Could Bhutan be on to something?

Bhutan's happiness formula From the BBC

America as a Developing Nation

We Americans are used to “having it all.” Our industry and technology are the best of the world, our country weilds enourmous power globally. A report on the Buddhist Channel about the first monk to represent the US to the World Buddhist Supreme Conference helped me realize that in some ways the US doesn’t really have everything. The article was also intresting because it illustrates that Buddhism is indeed growing in the US, and finally we are at a point where we need to have representation to the conference. The dhamma continues to grow here, and a uniquely American Buddhism is sure to develop from its taking root here. That, I think, is a good thing for America, and can become yet another of her strengths.

Wii Officially Wins the Console War of 2006

Engadget says:

This latest Wii vid, which we’ve decided in a completely non-mathematical way stretches those 480p pixels to about one square foot of screen per, just goes to prove what all those Wii fanboys have been politely discussing with the Sony and Microsoft camps all along: pixels don’t necessarily equal fun.

Wii in a Theatre: We don’t need no stinkin’ pixels.

Georgia Libraries Get New Catalog

This is old news, kinda, but I just saw it on Slashdot: The Georgia Public Library System has just tossed out an old proprietary system for managing the catalogs of over 250 libraries, and replaced it with a new open-source system. The system is based on Linux, Apache, and PostgreSQL, and all mushed together with C, JavaScript and Perl. WOOT! I hated the old software PINES used. It just seemed so, so... 1995. But this new system, called Evergreen (get it.. PINES, Evergreen?) shows book covers, let you set up “book bags” of interesting titles. You can even share your bookbags on the internet. This kicks the butt of the old system. So I went and looked up a book I knew was in the library system: Thai Food by David Thompson. It appeared, along with the cover. I clicked on the ‘Reviews’ button and got the low-down from Publisher’s Weekly and Library Journal. Of course, I already know that the book was a culinary tour de force. A quick search of ‘buddhism’ yielded over 1200 results. My only complaint is that the JavaScript (or some part of its Web 2.0 goodness) is kinda slow. Pages take more than a couple of seconds to render. Then again, I suppose there is a lot of stuff going on as the system searches for relevant titles. And it does seem at least as fast as the old PINES, even what I recall from using PINES in the library. The developers say, “It was designed from scratch for large-scale deployment in very large public library and state-wide consortium environments with tens of millions of records and hundreds of libraries.” And the librarians in Georgia love it. You can see the new version of PINES using Evergreen at gapines.org. The open source project is at OTSG Freshmeat. Yeah, its GPLed! Yay Georgia!

Electronic Books vs Instant On-Demand Printing

Some web surfing today made me decide to compare two ideas that may change the way we read (as if the Internet hasn't already done that). Both have been around a while but advances in technology may help revive a challenged publishing industry. Either technology could change what we read and how we get it.

Electronic Books

Also called e-readers or e-books, these devices have cropped up here and there over the past few years, though none has ever had any significant success. They essentially consist of some type of display approximating the size of a page from a paperback and the electronics to download, store and display the electronic book content. I think one of the reasons these have never caught on is that it is usually difficult to get books downloaded into your e-book. Each new e-book product, and there have been more than a few, have required some custom data format to manage digital rights, though they would often times also support more popular or open formats like PDF or HTML. The problem is that to get the latest published book, one had to find it in the format suitable for the device, as no publisher has produced recent works in easily copyable formats like HTML or PDF, nor would they even entertain that notion. The usually only public domain or works with expired copyright are available in the open formats. Another problem is the cost of the device. The least expensive reader I’ve yet uncovered is $299. That amount of money goes a very long way on Amazon. Though e-books may be able to do a lot more, like play MP3 files, those extras seem like afterthoughts and don’t really add much value.

• Jinke eReader $299US
• iRex eReader €649
• Sony Reader $349US

Instant On-Demand Printing

On-demand printing has been around for a while - think of Lulu self publishing. A writer can send a properly formatted manuscript to the on-demand service, who then can print your book whenever someone orders it. You can even set the price of the book above a fixed price that covers the printer’s costs and margin. What’s relatively new is the “instant” idea. Instead of the printing and binding being handled by a book manufacturer, a machine in a small bookstore (or even something like one of those little airport shops) prints, binds, and even puts a full-color cover on your chosen book in just a few minutes. Of course, the equipment is expensive, but it’s not for the individual. The World Bank has one under test in their New York office. Officials with the Bank have envisioned machines being placed in community centers in rural areas of Africa (and elsewhere), to provide access to books for people who would otherwise have no access to the printed word, let alone internet access.

