iPhone frenzy

From the NY Times:

TeleSoftas’s application also works on Symbian, the open-source operating system owned by Nokia. But in some European countries, that is secondary, Mr. Stonys said.

“Sixty percent of all smartphones in Switzerland being sold today are iPhones,” he said.

“You’ve got to produce for the platform out there that is selling the best.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/15/technology/companies/15apple.html


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Central Library, Indianapolis

There's hope yet

Human ingenuity + nature's robustness gives me hope for the future.

Shipwrecked!

For anyone in the Indianapolis area who reads this before Sunday afternoon (in other words, all 0.5 of you)...

The Phoenix Theatre is holding its last 3 showings of Shipwrecked! this weekend. I just caught it myself; Charles Goad is captivating in the lead role, from the moment the lights begin to dim until the bitter end. I'll admit that I felt the play drag a wee bit, but some of the funniest moments come near the end, and overall it was well worth it.

The deadpan humor kept everyone smiling, and Queen Victoria had the audience roaring in laughter. I thought Charles nearly cracked up himself at that point.

Very little to dislike, much to cherish, I cannot recommend this play highly enough. I only hope I get to catch Charles Goad in another role this flamboyant.

What have we come to?

Texas is preparing to execute someone who is quite possibly, even probably, innocent. They're getting good at executing innocent people.

What's perhaps more disturbing is Scalia's recent dissent in the Troy Davis case:

This court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is 'actually' innocent.

Read that again. Fundamentally, Scalia is questioning whether once convicted in a fair trial, an innocent person has a Constitutional right to be freed, or even spared execution.

I think he's gone completely round the bend. Read the preamble:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Now read it again. This is the core, defining sentence for the Constitution. This justifies its very existence, and the existence of the government which it authorizes. We create and authorize the government to act on our behalf.

The Constitution is not a weapon against us. It is our best defense against tyranny, against injustice. Can there be a greater injustice than our government killing innocent people when there is an extremely simple alternative?

This is not collateral damage from a missile strike in Baghdad. This is a conscious decision to kill someone rather than commute a sentence when there are clear signs of a failure in the judicial system.

What madness is this?

And Another Thing

I was quite surprised to discover that one of my favorite authors was continuing the work of another of my favorite authors. Eoin Colfer has written a 6th book in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy.

• Press release
• Amazon link

I'm looking forward to reading And Another Thing, although I really need to go back and read the 5th book in the series again. Maybe even the 4th book, since I found the 5th difficult to grok the first time around.

If you've never read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or its (now 5) sequels, I highly recommend checking out Life, the Universe and Everything. Read chapter 16 (Arthur Dent's encounter with Agrajag) and if you don't laugh out loud...check your pulse.

Douglas Adams, wherever you are, I hope you get a chuckle out of Colfer's book. We miss you.

Clifty Falls State Park