Heather's Blogpile

   

My long pending order arrived yesterday! Back in June Apple announced the Airport Express (AEx) - a neat little wireless networking gadget (802.11g - 54 Mbps) that can serve as a wireless link between my computer in the office, and my stereo/media center downstairs at the other end of the house. As soon as I heard about this, I had visions of using iTunes to tune in some of the more interesting internet radio stations, and using the AEx to send them to my stereo downstairs. Its crazy to be trapped in the office to listen to some of the nicer internet music sites.
Also see notebookreview.com - includes AEx internal photo!

As always Apple has done a very nice job with the packaging. A white sleeve with all the informational text on it. Slide the sleeve off to reveal a sky blue box that unfolds like a book, to expose the AEx on the right, and a thin white box on the left that slips out and contains the Cd, documents and manuals.

It took me about 15 minutes to find an extension cord and an audio cable with a stereo miniphone plug on one end and a pair of phono plugs on the other. It took a few minutes to check the manual for JVC my stero receiver and decide that the CDR input was the best remaining spare to use. A few more minutes to lean behind the shelves to plug the power cord in, then all of a minute to plug the AEx into the power cord, and plug the miniphone jack into it. It blinked yellow for a few moments, then alternated between yellow and green.

I went up to the office, loaded the software off the CD, which required a reboot, then took maybe 10 minutes configuring my new network. Set the password and security profile, then added the AEx device as trusted. No biggie there.

Started up iTunes, click the speaker logo in the bottom right and relabelled the new network speaker "TV Room", then picked a song and started it playing. I went downstairs, set the stereo to CDR (where the AEx is plugged in), and cranked the volumn. Sounds great.

Went back upstairs and picked a streaming source - MAGNATUNE.COM - an indie site that plays their own artists ... it sounded great. Then I played KEXP 90.3 from Seattle - that sounded fine too.

Bottom line - easy to install, and just works (great). Piece of cake ...

Posted by Heather at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Photo courtesy of Joi Ito's blog

Posted by Heather at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 1st was a "special" day in Virginia ...

Not content with passing the hateful House Bill 751, and accidently reinstating the Sunday Blue laws, it seems the Virginia legislators took away gun control from all local jurisdictions, but put nothing up in its place!
The end effect is that packing a 6 shooter is now Legal in public anywhere in the Old Dumb Onion! (for you out-of-staters, thats a play on Virginia's title as The Old Dominion)

Here's some interesting passages from a July 15th story in The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50416-2004Jul14.html

In Virginia, as in many states, carrying a concealed weapon requires a permit, issued by a local court. But no permit is required to simply wield a gun in the open, a right reinforced by a state law that took effect July 1. Not so in the District and Maryland, unless you're a police or federal officer.

The first incident, at a Starbucks on Leesburg Pike near Tysons Corner, might have inspired other gun owners to carry openly. It began shortly before 10 p.m. June 14, Perez said, with a complaint from a citizen. Police arrived to find a 19-year-old man carrying a .22-caliber pistol and a 21-year-old man with a 9mm pistol.

Perez said an officer spoke with the men, then took their guns and charged them with possession of a firearm in a public place. Virginia law 18.2-287.4 expressly prohibits "carrying loaded firearms in public areas."

But the second paragraph of the law defines firearms only as any semiautomatic weapon that holds more than 20 rounds or a shotgun that holds more than seven rounds -- assault rifles, mostly, Van Cleave said. Regular six-shooters or pistols with nine- or 10-shot magazines are not "firearms" under this Virginia law.

Van Cleave said the gun owners might have been out celebrating a law that took effect July 1. Virginia statute 15.2-915 now completely prohibits any locality from enacting any regulations on gun ownership, carrying, storage or purchase, except for rules related to the workforce. Alexandria, for example, had an ordinance prohibiting openly carrying guns. It is now invalid, Van Cleave said.

"It's like the Fourth of July," Van Cleave said. "A whole new set of freedoms came in. . . . All local gun control is completely and totally gone."

Legislators said they passed the bill to eliminate duplicative regulations, particularly in counties such as Fairfax, which imposed its own gun permit process in addition to the federally mandated background check.

Openly carrying weapons is "not a good idea," said Kristen Rand of the Violence Policy Center in Washington. "This is the gun lobby's vision of how America should be. Everybody's packing heat and ready to engage in a shootout at the slightest provocation."