• Espresso Book Machine
• BookMachine

In learning about the two machines in the list above, I noticed that the names of the companies are very similar, the products almost identical. The companies, however are in different places: one in St. Louis, the other New York City. If they are different companies, I see a law suit on the horizon, as the maker of the BookMachine has already won significant suits against Ingram Industries, Lightning Source, and Amazon.com. Given that the last news update from that company is that lawsuit and it is dated to 2004, I tend to believe that that company has morphed into the company making the Espresso machine.

Which Product Wins?

I’ll admit I love books. I love the way they smell, the way they feel. I get a thrill when I buy a new one. I have even taught myself the rudiments of hard-cover binding by hand and made a few tiny diary books. Keep that in mind as a very strong potential bias when I say that I think instant on-demand printing is the winner. Instant on demand printing wins in the end because of the ultimate portability of a physical, printed book. You don’t need batteries to read it. You take it out where ever you are and just start reading, whether on an airplane, in your bedroom, or in a monk’s cave in the Himalayas. Given that buying an electronic file can be almost as expensive as a physical book, and the price of the electronic solution becomes even more burdensome. I think one day electronic books may indeed displace printed books. That will, however, depend upon fair digital rights management, access to the internet and other technology for even the most remote villages, and industry standardization of file formats so that any content can be read on any reader device. If you watch the videos on the Espresso machine’s site, you’ll see some other problems that machine solves, like book inventory warehousing and making available books that would otherwise become out of print. Electronic books solve those problems as well, because both technologies ultimately depend on the books being stored digitally somewhere before either being downloaded to a reader device or sent to a book machine. I hope that the organizations that use these book machines will cooperate with groups like the Open Content Alliance to help restore awareness of wonderful out of print books and important books that are no longer under copyright.

On-Demand Pali Canon?

What excites me about all this is the idea of having the complete Buddhist canon at my fingertips, along with other important texts and commentaries. I’ve noticed as I’ve learned more about Buddhism that there are many wonderful free resources on the internet: free texts written by teachers, out-of-copyright works, even audio and video. Given the community’s penchant for sharing, I think we already have a wealth of material that could be put in or returned to print in a form much more convenient that a web page, or a binder of printed web pages. It’s my hope that technologies like these can help spread the dharma to all those who wish to hear it, for the benefit of all.

World Music

This idea that no matter what race a person may be—if you can see him, hear him, reach out and touch him, then you won’t be afraid.

—music producer Dawn Elder

Today I went to download Sting’s “The Book of My Life,” which features Anoushka Shankar playing sitar. Anoushak Shankar is sitar-player Ravi Shankar’s daughter and Norah Jones’ half-sister. That lead to downloading “Desert Rose” which featured Algerian singer Cheb Mami with Sting. With that I was off looking for music that might satisfy my growing and suddenly fierce appetite for music with Indian or Middle Eastern influences. Along the way, I learned about Raï music in Algeria. I learned about the fusion of American popular music, global electronica-dance and regional ethnic sounds. One of the leaders of of this phenomenon is Dawn Elder, a Lebanese-American music producer. You can read more about her on the LA Times web site in an article called “West-East.” I had actually written a much longer blog entry about my new fondness for ‘World Music.’ How understanding the music of other cultures and mixing the music together into new fusions would go a long way to countering the propagandized fear of anything not American. But Dawn Elder gets it, and is doing something about it, and we all get amazing music that brings us together in one big World Dance Party. I’m seeing in my mind’s eye a massive club, music informed by traditions all over the world, people of all colors and shades dancing and sweating and enjoying the familiar and the foreign. I’m seeing my friend’s southern-rock garage band jammin’ with Anoushka. When this happens — and it is happening — none of the terrorizing propaganda of narrow-minded, power-hungry world leaders can stop people from coming together. Of course I’m not so naive as to say that music will save the world, but young people are arguably more interested in music than politics. And if the music gets them first, builds bridges between cultures, then when they finally do get interested in politics, their opinions will be colored by previous positive interactions. Then the divisive leaders will begin to loose their grip, and a hope for a little more peace in the world will blossom.

