from a hotel room, and my svelte Das Keyboard is in the back of a Jeep Rubicon somewhere, which means I’m using my laptop’s built in keyboard again. I didn’t think much of this until I tried to Select All and instead pasted a symbol. Switching the key signals produced the proper behavior on the Das Keyboard, but left the internal keyboard with the key signals incorrectly swapped. Annoying. It took me ten minutes to realize the keyboard circuits hadn’t literally been crossed, and another ten to find the setting to switch the keys back, and thanks to my muscle memory and the odd contortions necessary to do keyboard shortcuts when the Command key is in the wrong place, I was left with a not insignificant bit of finger cramping. Double plus ungood.

This was easy enough to fix, but as far as I can tell, I have to go in and reset it manually every time I need to plug in/unplug my external keyboard. This is, obviously, somewhat lame, and could be fixed with a very simple keyboard driver from the makers of Das Keyboard, but they, like many other hardware vendors, do not believe full Mac support is worth their time, so I find myself faced with an experience that is overly clunky. Perhaps I can learn enough AppleScript to automate the setting changes? I shall have to ruminate on this. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Peace out.

*Yes, I know Command and the Windows key are not direct analogues, but for the sake of this discussion, they’re close enough.
**Pun!

[tags]keyboard, keyboards, apple, apple extended keyboard, apple extended keyboard 2, apple extended keyboard II, ibm, ibm model m, model m, das keyboard, mac, macintosh, macs, macintoshes, os x, mac os x[/tags]

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We’re moving into our new house today. For obvious reasons, I’m not going to say much about it or where it is, but I will say I’m pretty excited, especially since I’ll actually have my own home office now (and not just a corner of the bedroom dedicated to my vast swaths of technology), and a swimming pool. Really, really looking forward to the latter–it’ll be great to exercise and work on my mobility in a way I just can’t do on dry land. We’re doing hardwoods (done) and painting/wallpapering (not done), so the usual stories of the trivails of home renovation apply. Not going to go into it save to say it’s not nearly as much fun as Home and Garden Television would have you believe. Perky, crazy people with sledgehammers don’t show up in vans and trucks and cavort merrily around, for one thing.

The house we got didn’t actually have a pool, so we’re putting one in. I’ve been sure to take pictures of every stage of construction, because I’m a geek and and a photographic record of the birth of our magnificent water hole. I was going to do a series of posts for each stage, but then I realized that was kind of redundant, as I’ve already got them neatly organized into a collection of photosets over at Flickr, complete with color commentary, so I figure I’ll just link to that. Behold! (Obviously, it’s not finished yet. We’re waiting on the inspection of the fence, not shown in these photos, before the final plastering (laying of the visible surface of the pool). In the meantime, to help you visualize, it’ll be a color called Black Sand. The pool itself is eight-by-thirty-six feet. The whole thing should have a pond-like ambiance.

And while I’m at it, take a gander at this awesome couch we got. Cool, eh? I suggest clicking through to get a full idea of its hugeness. And just to be clear (even though I already mentioned this on Flickr) that’s the furniture store, not our living room. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, for the moment the giant couch of burnished orange doom is probably the only item of furniture in our living room.

My apologies in advance if these image links break. For the moment, my Flickr Fu is weak and neophyte, so I may be doing it wrong. If so, let me know and I’ll fix it posthaste.

And while I’m on the subject of Flickr, let me take a moment to note that my preferred blogging software, MarsEdit 2, has built in Flickr integration. Whenever I want to put a picture from my Flickr account, all I have to do is press the Media button in my menubar, click the Flickr tab, and then browse (or use the built-in search) to find the picture I want. Size and alignment may then be specified. Most convenient. In case your curious, I use Flickr Uploadr to get my images up onto the site. It serves my purposes quite nicely.

Peace out. Will report in again, hopefully sooner rather than later.

[tags]house, construction, pool, photos, photographs, flickr, marsedit, flickr uploadr[/tags]

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At any rate, some neat things from around the Mac web that have caught my eye over the last few days.

The Look

In honor of Halloween, here’s a guide (with prices) to dressing like Justin Long, the guy that plays the Mac in the “I’m a Mac” commercials. Almost decided to do this for Halloween, but I a) have no where to be that anyone will see me b) will not be getting any trick or treaters, and c) in the absence of (a) and (b) am not willing to spend $157.97 for the ensemble. Looking that casual should in no universe ever cost that much money.

