Not quite ready for prime time

I do these silly things so you don’t have to. (Yeh, I stole Jerry Pournelle’s motto. Well, borrowed it.)

So, Microsoft has decided to try offering an online security and tune-up scanner. Interesting, thought I, when I first heard of it. But I skipped the earliest beta testing round, since I don’t have any computers I want messed up that badly. Bad enough installing Microsoft’s “shrink-wrap beta” thought I…

But. Well, you knew I’d have to test it out eventually, didn’t you?

So, I selected a machine running windows 2000 Pro, 384MB of memory and 60BG of storage. Logged on to the site (and no, I’m not linking to it for reasons that will become obvious in just a bit). Loaded the scanner engine and fired it up.

32 hours later, it was still scanning for viruses and spyware. 61% finished with that task.

*sigh*

Oh, but it had found 3 viruses and eight spyware threats.

Riiiiight.

Two of the viruses were trojans recieved as email attachments and cleaned by my regular anti-virus. The scanner found them in my anti-virus software’s “virus vault”. No threat. The third false positive was just that: a perfectly legitimate, uninfected (according to three other anti-virus softwares) and very useful piece of software.

Oh, the eight spyware security threats it had found in its 32 hours’ scanning? Bogus or negligible. Cookies, one and all. And three of the cookies were for navigating a site I want cookies from. Two were for cookies from Microsoft sites, for heaven’s sake! (Now, those were a concern, cos the only time I use Internet Exploder is when I visit a Microsoft site, and Internet Exploder doesn’t throw cookies away automatically on exit. No, it doesn’t.) Ah, but that’s been a consistent problem with Microsoft’s Anti-Spyware Beta (Giant Antispyware). Lots of false positives.

I’ll let it continue to run, just to see if it does eventually turn up anything useful, but so far on a scale of 1-100 (with 100 being perfect and 1 being “stinks to high heaven”) M$’s onloine scanner has scored a -253. The score has to run to heavy negative numbers because of its lethargic performance.

I’ll revisit this sometime next week, if it’s finished scanning by then.

Fair Tax/Wednesday OTA

If this is Wednesday, it must be time for an Open Trackbacks Alliance open trackback post. Pick one of your posts you want featured, link to this post in it and then track back here. More info below the Fair Tax Blogburst.


by Ms.Underestimated

This is not just an idea anymore…it’s a movement! The Fair Tax movement.

What else do you call an event about something as dull and boring as the U.S. Tax Code that draws almost 7,000 to a rally? About 4,500 people got inside the doors, which had to be closed due to the 50,000 square foot Gwinnett Convention Center being at capacity at SIX THIRTY P.M.! The rally didn’t start for another hour, yet another almost 3,000 had to be turned away. People drove from Virginia, Florida, South Carolina, Mississippi, and all over the southeast. Hindsight being 20/20, I’ve heard some of them express disappointment over radio because they only heard the broadcast en route to the rally, and at 6:30 they weren’t even in Georgia yet. They knew they had to turn around and go home, but every single one said that next time, they’ll come a day or two in advance! Some who were turned away simply went to their cars and “tail-gated” with fellow Fair Taxers so they could all listen to the rally as WSB Radio broadcast it live.

Continue reading “Fair Tax/Wednesday OTA”

Over a cliff…

This is Tuesday’s Open Trackbacks post. Link to this post in one of your own you want featured, then trackback to this post. More below.


If nothing else, the past few weeks have conclusively proven that the majority of party leaders in both parties have no respect for the laws they pass for the rest of us to live under.

Above the law

(Click on the pic above for a better view)

Congressman William Jefferson, D-LA, found succor from the outlaws’ favorite law enforcement officer, “King” George W. “Vicente Fox’s lapdog” Bush, when Bush put a 45-day hold on materials seized under duly excercised, legal warrants pursuant to an FBI investigation that already has Jefferson caught accepting nearly $100,000 in dirty money.

