I made Macsurfer.com

Top 100 things to do before I die 65 has been crossed off the list:



That's right - my long tirade on Apple's environmental record made Macsurfer, an Apple news aggregator.

And that one award last year that I got to go to Orlando to accept? We won it again. And we're waiting on news from another one.

Everything is coming up Milhouse.

On a "stuff"-free March.

"As the world goes 'round / It's got me thinkin'
That the things I want / Keep me sinking / Down." - Zwan, 'Ride a Black Swan'


Last Thursday, while waiting for a meeting that never happened, I browsed around our nifty Nomad Bookhouse in downtown Jackson for an entire hour. The best part? I had a great time, and didn't buy one book. Same goes for our downtown library; I get lost in there for hours on end, and it doesn't cost me a dime.

As the world goes 'round, it's got me thinking, too - that less of what makes me happy is possessions, and more of what makes me happy is experiences.

I always have to remind myself of that, but maybe it was Steven Stoll's article in the March edition of Harper's, titled "Fear of Fallowing: The spectre of a no-growth world," where he argues that - after the basics are taken care of - the accrual of possessions makes us no more happier as time goes on.

The opposite effect, in fact, could be true. American happiness peaked in 1950, says Bill McKibben in Deep Economy, and afterwards has dripped down a few percentage points. "The point is not that [economic] growth has caused depression and anxiety," he writes, but beyond basic needs like food, shelter, and a few material possessions, it fails to deliver the joy marketers want us to believe.

Stoll goes on to say that our current rate of economic growth is unsustainable and that, by 2050, we'll need two planets to provide the natural resources to furnish everything we're producing. The solution? To stop growing, and devout our productivity to, say, more leisure or better efficiency.

Says Stoll:

The end of growth will not mean the end of progress, to the extent that we can redefine progress as consisting of something other than accumulation.

Imagine that - working hard for something other than buying more stuff.

That's inspiring. So inspiring, in fact, that I'm devoting the month of March to reducing my strain on the nature of things. A Washington Post article I read called it the "Enoughasaurus."

It's a mighty Buddhist philosophy: the impermanence of things offers nothing but desire (for more) and suffering (at lack), and so provide no value. Jesus, too, said that the quickest way to heaven was to give up all possessions and go do good for our fellow humans.

That doesn't mean I'm going to give up everything I own. I'll admit, I do love my Macs and my music. But it does mean I can give up a lot of my stuff without any adverse affects on my spirit.

To whit: I've saved countless magazines from the subscriptions I've had over the years. How often to I go back and read them?

And books? I do plan on having a library for myself and my kids, but there's a lot of books that I'll never want to read again, or have no intention of reading. Someone else may find a better use for them.

Even my comics. Good lord, I went through a spell in college where I would gather comics to read and store away, and retain only for their "value." Now I'm old enough to recognize the lessons of the early 1990s, when the comics market (as it is) bottomed out. I remember my dad collecting Batman comics when I was a teenager just because he thought they would be worth something "someday." Now they sit in a box in his basement, and they aren't worth the paper they're printed on.

Selling off some of my stuff, as I did in a big eBay spree a year ago, can help me fund the things I do enjoy. I want to get back to running come spring, and I have a big trip planned. And a few little projects I want to undertake - it all takes capital, and I can acquire the needed funds through reducing my dependency on "stuff." I don't need stuff. What I do need are the things I really enjoy, which are experiences I'll never forget. That's how life is lived.

Some of this will be hard. People develop an emotional attachment to their stuff, and I'm no different. I'm mighty proud of the Apple collection I've acquired, but I sure as heck don't need any more. I like doing stuff on Macs. A few dusty computers just sitting there bring me no true happiness. I'm scared I'll end up like my grandma, who is so swimming in material possessions that she's miserable and looking for a way out.

I'd rather be able to see New England, go visit friends, help out the organizations I belong to, and do a bit of writing and designing when I can.

We could call it a "no growth life." But that's misleading. I'll be growing, just not in possessions.

Sunday Project: setting up AirPort on an iBook G3

I love my G3 iBook. I bought it right before my Route 66 trip because (a) I was nervous about taking my then-new G4 and (b) the thing is built for road-warriors and students. It's the toughest laptop I've ever seen, and I knew if I took it all the way across the country, it would survive in a pinch.

And it did, both on the Route trip and the Seattle trip. But one drawback was its lack of wireless connectivity. I underestimated the number of hotels - even run-down ones - that have wireless internet these days. One night, in Needles, California, I drove to three different hotels looking for an ethernet connection, never finding one (which is one reason why the Route updates didn't come as often as I wanted).

