The Last Words

Well I guess I suck. Things just fucking blow sometimes.

I had some serious shit to say this weekend, but I've been playing on the computer, so it's all out the window.

I want to get rid of Windoze to what ever extent I can. I think I'll always have to have one Windoze machine, maybe. But I'm thinking I can migrate my laptop over to Linux. I might even move the MACs over to Linux and stuff OSX (I don't know why, I just feel belligerent today).

The problem with the laptop is always the wireless card and, now that I have that all set up to use my Blackberry for an alternate internet access point, I imagine the phone access will be a problem too.

I got a cheap copy of Mandriva (Mandrake + ??) and loaded it. Of course it recognized, not, the wireless card. (Dell's Broadcom Card is a sore point in the LINUX world...) But when I was experimenting with options, and loaded the NDIS wrapper, it kept prompting me to put the driver disk in. So, I found that and it actually was able to strip off the drivers and VIOLA!! it was working. Internet on my laptop with linux. I was later able to get into my laptop with VNC and actually control the laptop through its interface. Cool...

Well, I don't really like KDE and Mandriva, for some reason. The interface is just not comfortable to me. So looked around and pulled down the UBUNTU Live CD image. I fried up a CD with that and tried out the interface. Of course, I knew that the internet would not work, again, and it didn't. I had no way to load the drivers, (since I was using the DVD Player to run from...) Sooooo....... I thought I would try another card. I slipped my Netgear WG511 in and reloaded/rebooted... VIOLA AGAIN!!! It recognized it straight off.... Although I'm not too comfortable with the configurtation interface on UBUNTU, I definitely like GNOME and the look and feel of UBUNTU over Mandrivvle....

I think it is cool that when you have a lot of "free" choice and you are Free to choose, that we can be so fickle with our tastes. Imagine if we had that many choices of windows. A lot of different interfaces to the world, a lot of user definability and the chance to change distros and pick and choose what we liked. I realize we DO have some choices with Windoze, but many of those choices require us to lay out cash BEFORE we even know what we like. And in the end, are there many different front end GUI choices in Windoze? Everything pretty well revolves around the same theme.

Don't get me wrong. I do love to bash Microsoft and cousin billy, but I don't really harbour any ill will. I think those of us who actually came us through the life of the PC -- from 1979 on -- felt like it wasnt just the market that limited our choices. Digital Research died when Gary Kidall chose not to pursue a case against MS. But MS Dos was certainly born of CP/M. And Kildall was the person that connected the disc drive to the microcomputer....

But the lack of choice makes one feel like there are no controls and competition and to some degree that means the success of MS and Billy G was to some extent an exploitation of the market. So it isn't unatural that we would feel cheated even if that isn't the case. And that we would feel liberated by any choice.

I think next we'll add a 64 bit machine and see where that takes us....

Tomorrow, expect more controversy and less fluff....

Mike

ESBN: 6344806020455161334

I'm sitting here on the computer. A shadowy figure appears in my living room window and moves to my door. A delivery no doubt. Probably fed ex.

The figure moves away, luckily without ringing the doorbell.

Two minutes later, I have an email notification. FedEx delivery notification. A package that I wasn't tracking has been delivered.

The weird thing is that the system updated itself so fast, it was almost as quick as if the driver had rung the doorbell....

That is a little TOO updated for me. But cool in a weird sciencey fictiony sort of way.....

Mike

ESBN: 6344806020455161334

How to Win the Republican Nomination Part 1

I decided since the Republicans will be short a candidate for the next presidential election, AND because it's time to start planning for such things, that I would offer some advice to potential nominees....

FIRST, remember, the object is to WIN the nomination. A well fought campaign is nice, but there are no second place winners. You can have the greatest plan for the New World Order, but if you don't WIN, it won't matter. So the first rule, is WIN AT ALL COSTS.

When winning at all costs, it is important to remember that it doesn't matter what your agenda is AFTER the election. You must run a winning campaign. If, for instance, the voters want lower oil prices, but you just happen to be in the pocket of Big Oil, you give the voters what they want -- go ahead, PROMISE to work for lower oil prices, maybe even price controls. You can help support the gouging oilmen AFTER you WIN the election.

See how easy this is? Rule number one then, is DON'T confuse a CAMPAIGN, with a Presidency. They are TWO different things.

More in Part II

Mike
ESBN: 6344806020455161334

Well, I finally found some of my old stories. So my website is getting a BIT better. I'm glad to have those out and about.

Lots of other work to do. I'm still way behind on too much. Is that life?

Well, check out the stories, I guess I'll have more controversy later.

The fun just never ends.

The gang that brought us "mission accomplished" now has a bold new plan for victory. Why we never had a plan for victory in 2002 before we started this mess is beyond me.

What exactly are the conditions for Victory in Iraq? What does Victory look like? I think the simple fact is, at some point there will be a fight for Iraq. A civil war after a revolution is sorta part of the model. And most of the insurgency has actually been a civil war. The parts directed against the US (dare I say Coalition) forces are a parcel of that struggle.

The current regime in Iraq or any regime, for that matter, would need a security force to shore up it's position as the government and police begin to throw the blanket of law and order over the society. That will probably take years.

