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August 29, 2005
Please step away from the brink, thank you.
Fron BoingBoing:
Fox News nutbag contributor and former US prosecutor John Loftus read the address of a "terrorist" residence in California on-air. Oh, wait -- whoops -- no terrorist home, just an innocent family of five who are now the target of angry threats.Since the report aired on Fox News on Aug. 7, people have shouted profanities at Randy and Ronnell Vorick and spray-painted "terrorist" (spelling it "terrist") on their property.
Newshounds follows up: Loftus got fired
Posted by griffjon at 06:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 28, 2005
More whining
I don't have a goal, I just have a direction.
I think this lacking goal causes problems when I'm in between, waiting, and looking. My "Direction" as such is international IT development, but really, what does that mean? What is my dream job? Time and time again I find that I really don't like managing people. I enjoy working together with people who have complimentary skills with some overlap, who are similarly motivated. I like organizations that are as flat as possible, with the least amount of pyramiding and pandering to having nice titles. Similarly, I really despise red tape and bureacracy, as they almost always tend to get in the way more than anything else.
I'm really ready for school to start up right now. I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels this month in DC, wading through the bureacracies and check-lists of the basic requirements of getting through, and, mainly due to lack of effort, newness in town, and people to go out with, I'm missing Austin, in the sense that nothing so far really requires DC over Austin; tho in a week that will not be the case, it has been for 4 weeks now, so is getting tiring.
I feel like if I had a more specific, solid goal, as opposed to a laundry list of things I want to avoid in life, I'd be doing better, but as it is, the vagueness is un-motivating.
So, let's codify why I'm spending 80k to get a Masters degree in DC:
- I like travelling and living in other countries, and hope to do some integrated into my job.
- I feel that development work is important, and so far the most attractive area of work for me as a career of any sort
- IT continues to be one of my central skills, but I do not want to be an IT professional with many sets of MS certifications after my name.
- IT-in-Development requires creative problem solving with small budgets -- which strongly appeals to my desire to fix everything in the world with duct-tape and baling wire.
- IT-in-Development can be applied locally, in education, as well as Internationally, and also eventually (with more experience) as a topic for writing or academia, all of which appeals to my inner commitment-phobe.
- DC in specific is where international dev in the USA happens, and a focus for a lot of progressive domestic development work, so it's a good place to be for a while to make contacts and explore job horizons.
OK, that helped. Still, tho. Damn houses-being-torn-down, I should've not gotten here so soon.
Posted by griffjon at 03:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
My problems with IE
So, I use FireFox as my web browser. It's the way to go. But occassionally I have to deal with designing for IE. Here are some things that really drive me batty:
Borders/margins/padding: IE implements borders just plain wrong, and it messes with things in weird ways as to where thick borders take their pixels from (inside or outside of the box?)
graphics: OK, people. We have PNG graphics now. IE reads them, but doesn't deal with their alpha transparencies right. So, if you want to do fancy transparent graphics in IE, you have to use GIFs, and probably, slices and table-layouts to keep them all in line, which is SUCH a pain compared to using a non-sliced PNG and have it do correct transparency over whatever background. Seriously.
CSS hover elements: IE only implements hover over links, not over random elements, which means that you have to do javascript in IE for drop-down menus, which is a pain, as js also has crazy cross-browser problems, and it's bad design to require js for navigation purposes, as it doesn't degrade gracefully at all.
Security: This is less web-design and more user-interface. IE is so happy to install 5 trillion toolbars and gadgets and whatnot by accidental button-presses, and you end up with a browser screen with half of it devoted to toolbars that are spying on you. Not to mention the hundreds of IE security holes that take forever to get fixed.
Extensibility: Mozilla-based browsers can support great add-ons, that usually do everything and more than the IE toolbars could ever dream of. Oh, added bonus? They're not corporate, they're not trying to make money, so they're not spying on your browsing habits!
So, if you're reading this in IE, seriously, try firefox. Just try it. You'll love it.
Posted by griffjon at 11:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 25, 2005
Oriented
So, today was the big grad orientation!
Lots of info, greetings, people!