Thought: Apple should sell the Justin Long clothing set at Apple Stores. Booku* bucks from fanboys with more disposable income than me (which is quite a lot of people, I think).

*Is this a word?

Mind Over Matter (and Reality)

Also of note is an eloquent fellow named Chris, who somehow managed to get the graphpaper.com domain and keep it (surely in defiance of the processed paper mega concerns and their armies of lawyer ninja), who frames the issue of switching from Windows to Mac in terms of a 19th century sensory experiment. Thanks to John Gruber over at Daring Fireball for the reference. Quoting:

In 1896, a scientist named George M. Stratton, showing an ingenuity that must have seemed like madness at the time, conducted a fascinating experiment in visual perception with himself as the subject. He constructed a pair of goggles with special lenses that inverted his view of the world by 180 degrees, causing him to see everything upside down, as if he were standing on his head, continuously. He wore the goggles for many days, never once opening his eyes without wearing them (he would shower with his eyes closed, for example). 

The article uses this experiment as a metaphor for the adaptability of computer users to new interface paradigms, and quite handily illustrates how easily and quickly the mind can reprogram itself as needed. I’ve thought for a long while that moving from one computing platform is as easy as sitting down and using your new device, but the fact remains that there are a large number of users out there who won’t consider moving from one operating system (or web browswer, or email client, etc.) to another, regardless of possible benefits, because of some sort of fear that their computer will become unusable for them and they won’t be able to get any work done and in the worst case something might actually explode. Articles like this emphasize the fact that while, yes, there is an adjustment period in any change, it is surprisingly short and painless.

And, so far as the Mac vs Windows debate goes, newer Macs all are able to run Windows out of the box, so retreating to something familiar is possible. Most often, though, one hears of Mac converts buying a new machine with the idea in their head that they’ll dual-boot or virtualize Windows in the begining so they don’t have to completely leave behind what they had before, and then finding themselves so enamoured with the Mac OS that they never enter Windows again, and go on to lead happier, more productive lives, with more disco parties.

Okay, so maybe part of that sentence might be made up. But in all seriousness, switching operating systems isn’t the Herculean task many make it out to be, similar in proportion to attempting to learn a new language by parachuting into a foreign country with no translation tools at all on your person and hoping for the best. It’s much closer to switching from a manual car from 1950 to a modern automatic. The car’s function remains basically the same, but there are a few minor details you’ll have to master to get the most out of it. And to continue to this obviously pro-Mac metaphor to its logical conclusion, once you do master those details, you’ll be much happier. Which brings me to my next item of interest…

Mac OS X 10.5 in (Roughly) 48 Hours

The next major version of Mac OS X, codenamed Leopard, will hit the globe at large on Friday. This is exciting news. Other, better sites have been putting a lot of effort into covering just why this new OS promises to be more awesome than Betty Boop with an uzi and a wakizashi fighting undead zombie hordes (okay, so that might just be my version of awesome, but bear with me here), and I’m not going to try to duplicate that effort here. Rather, allow me to refer you to the guided tour on this page.

That’s all for now. Later days.

[tags]mac, macintosh, macs, macintoshes, apple, justin long, halloween, switcher, switching, mac os x, os x, mac os x 10.5, os x 10.5, leopard[/tags]

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[A] digital media file, or a series of such files, that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers. The term, like “radio”, [sic] can refer either to the content itself or to the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also termed podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster.

Many shows, both audio and video, are distributed in this manner. TWiT.tv puts out a number of shows on a variety of tech topics, with new episodes delivered weekly. Major networks like MSNBC also syndicate this way. The great majority of this content is completely free. Because the iPod and iTunes were the first hardware/software combo that facilitated this sort of content distribution, the word podcast popped up to illustrate the idea that one could easily subscribe to downloadable content that would be automatically and regularly culled from the Internet and synced to one’s iPod for listening/viewing. Even as the ability to subscribe and sync to this content became more ubiquitous and cross platform, no longer requiring the use of Apple products, the term stuck.

