My favorite holiday is only a little over one week away, so this link is to help you prepare for it in case you forgot:
talklikeapirate.com September 19th!
I see from the 2008 local observances list that my former co-workers over at AOL are observing the day with big plans; prepare to be boarded!
Senator John McCain is telling lies for personal gain. That shows a lack of integrity. Integrity is the most crucial moral characteristic that every holder of high office must have. Clearly demonstrating a lack of integrity means that not only should McCain be disqualified from running for President, he should also be forced to resign his position as Senator. McCain is no longer acceptable in national service now, no matter what services he rendered in the past.
Add to the blatant lies, the demonstrated lack of good judgement, the willingness to exploit loopholes in the very campaign finance reform laws he helped create, and his penchant for being reactionary rather than careful about our nations security; and we have a recipe for disaster should he become the next President of the United States.
John McCain is unacceptable to veterans; he has voted against veterans and campaigned against veterans benefits until it became politically untenable. He is no friend of veterans.
John McCain will make the United States and it’s citizens less secure. His temper, his knee-jerk reactions, his inability to grasp basic nuances of foreign affairs will lead him into blunder after blunder and risk war, offending our allies, and violating our trade deals. He will be, and this is difficult to imagine, even worse than George W. Bush (who is the worst President so far).
Wake up American voters. Think for a few minutes and take the time to understand the issues and the urgent need for change. Understand how horribly unbalanced the United States Supreme Court already is.
If you don’t like the way I express this, try Andrew Sullivan, Josh Marshall, Stephen Retherford, or Juan Cole:
andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish
All four of these gentlemen brilliant analysts of politics and civics; we have to do something fast.
A couple of friends asked for this recently, and I had not updated in a while – so I made the list into a page and updated it, and it is available at:
https://blog.scottnolan.org/essential-mac-os-x-applications/
I’ll take suggestions and add them once I figure them out.
I have a rather large AddressBook on my various Mac computers, it weighs in at 1679 entries, though many of those are goofy duplications of email addresses that showed up when I botched an upgrade from 10.3.9 to 10.5.1.
Both MobileMe and .Mac have done an excellent job of keeping the AddressBook application data on all my 10.4 and 10.5 Macs up to date (though the 10.3 Macs were left out in the cold). Over the weekend, I added an iPhone to the mix, and started manually copying over changes from my old Nextel and deleting some of the crap from the botched 10.3 upgrade… something like 20 new contacts (mostly numbers only), 45 updates to existing contacts, and about 90 deletions of duplicate email address only junk. All those changes were done on my laptop in AddressBook.
Then a problem cropped up… I could not sync the changes that I’d made over the weekend to MobileMe. I logged into MobileMe on the web and verified… the changes were not there – though they were on my laptop. I contacted MobileMe support with the assumption it was a problem on the server end.
A very nice chat agent named Geoff S walked me through the issues and we figured out the problem was not with MobileMe at all, but with my AddressBook data, which had somehow become corrupt. We archived that data from AddressBook itself using “File/Export/Address Book Archive” from the menu. Then I manually did a sync where we reset sync data and used MobileMe contacts to wipe out my AddressBook data entirely, which flushed the corruption along with all my recent changes. I confess I was very nervous at this point in the process… but then I double clicked on the Archive of my AddressBook and again overwrite everything. That fixed the problem and now my AddressBook is able to sync normally again, and all my recent work is there.
I am manually resetting the sync data to all other Macs and the iPhone and it is working beautifully. An additional benefit, while exploring MobileMe via web browser (not something I normally do), I discovered that it is much easier to delete all the contacts with no name in the database, which effectively de-duplicates the 10.3 to 10.5 bug I ran into last year. I am definitely doing the happy dance, and can be counted as a happy MobileMe customer for the moment.
The following document might help you if you are having issues with MobileMe: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1679.
I have dumped Sprint/Nextel service, which leaves me with a very good phone I no longer need. So, would anyone like a Nextel branded Motorola i580?
This thing is rugged. Toughest multimedia flip phone on the planet. You can literally throw it out a 6th story window and expect it to be fine. It can even survive being dropped in up to about 4′ of water! It does MP3s (2GB SDmicro card comes with this phone), photos (1.3MP crap phone camera on it), full-duplex speakerphone (awesome sound quality speakerphone I might add), uses standard 2.5mm headphone jack, but also has bluetooth for car/hands free operation and headphones.
I have two wall plug chargers for this phone (one for work and one for home) that come with it. I also have MobileAction i580 USB Handset Manager (v9.2 software and USB dongle/cable for Windows). MobileAction cable lets you tether your phone to a PC if you have a data plan with Nextel, and even if you do not you can back up the contact list, music, photos, and videos to your Windows PC (so far as I know it only works with Windows). The external LCD on my i580 has stopped working, but the internal one with the color screen is fine. The biggest gotcha is that this phone only works with Nextel and iDen…. so make sure you get good Nextel signal in your area.
All this for the exciting price of one meal, one beer, or one back-rub… any takers?
Update: the i580 has found a new home already.
We’ve been getting heavy rain for several hours now, generated from a storm that is still over 300 miles away. That’s pretty impressive when you stop to think about it. Look at the map below, and rain is already hitting people all along Long Island Sound; I am just impressed.
http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at200808_sat.html
Update: Bailey, our Maine coon/tabby cat, is sitting on the back step watching and listening to the rain. He whined and begged to be let out, and did not want to hear me explain that it was raining, so I opened the door and he is just sitting on the step under the roof that covers the door. Very cute.
I used to love Sprint. When they were an underdog long-distance provider competing with AT&T and MCI for your long distance plan on a land line they were fascinating, cutting edge, and competitive. Prices were attractive, and for a while I had Sprint as my long distance provider on my phone…. I carried an AT&T long distance calling card because it was more world-wide available (and being in the Air Force that was important), but Sprint has excellent rates for domestic long distance and good call quality. That was several eras ago. Everyone has effectively free domestic long distance now, so the only competitive edge is call quality and friendly billing.
I used to love Nextel. When the rest of the mobile phone services in the United States went to nickel and dime charges on everything their customers wanted, and silly gadget distraction; Nextel stayed true to it’s customers needs. They simply provided a phone for voice calls that happened to have exceptionally good call quality, signal strength, and full-duplex speaker phone functionality. No cameras. No music players. Limited ring tones. No text, but the damned phones just worked. All the time. Flawlessly. Awesome.
Sprint and Nextel merged. Nextel began to suck. Not all at once, but more and more each day. Their website became utterly and completely useless (you can’t even pay your bill online with fewer than about 150 clicks now). Why does any business make it hard to give them money?!? The signal strength in the same area I have been using my i580 phone in for nearly two years is getting weaker as components in the iDen network fail and Sprint does not bother to replace them. Their customer service stopped being Nextel excellent a year ago.
I don’t like being bugged by monthly bills, and I used to have Nextel set up to pay my bill quarterly. Simpler, fewer transaction fees, quick and easy. Been a Nextel customer long enough that they knew I was good for it. Sprint can’t figure out how to allow that, and insists on spamming me with calls beginning as soon as you are a day late on a monthly bill. I am done with them. Switching services soon.
PS: that means that a Nextel/Motorola i580 phone with 2GB SDmicro card, two chargers, and MobileAction i580 USB Handset Manager (v9.2 software and USB dongle/cable for Windows) will be available shortly to the first person to offer a back-rub, beer, or lunch.
Senator McCain talked a lot about change last night. He claimed to be the agent for change. So, Senator McCain, I have two questions for you that you mysteriously did not include in your long winded speech:
1) What exactly are you planning to change? Hell, what are you offering to change that you probably will do nothing about once elected? You failed to tell us what you are offering, promising, or even planning. The man with no plan is a real wild card, and I don’t mean that in a good, mavericky, way… I mean you are likely to lead a reactionary government that can easily be manipulated by astute students of those things that trigger your anger. Students who study you the way that the leaders of Russia and North Korea clearly do. That will make me fell less safe.
2) What, in your extensive record of experience in office, have you changed? Frankly, why should I believe that you are suddenly going to reverse nearly thirty years of your dedication to maintaining the status quo to become an agent for change? I am one who thinks that habitual behavior is difficult to change. Your appetite for power and the spotlight of celebrity are strong motivators, why should you give them up? Why would you suddenly work for the common good of the people of the United States when you have not done so yet. You’ve have decades holding one of the most powerful offices in the land as a United States Senator, one would think you’d have something to show for it. You’d think that the people of Arizona would have something to show for it… or even, if you’d tried and failed to make changes for them, that there would be news stories about your efforts to effect change. Sadly, aside from trying to get the current regime to stop using torture, your career has been all about endorsing the failed policies of George W. Bush. Your career has been all about self-aggrandizement, and not about helping your voters, your constituents, or your fellow Americans.
Why should I (or anyone) believe you are willing to change yourself at all?