And sure, enough, party leaders from both parties—the Senators fresh from a round of “screw the American electorate, screw American sovereignty, screw the rule of law” session approving a bill offering a “get outa jail free” card and hot cocoa by the fire to between 11 million and 20 million felons (depending on who’s doing the estimates)—rallied around the “Warrants: too good for American citizens; not good enough for congresscritters” meme and have been squawking about their special priviledges.

I’ve said for years that the Democrats are determined to drive the country off a cliff at 70 (the 80, then 90, now approaching 100) mph, but that the Republicans only wanted to drive a more stately 45 mph… off the same cliff. Now, it’s as though the Republican leadership is racing the Democrats to see who can drive the country off a cliff first.

*sigh*

Picture this: America personified, driving a car down a steep incline toward a cliff. The caption reads, “FROOMB!”

“Fluid’s running out of my brakes!”


This is indeed an open trackbacks post. Link to this post and trackback.

Also note the other fine blogs featuring linkfests at Linkfest Haven.

Linkfest Haven

The “Warrants” graphic above shamelessly stolen from Neal Boortz’ site.

A Homework Assignment: “long train of abuses”

Declaration of Independence

Read the Declaration of Independence recently? The Founders had some very specific beefs with their government. They had considered themselves Englishmen, and had brought their grievances before their ruler many times, already. In doing so, they simply and doggedly insisted on their rights as Englishmen. Nothing revolutionary, nothing remarkable, nothing really new at all: just the long-established rights of Englishmen, viewed from the perspective of colonists being denied those rights.

In doing so, they were conservatives, promoting the long history of the liberalization of rule that had been making progress in England since Runnymede. Look especially at the “long train of abuses” of good governance expected by English subjects/citizens in the 18th century. As Edmund Burke said in a speech before the British Parliament on March 22, 1775,

“…the people of the colonies are descendants of Englishmen. England, Sir, is a nation, which still I hope respects, and formerly adored, her freedom. The colonists emigrated from you when this part of your character was most predominant; and they took this bias and direction the moment they parted from your hands. They are therefore not only devoted to liberty, but to liberty according to English ideas, and on English principles.”

Continue reading “A Homework Assignment: “long train of abuses””

Quick Question

OK, so how many Chihuahuas* would it take to make a full load in your washing machine?

Just wanna know.

*N.B. the AKC specifies that a Chihuahua weigh no more than 6 pounds or so. Some Chihuahuas weigh much less. So we’ll just specify a nice round 4.5 pounds per dog, OK?

Memorial Day 2006

This weekend, culminating in Memorial Day tomorrow, we honor servicemen (and women) who have paid for our freedoms with their lives.

poppies.jpg

We Shall Keep the Faith

by Moina Michael, November 1918

Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet – to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.

We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.

And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead
.Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We’ll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.

Today, large numbers of Americans hold such sacrifice in disdain. Indeed, in recent years, many have attended and participated in “demonstrations” that have celebrated the terrorist savages who seek to kill not only American servicemen and women but civilian non-combatans as well.

Moina Michael’s poem was instrumental in establishing “Decoration Day” (now Memorial Day) and in establishing the (apparently dying) tradition of wearing a poppy in honor of our fallen military. That the more well-known “In Flanders Fields” (John McCrae, May 1915) is “better” art, I’ll not dispute. But Moina Michael’s poem has a heart that’s sadly missing in all too many Americans today who cannot comprehend, let alone echo these lines:

We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies

Would that we too teach our children well, that duty and honor and sacrifice are due our deepest respect and support.

One last note: In order to maintain some sense of connection with my curmudgeonly side, I’ll not explain the significance of the phrase “Flanders field”. For those who read this who either had competent history teachers in grade school or who have taught themselves from readily available history texts, it’d be superfluous. For those who don’t know the significance of the phrase when they read it here, well, they have computers and an internet connection. I’ll not be their crutch. One word: Google. Folks who are too lazy to type a search into a Google search box are just hopeless.