The morning was mostly intro-to-the-Elliott School, who's the staff/directors, the Library system (I like the librarian, he's into neologisms. He promised to "de-google-ize" us with "bibliotherapy". [1]
The noon hour was devoted to language diagnostics, which the International Science/Tech Policy (ISTP) people like myself are immune from. I almost took the Spanish exam anyhow, but it was a 30 min wait for a 40 min test, then scheduling a 15 min oral later... I opted for lunch and getting my student ID and library cards instead. I can always take the diagnostic during registration in October for the spring semester, or next fall, if for whatever reason I need it. Evidentally the Spanish diagnostic requires a lot of writing, and that's probably my lowest skill in Spanish right now. Maybe if I spent some time in Nicaragua over the summer doing IT-in-development field work, I could manage something (sadly, to get course credit for anything at GWU, you have to pay GWU tuition costs, the price of which is probably twice the amount I'd spend on airfare, food, and housing for a month in Nica).
I found all this detail out during the study abroad section. There are two semster-long programs that are interesting, one in Paris, one in Maastricht, Netherlands, and a summer program in Panama with USAID on a tourism-development project. I hope to take advantage of at least one of these programs, though I don't know what that will do with my job. They're very flexible, but they do need someone on-site who is familiar with their systems. I'll work with them as I learn more about these programs, their costs, value, and so on.
After that was the break-out with the individual programs. The bread and butter of the Elliott School is their International Affairs program, which has to have a hundered or so students in it. The ISTP program this year has 14 grad students, and Intl Dev group, which I also hope to work with some, has 25 or so. Which means we're small, but the faculty to student ratio is like 4:1 in the overall program.
At the end of the day was the student services fair, which was mostly stuff I'd already figured out the hard way, thanks, and a welcome BBQ for the entire GW grad class. The lines were insanely long, but I ended up getting to talk to people in other random programs that GW offers, so that was nice after being bottled up with the policy folks all day :)
Post-BBQ, the Elliott School grad students had a happy hour nearby (there's a Thursday Night Out, TNO, tradition... Annoying, as I don't have classes at GW on Thus this semester, but the timing could work if I work an hour later of Thus and come up afterward....) That was fun, but super-crowded, and my social batteries for the day were nearing empty, so I had a last-call of happy hour beer ($2 for a frickin' Miller Lite.... this town has no love for beer!), chatted for a bit with a fellow RPCV, and wandered homewards.
I think that's it! TIRED!
[1] DAMNIT I hate the "correct" grammar on placing punctuation inside quotes. It's so structurally backwards that it's not even funny!
Posted by griffjon at 08:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 24, 2005
Let's take Robertson out!
Because obviously, it's not just killing anymore!
From The BBC:
But [Robertson] argued that there were a number of possible meanings for the phrase "take him out", including kidnapping.
Please. Have the balls to issue an apology, don't insult our intelligence.
Posted by griffjon at 07:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 23, 2005
More on American Terrorists
Our own home-grown religious extremist terrorist Pat Robertson of course. The BBC has a good article about Venezuela's and the OAS' response, as well as some nervous-sounding statements from the US State Dept. denying that Roberston represents US policy towards Venezuela. Of note:
Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel responds: "This is a huge hypocrisy to maintain an anti-terrorist line and at the same time have such terrorist statements as these made by Christian preacher Pat Robertson coming from the same country."
The vice-president also said the Organization of American States could take up the case, saying an inter-American anti-terrorism accord includes provisions against inciting others to kill.
The BBC adds at the end;
Venezuela is the fifth-largest oil exporter and a major supplier of oil to the United States.
A bit more discussion here:
Posted by griffjon at 10:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Christian Assassination Politics?
As already reported at ThisModernWorld, our favorite "Christian" Pat Robertson is calling for the assassination of Chavez, and there's a fuller story on CNN.
Roberston:
There was a popular coup that overthrew him [Chavez]. And what did the United States State Department do about it? Virtually nothing. And as a result, within about 48 hours that coup was broken; Chavez was back in power, but we had a chance to move in. He has destroyed the Venezuelan economy, and he's going to make that a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism all over the continent.You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don't think any oil shipments will stop. But this man is a terrific danger and the United ... This is in our sphere of influence, so we can't let this happen. We have the Monroe Doctrine, we have other doctrines that we have announced. And without question, this is a dangerous enemy to our south, controlling a huge pool of oil, that could hurt us very badly. We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.
