Monthly Archive for January, 2008

Paul Volcker Endorses Obama

Published
by
Jeremy Clifton
on January 31, 2008
in Economics, News and Politics & Other Objectionable Subjects
. 0 Comments

Since I’ve invoked Paul Volcker’s name twice in the last couple of weeks, I felt like I should note that he endorsed Obama today (”Paul Volcker, Former Fed Chairman, Endorses Obama“).

“It is only Barack Obama, in his person, in his ideas, in his ability to understand and to articulate both our needs and our hopes that provide the potential for strong and fresh leadership,” Volcker said in an e-mailed statement today.

Hmmmmm. I’d be interested in hearing what Obama thinks about Volcker’s actions during the late seventies/early eighties when he peeved pretty much everybody by hiking the interest rates up, but saved the economy in the process. Obama … do you think we should do the same thing today?

Hat Tip: Lew Rockwell

Powerbook Back in Action

Published
by
Jeremy Clifton
on January 31, 2008
in Geeky Stuff, Life and Twitter Updates
. 1 Comment

I’ve got my new hard drive installed in the Powerbook (I upgraded from the factory 5400RPM to a 7200RPM drive, which makes things a bit snappier), a fresh install of OS X on the machine, and I’m starting to get things back to normal again. It’ll probably take me a week or so at the least. It’s nice to be blogging using MarsEdit again instead of the lame editor in WordPress …

CNN Headline of the Day (Re: The Republican Debate)

Published
by
Jeremy Clifton
on January 30, 2008
in News, Politics & Other Objectionable Subjects and Twitter Updates
. 1 Comment

“GOP rivals debate who’s most conservative.” Yes. Seriously. It might as well say something like “Three athiests and Catholic debate who loves the Virgin Mary more.”

Confessions of a Mac User Stuck in Windows World

Published
by
Jeremy Clifton
on January 30, 2008
in Geeky Stuff and Life
. 2 Comments

Introductory Material: I am a hard core UNIX/Linux guy and a Mac user. I really don’t care for Microsoft, and I’ve always hated Windows. I was an advanced DOS user in the eighties, and I avoided Windows 3.1 when my dad installed it on his PC. I learned C++ in the comp sci program at NC State University on UNIX workstations, and I love it. I started using Linux on my personal computers in 1997 because I hated Windows 95 so much, and started using a Mac in 2001 so that I could run Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. and still have my UNIX-y command line. I am the president of the local Mac users group (I might not be for long once my members read this). It has been over ten years since my primary work or personal computer has run Windows of any variety. All four of the servers my business operates run Linux, and I’ve got seven virtual servers on two of those servers, all running Linux. In short, I am not an apologist for Microsoft in any way, shape, or form.

The hard drive in my trusty Powerbook began to fail last Thursday afternoon. I have now been without my Mac for about six days. Since I spent Saturday (and a little time on Sunday) trying to make up for the 1.5 days of work I lost on last Thursday and Friday (getting another machine ready to use), I’ve had plenty of time to get used to working on Windows.

I’m using the laptop that I purchased for my brother to use as a mobile workstation. It’s a dual-core AMD Turion 1.6GHz machine with 2 gigs of RAM, running Vista Business. While I’m missing a number of applications I rely on, I’ve been able to get along pretty well.

Up until this point, I’d just dabbled with Vista on this laptop and the Dell Dimension workstation that Philip uses, which also runs Vista Business.

Honestly, I don’t see why so many people are complaining about Vista. Yes, I know it requires more horsepower than XP to run, but hey … XP was released at least five years before Vista … to expect that Vista would have pretty much the same requirements to run properly is sheer lunacy. As far as I’m concerned, Vista is a significant improvement over XP, and is the best operating system Microsoft has shipped to date.

Now … I have turned off the Aero stuff because I find it distracting, but besides that and Vista’s refusal to place nicely and share files with the XP box in the house, I don’t have anything to complain about after spending somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 hours working on this machine.