Ricker said the gun owners "are probably doing their cause more harm than good by raising this issue. It raises an awareness and gives people who are more rational thinkers the opportunity to go to their legislators and make their views known."

Posted by Heather at 7:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Bush White House checked with rapture Christians before latest Israel move
The Jesus Landing Pad by Rick Perlstein     May 18th, 2004 10:00 AM

It was an e-mail we weren't meant to see. Not for our eyes were the notes that showed White House staffers taking two-hour meetings with Christian fundamentalists, where they passed off bogus social science on gay marriage as if it were holy writ and issued fiery warnings that "the Presidents [sic] Administration and current Government is engaged in cultural, economical, and social struggle on every level" this to a group whose representative in Israel believed herself to have been attacked by witchcraft unleashed by proximity to a volume of Harry Potter. Most of all, apparently, we're not supposed to know the National Security Council's top Middle East aide consults with apocalyptic Christians eager to ensure American policy on Israel conforms with their sectarian doomsday scenarios.

But now we know.

"Everything that you're discussing is information you're not supposed to have," barked Pentecostal minister Robert G. Upton when asked about the off-the-record briefing his delegation received on March 25. Details of that meeting appear in a confidential memo signed by Upton and obtained by the (Village) Voice.

See the whole story at http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0420/perlstein.php

Posted by Heather at 8:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lavender - left rear, Peppermint - left center
Basil - front left, Rosemary on the right.

Posted by Heather at 10:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Virginia actually did it. They passed a bill that kicks a group of people right in the teeth, and they have the audacity to say its "protecting" marriage. Thats right, they weren't content to let the existing Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA) show folks that they didn't support marriage between gay people. No, they had to pass an over-the-top law that says not only do they not support gay marriage here, but anything that even presumes to grant priviledges that are considered part of marriage is not legal. And by the way, if you do get Gay-married in another state, ... its not legal here.

You think they'd remember how badly their last "hatred of marriage" bill worked out. Just look up Loving vs. Virginia, when they said that interracial marriages in other states were against the law in Virginia. You think they'd learn their lesson, that just because two people who love each other makes them nervous, they don't have the right to pass such hate laws in public.

Makes them look like bigots and racists and all kinds of evil doers. Hardly the kind of thing Jesus would stand behind. He was never playing one group of people against another.

I have yet to understand how what I do in my home with my partner makes a difference to my neighbor's marriage?

I pay taxes, I support the schools system, keep my lawn neat , I am a good neighbor.

Why do you feel you have the right to intrude into my life and limit my choice of partners, alter our legal rights to own property joint, reject my choiced to obtain health insurance to cover us if we get cancer or any of the things "regular folks" get as they age.

I am not asking for special priviledges, I am asking for the same things you share with your partner.

http://www.VirginiaisforHaters.org/

http://www.makelovelegal.org/

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The Associated Press wrote:
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Gay activists rallied in major cities statewide to protest a new law that critics said could nullify legal contracts between same-sex couples.

The state law, which goes into effect Thursday, prohibits civil unions, partnership contracts or other arrangements "purporting to bestow the privileges or obligations of marriage."

Critics said it could be used to nullify medical directives, wills, joint bank accounts and other agreements between gay couples.

"(The law) clearly states that gay and lesbian people in this state should not feel welcome," said Dyana Mason, executive director of Equality Virginia, the state's largest gay rights organization. "It seeks to strip the only tool that gay and lesbian couples have to protect their families."

Mason spoke at a rally in Richmond on Wednesday that drew more than 400 gay activists and supporters to the Capitol grounds. Simultaneous rallies were held in Norfolk, Charlottesville, Fredericksburg, Fairfax, Staunton and Roanoke.

Gov. Mark R. Warner, a Democrat, issued a statement condemning the law, which he refused to sign.

"This law raises serious constitutional issues and it places Virginia outside the mainstream of other states when it comes to respecting individual liberty," he said.

Kent Willis, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, said his group was working with others to legally challenge the law. He said it was so vaguely worded that it could be used against heterosexuals of the same sex who enter into legal agreements with each other.

Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore has said the law provides a needed safeguard for the institution of marriage and does not deprive anyone of individual rights. Kilgore has vowed to defend the law if challenged.

The conservative Family Foundation said in a statement that gay rights groups are "willing to frighten and mislead their supporters simply to further their own political agenda."

"All the rallies in the world won't change the fact that this law passed with a bipartisan supermajority of the General Assembly," said Victoria Cobb, spokeswoman for the group.

Posted by Heather at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)