Workplace Linux

Rory Curtis, a United Kingdom Software Engineer, writing at Linux And Other Rants did a nice piece by interviewing his work mates to get their input on Linux in the Workplace: What the Users Think. I thought I would follow suit and offer my answers to his questions as well.

Q. What motivated you to try Linux?

In a word, curiosity. I had been working with IBM's OS/2 and knew there were PC alternatives. The prospect of a *NIX clone was just too much. I had to give it a try.

Q. What did you think of Linux before switching?

I was the worst sort of noobie - I wanted Linux to be and do Windows. Took me the better part of a year and a half to stop being sooooo dumb. Unfortunately for Linux those were the days when office desktop software was a bit thin. Once I began to work with Linux 'services' then the light went on and I began to see its real potential.

Q. What concerns did you have about switching to Linux?

Pretty much the same concerns that I have had all along: now I have to support two Operating Systems. One that I felt comfortable in and could depend on, Linux. And one that I had to support professionally, Windows. From a Information Management perspective file incompatibilities (prior to OpenOffice and some others) made the prospect of rolling Linux out almost impossible. Thankfully that is behind us.

Q. What were the major issues you faced in Windows?

The 3 "C's" ... Cost, Complexity and Crashes. When evaluating Cost there is the unit price of the OS and then the cost of the programs and applications. Personally I could afford the hardware and the OS that was packaged by default but I could not afford the programs. I ended up with a nearly useless PC.

The Complexity of Windows has really begun to impact its value for me and my users. To attempt to insure a safe(r) computing environment it has been necessary to implement a large number of the draconian measures Windows uses to protect it self. Each time one of these measures in activated the user suffers from another layer of complexity.

Crashes = BSOD ... 'nuff said. (To be fair, Windows XP Pro is much better about this one aspect of my dissatisfaction.)

Q. What are the major issues you have with Linux?

The only real issue that I can cite is that of succession. With the "expertise" (term used very loosely) that I have gained over the years I have implemented Linux in key roles in my network infrastructure. A competent replacement, somebody knowledgeable in Linux, is probably too qualified to work in my market. Conversely, in todays market there are untold numbers of proficient Windows Admins.

Q. What do you miss most about Windows?

Absolutely nothing. I am, however, very frustrated that Lotus Notes has been so poorly ported to Linux.

Q. What do you like most about Linux?

(This is the question that prompted me to do this Q&A thing in the first place.) Linux allows me to stay current with evolving technology AND not go broke doing so. Thanks to the huge effort of Patrick Volkerding I have a great distro of Slackware (v.12) that runs my aging laptop very well. In addition the software meets and exceeds all of my computing needs. Last but not least, it is all legal.

Q. Any other info you would like to share?

Linux is not as difficult as you were led to believe. On many occasions I have had to load Linux onto my family PCs. While my wife and children prefer Windows they have never had any difficulty working in Linux. Aside from some rather esoteric operations (that require instructions in Windows too) I have never even had to explain how Linux works. They just sit down and use it like any other PC.

---

I know from my work in Information Technology that Windows will be with us for a very long time. I know from my work with Linux that there are very viable alternatives available.

Rupert Murdoch had to pay for the WSJ somehow

So he raised the daily newstand price to $1.50 USD. Now here in Kentucky, unlike the big city of New York, a dollar and a half is real money ... most of a lunch ... so to spend it on a bird-cage liner is just too much. Sorry Rupert but I won't help you buy the WSJ - you have to do that on your own.

Hugh hijinx

So nice to see hugh back in action!

He gave a gift...

[He]...who knew how to bring about a work worthy of God.

The Man Who Planted Trees

Special Note:

In 1953, Jean Giono dedicated to the public domain his story L'homme qui plantait des arbres. English translations have been made, but copyright was and still is claimed in these translations. As this seemed completely contrary to Giono's purpose, in 1993 Peter Doyle made a new and fully independent translation, and dedicated it to the public domain.

[Note: The "Peter Doyle" link does not resolve. I am currently seeking an up-to-date link.]

What can I give?

What do you get for the person who has everything?

What if that person was your Aunt or Uncle who's familial love was unconditional?

What gift could be given to a person 'who has everything' that they might value or cherish?

These are questions that I have faced once a week for the past 33 weeks. Each Sunday morning I have sat, often before this very keyboard, and wrestled. In the earliest weeks I sat here and could hear only the echoes of previous Sundays swirling through my thoughts. Slowly those noises abated in favor of the actual sounds of the mornings. Entire Sunday mornings spent on the back stoop listening to the bird calls and occasional cars. Other Sunday mornings spent soaring and searching cyberspace for the latest offerings of insight and wisdom. Yet under it all ran an undercurrent of questioning.

Only now, today, have I been able to pose the questions above.

What gift could be given to a person 'who has everything' that they might value or cherish?

The gift that I can give is the same gift that would be given by the person 'who has everything'.

The only thing that is of such value that it could be gifted by the person w-h-e is the only thing that is worthy of being given to such a person.

If I give of myself in the same manner that the person w-h-e gives then I am contributing to the nature of his or her gift.

Premise:

• the person w-h-e cannot get anything more as he or she already has everything.
• the person w-h-e can do nothing and will receive nothing in return.
• the person w-h-e can give of his or her everything and gain the satisfaction of such giving.

To the person w-h-e I can give as they give and in turn receive the satisfaction of such giving. Thus, the only thing I can give to the person w-h-e is to give as I am able to those that the person w-h-e gives to.

Another load of laundry, another pot of coffee

Ha!

And I thought the morning was going to be a total write-off. I spent the better part of 90 minutes composing my views on the future of blogging...only to realize that I was blogging about blogging. While it was well written, if I do say so myself, it was still the ultimate form of mental masturbation. (So I have ended up blogging about blogging about blogging instead. I am really moving forward now.)

Chopping wood and carrying water.

When the intellectual monkey mind runs amok there is only one thing to do. Do another load of laundry and make another pot of coffee.

Sunday: In the beginning...

Lisp


Thanks xkcd

Light is where you find it...

Thank you Toledo Marie

Free Microsoft: A License to steal.

My RSS Reader showed me this...

Then I read ...

Windows Is Free

The impact of pirated software on free software

by Dave Gutteridge on August 15, 2007

... I wanted know how Dave Gutteridge had managed to read my tiny little mind. I also wanted to quote the entire post because it is so good but that would be a form of er, uh, well, stealing.

Here are some things that I have learned through the years...

