Author: David

Over-educated Curmudgeon, Bit-Bucket Tuner and Budding Brewmeister.
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The Positive Side of the iPhad

The fact that the iPhad is so very limited–no multi-tasking as one example–and locked into the Apple straitjacket could be an advantage for naive and/or stupid users who would otherwise be more prone to fall prey to sophisticated phishing/malware attacks. After all, since it won’t multi-task, stupid users can’t infest it with keyloggers that run in the background.

So there you have it: a “computer” for folks who belong in Assisted Computing Sanatoriums…

I just knew I could find something to like about it!

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Flash-less “Smart” Phones…

…are dumb.

With web content as it is currently, anything Flash-less is almost like time-warping back to 1993. Almost. Anyone really want the Cello Browser on anything? *heh* Sure, there is a lot of crap Flash (ads, especially), but a mature mobile browser can block things like that granularly when one wants to (Opera Mobile could do so up until version 10, but reports have that feature AWOL in recent Mobile builds for some strange reason), and since some of my essential sites use Flash well, anything Flash-less is simply not on my horizon.

Just one more reason why–for me–the pickin’s are slim on the “smart” phone menu. Still waiting on a compelling reason to buy a so-called “smart” phone and data plan (some might rightly say I’m just too cheap *heh*). Somehow right now, being unplugged (except for the inevitable calls-only throwaway cell phone–so when the number gets around too much and I become too accessible, I can simply toss the thing and start over) for large chunks of my day seems a Good Thing.

This post brought to you as a result of

  1. Someone griping in my hearing about slow-loading Flash on his Android phone (little wonder, since the software’s still in beta) and
  2. Someone else discovering, as I watched in amusement, that his iPhone couldn’t access work-related web content because it’s Flash-less.
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Dog Days

Been getting more sweat-inducing work recently. Long story, but good outcome.

We’re staging in our own implementation of zoned AC here at twc central, and my office hasn’t been put in the loop, yet. One-a these days… 😉 But since I’ve been getting some serious shirt sleeve time in the humidity (though only upper 80s) outdoors for the past week or so, no AC with a room temp of 86F isn’t all that bad. Of course, that’s near the computers. The other side of the room’s only 82.4 right now. *heh* Balmy. Can’t wait to move my office to the basement…

Went shopping for a new dishwasher on my birthday. Going to wait on buying and having our selection installed until I can definitely schedule to be here for the installation, though. My schedule right now is too crazy. Maybe the end of June. Set the $$ aside and plan the work… And no, I’m not stupid enough to do the installation myself. Almost, but not quite. (I will pull the old one out, though. I can do something like that on one of those nights when sleep eludes me ;-))

As soon as I have my table saw back, I have several projects around the house to do this summer. Should be fun.

And then there are the lil compy projects I have on standby… While I really like various ‘nix distros, and for normal, everyday computing I think Linux or BSD are really quite easily Good Enough (and in many ways superior to Windows), I really have to stay current with M$ software, since that’s where folks need help. (Hmmm, seems there ought to be something to say there… ) Oh, my calls for help with Apple computers are about as great in terms of percentages of users *heh*, it’s just that there really aren’t very many Mac users in America’s Third World County and hereabouts.

And Linux users? The population is pretty much confined to a few geeks and some users I have switched over to Linux.

So, more Microsoft products to play with on twc central computers. I have several licensed copies/versions of XP and Windows 7, and even copies of Windows Server 2008(R2) and Windows Home Server to play around with this summer. Heck, if WHS is “Good Enough” I might just keep that around for other users here at twc central. Then there’re copies of Office 2007 (which I’ve been avoiding using) and 2010 I probably ought to install and noodle around with. If my schedule ever slows down enough, I think I can find things to keep busy.

Oh, this post is being written in a new WinXP64 VM session. No reason to have XP except for the fact that so many folks still use it. Nice the way Virtualbox runs just about any OS so very nicely in VMs. A full installation of XP in a Virtualbox session is MUCH better (more complete, “real”) than M$’s “XP Mode” available in Win7 Pro and up. Not that it’s all that great to begin with. I never warmed up to XP, so all I can say is, it works at least as well as XP on a physical machine.

(Rambling any? Tired and just… rambling.)

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Felipe Calderon’s Argument FOR Strict Border Control

In Calderon’s world, sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander…

Say again, Phil? What was that? Yep. Mexico’s strict enforcement of its southern border goes far, far beyond current U.S. federal law and the Arizona law Calderon claims goes against “human rights”, and Calderon unwittingly admits as much to Wolf Blitzer.

[audio:What-a-maroon.mp3]

Of course he and his lapdog, Barry “Franchesca” Soetoro, expect that the vast herd of sheeple won’t twig to their scam.

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Rediscovery

Listening to Franz Schubert’s Symphony #3 recently–for the first time in many years–it struck me just how amazing he was as a composer. Oh, the symphony itself is almost a template of the “perfect” Classical Period symphony, after the more mature works of Haydn and Mozart, and is absolutely wonderful in and of itself, but that’s not what slapped me upside the head with awe. No, it’s that he was so bang on the money with the Classical Period form and ethos in the symphony, and yet his lieder–written before there was a Romantic Period–are such perfect examples of Romantic Period music in technique and ethos. While it can be said of Beethoven that he spanned both the Classical and Romantic periods (and in some ways that he spawned the Romantic period), Schubert simply lived and composed music fit for each simultaneously.