Just to list some things I like about Vista:

  1. The search box in the Start menu is a really nice touch; it helps me find stuff without having to go through the wild array of folders and subfolders under “all programs”
  2. The icons look much better than the “toy” icons on XP (for a type-A appearances-are-important Mac user like me … this is a big improvement)
  3. There are tons of useability improvements that make using Explorer to browse the filesystem much easier (I can’t even begin to list them all)
  4. I like the new System Properties window (right click on Computer, select ‘Properties’) … it is much more informative than anything they had previously. The “Windows Experience Index” is especially helpful for understanding where performance bottlenecks are.
  5. Windows Defender actually looks to be useful in finding and removing malware

That’s just off the top of my head.

OK … I did just remember one more complaint. You can’t use Windows Update via IE any more. I personally don’t like using the built-in application.

Mind you, if I had to use this in a networked environment where interoperability between Vista and XP/2000 was important, I probably would be much more annoyed.

So … I hardly find Vista repugnant, and if I found myself Mac-less at some point in the future, I would still be able to be quite productive in Windows. That being said, I am eager to get my new hard drive in my Powerbook and be back up and running. I’m not about to switch to Windows.

Paging Paul Volcker …

Published
by
Jeremy Clifton
on January 30, 2008
in Economics and News
. 0 Comments

Paul Volcker, could you please come to the Customer Service Desk at the Federal Reserve, and slap Michael Bernanke a few times for us?

Geez … another interest rate cut, just over a week after the last one. Y’all up there in Washington ever heard of the phrase “like pouring gasoline on a fire”?

If you idiots keep this up, the economic reckoning coming our way is going to be (to use the words of another phrase from ’round where I grew up in the South) “uglier than homemade sin.”

More Dodging and Dissembling Re: Waterboarding

Published
by
Jeremy Clifton
on January 30, 2008
in News and Politics & Other Objectionable Subjects
. 0 Comments

CNN: “Attorney general dances around waterboarding issue“

Attorney General Michael Mukasey refused to legally define waterboarding as “torture” during Senate testimony Wednesday, although he acknowledged that if the interrogation technique were performed on him, he would personally “feel that it was.”

Good grief, Mukasey … stop it with the “feel” crap and just give us a straight answer. It’s not like there is really any question as to whether waterboarding qualifies as torture or not.

Let’s take a look at the dictionary definition (courtesy of dictionary.com):

1 a: anguish of body or mind : agony b: something that causes agony or pain
2: the infliction of intense pain (as from burning, crushing, or wounding) to punish, coerce, or afford sadistic pleasure

If there is any question in your mind as to whether waterboarding causes anguish or pain in light of the fact that we’ve already admitted that we might be using it to interrogate people, let’s look at what Wikipedia has to say about it:

Waterboarding is a form of torture that consists of immobilizing a person on his or her back, with the head inclined downward, and pouring water over the face and into the breathing passages. Through forced suffocation and inhalation of water, the subject experiences the process of drowning in a controlled environment and is made to believe that death is imminent. In contrast to merely submerging the head face-forward, waterboarding almost immediately elicits the gag reflex. Although waterboarding can be performed in ways that leave no lasting physical damage, it carries the risks of extreme pain, damage to the lungs, brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation, injuries (including broken bones) due to struggling against restraints, and even death. The psychological effects on victims of waterboarding can last for years after the procedure.

Anybody that denies that waterboarding is torture is lying or just ignorant.

Let’s be honest here. The idiots who are ducking and dodging the issue would be up in arms if the technique was being used on our citizens.

John McCain, to his eternal credit, was willing to state unequivocally on national TV in a recent debate that waterboarding is torture and we should not, as a nation, use that technique to interrogate people. John … I disagree with you on almost every issue, and your unwarrented and off-topic attack on Ron Paul (when you claimed people like him were responsible for Hitler coming to power) really ticked me off, but you have my respect for being a man and standing up on this issue.

