Pet Ubuntu Peeve

There are an awful lot of things I like about Ubuntu 8.01 “Hardy Heron”. Overall ease of use; a HUGE repository of easily installable softwares to complement the extensive and useful collection of software installed by default; general stability (almost NEVER need to reboot, for example); an impressive level of security right out of the box, as it were: all these things and more are Very Good Things.

Oh, and although it’s free, support in the various free forums is at least as good as my experience with Microsoft has been over the years–actually much better.

But. System/software updates. A Good Thing, overall. But.

This weird thing where–magically! (bad magic, but magic nonetheless)–things that are imprtant to me just stop working or start working badly immediately after system updates, or conversely begin working properly again w/o any reasonable excuse… this can drive me nutso.

Get screen resolution like I want it. System update. Screen goes to 600X400 or lower, and REFUSES (w/o a very big hammer) to go back to preferred resolution. *feh*

Sound working nicely; new speakers sound wonderful. System update. Sound barely squeaks along and WILL NOT use my preferred sound chipset. Nothing helps. System update. Sound now loverly again. System update. Crfappy sound. System update, system update, system update: sound now loverly again. Heck, more than that. Now have to turn darned near everything DOWN (with software controls) to listen at appropriate levels

Flash vids (YouTube et al) work fine in browser. System update. Flash no longer works. Redownload and install appropriate plugins. Everything hunky-dory. System update. Flash down in browsers. Lather, rinse, repeat. Do note: while all this is happening in browsers, standalone flash players continue to work fine. Finally, another system update and… flash works in browsers again. For now.

Crazy. Insane. Me, that is. Can’t. Stand. It.

But. All’s well. For now.

Still, even with these warts (and the “Update WINE and Encore no longer works worth a darn” issue), Ub untu’s been a Good Thing. Now, if I could just get Windows Home Server working under Ubuntu using VMWare Server… *heh*


Bill Maher Picks a Fight Out of His Weight Class

“And the trump card, why Americans will fall in love with her, she’s got five kids. How can you not vote for someone who has five children, including an infant. Some touching details about the infant: it has Down Syndrome, she had it when she was 43 years old, and it looks a lot like John Edwards.” –Bill Maher

Yeh, it’s true. I watched it, and Bill Maher does use Trig Palin to mock his mother… and make a slimy joke about how he “looks a lot like John Edwards.”

What? “[L]ooks a lot like John Edwards”? Implying what? Better be careful, Bill. Alaskans like the Palins (80% in a poll taken just last week) and a lot of Alaskans are better shots with their 30-30s than you are with your mouth… Just sayin’. Back in the good old days when men were men and things like Bill Maher were gopher food, comments like that wouldn’t stand.

[Aside: I once actually heard a judge in a Southwestern court say in jury instructions concerning a cattle rustling case–yes, a cattle rustling case, not 20 years ago–that “I’ve never known a cow that deserved to be stolen, but I have known some men who deserved to be shot.” The rustler got the fullest punishment allowed under the law, and the case was never appealed.]

Trig Palin’s dirty diapers are full of stuff with more class than Bill Maher.


Trackposted to Pet’s Garden Blog, The World According to Carl, Dollar Traveler, Shadowscope, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Cao’s Blog, The Amboy Times, Democrat=Socialist, NN&V, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Travel Through Time in the Middle East

For a cool, not entirely inaccurate OK, OK, moderately accurate, within the constraints of the medium (just quibbles for the most part) 90-second overview of the past few thousand years’ history of the Middle East, check this flash animated map out.


CLICK HERE for the animation

While it won’t illuminate much for folks who don’t already have some grounding in the area’s history, it’s a pretty cool review for folks who do.

0.01%

That’s one-hundredth of one percent. For the innumerate among our increasingly illterate and innumerate society, that’s one part in ten thousand. A tiny, itsy-bitsy, teen-einsty speck, for those who can’t understand that.

That’s how much of ANWR is any part at all of what’s even being considered for drilling in.

