Amit's Blog

Trust

“People stopped trusting the government, after the government stopped trusting them.” – The West Wing

Arnold v. USA

A recent ruling by the 9th Circuit is causing a shockwave in the tech community. I personally don’t find the ruling to be that shocking, but judge for yourself by reading the ruling.

In summary, the Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s ruling prohibiting border agents from searching the contents on a laptop. Technology and privacy buffs view the contents of the laptop to be an extension of a person’s memory, while the government views the contents as just documents inside a fancy briefcase. While I enjoy my privacy and the rights afforded to me by the Constitution, I would agree with the government that the hard drive is just a technological briefcase.

Ignoring the trite arguments for selective privacy, this issue roots back to the same question we have been faced with for the last several hundred years – do we abandon our rights for additional security?

Fans of Jefferson would quote – “A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither.” Fans of the current administration would argue that the rules of war today can’t be compared to those during Jefferson’s time.

I’m not taking sides on this ruling, because this isn’t the ruling you should be debating. Argue the bigger picture; debate our liberty against our security.

Fun Trivia on Aaron Sorkin

As I finish up Season 1 of the West Wing, I noticed that the last episode of the Season is aptly named “What Kind of Day Has It Been”. This happens to be the same name for his other two shows’, SportsNight and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, season 1 finales.

And there’s your useless fact for the day.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

Aaron Sorkin has an uncanny ability to mesh comedy with drama in a manner that I have never seen on air before. Below is the pilot episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, a show lasting only 1 season, but offering quality matching and surpassing The West Wing and SportsNight. I’m still sitting here attempting to grasp why I love his work so much. It’s partly due to the idealistic characters Aaron creates; characters that perform their jobs for the sake of bettering mankind. While rare in the real world, Studio 60 fills you with the sense that there are still people left in showbiz that write comedy for the laugh and not the buck.

Watch the first episode and when you’re ready you can catch the rest of the series here on Hulu.

Blast from the past...

Wow, so I sucked at Photoshop back then, but this is like finding the Noah’s Ark of my high school years…

From my old philosophy class

A More Perfect Union

Say Anything - Alive with the Glory of Love

So the song is said to be based off the main singer’s grandparents experiences during the Holocaust. The video is criticized by some as not properly conveying the Holocaust, but I like to imagine it another way. As a child, hearing the stories of the Holocaust were hard to picture in my head. I imagine the director of this video portrayed the story through the mind of the grandson hearing the story. The grandson relates the Holocaust camps to his summer camps because he could never imagine something as horrible as Auschwitz. That’s my take, but you watch the video and let me know:

And the apartment hunt continues

I’ve got about 45 days left in my current place, and I’m on the hunt for a new place. I’ve been scouring Craigslist looking for my perfect apartment, but so far it’s been a tough hunt. I’ve decided to expand my search now to rooms that other people are sharing. Sure it’s a little riskier, but I just have to be a little more thorough. The ability to find what I’m looking for in a 2 bedroom is more likely. I’ll gain a roommate, but I’ll also get a bigger, nicer place.

I found one place around the corner, which I absolutely love. It’s got a subzero fridge, wolf range, and pretty much anything else I would ever want from an apartment. The person living there now seems to be pretty laid back, but unfortunately there’s an applicant ahead of me. I’m stuck waiting to see how things fall, but let’s keep those fingers crossed.

This is just fun now

Yup, the old blog is back on the front page. I love my lifestream, but I love blogging as well. I learned that the lifestream was great for small format and media format, but when I wanted to write longer posts about anything, it wasn’t working. Therefore, I sat down at the computer yesterday and brought back the blog. Don’t worry, the stream is still going and you can see recent posts in the right hand bar.

I realized I can’t go more than 6 months without a major change to the site. I guess I’m a little OCD with my site..