Pressure to bear on the Redmond monster

Image by michperu via Flickr

The heart of Mitch Wagner's observation is that Microsoft will prevail...

Google's Chrome OS Threatens Linux, Is Good For Microsoft
Posted by Mitch Wagner, Jul 8, 2009 11:47 AM
. . .
Where there is confusion in the marketplace, hardware manufacturers and consumers look to the safe choice, and the safe choice is Microsoft. When the Unix market was fragmented into multiple different flavors, Microsoft settled the confusion by driving everybody to Windows. Now, with Linux fragmented, Microsoft has the opportunity to make history repeat itself.

...in a manner of speaking, yes, Microsoft will survive. Microsoft will always survive. Personal computing will change. Personal computing will evolve. Personal computing will improve because the collective effort of Google and Linux and BSD and BEOS and OSX and all the rest will relentlessly pressure Microsoft into getting their sh*t together, finally. And that would never have happened if the market had not brought pressure to bear on the Redmond monster.

Linus Fortune #23

Before he became a hermit, Zarathud was a young Priest, and
took great delight in making fools of his opponents in front of his
followers.
One day Zarathud took his students to a pleasant pasture and
there he confronted The Sacred Chao while She was contentedly grazing.
"Tell me, you dumb beast," demanded the Priest in his
commanding voice, "why don't you do something worthwhile? What is your
Purpose in Life, anyway?"
Munching the tasty grass, The Sacred Chao replied "MU". (The
Chinese ideogram for NO-THING.)
Upon hearing this, absolutely nobody was enlightened.
Primarily because nobody understood Chinese.
-- Camden Benares, "Zen Without Zen Masters"

Linux Fortune #17

I lately lost a preposition;
It hid, I thought, beneath my chair
And angrily I cried, "Perdition!
Up from out of under there."

Correctness is my vade mecum,
And straggling phrases I abhor,
And yet I wondered, "What should he come
Up from out of under for?"
-- Morris Bishop

Computers in the future...

Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vaccuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vaccuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1 1/2 tons.

-- Popular Mechanics, March 1949

The Stranger Is Truthier Than Fiction

OMG! What a treat to read about folks living in foreign lands eating exotic foods and cavorting with (in)famous people... (Obviously they is ferrin'ers ... cain't be from around here ... tain't right to be talkin' about fois gras like it was goose liver or sum'thin.) So I ended up reading this article in The Stranger ... (warning: contains adult themes ... like gourmet food and adult tastes)

Same Food, Less Attitude

Elemental Next Door Might Be Just What You're Looking For

by Bethany Jean Clement

If you've ever been to Elemental@Gasworks and been cold-shouldered at the door by co-owner/sommelier/waiter/ bossypants Phred Westfall, you've thought to yourself, "Well, self, here I am literally at a dead end, and I'm thirsty and hungry and I've nowhere to go."¹ Then you've cursed Phred's (irritatingly spelled) name and slunk off into the evening...

What you would truly like right then is a place, say, right next door, with lovely food, and tons of wine, and (why not?) the same kind of loftlike but not hyperdesigned atmosphere as Elemental, and (while you're at it) a man who's the opposite of Phred to hand you a complimentary glass of sparkling wine and then proceed to be as sweet as humanly possible for the remainder of your time with him.

(More...)

OMG! OMG! I was dragged to the aforementioned site because I was swayed into visiting ...

...which opened my eyes to the delights that are possible when discriminating palates gather to observe delectable treats... (ya'll ain't from around these parts, are ya?)

Braving the Elementals

In the overlapping sets of Seattle restaurant owners and people who are dicks there stands Phred Westfall, and it's not because he spells his name funny. Call him eccentric, call him quirky, call him sui generis if you must, but he's got a most unusual way of running his candy store, Elemental @ Gasworks.

Elemental's kitchen, by Laurie Riedmeman, does very well indeed. Last meal here was exceptional, in fact. After a refreshing aperitif, a cascade of delights: gnocchetti, beef tartar topped with a quail egg, asparagus-spinach salad with shaved parmesan, quail over green beans, a pulled pork tamale with corn, a generous cheese board. Wines to match each course (selected and poured by Phred, on his best behavior), and the tab (which includes tax & tip) was about $80.

(More...)

I haven't had my coffee yet...

MASTERMIND: Aubrey Martinson

MASTERMIND: Aubrey Martinson

By: Amy Whitesall, 7/1/2009

Pottery appeals to Aubrey Thornton Martinson for a lot of reasons – beauty, functionality, the challenge of striving for unattainable perfection. She likes its concrete ways to measure success. Is the pot heavy? Is it clunky? People can use the things she makes, and that feels fulfilling.

"I'm really happy still when people tell me, 'I use that mug I bought every day,' or 'That's my ice cream bowl.' " she says. "That is exciting to me."

Martinson, the 30-year-old executive director of the Chelsea Center for the Arts, doesn't throw pots anymore. The studio she and her husband, Chris, set up in their Grass Lake home gave way to renovations, then to their daughter, Lily. The kiln they started building as college students is almost done, and has been for years.

Go HERE and read the rest.

Araki Nobuyoshi

Nobuyoshi Araki (Araki Nobuyoshi) is a Japanese photographer and contemporary artist. He is also known by the nickname Arākī.

TouchPuppet: Photographer Spotlight: Nobuyoshi Araki

Paparazzi feeding our blood lust.

Paparazzi feeding our blood lust.

(Curious that each side of the tableau is so carefully staged.)

