Tread lightly on the things of earth

Dave: Hewlett-Packard has no honor:

“Invoking both the controversial 1998 DMCA and computer crime laws, HP has threatened to sue a team of researchers who publicized a vulnerability in the company’s Tru64 Unix operating system.”

I don’t think I’m overreacting when I say that if this is true, I will never buy another HP product. It’s an amazing accomplishment, actually; in one step they’re undoing the product-buying goodwill they’ve created in me starting when I bought my first HP RPN calculator for engineering classes in 1978.

Corporate-wise, what’s one step past stupid?

[2002-08-02 update: Spin control? Or coming to their senses? CNet reports that HP backs off DMCA threat (Dave).]

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David Berlind writes at ZDNet, Who gave Microsoft control of your IT costs? You did:

“News flash: Putting the vendor [Microsoft] in control of your IT costs is not a good position to be in. Unfortunately, that’s where a lot of us are.”

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John Farr’s an interesting and creative person I think is setting some useful life/work precedents. (I’ve been reading him as a Mac columnist for a long time; now I think he’s “retired” to a second career in Taos, NM.)

As John writes in his new Salon blog, FarrFeed,

“In just one week I’ve heard from more people who’ve read my work than I have since God knows when. The visibility is paramount here …”

John’s several sites promote and sell his writing and photography, while all the while giving plenty of value away (links in left column at blog URL above).

I’m rooting for John. This approach to living/working that he’s creating sounds very appealing to me!

You know, the best payback for the one-time hassle of setting up a PayPal account is that it makes firing off $10- and $20 thank-yous easy. (I just clicked John’s PayPal link.) I’m trying to get in the habit of expressing my appreciation this way; it’s the kind of world I want to live in.

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My first impression of this site, Antithesis: a voice from the emerging Christian counterculture, is very favorable. If I’m called anywhere, it’s to participate in the Christian counterculture.

Does an understanding of “Christian counterculture” provide an escape from oversimplified conservative/liberal labels? Reading The Soul of Politics is reminding me that trying to transpose sociopolitical reality onto a conservative/liberal spectrum isn’t really feasible and leads to internal storminess; in me, a rage against conservatism. (Like shrinking the bitdepth of a beautiful full-color landscape to 256 colors. Or shades of gray. And scaling to 640x480.)

(Transposition is a C.S. Lewis essay in which he uses the word to mean mapping the larger onto the smaller, as in transposing a full symphony for two pianos, or telling a time-bound story that attempts to depict eternity.)

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As long as I’m ranting politically, I see in Scott’s July 27 list of new Salon blogs this one titled Bush Impeachment Countdown. Great title. No guessing where this guy stands. Full of amusing tidbits. Like this one:

Remember, if you are reading this, you can’t be George W Bush!

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Daniel Kurtzman nails the present political situation—and its resemblance to 1984—in Learning to love Big Brother: George W. Bush channels George Orwell.

Too much of my childhood was spent dreading the coming of the year 1984, fearing that the book 1984 was a chronological, as well as sociological, warning. I breathed a sigh of relief when that year passed. I will breathe another when this administration passes.

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Stephanie took our bouvier, Paddington, to the vet Thursday afternoon because we noticed his “mumps” lymph nodes were swollen; we thought he had an infection. The vet checked him and then teared up and hugged Stephanie for a long time. Biopsy results received Friday night confirmed her diagnosis: he has lymphatic cancer. Life expectancy after diagnosis averages 4-6 weeks.

So we’re coming to grips with that, beginning the grieving process now. We’ve decided against chemotherapy; Paddington has always been a fellow of deep dignity, and while canine chemo is often effective in achieving remission, we’re told it’s certainly not dignified.

And after all, Paddington is a rather old fellow for a bouvier (11-1/2); we think we hear him saying he’s preparing to die, and to please let him proceed. We are adjusting his diet and, for now, dosing him with Prednisone at the vet’s recommendation to lessen swelling.

For the moment, he still feels mostly okay and eagerly awaits his walks. In the midst of heartache, we’re trying nevertheless to be really, joyfully present with him in these his (what are likely to be) last days. Because we also imagine him saying, in his best Monty Python voice, “I’m not dead yet!” :-)

I so earnestly hope for the animals-we’ve-loved in heaven. If indeed “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” then maybe this deep hope in me points to my evidence. To see and be with all this life’s dear ones at once, unbound from chronos—now that sounds like heaven to me.

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Earlier I noted Martin Roth’s Christian Blogs—The Semi-Definitive List.

Now Dean announces a new and improved portal version of Martin’s list:
blogs4God (formerly Martin Roth’s “Semi-Definitive List of Christian Blogs”).

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