Noted at Woman Honor Thyself.

Summer’s coming/OTA Weekend

Yep. Friday/Weekend Open Trackback Alliance open trackbacks post. Link to this post in some posts I need to read and then track me back, eh? More below the post body.


The Median Sib posted her Thursday Thirteen this week (TT is a blogosphere meme pool game I haven’t been hooked by before, though I’ve seen it around) as Thursday Thirteen – Summer Goals, and since I’m about to go out in a bit here and swelter in the humidity and rather sudden onset of heat to accomplish one minor part of a minor goal I went out already to start one project and am back now, I thought I’d semi-play along.

Sorta.

Kinda.

Not quite.

So, here’s a list of summer goals tailored for non-work-related third world county-specific aspirations.

  1. Finish up some minor mods to the yard–landscaping a tad, back deck mods, taking my yard outa the running for the title of Best Third World County Tick Farm, etc.
  2. Since I’ve been blogging for about 1.5 years now, I want to figure out what I’m doing with this blogging thing sometime this summer. Anyone wanna pitch their two cents in the hat?
  3. Finish the living room redecos (well, for the most part*), including—finally!—a new floor (and on down the hallway with that puppy).
  4. Pull carpet and redo floors in the finished basement (OK, just 2-3 rooms, for now) Easy-peasy? Son & Heir discovered some very (really very) nice vinyl tile (old style glue-down) under the carpet in his room. Taking my “permission” to remove the old carpet and clean up the floor to heart. Easy room #1 downstairs. Will follow it with some appropriate rugs.
  5. Finish Blogmom Diane’s Special Sooper Dooper Manhattan Project-Secret Project BEFORE the official start of Summer. (“Manhattan Project”? Yeh, if it works right, it could blow some folks away. That’s a clue, Diane. :-))
  6. Hold a SUPER garage sale by Summer’s end. We could use some space now used as storage for other things. Really.
  7. Finish a coupla books. No, not just cracking good stories. Found some more nonfiction I’d like to work through. Reports later.
  8. Learn to sleep. Well. *heh*
  9. Reorganize the kitchen. Yeh, I do most of the cooking, so I periodically feel the need to revamp the flow.
  10. Rebuild our home network. I like what it’s like now, but I think we’ll add a different computer for my Wonder Woman this summer and add a wireless node back in. May as well just build it from the bottom up again. Should be fun and instructive. The notebook computers we’re looking at for her (for her grad classes, of course! :-)) will just about require I build a new router/firewall, so I have that fun to look forward to.
  11. Locate the wall wart for my lil midi controller or just break down and get a new one so I can get back to writing/arranging some new stuff.
  12. While I’m at it, clean out my office (remember alla that storage space I plan to clean out? I have a couple of walls of computer gear to reorganize and store there).
  13. Have some fun doing alla the above.

So, what’s your summer looking like?


As I said, this is an open trackbacks post. Link to this post and trackback.

Also note the other fine blogs featuring linkfests at Linkfest Haven.

Linkfest Haven
Throwing this one in the blogosphere meme pool at Conservative Cat and TMH’s Bacon Bits and Sed Vitae.

*The “for the most part”? Kinda depends on if I get real handy with the router—woodworking kind this time—and make the molding I want.

N.B. Yeh, I edited this post after I had a coupla cupsa joe. Eyes open I could see the typos and the incomplete sentences (that I wanted made complete), etc. Good luck finding the less grammatical, typo-filled post…

Mini-update: Relenquishing the Third World County Tick Farm title, now. Had to wait a day, cos of some light showers yesterday, but the yard is well and truly poison to every lil creepy-crawly insectoid critter. Had to keep The Boys out of the yeard and otherwise occupied while spraying and until it dried, but using the most potent stuff I could get without a License to Kill from the CIA or whomever, may do the trick. Spraying with malthion used to do the trick, but that stuff’s darned near impossible to come by. I used up the the last of my stash killing ticks and fleas last year (worked like a charm: the boys went all summer with no problems), so I just had to go by the feed store recommendation… We’ll see.