Leo Laporte, head of TWiT.tv, which boasts 280,000 subscribers, recently put up a very interesting post on why the term podcast is not only inaccurate, but downright restrictive and damaging to the entire syndication-based content delivery ecosystem. Definitely worth a read. Consider this excerpt:

I create shows that are distributed on the Internet via download, Flash, and, oh yeah, RSS, but it’s the show that’s the thing. By focusing on the RSS we’ve confused people and limited our audience. Even the word I suggested last year, “netcast,” doesn’t serve. It’s a show, period. It doesn’t matter how it’s distributed. It’s all just content. Tying the content to its method of distribution is confusing our audience and holding us back.

I really agree with what he’s saying, and I’m glad someone so articulate took the time to set it out: it’s all about the content. Reading it made me think of another related point.

Content is not intrinsically more or less interesting or important because of the technology used to deliver it, even though different technologies make different options available.

Imagine, for a moment, that it’s 1943. Citizens of the United States get most of their news and entertainment from the radio, as television has not penetrated the market yet, though some people do own sets. President Roosevelt intends to make a speech on an important issue, knowing it will be distributed live over the radio (and perhaps TV) and then spread across the world in written form by wire services. These three formats each have distinct and unique advantages and disadvantages in terms of accessibility (radios and televisions are accessible to the illiterate/blind while written text is not), penetration (how many people have radios vs those who can buy a newspaper vs those who have a television), storability, and other factors. Intangible characteristics are likewise considerable. Someone reading a copy of the speech wouldn’t be able to hear the inflections in FDRs voice that a radio listener would, and that radio listener would likewise miss clues in the president’s body language. There’s also the economic factor: radio and television are free after initial equipment purchase, or totally free if someone shares their set. Newspapers must be paid for, which causes a problem for the very poor. Radio is also, in this context, the only live option.

While all three mediums excel at presenting information in a specific way, the ideas presented do not change or become more or less valuable based on the method used to share them.

I think it’s particularly important to harp on this in light of the recent attention paid by traditional news sources (large media outlets, including their online arms) to grassroots political organizing and information sharing activity on the Internet. They’ve gone so far as to embrace the term netroots to describe, and I quote:

political activism organized through blogs and other online media, including wikis and social network services. The word is a portmanteau of Internet and grassroots, reflecting the technological innovations that set netroots techniques apart from other forms of political participation. In the United States, the term is used mainly in left-leaning circles.

For two reasons, this term really grates on me, to the point that I actually grit my teeth a bit when I realized I’d have to use it here. First, and definitely less importantly, I’m a computer science major and a technology geek. I absolutely can’t stand it when the mainstream media makes up a new cutesy word to describe a technological concept that doesn’t do anything to help people understand it, and may actually cause problems. In this respect, I cringe whenever I hear anyone blithely start talking about the “netroots” because it’s very close to a term that already has a technical meaning. The Internet root name servers, the thirteen redundant servers that are responsible for making sure domain names (e.g.: www.domain.com) work worldwide. There are thousands (millions?) of other DNS servers in use all around the world, but they depend on the thirteen root nameservers to make sure their information is correct and up to date. Referring to political activists online as “netroots” needlessly muddles the waters and makes explaining the role of the root name servers that much more difficult. (It might not seem like much more difficulty, but host name resolution is already a geeky enough topic that most non-techies don’t even want to think about it to begin with.)

But as annoying as that is, it’s really just a matter of diction. What’s more important in the netroots appellation is the false implication that Internet based activists are somehow significantly different in ideology or aims from those who stick to more traditional methods (the historic grassroots folks). This isn’t the case at all. Yes, using the internet to spread news and information and coordinate low-level campaign volunteers increases one’s reach and the opportunity for personal involvement: citizen-driven political activism limited to local and regional scopes can reach into any home with internet access. Ease of participation (and the fact that one doesn’t have to leave their home if they don’t want to) means Internet-based grassroots activities are far more widespread and visible on a national scale. Still, the content and ideas–the issues that motivate activists, analyses and speeches, etc.–do not change in any significant way just because the internet is being used for communication instead of, say, paper newsletters. Undeniably, more content will be published, and faster, than would have been otherwise, as all that’s needed to put something up on the internet is a free blogging system and time (compare this with the difficulty of creating, mass producing, and distributing a newsletter or pamphlet), but again, ease of publication does not in any substantive way effect the nature of the content (except, perhaps, for the potential lack of copy editing).

