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About McCain’s Choice for Running Mate…

I am completely stunned… insulted, surprised, and in disbelief….

Am I the only person who thinks it is completely unacceptable for any strict Creationist to be seriously considered for the office of President of the United States?

Blueweeds has a more thoughtful summary, it is well worth a read:
http://blueweeds.typepad.com/blue_weeds/2008/08/palin-a-risky-j.html

This is more evidence of horribly bad judgement on the part of Senator McCain.

I know, she is not the candidate – he is; but given his age, and the fact that we are a nation at war, the choice of vice president actually does matter…

Problems:

  • She admits she does not know the first thing about what the job of vice president entails.
  • As Governor of Alaska she tried to push the teaching of Creationism in public schools.
  • She fought to keep funding for the infamous bridge to nowhere (so much for that bogus entry in wikipedia that described her as a reformer)
  • She is avidly pro-life
  • She fought to prevent same sex couples from getting benefits for their non-working partners in Alaska
  • Her record on the environment is horrible
  • Her lack of experience, while acceptable to me in general, blatantly shows how little respect McCain and his handlers have for the intelligence of the American voter. Her experience pales compared to Obama’s, yet McCain and his cronies feel free to attack Obama and still propose Palin for V.P.?!?!?

This is not just bad judgement folks, it is risky (McCain could be elected, and could die in office), and it is insulting. McCain is telling us all he just does not give a crap what we think.

2008 08 29 snolan Foreign Policy
News
Politics
Religion Comments (7) Permalink

Funny License Plates

For your amusement:
RAINMKR plate on a convertible

Someone has a sense of humor, and it was extra fun on this rainy day.

2008 08 29 snolan Cars
Fun Comments (1) Permalink

Foolish question about installed user bases

So my employer is thinking about developing software for Mac OS X users, but unwilling to develop for all versions. Where can one find reasonably good numbers for how large the installed user base is for each version of Mac OS X broken out by version?

I did a quick scan of MacWorld, MacUser, and several Mac forums; as well as the Apple Developer website… I am not finding anything. I suspect most internet using Mac users are on Leopard with Tiger a close second and Panther a distant third; but I may be wrong. I have a fuzzy memory that there was still a huge number of Jaguar users out there, but that they were not internet users. Since our application would be internet based, we can discount anyone who is not also an internet user.

Anyone know where those numbers can be found?

2008 08 28 snolan Computers Comments (0) Permalink

Office Admin Needed, Herndon VA

The company I work for has had an Office Administrator whom we all like, but he is leaving us soon (for a job much closer to his home in Woodbridge). We need a new Office Admin. I think computer office application skills (MS Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook) are wanted, as are the ability to accept packages from UPS/Fedex/USPS/DHL and occasional runs to Costco/Price Club and very rare lifting and cleaning. I have no idea what the position pays, but can put you in touch with he hiring manager and HR person if you are interested.

2008 08 27 snolan Local Comments (0) Permalink

Looking for Motherboard/CPU advice

I want to build a Linux server from parts I assemble so I become more familiar with small computer gear.

My design goals are:

  • easy to work on (roomy enough for easy changes, thumb levers/screws where possible)
  • affordable/cheap ($600 or less)
  • powerful enough to run RedHat Enterprise Server 5, Xen 3 virtualization, OpenSUSE 11 and server applications (bind, nfs, apache, etc)
  • have at least two CPU cores, and offer x86-64 (Xen/Suse/Redhat)
  • able to address 2+ GB of memory
  • house two 120+ GB drives
  • quiet, cool, and use as little power as possible even while running full load
  • being fan-less is a huge bonus for both low energy use and quiet, though a quiet fan is ok

We are mostly going to explore server software configurations, train ourselves on Xen, RedHat, SuSE, etc. We’ll be standing up various network services (bind, nfs, nis+, apache, java, rails, tomcat, jboss, postgress, mysql, php) and testing them.

I am looking at full sized ATX cases and motherboard simply for the easy of assemble and easy of cooling aspects, but if there are smaller boards/cases I should look at that are easy to work on I am interested.

I am looking at motherboards with integrated graphics because I see no need for custom high end graphics cards to do Linux server testing. The only graphics will be to drive the silly GUI configuration tools for Linux.

What CPU and motherboard combinations would you recommend?

I like the thought of very low power computing (Intel Atom 230, Via Nano, older AMD Athlon 2000+) but fear that the costs and flexibility will be severely reduced. Whatever Core 2 Duo is powering the Apple Mac Mini is probably plenty of computing power, and still runs in low enough electrical power.

