Networked Music Review.

Looking forward to spelunking through their archives.

For anyone else who’s run into this: the latest TastyPie assumes you’re running Django with built-in migrations. If you’re not (like me), you’ll get an error

from django.db import models, migrations
ImportError: cannot import name migrations

Simple fix: in /lib/python2.7/site-packages/tastypie/, rename “migrations” to something else (I used “django_migrations”) and “south_migrations” to “migrations”.

13 Principles Week of Action: Secret Law is Not Law | Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Oh, right. If it’s a “law”, we need to be able to know about it and understand it. Otherwise, as the author says, it’s law as in Kafka’s “The Trial”.

Hate to say it, but searching “Seattle Sounders” on Google brings up exactly what I need, every time: next game, when, where, where I can watch it, with ways to get to more info easily. Somebody figured this one out perfectly, for me.

I’m supporting Lessig’s action to get big money out of Congress. The MayDay PAC is an attempt to use the tools that exist to change the system.

http://mayday.us

Setting Palestinians up in a Bantustan like Gaza exacerbates the problems that Israel and the world are trying (not very hard) to solve. By separating Palestinian and Israeli territory, you’re inviting ongoing disputes about where that territory starts and ends. You make likely continuing military action from both sides against concentrations of the other sides’ civilian population, which wouldn’t even be possible if the populations were commingled into one geographic area. You’re setting up two systems of property rights, so Israelis feel legally justified in taking Palestinian land.

Chomsky pointed out a few years ago that the right solution is a one-state, pluralistic, non-theologically-based one. A multicultural liberal democracy, like the rest of the civilized world. Some parts of the Israeli population see that as betraying the idea of a Jewish state. Some worry that the higher birth rates amongst Palestinians mean that over time power in Israel would naturally transfer away from what would become the Jewish minority. So be it. Theocracies are relics of an older era, and bring nothing but conflict. South Africa tried preserving the rights of the minority by oppressing the majority, and we wouldn’t stand for it then.

Pat and I have discovered the secret to making France work: women of a certain age. After some days of frustration booking hotels, looking up trains, trying to be flexible using the Internet, we have discovered that if you want to do something simply and cheerfully, go the desk (train desk, hotel desk, post office desk …), find the woman who does the work, explain what you would like (in execrable French) and she will make it possible quickly and easily, all while making pleasant conversation.

Some examples. At our hotel in Paris, we were delayed one night because the plane was cancelled, and needed to book an extra night. On the Internet, this proved impossible, of course. Calling and making arrangements was complicated, but only because we were talking to the wrong person, a man, affable but ineffectual. A package to be delivered, but was refused; it might be drugs! or a bomb! On the last day there, the reception was manned (sic) by a lovely efficient woman, who was all but willing to refund some of our money because of the inhospitable way she thought we were treated. All things were possible: extending the stay, arranging a cab.

At the post office: Pat had been given a 50 Euro note that was damaged, and no one would take it. After trying a few banks, we found an efficient woman at the Post Office bank, who cheerfully took the note and commanded one of the men to find a replacement. This he did while making faces, but obviously knowing better than to make any comment to his commandeur. A few cheerful au revoirs and we are taken care of.

Hotel in Chartres: extra night? Pas de problem. Thank you for communicating directly; booking on the Internet, travel sites charge the proprietress 18% overhead! And compliments on the home-made breakfast.

At the train station: after wrestling with a website that insisted that it should deliver TGV tickets to an address in the UK sometime in the next week, we walked to the train station and found the woman of a certain age. A little cluck-clucking that we didn’t try in French, and she cheerfully reserved and printed tickets for us for far less than said website. I had to double-check that we were actually going where I thought we were, the prices were so different.

I consider the theory adequately supported by the evidence. From here on out, if we want to make arrangements, we will: locate the address and phone number of the institution in question, and either appear in person or call. We will find the efficient woman who makes things run, and we will, with her help, get exactly what we need. We will not fumble with unresponsive Internet sites, nor try to solicit help from useless and officious men. Problem solved.

Wired says It’s Time to Encrypt the Entire Internet | Enterprise | WIRED. What a bad idea. The net is built on simple text protocols. Basic email is built on simple text protocols. XML is built on simple text protocols. They all work really well. Adding a layer of opacity over the top in the 90% of places where it’s not needed will make things so much harder to build, and verify. The point I take away from the security issues of the last couple of years is a commonplace: security is hard. Why do we want to impose it on every piece of the Net? Unnecessarily?

The case for: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/04/08/the-case-for-elizabeth-warren-in-7-minutes/?tid=rssfeed

The case against: same as that against Obama in 2008, and for Clinton: experience. How not to run into a Congressional brick wall.

Not a thinking thing. from Frontiers in Theoretical and Pphilosophical
Psychology