Edwards is Out

Published
by
Jeremy Clifton
on January 30, 2008
in News and Politics & Other Objectionable Subjects
. 0 Comments

CNN: “Edwards quitting presidential race“

OK … I expected him to hang in for a bit longer. I guess he’s seeing that maybe he isn’t going to get the VP slot this time around, though.

No surprise that he’s not going to endorse anybody, though. It’s up in the air whether we’re going to see a Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton ticket this time around (I suspect the chances of it being something else are slim). An arrogant, opportunistic power-seeker like Edwards doesn’t want to make the wrong move here and jeopardize his next potential run (and I expect that he will try again either in 2012 or 2016).

I guess it goes without saying that I really dislike this man. As a former North Carolina resident who suffered through his term as our senator wherein he did little except campaign for his first attempt at capturing the Democratic nomination for president (”What? Me? Show up and vote?”) I actually am semi-qualified to comment.

What’s Up With Huckabee?

Published
by
Jeremy Clifton
on January 30, 2008
in News and Politics & Other Objectionable Subjects
. 2 Comments

As I was reading more on the results of the Florida primaries tonight (” McCain wins Florida, Giuliani expected to drop out“), I ran across the following quote about Huckabee:

Huckabee told his supporters he was “playing all nine innings of this ball game.”

“Even the Cardinals occasionally have a rough inning, but they know how to win championships,” he told a crowd in Missouri.

I thought a week or so ago the campaign was saying they didn’t have enough cash to even carry them through the Florida primary, had cut salaries, and they were losing staff at a rapid clip. Last minute boost in contributions maybe?

In any case, I’m glad to see that some of the candidates want to stick with it even in the face of poor results thus far. It seems to me that dropping out at least before Super-Duper Tuesday (or “Goodbye Ruby Tuesday” as Joe Lance at TennesseeTicket.com is now calling it) is a bad idea. There’s just too much that can change over the course of the primary season.

I wish Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani were sticking with us at least through next week. I’m glad to see Huckabee is (or at least he says he is).

“Front Runner to Fringe Candidate: My Story” by Rudy Giuliani

Published
by
Jeremy Clifton
on January 29, 2008
in News and Politics & Other Objectionable Subjects
. 0 Comments

Ahhh … the moment I’ve been waiting for. My favorite Republican whipping boy, Rudy Giuliani, is going to drop out of the race “cut and run” and reportedly will be endorsing McCain (”Sources: Giuliani will endorse McCain“).

I’m kind of disappointed that he’s not going to “stay the course.” After all, none of the others are really worth making fun of, with the possible exception of Romney (because of his hair).

In all seriousness, I think his showing in Florida was pretty impressive given how he did in other states. I honestly expected him to do better overall than he’s done, though I never thought he would have had a chance of carrying the South if he had managed to get the nod. His crash-and-burn in the last few months really took me by surprise.

If our nation ever gets to the point where I’d like for it to be, with some smaller parties breaking the hegemony of the Republicans and Democrats such that we ended up with maybe 4-6 smaller major parties and a few minor parties, I would fully expect to see a party form around people like Rudy Giuliani, and I think it could play an important part in the political process. Giuliani’s perspectives and unique position in the Republican Party were valuable to the debates and the race thus far.

But Rudy … why didn’t you endorse Ron Paul? Didn’t finish his reading assignment for you? I guess you’ve got some time to get started on that now …

Programming by Lantern Light

Published
by
Jeremy Clifton
on January 29, 2008
in Life and Twitter Updates
. 0 Comments

Now this is the life … programming by the light of an oil lantern with the soft beeping of my UPS strips in the background, slowly giving up their battery life to keep my internet access running. EPB? You’ve got about two hours to get my power back on. One hour before I lost the batteries in my UPS strips, and one more hour after that before I start to go into internet withdrawl.