Eastern ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis)

Last time I saw this guy in my back field I thought it was just some old coarse weave tarp laying in the deep grass ... imagine my surprise when it slithered away.

fatchance: Eastern ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis),...

fatchance:

Eastern ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis), observed at [an undisclosed location, because some people who share the same space with this harmless creature would never step outdoors if they knew he was there]. This snake was about five feet long (1.5 m). Learn more here.

[link to original | source: all creatures [great and small] | published: 3 hours ago | shared via feedly]

Perfidious Albion, deLux Fiat

[link to original | source: ffffound.com | via: feedly]

Crumb, Burroughs

nevver: Crumb, Burroughs

nevver:

Crumb, Burroughs

[link to original | source: /Ambivalence | published: 1 day ago | shared via feedly]

I'm going back to IRC ... See you there.

If you are old(er) like me you will remember the communities in IRC. You will remember the conversations. You will remember the friends...and the feuds. You will remember when groups of people talked with each other in near-real time. You will remember full sentences. But most of all you will be a member.

irc://irc.freenode.net#Pa^Patois

irc://irc.freenode.net#Joiito

irc://irc.freenode.net##Slackware

I cannot promise that I will be on all the time - I do have a real job and some semblance of a life. I can promise that if you catch me there we can share more than 140 character blurts.

The circle of Life and Death here at the Flying Pig Ranch

Out of the corner of my eye I caught the shadow. A fast moving dark blur.

"What the heck was that?"

I stood at the kitchen sink window and watched. There it was again. More an illusion than a fact. A large dark visage careening across the front field of the Flying Pig Ranch. I stood stock still and waited. Perhaps my aging mind was playing tricks on me.

It swooped low on broad wings. It was being chased by three sparrows and a starling. Undeterred it turned again, folded its wings and settled two thirds of the way down the driveway. The huge vulture paced. Warily eying its prize. A prize invisible from my vantage point.

---

Here at the Flying Pig Ranch we don't have fur bearing indoor pets. Too many allergies to 'animal dander'. So we have outdoor cats - or more specifically now, one outdoor cat - Pussin.

Anyone who has spent time with cats knows the difference between ambling and intent. When Pussin got up from her throne on the stoop and walked by me with intent I knew something was up. She made a direct line for the field behind the new shed.

---

Enamored with the prospect of a new species to list on the ranch roster I made my way outdoors to stand behind one of the Norway spruces closest to the driveway. The vulture was still being pestered by the smaller birds. Opening it 6 foot wing span it made a graceful leap to a nearby fence post. There it turned and kept a careful eye on the still unidentified prize. Mollified the smaller birds skittered away to their respective places.

Majestic in its stature the vulture just sat... almost as if in a cartoon segment... waiting... so we waited together ... I from my somewhat hidden vantage point and the vulture for ...

---

Pussin returned as intently as she had left. Proudly she presented the field mouse at my feet. As only a cat can she then accepted her accolades ... my scratching her behind the ears and compliments on her kill. Duly acknowledged she sat down with the dignity befiting her station and respect for her prey she began crunching away.

---

Satisfied that the time was right the vulture slipped from the fence post and settle next to its prize. Affixing it with one foot the sharp beak made quick work of the dissection. Three good tears each followed by a head-tilt swallow and the meal was over. A moment to preen and then taking wing the vulture rose in characteristic circles seeking thermals off our hillside to drift into the summer afternoon.

---

Pussin, having completed her repast, settled again on her throne to wash. Once properly appointed she languorously stretched out and napped.

---

Curiosity bested me. I went down the driveway. It took a moment of searching but there I found the lone fore claw of a mole.

As a father my heart breaks... Daughters For Life

Daughters For Life

There are no words that can adequately express the sorrow...

Bummer, dude!

Click the pic for the story.

Tanka, Renga and Haiku

Tanka

Tanka consists of five units (often treated as separate lines when Romanized or translated) usually with the following mora pattern:

5-7-5-7-7.

The 5-7-5 is called the kami-no-ku ("upper phrase"), and the 7-7 is called the shimo-no-ku ("lower phrase").

Tanka is a much older form of Japanese poetry than haiku. In ancient times poems of this form were called hanka ("reverse poem"), since the 5-7-5-7-7 form derived from the conclusion (envoi) of a chōka^{[citation needed]}. Sometimes a chōka had two envois^{[citation needed]}.

The chōka above is followed by an envoi, also written by Okura:

銀も	Shirogane mo	What are they to me,
金も玉も	Kogane mo tama mo	Silver, or gold, or jewels?
何せんに	Nanisen ni	How could they ever
まされる宝	Masareru takara	Equal the greater treasure
子にしかめやも	Koni shikame yamo	That is a child? They can not.

[English translation by Edwin Cranston]

The Heian period also saw the invention of a new tanka-based game: one poet recited or created half of a tanka, and the other finished it off. This sequential, collaborative tanka was called renga ("linked poem"). (The form and rules of renga developed further during medieval times; see the renga article for more details.)

Renga (連歌, renga^?, collaborative poetry) is a genre^[1] of Japanese collaborative poetry. A renga consists of at least two ku (句^?) or stanzas, usually many more. The opening stanza of the renga, called the hokku (発句^?), became the basis for the modern haiku form of poetry.

The first stanza of the renga chain, the hokku (発句^?), is the forebear of the modern haiku. The stand-alone hokku was renamed haiku in the Meiji period by the great Japanese poet and critic Masaoka Shiki. Shiki proposed haiku as an abbreviation of the phrase "haikai no ku" meaning a verse of haikai^[6].

Reference

Wikipedia: Waka (poetry)

Wikipedia: Renga

RIP KODACHROME

© Steve McCurry
Sharbat Gula, Afghan Girl, at Nasir Bagh refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan, 1984.