And it’s an environmental zero of a mud flat. The equivalent of a couple of shopping malls… after prime real estate has already been turned into the wasteland that is a shopping mall.

Not even polar bears want to live there. *heh*

Drill, baby, drill.


Trackposted to Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Allie is Wired, Woman Honor Thyself, Right Truth, The World According to Carl, , The Pink Flamingo, The Amboy Times, Cao’s Blog, Leaning Straight Up, and Democrat=Socialist, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Can’t Pass the Physical

Too bad. This t-shirt

1. Doesn’t come in my size
2. Is not my cut, and besides,
3. I can’t pass the physical

Oh well.


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Peggy Noonan’s Slip *sigh*

Nope. Not lingerie. The, by now in internet time, infamous open mic comment about Palin.

What I’d like to remind Peggy of is this comment from her September 3 WSJ column (which she has newly redacted with prefaced remarks to her open mic comment on MSNBC),

Let me say of myself and almost everyone I know in the press, all the chattering classes and political strategists and inside dopesters of the Amtrak Acela Line: We live in a bubble and have around us bubble people. We are Bubbleheads. We know this and try to compensate for it by taking road trips through the continent — we’re on one now, in Minneapolis — where we talk to normal people. But we soon forget the pithy, knowing thing the garage mechanic said in the diner, and anyway we weren’t there long enough in the continent to KNOW, to absorb. We view through a prism of hyper-sophistication, and judge by the rules of Chevy Chase and Greenwich, of Cleveland Park and McLean, of Bronxville and Manhattan.

And again we know this, we know this is our limit, our lack.

But we also forget it.

And when you forget you’re a Bubblehead you get in trouble, you misjudge things…

Peggy, you’re a bubblehead. Please remind yourself of that fact more often in the future.

(BTW, kudos to Noonan for one thing at least. In her freshly-minted preface/apologia, she refers to “bullshit” as an epithet, NOT, as is so often and illiterately done, a profanity. So, a literate bubblehead.)


Trackposted to Blog @ MoreWhat.com, The Virtuous Republic, A Newt One- Ronald Reagan in a skirt, Democrat=Socialist, and DragonLady’s World, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

RepCon Semi-live Blogging

Caught a little of Norm Coleman (somebody get that man to an eating disorder therapist! *heh*).

Saw a bit of Mitt Romney (boring) and The Huckster (looked like a snake shedding its skin). *yawn*

“To be President, it’s not enough to [just] be present.”–Rudy Giuliani, speaking about The Obamassiah’s legislative record (because The Obamassiah has no executive record) of “voting” on legislative acts, “present” instead of actually making a decision between yes and no.

“Change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy.”

and

“More experience as an executive than Obama and Biden combined.”–Giuliani again.

The above, of course, as a prelude to the big attraction tonight: the Sarah Palin speech scheduled to begin… whenever Giuliani finally finishes. Stemwinder? Not quite, but he has managed to push all the hot buttons.


Not going to try to do a transcript or anything, just impressions.

Thunderous reception to Palin. (Hey, notice who’s holding Trig?)

OK, enough with the cheers, already. Take charge, Sarah.

Begins with acceptance and tribute to McCain. Brings standard applause.

Goes to McCain’s Iraq stance and Mass Media Podpeople’s Hivemind counting him out for it. Palin attributes McCain’s nomination to “determination, resolve and sheer guts”–“a true profile in courage”.

[Edit: meant to say here that I attribute Juan Mexicain’s nomination to the “fact” that it was just “his turn”–it’s a Repugnican’t thing. Meant to say it, but ears and fingers don’t work all that fast together anymore and time and tide wait for no man… *sigh*]

“…troops in Iraq who have now brought victory so close…” “and as mother of one of those troops” (C-Span: camera on Track). Plays the “fine men and women in uniform” and moves from Track through the list of family members present with aplomb (Trig now in Dad’s arms).

Elliptical allusion to “family issues” (“special needs children” “a friend and advocate in the White House”) Todd–hits his “common man” features, including the Inuit connection–faithful marriage, etc. Now Mom & Dad featured–parents on camera–hey! I think I know them! Don’t they live in my neighborhood? (Thumped the “common mn” bone some more with Harry Truman reference.)

