Opinions and Reviews - technology, services, culture

The Ant and the Grasshopper

2009-03-09T22:59:00.002-04:00

Once upon a time, in a beautiful peaceful field, there lived two very different creatures: an Ant, and a Grasshopper.

It was Spring, the weather was warm, the times were pleasant, and life was good.

The Ant spent all his time preparing for hard times, should they ever come. He made his little ant-hole drier and more secure, and spent hours each day carrying seeds and fruit, food of all kinds, to his larder, socking it all away, "just in case".

The Grasshopper spent his time eating, lounging in the sweet sunshine, laying about, partying, and pestering the living crap out of the Ant. Grasshopper was the original Party Animal, who thought the Ant was terminally out of touch and no fun at all.

"Hey Ant", said the Grasshopper, "come party with me, dude! I've got some killer weed here, with no weed killer, if you know what I mean, man... c'mon, let's party!"

The Ant replied, "maybe after I get this current harvest in, and prepare the new storage facility, and get a bit more saved up for winter... maybe then, I'll party up a bit."

"Sheesh, whatever, dude, you buzzkill.." muttered the Grasshopper, as he hopped of to soak up more weeds and sunshine, maybe play some hackysack or frisbee or something.

Spring turned into Summer, and still the Ant carried on, working from dawn till dusk, saving up for Winter. And still Grasshopper played and partied, stalling and partying, waiting till "later" to save up.

Summer waxed, and waned, Fall came about, and the weather began to cool a bit. Still, Grasshopper found plenty to eat, lots of fruit and leaves (although those were getting a bit crunchy), and decided he had plenty of time to prepare for faraway Winter. And still, Ant was a partypooper, work work work.

Finally, Winter arrived. Ant was warm, snug, and dry, with plenty of food to see him through the cold hard times. Grasshopper, on the other hand, was freezing, starving, and homeless. He pounded on Ant's door, begging to be let in, to be saved.

Grasshopper died. Ant dragged his carcass in, and added him to the menu for the winter.

At least, that's what should have happened. In our current reality, all the Grasshoppers who never saved and who expected Spring and Summer would never end, and their property values would continue to climb, overthrew Nature and had Ant turned out of his house, along with all his savings. Everybody died, and the field lay empty and fallow for years thereafter.

Sucks, doesn't it?

Moral of the story: when another civilization rises from the economic ashes of this one, let them remember our mistakes, and live for themselves, reap where they sow, and not setup a house of cards based on preying on future victims and generations.

We've got a lot of work to do, to repair our economy. We need Ants, not Grasshoppers.

Vista and/or 2007 - NO!

2009-03-05T18:22:00.002-05:00

From my main website at http://www.markgillis.com/Vista___2007.html

If you are reading this (and I will admit the odds are not great, but what the hey), you probably have a computer. And I will admit, your computer probably runs a version of Windows. In all likelihood, you still use XP, but a lot of you will be using Vista. Soon, you'll be running Windows 7.

And that's fine. If it works for you, great. But before you throw more money towards Redmond, stop and consider a few things.

Why? Why do you want do that? If you are on the internet now, well, there you go.

But you want new features, you say? You want stability, security, features, and so on? I agree with you! Get those things. Here's some options for you:

If you have an older PC, and are looking to upgrade your software, you are pretty much screwed. You will be buying a new PC. Vista and "7" won't run on your old eMachines or Compaq Presario, not worth a poop, anyways. So you will buy new hardware in order to get new software. Skip down to Option B below.

Option "A" - Upgrade your software on the cheap. There is a rising class of software, called "open source", which means, there is no single owner, no company, no profit, and no cost to you. Community effort. Download and install an Open Source operating system, to replace Windows. I'd recommend the latest Ubuntu, from http://www.ubuntu.com. It works very well, comes with almost all the apps you need, including a nice "office" suite. All for free. If you use your PC for basic surfing and emailing, with the occasional document, saving your pictures, stuff like that, I'd go with Ubuntu. Keep your PC, squeeze a few more years out of it, and don't pay a dime.

Option "B" - you have accepted your fate, you are ready to pay, but you expect value and bang for your buck. You want your computer to just friggin work, thankyouverymuch. Viruses don't attack the fridge or your car, for cryin' out loud, why can't you have a computer that reliable? You can. Buy a Mac. Oh, I know, you've heard the horror stories about price, it'll cost tens of thousands of dollars, your kids will starve, your cat will become pregnant, blah blah. All lies.

Option "C" - Upgrade/Replace your PC to Vista (or "7"), and add "office" software. Prepare to shell out at least a thousand bucks. Go do the math. On the other hand, you could buy a Mac Mini, which I guarantee is more computer power than you will ever need, for less than $600. It comes with the software you need. Boom done.

I don't want you to reward the company that sold you the software you now have to replace, because it isn't secure /reliable/stable, by re-purchasing software that already isn't an improvement over the status quo. They've let you down often enough, haven't they? Take some responsibility for your computer needs, friend, it's the 21st century. Do the math, learn from history, think. I did.

Email Garbage

2009-03-04T11:55:00.001-05:00

From my site at http://www.markgillis.com/Dont_Forward.html:

Hurry! Forward this email! Urgent!!!

You've received emails with titles like this. We all have. The question is, what do you do after you get one? Do you slavishly forward it? To everyone? If so, slap yourself, hard and often, on your inner thighs, until redness and swelling occur. When people get emails from you, they roll their eyes and make guttural grunting noises.

