Author: David

Over-educated Curmudgeon, Bit-Bucket Tuner and Budding Brewmeister.
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Managing Email

For some time now, I’ve been using Thunderbird Portable to manage my email accounts. For me, it has several advantages over other options:

With all my email from all my accounts gathered in one place on a flash drive (and backed up–usually daily, because the flash drive WILL fail eventually–to a hard drive by simply dragging and dropping the whole Thunderbird Portable folder), I can take it with me wherever I go and still not have to mess with the cumbersome nature of even the best webmail (a tossup between GMail and Yahoo Mail, IMO–Windows Live is for very sick, thought-to-be-extinct Dodo birds *heh*). Simple, and I can still use it whether in a Windows or Linux–or even PCBSD–session (as long as WINE’s installed in the ‘nix box). Really snazzy solution.

But. What about when an older OS or computer refuses to release a flash drive and getting it disconnected causes file corruption (even shutting the computer down may not avert that problem)? That’s a good reason to not only back the mail up every day but to configure T-Bird to leave the messages on the server, not simply delete them on download. Yeh, yeh, that could mean dropping in on some accounts and manually cleaning out clogged up mail folders every now and then, but that’s a very small price to pay.

Besides, with daily backups, it’s doubtful one would lose much mail even were T-Bird not configured to leave mail on the server. One corrupted startup and… simply reinstall over the existing installation, and if mail needed to be copied over from backup, no problem.

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Another One Bites the Dust

or, Another One Under the Bus–depends on ones POV, I suppose.

Nuke has the scoop. (Go watch the video.) As The 0!* continues to flail away attempting to implement the socialist-communist policies that stem from his lifelong pursuits, he inevitably comes up against the conflict: keep his campaign promises to the millions of folks who campaigned for him, marched for him, voted for him or suck up to special interests, political power brokers and adhere to his genuine agenda of advancing statism while placing ever more strictures on citizens’ liberties and genuine hope for change (for the better).

No contest. In leftard thinking and behavior, evil wins every time.

At least it’s costing him some of his support from those who were actually stupid enough to believe what his teleprompter said but not quite stupid enough to miss it when he slapped them upside the head with a dead cod.

*Note: the “0” in “The 0!” is NOT an “O”. *heh*

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Compouter Fun

No, that’s not a typo. At least half (the Ubuntu half) of my primary computer is “pouting” right now. The upgrade from 8.04 to 8.10 was a tad rough, so I thought I’d put off the upgrade to 9.04. After all, it was working… OK (pretty darned well in fact). But. Yeh, you guessed it. I caught the bug and initiated the upgrade process.

Fragged my Ubuntu install. AFTER the upgrade “finished” the update manager warned me (AFTERWARDS!) that some packages had not installed correctly. Oopsie. Yep, my first really, really unstable Linux box is now on that “side” of a dual boot machine.

So… fortunately, I’ve been saving my data off in a couple of ways and have easy access to it on an external drive. The programs I can always just reinstall… and tweak and reconfigure and fiddle with, etc., until they’re the way I want ’em again. Notaproblem, really. Heck, I might just bag it on Ubuntu 9.04 on this machine and install an alternate Linux designed for more media-intensive computing. We’ll see. (LinuxMCE with add-ons, perhaps?)

Meanwhile, back on the Win7 side of the box, I’ve been having fairly good luck with the original, official, Windows 7 beta, 7.00. But the release candidate’s been out for a few days now–released to the general public today, though “developers” have had their hands on it longer–and I started downloading the 3.1GB DVD image about 15 minutes ago. About three quarters done now, and that means…

Back up this side of the dual boot. No, not a full backup, just a “files and settings” transfer to nail down my documents libraries and settings. No email backup, because I’m using Thunderbird Portable so each “side” of the dual boot “sees” the same thing. Handy. Oh, the “Easy Transfer” utility will miss my Opera profile, but backing that up and reimporting it is a snap. One folder and bob’s your uncle.

Soooo… what time I have to spare over the next few days will be devoted to:

Making sure everything I want from the Ubuntu side is backed up (only about a gig or so not currently shuffled off–that’s pretty good for me. :-)). *Mostly “Check”*

Back up what I want from the Win7b side. *Check* (ET utility saving that data now and Opera profile saved already)

Print the license keys for the Win7 RC.

Burn the Win7 DVD.

Do a clean install of the Win7 RC.

Import files and settings and reinstall all my applications in Win7.

Hunt down the Linux distro I want, burn the ISO and install it.

Why both? Well, frankly, because after nine months of almost exclusive daily use of Ubuntu on this machine, I found it fit almost all my needs almost perfectly (save for my gripes about updates and upgrades and just a couple of very small issues with apps I really, really wanted working perfectly under WINE). Then, after gaining a sense that perhaps Windows 7 wasn’t going to be the grinding pain in the neck (substitute a much lower part of human anatomy for more accurate wording–*heh*) that Vista has been, I decided to test it out on this same machine.

I was pleasantly surprised. I have only a very few small issues with apps and some small pains with computer management “the Win7 way” but overall, it’s running neck and neck with Ubuntu on ease of use and–until this last “upgrade” to Ubuntu 9.04–it’s close to Ubuntu in stability, even surpassing it now that the 9.04 upgrade has fragged that “side” of the computer. So now, at the very least, I’m going to keep Win7 around in order to be on top of the curve for early adopters who may call on me for help with the OS’s few quirks. And yeh, I have a “spare” XP on hand to try out the XP mode that is available for use on the advanced Win7 SKUs and on systems that have processors that handle virtualization natively (this computer qualifies).