June 22, 2009

A Tribute to KODACHROME: A Photography Icon

They say all good things in life come to an end. Today we announced that Kodak will retire KODACHROME Film, concluding its 74-year run.

OR318 - Let the first blogger to die in prison be the last.

The March 18 Movement - Let the first blogger to die in prison be the last

The March 18 Movement was born out of a tragedy. On this day in 2009, Omid Reza Mir Sayafi, Iranian blogger and journalist, died in Evin Prison in Tehran. The December before his death, he was sentenced to two and half years in prison for allegedly insulting religious leaders, and engaging in “propaganda” against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Omid Reza was the first blogger to die in prison and his death reveals that getting censored is far from the worst thing that can happen to a blogger.

The irony is that, as more members of both the public and the media praise the ability of bloggers to inform, the more these de facto journalists around the globe become victims in fact. The March 18 Movement aims not only to make sure that Omid Reza is remembered, but also that other persecuted bloggers around the world do not disappear into interrogation rooms and prison cells. The March 18 Movement would like to become a voice for bloggers everywhere who are in risk of being crushed under the heavy machinery of repression.

This day, in memorial to Omid Reza, is dedicated to all bloggers around the world who run real risks simply to tell the truth as they see it. The March 18 Movement seeks to actively expand our sense of self to encompass those of us who are in danger and to extend the protections normally accorded to journalists to all those who spend their time and intellectual capital in sharing information about our world.

Neda

Neda

More moving parts? You gotta be kidding me!!!

Reported in Tom's Hardware that referenced Register Hardware, excerpted below...

British boffins ditch spinning media for ultra-fast storage tech

Not SSD, not HDD. Say hello to 'Hard Rectangular Drive'

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

19th June 2009 11:48 GMT

. . .

The read-write layer comprises a grid of millions of read-write heads created using the same lithography process used to make silicon chips. Each head is controlled by sending a signal along the appropriate row and column of the grid.

Inside HRD

There's not, however, a 1:1 correspondence between head and data bit on the media layer. Instead, the middle part is moved in the horizontal plane by piezo-electrics to allow a head to read a selection of bits, grouped as a sector.

You have got to be freakin' kidding me!!! More moving parts??? DUMB!

Most amazing photos ...

Please, if you don't do anything else today go here and see the rest of these photos...

The Incredible Century Old Color Photography of Prokudin-Gorsky

by R J Evans, Jun 17, 2009

In 1909 a remarkable project was initiated by Russian photographer Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorsky. His mission was to record - in full and vibrant color - the vast and diverse Russian Empire. Here, with his story, is a selection of his amazing century old full color pictures.

Image Credit

Blu-Death-Ray FAIL

If this picture, borrowed from

,

is any indication then ...
yes,

Blu-Ray is a Failure!

How much is enough?

Steve Ruble At Micro Persuasion touched on a subject near and dear to me...

This trip was unusual. For only the second time I left my laptop at home and traveled with just a smartphone (in my case an iPhone), a Verizon Mifi router and an 8gb Lacie Iamakey USB drive. Nevertheless, I was remarkably able to do just about everything I needed.

Steve gives a real-world example of 'How much is enough?' More importantly this example shows what the constituent elements of 'enough' are. We are finally seeing computing platforms that offer the applications and services that make them truly useful.

At the same time we are beginning to recognize the difference between what we were taught to want and what we really need. This distinction is of major importance. In previous times it was the limits technology (8088, 80286, Desktop PCs, Laptop PCs. et al). With the advent of current processor technology the device is sufficiently powerful to support every application we might want.

Now we are being liberated from the hulking behemoths not by the PC makers but by market forces that have demanded functionality in hand-held devices. With this freedom comes the understanding that an iPhone or Palm Pre will not do everything that a desktop system will. Rather our expectations are coming more inline with our needs instead of our 'wants and desires'.

Thr real freedom that we are enjoying is not the small form factor computational platform but rather a realistic assessment of our true needs.

Getting out of the mainstream...

I am not going to the walled garden to eat 140 char worms!

I am going to cut off my media nose to spite my social face.

I am no longer going to wear my cyber heart on my digital sleeve.

I am going back to posting exclusively on this blog: Pa^2 Patois. This is where all of my views, thoughts, observations, blitherings, insights, blatherings, and blah-blah-blah-yadda-yadda-yadda will emanate from. I won't be tweeting or retweeting or FF commenting or any of those micro posting things.

I have found that I cannot afford the time it takes to swim in the mainstream of social media connectivity. I cannot afford the distraction of everyone else's continuous views, thoughts, observations, blitherings, insights, blatherings, and blah-blah-blah-yadda-yadda-yadda in real time.

Now before everyone's knickers get twisted let me acknowledge the worth of your individual contributions - each insight you offer is beyond measure. My answer is to include your weblog feeds in my blogroll. If, however, you don't choose to commit it to your weblog then it will slip away, just another tiny diamond in the great information sandstorm of life.

Some one recently said that keeping a blog was a lot of work. That person observed the amount of work was most likely the imputus for favoring the micro-blogging venues. Certainly it is easier to formulate a 140 character (or less) message and flitter off to the next important topic. Blogging, done well, requires larger and longer periods of time devoted not only to thought but expression as well. Hard work indeed.

So my commitment is to try and honor your hard work by setting aside large and respectively long periods of time to read what you do commit to your weblog(s).

Now, here is the irony of my circumstance - although my intent is to only post to Pa^2 Patois I believe that my dabbling in the FaceFriendBookTwitterFeed melange is so almost incestuously interconnected that I will still appear to be present and active. Ironical, wouldn't you say...er, tweet, er... uh... Shut up Papa!