1. People started out "borrowing" Windows in the early years... with Microsoft's tacit approval.
2. People do not realize that they are buying an separate OS when they buy a computer.
3. People do not discriminate between the OS and the computer (Reference my posts on "Microsofting")
4. "I already have Microsoft Windows on my computer. Why should I change?"
   
5. "Just what do you mean, 'You don't own the software.' I bought it didn't I?
   
6. "It's not like Microsoft really cares about little old me and just one more copy of Office."
   ... and last but not least...
   
7. If the retail cost of an item exceeds the perceived value of the item then it is "OK" to steal it.

Seems this is a meme who's time has come...

Best read of the year - so far

-wolfgang.lonien.de

who points to...

Windows piracy

(Bonus link: Why 'Windows Is Free' doesn't cut it for me )

(Disclaimer: I am not advocating stealing anything. Lets review the title... "Free Microsoft" This is a directive and not a declaration. Liberate Microsoft from all the encumbrances of being a commercial entity. "A License to steal." Is a social commentary on today proclivity to "borrow" a legal commercial instrument, a license, for personal use. It does not suggest permission to commit a felony.)

I am so affluent...

...that I can afford:

Cost of the War in Iraq

(JavaScript Error)

To see more details, click here.

Pssssst!...Hey buddy, can you spare an extra $200 MILLION for another day in Iraq?

As always, thanks Milton.

Empire: The Sun never sets on Google...

Google bowls for Microsoft Office buyers with free StarOffice

Free StarOffice... Free, says it all.

More to follow...

- 30 -

Post Secrets

Sound bites and the lone voices...

Recently lone voices have carried across the digital expanse. Voices carrying the questions and sentiments of peace in a time of great conflict. Voices that serve to remind us that we have a choice. Voices that urge us to choose. Voices that extol the virtue and morality of peace.

Hearing those clear voices I reflect back upon a piece that I wrote many years ago in a time when we faced conflict and social turmoil. It was the time of the birth of the sound bite. It was the time of media polarization. The sound bite sorted us all out, for or against, pro or con, left or right, hawk or dove. The 20-second message was on point. There could be no room for dissenting perspectives. Soon there was no room for humanity...

Amid Warring Cries

Amid warring cries for peace

we have heard the lullaby

and succumb to the dreamless sleep

rocked in the handmade cradle

of the eternal holocaust.

We drift a warm bed made

when half the world away

a mother cries, “My Sargent son

of only nineteen years is dead;

laid aside his hero father.”

To enter the maternal void

of wedding white she bespeaks

the seed of new cries, she carries

tears to his shroud, accepting

his honor within a folded flag.

There alone to join as one:

we have laughed and loved,

and now fought and died,

all in the name of freedom,

it's golden chariot to ride.

As the one, another yet becomes,

amid warring cries of peace

we drift a warm bed made

to enter the maternal void,

there alone to join as one,

as the one, another yet becomes,

rocked in the hand made cradle

of the eternal holocaust.

Struggling with my 20-second sound bite polar disorder I seek to hear the message of my heart. There the lone voices resonate.

upon the canvas
in my kitchen
the meal I prepare
to paint
is to nourish
as bright image for the moment of the eye
and sadly if simply left then to rot and return.

Lunch Fortune

---

It's not the end yet.
Let's stay with it.

---

From the Department of Redundancy Department

Master Your Information Manifesto: 21 Tips to Deal with Info Overload

Can you say, "Waaaaaaaay too much information?" I knew you could.

Next!

10 things your IT guy wants you to know...

Starting a conversation by insulting yourself (i.e. “I’m such an idiot”) will not make me laugh, or feel sorry for you; all it will do is remind me that yes, you are an idiot and that I am going to hate having to talk to you. Trust me; you don’t want to start a call that way.

Bubble rich, karma poor

Are you using any of this software? Then go here ( this link ) and pony up for all the hard work that Steven Hudson has done to make your life a little easier.

TwitBox for Twitter

TwitBox is my Windows client for being able to view and post to the Twitter service.

Pulse for MP3’s

Pulse is just a simple littler program for cleaning up those screwy MP3 filenames you sometimes get when downloading MP3 for various spots on the Internet.

Scrappy

Scrappy is a simple drag and drop interface for creating and unzipping zip files

---

(Disclaimer: I have known|collaborated with|laughed with|cried with Steven for many years. Unfortunately he writes for Windows so I cannot use his great programs.)

Confliction: Stuff

I am pacing. Unable to focus. Unable to sit still. I am pacing.

This is a sure sign of my conflictions.

I am conflicted about...

My owning and being owned by stuff.

The worst stuff in this respect may be stuff you don't use much
because it's too good. Nothing owns you like fragile stuff. For
example, the "good china" so many households have, and whose defining
quality is not so much that it's fun to use, but that one must be
especially careful not to break it.

To further complicate my confliction is the fact that I cannot seem to find a way to get rid of this stuff. I recently inherited the 'good family china'. Boxes and boxes of fragile and expensive plates, bowls and unidentified serving things. Oh, and did I mention the 'good family silver'?

Initially I thought I could make it 'live' so we unpacked it all. Gently washed and stacked it all. Counted pieces and even went so far as to photograph them. And we polished silver. The entire family polished until our fingers were blackened and the piles of flatware gleamed. We even set a table, once, to see just how it felt to use such finery. Then slowly the pieces went back into their respective boxes. As I type the flatware sits, nicely sorted, in its own plastic 'silverware' drawer insert on a table at my elbow covered unceremoniously with an old hand towel.

In an attempt to resolve this owner/owned situation I prompted one of my daughters to explore the possibility of posting select pieces on E-Bay. Her diligence paid off. She came to realize the value of the select pieces. And the cost of posting them. And the likelihood of actually selling them. And the real market value of the pieces. And, most importantly, that the likely 'buyers' of such pieces didn't really want them for their 'possession' value but for their potential resale value. It turns out that when it comes to 'stuff' people don't really want it, they want the value it represents - and the opportunity to sell it to someone else who unknowingly will be owned by their new stuff.

Folks let me tell you that some of this stuff is really very good, expensive stuff.

So, I don't know what to do. I have given some consideration to just giving the stuff away. Yet this resolution is not without issues. I believe that the recipient of such gifted stuff must value it. Must have some sense of what they are receiving and should be able to 'value' the gifted pieces as they are and not for their immediate resale value.

Another scenario is simply to destroy the pieces. In a sense releasing their value such that they can no longer own anyone. While altruistic I push back from this resolve. Something deep down inside is repelled by the thought of destroying valuable works of art and craftsmanship. I liken this feeling to the repulsion I feel about burning books. I cannot bring myself to consider destroying 'bad' books. (I won't go into 'bad' in this post but sufficed to say there are books that don't warrant reading the first time let alone a second.)