Further update; the bird bath for the front “mint bed” is coming along fairly well. Dry-stacking rock i gathered six years ago around an old sink I engineered with a stand. When done, nothing but the rocks and the tip of the sink will show, looked at flat on. It’s not plumbed, but what kinda trouble is it to pop the stopper and drain, then fill with a gallon of water?

Stop the ACLU

Another post from John Stephenson of Stop the ACLU


Hat tip: Pretend Pundit Via ACLU Website:

ACLU phones

Responding to reports that phone companies are turning over private details about Americans’ telephone calls to the National Security Agency, the American Civil Liberties Union today launched a nationwide initiative to end illegal government spying.

ACLU affiliates in 20 states today filed complaints with Public Utility Commissions or sent letters to state Attorneys General and other officials demanding investigations into whether local telecommunications companies allowed the NSA to spy on their customers.

“We cannot sit by while the government and the phone companies collude in this massive, illegal and fundamentally unAmerican invasion of our privacy,” said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. “And unfortunately, we cannot wait for Congress to act. The ACLU is mobilizing its members and supporters nationwide to demand investigations into this shocking breach of trust. And we are asking the FCC to use its authority to uncover the facts about how far the president’s illegal spying has gone. The American people want answers.”

True to form, Romero has twisted the facts of this case around to scare the unsuspecting liberal minded, apathetic imbecile who supports him and his anti-American organization. To this point, each and every legal scholar who has looked at the program has agreed that no laws have been broken.

Congressional leaders, including Dick “the dick with the turban” Durban have come out in favor of changing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to cover this type of operation. Each one has touted the benefits and necessities of this program for the national security of the United States and its people.

Democrats are approaching this from the oversight angle. That if the President was given authority to conduct this operation in just the same manner that it already has been, it would provide some oversight with teeth under which the President is less likely to abuse the power.

Republicans are approaching this from the standpoint that the President needs this program and having it written into FISA would provide him with the tools to conduct it.

I agree with both actually. No matter who is in power, it is always possible for power to be abused. But as both parties have recognized the need for the program and both have expressed the need for it to continue, what is the ACLU’s beef?

I’ll tell you what their beef is. They are the perpetual fly in the ointment. If they aren’t causing trouble over each and every thing the federal government does, they feel as though they aren’t doing anything at all. After all, if they agreed with the stance the government takes, their significance would be non-existent.

This is a fund raising campaign. If they make a big enough stink about this, the apathetic morons will give them more money. If by chance they prevail in any one of these many lawsuits that they are planning, then they can circumvent the legislative process and again, they make money off the government.

The ACLU is listed as a non-profit organization. They claim to be non-partisan. But it seems awfully odd that the only members of Congress that are members of the ACLU are Democrats and that the ACLU publicly opposes any proposal sponsored by Republicans. And it seems awfully odd that each time they win a case, they take a larger cut of the settlement than their clients.

The ACLU feeds of the weak minded. They rely on the apathetic uniformed morons who fill out the little form and send it in with their $25 each year to get their little card in the mail so that they can go around saying that they are “card carrying members of the ACLU”. If these people had half the intelligence that they claim to have, they would look into the dealings of the ACLU and come to the same conclusions that we have. That their actual goal is destruction of the United States as we know it.

President Bush and other administration officials have neither confirmed nor denied a USA Today report that the NSA is collecting the calling records of ordinary Americans in its effort to detect the plans of al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations.

Bush has said the administration’s anti-terror surveillance programs are legal and constitutional.

The ACLU was planning to file actions with state utility commissions in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Washington. Other states were expected to be added later. Source

So the ACLU will sue these companies for helping our government to detect terrorists? All the while, the ACLU has a massive database of its own members, their financial information, and much more private details than the NSA could ever hope for.

Sign the Petition To Stop Taxpayer Funding of the ACLU.

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