So, for the foreseeable future, once I get these little niggling details worked out, this box will remain a dual boot box. I’ll probably “live” on the Linux side most of the time, but Win7 is certainly good enough to win a fulltime install on a new HTPC build I hope to do soon.

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Nothing Says “Sinko duh Mayo” Like “I Won’t Listen If You Don’t Speak English”

Welcome to the alternative Sinko duh Mayo celebration at third world county. As long as the government of Mexico is actively encouraging its struggling and mostly subliterate poor to disregard our border and our laws and enter this country illegally, obtain false IDs via identity theft rings, steal jobs Americans WILL do, steal services they are not entitled to and avoid border checks for infectious diseases, well, as long as the Mexican government is going to actively encourage their citizens to do such things I’ll continue to mock Mexico’s big stinkin’ deal holiday. *feh* Celebrates what? The handing of rule from one kleptocratic oligarchy off to another (largely peopled by the same kleptocrats)?

Yep. That’s what Mexico’s answer to our Fourth of July celebration is really all about, folks.

No, I’m not going to link every factual statement above to support my opinion that Mexico is a prime example of the stinky, unwashed, corrupt armpit of Latin America. Frankly, I’m hoping some latino racists drop by and submits some more subliterate, idiotic rants calling ME a racist so I can have fun mocking the “mex-boyz” (and goilz) idiotic comments.

N.B. BTW, I have no problem with any LEGAL immigrant, you know, someone who’s played by the rules, waited their place in line and entered the country legally, no matter what their ethnic background. But since I abhor the filthy cretins who are invading this country in complete and absolute disrespect for our laws, I’m sure I’ll garner a few accusations of racism, as I have in the past. At least, I hope so. I like thumping on empty heads with a verbal ax handle. *heh*

Trackposted to Nuke’s, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, The Pink Flamingo, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Leaning Straight Up, Woman Honor Thyself, and The World According to Carl, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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Hopenchange in the Age of the High Tech Sweatshop

h.t. Larry Bernard

Now, no one with half the brains of a head of cabbage expected The 0! to keep his word given on the campaign trail (which left him plenty of folks–dead and alive and voting multiple times–to win the election), but still it’s important to keep pointing the finger and saying, “Nanny-nanny-boo-boo” at every revealed lie, isn’t it? An excerpt from, “I Was a High-Tech Sweatshop Worker for the Obama Campaign” to whet your appetite:

Obama sold the ideas of hope and change to America’s desperate working and lower-middle classes. But it was only a campaign tactic. The Democrats continue to enable and reward the same incompetence, corruption, and corporate welfare that characterized the Bush administration. A stimulus check of $2000 to every American without regard to age, income, or assets would have been less expensive (and probably more effective) than the Bush-Obama bailouts. Give money to the original owners—the taxpayers—and send those corporate losers to the back of the line.

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Inspirational Quote for Today

“Missed it by that much.”–Maxwell Smart

Here’s someone who’d be a LOT smarter were he to emulate Maxwell:

the-0-and-america

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100 Days of Blood and Toil and Sweat and Tears

…just none of it The 0!’s blood and toil and sweat and tears, of course.

List of accomplishments for The 0!’s administration in its first 100 days:

Enslaved our grandchildren with more debt than has been amassed by all previous administrations combined.

Thrown dirt in the faces of American allies, kissed up to sworn enemies of the US and made obeisance to Islamic thugs.

Made great strides in allowing more potential carriers of swine flu into the US.

Nominated more known crooks to his first cabinet than any president in history.

Oh, why bother with any of the rest? This highly intelligent dumbass has already managed to challenge Dhimmi Kahtah’s title as the worst American president in living memory.

So much for hopenchange.

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“If this is Tuesday… “

…well, it sure ain’t Belgium. No, what it is is this: the tail end of a whirlwind trip to (sort of) see my mom off on her trip to Israel. Glad I went to check up on her. She’d taken a fall late last week and hurt her knee but was refusing to see the doctor for fear he’d want to do something that would prevent her making her connections for her trip. *sigh* It’s in the genes. I do the same kind of thing. Fortunately, dragging her to the doctor only resulted in getting the right treatment for a swollen knee (X-Rays said no major damage) and her mind was eased. 85-year-old woman refusing to go to the doctor–NOT because she couldn’t afford to (was a $10 charge!) but for silly reasons. Hmmm, kinda like my reasons, usually. *heh*

Anywho, my dad will meet her there. Right now he’s finishing up a concert tour with a musical group in Armenia. Oldest guy in the group (by a couple of decades!). Still singing 1st Tenor. Go figure. My voice is now able to sing “second growler” (still coughing my lungs up; I’ll either live or die, and either one is fine by now *heh*), so maybe by the time I get to be his age, I’ll be able to get some of it back, should I live that long. 😉 Nicest thing aboiut this trip? Some friends of theirs paid their way. They have some good friends.

Well, that’s all I really know. My Wonder Woman’s back from her librarians’ conference, and we’re both a tad pooped. As soon as Lovely Daughter’s Family Birthday Blowout is over this evening, we’re both looking forward to some crash time.

Y’all be careful out there!