Yet it is too volitile for that force to be the Americans or the Tiny Coalition. I needs to come from the Middle East itself, to include Iran. So it needs to be more than just the Arab League.

We must remeber that not just Arabs have a stake here. The Arabs, Iranians, Kurds, Turks, Sunni, Shia, Zoroastrians and Christians, farmers and businessmen, men and women of the region must come together to make this work. A strictly American or Tiny Coalition answer imposed cannot last for any of them.

I'm sure all anyone on this side of the pond wants is an exit with honor. There is no simple recipe for victory that the Bush team can sum up in 32 pages.

Please read it for yourselves.

Whitehouse Strategey for Victory in Iraq

Say a prayer for the Iraqis and the Americans.

Mike

We have a wave lapping up to shore at Lightstalkers about hate groups. Well, I don't know if it is about hate groups anymore as much as how to react to certain radical groups. The odd thing is that I think it is PC to talk about tolerance and taking action against "hate crimes", but we fall into that age old well about the fine line between our individual freedoms and society or the goverment protecting us from ourselves.

We already have laws against hate crimes -- they are the civil and criminal codes emplaced to protect us from the acts of other and punish those who commit those acts. The idea of Hate Crime laws are redundant. Now, the issue is to FORCE people and societies and communities to ACT against "haters" and enforce those laws.

But here is a real question that popped into my head. Can there be good hate and bad hate? I'm not an ACLU lawyer, but I bet the ACLU would tell you that you only get to have one kind of hate. Jews hating NAZIs are just as guilty as NAZIs hating Jews. Which brings us back to the problem. We shouldn't care if there is a NAZI rally or a Klan rally, but we should care if the Klan burns a cross in someone's yard. Hating someone shouldn't be a crime -- but if you break the law in expressing it -- then you should be held accountable to the law.

What if there exists a community who doesn't enforce certain laws? Should they be FORCED to enforce them? Should there be a standard communities are held to, or should the community decide that for themselves? If everyone mows their lawn in their speedos or bikinis and the one prude in the community wants the public decency law enforced, should they be FORCED to enforce it? Or should the community get to decide based on the majority or the plurality?

Is it ok to hate haters? Or are all haters equally bad? What if we hate something for a good reason?

I'm not sure I have any answers because I'm not sure what I believe on this issue. These feelings to me are very personal and I try not to express anything I feel irresponsibly or in a way that hurts others. But the most sensitive among us are hurt by what seems to be very slight things. Which means sometimes even honest debate is hurtfull.

In Utah, the Mormons (who are offended often by that title) officially sanctioned historians at BYU -- the church owned school of higher indoctrination -- because they wrote in examination of the faith and its history. The rationale, from the church leader(s) was that while historians may make these examinations everyday, those with weaker faith may not be able to stand up to that examination and may leave the faith. Therefore, publish only those things that portray the "religion" in a positive, uplifting light.

So, in the end, some of the historians and critics had to go, even though they may still have been firm believers. In a way, theirs was a hate crime because their writings hurt and harmed (potentially) others in their beliefs...

It is too easy to go down this road.

Mike

I suck. I haven't done anything on my projects. I HAVE got some web pages up and running and some photos posted. I have ROLLs tens of ROLLs of film to develop. I have a camera full of digial images and CDs full of pix that I need to move and catalog.

I have a story that wont write (right?) itself.

I'm tired.

I pulled the aperture out of a Holga and then painted the lens red with a sharpee. Better results outside with 3000 ISO which is weird, since it was TOO bright last time. I'm also adding a Bulb setting by slipping a wire in to block the full movement of the shutter mechanism. Looks fairly straightforward. I'll take some shots tonight.

Still waiting on my Bessa... I might see if I can make some of these polaroid backs work on the Graflex...

Oh and write the story and paint the wall and build the shelves....

Later

Updating and setting up...

I have been on lightstalkers setting up my profile and uploading some files. You would think this is easy, but I have over 4 years of files that I haven't organized (or found). So a big part of that was finding the files and then moving them off of CDs and out of obscure directories. I noticed the obscure directories seem to be a part of my own inability to organize... oh well.

So, now, I have that page started. Luckily they only allow 30 pictures... makes it easier.

I have the Holga going well now. Although I'm still a bit miffed. I was using 3000 ISO polaroid film outside, which was a bit glaring in the whites... then I thought it would work great indoors with ambient daylight coming in. NOT!! So I took the "iris" out of the lens and opened it up a bit. Made me think making a pinhole for that would be EZ PEEZEE... I gotta play with that... AND, I have to wire a bulb setting. No biggy. I want to go out tonight and get some night shots of the area... we'll see...


So, here listening to Springsteen. Gonna grab a cuppa tea and start a story. Wish me LUCK!

Take care,

Alley

I had a limited vocabulary because there are only so many magnets...

Beauty dost
Forswear grace
Love doth
Forget mercy
Trifle tongue did
tempt the vow
Wherefore idle
Haste let blood
And comely maiden
Vulgar wench became

As always: (C) 2004 Mike Allison and Burning Eagle Books

As befits a first entry and the efforts that went into establishing this blog for all eternity, I have nothing to say....