Much is also made of the fact that it is the anti-war wing of the Democratic Party that constitutes most bottom-up activity. This is not as newsworthy as the mainstream media would have you believe. Historically, grassroots activists have always been more extreme to a degree than the mainline party machinery, which is constrained by a philosophy of not veering too far from the safe, appeal-to-as-many-people-as-possible path (contrast the grassroots element of the Democratic Party’s enthusiasm for getting out of Iraq as soon as possible with the Democratic Presidential Candidates inability or unwillingness to swear to have the US out of the country by 2013). Activists need not be constrained by the requirements of political gamesmanship, and have no reason to fear expressing more radical (compared to the official party line) opinions. Internet activism has not made people more extreme in their views; it has simply made those whose views are not the mainstream, sanitized-for-TV variety more visible.

The Internet is just a medium, like television or printed news or radio. It does have some very compelling advantages in terms of ease of access and ease of publishing. When people speak of the ‘net as a democratizing force, this is what they’re talking about: never before has it been so easy for the average citizen to be informed and contribute meaningfully to both local and national public debate. The traditional news media are right to emphasis this aspect.

Where they go wrong is by implying, either subtly or overtly, that opinions expressed via online grassroots activities are somehow less valid or more fringe because of source. The source is the electorate, the citizens who voted to put our current officials in office. During the Vietnam War, anti-war activists who campaigned door to door for McCarthy weren’t considered to have fringe ideas–the public widely reviled the war during that period. Their campaign approach sidestepped traditional political machinery, which earned them some ire in certain circles. The establishment did not like McCarthy, to say the least. Modern day political parties likewise try to portray online activists as fringe elements because they are unfiltered and raw and conflict with high-power political maneuvering in Washington. Example: the Democratic Party for a variety of political reasons won’t take a firm stance on ending the war in a given period of time, so they really would rather downplay the idea that online activists represent the desires of the mainstream (as shown by polls) because then they are revealed as not doing at all what they were elected to do in the first place: get us out of Iraq now.

If you want to debate for or against the content and ideas propagated by online activists, do it on the merits of what is or isn’t being said. Don’t try to reject or ridicule something because the medium is new and you don’t understand the mechanics behind it (or can’t gain control of the medium, which seems to be the objection raised by some corners of the mainstream media). That makes just about as much sense as saying a book isn’t as valuable or worthy of consideration because it was made using a printing press and not by hand.

And finally, those trying to rile everyone up by asking the question of whether blogs will replace traditional media are creating a false dichotomy. As I showed with the WWII President Roosevelt hypothetical above, there is no reason multiple mediums cannot and should not coexist. A publisher succeeds or fails on the basis of whether or not their content is worthwhile and accessable. Those who are afraid of blogging are admitting to a tacit fear that their own content is not up to par when competition is available, and that’s another problem (and post) entirely.

[tags]podcast, netcast, rss, ipod, itunes, apple, twit, leo laporte, internet, content, politics, political activism, information, information sharing, netroots, dns, root nameserver, root name server, dns root nameserver, dns root name server, grassroots, grassroots activists, mainstream media, blog, blogs, blogosphere, twit, this week in tech, msnbc[/tags]

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EDIT (14:16 US Central Time, 29 September 2007): Sorry for the vague, useless post. I didn’t want to risk screwing up Technorati’s indexing spider by explaining what I was doing, but now that it’s done there shouldn’t be a problem. I just signed up for a free Technorati account and claimed my blog so I would have a bit more control over how it was indexed on their site. It’s easy and quick to do and I would recommend anyone who has a weblog tracked by them do the same.

[tags]technorati, blogosphere[/tags]

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Apple made clear that the newest update to the iPhone system software would more than likely not only break SIM unlocking, but render the entire phone “bricked.” That is, the phone would no longer work. Quoting directly from the linked article:

“This has nothing to do with proactively disabling a phone that is unlocked or hacked,” Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, told the Associated Press in an interview. “It’s unfortunate that some of these programs have caused damage to the iPhone software, but Apple cannot be responsible for … those consequences.”