Want to not be that person? Then think about some motives on the part of the crafters of these wastes of time and bandwidth. These are some of the ways they fool you and get you to do their bidding:

a) Appeal to Authority. By telling you a given email is "approved by" or "verified" by some highly-recognizable entity or organization, the creators of these garbage messages attempt to convince you to obey their command to forward, forward, forward.

b)Appeal to Emotion. By presenting you with a sob story, a situation which pulls on your heart strings, the evil crafters of email garbage attempt to get you to obey by making you feel like an ass if you don't. I mean, who wouldn't want to help find a lost little girl, or adopt a litter of cute puppies, or feed an entire hungry village? Somehow, they get you to suspend disbelief that forwarding an email will accomplish any of these things.

c)Appeal to Greed. Oh yes, all you have to do is forward the crap to all your (soon to be ex-) friends, and Bill Gates or AOL or God or somebody will magically count each time it's forwarded, and send you some huge check. For doing nothing. And people fall for it.

d)Appeal to Fear. If you don't forward the email, rapists will go unpunished, gang members will shoot you while driving without lights, you will get a hypo full of AIDS in the ass at a movie theatre, or will just have plain bad luck for a million years. Unless, of course, you instantly forward the trash message.

e)Appeal to Curiosity. "after you send this message to al least 9 people, an Angel will appear on your screen and ventilate her spleen into your coffee cup! I don't know how it works but IT DOES!!"... Please. Anyone with the education and experience of a rutabaga would not fall for this. Yet there are too many people who fall for it, repeatedly, over and over. And the angel never does show up, let alone leave DNA behind. Bummer.

If any email comes in that looks like it meets one of these criteria, trash it. Feel completely guilt and worry free. As the high priest of email purity, I absolve your soul of any stain of sin for not forwarding any email garbage to anyone and everyone you have ever heard of. In other words, nothing bad will happen when you simply delete the email. You were happy before the email came in, right? So what gave email the right to get all up in your inbox and take over your life, commanding you to do things? Nothing, that's what.

Break the chain. Stop the madness. Free yourself of the chains of email-obedience! Revolt against those who would command you to forward/copy!

It's your life, it's your inbox, it's your email. Screw them.

Now, right away, forward this to all your friends, and all their friends, and everyone in your time zone, and all their friends. Spend the next 6 hours gathering email addresses, and forward it to them, too. I command it! If you don't, goat-less boys in Bratswanna-Land will starve, puppies will be exiled to the moon, the Communist Party of Tupperware will take over your PTA, and Bill Gates won't send you the bazillion dollar check he's already written and signed, just waiting for you to press "send" so he can mail it to you...

Sounds dumb, right? Congratulations, it is dumb. If you found yourself clicking "forward", right now, go find a large monkey wrench, beat your computer to small bits, eat the bits, then sit on the wrench until it rust-glues to your backside.

Miracle Energy Liquid Discovered

2009-03-04T11:50:00.003-05:00

From http://www.markgillis.com/Gasoline.html:

What if I told you I could sell you a new, fantastic substance which will vastly revolutionise travel and transportation? This stuff will enable you to transport almost any quantity of any material, up to two tons in weight, to another location 20 miles away, in less than 30 minutes. It’s available in convenient packaging, weighs less than 5 pounds per unit, and is available anywhere.

And what if I could sell you this fantastic substance for less than $2.00 per unit? Imagine, transport 4,000 pounds of stuff across town inside a half hour, for two bucks? You’d be all over that, right? What a fantastic advancement, right?

Well, it’s called gasoline. Petroleum. Gas. That stuff you complain about so much, as if it is your god-given right to have unlimited quantities of the stuff, at your fingertips, for whatever price you will lower your dignity enough to pay. It’s a modern miracle, and you take it for granted.

Here’s an idea, oh corpulent one: Next time you contemplate (that means “think about”, by the way) getting your groceries home, or your next six-pack, or whatever, from the mega-super-mart down the road, think about doing it without using a drop of gas. With the strength of your legs and back. With your guts.

I bet then you’ll not whine so stridently when the price of gasoline goes up a penny or two. And if you still whine and moan, then you, my friend are most of the problem. If you don’t like the situation, don’t just bitch about it, put your mind and strength into fixing it.

Political Costume Scandal

2008-02-25T20:53:00.007-05:00

Oh lawd! There is a new Obama scandal, involving him dressed in a certain type of costume. Much ballyhoo is being made of this photo from 2006, folks saying it proves Obama is one of "them". here is the photo, see for yourself:

Well, that says it all, don't you think? Clearly, Obama is indeed one of "them". As his costume clearly indicates, he is one of those who get their jollies wearing toilet paper. I suspect he once did this as a two-year-old, got his butt spanked, and has been repressing his TP-ism desires ever since. The game is up, Mr. Obama. You have been outed, you are a TP head, runnin' around, trying to get people to squeeze your Charmin. How can anyone take you seriously as a contender for President now? Instead of the power and majesty of the Office of President of the United States, the leader of the free world, everybody will be comparing you those dumb toilet-paper-bear commercials. Sick, dude.

Mr. Obama is not the only politician with a secret sanitary fetish, however. Here is a picture of President Bush and Vladimir Putin of Russia, out in public sharing their "thing" for wearing shower curtains.

I mean, it's bad enough they went to bloody Vietnam to wear these shower curtains. They have the same thing at any Holiday Inn, for crying out loud!

Actually, Mr. Bush, you would have been much better off had you avoided Vietnam yourself, and wrapped Jane "Hanoi" Fonda's reasty butt in a shower curtain and shipped her back to Ho Chi Minh City, where she was so loved for her skills and accuracy. You remember her, don't you Mr. Bush?