Have a mission...

thanks (_chloedancer)

Louis in the sky with diamonds...

Superflat First Love by Takashi Murakami, Full Version

Seeing with photographer's eyes...

Pocket Camera Retro Wednesday #4

My typo love...

Paper cut typography made by Julene

Milestone(d)

The previous post was my 1,111th

Useful measures of conversion...

Respectfully stolen from my Slackware Linux Fortune program ...

---

1 Billion dollars of budget deficit = 1 Gramm-Rudman
6.023 x 10 to the 23rd power alligator pears = Avocado's number
2 pints = 1 Cavort
Basic unit of Laryngitis = The Hoarsepower
Shortest distance between two jokes = A straight line
6 Curses = 1 Hexahex
3500 Calories = 1 Food Pound
1 Mole = 007 Secret Agents
1 Mole = 25 Cagey Bees
1 Dog Pound = 16 oz. of Alpo
1000 beers served at a Twins game = 1 Killibrew
2.4 statute miles of surgical tubing at Yale U. = 1 I.V.League
2000 pounds of chinese soup = 1 Won Ton
10 to the minus 6th power mouthwashes = 1 Microscope
Speed of a tortoise breaking the sound barrier = 1 Machturtle
8 Catfish = 1 Octo-puss
365 Days of drinking Lo-Cal beer. = 1 Lite-year
16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone = 1 Rod Serling
Force needed to accelerate 2.2lbs of cookies = 1 Fig-newton
to 1 meter per second
One half large intestine = 1 Semicolon
10 to the minus 6th power Movie = 1 Microfilm
1000 pains = 1 Megahertz
1 Word = 1 Millipicture
1 Sagan = Billions & Billions
1 Angstrom: measure of computer anxiety = 1000 nail-bytes
10 to the 12th power microphones = 1 Megaphone
10 to the 6th power Bicycles = 2 megacycles
The amount of beauty required launch 1 ship = 1 Millihelen

Wordsmith Extraodinaire

Spiff recommends...

Her point is...

Jennifer Maestre

Thanks /ambivalence

Lay down low and stand up swinging....

...land on me with both feet...HARD!

Let me just save...

...up enough of it so I can give it away.


. . .

Thoughts on Google's Wave

Disclaimer 1: I drank the Google Kool-aid a long time ago...

Disclaimer 2: The extent of my knowledge about Google Wave comes from the 1:20 video presentation seen at wave.google.com

1. Unlike some other social media critics I am IMPRESSED! Having few preconceptions and very little expectations I was simply blown away by the forward thinking of the Wave team.
   
2. My personal yardstick in matters of software/application tools: Does the tool meet the hand. To this I say a resounding "Yes!"

Observations:

The evolution of the Internet or any technology for that matter is not defined by desires or expectations. The evolution of technology is defined by on-the-ground, in-the-moment, proven achievements. Pundits all too often predicate their views and criticisms on their personal "vapor-ware" preferences as opposed to the existing, working, less-than-perfect real-ware tools offered in real-time.

New Word Order

Written On The City

Roasted Potato Salad... (Part 2 - The Eating)

There is something about simple potato salad. The creamy texture of the mayo, the bite of the mustard, the crunch of celery and the bright highlight of the onion all surrounding - in this case - the body of roasted potato cubes. With that last element the salad went from elegantly simple to simply elegant.

Now, if I might, let me round out the epicurian picture.

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

I removed the "silver film" from the pork tenderloin (the smaller cut, 1 - 1.5 lbs) and then tied it into a pinwheel. Salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder to taste then seared on all "sides" in 2 tbls of olive oil in a smoking hot cast iron skillet.

Once the browning is complete then cover the pork loin with strips of hickory smoked bacon. The bacon does three important things for this meal. First, it is a 'moisturizer' for the little roast. Second, it is a cooking indicator. I know I will be taken to task for saying this but, "when the bacon is done, the pork loin is done" (Yeah, I am one of those that prefers pork done. Sorry.)

Finally, the third and perhaps most important reason for the bacon is to compliment the potato salad.

So, in presentation there are three slight slices of roasted pinwheel pork loin opposite a serving of cold roasted potato salad married together with a strip of chrisp bacon.

Enjoy...

Roasted Potato Salad...

This will be an experiment in cross culinary thinking... so here goes.

I pealed and cubed a mess (4 medium & 5 small) russet potatoes. Then parboiled them, just a little too long but we will see. I had intended to only bring them to a boil and then stop but... distracted folding laundry. Subject to my own criticism - cooking is a full time, full attention activity.

I thooroughly drained and tossed the cubes with a mixture of olive oil, fresh cracked black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, crushed dried rosemary, a sprinkling of marjoram and a touch of red pepper flake. I added a little more olive oil and then spread the cubes onto a stick resistant baking sheet. Popped the whole thing into a 325 F oven and set the timer for 15 minutes.

Turned them gently, still soft, due to being over parboiled. I will have to watch that next time.

Second turning begins to show a little body to the cubes. No color yet.

Like the Emril Lagassi fellow is fond of saying, I wish you could have Smell-o-vision ... just the scent of these roasting potatoes is to die for. Now I am torn. Just a second...

Third turn - cubes are now quite firm and beginning to show a haze of that GBD color (Golden Brown Delicious).

So I am torn... and so here is my resolve. I will divide this nearly 6 cups of cubes and only make potato salad with half of them. Just have to eat the rest of them straight up...maybe...

decisions...decisions...

We are all children of the digital age...

... it is just that some of us have more analog baggage than others.

My overgrown field is not empty!