So ironically that which my father worked so hard at preserving for his heirs turns out to be the same burden that he paid so dearly for through the last half of his life. Looking back I can now see that he paid hundreds if not thousands of dollars to be owned by his inheritance. Prior to this newly found awareness I just assumed that he was 'old school' upholding values that he got from his parents. It never occurred to me that I might have been just as lost as I am now.

My real concern now is that I figure out a way to not burden my children with the legacy of my father's inheritance.

New Poet Laureate: Charles Simic

Charles Simic

Thanks to the WashingtonPost....

A Master's Verse

COUNTRY FAIR

If you didn't see the six-legged dog,
It doesn't matter.
We did, and he mostly lay in the corner.
As for the extra legs,

One got used to them quickly
And thought of other things.
Like, what a cold, dark night
To be out at the fair.

Then the keeper threw a stick
And the dog went after it
On four legs, the other two flapping behind,
Which made one girl shriek with laughter.

She was drunk and so was the man
Who kept kissing her neck.
The dog got the stick and looked back at us.
And that was the whole show.

---

Add-on:

The six-legged dog played well here in Kentucky and the girl that shrieked with laugher was his cousin.

Ain't gonna study war no more...ok, maybe just a little

I naively believed in peace. I believed that when candidates began talking about the mistakes that got us into and keep us in the Iraq conflict ... that they would not make those mistakes. The next round of candidates would not 'study war' but rather would celebrate peace... Golly-gee-whizzikers, I am naive.

BarackObama.com | The War We Need to Win

The time has come to turn the page on a failed approach.

We must stop fighting the wrong war and start fighting the war we need to win.

The next President of the United States must commit to getting our troops out of Iraq and taking the fight to the terrorists. We must reinforce our mission in Afghanistan with additional troops. We must press Pakistan and President Musharraf to close down terrorist training camps and stop the Taliban from using Pakistan as a safe-haven. If Musharraf acts, we will stand with him. But if Pakistan will not act against Osama bin Ladin and the terrorists who killed 3,000 Americans, we will. These are achievable goals, and when I am president we will wage the war we need to win with a comprehensive strategy

Oh well, guess we'll study war some more...

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87% of the people equals roughly an 'overwhelming majority'...

Of seemingly STUPID people?

Pew Research Center: Public Blames Media for Too Much Celebrity Coverage

An overwhelming majority of the public (87%) says celebrity scandals
receive too much news coverage. This criticism generally holds across
most major demographic and political groups. Virtually no one thinks
there is too little coverage of celebrity scandals, according to new
national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the
Press.

Emphasis mine! Let 87% of the public STOP BUYING TRASH and we will see how the media covers celebrity anything.

NEWS FLASH: Overwhelming majority of public are featherless bi-peds. Film at 11:00....

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Microsoft takes careful aim...at its own foot.

Mary Jo reports ...

» Ad-funded Microsoft Works pilot starting soon | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

The Works 9.0 SE (which isn’t an acronym for anything, according to
Senior Product Manager Melissa Stern) version will be a desktop-client
product. Ads — from vendors which Microsoft declined to disclose — will
appear in the Works task pane and task launcher. The ads will be served
up by Microsoft’s display-ad platform, Stern said.

So, my question is... didn't Microsoft learn the Opera lesson? People just won't sit still for embedded ads ... or they will find an alternative. Like FireFox, perhaps?

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Sure do miss him...

Was visiting a Cozy Shack and saw this...just pulls at the heart strings...

Feeping Creatures

Uh, Ken... Could you be just a wee bit more specific?

Digital Common Sense » ScribeFire - Dying from Feeping Creaturism

Except for 'working correctly with Blogger' I am not sure I see the feeping creatures to which you refer.

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WSJ ...you should be ashamed

Security Musings: Getting around IT?

The Wall Street Journal had an article today Ten Things your IT Department Won’t Tell You

Publishing this kind of article is just plain wrong. While 'security through ignorance' has been shown impractical there is no excuse for 'educating' users in methods of circumventing security best practices.


Technorati Tags: WSJ, Security,

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Repeat after me...

gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards": s.f. update

[REPEAT AFTER ME: "Hugh got to hang out with Evelyn Rodriguez and I didn't. I am insanely jealous etc etc etc."]

Ok, you got me...

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He's got it bad...can you help?

Platicus asks...

Now, I need your help.
Does anyone have copies of the other 3(Bart, Lisa, Homer) that they do
not plan to keep ? If so, I beg of you to send them to me. I would
gladly reimburse for the price of the mag and mailing costs

Sandwich Flats

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Me^2 Tagged

Looking up...from my z-list position on the blog food chain ... I realized that I am one of the last bloggers to get tagged with this meme. (See below) This means two things as far as my participation goes... 1.) I am ecstatic to have actually been tagged. And 2.) all of the people who I have a clue about in the blogosphere were tagged with this meme weeks ago. So there is no one that I can tag...

This meme has hit the bottom of the blogosphere.

The meme stops here.

In nomine Patris virtualis, et Filii virtualis, et Spiritus Sancti virtualis.

Gospel 2.0: Jesuits move into Second Life

Meme Tagged

My good friend Steven Hudson at Winextra 'tagged' me with this meme...

Initially I was a bit uneasy - then I started looking in the dark corners of my sordid life ... turns out I remembered stuff that even I didn't know. :) Well, most of it is true...

Eight things you might not know about me...

1. As a mini-kid I spent a summer on Kodiak Island, AK with family friends while my parents worked a halibut trawler, The Yukon. (Which was prominently 'featured' in a picture of the great earthquake - in the middle of the street, downtown Anchorage (I think.))
   
   
2. Learned FORTRAN 4 (1970-71) - Wrote a Tic-Tac-Toe program that could not be beaten - best you could hope for was a tie. A special subroutine was called so that 'turns' could be entered in the washing machine sized 'keyboard' interface of the IBM 360 (instead of having to re-run the punch card deck with the new turn.)
   
   
3. Junior Achievement "President of the Year" 1970-71 (Lansing Michigan) - Heady times when rules were made to be bent... Leading was just the willingness to take one more step than the folks standing next to you. (Object lesson: There are no friends in business and there should be no business among friends.)
   
   
4. Summered in Guadalajara Mexico
   
   1972: Worked with Don Pablo Muños, "El Quetero" (The Rocketman") - Speaking Spanish faster than any person I have ever heard Don Pablo showed me the ins and outs of making firework displays, Castillos.
   