While you were flying Vietnam combat sorties over Texas, here's what Jane Fonda was doing:

Notice her costume? She sitting in the gunner's seat of an NVA (North Vietnamese Army) anti-aircraft gun. She's acting as a gunner. As well, of course, as a traitorous, venomous bitch. Oh, was that out loud?

One more picture, showing a politician in costume. Here's one you don't get to see enough, hardy at all, in fact.

This is a photo of John McCain, in Vietnam, 1965. He's the one in front, to the right. He wasn't wearing some ridiculous costume, he was wearing the uniform of a Naval Aviator. One who earned the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart while "over there" fighting for our country. In case you didn't know, of the top 3 awards for valor and heroism, Mr. McCain has two.

Take a look at Mr. McCain, and compare him to the clowns above. He ain't perfect, not by a long shot. But he's not a clown, a coward, or a traitor. He's an American Hero. Damn, how often do you hear that nowadays?

More on Enviro-Hypocrite-Idiots

2008-02-25T12:39:00.002-05:00

While talking about the absurdity of cutting down trees in order to feel a solar panel (see previous port), I started recalling a few other things that strike me as absurd in the enviro-mental group.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am not a slash-and-burn kind of guy, I do not advocate clear cutting, scorched earth, DDT, open pollution, or eating bald eagle eggs. I love the woods, and fishing, and the outdoors. I've cut down a few dead trees, and I've planted a bunch.

What I'm ranting about is the illogic of certain environmentalists -- the breakdown in their cognitive thinking. Let me provide a few examples by way of illustration.

Twenty or thirty some years ago, I was on a really great backpacking expedition in Colorado. We went to Durango, and climbed aboard the Silverton train. This old narrow-gauge coal-burning train takes you up the Animas River valley, into the heart of the Rocky Mountains, all the way to Silverton, which is a resurrected silver-mining town, turned tourist trap. Anyways, about halfway between Durango and Silverton is a place called Elk Park. Nothing there but a meadow, a creek, a trailhead, and **awesome** views of the Rockies. That's where we got off.

After hiking from Elk Park for a week, we made it to the Continental Divide, at about 13,000 feet. Snow piled up 50 foot deep, in June. Awesome. Then we hiked back.

We had to wait for a day back at Elk Park, for the train to come back. Of course, we had campfires -- it was chilly, and we were Boy Scouts, so we had campfires and cook fires. Here comes the train, so we hastened to get our stuff together, put out our fires, and remove evidence our fire had ever been there (it's called "leave no trace", we take that seriously). We had one small fire left, about to put it out, when here come a group of hippies getting off the train. They had backpacks, too, so they must be kindred spirits. As a nice gesture, I asked the Head Hippie if they would like to inherit our small campfire. The dude snarled at me, saying, "No! We don't believe in spoiling the natural world with smoke and pollution like that!". Ooo-kay, fine, no problem. Put the fire out, spread the ashes, all is well, get on then, tell the hippies hasta la vista.

As the train pulled out, the same train the hippies just climbed down from, it chugged and steamed and poofed, sending clouds of coal smoke billowing into the air, and putting tons of coal ash and cinder up that gently settled to the ground. It occurred to me then, "what was that dude smoking"? He was all bumming out on a small campfire, and preaching about not spoiling the natural world, when he and his commune just took a 40-mile trip in a smoke-spewing polluting fire-breathing fossil-fuel burning iron horse, which travels on iron tracks carved into the pristine rocks, leaving a scar on the land and soot wherever it goes!

That struck me then, back in the late seventies, as the thought process of a nutjob. And so it was.

Today, you can see the spirit children of this nutjob. They are the ones who drive their huge diesel-powered boats out to the oil rigs in the Gulf, to protest the pumping of oil in American waters. They'll burn 2000 gallons of diesel, doing 180's around the rig, waving their signs. Then they'll chug back to port, and climb into their personal cars, each of which burn gas, and go home, and cut the lights on and crank the heater up.

The amazing thing is, they don't even see how stupidly hypocritical they are. Now how hypocritically stupid.

My Solar Panel can beat up your Tree

2008-02-24T20:04:00.002-05:00

Hubris. It means, basically, great greasy gobs of unjustified pride. And humanity has never had a problem with too little pride.

But this latest story takes snide pride to a new level. The place is Sunnyvale California, a high-tech area that predates and survived the .dot boom and bust. It's a place of expensive homes, expensive cars, expensive toys, and, until now, a true suburban bedroom community. Parks, green grass, and trees. Alas, in the battle between our toys and trees, the trees must go.

Picture this: Two homes, side by side, very nice houses. Both have hybrid vehicles in the driveways, recycle bins bigger than the trash cans, grass lawns, and towering redwood trees. A great place to find environmentalist "wackos", tree-huggers. But there's a new kid in town, and his name is "solar panel".

One of the neighbors has installed $75,000 worth of solar panels. He's proud of his treehugger street cred, by golly, and he wants to make sure that he's getting his money's worth. He wants his electric bill to to go down, he wants to be Captain Planet, single-handedly reducing the dreaded output of that deadly toxic poison, Carbon Dioxide. Yeah, buddy, this guy is so worked up about getting to see his nifty solar panels in action, that he's in a legal battle with his neighbor about it.

What did his neighbor do that was so horrible? Throw paint at his solar panels? Break them? Made it rain for 40 days and nights? Nope. The neighbor's crime was to allow beautiful, stately shade trees, redwoods in fact, to grow tall. You know what redwoods are. They are huge trees, with boughs that produce long tons of leaves, trees that inhale tons and tons of evil carbon dioxide, and produce good old oxygen. Those trees. Been converting CO2 to O2 for millions of years, and they are damn good at it.

