“We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep in our history and doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were for the moment unpopular. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of the Republic to abdicate his responsibility.”
Edward R. Murrow, from the March 9, 1954, ‘See It Now’ television broadcast on Senator Joe McCarthy.
I just finished watching George Clooney’s Good Night and Good Luck movie on Murrow and McCarthy. We’ve all heard about McCarthy, but this movie highlights one of america’s best journalist standing up to the fear and helping bring an end to McCarthyism. The reason i write this blog is probably the same reason that Clooney made this movie now – fear of communism is not unlike the fear of terrorism we see today. But also, i will take it further – where are the true leaders today? Why don’t the journalists ask the hard questions, report with accuracy and truth? I’m not saying they all suck, but few are good and fewer are great. Is it because the machine is so finely tuned that more money can be made without real journalists? without hard truth? without a hero? Yes, i think Edward R Murrow was a hero.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana, 1905
I’ve finally gone Apple. Ever since i was a kid and my dad worked for IBM, i’ve always been into computers, but some how resisted Apple. First DOS, then OS/2 (i really loved), then NT 4.0, and finally XP. But I’ve never really liked microsoft, and when OS X was released, i started getting excited, mainly because it has BSD underneath (i know how to hack with that), but also because it finally had enough applications that i no longer needed windows for anything. This last one is key – every consumer will have at least one application they love and will tolerate crap as long as they can still have that killer app.
First apple purchase was the 60GB iPod Video. My old mp3 player died, and i wanted a new one with a big drive and quality sound – this fit the bill with a great screen for photos and videos as bonus.
Then I drooled at the powerbook for a while and finally broke down and bought the 15″ one (standard except 1GB RAM) on 12/28/05. It arrived Jan 3, and i loved it ever since i opened it. I’ve been around computers my whole life, always buying lots of gadgets, but i never thought i’d be so happy about a laptop. The whole experience is done right – from the sleek laptop body and backlit keyboard to the vivid screen colors to how easy it was to be up and running. I won’t go much into it, because i have to return it – what you say? read on.
Then today, 1/10/06, Apple officially announced the new intel-based laptops – MacBook Pro. It was not unexpected, there are several reasons apple went intel (price, DRM, etc), but i decided i wanted the better performance that steve jobs professes. I called apple, and luckily i was on day 13 of my 12/28 purchase and still fell under the 14-day refund policy. Hurray!!!. So i got a RMA to return that and then immediately went and purchased the MacBook Pro online (but it won’t ship till February, sigh).
Here’s some key differences if you’re considering an apple laptop: