Day: July 17, 2008

Posted on

Linux Fun (Cont)

Well, I’m back at re-configuring midi, again. Just need to find my notes-around here somewhere… 😉 [Done. Was as easy as I thought, just a fuzzball, latenight brain. Once again, starting an upgrade or an OS install or a troubleshooting session right before bedtime: dumb. *heh*]

Oh, and how in the heck did I get the flash plugin installed before? Notsomuch a problem with 32-bit OS/browser, but Adobe’s twiddling its collective thumbs on releasing a 64-bit version that works–or even a 32-bit version that works with a 64-bit OS and browser (Yes, Opera 9.5X comes in 64-bit flavors, and I’m using 9.52, and yeh, I know the latest release ver is 9.51. So sue me, willya? :-)) Heck, Opera comes with its own 32-bit wrapper for plugins, and the darned thing is in the usr/lib/opera/plugins folder where it belongs AND Opera knows it, so what’s the deal? Oh. wow… not. Sound works in flash files on the web, but not video. I’m sure it’s something simple I did that my brain’s just too fuzzed to recall right now. [Haven’t even given this a thought today, really. Lovely Daughter did send me a link to something requiring either flash animation or iTunes installation, but I just don’t feel like messing with either, right now… ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz… ]

The above (except for those parts in “[ ]”)was written about 2:00 this a.m., when I really, really ought to have been asleep. Figures. Spent the day answering other folks’ tech questions (one doozie was someone wanting to bypass product activation in Vista, cos their UNLICENSED copy wouldn’t activate and would no longer fully boot. My answer: “Buy a legal copy. *Duh*”). Now, maybe I’m rested up enough to tackle re-enabling midi on this box.

Nah. Taking a break, instead. I think it’s time for a nap.

That’s the ticket!

🙂

Post nap UPDATE: I decided to visit http://grc.com and check the built-in Hardy firewall (iptables) with Shields Up! Here’s the score from Steve Gibson’s Shields Up! for Hardy w/no configuration of the invisible-to-the-user firewall:

As good as any other hardware/software firewall combo I’ve had/used for the past 10 years or so.

Posted on

What to do about the “War on drugs”?

Or, “If I Were Emperor” *heh*

“From the US we can see that strict laws on personal possession don’t work… “

Were I Emperor for a Week, among the silly (stupid and downright evil–in effect if not intent) things I’d repeal would be ALL laws regulating what adults could put into their bodies… along with implementing stringent punishments for harm done to others because stupid, irresponsible adults put things they ought not into their bodies and ended up doing harmful things as a result. Drunk drivers cause a wreck? Lose all their worldly goods–no dunning the insurance past a minimal amount–become the slaves of those they harmed until their monetary assessment’s paid off, then set free or executed–those who killed someone because of their drunkeness–by dropping their own wrecked car on them… until dead. (NOT “cruel and unusual”–see the numbers of people killed by drunk drivers per year by essentially “dropping” a car on ’em. Definitely “usual” and certainly not particularly “cruel” otherwise, why would so many drunks feel it’s perfectly fine to drive a couple of tons of metal into another human at 65mph?) In public. With pre-emptive natiowide broadcasts of the executions on all available channels, including The Cartoon Network. (Never too young to learn that being drunk is stupid.)

No prison for possession or use of any drug. Only for doing things that harm others directly.

Oh, and what to do with all that $$ saved by ending the “War on drugs”? Provide all the lotus eaters all the drugs they want for free in hopes that Darwin will cleanse the gene pool. No other benefits (no food stamps, unemployment, health care), just all the drugs that druggies want, free. After all, the only cure for stupidity is reality.

Gee, as long as I were Emperor for a Week,

–chain gangs for career politicians, educrats, Mass Media Podpeople, Hollyweirdites, Academia Nut Fruitcakes and Prisons for Kids (AKA, “public schools”) administrators.

–abolish the IRS (and add its minions to the aforesaid chain gangs)

–set up a “Greenie Preserve” where Algore and his idiot followers can be one with nature. No electricity, no modern drugs or preserved foods, no modern sanitation, just greenies, nature and… all the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth they want

Well, a guy can dream, can’t he?

Next? Well, with the stupid “War on drugs” out of the way, maybe the DEA can focus on something else, like, I dunno, persecuting, urm, prosecuting a “War on feddle gummint anarcho-tyranny” starting with the TSA, BATF and… Congress?

*heh*

Trackposted to Faultline USA, The World According to Carl, Shadowscope, The Pink Flamingo, , Leaning Straight Up, Dumb Ox Daily News, Democrat=Socialist, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.