"In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history will be the majority and will dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance."
You don’t need to speak/understand Japanese to get the technique (although I have to wonder if the demonstrator isn’t reciting a dirty Japanese limerick while showing how to fold a t-shirt… )
How to fold a t-shirt (for the “folding-impaired”)
PSa at The Conservative Cat where Ferdy is waging unending war on spammers…
Just checked out a PC Magazine article featuring the Apple iMac PC with the Intel dual core. “Setting the Intel chipset free!” is the silly Mac commercial airing, now.
*yawn*
Let’s see… ~$1,800 for a decently configured INTEL computer running the Mac OS X…
Or
~$1,200 for a similarly configured (or slightly better–and including a 20″ LCD screen as the Apple iMac PC does) regular ole ordinary PC running Windows XP. LESS if one wanted to use Linux.
Sorry, Apple. Macophilic Macultists will get a buzz on. Everyone who understands that the extra $600 is just money wasted on a name (and an OS that is still the most rigid, frigid, controlling lil piece of eye-candy out there) will find better uses for the extra cash. Heck, the pics at the PC Mag article show it shipping with the assinine Apple one-button mouse with two awkward “side buttons”! Only a masochist could love the thing…
But you can count on it: there are plenty of pervs out there who will go ape wasting $$ on an imitation PC.
One inexplicably stupid comment made by the PCMag writer was this paragraph:
Aside from cooler cases, another benefit of running dual-core on Mac OS X over Windows is that in a Windows environment, you must run security software (such as antivirus, antispyware, and a firewall). Though dual-core processing helps speed up general performance even with such software running in the background, you are still diverting processor cycles. With Mac OS X, such security software is not necessary, so you’re getting more processing power dedicated to apps you’re actively using.
Yeh, right. Pull the other one. “…such security software is not necessary…” At the very least every knowledgeable Mac user/guru (you know: the ones who actually know how the OS woks) I know of recommends at the very least having a decent firewall—software and/or hardware. And sales of Mac-only anti-virus software haven’t slacked off all that much despite the claims that all the virus writers are targeting Windows and simply leaving macs alone. What? Just because your neighborhood has never been hit by burglers you decide locking yuour door is unecessary? Let me know where you live. I’d be glad to hock your Mac. (Really funny thing? While checking on Mac security products, I saw a Mac Security site that had been hacked. It’s front page was “owned” by the hacker who had taken it down. *LOL* Saved a screen shot for future laughs.)
Then there’s the “diverting processor cycles” comment above. Silly ass. The price comparison I made above was between the iMac Intel PC clone in the article with a 2.0 Ghz INTEL processor and a brand-name PC using a 2.8 Ghz processor—the only brand-name Wintel computer I could find spec’ed down enough for a comparison. Computing cycles to burn, baby. (And isn’t it interesting that Apple’s starting with a processor that’s about 1.5 Ghz behind the curve for most other current Intel machines? Their code’s not all that svelte.)
Gee. Want the advantages of a more secure, robust OS (but one that’s genuinely flexible) AND really hot hardware, you could buy an off-the-shelf regular old PC (with the latest, not the next-next-next latest, as with the iMac PC clone) hardware, pop a Mandriva CD set in, boot and have a really slick Linux comp. Loads more stable and secure than either a Windows or Apple OS. And have money left to burn, as opposed to the over-priced iMac PC clone.
Yeh, but it has the really cool look, right?
Uh-huh. And NO expansion slots. Wanna add peripheral components? Fine, snake a buncha USB wiring and clutter your desktop with boxes and other junk. with the PC I spec’ced above, lotsa that kinda thing can go inside a slick-looking box, with 5 PCI slots available.
Nah. The iMac in its current reincarnation as a PC clone is the same old, same old Apple ploy: eye candy at excessive prices. Funny that to get a favorable price comparison to the iMac, the writer of the PCMag article had to compare the iMac “pony” to a Sony Vaio “dressage competitive thoroughbred” with a faster processor, full media computer capabilities, a 50% larger hard drive, all-wireless remote keyboard/mouse/remote control, etc. All among the many things the Vaio cited comes with which are lacking in the Apple PC clone.
*feh* That was a review? A puff piece written by someone who expected only subliterates to read it.
[Let me be clear: the Mac OS is fine… for Great Aunt Tilly. After all, since it is the ultimate “training wheels” OS, it does prevent people from easily messing about in its innards and doing wild things to screw it up. Which also means it is inordinately difficult to get anything done any way EXCEPT “the Mac way”. Amusing—and true—story. Was once part of a small office where each of us used our own computers at work. Right. Very small office. I had a coworker—a devoted Macrophile who had run the all-Mac computer lab in college—who was constantly coming to me and asking to borrow the use of my computer to do things he was unable to do with his Mac. Yeh, largely the result of being the only Macuser in the office and needing to manipulate PC files, a task never quite as easy as Apple claims. He also continually complained that my PC was too hard to use because it didn’t do things the way he was used to… on his Mac. Each time, I’d show him how to do things: “See? Just push this little button on the CDROM drive. You don’t have to drag the CD to the trash bin… ” “Your CDROM drive has a button?!?!? Amazing!” etc. *sigh* Inflexible, almost unteachable. Mac user. Needed his “training wheels” OS. Never “got” it that I liked doing some things at a command line (still do). Windows ain’t all that great, but at least it’s not like using a computer while wearing a straightjacket.]
