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April 30, 2005
Nero fiddled...
Kevin Drum Raps about Thunderbird. I don’t have much to add here, besides noting A) if you’re my parents, you should think about switching and B) I haven’t had any problems with spam. Of course, since I have a Gmail account that is given out to everyone, and a personal home account for friends and family, my spam issues are pretty small...
Having said that, Mr. Drum also mentions some issues with the free anti-virus program AGV. He mentions the problem “its email scanner caused my email to cease functioning altogether.”
I, too had this problem using AGV and Thunderbird in conjunction. The problem is not solvable, as far as I know...
See, Thunderbird has a single file for the entire inbox. When a virus gets sent along as an attachment, AGV quarantines the file-- the entire Thunderbird inbox. This makes Thunderbird stop working...
Nero operates differently, and thus doesn’t have that same problem...
Posted by Andrew at 11:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 29, 2005
Phil A. Buster
Posted by Andrew at 10:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 27, 2005
Star Wars humor
Byzantium's Shores: Meditations on Nearly Anything
If you didn’t know, Jaquandor is a big, big geek.
until he realizes that Wedge and Lando are blowing up the reactor, and he needs to get his ass out of there, pronto. So he whips around and follows the Rebels out, figuring, "OK, you did this once, you can do it again…." And he almost does. He's just so close, he can probably see the exit, when the flames catch him from behind.
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April 25, 2005
Go France!
Never thought I'd say that...
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April 24, 2005
Ah, capitalism...
The basic idea of capitalism is that limited resources must be allocated among infinite demands. The way it tries to do this is by the system of “whoever wants it most”, (in theory. Your mileage may vary). So, we tend to see markets cropping up in the darndest places...
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April 20, 2005
New Italian government to be 20% less Fascist!
Who was it that rules in Rome? Apparently some guy named Berlusconi, not Benedict XVI. Who knew?
What I find interesting about the Berlusconi government is the fact that he owns something like 20% of the Italian media, and yet somehow there is still a lot of negative coverage of the guy. Does that say good things about either the Premier’s love of Democracy or something else about the limits of the Italian?
Under the terms of the Italian constitution, a prime minister is obliged to resign if he makes major changes to his cabinet.Berlusconi put a brave face on the end of his ambition to become Italy's first prime minister in modern history to lead the same administration for a full five-year term.
5 years trait, eh? I see. Perhaps a change in government every half-decade would be a good thing. And with the Far Left parties and the Separatist party walking out on him, a new government would almost have to be a bit saner than this one, I should think...
Posted by Andrew at 09:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 18, 2005
That man can go to Hell!
Religious Man Wants to Rename Mt. Diablo
An Oakley man has asked the federal government to rename Mount Diablo, saying the current name, which means devil in Spanish, is offensive to his religious sensibilities.
I am a good little pagan boy. I keep my head down, I try to respect the Christian Majority around me. I try to understand the culture they have, and I by and large esteem it...
I don’t ask for much in exchange. The freedom to be left alone and practice my spiritual believes as best I can without infringing on the physical wellbeing of others...
So imagine my absolute horror at the notion that someone wants to change the name of one of the (minor) deities in my Pantheon to something he might find more fitting. I do my best to not even mention the name of his deity, the least he can do is leave the names of mine the hell alone...
_______
Note: Just to clear up a thought before it forms: No, I am not wedded to the name because it is named after the Christian God of Evil, but rather because it’s the name the mountain has had since the dawn of European Settlement of the area. Were the situations reverse, and someone was trying to change the name from Kawukum, To Diablo, I’d be just as annoyed...
(Hat tip to A stitch in Haste
Posted by Andrew at 08:53 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Disincentive to work
The United States believes itself to be a meritocracy. We would like to think that anything an individual receives, she receives because she has earned it. Am I wrong about that? I must be, because so many have embraced the destruction of the inheritance tax...
It strikes me as strange-- if I do a job and my employer pays me for it, the government takes a percentage of my income. This creates a disincentive (in some proportion to the tax) to work. And yet, by and large, we feel that what we get out of the taxation (roads, police, social security, etc) is worth more than the inefficiency caused by the disincentive. Congress recently passed a bill which would privilege some forms of wealth-gain over others, privilege inheritance over work...
Does this seem right? Is this in keeping with our meritocratic leanings? Assuredly not! It seems wrong that masses of wealth can be passed along, creating fortunate clans which privilege their scions above the common lot of Americans. But to say that such things are so much in the public interest that creating wealth will be taxed while passing wealth along to one’s heirs will not-- this is monstrous...
Which discounts the effects. Slativist notes that "Elimination of the estate tax would result in a decrease in charitable giving of up to 12 percent." As Slate notes, an awful lot of charitable giving is done at death. Embarrassment of riches and all that...
This doesn’t even account for the huge whole the repeal of any tax will leave in our federal budget. In a time of war, when the largest chunk of our debt is owned by our largest competitor (china), we simply cannot afford to kill a revenue stream. Nonetheless, that’s what our congress has decided to do. Gods help us all...
Posted by Andrew at 09:48 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
April 16, 2005
More work? Leave me alone!