Well, those trees piss our Captain Planet off. They are so efficient, absorb so much solar energy, that they block Captain Planet's solar panels, sometimes. For about an hour and a half, in the late afternoon, the shade produced by these wonderful trees dares to fall upon the Holy Solar Panels.

Accordingly, Captain Planet, our hero, has filed suit against the dastardly tree-owner. How dare he allow his trees to shadow the almighty solar panels? Does he not know that technological toys like solar panels are a good thing, because they reduce CO2? Dammit, Captain Planet and his high-tech toys will save the planet, and if a few trees get in the way, then to hell with them!

Proving the theory that appointees to judicial benches in California did and perhaps still do indulge in cannibis sativa on a regular basis, Captain Planet found a judge who agrees with him, and ordered the nefarious neighbor to cut down half his redwood trees.

Wow.

Trees, just by being trees, eliminate CO2 directly. Solar panels might, just might, help this one dude save a few bucks on his electric bill. At his million-dollar house. While he drives his $100K hybrid. While he looks like the high priest of pompous asshats, forcing trees to be sacrificed on his private altar.

This is what happens when old hippies get some money. They don't get smarter, they just cause more trouble on a bigger scale. Look at Willie Nelson.

An American Duty

2008-02-24T13:34:00.002-05:00

Well, we are well into the party nomination battle season again. The pundits extol the differences between the Republicans and the Democrats, the differences between Hillary and Obama, between McCain and Huckabee, and on and on.

What never seems to get mentioned is what these candidates have in common. The one area in which they are all alike is their pursuit of position, pursuit of power. They are actively seeking power in their party, power in the nation, power for themselves. I admit, the pursuit of power is not the only motive, but it does factor in, to a greater or lesser degree, within the psyche of each candidate.

Was it always like this? In our lifetimes, yes, it has been. That's all we know, all we've ever seen. We, as Americans, are trained to accept the imposed limitations on our choices in the area of politics. Not since grade school have we so meekly accepted a limited multiple-choice, without opportunity for our own input. A-B-C or D? Why not F or Q? We meekly accept this limit, in this one area, and this one area only. We don't put up with these limits anywhere else, nor should we. By going along with it, we acquiesce to dereliction of our duty as Americans.

When we shop at the grocery store, we demand choice. If our grocer does not sell the proper tomato or can of beans, we'll either shop elsewhere or demand or favorite be placed on the shelves. And the grocer listens, too. He knows where the power is -- in our pocketbooks.

When we shop for a car, we have a list of demands. Engine specs, mileage, 0-60 performance, color, seats, sound system, safety, bling, accessories, and toys. And we demand the perception of a good deal, too. And the car dealers listen, because they know we'll shop elsewhere.

But in the area of choosing the one person who will wield supreme executive power for at least four years, the person who holds ultimate military command authority, the de jure leader of our entire nation and de facto leader of the free world, we meekly, sheepishly, dumbly, go along with being told we may choose only from these two or four. If an "outsider" should raise his ugly head, we are offended, for some reason. Ralph Nader, the Corsair Killer, is once again mumbling about running for president -- and the Democrats are up in arms. How dare he? Meanwhile, the Republicans are being smug, recalling Ross Perot's game spoiling activities of the past.

Folks, it is not our duty as Americans to blindly sit back and see who the Parties will try to shove down our throats. The Constitution does not recognize either the Democratic or Republican party as any kind of authority in the presidential selection process. Indeed, as each Party looks first to it's own self-preservation (and self-aggrandizement), before the welfare of the nation or adherence to the Constitution, they practice a mild form of sedition. We fought a war over sedition, remember.

The responsibility for choosing a President rests with all of us, the People. A long long time ago, we the People took that seriously. Rather than sitting back on our lazy arses, we met together, compared stellar citizens in our midst, and went to them, to encourage them to accept our nomination for office. We looked upon those who sought out such glory with suspicion, as if they were flawed, egotistical, or slightly nuts. And maybe they are.

Americans, if we are willing to be sheep, and go along with the fiction that we are only allowed to choose "one from column A or one from column B", and abdicate our responsibility as citizens of a free country... then we do not have the right to bitch about the stupidity of the political process. We give up that right. We also give up a lot of other rights, and give those rights over to the political parties, who do not have the welfare of the United States of America as their prime motivation.

If we willingly accept limited choices, then we deserve to live with a selection with limits. Our next president will not be the best person for the job, nor the person we really need to have. The person we really need isn't running. S/He isn't on a ballot, and doesn't want the job. But that person would probably do it if asked, out of a sense of duty to America. That's the person we need. That's the person we're not allowed to have. And that is our own fault.

The Future of Geekdom

2008-02-10T20:27:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time, if you had a personal computer, you were by very definition a Geek. You had a pretty good idea why your computer worked, how it worked, what went where and why. But you didn't know all that for sure until you had your PC for a while. You might have built your PC yourself, but you didn't have a really decent idea of how it worked for a while.

Back then, PCs came with what I think was the best hands-on learning tool for emerging geeks, BASIC. One version or another came by default with at least an interpreter of BASIC code. This made perfect sense, as BASIC (Beginner's All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) was where Bill Gates got his own start on his path to inner Geek enlightenment.

Most all versions of DOS, and early Windows, had at least BASIC or BASICA interpreters. You could write programs, save them, debug them, play with them, read files, write files, control the screen and colors, and just have a ball! And, learn a lot along the way about how your PC "thinks".

