Quinn DuPont studies textual communication in cross-over disciplines such as typography, history, power, rhetoric, security, and technology. He has recently been studying information sabotage and developing a thesis about the social development of meaning. Quinn is currently an information architect in Toronto, Canada.
Haitian ImmigrationIt has been suggested, somewhat radically, that what Haiti needs more than aid is to leave Haiti. Not because Haiti is “hell on earth”, rather, because Haiti has been systematically oppressed: first from French colonial rule, then contemporary capitalism (IMF, et. al). As such, Haiti is as much a “man”-made disaster as it is tectonic. Derrida suggested, long ago, that the puzzles of ethics drive us from shear Otherness to hospitality. Haitians are Others, if for no other reason than Canadian and American racist immigration policies. By recognizing an ethics of hospitality we open the possibility of both accepting Haitian immigration as well as violence. Immigrating Haitians would assert a certain kind of dominion over their new land, and hospitality requires succumbing to this violent imposition. Even without the Derridean theory, immigration is, in the words of Corb Lund, “mighty neighbourly”.
Daily news isn't typical fare for the Textual Metanoia blog, but seeing Google completely reverse their decision to censor search results in China because of a cyberattack was just too relevant for my research to ignore. Evidently, Google was recently attacked in a sophisticated manner for the purpose of reaching Gmail accounts of dissidents. I don't yet have sophisticated thoughts on the matter, but I see it as a kind of motivation occuring from external, invasive prompting. Saying that this kind of sabotage prompts a response isn't in itself stirring revelation, but it does need repeating. Perhaps I'll be able to post a follow-up with deeper analysis.
I’ve recently been smitten with Chromium for OS X (I use plain vanilla Chrome on Windows XP at work now). As of this post only Chromium will allow extensions on OS X. I’ve wanted an easy way to update to the daily snapshot. I’m sure there are people who have done something similar to what I have done, but in the interest of recreating the wheel, here’s my solution.
The script is pretty simple, and is not well tested or up to snuff in terms of security (some nasty exec exploits are the first of the problems). Further, since it does (attempt to) copy the Chromium.app package to your Applications directory there is possibility for some serious problems if Chromium is running and the tests to check this fail. Really, if anything fails, it could be ugly. This is only intended for running on your own local machine, and I assume no responsibility if things go south.
With the procedural matters out of the way, here’s the script (download):
Copy this script to somewhere convenient and run in your command line (Applications->Utilities->Terminal) using the following syntax :
php -f updateChromium.php
The script will check to see if Chromium is already running (and abort if Chromium is running). If Chromium is not running it will download the latest snapshot from the Chromium build bot and then copy the application into your Applications directory.
You may want to put the script on your crontab, as such:
(in your command line)
crontab -e
Then type i. Now that we are in “insert” mode, type:
(This will set the script to run every day at midnight)
Then press ESC, and type wq. You should be issued a message that a new crontab has been installed.
Update on Saturday, January 2, 2010 at 4:36PM by
Quinn
I’ve updated the original php script slightly to better reflect use with the following Automator workflow/application. If you want to trigger the Chromium updates manually save the Automator workflow (zip archive), unzip the package, then open the workflow, change the default script location if you want (it will prompt you when you run it), and then click File->Save As and change type value to Application. To start the update simply click the resulting application. Voice and Growl notifications will notify you of script completion.
I’ve had a lot of trouble with MacPorts in the past, so I’m typically reluctant to go that route for Unix tool installation on my OS X machine, however, installing Groovy and Grails proved very easy with MacPorts.
Open a terminal (In Finder double-click Utilities->Terminal).
Type sudo port install groovy (you will be prompted for your password)
Once installation is complete type groovy -v to confirm that the installation was successful.
Type sudo port install grails
Once installation is complete you must set the GRAILS_HOME variable. Ensure you are in your Home directory (type cd ~), then type vim .profile. This will open the VImproved editor (it’s a wonky but handy editor). Press the down arrow until you are at the bottom of the screen, then type i to change to “insert” mode. Once in insert mode copy this to your clipboard: export GRAILS_HOME=/opt/local/share/java/grails. Then press CRTL+V to paste to the bottom of the file. Save the file and exit by typing ESC wq.
Type grails -v to confirm that the installation was successful.
I've often thought that mainstream economic study (neoliberalism) has a problematic relationship with ethics; this couldn't have been put clearer than by a recent Nation article, "In China, economics stands in for politics as the substance of public debate and conversation. You cannot call for elections or for a free Tibet, but you can publish heated polemics about the government's decisions to continue to purchase US treasury bonds."
I believe that there are historical contingencies for why neoliberalism is so divorced from discussion of ethics (these are now ontological features of neoliberalism, but at one point they were open questions). It's interesting to hear a practical example of how seemingly innocuous study can shape other discourse and thus soiety.
Monday, February 1, 2010 at 11:37PM 
Haitian ImmigrationIt has been suggested, somewhat radically, that what Haiti needs more than aid is to leave Haiti. Not because Haiti is “hell on earth”, rather, because Haiti has been systematically oppressed: first from French colonial rule, then contemporary capitalism (IMF, et. al). As such, Haiti is as much a “man”-made disaster as it is tectonic. Derrida suggested, long ago, that the puzzles of ethics drive us from shear Otherness to hospitality. Haitians are Others, if for no other reason than Canadian and American racist immigration policies. By recognizing an ethics of hospitality we open the possibility of both accepting Haitian immigration as well as violence. Immigrating Haitians would assert a certain kind of dominion over their new land, and hospitality requires succumbing to this violent imposition. Even without the Derridean theory, immigration is, in the words of Corb Lund, “mighty neighbourly”.
Quinn
Quick note: Google changes China policy due to cyberattack
Daily news isn't typical fare for the Textual Metanoia blog, but seeing Google completely reverse their decision to censor search results in China because of a cyberattack was just too relevant for my research to ignore. Evidently, Google was recently attacked in a sophisticated manner for the purpose of reaching Gmail accounts of dissidents. I don't yet have sophisticated thoughts on the matter, but I see it as a kind of motivation occuring from external, invasive prompting. Saying that this kind of sabotage prompts a response isn't in itself stirring revelation, but it does need repeating. Perhaps I'll be able to post a follow-up with deeper analysis.