Into Orbit

The past two days have been days of wonder. The first source of wonder and awe has been in the world of science — particularly space exploration. The second was my first experience of sheer happiness that I can associate with beginning the Buddhist path. Yesterday was the first night launch of the Space Shuttle in many years, and because of the launch direction, much of the eastern United States would be able to see at least part of the launch. I live only about 265 miles (as the crow flies) from Kennedy Space Center, though I’m very well within the state of Georgia. I turned the television to NASA TV, and watched for the two hours preceding the launch, and finally, the launch itself. As soon as the Shuttle had cleared the tower, I raced outside and looked to the southeast to see if indeed the launch would be visible. The air was cold and sparklingly clear. There wasn’t a sound, and only a whisper of a breeze. Suddenly, there appeared what seemed to be a red glow to the east-southeast. The glow seemed to leap into the air, and soon it was an orange fireball with a brilliant trail of yellow fire behind it. How can this be? It seemed the shuttle was only a few miles away as it climbed to orbit. Thrilled and awestruck, I ran the few steps back inside and yelled to my mom, “You gotta come see this!” We both ran back outside, and the shuttle continued to climb towards the stars. At first Mom didn’t see it and asked where it was. “Over Anne’s barn,” I said excitedly. She spotted it and clapped with joy. A few seconds later, the solid rocket boosters cut off, and it was lost. Sadly, my eyes were not dark adapted, and I couldn’t see the much dimmer main engines. I stayed outside a while and looked for the shuttle, but never saw it. To the south, a brilliant blue-green meteor streaked through the sky. For a moment, I thought it might be the external tank falling back into the atmosphere, but realized it was in the wrong direction. It was an early Geminid meteor, tracing and extending its path back led directly to the constellation Gemini. I stayed outside a bit longer, gazing up into the clear, dark, cold sky, the stars twinkling brilliantly. The shuttle was up there, somewhere, entering orbit above the sky itself. It was a page right out of the grandest science fiction novel. I was humbled, thrilled, and awed all at the same time.

࿆

Before the launch, and the day before, I had been going through all my web bookmarks and searching with Google, trying to find some way to begin to study Buddhism seriously on my own. There is no Dharma study group or center anywhere near, so my only option is to find something online. I finally found BuddhaNet’s ebooks page, and on it was a title that looked promising: Fundamentals of Buddhism by Dr. Peter D. Santina. I downloaded and printed it, and finally after 3:00am, I took it to bed with me to read a bit before sleep. Today I turned on NASA TV and watched the mostly silent images of the Shuttle maneuvering in space, and read more of Dr. Santina’s work. The book has given me a stronger sense of where to begin, how to take my first steps towards stream-entry. From it I have learned that one begins by following good conduct (Shila) in life — practicing Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood. This shall be my first tiny step towards life as a Buddhist, not just as someone interested in the philosophy of Buddhism, as I’ve been up until now. How do wonder and awe fit in with this? Of course, there is the thrill (and yes, fear) associated with committing to such a major change in life. What made me think of this, though, is that as I was looking for some software to help me print these ebooks, I stumbled upon a site for a group called Emirates Mac, which is a Mac user group in the United Arab Emirates. I was suddenly struck with the feeling of, “Here are some people very different from me, but we have a common interest in Macintosh computers.” Being an American, one sees the word ‘Arab’ and, thanks to conditioning by our media and government, we immediately feel fear. Even though we’re told the UAE is a friendly nation in the Middle East, I think many Americans, myself anyway, feel a strong mistrust. I’m certain that such mistrust is undeserved, and is a byproduct of the fear-mongering in our media and by our government. Today was different, however. That fear was strongly muted by the joy of seeing someone far away with a shared interest — I was filled with joy on recognizing our similarities, rather than being filled with fear over our differences. That change in attitude is a wonderful thing, and I can’t help but wonder if subtle changes are already happening as I begin to immerse myself into the stream that leads to Enlightenment. Can this be happening already? Is it possible to reap a reward so soon? Can merely setting one’s will toward the practice of the Dharma so quickly bear fruit? I’m not sure, but I am going to let this surprising feeling encourage me as I set upon this path. I am going to consider this to be the tiniest taste of the joyful happiness that awaits as I make my way along the path. I still don’t understand much, and some things are very confusing still, but I have the sneaking suspicion that once those things become clearer, I will truly know the unbounded peace and happiness that others on this path promise.