Alas, Microsoft eventually got rid of good old BASIC, in favor of Visual Basic (VisBas). VisBas is cool and all, but, unlike good old BASIC, it wasn't free. Seems Big Bill realized the potential dollar value of all these nascent geeks writing their own code, and started charging even more for the "privilege". As a direct result, BASIC went the way of FORTRAN, disappearing into the mists of computer history.

What went away with BASIC was any easy way for beginning geeks to learn to program on their own, at their own pace, without shelling out more buckage. At least, such is the case in the Windows world. and more is the pity.

As a consequence, Windows users have become, well, users. People who have no clue about how a program works, calculates, stores information, anything. People who look at a computer just as they would any other appliance, like a stove or a dishwasher. Push this button, magic happens, what you want comes out the other end. Yipee.

But, when the inevitable happens, the magic smoke gets out, the tame demon does not to as commanded, what does a geek do? Roll up his/her sleeves, dig into it, figure it out, learn a lot, maybe even fix the problem. But fix it or no, the geek will lose a lot of fear about the inner workings of the computer, hardware and software.

The user will just stop. Sit back, cry for help, be confused, get angry, and feel helpless. Sadly, the percentage of non-geek users is rising rapidly. "Geek" is a household term, yet there are fewer and fewer of us. And, from a professional point of view, that's a good thing, at least as far as job security is concerned. But from a quality-of-life point of view, this situation really sucks.

But, hope exists. There are options. Curious windows users can still find all manner of programming languages available for download. If they overcome their fear of the mystical magical machine, they can download and install an environment where they can actually write some code.

Even better, there is a viable alternative to programming-free Windows. Almost any of the Linux variants come with all manner of compilers, the most prevalent being good old C. But, you can also write some great code right in the shell - like a DOS Batch file, but with loops, conditionals, file read-write, the works. Matter of fact, I myself once wrote a complete text-based email system, a replacement for Elm/Pine/Mail, for AIX, completely in KSH shell code. This program was used by Pelican Lumber for several years -- as far as I know, it's still in use.

Geeks will gravitate to where they can learn and grow and play, and even show off. More and more frequently, geeks are grabbing a Linux version like Ubuntu and running with it.

Yes, I know, there are uncounted millions of Windows users, compared to a mere few million Linux geeks. But if you look beyond the numbers, if you look at the migration of skill sets away from Windows (especially fleeing Vista in droves), you'll see the geeks are all going to Linux. When all these geeks grow up, get promoted into management or start their own businesses, which OS do you think they'll opt for?

Microsoft, you have written your own future, as you always have. This time, however, that future will be dictated by what you deliberately left out. That's what will bite you in the proverbial backside.

Obama: "I only inhaled a little..."

2008-02-09T14:05:00.000-05:00

Now what? Democratic hopeful Barack Obama admitted in his pre-politics book "Dreams from my Father" that he regularly partook of alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, and perhaps some other things.

Now, let's see here. Alcohol has always been fuel for politicians. I mean, the only reason Ted Kennedy is alive today is due to the fact that alcohol floats on salt water... and he's still a Senator. So, Obama drinks/drank. He's a Democrat, so no one cares. If he was a Republican, this alone would be page-one news.

So, on to the weed. Barack Obama tokes/toked, eh? Well, hell, at least he admits to getting stoned. Bill Clinton insulted the intelligence of all America when he pulled the "ah didn't inhale, y'all" scam. The shameful part of that is, more than 50% of America did not have sufficient intelligence to insult, and voted for him anyways.

Now, on to the coke. Are we so desensitized by the moral bankruptcy of our "leaders" that, once again, we will be duped? In light of his "I'm a brother too" admissions in his book that he struggled with cocaine and feared addiction, shadowy unnamed "friends" of Obama's from college are now volunteering the story that he was a "model of moderation". Do what?

Since when is snuffling powdered coca up your nostrils any part of the definition of "moderation"? He only snorted three times a week, maybe? Or perhaps because he didn't have to steal car radios or mug old women to sustain his coke habit, he was considered a "model" cokehead?

American voters, you are being hoodwinked again. I admit, if you are a Democrat, in my humble opinion, you are just one brain cell shy of becoming a Scientologist anyways, so hoodwinking you further should not be difficult. But, c'mon, people! You are being offered the choice between an admitted cokehead and a Communist wench. Not too much of a choice there, eh?

Millions of Republicans probably will not vote in this general election, because they do not agree with Mr. McCain on enough issues. They will be voting their conscience.

Democrats, do you also have a conscience? If so, seriously consider using it for a change, and do not vote for either Hillary or Obama. Both have established themselves to be liars and drug users and/or drug enablers.

Barry Goldwater used to say, "extremism in the pursuit of liberty is no vice". To which I add, hedonism and falsehood in the pursuit of personal power is NOT moderation.

The Politics of Hypocrisy

2008-01-25T15:41:00.000-05:00

Well, the Democrats are beating the fluff out of every venue here in South Carolina that is available to them. If there is a TV spot, a radio ad, a newspaper column, a patch of dirt which can hold a sign, there is a political message plastered thereon.

The Big Two in the Democratic field, Hillary The Meek and Obama the Humble, have spent the last weeks trading punches and blows with each other. Sometimes they are downright nasty, but there was a stretch there when they were doing their best to pretend to be nice to each other. Just like two kids, hauled into the Principal's office for fighting in school, they have put on a false let's-be-friends facade... and then ignored it and went back to fighting.

When they are not saying what a horrible person the other is, they are telling everyone in the state how much better life would be for South Carolina is we would but wise up and install them in office. The term "patronizing" comes to mind...