Things wrong with this statement:
- This is a person who claims to be a Christian arguing for the murder of another human being. Honestly, dude, you're going to hell if there is one.
- Venezuela's a Catholic country, not exactly a hotbed of extremist Muslims. Or Catholics, for that matter.
- True, it's a bit left of the center, politically... but mainly to protect itself from the encroachment of US imperialism. Which, if you look at countries in South America who haven't protected themselves from that, you see why it's a Good Idea
- We actually did do a lot to support the coup. Even during the short coup, there were a lot of rumors around that coup (you might recall, I was in Venezuela for it) that the US had a decently strong role in supporting the coup. Newsweek later revealed that the US Embassy had been made aware beforehand and that the US provided financial and military support to the plotters. We recognized the coup's gov't immediately (which, as it only lasted 3 days, took some effort!). (Read more about the April 11 Coup in Venezuela and the US support of the coup)
- If we're honestly still worried about communism, why don't we take out Castro? Oh right, we tried, and that didn't work too well. Obviously, if South America was on the edge of going commie, I think that it already would have (luckily, the US has been placing puppet dictators throughout to make sure that it's merely an oppressive, anti-democratic area, not commies. Phew! close call!
This guy sickens me. Billmon over at This Modern World has it right:
As far as the political aspects of a remark like this, I think it's high time that the Democratic party borrow a page from the Republican playbook and insist that high-profile conservatives like George Bush, James Dobson, Bill Frist, John McCain, Rick Santorum, Tom DeLay and the like go on record about whether or not they agree with Pat Robertson's call for the killing of Hugo Chavez. Do you agree that Chavez should be assassinated or not? Since you've been so willing to speak for Jesus in the past, do you think he'd support sending someone to murder the democratically elected leader of a foreign country?
Posted by griffjon at 10:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 22, 2005
MediaWiki on Windows/Apache2/PHP, fun problems with it not working
Again, at work, and finally wrestled a problem to the ground that has very little online information.
Setup: MediaWiki, Windows platform, Apache2 web, PHP4, MySQL
First, always remember to change your MySQL user password to the old_password schema (also, you must actually change the password when you do this, or it won't update!
mysql> UPDATE mysql.user SET Password = OLD_PASSWORD('newpwd')
-> WHERE User = 'some_user';
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Symptoms:
The wiki is installed... and... sometimes... works. index.php gives 500 Errors, and the log reports things like:
File does not exist: C:/www/php/php.exe
or
malformed header from script. Bad header=HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently: php.exe
CTRL-f5 refreshes (clearing the cache_ works, but other refreshes don't. Sometimes a page works, sometimes it don't.
Fixing it...
First, get a Mounds or Almond Joy candybar. If you don't get the joke, you're too young to be worrying about the problem.
Check LocalSettings.php in the wiki's root directory, make sure
$wgScriptPath is set to /wiki and not /php/php.exe or similar.
That helped, but lead to the intermittent-working problems. I found this email exchange as a next step, MediaWiki uses 301 redirects to enable caching of wiki pages (passed in CGI variables, so normally wouldn't client-side cache)
That site suggests:
This isn't a valid solution, but I edited index.php to remove the 301
redirect code, and everything now appears to work properly. Does that spark any ideas?
So, I changed
$wgOut->redirect( $wgTitle->getFullURL(), '301');
to
/* $wgOut->redirect( $wgTitle->getFullURL(), '301'); */
and it made index.php work, but nothing linked from there (for obvious reasons, think about what you just did).
So I returned to Google seeking more information on caching and 301 redirects, and found this mail archive on Mediawiki caching, which gave me the final clue:
If you really need to disable HTTP client caching for some reason (or the internal parser caching), see DefaultSettings.php for the list of all configurable settings that you can set in LocalSettings.php
So, in the wiki's includes directory, open DefaultSettings.php and find
# Client-side caching:
$wgCachePages = true; # Allow client-side caching of pages
And change that to false. Whee!