At the same time, the iPhone Dev Team, the group largely responsible for SIM-unlocking the iPhone, acknowledged this and warned users not to apply the software update to a SIM unlocked phone until they had a chance to figure out how to work around it, because they had no reason to believe Apple was lying.

Now, iPhone Firmware 1.1.1 hit the web, adding support for the iTunes Music Store as found on the iPod touch and a number of other neat features. But, just as Apple and the Dev Team had warned, attempting to apply the firmware update to a SIM-unlocked iPhone results in catastrophic, in some cases unrecoverable, failure. The author of the linked article notes that in his case not even getting a brand new SIM card from AT&T got things working again. In other words, the hardware is reduced to a very nice looking paperweight.

A few important points rise from this.

• I think iPhone SIM unlocking is a great thing, for all the reasons I listed in my last post on this matter. Moreover, it is legal in the United States, and even though Apple can and has voided the warranties of modified handsets in accordance with US warranty law, they have a legal obligation not to purposefully prevent the unlocking of the phone. They do not seem to be doing that at this time, and unless evidence can be found to the contrary, threatening to sue Apple over breaking the SIM unlock is misguided at best.
• Whether or not the iPhone should be unlocked should simply not be part of rational discussion at this point. It can be unlocked, there is demand for unlocked phones, and it is not illegal. From what I’ve seen, arguments to the contrary either demonstrate a lack of understanding of the legal issues, or a conscious desire to troll and stir up trouble.
• Both Apple and the iPhone Dev Team warned people not to apply this update. Doing so and expecting the phone to still function, as if both parties were lying, was foolish and impatient in the extreme. Anyone who has bricked their phone has no one to blame but themselves. I realize that’s harsh, but even those of us that support third party efforts need to admit that SIM unlocking your phone means you’re on your own. I really hope the iPhone Dev Team or someone out there can figure out how to reverse the damage, but Apple is technically correct that they have no obligation to do so or replace phones for free.
• As a computer scientist and general techie, I do find dubious the whole idea that software as an entity can somehow be “permanently damaged,” which is what Apple says is happening here. Software is just data on a storage device. Unless it’s on a ROM chip, nothing about it is in any way permanent. It should always be possible to reset everything or reflash the firmware to its factory state, no matter how screwed up the software on board is. Otherwise there would be no way to fix the phone in the event of catastrophic random data corruption (which can theoretically happen on any device, whether it’s been hacked on or not). I can think of a few reasons why the software might actually become unrecoverably corrupted, but none of them really make any sense from a technical or design perspective.
  1. The SIM unlock changes the baseboard (the modem) on the phone substantially, so one could make the argument that the new firmware isn’t overwriting the baseboard file(s), and only overwrites the files it expects to have to change. But given the size of the version 1.1.1 firmware (154 MB) and the fact that a full restore (which should replace everything, every time) doesn’t bring the phone back to a functioning state, this is unlikely.
  2. Then again, some people running firmware 1.0.x have reported being able to run full restores on iPhones that have been SIM unlocked without having to unlock them again, so maybe iTunes doesn’t replace everything. If this is the case, though, calling the reset option in iTunes a restore is disingenuous, as it obviously doesn’t restore everything to factory condition. Likewise, saying the phone is irreparable in this scenario is also a lie, as all that is needed is to release an update to iTunes that actually does a full and complete restore. Apple may be doing a piecemeal restore that doesn’t modify files that are expected not to ever be changed by the user (like the baseboard) because it’s a faster technique in terms of execution time, but the fact remains that catastrophic data corruption could theoretically trash everything, and a full and complete restore option needs to be available.
  3. Having said that, a device’s hardware could become irreversibly misconfigured if a setting is changed that both (a) causes erroneous behavior and (b) locks out future changes. This is the computer equivalent of locking one’s keys in one’s car. In this scenario, Apple is the only locksmith in town, and they’ve already said they’re not going to help you. But the question remains, if the SIM unlock just modifies the software modem, how can that possibly make a full restore impossible? My best guess is that prior to the restore, the firmware installer is looking at the iPhone and trying to verify, somehow, that it is a supported device. The baseboard has been modified, so it fails verification, and iTunes refuses to do a restore because the baseboard modem is “damaged” in comparison to what it is expecting to find. But again, this makes zero sense, because a damaged baseboard (again, via some sort of data corruption) would be the perfect reason to attempt a full restore.