The Other Guy in the Democrat field is good 'ol John Edwards. He is actually a nice guy, he's just being ignored by the Big Two and all the major media. It's a shame, too, as Edwards actually has some really good ideas and sound thoughts on how to actually lead the country. If I had to vote for a Democrat this year, I'd vote for Edwards. He's just getting ignored because he isn't as news-sexy as the Big Two. I mean, a white Southern guy? Boring... been done by Jimmy Carter already, so the media doesn't need or want him.

The hypocrisy comes in when you listen to the Big Two, about all they're gonna do for lil' 'ol South Carolina. They're going to bring us jobs and money and candy and free health care and no taxes and lower gas prices and everything! Where the heck were they when Marion County almost went bankrupt, losing thousands of jobs, factories, shops, and businesses? Or when the same thing happened in Dillon County? Or Andrews? Or Georgetown, when the steel mill shut down? Nowhere, because back then, this was an unimportant backwater, a place you fly over on your way to Florida.

At least Edwards knows how to pronounce the names of the places around here correctly, as he's the only one who has even been to any of them. Visiting Columbia, Charleston, and Myrtle Beach once or twice does not a Carolinian make.

When the primary is over, and the state's Democratic delegates have been committed to either Hillary or Obama (probably Obama, if I'm reading the tea leaves correctly), that's the last we'll hear of either of them again for four more years. They'll be busy making the same empty promises to people in other states, how they'll get everything for nothing and they are so very important. Then they will be forgotten too.

What we have all forgotten and continue to overlook, is the simple fact that selecting the nation's next CEO is not something you can do based on one or two attributes about the candidate. So Hillary is female, she was the First Lady. Big deal, what does that actually mean? What is she made of? Does she have the stuff it takes to be President? Please provide evidence if you think she does, as I don't see it.

What about Obama, what is he all about? Sure, he's a Senator and all. Big deal. He looks young, does not rant and rave like Ross Perot, and oh yeah, lest it not be mentioned every thirty seconds, he happens to be Black. So what? What is the nature of the person, who is he, what qualities does he exhibit that demonstrates supreme leadership capabilities? I don't see it there, either.

Voting requires thought, folks. It's not just making a statement, or joining a cause. What for too many people in the country are doing in the ballot booth is selecting someone who will do the thinking for them for the next four years. That's not inherently wrong, because in large part, it's true. But that does not relieve the voter of the responsibility and duty to THINK before pushing that button. Think hard. Study. Know what you are doing. This is not an issue that should be decided by the amount of melanin in a person's skin, or by which bathroom they prefer to use, nor by where they are from. These are the times that try men's souls, and it is into the soul and character of each candidate every voter must look, and look deeply. To do any less is to abdicate the stern duty and privilege which comes with being American, a privilege dearly purchased and hard-fought.

Go vote, but vote with your whole mind, and heart, and strength. Don't waste the sacrifice made for you which gave you that freedom.

Webcams are cool

2008-01-25T11:29:00.001-05:00

I'm not talking about the little USB webcams you glue to your monitor or that peek at you from your laptop -- I'm talking real webcams, the ones installed somewhere cool, that have a great picture, and gives the viewer the ability to take control and steer the image.

I have installed three webcams of this description (and a number of others, but they're not so cool, so I'm not talking about them..), and they rock.

The type of webcam I'm talking about is a Canon VB-series -- they just keep getting better and better. The interface is pure IP, so all you need is Ethernet and power. I have my webcams mounted in weather-proof domes outside, so people can get views of the Atlantic Ocean and Myrtle Beach.

Check my webcams out to see the beach, the pools, the people:
Avista Resort webcam
Grande Shores webcam
Seaside Resort webcam

Or see all three at seasidewebcams.com

If you want to buy one of these jewels, let me know, I'll hook you up with where to get them.

Backup or die

2008-01-25T10:50:00.001-05:00

Did you read about the slightly reality-deprived individual who went on a bit of a pre-emptive retaliation strike against her employer? The media is being rather hard on her, with good justification, but there is another side to the story.

It is alleged that a certain Miss Cooley, of Jacksonville Florida, was reading the newspaper one day, and came across a help-wanted ad. This ad leaped off the page at her, as it sounded like her current job, and it even gave her boss's phone number as a contact. This was all the evidence she needed to be convinced she was about to be fired and replaced. So she decided to strike first.

Ok, stop right there. The first part of the story that isn't being hit in the media, is the fact that they really need to talk more at that company, open the ol' lines of communication a bit.

Anyways, back to the drama. It seems that Miss Cooley wanted to get even with the rotten so-and-so for firing her, so she went into the office to do a little late-night work. And got on their servers, and started doing DEL *.* commands (ok, I doubt she knew to do it at a command prompt, she probably did a shift-delete on the folders in Windows, but anyways...). That, she thought, would serve him right.

She ended up deleting 7 years worth of architect drawings, blueprints, all the essential data that a company like that needs to survive. The value of the data destroyed is beyond the value of the company itself.

In the end, of course, she got caught. The owner of the business appearantly paid out the nose, to send his disks to a data-recovery outfit, who basically unset the deleted flag on all the files and folders. He lost some money and some time, and an employee. She was arrested and fired, as you would expect.

But here's the rest of the story. Why in the name of everything that isn't unholy did not this man have a backup? And a backup of the backup? And offsite storage of at least one of the copies of the backup? I mean, damn! In this day and age, when Life=Data, how can you sleep without knowing you have your data backed up? It blows my mind!

