Wonderful day!

Congratulations, Auntie Susan!

Ah, Susan has wonderful, wonderful photos from Joshua Tree National Park. It is one of the places on earth I like best. I’ve been there once in 1992, when it was still a National Monument, and again in September 1999, with André. Seeing Susan’s photos reminds me of the place and its beauty and silence.

Strange coincidence: Just a few minutes before I saw the photos, I remembered how I felt each morning on our trip: The sun was up, the sky was blue, the air was clear, and we had a wonderful day of exploration and adventure before us. Sigh… I wish I could be there again. Well, some day…

Manners and Courts

New York Times: In Lieu of Manners. “As respect for authority in all its forms erodes, Americans turn to the courts to tell them how to live their lives. What happens when we no longer respect the courts?”

Link via Garret, who commented: “friends in europe will enjoy this”.

Well, I am worried because it seems that, like many other things, this problem is about to make its way from the USA to Europe.

An excerpt:

“Television makes public officials seem more familiar and less mysterious, decreasing their authority while increasing their celebrity. To exercise power in a televised democracy, elected officials have to act like Oprah, confessing their intimate secrets […] to convey the impression of being authentic and accessible. But this confessional accessibility creates the risk of overexposure.”

More Community News

Hey, take a look at the new and improved NetDyslexia! They changed the whole look and feel. Und sie werden in Zukunft auch mal was auf Deutsch schreiben.

However, they’re still Dogma 2000 compliant. Isn’t it Dogma 2001 now?

Community

Duncan‘s Transmeta Crusoe weblog Friday turns one year old today! Maybe it will get reactivated some day?!

Al: “Andrea posts message #1000! Have to think of an appropriate prize…”

Heck, I didn’t even realize it was # 1000.

Software

Yesterday, Jörg had good news: Opera for the Mac will be availabe soon! I used to use Opera for Win 3.11 on my old PC (which I traded in for a Mac Quadra 800 about a year ago), and I loved it. I will surely download Opera for the Mac once it is available.

From their page: “Opera for Linux and Macintosh will offer two options for keeping the browser. The user has the choice to download a free, ad-supported version with all features and functionality enabled, or registering the browser at a charge of $39 that removes the ads, with various discounts applying.”

If I remember correctly, students get a discount of 50%.