“Gore to publish book on global warming” (What? Another one? Get with it, Al. The catchphrase for au courant enviro-wackos is “climate change”)
Deadly freeze claims more lives in Eastern Europe (The atypical cold weather in Europe this winter is reported to be featured in Algore’s book’s arhythmia section as proof of global warming… along with…)
“Skating flamingos, swollen elephant ears in frosty German zoos” *brrrr* More of that damnedable global warming at work.
Here’s a roundup for ya:
It Is About Time We Were Politically Incorrect Part II from All Things Beautiful. Preach it Alexandra. (And don’t miss It Is About Time We Were Politically Incorrect Part I.) Regarding the intolerance of the left for religion (as long as that religion espouses Judeo-Christian principles) in America,
And, as I recall, the Founders wrote a great deal about the fact that if America ever ceased to be a religious society, freedom, and the republican ideal, would fail, because the citizenry would lack the moral virtue to keep it all going.
Yeh, I touched on that comment by John Adams in my guest post over at Bloggin’ Outloud, Teach Your Children Well. Jerry Pournelle referred to the truth of that sentimentrecently as well:
I know of absolutely no argument for assuming human equality other than religious postulates, as Jefferson did in the Declaration. War on religion is a war on the underlying assumptions of American political life. Why the same group that insists on equality of outcomes in all matters also insists on undermining the religous basis of American politics is an interesting question. Hypocrisy or double dyed villainy?
Dafydd ab Hugh notes the temblor in Canadian politics: Canadian Vote a 7.2 On the Political Richter Scale. He closes his post with this piece of black humor:
Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the Liberals don’t simply dig in their heels and try to prevent any legislation at all from occurring, as the Democrats are doing here. It would be decent to give Harper at least one chance to make good.
Riiiiight… like that’s going to happen in my lifetime: the faux liberals of the 21st century actually acting decently? Not. Going. To. Happen.
Data-Mining, the FISA Court, and Wartime from TMH’s Bacon Bits:
[Michael] Chertoff, formerly a federal judge and head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, explains in fairly clear terms the National Security Agency’s “warrantless eavesdropping” and the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) court’s place in all of this…
Read it. And while you’re there, load the main page and read Williewonkaville: Rebuild or Reload? and other great posts by the Bacon Bits crew.
If you missed my pointer to the Carnival of the Recipes #75, head on over to Christine’s Morning Coffee and Afternoon Tea so you can add a few things to your grocery list.
“That seismic disturbance is George Westinghouse spinning…” in his grave. (h.t. “Jim” – email posted at Chaos Manor Musings. You can find my own brief comments about Jesse Jackson Jr.’s-call him JCube-proposed “Education Amendment” to the Constitution at the same link… as well as some interesting Dr. Who brews news. 🙂
University students offered B-minus to stay away. Diploma-mill-style, a Canadian lecturer offered a B minus grade to students who would bring him a tuition reciept and then not come to class. While I can think of a couple of classes in my undergrad years where that would have enhanced my educational experience (classes where the droning of a stupid, stupid prof were guaranteed to lower students’ IQs by a couple of points *sigh*), being open about the fact that colleges and universities are becoming little more than certification stops for illiterate high school grads (and full employment for academia nuts) may not be the best way to insure the downgrading of education continues.
At least it was in Canada. This time.
Hit up Keep the Coffee Coming for some Bob Dylan, The Tokens (“…Lion Sleeps…” yeh, the memories) and Billie Holiday. Let kat know you dropped by. drop her a note in comments and just say “Hi” wouldya?
iHillary has a great photoshop spoof to accompany his repost/commentary of a WSJ article in his post, Plantation Madness. A must-see to go along with the WSJ article… (BTW, you’re one mean blogger, dude. Love it.) While you’re there, steal his Alito graphic featuring democrappic attackers with an image of Joe McCarthy in the background…
Winds of Change notes the effect of killing terrorist leaders. (Hint: it’s a good thing.)
Dan Riehl’s mini-fisk of Cindy Sheehan’s “matriotism” is just exactly as much attention as the twit should get. Thanks, Dan. Especially for sparing us by quoting only as much of the twit as necessary to have done with her.
Woody’s own comment on his “Bin Laden’s Real Message” post in reply to a moonbat’s spouting of lying memes about the war on Islamic jihadists really deserves to be brought onto his front page. it closes with,
The fact that Bin Laden talked about a truce is evidence enough of the weakened state of Al Quaeda. How did that happen? UN Envoys? NO… US Cowboys.
Correctamundo, Woody. Read the rest of his comment at the link.
And, from the People’s Cube:
Bin laden’s New tape Narrated from the Astral
heh
Douglas Kern, writing at Tech Central Station, succinctly sums up the feelings I have been unable (or unwilling to let loose and… ) articulate about a recent ruling by a Vermont judge in the case of the serial rape of a child… If you have strong stomach, read, “What the Monster Learned.”
And still reading The Founders Constitution. (Navigating the book[s] online is not all that straightforward, but worth your time, IMO.)
Well, I didn’t get 95 theses, and I’m nowhere near Wittenberg, so I’ll just tack this to the door over at Adam’s Blog and Historymike’s Musings
Yep. Link here and trackback: it’s an Open Post.
Normally, Tuesday is a “Free John Kerry’s 180” day, and, really, today’s no exception.
But today is a very different kind of “Free Jean Fraud sKerry’s 180” day. Today, I’m asking both of my readers *heh* to finish this thought:
“Jean Fraud sKerry’s lies and obfuscations in pursuance of avoiding the release of the records he has repeatedly promised to release is like NOT emptying a weeks’-long overfull cat litter box, because… ”
Answers in comments or a trackedback post, please.
Dumping this litterbox at 