In the not-too-distant-future, cell phones will become fair game for Telemarketers. You can avoid being charged to have someone advertise to you by clicking the link above and adding your cell number to it. Hell, if you’ve not added your home phone number, you ought do that as well. You can add three numbers at a time...
Update!
The Cell phone thing may well be an urban legend. But the Do Not Call registry is for real and true, so add your home phone at least...
Posted by Andrew at 11:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 15, 2005
Thuderbird is not Outlook
The Mozilla foundation has a pair of toys on the market: Firefox and Thunderbird. Firefox has become a media darling-- and is probably the best browser on the market. If you’re not using it right now, go download it and get started! Go on, this article is will be waiting for you...
Now, Thunderbird, Thunderbird hasn’t gotten the attention. It’s a very well done Email client, with direct integration of RSS feeds, good spam filters, and it’s as themeable and extendable as Firefox. It is in every sense a wonderful replacement for Outlook Express. If you wish to download it, you can simply hit the button on the upper-left side of this blog, the one labeled "Thunderbird". If you’re my parents, I am specifically writing this to you...
The thing is, Thunderbird is Email. Thunderbird is not Email, calendar, notes, etc. It is most certainly not an Outlook killer. Outlook is a big, corporate sized tool that works fast and well. Someday in the near future, The Mozilla foundation hopes to have a tool that builds onto Thunderbird, and will be able to be as feature-rich as Outlook, but it ain’t there yet...
Which should be obvious. I don’t know why This article was even written. It’s a bit like complaining that no one is switching to Itunes for movie watching-- it isn’t meant to do that...
If, however, you’re using Outlook express, (and not using Hotmail), feel free to switch on over to Thunderbird. You’ll never want to look back...
Posted by Andrew at 06:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 11, 2005
Politics and economics share the
Politics and economics share the common conception that we live in a universe in which unlimited wants must be satisfied with limited goods. The more I reflect on this, the more I begin to doubt that there can ever be true, lasting peace in the mid-east, as long as there is a State of Israel...
I do not say that I hope this is the case. I wish to make that clear. But I more and more begin to believe that the above is a simple statement of hard, bitter, truth. In a nutshell, there are two groups of people, each with a logical and consistent (and just about equally valid) claim to the same piece of land. Unless someone happens to have a spare Jerusalem tucked into their pocket, this seems to be an eternal source of conflict...
There is one other source of solution, though it is equally terrible. As I see it, as long as there are two sides (or more) with competing claims to legitimate ownership of the same territory, there will be conflict. If one of those sides were to disappear. No good. There must be another way...
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April 09, 2005
Unitarian Jihad!
My Unitarian
Jihad Name is: Sister/Brother Pepper Spray of Looking at All Sides of the Question.
Posted by Andrew at 01:00 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 08, 2005
Gay in the Army?
Doesn't matter if they know Arabic, doesn't matter if they're the real-life manifestation of Rambo, doesn't matter if they shoot lasers from their eyes and make things explode through mental effort, if they prefer dudes to chicks the Army doesn't want them.
As far as I am concerned, if a man can do all of the above, and is flamingly gay, and wants to join the military, it is the duty of the military to keep that man as happy as possible. Take one for the team. Protect our assets, that sort of thing. You get my drift...
Mr. Klein’s post is more serious...
Posted by Andrew at 04:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 06, 2005
Lowered flags.
President Bush Orders Flags Flown at Half Staff in Honor of Pope John Paul II
Ok, this one bothers me just a smidge on Church/state grounds. But Not much more than a smidge. What I find interesting is here at the end
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this second day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty ninth.
We ought always date things from American Independence. And make the rest of the world do it to...
Posted by Andrew at 08:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 04, 2005
Leaving my Blog in San Francisco
I have just finished reading the text(PDF) of a new San Francisco law regulating disclosure of financial ties during San Francisco elections cycles...
Yep. That’s all the law says. Given the way several people have reacted to this law, you’d think they were John Weidner’s home right this minute, USB Key drive in one hand, Mac OS10X.3 for dummies in the other for the crime of linking to then-candidate Bush’s website...
From what I can tell, though, this blog is actually more of a complement to the blogosphere. In essence, it says that anyone who gets paid by a candidate, and then talks about that candidate must disclose the payment. The complement part comes from the fact that Blogs are treated just like any other media-- and regulated the same way telephones are...
See, I can call my Grandmother and tell her to vote for Some San Francisco Candidate (SSC), and that’s not a problem. But when I am paid by SSC, and tell my Grandmother to vote for SSC, and don’t tell my Grandmother than East Bay Citizens for SSC slipped me a C note, that’s a problem. This bill applies the same logic to Blogs. I see no problem...
Posted by Andrew at 08:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 02, 2005
Judeo-Christian Deity calls home one of his own.
Top News Article | Reuters.com
There are few men in the public eye who are were quite as holy as the late Catholic Pope. The man did much for the cause of peace, and the cause of interfaith reconciliation. I will not eulogize him here-- that duty falls to others who know the man’s life better than do I. I will say only that he will be sorely missed...
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April 01, 2005
April fools from Google?
Of course, last April fools Google joke was Gmail...
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