I would call it more lazy than green. I stopped mowing the majority of our 1.58 acre parcel some time ago. It actually started out of boredom. I was bored with mowing a 1.58 acre short grass fairway. Open Mowing sums it up rather well...

This morning while I was out assessing the state of our poison ivy patch I saw a devastating sight. I cursed. I swore. My heart wept at the sight. Some lowlife careless human being had thoughtlessly driven their automobile across a section of my unmowed (unmown ?) yard. Worse still they flattened a 3 year old White Pine.

This isn't just any White Pine. This isn't a nursery 3 year old. No, this is a grown from a single twiglette sapling planted by my own hands White Pine. One of the few that we could find again after the grass grew tall at summer's end. One of the fewer still that survived not only the first winter but the second which included a wicked ice storm. Now to be laid low by some careless person who could not see that my overgrown field is not empty.

Cast Iron perspectives...

Carrying a 10" cast iron skillet full of boiling water from the stove to the sink offered a clear lesson: keep the water level. It is not about carrying the pan level. It is about keeping the boiling water calm and level.

Building a structure on a hillside might require extreme architectural measure but it can all be overcome by keeping the contained space level and calm.

A potter seeking to throw a utilitarian vessel must keep the contained space level and calm.

In personal relationships no matter how jagged and acute the angles one's heart must remain level and calm.

Don't watch this video... it will only confuse you.

For everyone else there's...

Thanks to

The Linux and Unix Menagerie

FUD: Don't get it on your shoes - it stains.

First: BrandIndex - cited as the authority that Mircrosoft is winning the PC vs. Mac war... Okay, but when I went to visit BrandX BrandIndex this is what I found...

Latest News Alerts

Below are some of the latest news alerts from BrandIndex - all stories are delayed by at least 24 hours.

Retail Downturn Rains on Macy's Parade »

Date Posted: 01 December 2008

Macy’s and it’s strong reputation scores

Please, note the date of this late breaking news item ... Hmmmmm, probably has a strong grip on the current market situation. Further down the page we got all the way to ...

The Recession Tracker: The Real Story of the Recession »

Date Posted: 20 February 2009

All the way up to 20 February 2009 - late breaking news....

---

Then there was the case of the the cataclysmic concern that SSDs Can't Replace HDDs ...

Report: SSDs Can't Replace HDDs

. . .

However, storage system integration specialist Origin Storage quickly fired back at the company's claim, saying that any plan to replace magnetic hard drives--especially in laptops--is doomed to failure. Why? Andy Cordial, Origin Storage's managing director, said that SSDs definitely have their place, but cannot replace the "flexibility" and "longevity" that magnetic drives offer most laptop users in rugged environments and other "specialist" situations.

Always cordial, Andy Cordial makes his case that SSD 'cannot replace ... magnetic drives...'

In other late breaking news pundits affirm that the horseless carriage will never replace ol' Bossy and the surrey with the fringe on top.

Just lego yo feelin's

Maniac T-Shirt

Again with the negative vibes...

"Why Linux Is Not (Yet) Ready for the Desktop"

Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 18th May 2009 19:06 UTC

We all know them. We all hate them. They are generally overdone, completely biased, or so vague they border on the edge of pointlessness (or toppled over said edge). Yes, I'm talking about those "Is Linux ready for the desktop" articles. Still, this one is different .

Let me be very clear here: Linux should not be used for mainstream desktops.

That being said it doesn't matter how succinct or eloquent the kvetching ... it is still kvetching. Artem S. Tashkinov ( this one is different ) has simple stated the one-sided obvious - a.) Linux is not Windows and b.) Linux is not suited for mainstream desktop use.

Okay! Please take your ball and bat and go home! Stop kvetching that something you obviously don't like isn't meeting your standards. Okay! Use Windows!

Linux should not be used for mainstream desktops. This is in part true because most desktop users are not computer literate enough to use anything but the most simple point-n-click user interface. This is in part true because the majority of users don't care how/when/why/where things get done - they only want it to happen in a way that they won't have to think about.

Windows is the best OS for automatons! Don't let them near Linux, they will only hurt themselves.

(I have been using Linux as a desktop OS since the turn of the century. I know first hand that it is not Windows. From my ivory-tower geek perspective the merits of Linux so far out-weigh Windows that the seeming sacrifice is well worth it.)

Too much "stuff"...

Recently I have become aware of a growing interest in small homes...

Welcome. Come on in. My name is Jay Shafer and since 1997 I have been living in houses smaller than some people’s closets. I call the first of my little hand built houses Tumbleweed. My decision to inhabit just 89 square feet arose from some concerns I had about the impact a larger house would have on the environment, and because I do not want to maintain a lot of unused or unusable space. My houses have met all of my domestic needs without demanding much in return. The simple, slower lifestyle my homes have afforded is a luxury for which I am continually grateful. Read more…

I once lived in an apartment with two other college chums in the "good old days". It was a two bedroom apartment but we talked the landlord into allowing me to move in ... to the 6Wx9Lx10h closet. (Desperate times called for desperate measures.) It was a time before "stuff". Previously I had been living in my step-van - one of those little right-hand drive mail delivery trucks. I just didn't have much "stuff".

With a 6'x2' window at the far end and a 4'x8' loft for sleeping suspended I had both a vista and almost twice the floor space, as it were. Rolling out of bed in the morning was a bit interesting ... a nearly 6' drop to the floor required a clear head and certain physical agility.

Now when I see how well appointed some of these tiny homes are I am very envious. But more than the appointments I am envious of the lack of "stuff". How very neat and clean these small homes appear. Oh to have such a simple life. Oh the irony of having just purchased a 10x16 'shed' (unfinished on the inside) to hold just some of my "stuff". Some of the "stuff" that owns me.