Burning to a CD or DVD is a pain in the butt, I agree. You cannot trust tape, really, and besides, that's the technology of the 70's. Disk-to-disk backup over the network is really the way to go, and if you don't, you are a dadgum fool. I use a disk-to-disk netowrk backup solution, covers all my servers and about 45 desktops to boot. Ask me, and I'll tell you which product I use.

So, I assign 90% of the blame to Miss Cooley, for (allegedly) doing the evil deed. But I assign 10% of the blame to her employer, for not keeping a decent backup!

Ubuntu is a better answer for most

2008-01-24T21:55:00.000-05:00

That's right, folks. For about 90% of you out there, Ubuntu Linux is indeed the better answer. The question, in case you missed it, was "is there a viable alternative to Windows Vista, or am I doomed to continue contributing to the Bill Gates & Paul Allen Enrichment Fund?"

Ubuntu is your solution. All you need to download it is access to the internet. Ideally, you just download the ISO image, burn it to a CD, boot from that CD, and begin playing with Ubuntu. It's totally try before you commit. If you don't have access to a PC yet, or your copy of Vista is so unstable you can't stay online for 10 minutes, you can even order a pre-burned CD and have it mailed to you.

The cost of Ubuntu is exactly $0.00.

Right out of the, um, disc, Ubuntu comes with all the programs you need to be effective. Surf, email, play music, watch videos, burn CDs, without buying another thing.

Surf over to ubuntu.com and check it out.

You do not have to put with $500 operating systems that are incomplete, instable, insecure, and inane. You are worth more than that. You owe it to yourself.

Vista is a flop

2008-01-24T13:21:00.000-05:00

Well, Microsoft has done it again. The ironic thing is, most people *still* don't get it...

Before Vista, Microsoft's biggest flop was Windows ME. People hated that OS with a passion holy, and for good reason -- It sucked beaver grease. Incompatibility, slowness, lockups, address violations, reboots, no drivers, and butt-ugly as well. As it turned out, Microsoft bailed on ME, as it was never intended to be a long-term real OS anyways. It was just a vehicle for a quick cash injection from the mindless masses, until MS could get Windows 2000 out the door. Even then, 2000 chewed chupracabra cheese until Service Pack 4 came along...

When they went with XP, at least XP was intended to be a real OS. And after SP1, it was half decent. After SP2, it is, I must admit, not horrible at all. Sure, you still have to apply 200-some-odd security fixes and plug a bunch of holes, but it's stable, for the most part. The kinks are worked out. It works with hardware. You can get your programs to run under it. Finally, 2 service packs and 200+ updates later, you finally are getting what you paid for in the first place.

So, why Vista? What is the neat nifty cool golly-whillikers thing Vista can do that no other OS can? The answer to that depends on your point of view... If you are a user of a computer, the answer is, nothing. Not a damn thing. Zilch. Nada. If, however, you are Microsoft, then the answer is -- plenty. As in, plenty of money. MS ain't going to make any more money from you if you stay with XP. Therefore, your value to them is zero. If you convert to Vista, however, they'll love you, because you're going to give them $200 to $600 bucks. They love you long time for that. Not enough to give you a working, stable, decent product. No. They'll love you for being milked of cash, to help them put together the *real* OS that'll be along next year.

It's time to say, screw you, hippie. Don't give MS money three times over (XP, Vista, next thing...), at least, to get nothing even close to what you deserve for the cash -- break free of Microsoft!

Go buy a Mac, if you just want it easy and simple. It don't get stupid-simpler than that.

If you want to save a few hundred bucks, and still want an OS that just works, and includes all the software you need to surf/email/document/play/everything, download Ubuntu. It's free, you can even play with it on your PC without damaging or changing a thing on your current PC.

Either way, you have absolutely zero reason to go with Vista. Unless you are comfortable being part of the mindless herd, that is.

Update on Delta Airlines situation

2008-01-23T13:44:00.000-05:00

Well, Delta has at least made a token effort... Kinda.

What they have done, is to offer Delta vouchers -- sky bucks -- in an amount not quite equal to what we lost during the trip. They say it is a "goodwill gesture".

What it does not address, is the discourtesies offered to my wife. Now, I know I sound parochial and overprotective, but when my wife is inconvenienced, I get

worried. When she is disturbed, I get disturbed. When she gets mistreated, I go slightly nuts. In this case, I am pissed.

Delta has offered these expiring sky bucks, and a hollow apology.

I am of the opinion, however, there is a legal issue involved. It's clear to me, when you request a wheelchair, and they tell you they'll do it, and they do not, that's a problem. When you are forced to get off an airplane, because it's yet another unflyable airplane (due to shoddy maintenance), and you have no recourse but to physically pick up your wife and carry her down the isle, that's bad enough. When you have a stew behind you, telling you to "hurry up" as their only method of aid or assistance, that's intolerable.

The Disabilities Act speaks to this kind of behavior... I wonder if my lawyer friends would take a look into this... hmm...

Delta Airlines -- how could you?!?

2008-01-22T11:06:00.000-05:00

Delta, thanks for destroying my vacation. When you blew an engine on the very first leg of the flight, that was one thing. When you took 6 hours to fix it, that was another.

When you lied to me about the availability of other flights, it got worse.

When you put me up in a flea-bag motel, with urine on the carpet and blood stains on the pillow, I though we had hit rock-bottom.

When you managed to break 3 airplanes, out of the 4 needed to get to my destination, I thought I had seen it all.

But when you refused my wife a wheelchair, when you told me to "hurry up" when I was physically carrying her off one of the broken airplanes, and when you laughed when I tripped over a baggage cart, while I was pulling it with one hand while pushing a wheelchair with the other (I stole a wheelchair from USAir, they didn't mind), that was too far.