   1973: Set up a darkroom in the hotel bathroom. At night processed B&W film and printed pictures. During the day of took photographs of 'Street People' - gritty, grainy, high contrast images of real people making their way in daily life.
   
   
5. Attended the Saturday, January 20, 1973 Counter-Inaugural March in Washington D.C. - No More War! - Caused traffic tie-ups by claiming the van I was driving was stalled at intersections.
   
   
6. Summer of 1975 - Ran away to the Circus Kirk - Three Rings Under The Big Top - World's Largest Brass Band - weeks on end of 18+ hour days, wet tired hungry and very sleepy - and then ran away from the circus
   
   
7. Evening Announcer for WKLA AM & FM in Ludington MI. 'The Captain' offered a late night array of low rumbling 'Barry White' intros to some of the coolest and hottest Jazz ever heard in north west Michigan.
   
   
8. Last and certainly not least, there is a roman numeral after my son's name ... VIII ... which of course means the roman numeral after my name is VII, my father was VI, his father was V, etc.

...from this point on this is a self-appointing meme. If you like the premise please feel free to self-tag and post your 8 things list.

System Administrator Appreciation Day

July 27th, 2007 (Last Friday Of July)
8th Annual
System Administrator Appreciation Day

If you can read this, thank your sysadmin

Advice to employees on the proper use of the System Administrator's valuable time

(In following examples, we will substitute the name "Ted" as the System Administrator)

Here are a few that I 'never' get... :)

• Never write down error messages. Just click OK, or restart your computer. Ted likes to guess what the error message was.
• When Ted says he coming right over, log out and go for coffee. It's no problem for him to remember your password.
• Send urgent email ALL IN UPPERCASE. The mail server picks it up and flags it as a rush delivery.
• When the photocopier doesn't work, call Ted. There's electronics in it, so it should be right up his alley.
• Feel perfectly free to say things like "I don't know nothing about that boneheaded computer crap." It never bothers Ted to hear his area of professional expertise referred to as boneheaded crap.
• When you send that 500-page document to the printer, don't bother to check if the printer has enough paper. That's Ted's job.
• When Ted calls you 30 minutes later and tells you that the printer printed 24 pages of your 500-page document before it ran out of paper, and there are now nine other jobs in the queue behind yours, ask him why he didn't bother to add more paper.

78's, 45's, LP's, 8-Tracks, Cassettes...

T. Colin Dodd in his article ODF: The inevitable format makes two very important observations...

The original data had been misplaced, and when the huge magnetic tapes
that stored the data were found, they were “in a format so old that the
programmers who knew it had died.”

and...

The tragic sense that would have accompanied the loss of this knowledge is echoed in accounts of the destruction of the Library at Alexandria, and probably why book-burnings are seen as a sure sign that a society is unhealthy

While the title of this post is a bit absurd it points to everyday examples of the same problem. Here are a few more that I have encountered ...

• photographic 'slides' - processed film positives (as opposed to negatives) mounted between two pieces of thin glass, bound with black cloth tape. I don't know of anyone who still has a slide projector let alone one that is robust enough to handle these.
  
  
• Reel-to-reel recordings. The old Wollensak hasn't been seen in ages.
  
  
• Super-8 films - both the editor and the projector are in the same place as the Wollensak
  
  
• Opened a box and discovered ... Punch Cards
  
  
• 3.5" Floppies (1.44M - There are still a large number of these drives around. But...)
  
  
• 5.25" Floppies
  
  
• RLL/MFM Hard disks

Technorati Tags: data formats, anchient memories

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Kudzu excuse me for a moment?

Usually I slip, stumble and twist in your calculated cultivated vines.

Today I have been slapped straight and slid onto a sizzling griddle to be served up pink in the middle rare

Life is soooooo good

I need to get a real life...

"...we get baptized in Walden pond amongst a searing mob
because the cleansing blood of Jesus couldn't do a Thoreau job..."

ThankStew

This is why Theater is so important!

Ripped but not torn

He said...

I am doing business as /Message, where I tell people my title is /Messenger.

Whenever you have truth it must be given with love, or the message and the messenger will be rejected. -- Gandhi

Proud of the hole I have dug

When I worked with Alcoholics and Substance Abusers (Hi, my name is Bill...) I would sometimes turn to the 'parable' of the man with a shovel who began to dig a hole...

As anyone who has ever operated a shovel can tell you it is hard work. And unless there is a treasure to be found the act of shoveling is just plain hard work. Often it is thankless work. The prevailing belief is that anyone can do it so what is so great about digging a hole. All that leads me to this, the shovel operator quickly begins to positively reinforce his or her own work.

In very real sense we begin to 'own' the hole. We take great pride in the straight vertical walls. We gain a sense of accomplishment as the depth of the hole increases. Once we have committed a significant amount of time to the digging process we don't feel that we can give up 'all that hard work'. So we continue to dig...and dig...and then a stunning realization befalls us.

We have succeeded in digging a hole so deep that we can't get out. Yet because we have such a vested interest in the hole we cannot stop digging. The elation and euphoria of achievement slowly becomes replaced with frustration. Literally the walls begin to close in upon us. Faint light shows down on us from a small opening high above. Only occasionally do we get to see the sun. Depression soon follows.

But because it is the only thing we know, the only thing that has given us meaning and value, we continue to dig.

In many respects I have dug a Linux hole. And while doing so I have thrown dirt in many different directions. I attempted to heap a large pile on Microsoft. I believed that the Redmond Behemoth was a monopolistic blood sucker intent on depriving me of my right to self determination. I have even gone so far as to suggest that Microsoft decided what was best right for me.

I was so busy admiring the depth and verticality of my hole that I missed the fact that I was in so deep that I couldn't climb out. Then someone started to throw dirt down on top of me. Dirt from the heaping pile I had tried to bury Microsoft under.

Ok, now watch carefully because this is important...

Being tasked with the responsibility of maintaining and developing Access2003 databases in conjunction with a IIS server offering .ASP pages that contained ActiveX components and VisualBasic code segments means that I now need all the Microsoft assistance I can get.

The wonderful irony of my 'hole' situation is the dirt that is being thrown down on me feels initially like the insult that I originally threw so freely at Microsoft. It is in fact just what I need. I will stop digging. I will allow my hole to be filled back in and I will eventually be able to climb out. True, I may come up covered with dirt but I will emerge into a day full of sunshine.

Hopefully I can leave my pride at the bottom of the hole.

I am a heel and crust-y sorta guy

My cardiologist rolls over in his BMW everytime he hears me say it but ...

Breakfast is the luxury meal of the weekend. Fried potatoes, half a rasher of bacon, 2 eggs over easy and ... toast. Hot buttered crunchy toast.