Hat tip to Votemaster who inspired my questions with his own analysis of last night’s speech:
BTW – anyone figure out how to read Votemaster’s older posts or link to them?
The more I think about, the more sure I am that McCain’s choice of Palin for running mate clearly shows us all exactly how much thought he’ll put into future Supreme Court Justice nominations and cabinet nominations. Who would he pick for Secretary of Defense? Who would he pick for key ambassador positions to countries the United States has a conflict with that we don’t want to escalate to war?
It is clear that he’d likely spend about as much time (or lack thereof) vetting said choices. The nuttier ring wing core support groups are enthusiastically declaring their support for McCain and Palin, but the more moderate ones are expressing concerns for their brand’s image:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/212920.php
The core Democratic partisans are both insulted and incensed; which would be the case for nearly all possible running mate choices (though some are scarier and more experienced, to be sure). But the key, the overwhelmingly negative reaction of the independents, undecideds, and unaffiliated moderates is…. also shock, dismay, and frustration.
As it dawns on them that McCain cannot be counted on as either predictable or stable, as they realize that they cannot count on the Republican party to exercise due diligence in it’s own nomination picks, they will flock to temporary support of Obama for no other reason than at least he is reasonable. His choices are predictable, reasonable, and thoroughly vetted. You may not like his choices (I preferred Clark to Biden for running mate, would love Obama to go after Palin and McCain more aggressively that he choses to), but they are predictable, stable, and thorough. Obama is clearly the more presidential of the two men.
McCain’s campaign has jumped the shark, and the lead Obama sees in polls today is likely to be the smallest lead we’ll see until the days just before the election when the Republicans roll out their traditional October surprise. Obama will win by a landslide (310+ electoral votes and 56% or better popular vote). McCain will go on to lose even re-election for his current Senate seat the next time he runs for it (if he even bothers).
It is time for us to focus on Senate and Congressional races, we need a congress that can work with President Obama to undo the carnage of the Bush administration.
I do not think this is the last we have heard of Palin, however. It is clear she can motivate the evangelical crowd, and she is a good speaker to crowds. I suspect she may go on to Senate seats and possibly another run at the white house in the decades to come. I despise pretty much everything she stands for; but you have to recognize an up and comer in the Republican party when you see one.
Update: For those of you who are impressed by Palin’s speech last night, you should be aware that it is 40% blatant lies, 40% uncontested emphasis on her own Christianist agenda, and 20% political sound-bite rhetoric of no substance. Here is a few point by point breakdowns and fact checks:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/04/politics/animal/main4414049.shtml
http://www.samefacts.com/archives/campaign_2008_/2008/09/palin_v_reality.php
Hat tip to Alan for pointing these fact checks out to me.
Isn’t it funny how the liberal media the ring-wing noise machine keeps ranting about simply does not exist?
Crooks and Liars has an excellent analysis of the foiled attempt to shoot Barack Obama, United States Attorney of Colorado Troy Eid’s attempt to portray this as a minor threat, and the media (all networks) simply not reporting on it at all or hiding the story as deeply as they can while giving token coverage and attempting to write this off as shenanigans by meth-heads.
Scant Coverage of Obama Assassination Plot; Irresponsible or Cautious? makes a pretty interesting read.
Of course Eid is a Bush appointee, but no… that really is not a part of this at all is it?
It is important to remember that this family of drugs was first used by soldiers and pilots during World War II to stay awake and stay focused on a mission. Small amounts like the on found with the would-be assassins are exactly the volumes used by people trying to stay focused rather than people simply getting high. They were not “meth-heads” at all, they were, however, focused on a mission at hand.
Now the media is failing to report on brutal and violent oppression of would-be protesters around the Republican National Convention. While I am sure there are some trouble-makers planning mischief to foil the smooth operation of the RNC’s corporate interests party (heck, I sympathize and would like to do a little culture jamming myself), and I understand than law enforcement should arrest those people breaking the law and committing crimes; it seems like law enforcement is focused on the wrong priorities and more interested in suppressing free speech and legitimate news coverage and protests of the RNC shindig. Once again, mainstream media ignores the trappings of the police state.
How about some real journalists covering the loss of The Bill of Rights:
Update: Finally CNN is beginning to cover this a little bit: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/02/rnc.security/index.html, and that CNN story makes me wonder if the DNC was designated a “national special security event, which means the Secret Service is responsible for planning and implementing security.” </Update>
OK, joke is over, bring back the constitution!
Oh, sorry about the serious tirade. For those of you who simply want to be entertained, this is cute (though the language is perhaps NSFW):
(hat tip to Blue Weeds