You insulted and endangered my wife. That is the huge problem.
As an added twist, you cost me $700.

Read the whole story

Spam, spam, spam, wonderful spam

2007-02-23T18:34:00.000-05:00

First, a nod of thanks for Eric Idle, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, and that other bugger, all of Monty Python, for giving us the word spam in a comical non-food context. That was so funny, we named one of the worst plagues since the Egyptians went frog-gigging after it.

Spam is, as you know, junk email. Spam is evil, hated, rude, fornicatory, vile, diseased, loathsome, and just plain wrong.

Sadly, it's also profitable, thanks to the regretable combination of keyboards, credit cards, and stupid people. You know, the people so incredibly ass-brained they willingly and repeatedly reach for their wallets when they get an email from a close friend they never heard of before, offering knee adjustments, anatomy growth, free porn, drugs, herbs, stock tips, on and on.

People! Please! If you stop feeding the spammers, they just might be forced to go out and do something productive, like donate their eyeballs to science, or protesting the Gay Baby Whales For Jesus rally, or working at KFC.

Spam is an epidemic. I run several servers of this and that, amongst which is a decent little email server. Oh, by the way, Windows sucks. Anyways, this little email server services about 200 people's email needs. Not grandiose, but not miniscule. Daily, I process about 5000 messages. Daily, I trash about half of them. That's not counting the roughly 3000 more I kill at the sendmail level, nor does it include the 10,000 or so, daily, that I block at the software firewall level.

So, let's see. 10,000 + 2,500 + 3,000 = 15,500 garbage blobs per day. 2,500 decent email messages per day. Nice. 84% of my mail volume is garbage.

So, to all you idiots, fools, dimbulbs, nitwits, functioning assbaskets, and other associated mental midgets out there: thank you. You are now officially worth more to me if you were dead.
However, if you wish to hire me to protect you from yourselves, I offer two programs. One, for a non-trivial sum, I will establish a spam filtered server for you and/or your organization. Or, two, for an obscene amount of cash, I will stand behind you whilst you read your email. Each time you reach for your credit card, or even look like you actually have faith in the current crapsheet you are reading, I will raise my large fist, and plunge it down on the top of your head. Repeatedly. Often. Until you get the idea that buying anything based on an email you did not ask for is about as smart as pouring sulpheric acid in your nostrils, smearing Nutella over your genitalia, and having yourself staked to the ground over a bed of ants. Fire ants, preferably.

To all the spammers, those that transmit the crap... quoting Mr. Cleese, from another Python skit: "yes, well, that's the sort of blinkard, philistine, pig-ignorance I've come to expect from you, non-creative garbage... you excrement!"

Stop spamming. Stop reading spam. Stop buying from spam.

2007-02-23T18:17:00.000-05:00

Rats. Rats in the chicken, rats in the tacos. Surely the Colonel is rotating at 300RPM right now. The little Taco Bell dog needs to get to work de-ratting the place.

Actually, I laugh. Since the establishment of Yum! brands as the hegemon of KFC, quaility of both food and service has dropped to below credulity. To be waited on by the rude, surly, ignorant, apathetic workers at KFC, only to be presented with lumps of fried grease only recognizable as chicken by application of myopia and charity, is ridiculous. That's assuming they even bothered to cook at all, which they often do not.

Yum! Brands has succeeded in plunging the Colonel's place into Dumpsterville. I predict KFC will be either gone or sold off within a year. It's a shame, really. Back in the day, KFC wasn't bad eats. Hell, it was treat as a kid, for Dad to bring home a big 'ol bucket of actual fried chicken. Now, if you live in California (as I do not, thank the gods that be), you might be prosecuted for attempted neglect and abuse if you offered clay-batter deep-fried mystery-meat blobs.

Taco Bell, you are next. The Yum bums will soon bring you to your knees as well. The writing is on the wall.

So, boysngirls, when you are working late, and want to grab a bite on the way home, your choices just went down by two. Thank goodness for programmer soul food, Pizza, Pop-Tarts, and Jolt Cola... if you can still get Jolt, that is. Nothing like that diet of champions when you are working the wee hours.

I gotta get out more. I think I'll write some about camping, fishing, cooking over a fire/dutch oven/trash can (not kidding), hiking, all the healthy stuff that does not involve the 'net.

See ya.

Existentialism and IT: a dichotomy

2007-02-21T17:33:00.000-05:00

So basically, I wanted to start with a post that at least sounded like some thought had gone into it. Big words and all.

Anyways, existentialism is primarily concerned with the view that reality is as we make it, that our "essence" exists apart from the absurd world commonly accepted as reality.

Right. Ever been at work at 2AM, sweating peanuts and gophers, exerting every erg of will that this time, the friggin SQL database *will* reload, the the application (which exists in a Cartesian subject/object symbiotic duality with the database) will "come to life", and not "die" anymore.

We bring our creations to life. They exist, just as sure as we think we do. On a questionable reboot of the big dog server, who does not cast forth their mind and soul, to lift the re-birthing child into the air... or net, or whatever.

All of those who pray (and I am not throwing ersatz rocks at that practice, at least not here) to a supreme being... consider how much effort you put into your faith in your god, versus how much effort, strength, and will you put into the next OS load, upgrade, update, backup, restore, etc. We might sing out loud at church, but we really feel it when our fingers are poised over the F2 key.

If Kierkegaard et al. were right -- we are creating a very different subjective reality for ourselves.

Or, we could all go have a beer, and sod it all.