>>>>> "Michael" == Michael Stutz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
jeff> you might try sane (http://www.mostang.com/sane/); it has
jeff> drivers for a large number of devices now, including quickcams
jeff> (http://www.mostang.com/sane/man/sane-qcam.5.html). don't know
jeff> if this allows for video capture or just stills, though.
Michael> guess it does video capture:
Michael> <http://www.mostang.com/sane/xcam.html>
well, it says it "acquires images continuously" but that's not
necessarily an indication that it can write what it captures to a
video file; it may show constantly updating view, and then you click a
button and it grabs a still. of course, there's nothing like
asking... :)
Michael> walking is good. though in many cities (such as where i
Michael> live) it is more and more an "unamerican activity" --
Michael> sport utility vehicles have become the preferred mode of
Michael> transportation...
i've started reading "your money or your life" (ymoyl) by joe
dominguez and vicki robin, which gives much good food for thought
about our relationship with money. one of the things they talk about
is the "patriotism" of consuming, how people are led to believe that
if they don't buy a new car or eat a lot of junk food or get the
widest screen tv they can find, they're putting their fellow americans
out of work, stealing food from the mouths of their babies. what
fails to get mentioned is that those workers in the auto, tv, and junk
food factories need their jobs in order to pay the interest on the
credit cards they used to buy their own televisions, cars, and $200
nike sneakers.
as for walking, it's amazing what's within walking distance of me -- a
doctors office, barber, farmers' market, post office... some of which
i never thought of as being within walking distance because i'd never
tried it and realized that, for example, the post office is only a 20
minute walk away. i wonder how many people drive without realizing
they don't have to.
Michael> incidentally, i thought that sitting zazen was generally
Michael> *good* for you.
good for me. doubleplus ungood for my legs. :)
Michael> with the exception of technology and some of the indie
Michael> explorations it has enabled/inspired, i think we live in
Michael> the worst of ages. due mainly to the scourge of
Michael> corporations:
Michael> <http://dsl.org/cgi-bin/display.pl/m/doc/11-rules-of-corporations>
that's a good summary. (btw, the quote at the end is attributed to
"Ambrose Bierce, 1984-1914". did bierce live backwards? i'm more
impressed by him than ever! ;-)
ymoyl has a good section in which the authors argue that after the
industrial revolution had been "won", the soldiers who had fought on
the front lines of it wanted to go home to their families, but the
generals made them stay and invented new phantom armies for them to
fight. after we had created the means by which all our needs were
fulfilled, workers naturally said, "ok, great; now we don't have to
work as much, just enough to buy what we need. the rest of the time
can be our own." proponents of the puritan work ethic were freaked
out about the possibility of widespread leisure time (idle hands,
devil's work, etc.) and companies thought it was the end of the world
if their profits didn't keep going up and up. so, they redefined the
rules of the game, and convinced everyone that they didn't just need
enough material goods to live and be happy, they needed to "consume",
to work more to get the latest/newest/fastest gismo that would confirm
their status in they eyes of everyone else who believed they had to
have the latest/newest/fastest gismo to impress everyone else.
it gives some good quotes supporting this. first, from the 1929
"herbert hoover committee on recent economic changes":
hhcorec> The survey has proved conclusively what has long been
hhcorec> held theoretically to be true, that wants are almost
hhcorec> insatiable; that one want satisfied makes way for
hhcorec> another. The conclusion is that economically we have a
hhcorec> boundless field before us; that there are new wants which
hhcorec> will make way endlessly for newer wants, as fast as they
hhcorec> are satisfied... Our situation is fortunate, our
hhcorec> momentum is remarkable.
then from henry "i'm a good little nazi" ford:
ford> Where people work less they buy more... business is the
ford> exchange of goods. Goods are bought only as they meet
ford> needs. Needs are filled only as they are felt. They make
ford> themselves felt largely in the leisure hours.
and lastly from victor lebow, a retailing analyst writing just after
world war 2:
lebow> Our enormously productive economy... demands that we make
lebow> consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and
lebow> use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual
lebow> satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption... We
lebow> need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and
lebow> discarded at an ever-increasing rate.
Michael> james kunstler has written some good books on _why_ this
Michael> has happened, and how to identify it. but what we need is
Michael> a book that tells you how to stop it.
ymoyl is a good starting place from a financial standpoint on a
personal level, as is most everything at http://www.slnet.com/
(i can personally vouch for the books of elaine saint james). just
refusing to take part in the madness yourself and providing an example
to others can make a good step in the right direction. i'm working my
way from the inside out; i'm clearing all the clutter out of my house
and lifestyle, then plan to move into the backyard, then by that time
i'll have made things easy enough on myself that i'll have time to
keep the alley out back clean. then... who knows?
i've been really big into uncluttering for the last couple of months;
will put some notes about it on my website soon.
Michael> i agree, digital cameras are just too expensive -- for me
Michael> it's actually cheaper to shoot analog with a good camera
Michael> and then get photocd scans of the keepers than it would
Michael> be to go 100% digital.
too much hassle for me; i'd want to be able to just come in the house,
plug in the camera, and snag the photos off it.
Michael> i think you should try your digital camera experiment.
i think i should have a digital camera first. ;^)
--
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| jeff covey [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://pobox.com/~jeff.covey/ 410-669-4926 |
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| Life's most urgent question is: what are you doing for others? |
| -Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) |
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