Now that's all over with. I grabbed an AirPort card off eBay for a reasonable price, and took today to actually install the thing.



Thetools were simple: a flathead and Phillips screwdriver head, the smaller the better. Also, I grabbed instructions of the Apple.com support site.



The first step was to remove the battery. No sense in getting shocked. On modern Apple laptops, the battery is super easy to remove. Turn the thing over...



The two giant silver screws take one-half twist to remove. Take the cover off, and grab the plastic handle attached to the battery:



The battery slides right out. Mine looks like it was a replacement model from 2004, but already it looses charge faster than it should. Looks like I'll have to shop for a new one.



Now that the risk of electric shock is gone, time to get some real work done.



Toget to the iBook's guts, you have to take the keyboard off. Simple enough: slide the latches toward you, and the keyboard slides right out:



It'sa good thing I only want to install the AirPort card, because replacing anything else (like the hard drive, for instance) would be a nightmare. There are screws everywhere. Luckily, the AirPort holster was held in place by only one screw, which means someone had already installed one and taken it out (the previous owner, probably). Anyway, unscrew however many screws there are:



And slide the holster right out:



The wireless antenna was easy to find - it was the only cord not attached to something. It plugs right into the top of the AirPort card:



Getting the card into the holster was tricky, because it doesn't really hold the AirPort card in place. Instead, the card slides into the top of the palm rest, right above the trackpad:



Then the antenna requires that you loop it around the top of the card, so everything lays flat:





Booya - an installed wireless card. One screw to lock the holster in place, put the keyboard back on, lock the keyboard latches, and turn the puppy on.



Apple makes it super easy to set up the software side of things. Under "System Preferences" and "Network," OS X automatically detects the new card. Just tell it what your wireless station is called (mine is called, simple, "AirPort" because I have an Extreme Base Station).



Recognizing my base station was no problem, but when I put in the password, it wouldn't connect. After doing some research, I found I had to scale back the security because this AirPort was an older version - 802.11b.



After that, bam - everything ran smoothly. The AirPort card recognized my wireless station (as well as all my neighbors) and connected at full power.



And look at that. No wires. Full-speed internet. It zipped right along, and the only thing holding back loading time was the speed of the computer (it's 300 Mhz - pretty slow by today's standards).

But it works, and it took me about 15 minutes to set up. Now when I take my road-worthy iBook to New England, I can connect any way I want.

Now if I was only brave enough to update the RAM in this screw-heavy beast...

Defending Apple's environmental record.

Giving all the guff that Apple has received lately about becoming more "green," it's no surprise that Apple would want to protect its reputation - especially considering it was founded by two liberals in Northern California.

I opened my shareholder meeting proxy vote ballot several weeks ago and found this little gem as one of the voting items:

TO CONSIDER A SHAREHOLDER PROPOSAL ENTITLED "AMEND CORPORATE BYLAWS ESTABLISHING A BOARD COMMITTEE ON SUSTAINABILITY", IF PROPERLY PRESENTED AT THE MEETING.

Could this be the work of board member Al Gore? Or pressure from groups like Greenpeace? Or maybe it's just Apple finally getting serious about recycling and sustainability.

Just how green is Apple? Before Greenpeace launched its campaign against Apple, highlighted by its mock apple.com site (that asks "We love our iPods, but can we lose the iWaste?"), Apple was phasing out production of lead-balloon CRT monitors beginning with the iMac G4. And according to Apple, the "greening" began ten years earlier:

Apple started recycling in 1994 and today we operate recycling programs in countries where more than 82% of all Macs and iPods are sold. By the end of this year, that figure will increase to 93%. Apple recycled 13 million pounds of e-waste in 2006, which is equal to 9.5% of the weight of all products Apple sold seven years earlier. We expect this percentage to grow to 13% in 2007, and to 20% in 2008. By 2010, we forecast recycling 19 million pounds of e-waste per year — nearly 30% of the product weight we sold seven years earlier.

Right. And just recently, Steve Jobs bragged about the MacBook Air's environmental laurels onstage at Macworld. Its LCD is mercury- and arsenic-free. The circuitry is PVC free, and Apple plans to "completely eliminate the use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), brominated flame retardants (BFRs), and arsenic in its products by the end of 2008," according to its website.

Plus, as you can see from these pictures, the packaging is much smaller and more efficient than other Apple laptops - by almost half. Even the aluminum laptop enclosure can be recycled.