Still, while his instrumental music is (mostly) Classical–and very good examples of that genre–it is his lieder that demonstrate his rightful place among the greatest of luminaries of classical music. Sad that he–like Mozart–lived such a short life. Had he lived to the age Brahms lived, what wonders might we have as a legacy from his creative hand and ear, given the wonders he left at the young age of 31? Ah, for a peek at an alternate universe where the mind that composed the insightful Die Winterreise, which dealt with the memories of an old man, had actually lived to the ripe old age he depicted with such songs as Der Lindenbaum, begun at the “ripe old” age of 26(?) and “corrected” by him shortly before his death. Still, as a certifiable Olde Pharte, now, I can attest that Schubert captured Müller’s lyrics, which themselves capture the sense of the retrospective of old(er) age well (and Müller himself died at age 33!).

Ah, well, I ramble.

Still, it’s a wonder to re-realize that my favorite composer of song had depths far beyond the listening area I generally grant his work. Delightful! I should never have let so loong a time elapse between hearings of his instrumental works.

Oh, links? Nah. Go find your own fav Schubertian works. 🙂 I’ve posted several of his lieder (sung by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, of course) here in the past, but you deserve the joy of discovering his beautiful music in your own way.

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Yet Another Gripe

I do wish folks would think before they speak/write. The difference between “all men are not” and “not all men are” is obvious to anyone with more than two active brain cells, but I see and hear “all men are not” used frequently in sentences that make no sense if one were to read those words to mean what they say.

“All men are not thieves,” for example, is plain foolishness, because some men certainly are. “Not all men are thieves,” is certainly true, because some men are not thieves. This, of course, does not apply to congresscritters. Clearly, one cannot with assurance say, “Not all congresscritters are thieves,” because it would be nearly impossible (if not clearly impossible) to find one congresscritter that has not voted in support of spending tax monies on illegal (unconstitutional) projects.

But that’s another rant.

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The Idea Has a Certain Je Ne Sais Quoi…

Vlad Tepes had a way of dealing with “illegal aliens” who transgressed his borders:

Hmmm, an idea for our borders? Pour encourager les autres, as it were…

While the idea has a certain appeal, I doubt it’d get by all the screaming from the “Surrender our borders!” bunch.

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Again With Subliterate Moronics

*sigh* One can always pick out writers who have read darned little (and that of little worth) in their lives by misuses or even complete misstatements of common phrases in their writings. ( Always? OK, not always. Sometimes other clues tip the scale. Back to the regularly-scheduled rant.)

Case in point: While reading a political article (which I shall not link in order to protect the guilty), I read, “For all intensive purposes,” and immediately stopped reading. I did make a comment about subliterates at the site (and left out “does”–an essential word in the sentence! *heh*), but methought, “Hmmm, blog rant!”

OK, here’s the deal: when I run across someone pontificating from a self-appointed position as a pundit who uses such subliterate goonerosities *heh* as “for all intensive purposes” (add to the pile of subliterate crap, “irregardless” and “escape goat” and “hone in on” and “tongue and cheek” and… you perhaps get the picture), I simply stop reading their writing. Why pollute my brain with more literary sewage from someone who’s read little and whose selection of reading matter–what little there has been–has obviously been subliterate crap? (A typical subliterate construction in that sentence would’ve been “whose” for “who’s” or vice versa. ;-))

I blame it all on TV. 😉

(Well, and lazy people.)

Micro-mini-update:

I just thought to google, “common errors in English” and found this. It looks as though it covers an abundance of the kinds of things that make me want to slap silly those dishonest word jockeys who are paid to spout subliterate crap (taking good money to perform shoddy work is theft, IMO. Ah, well, bad money’s driving out good money, now, anyway… ).

Thanks to TF and his reminder of Norm Crosby’s malapropisms. Here’s a takeoff on that theme:

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Immigration Reform

Walter Williams’ position is one I can endorse:

Here’s Williams’ suggestion in a nutshell. Start strict enforcement of immigration law, as Arizona has begun. Strictly enforce border security. Most importantly, modernize and streamline our cumbersome immigration laws so that people can more easily migrate to our country.

Of course, he might not endorse my own position on “strict enforcement of immigration law” and strict “enforce[ment of] border security” as I’d take “strict” to be synonymous with “Draconian”. That is, I’d make sure that ANYONE caught employing illegal aliens (alien invaders) was simply and plainly put out of business, all properties confiscated and put on the auction block (with previous owners excluded from bidding from prison). Of course, that’d take some modifications to existing laws, but bureaucraps do that all the time already without any quibbles from congresscritters. Then, machine gun nests or whatever else is necessary along our borders (along with Naval patrols of our waters) with “shoot to kill” ROI. All that’d take would be an executive order. That’d about do it for enforcing our sovereignty over our borders.

Then, of course, overhauling our immigration processes to allow potentially useful immigrants to more easily enter would be a Very Good Thing, but ONLY after working as diligently as possible to get rid of the scofflaws and place serious barriers to their return. (Yes, I’d take note–including biometric data–of all alien invaders caught for deportation and put them permanently on a “back of the line until no one else from your country wants to come in” list. It’s the only Fair way to deal with line jumpers.)

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Christie for President?

Maybe it’s time for anorexic politicians to be pushed out of national politics?

Gov Christie calls S-L columnist thin-skinned for inquiring about his “confrontational tone”.

“Now, I could say it really nicely. I could say it in the way that you all might be more comfortable with. Maybe we could go back to the last administration where I could say it in a way you wouldn’t even understand it. . . . When you ask me questions, I’m going to answer them directly, straightly, bluntly, and nobody in New Jersey is going to have to wonder where I am on an issue. . . .”

We need more of this from politicians *spit* in general. No more bullshit.