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Spend your stimulus money wisely!
Alligator skin boots for her: $600, Playstation 3 with Call of Duty 4 for him: $550, Having your unborn grandchildren foot the bill: Priceless. Today I got the same letter from the IRS that some 120 million other Americans received, informing me that in the not-so-distant future my wife and I will be honored with […]
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Why Linux is failing on the desktop
I should’ve known better. I wrote a post a few days ago detailing my frustration with Linux, and suggested (admittedly in very indelicate terms) that the global effort to develop Linux into an alternative to general use desktop OSes such as Windows and OS X was a waste of resources. I have absolutely no idea […]
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The results of my annual desktop Linux survey are in: It still sucks!
Note: If you are a member of the Orthodox Church of Linux and you suffer from high blood pressure, you might want to consult a physician before reading this. In fact, you may just want to skip to my follow up article, which presents my criticisms of Linux in a much more explanatory form. I’m […]
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Vista firewall resetting after updates?
My recommendation is to just turn it off and get a hardware firewall. Securing Windows by trusting the firewall made by Microsoft is like paying your dog to guard your cheese fort.
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Smoking and mirrors
The AP is reporting on a study showing that preventative medicine for obesity and smoking actually results in higher healthcare costs. For example, smoking will increase your life expectancy by about 8%, but will increase your healthcare costs by 25%. This is the result of the disproportionate amount of money spent to keep people alive […]
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Vintage technology: 757 flightdeck
A picture of the flight deck of a 757 we got to play with (on the ground) after a class I took on cockpit automation. (Click on the picture for a larger version.) The 757 was developed in the late 70s, and its delivery customer in 1982 was Eastern Airlines. (Remember them?) I’m not certain, […]
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The Boston Symphony on a weeknight: Death is gaseous and awesome
People pay $5000 for a stereo system, and yet for $26 you can hear the temporary assemblage of the greatest sound system ever concieved and built: the live combined efforts of 300 people who’ve trained a lifetime to play the work of a genius on instruments honed over centuries in a hall built for the purpose. Western civilization is worth keeping around. Perhaps they could even afford to raise the ticket price a bit.
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Obama’s speech at Ebenezer Baptist Church
Here is a transcript of the speech given by Obama at Dr. King’s church in Georgia. This is taken from their website, where it is a bit buried, and I figure they won’t mind any extra exposure this can get. These days it’s pretty safe—trendy, even—to speak truth to power, but Obama is the first […]
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Army Strong*
I’m no peacenik, and my best guess at the truth is that war is sometimes a neccesary evil forced upon a nation by outside circumstance. If North Korea, for example, ever got ICBMs, I’d probably support the idea that maybe we should do something about it besides worry. Having said that, I’m a bit skeptical […]
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In-depth review: Logitech QuickCam Communicate STX
It bites.