How conveeeeenient.... more Bushillt!

Bush's 'Smoking Gun' Witness Found Dead
IndictBushNow files Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to get to bottom of story

The cover-up of Bush-era crimes is taking a shocking but not unexpected turn. A fateful move has been made and it is certain to backfire.

Colin Powell used al-Libi's tortured and knowingly fabricated testimony to tell the United Nations that Saddam Hussein's government was helping al-Qaeda develop weapons of mass destruction to kill Americans. It was all a lie.

IndictBushNow.org is joining with the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund and the ANSWER Coalition to demand that the truth be told. We have filed a Freedom of Information Act Request (FOIA) with the CIA, Department of Defense, Department of State and other agencies to reveal information in their possession about Libi’s imprisonment, torture, false testimony on Iraq and the circumstances of his death. To read a copy of the FOIA, click this link.

A prisoner who was horribly tortured in 2002 until he agreed - at the demand of Bush torturers - to say that al-Qaeda was linked to Saddam Hussein is suddenly dead. Several weeks ago, Human Rights Watch investigators discovered the missing inmate and talked to him. He had been secretly transferred by the administration to a prison in Libya after having been held by the CIA both in secret “black hole prisons” and in Egypt.

Under conditions of extreme torture, the prisoner, Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi, agreed in 2002 to supply the Bush-ordered interrogators what they sought as a political cover for Bush’s marketing of the pending war of aggression against Iraq. Mr. Libi agreed to tell them whatever they wanted in exchange for an end to the torture. The now famous Torture Memos providing legal cover for the torture were written at the same time starting in the summer of 2002.

Libi’s tortured and knowingly fabricated testimony was the source of information used by Bush to sell the war to the U.S. Senate, and the source for Colin Powell’s bogus and lying presentation to the United Nations in 2003.

Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice are now running around saying that the torture regime “protected the country from terrorist attack.” But the torture was used for the personal political goals of Bush and Cheney: namely, to sell their Iraq invasion to a very skeptical and disbelieving country.

Having been discovered by human rights investigators two weeks ago, Mr. Libi’s story coincided with the release of the Torture Memos and the growing clamor for criminal prosecutions of Bush officials.

His testimony is the smoking gun that would reveal that the torture regime was not for “national security” but for the personal political aims of Bush and Cheney.

He was Exhibit A in the indictment that alleges that tortured confessions and the contrived legal justifications of torture set up by Justice Department lawyers in July/August 2002 were central to the launch of the war against Iraq.

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died and tens of thousands of U.S. service members have either been killed or badly wounded in a war that was based on lies fortified and promoted by the most sadistic torture.

Mr. Libi is suddenly dead. A Libyan “newspaper source” says that his death is an apparent suicide. His friends don’t believe that.

Barack O Spock, man

"Now that we have a vulcan in the Whitehouse..."
- comment by NPR interviewee



















Thanks /Ambivalence

Graffiti - Watchmen

Smashing Magazine

Busting your Bubble: Security is on the rise...

...perhaps because us niche Geeks are demanding it.

In a quiet and understated expose my long time Internet friend and verbal jousting opponent, Mr. Steven Hodson, in his rambling diatribe, Whining about a secure Windows, took me to task for asking "Why?" Why we can't get a secure copy of Windows XP.

He states and I agreed that Microsoft has provided a product for 'Joe Average' who "... just want[s] to be able to turn on the machine and do their stuff." Security down through the Windows ages, says the Crankster, ...

wasn’t high on anyone’s priority list.

Microsoft paid heavily for this and continues to pay for it to this day. Unfortunately though Microsoft suffered from another major problem – it was too popular. While it may have had made billions from this popularity they did it by appealing to everyone and their proverbial brother. They weren’t in the market to cater to niche type users.

Yeah, well, I guess I am just a niche guy looking for a secure OS. Now, here is the rub - as the Cranky Old Fart was so very gracious to point out - I am a network administrator. I am the guy that people call when their instance of Windows XP doesn't allow them to blithely "do their thing and not worry about all that ‘other stuff’."

I am the 'Computer Police'. I am the policy enforcer who has to employ all the cobbled together bits and after-thought pieces that Microsoft finally acknowledged as necessary security "fixes". And yes, my 'Joe&Jane Average' users complain mightily when they encounter the cold hard edges of Administrator imposed limits. But you should hear how LOUD they complain when their WinXP won't allow them to work at all because of some "harmless" visit to You2CanWinMillions.com.

I do not disagree that the majority of Windows XP users just want to be able to turn on their PC and do what ever they do without having to jump through a huge number of hoops. I do not however believe that just because the average user has no more PC savvy than the plastic mouse they so delicately fondle while surfing God know where that this is a valid excuse for knowingly fielding the height of OS mediocrity.

Now, lets take a brief moment to check in on some 'average' friends of mine, XP users. On average their PC is delivered to Dave-the-PC-Guy three times a year for a Format-n-Reload. Why? Because my friends Jim&Jill Average are the typical users you described. AND... Microsoft Windows XP is sooooo vulnerable - UNLESS - you jump through all.those.freaking.pesky.hoops.

Yeah, I am the niche guy complaining loudly about security. Yeah, I am the niche guy who adopted Slackware Linux early. Yeah, I am the niche guy who has to worry about all the issues that Joe&Jane and Jim&Jill just simply ignore. Yeah, and then I read the last paragraph of the article that I quoted from earlier about the USAF...