Everything else was happily sizzling away when I went to the 'fridge to secure a couple of slices for toast. After rummaging about for a couple of seconds I pulled the limp bread bag from the back of the lower shelf. There, in the inner cellophane (?) wrapper, was the objects of my desire, the precursor to ... toast.

Slithering my hand forearm deep into the bag I latched on to my objective. Wriggling, twisting and turning I withdrew the treasure. Then my eyes lit up! I not only had in hand the prize but... the best of the best. Not one but 2 crusts, heels if you will. Contrary to the expressed tastes of most everyone I know I covet the crusts. More flavor, more texture, more goodness. And when toasted, more substance than those flat pallets of dried bread. I told you I am a heel and crust-y sorta guy. :)

The Incredible Shrinking Internet

I ran Lil'BBS, a Wildcat Bulletin Board, for a number of years. That was in 1988 or so and continued until 1992-ish. In that day and age there were the really "big boys" (multi-line boards) or the mega-services of the age (CompuServe). Mostly it was prohibitive long-distance calls or monthly service changes that separated the digerati from the small town folks like me and mine. So I put up a one-line BBS - I was a big fish in a small town pond.

Then along came that "Internet" thing. Where people and companies had previously established their presence at the end of a phone line they now had to build these cumbersome "website" things. So the fearless started in with fancy fonts and graphics and everything - no more ASCII pictures or console text for them. Others simply opened a telnet port on their BBS system and didn't change a thing. No need to fix what ain't broken.

In the heady days that followed the vast and uncharted wilderness of the Internet would be likened to America's Wild West - vast and uncharted and lawless. Soon there would be thousands of sites - offering content about hundreds of things...oh yes, and sex. Then the following week there would be hundreds of thousands of sites offering content on thousands of topics...and sex. Earlier this morning there were millions of sites offering everything all the time everywhere.

Which is my exact point: now there is only one Internet. Sure, it is everything all the time everywhere but it has become one entity.

Let me offer a slightly different perspective of the same phenomena. In the course of about 20 minutes I can read my e-mail, scan my gReader feeds, double check my social sites and I am done. Then I sit in front of my computer and think that there should be more to this Internet experience. Where once I was enamored with the vast complexity of the net I am now sated by the handful of "feeds" that have distinguished themselves as important in my world (net) view.

It should be noted that my shrinking experience is not a case of 'turn-it-on, read for a bit and then turn-it-off. Rather the Internet is an integral part of my computing environment. I no longer differentiate between my computer and the Internet. To that end I find myself doing less real computing with my personal computer. All this brings me to what I think is a logical conclusion. I don't really need all of this Ghz horse power or the HD resolution to do my regularly scheduled digital interfacing. I could just as easily get by with a device specifically designed for the incredible shrinking Internet.

The preceding ramblings have been brought to you with the Palm Foleo in mind. Now before you good folks go all ballistic because I have lead you down the commercial prim rose path please note that I am not touting Palm. Rather I am acknowledging that to be most effective the tool 'must fit the hand'. If the tool doesn't fit the hand - don't pick it up.

Noh Reservations, Patty Dew

Anthony Bourdain kicks a$$ and takes names. I thought that the Food Channel was going down the tubes when the show No Reservations left. Compared with the pablum that is usually served by the foodie network I thought Tony Bourdain was GREAT. I was televideologically devastated when he abandon the ship and left it to only us rats.

Ah but my faith in humanity was resurrected... The Travel Channel had the good sense to recognize that Bourdain's travels to eat in exotic places were twice as interesting as just the eating as displayed on the Fud Channel.

Enter of all groups... Red Hat - those wacky Linux folks... who in an attempt to show just how well rounded they are... publish a 'Summer Reading List'. Now sure there are some 'nerd' titles... Infotopia and Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software... But I was very pleasantly surprised to see the first book listed as The Nasty Bits by none other than Anthony Bourdain. Oh yeah!

Bonus: Anthony Bourdain sometimes slithers into the blog of his alleged friend Michael Ruhlman and post rants and raves.

Progressive Urban Folk

In my world 'The Saint' is not the fictional character recently portrayed by Val Kilmer and earlier by Roger Moore. 'The Saint' is my wife of nearly 25 years. To have put up with me for nearly a quarter century is proof in and of itself that she has saintly qualities. So when The Saint speaks I pretend to ignore her...while hanging on her every word...


She was listening to Tom Waits'* (Looking for the) Heart of Saturday Night featured on NPR's Barren River Breakdown. Her observation was that she never hears Waits on the radio. Which in turn prompted me to observe that it is difficult to classify Waits' music. What genre does it fit into?

The Saint replied, "Progressive Urban Folk".

I liked the sound of it. Spoke clearly to me of his musical experimentation style (Progressive). His gritty inner-city themes and flavors (Urban). As well as his just plain down to earth, street level raw emotion (Folk). So you can imagine how surprised I was to see him labeled; Rock/Pop.

Any hoooo, I will be sticking with The Saint - seein' as how she's stuck with me all these years. :)

Wear our hearts on our...T-Shirts.

borrowed from NobodyAsked

Thanks Frank

LenovO vs. LenovA

If you Google 'lenova' you are asked if you meant 'lenovo' which is a courtesy extended by the great and munificent Goz. Which would be alright but the Goz then goes on to list a number of entries for 'lenova'. Which prompts me to ask if there is a mass misspelling of the name of the company? Or is it a gender thing; masculine lenovO or feminine lenovA?

Anyone have any insights on this?

Don't even consider Linux!

I have a growing feeling. A feeling that I cannot deny. It is a sense that Linux is suffering. It is suffering from 'Joe-Average-Everyday-Desktop-itis'. And I would like it to stop. So I am pleading with you gentle reader - Don't even consider Linux.

When I came innocent to the Linux fold in 1996 I wanted a better Operating System. I wanted to be unshackled from the bonds of corporate megalomaniacs who insisted that they knew what was good best for me. I wanted stability, security, and a clean fast PC. I wanted to be captain of my own ship, steering my own computing destiny.

By sheer dumb luck I stumbled upon Slackware. I would like to tell you that it was a well researched intelligent decision. I would like to tell you that I made an informed choice. I would like to tell you that I listened to the voice of popular opinion. Nope, I just bought the book and CD-ROM that caught my eye. A book that at the time I could afford.

So when I read the following article from Think Thick it struck a resonate chord with me. Among other things it speaks to the work that a user must do to make the most of Linux. I believe this work is exactly what set Linux apart from the other OSs. In addition I believe that this prerequisite work is what is missing from the 'Joe-Average-Everyday-Desktop-itis' distros that tout themselves as the next great Linux.