࿆

More Study Guides at Access to Insight:

• Study Guides
• The Path to Freedom: A Self-guided Tour of the Buddha’s Teachings
• Pāli Language Study Aids

Second-gen voting machines to be ‘software independent,’ but no move to replace installed machines

Kudos to Engadget for keeping up with e-voting, especially since they’re more of a tech-geek-toy kinda site. I like to think that maybe more than a few people who would have been unconcerned have learned a bit about the problems with the current voting machines installed in many states. First, Engadget reported that the NIST Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC) didn’t get enough votes to recommend decertifying machines with no paper trail. It was looking pretty grim for the NIST study that pretty much made the current machines look like crap. Today Engadget says the feds have changed their minds a little. The TGDC will recommend that the next generation of machines be software independent. In other words, they must be equipped with a voter-verifiable paper trail. The bad news is that they still won’t decertify existing machines that don’t meet the software independence test. That means people in places like my home state of Georgia may be stuck with hackable, unreliable voting machines for some time. At least until enough people here make enough noise. Also learned from Engadget: Secretary of State Cathy Cox handed over the reins to Diebold when we got voting machines here, in what looks to me like a very shady deal. Or as Engadget calls it, “extremely skeezy.”

Technogeek-ness vs. Buddhism

It had to happen sooner or later. Some company, in this case LG (though for me it’s usually Apple), comes out with a bit of technoporn and desire sets in. Big time. Take a look:

Yeah, it’s your usual concept laptop, not in production, and probably won’t be. But the geeks commenting on the story over at Engadget are salivating for this one. Why? Notice the blue, bubbly, TSA-rule-violating goodness in the hinge? Methanol fuel for power. Notice the bezel-less screen? OLED. Check the back-lit keyboard too. It’s an OLED, too, like the one used in the LG Chocolate cell phone. One commenter sums it up nicely: “GIMME GIMME GIMME.” How about an action pic snarfed from the Korea Times article:

LG chief designer Shim Jae-jin, right, and designer Park Mi-sun
Credit: Korea Times

I want to say all kinds of nice stuff about how as a buddhist I’m supposed to turn away from the desire for this product, and how even if I had one of these laptops, the novelty and that special geeky feeling one gets when one has some bleeding edge tech to play with is just transient, and that desire is the cause of all suffering but, but... GIMME GIMME GIMME!

Christmas Decorations

No, I don’t think of myself as a Christian-Buddhist. Just plain Buddhist, thanks. I still enjoy the holiday decorations of this time of year, so I like to decorate the house. Here are a few shots of the house at night for this year.

Front Porch

From the road

Almost full moon over the house, with the snowflake hanging on the chimney

I’m really happy with the lights this year. Not too many, not too few. There are lighted wreaths on each window that have multicolor lights, and one on the door with just white lights. White lights edge the roof, and surround the front picture window, framing the tree. There are multicolor C7 lights on the bush on the left of the picture, and multicolor mini lights and pearl lights on the bushes on the right. A 20″ snowflake with white lights hangs on the chimney. Small snowflakes hang from the eaves on either side of the chimney. You can’t see it in this pictures, but our little barn-like storage building is edged in white lights and has a snowflake as well. You might argue that displays of lights like this are contrary to buddhism, because it is materialistic, and I’d say then that you could make the same argument against any buddhist art. In the end, I think the whole argument is trivial. In a way though, I can see the lights as having one of the qualities of buddhism: I think back on my childhood and how happy it made me just to see pretty Christmas lights. I hope that the lights I strung along the eaves and over the bushes this year will bring that same simple joy to others, especially children. To me, bringing a bit of happiness to others, in such an innocent and harmless way, is completely in the spirit of loving-kindness. Maybe each little light is like a miniature stupa, and spread a little joy to all who see them. That’s my hope, anyway. So, Merry Chrismahanukwanzakah. And happy Bodhi Day, too.

NIST Draft Says “No” to Paperless Voting Machines

Staff of the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in a draft a report prepared for Technical Guidelines Development Committee, who in turn support the US Election Assistance Commission (EAC), says that software-only voting machines cannot be secured against fraud and tampering. In its recommendations, it says, “STS recommends requiring SI voting systems...and, conversely, not permitting software-dependent approaches.” SI voting systems are those which are independent of software, and are considered such “if a previously undetected change or error in its software cannot cause an undetectable change or error in an election outcome.” One way is to require a voter-verified paper ballot, which can be recounted if needed, and compared to the electronic tally. Another is optical scan voting systems. In other words, the Diebold systems used here in Georgia will have to be fitted with printers that will allow a voter to verify their vote on paper before completion of the voting process. Or scrapped and replaced with something else altogether. I’m pleased to hear this, and I hope that this draft report is finalized as is, and that it makes its way to the EAC, and the recommendations become a federal law requiring paper audit trails of all voting machines used in the US. Even if this comes to pass, it’s gonna be a while. [via ABCNews and Truthdig]