Given all that, assuming again that apple is making no deliberate attempt to sabotage unlocked phones (because this would be illegal), I can only conclude that Apple’s iPhone team was incredibly overconfident about the degree to which an iPhone’s software cannot be corrupted, and instead of choosing to implement a full and complete restore , implemented a restore procedure that replaced only those files the engineers thought users might somehow damage, and left alone core components (like the baseboard software modem) under the assumption they were somehow untouchable. A very bad design decision in general, if true. This is totally a guess, but it’s where my logic takes me given the evidence I’ve been presented. To my knowledge, the 1.1.1 firmware has not yet been decrypted by the iPhone Dev Team so that its individual files can be examined (by default firmware is encrypted so that its innards are hidden away; a magical black box that makes the handset work somehow). Once it has been decrypted, I would be very interested to see if the baseboard has been modified from version 1.0.2 of the firmware. If it has not, that would actually be a bit of evidence for my hypothesis, as the 1.1.1 firmware installer would have no reason to replace a file it believes not to have been changed. SIM unlock software must be modified for each version of the firmware that changes the software modem, so it makes since that 1.1.1 firmware attempting to operate with a modified version of the 1.0.2 firmware would choke and die. And if the restore fails to replace the baseboard, there’s no fixing it, at least until the iPhone Dev Team figures out how to get back into the iPhone file system (something the current firmware locks them out of doing, but that they could do before) and replace the damaged files.

Again, the above paragraph is completely hypothetical, but I feel pretty confident about it given the information available. If I’m completely wrong, though, I won’t be surprised. The iPhone is a complex system, and I’m operating off limited information, logic, and instinct.

I had planned to talk about the state of 3rd party applications on the iPhone, but this post is long enough. Until next time.

[tags]apple, iphone, apple iphone, unlocking, cell phone unlocking, unlock, cell phone unlock, sim, sim unlock, sim unlocking, warranties, warranty, iphone dev team, iphone dev[/tags]

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[tags]fonz, the fonz, fonzie, happy days, fonzarelli, arthur fonzarelli, bronze, statue, bronze statue, milwaukee[/tags]

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[tags]little miss sunshine, edwin hoover, olive hoover, richard hoover, subtext[/tags]

First, there’s the whole ice cream scene, wherein Olive orders waffles with a side of ice cream. In the exchange that follows her father Richard makes sure to inform her just why ice cream will make her fat, and is as such not a food she needs to eat if she wants to win the contest. Given that Olive is somewhat overweight and six years old, this entire exchange cemented Richard in my head, at least up until the last few minutes of the movie, as a supreme jerk. His entire family, including Olive’s Grandpa, is disgusted with him and (quite comically) works together to attempt to undo some of the damage he’s just done.

Later, after Olive and Grandpa are alone in their hotel room the night before the Little Miss Sunshine pageant, preparing to sleep, Olive asks him if she is pretty, and when his standard loving-but-jovial answer doesn’t work, she admits in one of the movie’s more emotional, touching, well-acted moments that she’s afraid of losing during the pageant because “Daddy hates losers.” Grandpa responds with a powerful, borderline panicked attempt to redifine the term loser in such a way that Olive has to admit that she in no way qualifies (i.e., that a loser is someone who doesn’t even try, and she is trying) that luckily reassures and bolsters her.

After she’s asleep, Grandpa goes into the bathroom and, looking stressed and exhausted, begins his nightly heroin snorting ritual. The next morning Olive finds her way into her parents’ hotel room and shakily informs her parents that “Grandpa won’t wake up,” and it’s obvious to the viewer that he’s overdosed.

Now, here’s where my latest viewing changed things a bit for me. It suddenly occured to me the last thing Grandpa heard before he went to snort his heroin was that his beloved granddaughter had been shaken to the core by her own father, and was almost afraid enough of dissappointing him to quit without even trying. This after presumably months of Grandpa, who coached Olive for the pageants, working to build up her confidence. Then combine that with the fact that it’s his own son doing this to her, essentially damaging her with his own neurosis, and I can see where he would be going into the heroin ritual extremely frustrated, disgusted with the way his son’s winners-vs-losers philosophy is unintentionally harming his family, and perhaps afraid for the emotional well-being of his granddaughter, who, while seemingly immune to all the foibles and flaws of those around her and unnaffected by their quirks, in fact is vulnerable to psychological attacks, intentional or otherwise, and just internalizes and hides it better until it’s festered to the point she bursts into tears out of fear that her father will hate her if she loses.