Then I came across this excellent article from tuxmachines.org entitled Slackware 12: The anti-'buntu. From the title alone I knew the author had hit the nail on the head. Then I had this great idea. I would respond to the Think Thick '10 Things' article (in RED) with excerpts from the 'anti-'buntu' article (in GREEN). So here goes... (NOTE: You should read each article independently too.)

Confessions of a Linux Fan: 10 Things You Might Want To Know Before Switching Over To Linux

1. The basic installation of most mainstream Linux distributions is very easy, but a first time user might run into trouble when trying to depart from the defaults.

The "setup" script is a simple menu-based utility. The SlackBook, a well-written reference manual and tutorial on how to install and use Slackware, has a good walk-thru of the process (including screenshots). It's quite simple and fast, if you take the setup utility's recommendation and install everything (which avoids the setup utility asking you which packages you want to install).

2. If you want a proper Linux installation, you are going to have to mess around with the partition table.

Before running setup, however, you will need to parition your hard disk, if you haven't already. (I personally prefer to create partitions prior to installing a distro, regardless, using the GParted live CD.) Instead of providing a graphical partitioning utility (like gparted), Slackware offers you fdisk (which is completely command-line-driven) and cfdisk.

3. You will have to learn how to use the command line.

Now it's time to get busy adding a regular user account and configuring the X server. There are two utilities you can use to configure X, "xorgconfig" and "xorgsetup". The former will prompt you to provide quite a bit of detail about your hardware; the payoff is an "xorg.conf" that's extremely well-commented (i.e. the purpose of each section is explained). The latter will do the configuration automagically, but leaves the comments out.

4. All those pretty effects of wobbly windows and cube desktops require some work from the user.

If you're planning on installing the proprietary NVIDIA driver, this is a good time to do it. If you installed everything, you'll already have the needed kernel source. Using "xorgsetup" is the better than using "xorgconfig" if you're going to install the NVIDIA driver. I chose to let the NVIDIA installer write its own entries to "xorg.conf" after running "xorgconfig", and it made a huge mess of the comments.

5. Yes, more hardware works with Linux than with Windows. No, not all hardware works 100% like it's supposed to.

(See #4)

6. If you need/want to install a package not included in the repositories, or install from source, you might need to do some research.

To help you compile programs from source, there's a utility named checkinstall. After running the standard "./configure" and "make" commands in your source directory, you run "checkinstall" instead of "make install", and it will create a Slackware package for you (and also install it, if you choose). See checkinstall's README file for more information. (Although checkinstall was included in the "/extra" directory of the Slackware installation media until the very last minute, it was removed due to some sort of incompatibility. As of this writing, a new version hasn't been released yet.)

7. Most mainstream software manufacturers forget about Linux.

My guess (by looking at my package logs) is that the entire Slackware distro proper consists of somewhere around 800 packages, give or take. (Contrast this with Debian's pool of around roughly 18,000 packages.)

8. Linux is not for the meek of heart.

Compiling from source can sometimes be frustrating, but that's usually the fault of the software developer. For example, Slackware includes a nice bittorrent client named "bittornado" in its "/extra" repository, but doesn't include wxPython, which you need to install in order to run bittornado in GUI mode.

9. Linux is almost entirely virus/trojan/spyware free, but you will still need some kind of protection.

The Slackware article makes no mention of virus/trojan/spyware so I am including the '10 Things' answer...

Protection for Linux usually means a firewall, either installed in your computer, or in a router/hardware firewall. This, of course, implies a little bit more work for the user.

10. Linux assumes that you are an intelligent person.
And then there's Slackware, which is more traditional. Slackware is the oldest surviving Linux distribution; its first version came out in 1993. Version 12 was recently released. As its Wikipedia entry notes, it's got a reputation for sacrificing ease-of-use (in terms of configuration and package management tools provided by the distribution) in favor of letting the end user configure the system and its software by herself.
If you want an easy-to-use Linux distribution that doesn't make you work too hard, Slackware might not be for you. On the other hand, if you want a distro that's quick to set up, and know how to configure it by hand (or aren't afraid of learning to), you might fall in love with Slackware. It's definitely an interesting way to learn how to use Linux. And it's definitely a way to get a stable server up and running in very little time.

So your only real choice is Slackware! And if you are not up for the challenge then please ... Don't even consider Linux!

New Perspectives in Psychology ...just not PC!

Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature

...(Excerpted)...

Human behavior is a product both of our innate human nature and of our individual experience and environment. In this article, however, we emphasize biological influences on human behavior, because most social scientists explain human behavior as if evolution stops at the neck and as if our behavior is a product almost entirely of environment and socialization. In contrast, evolutionary psychologists see human nature as a collection of psychological adaptations that often operate beneath conscious thinking to solve problems of survival and reproduction by predisposing us to think or feel in certain ways. Our preference for sweets and fats is an evolved psychological mechanism. We do not consciously choose to like sweets and fats; they just taste good to us.

The implications of some of the ideas in this article may seem immoral, contrary to our ideals, or offensive. We state them because they are true, supported by documented scientific evidence. Like it or not, human nature is simply not politically correct.

Emphasis mine...

It is about (explicative deleted) time that somebody called a spade a shovel!

My daughter is on mission...

Rosemary, my eldest daughter, is on a mission trip. I cannot say where, only that it is half the world away. She is acting upon her faith. I must act accordingly.

Rosemary is truly away from home. For the first time she is not within emergency driving distance of concerned parents who would come if she called. Though she is with a group of good people she is alone with her God. Alone she can turn only to prayer and faith. Alone she is her own person.

I learned long ago that the greatest gift that I can give my children is to leave them alone. This is not to say that I cease to exist. Rather that I, while being available, allow my children to make their own way in the world. To that end it is I who must have faith. Faith in the knowledge that my children, autonomous, are capable of meeting the world without my heavy hand resting gently on their shoulder.

I must have faith as well that what ever might befall my child(ren) is as it should be. Early in their lives I observed that I could not prevent them from falling off their bicycles. Short of banning bicycles there is no way to prevent the inevitable pull of the Law of Gravity. I realized that my children will suffer at the hands of the world. Let me be clear that I take absolutely no personal comfort or pleasure in this awareness for I too have fallen and have endured skinned elbows and road-rashed knees. I do have some small insight into the implications of 'taking things on faith'.

So it is upon faith that I place my fears and concerns. The mind is a fertile field. In it can grow any number of horrific scenarios. My responsibility is to sow the fields with the seeds of faith knowing that what grows is as it should be - not as I would have it.

