Now, is it any wonder that I always say Macintosh is better than Windows? Take a look at this if you don’t believe me.
Glad I wasn’t on one of those planes. Although, I will be doing some traveling soon. Wish me luck.
Later.
Browsing Category
News
Better and better
Posted on September 20, 2004With props to Andrew Sullivan, whom I agree with. John Kerry is getting better at taking the fight to President Bush. Here’s a great example of that from his speech at New York University.
Here’s the best part:
The administration told us we’d be greeted as liberators. They were wrong.
They told us not to worry about looting or the sorry state of Iraq’s infrastructure. They were wrong.
They told us we had enough troops to provide security and stability, defeat the insurgents, guard the borders and secure the arms depots. They were wrong.
They told us we could rely on exiles like Ahmed Chalabi to build political legitimacy. They were wrong.
They told us we would quickly restore an Iraqi civil service to run the country and a police force and army to secure it. They were wrong.
In Iraq, this administration has consistently over-promised and under-performed. This policy has been plagued by a lack of planning, an absence of candor, arrogance and outright incompetence. And the President has held no one accountable, including himself.
In fact, the only officials who lost their jobs over Iraq were the ones who told the truth.
That’s a little more like it. Now, if we could just do something about his hair.
Later.
Open mouth, insert foot . . .
Posted on September 20, 2004Sorry, can’t help myself. This guy is a complete idiot. How he got his job I just don’t understand.
Please, Mr. Hastert, lower your head in shame and just walk away. Don’t touch anything. Don’t take anything. Just go. Away. Far away. And never, ever, ever come back.
That is all. Hope you all had a great weekend and have a great week. I will be avoiding responsibility as much as possible this week. What else is new, right?
On the bright side however, you gotta love John McCain sometimes. Whatever your politics, he seems like a good guy who tells it like it is. Especially when he agrees with me. Maybe this is the start of a trend? Fingers crossed.
Later.
Saturday News of the Tech
Posted on September 18, 2004Here’s what’s up in the tech world of late. Lots of interesting stuff. Good and not so good.
Wal-Mart is taking orders for the new Gameboy. Apparently the Nintendo DS will cost $200 and arrives November 30.
There’s another significant security flaw in Windows that could allow a worm to be hidden inside a JPEG image. The bug is in GDI+ so any application written in Visual Studio or using the .net framework is vulnerable. Microsoft rates this as a critical vulnerability because a hacker could use it to infect your computer without any action on your part. The company has released a fix for Windows via Windows Update, but you’ll have to update Office and other applications individually. In addition there’s a scanner available that will pinpoint other vulnerable applications.
And, another reason to run Windows Update: the new sdbot or spybot worm uses the same flaws as Sasser and MSBlast to sneak a password stealing program on your computer without user intervention. Updated systems and those behind firewalls are not vulnerable.
And this is really comforting I can tell you: A former credit card help desk employee has plead guilty to selling 30,000 credit card numbers, causing $2.7 million in losses. He faces 14 years in prison and a one million dollar fine.
The British Consumers’ Association is complaining to the government that Apple’s iTunes Music Store is a ripoff. It costs UK customers about 11 pence more to buy songs than their European cousins (79p vs 120 Euro cents). Apple says blame the British music industry. I blame society.
Slashdot notes that Firefox is gaining on Internet Explorer. According to the latest info, only 57% of their users are using IE.Less than 2 years ago, IE had a 95% lock on the market. Where is my favorite browser of choice, Safari? 11.5%. Not bad considering Firefox works on both Mac and Windows. So that means that 11.5% of the visitors are using a Mac and not only that, a Mac running OSX. Cool.
Lastly, the high tech sector lost 403,300 jobs in the past three years, and according to researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago the market remains bleak. Neat. Glad I don’t work in the tech sector. Oh, wait. . . . Crap.
Later.
The media is the mess . .
Posted on September 14, 2004Well, interesting goings on at CBS News these days. It seems like the much-touted Bush memos may have been fake. To recap: Last week, CBS News reported on fascinating and newly discovered documents that purported to show that George W. Bush did not perform his military service in the Texas National Guard adequately and that political influences got him off the hook.
The alleged memos–from Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian, Bush’s Texas National Guard squadron commander–are almost certainly fakes. Their fakeness was uncovered by a series of blog postings on a variety of old and new blogs. Within a couple of days, the news about the probably forged memos had gone full circle to become stories that the mainstream media was reporting. Even The New York Times conceded that Dan Rather had almost certainly been hoaxed to some degree or other.