Now, I’m not saying he got so bent out of shape he purposefully overdosed as a way to commit suicide. In a way, that would almost be better than what I think happened, as it would have been a conscious decision. No, the more I think about it the more I wonder if he wasn’t so bent out shape for all the reasons I laid out, upset and lamenting the state of things around him and his inability to do anything about it (because he’s the family freeloader, clown, and delinquent) that he was so worked up and eager for some form of release that he didn’t even realize he was using more heroin than normal. The implication throughout the movie is that he’s been doing the drug for quite a long time and it has become a routine part of his life, so the idea that it’s a total, out of the blue accident is hard to believe at best. I’m really starting to believe he was so beside himself he didn’t realize what he had done until it was too late, and his only chance was to sleep it off. Assuming he even realized it. Consider also that he adores Olive, and he’s not so far gone that he would do anything to hurt her. Overdosing and dying not two feet away from her slumbering form counts as hurting her.

I’m also not saying Richard is somehow indirectly responsible for his death. Heroin is an illegal controlled substance for a reason, and Grandpa is totally responsible for any negative outcome of using it. The burden fell on Grandpa to be strong enough not to try to use heroin as a crutch. But saying Richard isn’t responsible is a far different thing than saying Richard created the circumstances that stressed Grandpa out to the point that he accidentally overdosed.

I realize this interpretation puts a somewhat darker tint on the end of the movie, and I’ll be honest and say I kinda like that better anyway. Olive knows what was said in that hotel room the night her Grandpa died, and I’d love for Richard to hear the whole story of events some day. Again, not because I want to see him blaming himself for his Grandpa’s death, but he’s really a character who could benefit from stopping and thinking about how his words effect others. If for nothing else than for his daughter, who’s still alive, and whose confidence he came within an inch of totally destroying. Grandpa isn’t around to insulate her from Richard’s mistakes anymore.

Thoughts?

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Having said that, I’ve caught the last few eps of the new Legion TV Series, and I’m really digging it. It takes a JLU-style approach of a core cast that makes regular appearances along with guest-star Legionnaires, which keeps me from feeling overwhelmed, and there’s not 50+ years of continuity to get bogged down in. In short, it’s accessible for the casual viewer, which I count myself as even though I’m neck deep in the mainline DCU. It’s also a lot of fun, so I don’t consciously dwell on the fact that it’s the 4th millinium and all my favorite heroes are dead. Most of all, though, it’s a really character driven show and even the bit-player heroes are given enough depth and handled with enough seriousness that I can’t help getting attached to them. To the point, even, that I wish some of them could be pulled into the mainline DCU, because I want to see them played off their 20th century predecessors, and their animated versions are just so much less screwed up and weighted down than their comic counterparts. Brainiac 5 and Tim Drake (before the canon screwed him up). Secret and Triplicate Girl. Bart Allen and Matter Eater Lad. Triplicate Girl and Killa Nilla (this is not a typo). The list goes on, and gets weirder, because I’m wicked nuts. These interactions would rule, and I can say that secure in the knowledge that it’s not just my crossover kink egging me on.

I include now a brief list of a few of my favorite Legionnaires, in no particular order. I should note that I’ve researched in depth their comic counterparts, and can say for certain if the comics had been my sole introduction to these people, I would not now be their lifelong fan, because wowzers, the angst. Not to say I don’t like those who aren’t listed here: I in fact think Timber Wolf rocks, but I’m trying to focus on those who aren’t part of the core team or are in other ways unique.

Because I realize some of my readers may already be bored to tears, the rest of this entry is ensconced underneath a cut.
For those who go on, be aware there are some very slight spoilers ahead. I try to keep them as vague as possible.