I can hear the critics voices, echoing a classic concern, "What if your daughter does not return?" I would be heart broken. A light in my life will have been extinguished. Here the key words are 'my life'. Too often we mourn the loss of a loved one as though it were their responsibility, something that they 'did' to us, something that they 'took' from us. When in fact our loss is a selfish clinging to what we knew not what we know.

It is my daughter's faith that has taken her on mission. She has no real knowledge of God's plan. She can take no solace or succor in personal comfort. She will be challenged in all her senses. Even the very concept of faith that has empowered her to take this bold step will be challenged. She knows that her life and perhaps her death is in God's hands. Who then am I to argue with God? Who am I to question the outcome of my daughter's journey of faith?

If my daughter does not return then my heart will be broken. A far greater catastrophy would be to have my daughter return and learn that her faith had been broken. I would much rather have my daughter wrapped in the loving arms of her Lord than returned to me empty and broken.

I cannot prevent my children from falling off their bicycles... I can only stand by the side of the road and watch.

Bless you and keep you Rosemary where ever you may ride.

Love

- Papa

Curious juxtaposition

Here it is my intent to report a blog phenomena, to faithfully represent these posts as they were actually presented in my reader ... the presentation of two completely different bloggers in proximity to one another.

Great minds ... think!

thanks Frank
thanks Hugh

P.S. Notice their choice of tags.

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	Jul 7, 2007 (9 hours ago) Power, patronage, and popularity from Listics by Frank Paynter The historical situation that is being pointed to is one in which artists have ceased to be attached to some nobleman’s entourage and now form a “class” of their own, a group apart, so that their circle of acquaintance consists of other artists. No longer enjoying aristocratic patronage but unable to look to the bourgeois for comprehension… their poems can be dedicated only to each other. But two further points arise in this connection. First, to the extent that the traditional function of the dedication as a means of seeking “political” protection and hence as an acknowledgment of social power survives here in a new guise, the esthetic dedication reveals to us an interaction, in Baudelaire’s social environment, between the world of art and the world of the “majority” with its “strength” - a majority whose taste, as a consequence of its strength, is what determines artistic reputation. Baudelaire’s Dedicatory Practice Ross Chambers SubStance, Vol. 17, No. 2, Issue 56
	Add starShareEmail (Updated)Mark as readEdit tags: a_people

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	6:52 AM (1 hour ago) mean, mediocre from gapingvoid by hugh macleod
	Add starShareEmail (Updated)Mark as readEdit tags: a_people

We're mad as Dell and not gonna take Vista anymore...

My daddy didn't raise any fools and I am an only child. He said, "Boy, watch which way the money flows. Where it comes from and where it goes." Truer words were never spoken.

That is the very reason I read the Wall Street Journal if I can find one that isn't three days old or been used for wrapping fish. Say for example Joe Average invents a wonderous new technology for storing petabytes of data on the head of a pin. Long before you or I have a chance to see it the WSJ will report on whether Joe's idea will be funded for production. If it isn't then no matter how important the invention the technology will not flourish. (Disclaimer: I am sure that there have been exceptions to this premise. Please leave comments detailing them.)

If the WSJ is a good bellwether for new technology then CRN is the compass of existing technology. CRN are the folks who make a point of watching which way the money is going among the people who are in the existing technology business. Value-Added-Resellers, Technology Integrators, IT Consultants, and Solution Providers are all in the 'channel'. This channel is where the money flows.

All of that leads me to...

VARs Ripping And Replacing Vista For XP At Breakneck Pace

By Edward F. Moltzen, Steven Burke, CRN
6:01 PM EDT Fri. Jul. 06, 2007

Dell Computer isn't the only one warning clients of the pitfalls of moving to Microsoft's Vista operating system.

System builders and VARs, however, aren't just talking about it. They are are ripping the much ballyhooed operating system off desktops and notebooks at a breakneck pace because of the problems that come with moving clients to Vista.

...

"We are ripping it off systems 99 percent of the time," said Jay Tipton, vice president of Technology Specialists, a Fort Wayne, Ind., Microsoft Gold partner.

...

Technology Specialists won't even run the operating system internally on any of its production systems because Tipton does not want his technicians taking time out of their day to "debug Vista." The earliest Tipton sees that ripping and replacing ending is when Microsoft releases Service Pack 1 for Vista. "Hopefully at that time Microsoft will fix all the little gotchas that make the older software not work," said Tipton.

Glen Coffield, president of Smart Guys Computers, an Orlando, Fla.-based retail chain with six stores in central Florida, said his No. 1 service job right now is wiping Vista off sysetms and replacing it with Windows XP.

...

Coffield said that the biggest hurdles facing Vista are hardware and software compatibility issues. Clients don't want to replace all their hardware and software to move to Vista, he said.

...

The big question looming over the marketplace is what happens when Microsoft no longer allows big brand system makers and system builders from offering Windows XP?

"Customers won't buy PCs or they'll bootleg XP unless Microsoft does something to vendors and partners behind Vista," said Coffield. "It's not going to happen. People don't have to buy a new computer. They can get the one they have now fixed."

Sorry, this just has to be said...

Lucy?

Yes, Ricky?

Lucy, you 'splain somet'ing to me, ok?

What is it Ricky?

Lucy, why is it that this Paris Heeltone is guilty of being a deetz an' Lucy she has to serve her full sentence. Yes, Lucy?

That's right Ricky.

An' the guy who was found guilty of lying to the Federal Gov'mint, Meester Scooter Leebbee, he don' have to serve a day of his sentence? Lucy, you 'splain that to me, yes?

*Gulp* Welllllllll Ricky you see here in these United States anyone can come from an under-privileged hotel holding multi-millionaire family and get into trouble. But it takes crooked politicians to get you out of it.

No mo' ToDoCue ... sorry

Tried the Google/FireFox applet 'ToDoCue' hoping that it would serve as a 'ToDo' list that I could integrate into my G/FF Web 2.0 world. No bono ... looked good on the surface but a bit too quirky under the hood.

1. Repeatedly had to login even though 'Remember Password' was checked.
   
2. This is the deal breaker... repeatedly had to check the "Done" check box to make my ToDo items stay done. More over, had to check the done box for the same items on different platforms (with different OSs) - This may be the same problem with a different spin.

Ah well, back to the search for a suitable Web 2.0 ToDo list.

You have the right to remain...

Ludium 2, June 22-23, 2007

A DECLARATION OF VIRTUAL WORLD POLICY made by representatives of law, industry and academia, assembled in full and free convention as the first Synthetic Worlds Congress.