One of the best and most dogged blogs that has helped expose the truth are the folks over at powerline. It’s worth a look. What this means for the mainstream media isn’t for sure. It certainly isn’t the first time a journalist has been punked and it probably won’t be the last. The real interesting part of this is how CBS is handling the rapidly falling house of cards. Don’t they realize that trying to coverup something is worse than being punked in the first place?
ABC, which has also played a creditable role in exposing the 60 Minutes hoax, reports:
Two of the document experts hired by CBS News now say the network ignored concerns they raised prior to the broadcast of 60 Minutes II about the disputed National Guard records attributed to Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, who died in 1984.
Emily Will, a veteran document examiner from North Carolina, told ABC News she saw problems right away with the one document CBS hired her to check the weekend before the broadcast.
“I found five significant differences in the questioned handwriting, and I found problems with the printing itself as to whether it could have been produced by a typewriter,” she said.
Will says she sent the CBS producer an e-mail message about her concerns and strongly urged the network the night before the broadcast not to use the documents.
“I told them that all the questions I was asking them on Tuesday night, they were going to be asked by hundreds of other document examiners on Thursday if they ran that story,” Will said.
But the documents became a key part of the 60 Minutes II broadcast questioning President Bush’s National Guard service in 1972. CBS made no mention that any expert disputed the authenticity.
“I did not feel that they wanted to investigate it very deeply,” Will told ABC News.
Mmm. They didn’t want to investigate further. Shocking, I say. ABC further reports:
A second document examiner hired by CBS News, Linda James of Plano, Texas, also told ABC News she had concerns about the documents and could not authenticate them.
“I did not authenticate anything and I don’t want it to be misunderstood that I did,” James said. “And that’s why I have come forth to talk about it because I don’t want anybody to think I did authenticate these documents.”
And how did CBS News respond to this new information? The denial and outright anger at the very question about their integrity continues:
“CBS News did not rely on either Emily Will or Linda James for a final assessment of the documents regarding George Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard. Ms. Will and Ms. James were among a group of experts we consulted to assess one of the four documents used in the report and they did not render definitive judgment on that document. Ultimately, they played a peripheral role and deferred to another expert who examined all four of the documents used,” the network said in a statement.
So, they took the position that they liked and went with it. What are they, Fox news?
I’m not so angry with them for being duped and not really that angry or surprised that they are now trying to cover their asses. That doesn’t surprise me in the least. The sad thing is that this might end up helping George Bush and I don’t want that. Their is not doubt in my mind that political influence exercised by his father or other cronies helped George stay here and not go to Vietnam. I would bet money on it.
Should that be a central issue of the campaign? Probably not. How about Mr. Bush’s economic policies that have pushed the deficit to record levels or how about the fact that we went to war in Iraq for dubious reasons at best? Or, how about his abysmal environmental record or the fact that he wants a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage? Let’s focus on the real issues people. George Bush wants to take the country in the direction of exclusionary elitism where a handful of white males control everything and basic freedoms are compromised one by one.
That’s not the America that I want to live in and I hope it isn’t the America that you want to live in either. I don’t think John Kerry is the second coming or anything but I do think that he could not possible do a worse job than President Bush. One other thing that does make me angry is the idea, even exposed by our Vice President, that if John Kerry becomes President we will be attacked. The fact that someone would even say that shows just how ignorant they are.
Their will never be another President as long as we are a country who will not take defense seriously. We were attacked. Everyone knows this. No President will ever forget it or lay down and relax about defending this country. To suggest otherwise is asinine and is simply a blatant scare tactic that will hopefully backfire.
We need to forget all this small-time bullshit and concentrate on the real issues. If we do that, John Kerry just may be the next President.
Later.
Great picture
Posted on September 14, 2004I just found this. Thought I would share.
News
Posted on September 14, 2004So, bad news for me. The thing I was waiting to hear about isn’t going to happen. Too bad, so sad. They couldn’t really give me a reason it just didn’t work out. Well, their loss. Screw ’em.
In other news, my friend Tony has decided to take a two-week trip through New Mexico and Nevada and is leaving tomorrow. I wish I had the time to go as it seems like fun. He will be taking pictures and visiting some old friends that he hasn’t seen in many years. I guess he too is looking back and wanting to re-connect with people. I hope it works out for him.