I do NOT know if this is the wise/correct thing to do, certainly not on a high-bandwidth/usage wiki! However, it works. If anyone finds the real underlying problem, post it as a comment here, or somewhere on the net at least, to spread the love!
Posted by griffjon at 02:21 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 20, 2005
Life Updates
I've been busy!!! Sorry, I feel I've been out of touch with everyone out there.
OK.
I got the job at CrisisLink / 1-800-Suicide. It's a good job for me, not unlike OTC in that I'll be full-spectrum IT support/development/planning/etc. I work part-time. It's a bit of a commute, but I figure I'll have enough reading pretty quickly...
I've bought some new clothes (I was getting a bit low on decent shirts there) and found a new pair of shoes. (grrr shoes). I've established a local bank account, as UFCU only has one ATM in DC that it has a shared agreement with. I've bought a cell phone, and am waiting for it to be delivered (Verizon). I'm very excited about the phone, which will be free-to-me after some rebates; it's a 1.3 megapixel camera with LED flash, video camera, MP3 player, bluetooth, and USB connectivity, with 512MB of memory internal plus a mini-SD slot! It's CRAZY. Hopefully I'll actually like it once I get to use it...
Outside of work, I continue to try to keep up with the local DC friends, but that is not a cheap proposition! Fun, tho.
I continue to explore parts of the city -- Adams Morgan, Georgetown, and Dupont Circle all appear to be pretty fun areas to hang around in, with coffee shops that aren't starbucks, indie bookstore/cafes, and the like.
Classes start for me in early September, with lots of orientation type things happening over the next 2 weeks.
I think that's the big news up here.
Posted by griffjon at 06:52 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
SCOTUS v Roberts
In 1983, under Reagan, Roberts wrote:
"The federal judiciary today benefits from an insulation from political pressure even as it usurps the role of the political branches"
Funny, I thought that was the whole idea of the judicial branch, to be politically buffered, and to pull rank on the other two branches when they overstepped the Constitution.
I guess the times, they are a changin'
Posted by griffjon at 06:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 19, 2005
Weather Advisory
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN STERLING VIRGINIA HAS ISSUED A HEAT ADVISORY...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM NOON TO 6 PM EDT SATURDAY.HIGH TEMPERATURES SATURDAY ARE FORECAST INTO THE LOW AND MID 90S.
COMBINED WITH HIGH HUMIDITY...THIS WILL CREATE HEAT INDEX VALUES
AROUND 100 DEGREES
I guess, since AC is less common here, that that's a problem. But, uh, low and mid 90s? That's like... a cold front in Texas during the summer. I will say that it's more humid here than Austin at least, and there's no breeze to speak of, which does make it more stifling.
Posted by griffjon at 01:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Kinky Friedman for Gov... heck, President
"I'm for you," Cook said, sitting down to write the campaign a check. "I'm sick of these assholes who don't represent me, or represent people." By now, this sentiment had become a common refrain. "They represent A.T. & T. and Enron. How you gonna come and beg for my vote and then have nothing to do with me? Did Enron elect you or did I? I'm paying your salary, hoss. How'd it be if someone went up to the capitol and did what they said they would?""It'd be a first," the candidate said.
"I believe it, hoss," Cook said. "That's why you're gonna win."
A few notes on Kinky -- first, his investments pay off well. He invested $200 at Harah's in Nawlin's and made over 45k (ironically, 45k is the number of signatures he needs to get on the ballot.
Second, the New Yorker ran a huge piece on him, with insights such as:
Kinky Friedman's candidacy is bound to be something; what that something is is still up for debate. He is surely the only candidate for governor to have written extensively about his past cocaine use, or to have flown in Led Zeppelin's private plane, or to have performed at the Grand Ole Opry.
and
...he intends to capitalize on voter dissatisfaction, and on whatever's left of the tradition of Texas populism. In his latest book, a collection of essays called “Texas Hold 'Em,” he writes, “My platform is to remember that when they went out searching for Sam Houston to try to persuade him to be the governor—and he was the greatest governor this state has ever had—rumor has it that they found him drunk, sleeping under a bridge with the Indians.”