Gilligan also said that he hopes that this project marks the beginning of the end of companies arrogantly resisting locking down their products. "They're still in the model that they want to give all the features enabled to clients," he said, "But I think we've reached a point where that model is one that is no longer effective. I'm of the opinion that all products ought to be configured with these locked-down configurations, and if the customer decides they want to undo them, then they can do that. They cannot continue fielding products where the cost that is being borne by the consumer in terms of having to maintain configurations and deal with attacks is so high." [Link to original article.]

---

P.S. Related Article

MCRC Blog - 2009

Apr 22, 2009

How a cybergang operates a network of 1.9 million infected computers

Today we announced our recent discovery of a network of 1.9 million infected computers controlled by cybercriminals. This is one of the largest bot networks controlled by a single team of cybercriminals (or cybergang) that we found this year. In this blog post we will provide you with additional details about this network, the malware in use and how the operators are using it to make money – after all, this is the main drive for cybercrime today.

Yeah, 1.9 million infected computers running Microsoft OSs.

Okay but how about the rest of us???

USAF's Locked-Down Windows XP Configuration

posted by Thom Holwerda on Sun 3rd May 2009 09:16 UTC, submitted by SReilly
. . .
So, the USAF talked to Ballmer, and the CEO actually got personally involved in the project. "He has half-a-dozen clients that he personally gets involved with, and he saw that this just made a lot of sense," Gilligan said, "They had already done preliminary work themselves trying to identify what would be a more secure configuration. So we fine-tuned and added to that."
. . .
So, how secure is this system? Gilligan said that 85% of attacks are blocked by the new configuration. "Turns out when you configure things properly and don't touch them, they actually work pretty well," he added. The Air Force configuration is now in use in many other departments because it has been such a success.

My first question is, "Why can't we 'regular' folks get the same level of consideration and protection from Microsoft???"

The only conclusion I can draw is that Microsoft doesn't care about us 'regular' folks. In their seeming lack of caring they are fielding a product that they know is substandard. They continue to sell us this substandard product because we, unlike the USAF, cannot afford to call Steve Ballmer on the carpet and demand it be fixed. So, now that it has been fixed, how about the rest of us?

When can I get my locked-down secure version of Windows XP???

Back to biscuits and blogging...

After a hiatus of more than two weeks Sunday morning finds me back in the kitchen at the keyboard...

The latest batch of biscuits are now cooling having been taken out of the oven just moments ago... hot melty goodness... flavored this time with sharp cheddar and spicy hot breakfast sausage. Here in Kentucky all I need is a little milk gravy made up from the sausage skillet and it would be a little bit of 'hawg heaven' on a plate. Iffen they aren't eaten right away they will make great hand breakfasts at least until Tuesday.

Blogging has taken a seat way in the back of my short bus. My last posting,
Words and work to live by..., was both a great observation made by Hugh ...and... prophetic. Allow me to elucidate.

I have the very great luxury of being able to work tenaciously at something I do in fact love ... Information System Management. Okay, so I'm a nerd. Sure, it doesn't have a distinctive ring, say like, "Musician" or "Artist" but it is my vocation and more importantly my avocation.

This pottering about with computers and networks and the like affords me another great reward. In addition to all the more mundane concerns I am afforded the opportunity to take time off. In this case my time began just after my last blog post and ran until last Wednesday. By the calendar it was 12 days. The first and last of those days were for travel from here in Kentucky to southern Michigan and then back again.

Albion is in southern Michigan. Shenstone's anagama kiln is in Albion. Firing of this, the largest kiln of its kind in north America, started just before midnight on Friday the 17th. 10 days later, just before midnight, the firing was declared complete and the kiln was sealed. A two week cooling period follows.

The following morning I got up and spent the day traveling back to Philpot Kentucky, back to hearth and home.

... back to biscuits and blogging.

Words and work to live by...

It was 20 years ago today...

For those of us who live in a free society ... we should remember the price that is paid. We must remember that freedom is not free.

The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 culminating in the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

The Cook's Biscuit

Another life lesson comes from the pursuit of the biscuit...

Once the dry and wet ingredients are combined the dough is turned out on a lightly floured counter. Absolute minimum kneading is prescribed. My objective is to bring the dough mass together incorporating the crumbly bits with the least amount of massaging. I then form the dough into a flattened layer approximately 3/4" thick.

The life lesson comes from the physics of cutting biscuit rounds from the formed dough. No matter how meticulous the placement of the cuts there are always edges and pieces. Combined and formed the pieces render one more cut round.

Once the last one is cut then there is the Cook's Biscuit. By combining the last pieces and parts there is one last biscuit, ill formed and imperfectly shaped. It is the biscuit reserved for the cook.

Didjaheartheoneabouthe...

A Jew, a Christian, a Buddhist and a Muslim all walk into a bar, and the bartender says “What is this? Some kind of joke?”

Thanks Boyd @ /Ambivalence

Oh by the way did I mention...

thank you, Gahan Wilson!

...lovingly borrowed from James Ford

Pa^2 agrees with Web^2

Web^2 (Web squared) has a nice ring to it.

O'Reilly's example gives me very serious cause to consider the iPhone. (Yeah, I actually said that.)

Big Brotha! (This makes me very sad!)

April 6th, 2009

Obama Administration Embraces Bush Position on Warrantless Wiretapping and Secrecy

Says Court Must Dismiss Jewel v. NSA to Protect 'State Secrets'

San Francisco - The Obama administration formally adopted the Bush administration's position that the courts cannot judge the legality of the National Security Agency's (NSA's) warrantless wiretapping program, filing a motion to dismiss Jewel v. NSA late Friday.

