Reason Express

Vol. 8 No. 49

Jeff Taylor | December 13, 2005

In this issue:

1. Holidays in the Holy Land
2. Cranking on the Computers
3. Tab, Control, Delete
4. Quick Hits
5. New at Reason Online - Balls to the Wal
6. News and Events

1. Holidays in the Holy Land

With more car bombs in Beirut and reports of Israel readying a strike on Iran by March, Iraq's latest round of voting makes the country seem somewhat normal. As ever, the voting process is a necessary step in rebuilding a functioning Iraqi civil society, but voting alone is not sufficient to transform the country.

Meanwhile, Iran's continued pursuit of nuclear enrichment capability is fast reaching the point of no return. Israel wants the nuke question to be handled by the U.N. before the International Atomic Energy Agency files its next report on Iran in early March. Elections in Israel are also slated for March 28, providing an obvious window for Israel to act preemptively should the U.N. fail to move. Pre-empt, n., see Iraq.

However, Iran does not offer the same easy, one-and-done target that Iraq's Osirak did almost 25 years ago. An effective Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear program would have to hit multiple sites. That would probably require multiple missions and almost certainly the tacit support of U.S. forces in Iraq.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1920074_1,00.html

2. Cranking on the Computers

At the risk of being criminally wish-washy, it is important to say that both sides have a point in the little dust-up between Intel and the backers of the $100 laptop for developing countries. Intel is correct to note that the limited range of software for the machines-certainly nothing like a full laptop might use-will limit the devices' ability to scale into existing business operations.

However, we are talking about places where there tends not to be much in the way of existing infrastructure of any kind. That is why the thing is powered by a hand crank. Seeding these things around might be an effective way to bootstrap entirely new networks and operations. Or it might just be a complete waste of money.

The unknown is what makes the $100 laptop an experiment and not a solution. Everyone should be able to hang tight for a bit and see what the results might be.

http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardware/05/12/09/218249.shtml?tid=118&tid=184&tid=146&tid=219

3. Tab, Control, Delete

Guitar tab, the idiot bastard child of musical notation, beloved of day-jobbing hobbyists everywhere, may go behind the intellectual property wall. Music publishers contend that if you cross tab with digital dissemination, you get massive copyright infringement. How massive? The Music Publishers' Association chief says operators of guitar tab sites should go to jail.