Like they did when the new iPod packaging was released in 2006, Apple was quick to mention that smaller packaging helps the environment by using less resources to haul cross-country.

(You can also use iPod packaging in more inventive ways - see here)

You can even recycle your iPod or a cell phone from any manufacturer. Apple includes the shipping label for you, so it doesn't cost a dime. Now that's cool.

What seems to plague Apple, a founding member of the US EPA ENERGY STAR program, is its lack of bragging. The company is known to be tight-lipped, on everything from new product launches to goings-on at its corporate headquarters, and when the company does brag, it's usually about usability breakthroughs and life-changing inventions. Here's an example: did you know Apple has a partnership with its hometown, Cupertino, CA, to recycle electronics free of charge? It doesn't even have to be an Apple product. They've been doing it since 2002.

Apple has used the same materials other computer makers use, but as the green tidal wave grew in strength, it quietly went about its business. Granted, pressure from the sustainability community has quickened Apple's pace in phasing out harmful chemicals and implementing take-back programs, but my feeling is the company would have reached its public "greeniness" eventually. It would've had to: Al Gore is a board member, remember?

Now Steve Jobs makes a point to bring up Apple's greening at every major public event. Never mind that they've been winning waste management awards as far back as eight years ago.

But any visitor to sites like Low End Mac, or even our own Newton community, knows that Macs have an incredibly long lifespan. People still use Mac SEs and Quadras for everyday use, seeing nothing wrong with running OS 8 and Netscape to do all their work. Browse eBay sometime and see what "obsolete" iMac G3s go for. Shucks, I've been craving an iMac G4 for a while now, and am still waiting for the price to come down low enough so I can snatch one.

Mac users hold onto their computers, or sell them so someone else can use them. Can you say that about a 1997-era Dell? Do you see kids lining up for 30,000 used HP laptops, priced at $48 a piece, like they do for iBooks?

I've experienced, first-hand, the type of recycling Apple users utilize: at a recent e-waste drive for my recycling group, a man dropped off an Apple IIc (which some folks still use as a gaming platform). Once I saw a Mac SE/30, and another time someone dropped a PowerBook 5300. In other words, it takes years for Apple users to finally say, "Okay, I've had this long enough, and don't use it day-to-day. Time to recycle." Is anyone going to recycle a used PowerBook G4? No. Never. It's going on eBay, and it's fetching several hundred dollars at auction's end. Used iBook G4s still go for almost as much as a brand new MacBook.

Take Newton users. Here is a dead-and-gone, by Apple's standards, product, and yet ten years after the last MessagePad came out the community is as big and as vibrant as ever. The iPhone has come and gone, and Newton users are still trading and swapping and modding their green-lit hearts out.

That's how Apple fans recycle their computers. They either keep using them, give them away, or sell them. Or tinker. Or upgrade. Or...

That doesn't mean Apple should slack in the recycling department. E-waste is a scary and growing problem, in this country and especially the third world, and Apple would be smart to keep its name out of that quagmire altogether. Apple has enough problems fending off criticism for its sweat-shop labor practices.

Dell teamed up with Goodwill to recycle old computers in my state (Michigan), and several others, which was a smart way to get its name out there in the fight against e-waste. Maybe Apple would want to do something similar: attach its name to a big program, and reap the PR benefits.

Maybe that's what this whole board committee on sustainability is about. Apple sees the growing awareness for environmentalism, and - if the board is smart - wants to do the right thing by its mostly-liberal fanbase.

Because that's the name of the game here. Apple, as a responsible and influential company, should be doing the right thing. Recycling and environmentally-friendly products help in the quest.

But in quiet ways, Apple (and Apple fans) has been doing some of this right along.

Bustin' makes me feel good.

Midway through Friday night's Crazy Bowl fundraiser, a friend thought that maybe I had put a little too much thought and effort into my team's Ghostbuster costume.

But then came the announcement that we had won "Best Costume" at the '80s-themed bowl-o-rama, and all the effort paid off in an instant.

This is the third year I've taken home that prize. The first year featured a Mardi Gras theme, and I went all out thanks to a purple blazer, green polyester pants, a crown, and tons of beads. I won "best costume" that year. Then came my miner outfit during the Western-themed year two years ago.




But this year took real effort. After we had all decided what we wanted to be, I began collected electronic detritus from around the office and around my apartment. The result was pretty cool. And "Ghostbusters" is on my list of all-time favorite movies. Heck, I used to watch the first one over and over again as a kid - to the point of memorizing lines and dedicated a large part of my pre-teen years to busting ghosts myself.

