Sunday, June 17, 2012
It’s nice to see the whole broad failure of institutions idea picking up traction. It has to be a good thing.
Maureen Dowd must be one of the gang of journalists covering the Jerry Sandusky trial in Pennsylvania. She has a thoughtful column today in the NYTimes about doing the right thing, whistleblowing and more.
I’d probably pay good money to see a discussion of this by Dowd, Chris Hayes and David Simon. Though Dowd can be trivial. Maybe swap her out for Lawrence Lessig, who appeared on Chris Hayes’ Up with Chris show yesterday.
I’m reading Hayes’ new book now which discusses many of these ideas and wraps them around the notion of the American meritocracy. I’d enjoy hearing David Simon’s take on that particular spin.
Simon may have started it all with The Wire. He talks about institutions and how they will betray you in this 2009 interview with Bill Moyers. I think Moyers reduces the idea down too far when he tries to make it all about “juking the stats.” It’s way more than that.
Did you know Simon starting blogging a few weeks ago? I know, I know, my pals in the information-should-be-free world think his positions on paywalls and fair pay for trained and skills journalists make him a clueless fool. That’s one thing he’s definitely not. The funny thing is his motivation for blogging sounds very much like blogging pioneer Dave Winer‘s own tipping point. They both had been misunderstood when they gave interviews and wanted an unfiltered forum, a place to get all nuance-y for an audience that cares about the whole idea behind the soundbite. Do yourself a favor and dig into the posts and their comments. Simon invests himself in the comments.
Thursday, June 07, 2012
And oh what a relief it is (that’s a generation-specific reference), because I had myself all steeled to revert to my first-gen phone and wait the however many weeks or months for the iPhone 5. Let me tell you, I was feeling pretty good about that—thrifty, stoic, self-sacrificing, nay even noble.
Anyway, I thought I’d done everything wrong (tried powering on too soon, plugged into a charger before realizing it was too wet), but it turns out the web recommendations to sink your phone in a heap of rice worked a treat. Guy at the AT&T store told me removing the SIM card had been a good move, too. You can learn all of this if you do what I did when I realized too much pool water had splashed on my phone: search and read. The reason I wanted to narrate my experience was to add a small tip to the gathered netwisdom on the topic that I didn’t learn in my search expedition.
The tips: battery will be drained and pick up some slivered almonds
This morning, after letting the phone sit in a Tupperware container full of rice overnight, I tried to start it and believed it was all over. I took both phones to the store at lunchtime, thinking I would probably end up getting a new SIM and temporarily use the circa 2007 phone. The clever employee tried charging the newer phone and darned if it didn’t turn on, but the charge was at zero. That’s something I had not even considered because I almost always keep my phone charged to 50% or more. I don’t understand the physics of it but something that happened in the process completely zapped any remaining charge.
So, the lesson is: maybe you didn’t screw up. Enhance your calm. Don’t rush into a new contract. If it doesn’t turn on, it might not be fried; it might be just drained.
Oh, and if you’re like me and the closest place that sells rice is an Indian grocery, pick up some slivered almonds while you’re there. You’ll pay about one-tenth the price of those teeny packs you impulse-buy just because the supermarkets put them near the produce. I got idly rice there. It’s sort of barley-shaped and used in making dosa.
Posted by
amyloo on 06/07 at 07:28 PM
iPad/iPhone •
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