(LOTS of pride in America, common man stuff.)

Hockey mom and PTA. Trots out the “hockey mom/pit bull” comparison again (one of her “stump” phrases).

“Since [Obamaites] look down on [small towns]”

“[S]mall time mayor is sorta like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.”

Thumps the “bitter people clinging to their religion and guns” Obama gaffe.

“…not a member of the permanent political establishment… [so] some of the media consider me unqualified for that reason alone.” *heh*

“I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion; I’m going to serve the American people.” (S’what I heard–close to the prepared comments that were published.)

“…challenge the status quo, to serve the common good and to leave this nation better than we found it…”

re: Alaska: ” …put the government back on the side of the people.”

Hits national security-petro connection (throws in consumer/economic matters): refers elliptically to ANWR (gets the “Drill baby, drill” chant). Elides into drilling vs. doing nothing (the real Dhimmicrappic “plan”)

Hard hit on The Obamassiah’s two books, lotsa speeches, NO LEGISLATION.

“…styrofoam Greek columns back in some studio lot…”

Hits The Obamassiah’s tax raise plans as his real “economic plan”. What his taxaholic plans do for (negative) job creation.

“change to promote careers vs. careers to promote change”

Hagiography of McCain’s record again. *sigh* Sold out, Sarah?

“Harry Reid and the do nothing Senate” Endorsement from Reid? “Can’t stand McCain”

“Presidency not supposed to be a journey of self-discovery” “[World] not just a community and doesn’t need an organizer”

Waves the bloody flag a bit. Ends with pitch for McCain again. Family comes up to join her. Holding Trig, now.

McCain joins–with a hand mic–what’s up?

Ebulliantly, “Don’t you think we made the best choice for the next Vice President of the United States? [cheers] And what a beautiful family. [McCain tutoring Palin on keeping “face” toward delegates who “need” recognition. “Field talk” passed between candidates as they pass each other working different parts of the crowd, etc.]


OK, she hit all the points she needed to tonight. I expect to hear more in the coming days.

Was it a home run? Maybe. Maybe a three bagger that may become a home run on errors from the Obama team, IMO.

Fox commenters talking about Palin’s speech “written for her” a lot, not realizing, I suppose, how many of the key digs were actually hers, recycled from past political events in her life. And, of course, her delivery was worlds ahead of anything I’ve ever seen/heard from the “great speaker” The Obamassiah.

Karl Rove notes her undoubted input to the speech, giving her more credit than the Fox ‘heads did.

How Do You Spell “Relief”? P-a-l-i-n

I took a break from “the world” yesterday. Things to do, sleep to glom onto, etc. *heh* Back in the world again today and…

I discover the 24X7 Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind attack on Sarah Palin continues apace. *yawn* Not news. The Obamassiah (or The Dali ‘Bama, as some have dubbed him) selects the lame old hack Biden, and the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind fakes an orgasm. Juan Mexicain selects middle America hockey mom, card carrying NRA member, dynamic first term reform governor of the state that provides up to 20% of the nation’s petro-energy needs and the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind emerges from a stunned epileptic fit to initiate attack mode.

No bias there, eh?

But, as Thomas Lifson notes, while

The announcement of Palin’s selection by Senator McCain last Saturday reportedly triggered outright laughter in newsrooms across the land, a nearly unanimous opinion that she would be a disaster for McCain. To the sort of people who believe themselves sophisticated citizens of the world and feel a sense of pride at saving the planet by purchasing carbon offsets, a woman who has borne five children is incomprehensible. Add in moose-hunting, a champion snowmobiler husband and a pregnant 17 year old daughter, and the phrases “white trash” and “trailer trash” are deployed…

The cheese-eating surrender monkeys of the Left just don’t get it:

She has the rarest of qualities: authenticity. Media and Beltway types can’t fathom what that is. It goes right over their heads. Not even on the radar screen. Her multiple facets — beauty queen, moose hunter, mother, member of an Assembly of God Church, and ferocious reformer of corrupt politics may baffle sophisticates, but ordinary Americans see all the pieces fitting together, and they recognize a type of person they know and love.