In Jewel v. NSA, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is challenging the agency's dragnet surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans. The Obama Justice Department claims in its motion that litigation over the wiretapping program would require the government to disclose privileged "state secrets." These are essentially the same arguments made by the Bush administration three years ago in Hepting v. AT&T, EFF's lawsuit against one of the telecom giants complicit in the NSA spying.

Read complete article at Electronic Freedom Foundation

Great Design @ Loose Canvas

hugh macleod's NEW upcoming book, "Ignore Everybody" chapter titles rendered by Patrick Brennan

Grumpy Papa stuff...

I am not going as fast
as you need to get there.

(Thoughts on not exceeding the speed limit.)

Biscuit Redough

When I turned my latest batch of biscuit dough out on the counter I was afraid that I had created the proverbial flour hockey puck ... or as the Blues Brothers famously cited, "a rrrrrrubber biscuit." Instead of the sticky adhesive biscuit-batter that I would have to try and very gently knead I had a dry solid mass.

Immediately recriminating thoughts ran through my mind, 'two table spoons of bacon crumbles was too much' and 'a 1/3 Cup of cheese was excessive' or 'I must have mis-measured the milk'. No matter what the possible cause I have killed this batch of biscuits.

Dejectedly I patted the mass down to 1/2-3/4 inch thickness and started cutting rounds. It was a bit disquieting to twist the cutter down and feel the crepitus
of bacon bits being crushed ... but I pressed on. I kept a wary eye on them during the 10th and 11th minutes of baking. Just quick checks so as not to cool the oven too much.

Oh me of little faith...

They didn't turn out great but they were good. I was pleasantly surprised. The tribe ate every last one, even commenting on how tasty they were. A hearty compliment to my Urban Gourmand Potato-Corn Chowder.

So this is where I wanted to make some insightful philosophical or theological observation on the importance of the symbolic marriage of flour, salt, milk and leavening. I wanted to acknowledge the primal importance of the food ritual and its sustaining of life. I wanted to pay homage to the beneficence of a greater power.

All I can really say is that my faith in the biscuit remains.

The race is on...

First saw it here ... really comes from Glennz

Fortune Cookie # 637

A bargain is not a bargain
unless you can use the product.

Anagama Moon

Arriving for my shift I had to take a moment to marvel...


KilnMoon
Originally uploaded by william_meloney

Religion: A Convenient Belief

H.L.Mencken once said “The average man does not want to be free. He simply wants to be safe.”

...and he wants his beliefs to be safe as well.

I won't stop climbing mountains...

...but I have little desire to climb the same ones twice.

I am not my work...

...any more than a potter is one of her pots or a psychologist is one of his patients.

Sadly men and I now assume a goodly number of women attempt to classify each other with the off-hand question, "So, what do you do?"

From personal experience this is a form of the age old Alpha-(fe)male-posturing behavior. Lacking, as I am, the social graces to make pleasant conversational small talk I simply fall back on to the convenience of finding my place by asking the newcomer what he or she does. I can then quickly assess how low I must bow or what subtle level of contempt I may allow myself to have for this person.

Unfortunate!

Unfortunately we have given the convenience such simple social posturing the upper hand in our lives. Now we allow ourselves to "be" what we do. Some even go so far as to obscure our real lives behind the facade of our "doing".

Breaking out of this circumstance is very difficult. I know full well the discomfort that I felt (feel) when an acquaintance that I am on comfortable speaking terms with has repeatedly refused to define himself by what he does.

The Painted Bird is a controversial 1965 novel by Jerzy Kosiński which describes the world as seen by a young boy, "considered a Gypsy or Jewish stray," who wanders about small towns scattered around Central or Eastern Europe (presumably Poland) during World War II.

Kosiński, when asked how he could speak so distantly and unaffectionately about such a intimate and seemingly autobiographical work stated simply, "It no longer belongs to me."

The Zen of ... the Biscuit

“Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits.”
~ Carl Sandburg

I have recently taken up the quintessential meditation - trancendental biscuitry. Requiring the clearing of one's mind. Necessary is mise en place - the gathering and placement of the ingredients. Then comes the ritual. Turn off the monkey-mind, clear away the baggage of the day. Unfocus, so as to see clearly.

Let the hands work without condition. Allow the biscuit to be - in its before form. Embrace the inner biscuit. Do not clutch at it or insist that it conform. Ask it to manifest its biscuitness. Go along with the biscuit for its journey not yours. Then surrender the biscuit to the mother oven. Leave it there to become. The biscuit will tell you when you both have arrived.

Always remember that it is not a light flakey morsel but the biscuit becoming that we seek.

---

Today's meditation was gracious and forgiving. Having misread the recipe (yes, I am still bound by the written word - it is only my third time after all) I tripled the salt but then removed half. Instead of using my trusty wooden spoon I opted for an industrial spatula. With it I applied the very minimum number of folds to incorporate the wet and dry ingredients which included a table spoon of chrisp (real) bacon bits and a 1/4 cup of chedar cheese.

Turned out on the lightly dusted counter I applied only 8 kneads and then patted the dough to the desired thickness. I have opted for the 1/2 pint mason jar as my cutter - the only drawback is the vaccuum that prevents the newly cut biscuit from plopping back out. Perhaps a bit more flouring is in order.

Each biscuit then went "face" down on the baking sheet. 10 minutes at 420-something (really do need to acquire a proper oven thermometer). Then an extra 1 minute. I assume that the cheese made for the slight sticking to the sheet pan but they came up cleanly with a serving spatula. Then on to a cooling rack so their bottoms wouldn't steam into paste.

Pork fat rulez! Everything is better with bacon.