I have started to watch some of the new TV shows for the fall season and here is my take so far:
“Joey” – Pretty funny. I like Matt LeBlanc and he has the character down. I will watch it again. However, I don’t think Drea De Matteo has very good comic skills. I feel like she is struggling a bit. It was the pilot so we’ll see how it develops. I’m sure it won’t be the monster hit that “Friends” was but it may have legs.
“Medical Investigations” – Pretty good. I like the lead guy, Neil McDonough (also from the short-lived but great “Boomtown”). I don’t really care for Kelli Williams but I think I can get past it. Their is also the supporting cast of characters who all do a fine job. It’s nice to see Anna Belnap on another show. She was on the wife’s old show “The Handler” so it’s nice to see her again.
“LAX” – Not good. I don’t feel like the people who wrote and produced this show have ever spent much time in LAX. I also have a hard time believing that all the things that happened in the pilot in one day would ever happen in a month (or longer) at the real LAX. Plus, as much as I like Heather Locklear and Blair Underwood I would not want their characters running anything for me, least of all LAX. So, I won’t be giving it another chance probably as it was just not good and their are only so many hours in a day.
However, I realize how shows are made and I also realize that pilots are not always an indicator of how the show will go so I may give it one more chance. I don’t know. I really wasn’t very good and doesn’t really seem to take things like airport security as seriously as it should.
I also watched the season premiere of “Las Vegas” and the season finale of “Six Feet Under”. It’s amazing how two shows can be so different in terms of not only content but in quality. “Six Feet Under” is a well-written, well-acted, poignant and provocative show whereas “Las Vegas” is a 40 minute music video with about as much substance as the air in my favorite basketball. It does have pretty girls, which is always a plus. But little else. Oh, and James Cahn. Who always looks like he ate something that didn’t agree with him.
Oh well, I won’t be tuning in again so no harm done. I didn’t watch the premiere of “Apprentice-2” because really, who cares? Nor did I waste my time with most of the other crap that passes for entertainment these days. I think most of these shown like “Big Brother” or “Extreme Makeover” or “Fear Factor” must be targeted at the so-called “undecided” voters. In other words, at those with below-average smarts.
I say that because how can anyone today be undecided about voting. The upcoming election is probably one of the most important in a long time. We are talking about shaping the future of our county here. Stop watching “Wife Swap” or “Extreme Makeover” or whatever the hell, put down the remote, get off your ass and go vote. And, I would prefer it if you voted for someone other than Bush. Like John F. Kerry for example.
One more thing. I have also been watching two great shows that have great humor but are also quite serious and insightful when it comes to politics and the upcoming election. If you haven’t already, go check out “The Daily Show with John Stewart” and “Real Time with Bill Maher”. Good stuff. You will laugh and you might even learn something too. What could be better than that?
Later.
Never forget
Posted on September 11, 2004
Blank
Posted on September 9, 2004This is a first for me, I have to say. Here it is early evening on the day that both the NFL football season and the new Joey show start and I have nothing to say. I am not feeling particularly creative today or for the last day or so. It’s odd, really, usually can’t help myself. I just don’t shut up.
One thing I really like is discussion. Especially with people who can have an intelligent one. Many of my friends are capable. Some, sadly, are not. I don’t judge them or think badly of them that’s just how they are. Our group is chock full of brains and opinions for the most part, though. Or, at least opinions. Sometimes, they are even informed opinions. Sometimes, not so much.
Whatever the origin or basis in fact (if any), my friends are perfectly capable of arguing their points well past the time it takes for your average iced grande soy two-pump mocha. But, I just gotta love ’em anyway. They keep slugging away. Nothing like passion.
It’s probably because a vast majority of my friends work in the entertainment industry and are all pretty darn creative. They also like attention and to hear themselves talk so that plays into it as well. Either way, it makes for some entertaining afternoons at the local (the local Starbucks I mean. We really don’t go to the pub much, sadly).
What does all this mean in a world where we are at war and terrorists kill children at a school and husbands murder their wives and children go to bed hungry or where people live in the streets without medical care or shelter and a giant corporate culture takes more and more and gives less and less?
I don’t know, I was just trying not to be so dark today. Almost there too. Crap.
Later.
One more thing
Posted on September 8, 2004As usual, I forgot some things during my rant from last night. President Bill Clinton’s surgery went well and he is recovering nicely. Good luck Bill. I wish you well.
Also, the Genesis Spacecraft has returned to earth. Sadly, it crashed and did not get snatched out of the air as they were hoping to do. I wonder what info it will give us? We will see.
Later.