Heck, Palin may be one of the very few authentic Americans in politics, nowadays, at least beyond the local school board or city councilman level in small town America.

And she still has more executive experience than The Obamassiah, Joe Plagiarism, Juan Mexicain or that Abraham Lincoln, for that matter, had before his presidency. (Oops. Maybe I ought not mention the latter, given the mess he made of his administration.)

While I regularly eschew watching politicians *spit* speak, preferring to read the content of their (usually) blather to, urm, see if it has any content apart from polished vowels and consonants, I do plan on listening (carefully, for real content) to Gov. Palin’s upcoming convention speech. I’ve seen the one interview I referred to a couple of days ago, and I’ve read other speeches, “debates” (as much–or as little–as a media run “debate” for a political office like governor is a debate) and comments made by Palin, and so far, she’s the only one worth listening to in the presidential field. If her speech and behavior continues to match up with her record so far, it looks like I can cast a relieved vote for Palin in November.

Oh, yeh, and whatsisname too, I suppose.

*heh* Update II:

Oh, and, from the official campaign website, an excerpt from an article in the St Petersburg Times,

…Palin’s years of elected executive experience beat out the rest of both tickets, even her own running mate.

Seems I’m not the only one who thinks that. πŸ˜‰

Annnd… from a lifelong “progressive cos it’s cool” commenter (“Fallon”) at PajamasMedia,

…I have been struggling with this decision, too, but I will be voting for Governor Sarah Palin via Senator McCain because I feel she is a strong and accomplished leader who I respect. I cherish the thought that she will be a mere heatbeat away from the presidency. I will never agree with any candidate 100%, never have, but I now believe that character and personal integrity trumps image, and security trumps domestic issues.

Now that I have made my decision, I feel at peace for the first time since the campaigns began.

Amen, sister. πŸ™‚


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Mocking the Bible

The Obamassiah, a guy who can apparently find no fault with The Butcher of Medina and his mass murdering disciples, has no problem making reductio ad absurdum arguments disparaging the holy texts of Christians and Jews…

The Obamassiah: May his mouth wag freely (never get in the way of someone committing political suicide with the jawbone of an ass).


Trackposted to Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Rosemary’s Thoughts, A Newt One- Ronald Reagan in a skirt, DragonLady’s World, The World According to Carl, DragonLady’s World, The Pink Flamingo, Cao’s Blog, and Democrat=Socialist, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

OK, Here’s a weird thought…

Well, it’s a little bit weird and a little bit cool. Just another lil (seriously meaningless) VM game to take my mind off current events. You can move along now. Nothing going on here today but a lil bit of play time.

So, I have WinXPPro-64 running inside Ubuntu 8.04 using VMWare Server set up to use a bridged network connection so my network (as well as comps on the interweb) “sees” the VM as an entirely separate machine with its own IP address.

Well, that’s fun. I also have Win2K, Win98 and PCBSD virtual machines configured similarly inside the same host machine.

Soooo, how about accessing one of the VM clients from the host machine using VNC or Logmein or whatever? *lol* Kinda around the barn, eh? No real sense to it (and the lil Logmein utility doesn’t seem to like WINE all that much–maybe I ought to tweak my WINE config in the PCBSD machine), but it’s interesting. *heh*

Done.

OK, so Logmein is slow, what with all the refreshes and whatnot, but it does give me a little practice using it for folks who have trouble installing VNC for remote sessions. (Logmein doesn’t seem to think anyone but Windoze users would find their service useful…. and that’s probably pretty close to TRW) VNC’s a lil lot faster over the local network, of course (though remote computers don’t see any real speed/responsiveness benefit over Logmein), and for those times when I want to really access things here at twc central, that’s the key (really: using a keyfob USB drive with Portable VNC. Only ).


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