I remember when I was first diagnosed with diabetes, someone bought me a toy ghost trap from the cartoon series. In the hospital, whenever a nurse would walk by, I'd throw the trap out and "get" her. Fun times.

With a little bit of hot glue and a whole lotta circuitry and wires, I built three backpacks for me, my boss, and the new girl, Tina. Marla built a really cool trap, and Liz turned an old hand-held Pacman game into a ghost detector, complete with headphones. We rocked. And a little bit of green ooze on some tyvek painters suits made the outfit complete.




When my brain gets settled on a project, I can't help but go all-out. Take my Route 66 trip. Or my Mac collection. Or my student body president campaign. Or my arcane knowledge of Spider-Man lore.

Maybe I have too many hobbies. Or too much free time (yeah right). Maybe life is just living to the fullest.




Whatever. When the local newspaper mentions something you did as "the best," it makes all that time and effort seem more than worth it.

As the old Ghostbusters theme song said, "Bustin' makes me feel good."

So does winning something fun.

News from the front - Jan. 29

Ben Franklin is my kind of American. He's long been a hero of mine, every since I read parts of his "Autobiography," but now I'm reading a bunch of books on the Founding Fathers to prepare for the big New England trip this spring.

And I don't dig Ben just because I use "Franklin" as my name during restaurant reservations. He was a genuinely fun, prototypical American - full of industry and humor and inventiveness, a true man-about-town. Ben was a carpe diem fellow, constantly using every available moment in his life to be productive or useful. I admire that.

I'll always remember the image of him carting rolls of paper around Philadelphia, just so he appeared to be a hard worker (really, he was - but it was all about appearances). Plus he's a printer and journalist, and those two professions always have a place in my heart.

So does Ben. He was America's original American, and it's great getting reacquainted with him.

---

As a teenager, I wasted many hours playing "Warcraft II," a war simulation game with a fantasy twist, and I'm here to report that the sickness is back.

Owning an original iMac allows me to run all the old Macintosh software. With this in mind, I'm revisiting some of the older games that kept me occupied as a high schooler (I'm still looking for "Sim City 2000" and "Star Wars: Tie Fighter" - the greatest space shooter game ever invented).

The "Warcraft" I got includes a mode to play online against other people, and I've come to learn one thing: people that play games online aren't very nice.

I'll admit, I'm a "newbie" (or "n00b") when it comes to online play. But Sweet Cannonball Jesus, these guys are ruthless. They have little patience for people trying to learn the ropes, and often comes the game when everyone gangs up on me and blasts me into next week.

I don't take it personally, because really these guys have nothing better to do than sit at home and play games all day. Shit, I've heard stories of guys dropping out of high school to dedicate their sad little lives to "Warcraft" ("World of Warcraft" is even worse, I hear). And I just can't compete with that.

Nor should I. My mistake is trying to play for fun.

---

I'm pitting my chili recipe against nine other coworkers tomorrow.

Faith comes easy, but after placing second in the last American 1 International Invitational Chili-Con Cookoff, I have renewed passions for my chili and its deliciousness.

The secret is the experimental ingredient I always include. Last time it was pineapple, the time before it was beer (which is now a staple), and the time before that it was venison. What to do this time? Any suggestions?

---

Speaking of New England trips...the plans are coming right along.

I've already got my map staked out, complete with spots to visit and sites to see, plus the where-do-I-start question has been answered (Philadelphia).

But it got me thinking about all the fun adventures I want to do before I die. So I've done the cliche "100 things to do before I croak" list, and here it is. I'm a bit over half-way done:

100 THINGS TO DO BEFORE I DIE


1. Drive Route 66
2. Drive across New England
3. Write a book
4. Learn to fly a plane
5. Live in another state
6. Own an apple orchard
7. Travel by train across Europe
8. Visit India
9. See the Acropolis
9. Hike the Appalachian Trail
10. See a Michigan/Ohio State football game
11. Own a boat
12. Learn to use Linux
13. Build a website from scratch
14. Be debt-free
15. Shake hands with the President of the United States
16. Eat a meal in Italy
17. Retire early
18. Change my own oil
19. Hike up a mountain
20. Start my own non-profit
21. Be my own boss
22. Drive 100 mph
23. Swim in a Canadian lake
24. Drive to Alaska
25. Save someone's life
26. Sell everything I own
27. Camp in absolute wilderness
28. See a San Francisco 49ers game
29. Work for Apple
30. Win a national award
31. Eat a lobster on the Maine coast
32. See the Grand Canyon
33. Make a major contribution to an environmental cause
34. Meet the Dalai Lama
35. Drive Route 66 again, or the reverse way (Santa Monica to Chicago)
36. Run for political office and win
37. Own a copy of "Amazing Fantasy 15" (first appearance of Spider-Man)
38. Become a Notary Public
39. Swim in a Swedish mountain lake
40. See "A Prairie Home Companion" live
41. Get my master's degree in communication or english literature
42. Go to a Buddhist temple for a week-long retreat
43. See the Himalayas
44. Cook Thanksgiving dinner
45. Visit all 50 states
46. Swim in Walden Pond
47. Eat a Coney on Coney Island
48. See a Michigan/Ohio State game live
49. Live to 70
50. Eat at Zingerman's Deli
51. Beat Final Fanstasy VII
52. Go on a horseride through Montana
53. Float in the Dead Sea
54. Participate in a bowling league
55. Appear on an NPR program
56. Craft my own wine
57. Win money on a gameshow
58. Play guitar or bass in a band

More items to come...

---

Oh yeah. I'm on Twitter.

Check it out, send me some tweets.

The world has gone Tom Cruise.

Like some batshit crazy scene out of one of Tim LaHaye's far-out novels, along comes Tom Cruise.

Again.

I've come to realize that there are a lot of ape shit crazy people in this world. For instance, I read today that some yahoo in Iowa, right before the causes, preached on about how churches should control the states, not vice versa. "Read your history," he said.

Or how some other yahoo running for office would just as well write his own Constitution, given the chance, because - you know - elect holy men are the ones that should be running our country.

Thank goodness most states in the nation would have to agree in order to write looney laws like the "protection of marriage" into our country's most sacred document_ But lately, I'm starting to wonder.

You see, what I've been missing is this whole side of the country that's whacked out of their minds. I tend to surround myself with reasonably sane people (exceptions exist, as with anything), and I'm afraid if I conversed with one of these fine folks, my nose would start gushing blood.

Come to think of it, I have encountered these folks. One was outside the library trying to "protect" marriage by banning gays from civil unions. He had a clipboard, which lent him undue authority.

Or, recently, Jackson's own group of yahoos pulled the plug on a teen pregnency program because - gasp! - Planned Parenthood was helping to fund the thing. According to Jackson Right to Life, Planned Parenthood would hand out abortions like they were candy. Nevermind that abstinence-only programs, besides being laughed at by 16 year olds everywhere, don't work.

You see, what Tommy preaches on about up there is merely a symptom. Tom says, "I wish the world was a different place," and what's dangerous is that Tom and people only half as nutty as he is are trying to wish that into reality.

The end of the video claims that Tommy's message has reached "more than 1 billion humans." What they video doesn't say is that those billion suckers committed suicide immediately after walking out of the Holiday Inn the Scientology group rented for the come-together. The human brain is capable of only so much Punch and Judi before it explodes in an orgy of get-me-the-hell-out-of-here.

It's true. And what's worse is that there are people out there who might nod their heads in approval at platitudes if it was, say, Joel Osteen or Alex Jones. This country has a fine tradition of shit-talking bullshitters, and American eat them up. What makes Tom sound crazy to you and I is the same trite B.S. that makes Huckabee's constitutional suggestion sound like a nutjob.

Here's a tip: if someone ever tells you that theirs is the one-true way, grab a bamboo stick and hospitalize them. Don't even let them get up.

Tom's message is no more crazy than a lot of mainstream religious folks' message. It's just that his religion was invented last century. This happens all the time, and usually when a new one pops up everyone else thinks their crazy (lions + den = maybe they'll shut the hell up). But really they're no more crazy than the folks that are guarding the Coliseum.

You'd think that the Englighnment never happened. And here some are so freaked out about Muslims being the "greatest threat ever" (maybe they've never heard of a the Civil War?), yet they think abandoning the Founding Father's idea of the "consent of the governed" in favor of Bible-based laws. If that's the case, then they can trade Pokemon cards with the Taliban, and blow up some more Buddhas.

But this is America, and we need to let the crazies roam like buffalo on the high prairie. The hope is that, over time, people get smarter and society gets better. Some events have challenged this notion, and again we find ourselves threatened by the barbarians, who are knocking at the gates.

Hope springs eternal.