Whereas virtual worlds are places with untapped potential, providing new and positive experiences and effects, we resolve that:

1. A self-governance group of virtual world stakeholders should be formed.
2. A players’ bill of rights should be drafted and should include the right of free speech and the rights to assemble and organize.
   
3. A universal age verification system should be created to support the individual rights of all users.
   
4. Virtual world designers should have freedom of expression">Virtual world designers should have freedom of expression.
   
5. Virtual worlds should include plain-language End-User License Agreements (EULA) to enable all individuals to understand their rights.
   
6. There are different types of virtual worlds with different policy implications.
   
7. Access is critical to virtual worlds, so net neutrality must be maintained.
   
8. Game developers shall not be liable for the actions taken by players.
   
9. Fair use may apply in virtual worlds that enable amateur creation of original works.
   
10. The government should provide a comprehensive package of funding for educational games research, development, and literacy.

Meeting us on the other side

Peter Callesen

Caligraphy in the 21st Century

Tip of the cap to Virtual China

Slackware 12

Slackware ... this is just a taste...

- PCMCIA, CardBus, USB, IEE1394 (FireWire) and ACPI support. This
makes Slackware a great operating system for your laptop.

- The udev dynamic device management system for Linux 2.6.x.
This locates and configures most hardware automatically as it
is added (or removed) from the system, and creates the access
nodes in /dev. It also loads the kernel modules required by
sound cards and other hardware at boot time.

Google Kool-Aid....Ah, refreshing.

Before you go all "JimJonesSlamming" on me there are a couple of mitigating circumstances that should be acknowledged.

1. I have recently taken on a new set of responsibilities (e.g. Intranet Web Master (MS-IIS), MS-Access Developer, Postgresql Database Administrator)
2. I work on several different computing platforms - Servers, Desktops, Laptops, PDAs (e.g. RedHat, Slackware, Ubuntu, MS-Windows XP, MS-Server2003, Palm)

In everyday operational terms I need to have a seamless Information Environment that is not platform dependent. Currently I am composing this entry on an IBM R51 laptop running Ubuntu 7. My main desktop is a well resourced MS-Windows XP-Pro system. With the ubiquity of Internet access I can get to my 'stuff' from nearly any computer that I can log into.

So here is the Google (+FireFox) line-up...

• gMail - the Foundation.
  
• Google Sync - Essential for keeping it seamless.
• gCalendar - the name says it all.
  
• gReader - RSS and news feeds all in one place
• Google Gears - Because I cannot be connected to the Internet every minute of every day.
  
• gNotebook - Handy place to put things worth saving.
  
• gDocs & Sreadsheets - Mature "Office" suite compliment.
  
• Recently I identified the need for a 'To Do' list so I have begun to work with ToDoCue - a FoxFire/Google Add-On. I have to wonder when Google will integrate a ToDO feature of their own.
  
• Google Desktop - Finding it fast when I really need it.

Bonus Add-On: CustomizeGoogle - I have certain reservations about using this applet but not enough to stop me. :) CustomizeGoogle allows me to fine tune my Google experience. True enough, sometimes too much of a Google thing is not a good thing.

I am hungry. - The World

Ethanol demand outgrows corn

Beef and dairy farmers in Midwestern states that produce most of the nation's ethanol are able to feed their cattle with less expensive grains leftover from distilling that fuel. But ranchers in Texas and Oklahoma, which do not have large corn crops or produce as much ethanol, will be harder hit by high corn prices, Moseman said. In addition, hogs and poultry cannot digest the leftover grains from ethanol production, so those farmers will feel the pinch of higher corn prices, Moseman explained.

Along with making livestock feed more expensive, acres that have been dedicated to other crops or set aside for conservation now are being planted with corn, creating the biggest shift in planting patterns in the past century, said Ludwig of the Hale Group.

An annual federal report detailing farmers’ planting plans estimates that corn acres will increase 15 percent over last year. Crops that likely will be supplanted by corn include rice and cotton with which U.S. farmers are not competitive with growers in other countries, said Ludwig.

Farmers also could be induced to set aside less land for conservation or quit rotating crops on their land, sapping nutrients from the soil or causing more erosion, the U.S. Department of Agriculture warns.

Emphasis mine... Cars and cattle... Burgers and Buicks... I am sooooo rich I can feed my car better than ...








Bonus Link: Pew Research: Ethanol Demand Outgrows Corn

Says it all

Thank you Meg.

Coals to Newcastle

Jeremy, responding to Steve Talbott, mentioned caution when advocating 'vocational' education over a 'Liberal Arts' education...

As a long standing advocate of 'Liberal Arts' education I wanted to add the following winnowed from Wikipedia... Liberal Arts

The term liberal arts has come to mean studies that are intended to provide general knowledge and general intellectual skills rather than more specialized occupational, scientific, or artistic skills.

The term liberal in liberal arts is from the Latin word liberalis, meaning "appropriate for free men", and they were contrasted with the servile arts.

Providing 'general knowledge' AND 'general intellectual skills' are the very substance of a free society. When people can think for themselves and act accordingly then true freedom can be achieved. Perhaps more important, as Jeremy points out, is the need in a free society for in depth personal resources that can only be purveyed by and acquired through a 'Liberal Arts' education.

Delivering coal is a skilled trade. Carrying coals to Newcastle requires some small insight.

P.S. Let Marshal McLuhan's medium be the message.

Is 'Good' good?

Bank Shots

When playing pool a well executed bank shot is a thing of beauty.

HOWEVER...

This week we have heard of two 'bank shots' that give me pause to review the legendary record of 'Slick' Willie Sutton. Well chronicled by the very agency that he thumbed his well attired nose at - the FBI retells that story of Willie's famous answer to the all time stupid question, "Why do you rob banks?"

...Sutton simply replied, "Because that's where the money is."

My heart goes out to Cat'sPaw - who might be said to have experienced a 'reverse bank shot' - being held up by the bank.

Then just a few articles down the RSS page I read of David Cushman as reported by The Social Customer ... evidently in the Mega-Cathedrals of Cash I am a lowly poor sinner who should just crawl away and repent.

While I do understand a banking institution's need for responsibility and integrity I do not understand why it is the patron who must bear the burden of grace and humility under fire. If a Bank wants my business then they should take a lesson from my dentist - Dr. Wright knows that if he wants my return business he will make a painful situation as comfortable as he possible can. And I can tell you I would much rather 'enjoy' another root canal than be subjected to the attitudinal scrutiny of another bank teller.

This has been my $0.02, deposited here in the First Bank of Blogaria.

One tear drop rolling down a cheek...