http://www.pixelmonkey.org Andrew J. Montalenti's Blog Mon, 11 Aug 2008 01:44:24 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I wrote about John Kenneth Galbraith earlier, but just recently found this video on YouTube. A reflective 1-hour interview with the man that discusses his long career as a professor, advisor, and economic theorist. Well worth a listen. A Conversation with John Kenneth Galbraith -- April 27, 1986 http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2008/08/03/a-video-interview-with-john-kenneth-galbraith/ I haven't done a formal analysis of this yet. Just an informal one using a NYTimes.com search for Ralph Nader. On July 1, 2008, http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2008/08/02/the-media-blackout-of-ralph-nader/ In "Lean Left? Lean Right? News media may take cues from customers" by Chicago School professor Austan Goolsbee, we are given yet another argument for market determinism, this time with regard to the slant of the media. One of the most interesting things coming out of research on the economics ... http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2008/03/02/is-media-slant-determined-by-the-market/ Conason writes for Salon, ... the evidence suggests another possible motive for Nader to run this year -- namely, that he hopes to help his longtime ally John McCain, to whom he owes at least one big favor I just did a search for Nader on Salon, and found this article in ... http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2008/03/02/joe-conason-thinks-ralph-nader-loves-mccain/ Elizabeth Alexander of Salon writes about the mis-used Toni Morrison quote that Bill Clinton was America's "first black president." This quote was repeated during the Democratic Presidential Debates -- which was the first time I heard it. You can read Toni Morrison's original article from the New Yorker, ... http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2008/01/29/americas-first-black-president/ The latest insanity: New Jersey legislators have decided that sex offenders will be barred from using the Internet. That's not a joke: barred altogether -- there is only a single exception for job searches. This is a major infringement of their civil liberties. Once a sexual offender ... http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/12/29/sex-offenders-barred-from-using-the-internet-in-nj/ A book review by Thomas Frank, on a biography of John Kenneth Galbraith. What astonishes the contemporary reader is, first of all, that a genuine, independent intellectual like Galbraith was permitted to serve in government, let alone become the confidant of presidents. Facile anti-intellectualism is the order of the day now, ... http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/10/25/facile-anti-illectualism-is-the-order-of-the-day/ This taken from the comments section of an article written by Joe Conason on the tasering incident. The most distressing thing about this incident to me is that commentators like Mr. Conason, with whom I agree most of the rest of the time, insist on viewing this whole thing as some ... http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/09/21/nuances-free-speech/ I hate to alienate readers by starting with a Noam Chomsky quote, but oh well. Chomsky once said, "If you are in favor of freedom of speech, that means you are in favor of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise - otherwise you're not in favor of ... http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/09/19/fascism-rising/ From an interesting thread on /. My definition of "libertarianism" stands from a firm principle of "live and let live". That is, everyone is free to do what they want as long as they are not doing any direct harm to others against their will. I put in the phrase "direct harm" ... http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/09/02/what-is-libertarianism/ I passed by a church on the way to work today, and read the following: Unanswered questions are far less dangerous than unquestioned answers. This may just be the most succinct quote I've seen that summarizes my view on the distinction between honest religious beliefs and religious fanaticism. If one uses religion as ... http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/08/13/unanswered-questions/ I just got back from San Francisco. This wasn't my first time to the west coast, but it was my first time to Northern California. Overall, I had an amazing time. http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/08/07/san-francisco-trip/ I'm in San Francisco, will be back this Monday. Have http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/08/02/in-san-francisco/ To be honest, I've completely ignored the "Thomas Friedman phenomenon" going on in this country. If I had a nickel for every time I saw someone reading http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/07/24/double-header-for-friedman/ I took a look at my Wordpress calendar, and realized I haven't written a post in over a month. A sad state of affairs -- I guess my blog waxes/wanes in and out of popularity for me. One thing I have wanted to do is to create a "schism" in ... http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/07/08/an-empty-calendar-a-dusty-blog/ On Robert Reich's blog, http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/05/28/i-choose-the-state/ Jerry Falwell died today. He was a great preacher, a wonderful father, a ... oh, who the fuck am I kidding? The guy was an evil, intolerant man, who called the Civil Rights Movement the "Civil Wrongs Movement," hated blacks and supported segregation, and then went on to ... http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/05/15/falwell-never-apologized/ A playful paragraph from the book by Majorie Kelly, which I've lately been re-reading: http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/03/30/the-divine-right-of-capital-2/ I think Michelle Malkin is one of the craziest commentators to come from the right. But her persistence seems like an eternal spring. Here's a comment I found on Amazon about her book ("Unhinged") which talks about how the Left supposedly "abuses" the right with verbal attacks and ... http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/03/28/comment-on-amazon-for-michelle-malkins-book/ There is an article on eWeek I encountered via del.icio.us called " http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/03/19/dilbertization-of-it/ Metacity (the window manager for GNOME) has this annoying and ugly minimize animation that looks like a bunch of cascading rectangles flying at your taskbar. I've always hated it, but dealt with it for awhile. Today, I did some digging on the Metacity bugzilla to see if it was fixed, ... http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/03/18/nats-pendulum/ Note: This entry is now wildly out of date.  Try these instructions at your own risk.  If I get a few moments, I will revise these instructions in the future.  I've been in contact with an ALSA hacker, Tobin Davis, over a series of patches that provide support for the sound ... http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/03/18/dv2000-alsa-patches/ A surprisingly articulate post on OSNews about Free Software: Asking me to get off my a$$ and code drivers for this baby is what I consider elitist and a very unreasonable demand on the end user. It's one thing that gives GNU/Linux zealots a very bad name in the real world. http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/03/18/this-isnt-elitist-this-is-egalitarian/ Take a look at these two posts from a ZDNet debate: A poster under the name "jerryleecooper" says, Vista is far more powerful than windows XP, and runs twice as fast. It is also much harder to pirate, and this point more than anything else has the Linux crowd in a panic. and, ... http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/03/16/hilarious-posts-on-linux-vs-windows-satire-or-real-thing/ From TFA: This is a stunning, damaging decision for public radio and its commitment to music discovery and education, which has been part of our tradition for more than half a century. Public radio’s agreements on royalties with all such organizations, including the RIAA, have always taken into account our ... http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/03/15/more-on-internet-radio-npr-takes-action/ Internet Radio is in danger.  (Thanks for the heads up, Jeff Evans.)  This means sites like Pandora may have to be shut down.  Do something about it.  I wrote the following letter to my NY representatives: The Copyright Royalty Fees for Internet Radio broadcasters (like the hugely innovative Pandora.com) have been ... http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/03/15/save-internet-radio/ Lately, I've been very diligent about catching up on my reading. I have been perpetually delaying a review of http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/03/09/catching-up-on-the-reading-list/ Overall, Dreaming in Code was an interesting book. For programmers who already are obsessed with the classics of software engineering (Mythical Man-Month and friends), you probably won't learn much new stuff in this book. However, the personal illustrations using OSAF did lead me to some self-evaluation of the ... http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/02/23/finished-dreaming-in-code/ A friend from NYU, Luke Geldermans, pointed me to this website the other day. It's really an amazing example of how much http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/02/23/dell-ideastorm/ I just stumbled across this online newsletter called "The American Thinker."  I will not link to it because I refuse to give this piece of trash a boosting in any search engine ranking. I read an article on there (the first one I saw) called "Cultural Marxism."  Its thesis is that ... http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2007/02/16/american-thinker/