Cyrus Farivar

“I still am bitter to a large degree, but then I think about what Jackie Robinson once told me,” [Former Dodgers pitcher Don Newcombe] said. “He said, ‘You’ve got to change one letter in that word. Change the ‘i’ to an ‘e.’ Forget about bitter, try to make things better.’ “ — LA Times, August 28 2005

According to a piece in Computerworld, one of Macworld’s sister publications. About 8 million passports are renewed annually out of some 57 million passports in circulation. Last I tried to get this information from State Dept. I was told that I couldn’t have it due to “security reasons.”

Dude! Look at how many Persians are speaking at Web 2.0! Hossein Eslambolchi, CTO, AT&T Omid Kordestani, VP Sales, Google Yusuf Mehdi, Senior VP, Microsoft Pierre Omidyar, Founder, eBay Safa Rashtchy, Analyst, Piper Jaffrey

Gen. Wesley Clark: On the military side, the vast effort underway to train an army must be matched by efforts to train police and local justices. Canada, France and Germany should be engaged to assist. Neighboring states should also provide observers and technical assistance. In military terms, striking at insurgents and terrorists is necessary but insufficient. Military and security operations must return primarily to the tried-and-true methods of counterinsurgency: winning the hearts and minds of the populace through civic action,…

So last night I went with Aaron over to Amoeba in The Haight to catch the free show by The New Pornos. I’ve actually never been that far down Haight, but it seems rather cool and I’d like to spend a Saturday strolling it. Fortunately for me the 7 and 71 buses go straight from Montgomery BART (2nd/Market) to literally across the street from Amoeba. We arrived a little early and perused their music. That’s the first time in awhile…

AP: The Associated Press Wednesday, August 24, 2005; 4:02 PM VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson insisted Wednesday that he did not call for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, despite comments broadcast on his program two days earlier. “I didn’t say ‘assassination,’” Robertson said Wednesday on his Christian Broadcast Network show “The 700 Club” about remarks reported by The Associated Press and other media outlets. “I said our special forces should ‘take him out.’ ‘Take him…

‘We all joke about race in here. But there are things said off the cuff that I don’t interpret as being funny. They are funny to him and [comedian] Jeff Foxworthy, but not to Milton Bradley.’ — Milton Bradley, speaking about the Dodger clubhouse and referring to Jeff Kent

Welcome back, Dave.

Macworld Podcast #6: Mac Gems By Cyrus Farivar If you spend any significant time in front of your Mac, it’s a pretty safe bet that you do—then you probably have at least one or two small applications that you use constantly to improve your productivity. Senior writer Dan Frakes keeps tabs on low-cost Mac software and wrote the “50 Mac Gems” article in the September 2005 issue. In this podcast, he explains how he picked them and what some of…

X-Rays Reveal Ancient Text By Cyrus Farivar Wired News 02:00 AM Aug. 24, 2005 PT Using a technique called X-ray fluorescence, a team of researchers at Cornell University has revealed ancient inscriptions carved into stone that had faded away over the centuries. Scientists fired high-energy X-ray beams at the 2,000-year-old inscriptions using Cornell University’s synchrotron, exposing trace elements left over from paint that dried up and faded away centuries ago. Concentrations of those elements can then be mapped along the…