Possible combinations:

2008 08 26 snolan Computers Comments (0) Permalink

First assassination attempt foiled, thank goodness

So it appears that meth using racists have already started plotting the assassination of Barack Obama. CBS 4 Denver has story, video, photos of the would-be assassins. I have slim hope that this will be the last such attempt, more hope that law enforcement catches them all before they can do anything.

I learned a little bit about meth while reading up on this too, had no idea it was used during WWII to help pilots and soldiers stay awake. Fascinating, dangerous.

Hat tip to the wonderful Liberal Rage community on LiveJournal for pointing out the news.

2008 08 26 snolan News Comments (0) Permalink

Get ready to see Right Wing Media spin all week

It is already all over ABC and Politico (both are moderately conservative media outlets), and I suspect Fox (which I cannot stomach, but is very predictable) is also running a series of articles that are over-focused on driving a wedge between the Clinton and Obama camps within the Democratic Party. I fully expect them to try to drive this wedge as deep and wide as they can, even if they have to fabricate outright lies when they run out of trivial crap to over-emphasize. I expect the McCain campaign will continue fabricating outright lies all week too, and to focus on these alleged wedge issues within the Democratic Party.

Sigh. Until the American public starts thinking through the lies, and voting accordingly, these sort of repeat-the-lie-until-the-ignorant-voter-thinks-it-is-true campaigns will continue to work, and so long as they work, they will be applied over and over again until we are all sick to our stomachs of hearing the lies.

Take your antacids or stomach lining glop of choice; because the smear machine is just getting started.

2008 08 25 snolan News
Politics Comments (1) Permalink

Trip Details

Home again, home again, jiggity jig.

Erci and I are home again getting re-united with the cats and unpacking.

Day by day details for those who care…
Continue reading ›

2008 08 24 snolan Personal
Travel Comments (0) Permalink

3COM USB Ethernet works on MacBook Air

When I bought my MacBook Air earlier this year, one of my concerns was the absence of an integral wired ethernet port. Most of the time I don’t need one; we have excellent wireless at work and home; and most hotels we visit have wireless as well. I did recall that many hotels only have wired ethernet though, and wondered if I should get the $29 Apple USB Ethernet Adapter for those rare instances. Being lazy, I never got around to it. This is one of those times procrastination paid off.

While cleaning the house recently I discovered that I already have two USB Ethernet adaptors for older gear. We have a 3COM Audrey and a Netgear EA-101C Audrey Ethernet adaptor just collecting dust now. I also have a 3COM 3C460B USB Adaptor for my old Fujitsu Lifebook B142L (Win98 notebook). Neither gadget worked by simply plugging them into my MacBook Air, but a quick web search and I’d found this informative website by Sustainable Softworks that details the different USB ethernet adaptors that work with Mac OS X and links to drivers that work with them. Neither driver worked with the Netgear Audrey ethernet adaptor, but the Pegasus driver works great with my 3COM adaptor.

I am quite pleased to discover that older gear works with my new laptop and I don’t have to spend more money duplicating devices. Sure, the Apple USB Ethernet adaptor is smaller and prettier; but as rarely as I need one of these I can save a few bucks.

I was also pleased to find that my MacBook Air works fine with just about every USB connected optical drive I have tried (Sony DRX-710UL DVD/CD and LaCie d2 Lightscribe DVD/CD used most often). Great for the rare install of DVD/CD based software or burning of a disc from the Air.

2008 08 14 snolan Computers Comments (0) Permalink

Lovely Day

More gorgeous weather got us off to a good start today. Erci started writing a paper while I went to the Fortune District (Soka Gakkai) discussion meeting on “What is Kosen Rufu and how can we achieve it in our lifetimes?” that Mike and Steve lead us in. I particularly liked a passage Steve had selected from the SGI website about separating people from their victimhood so they could find happiness being a key to stopping violence. I am trying to find the passage, because it was so very good.

Then we headed out to Gadino Vineyards where dance teachers from The Ballroom Studio taught some basic Salsa and we did the Gadino wine tasting. We liked their “Sunset” blended white wine, that had characteristics of a light Gewurztraminer and their Cabernet Sauvignon and bought a few bottles of each. The drive out and back was gorgeous; it had just rained, and the mountains were shrouded in a blue mist.

On our way back from little Washington, Virginia, we stopped at Blue Ridge Seafood for some lobster, snow crab legs, and gator tail. Very informal and very good eats.

2008 08 10 snolan Buddhism
Fun
Local
Personal
Wine Comments (0) Permalink