[tags]dc comics, legion of superheroes, losh, dcu, batman beyond, justice league unlimited, jlu, brainiac 5, querl dox, robin, tim drake, secret, the secret, greta hayes, the flash, kid flash, bart allen, triplicate girl, luornu durgo, timber wolf, brin londo, matter-eater lad, matter eater lad, tenzil kem, squirrel girl, doreen green, ferro lad, ferro, andrew nolan[/tags]

1. Brainiac 5: What’s there to say? Supergeek genius with body armor and energy weapons. Idolizing Superman as the big brother figure he never had, which is somehow incredibly poignant given this version of Superman knows nothing about how much the original Braniac exists just to screw him over. No android will ever do the wanting to become human thing as well for me as Commander Data, so I’m not just enamoured with that part of his characterization, but it’s nice to know it’s there. I also love how he’s the arbiter of what makes someone really heroic: witness his interactions with this so-called Superman-X clone introduced in the Season 2 premiere. Maybe B5 will have some problems in the future, if Superman-X is telling anything close to the truth, but right now he understands the heroic ideal as defined by a prototypical Superman, and he’s doing his best to follow that example both because he wants to do good and because he wants to atone for Brainiac’s sins. In short, I’m joining my friends on the Brainy Love Train.
2. Matter-Eater Lad: I love superheroes who can take an apparently lame power and be incredibly awesome with it. That’s probably why I’ve sworn undying loyalty and adulation to Squirrel Girl. But even further on the Apparently Useless Power Scale than the Hazelnut Princess* is Matter Eater Lad. Yet, he wins at life, the universe, and everything, because he shows you exactly why being able to eat anything is in fact the most hilariously hardcore superpower ever. Add to that the fact that, at least in his apparances I’ve actually seen, he never speaks, so he’s got the goofy silent type thing going on. Then there’s his costume, which looks homemade (not so much in stitching as aesthetics) and is incredibly cute. It’s like, “I can eat anything, so what if I look a little goofy?” And if that weren’t enough, every time I think of him, I think of Jeffrey Steingarten, author of The Man Who Ate Everything, which is an endlessly entertaining mix of mental images. Matter Eater Lad, I salute you.
3. Ferro Lad**: Being able to turn oneself into a giant metal conductor (specifically iron) may seem passe, what with not one but two versions of Marvel’s Collosus running around, but animated FL is strangely endearing because of his seemingly constant quest to be useful, as he and others view his powers as not being as widely applicable as some of the other heroes’. At least in my case, that endearment was cemented and augmented in his last appearance in the show, which for lack of spoilers I will only say is moving and awesome and shows just how brave and heroic this character is. He reminds me of Spock, in a way.
4. Triplicate Girl: Now, I honestly can’t say why I like Triplicate Girl so much, as I’m really not completely sure. Out of all the Legionaires that I’ve seen, she seems especially down to earth. And this is totally my opinion, but out of all of them, she’s one of the very few that seems to be a human first, and a superhuman second: all the others are so deep into their roles as heroes it sometimes takes a moment to remember there must be times when they’re not in costume, and they refer to themselves by their given names. Not to say that TG isn’t heroic–she is. Her humanity and more importantly failability just don’t seem as suppressed. To put it another way, she’s more committed to using her powers for good and to help others than to remaking herself into a superhero. There’s a subtle difference. This is even reinforced by the fact that her powers aren’t at all unique. She just happens to be the only member of her race to think of using them as she has (explicitly and selflessly for the good of others as a costumed criimefighter/vigilante***). Honestly, I didn’t realize how much I liked her character until she was, for lack of a better term (at least, one that isn’t totally spoilery) grievously and permanently injured in the Season 2 premiere. I remember sitting in front of my TV and going “Did they just–they can’t do that to Triplicate Girl! That’s terrible! Oh my God!” Maybe if I had been into the comics I would’ve been prepared for it, but it totally blind-sided me. I’m anxiously awaiting part two on Saturday. I just hope she isn’t removed from the show or turned all emo-angst-cakes on us.

*I just made this up right now, and yes, you can shoot me later.
**Why is everyone in the future a Lad, or a Boy? It’s like, so 1970s, and mildly disturbing. I keep waiting for the appearance of Hydro Chum, or something.
***It’s a big stretch calling any member of the Legion a vigilante. They’re like, sanctioned by the gover