Give the website of the next Governor of Texas a whirl -- take a good look at his policies. Underneath his flippant ways, you might actually find that you're nodding and hoping he gets elected... President.
(I also like him because he's a fellow UT/Plan II grad and returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Borneo, 66-68).)
Posted by griffjon at 01:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 18, 2005
American Dream
Interesting piece in the BBC on the American dream:
"If you are born into poverty in the US," said one of its authors, "you are actually more likely to remain in poverty than in other countries in Europe, the Nordic countries, even Canada, which you would think would not be that different."
Posted by griffjon at 09:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Updates
I spent the morning updating some of the code to GriffJon.com; you may or may not notice a change in the navigation bar to your left; it now has pure-CSS dropdown menus (but only for people with cool web browsers). This means now that there are a few pages that you can only get to via firefox, but they're not super-important, and again, this is my website, darnit, and I'm not going to cater to IE's flawed implementations of web standards!
The afternoon was pleasantly spent finding the best path to and from my class at GTown; it's going to be a close one, especially on bad-weather-days, as the GTown class ends at 4:05, and I have a class at the bottom of GWU's campus at 5:10. And, of course, GTown has no metro stops, so possibly I'll have a bus ride on wintery/wet days?
Also, explored some along M Street and Dupont circle, and located many of the fine recommendations made by JFerguson.
Posted by griffjon at 06:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Jailtime for spammers
A former AOL employee has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for selling members' details to spammers.American Jason Smathers, 25, said he turned into a "cyberspace outlaw" after selling the database of 92 million screen names and e-mail addresses.
As a result of his actions in 2003, about seven billion unsolicited spam e-mails flooded inboxes of AOL members.
BBC
15 months is probably a long time, but it seems like a slap on the wrist for giving 92 million people a flood of spam. Tho... I guess his inbox is probably full of unsolicited male, tho, so, perhaps the punishment does fit the crime?
Posted by griffjon at 05:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Ruh-roh
This can't be good...
BoingBoing reports:
Internet worms attack each other to build massive botnets
This week's storm of Windows worms is compounded by the fact that rival botnet gangs have written worms that attack each other, targetting one-another's compromised zombies and converting them to part of their own botnets.
(More)
Posted by griffjon at 05:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 17, 2005
Some Quotes
(Gleaned from DailyKOS)
"Explain to the mothers and fathers of American servicemen that may come home in body bags why their son or daughter have to give up their life?" --Sean Hannity, Fox News"[The] President . . . is once again releasing American military might on a foreign country with an ill-defined objective and no exit strategy. He has yet to tell the Congress how much this operation will cost. And he has not informed our nation's armed forces about how long they will be away from home. These strikes do not make for a sound foreign policy."
--Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA)"If we are going to commit American troops, we must be certain they have a clear mission, an achievable goal and an exit strategy."
--Karen Hughes, speaking on behalf of George W Bush"I had doubts about the bombing campaign from the beginning . . I didn't think we had done enough in the diplomatic area."
--Senator Trent Lott (R-MS)"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is."
--Governor George W. Bush (R-TX)
Of course, they're all talking about Clinton's committing troops to Bosnia. Which actually did what it was supposed to do, didn't destroy our economy, and didn't lose US troops in the process.
Hypocrites. Lieing, jealous, stupid, malicious carpetbagging hypocrites.
Posted by griffjon at 03:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Crocodile Tears
The crocodile immune system can kill the HIV virus, as well as many other nasty virii that obly our strongest antibiotics can deal with.
Posted by griffjon at 12:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 16, 2005
Terrorism: Finding the puppetmasters
In the 60s, this organization enabled a small cabal of masterminds who ruled their area of expertise for decades to come, influencing countless numbers of Americans, even today, with their art.
But finally, the US Dept. of Homeland Security has caught up to 'em, in San Francisco, no less, and frozen their bank accounts during a transition of power in the cell.
Yup, they've frozen the funds of the San Francisco Bay Area Puppeteers Guild, when the transfer of the bank account from the retiring treasurer to the new one flipped some alert. (Link from BoingBoing)
Between going after puppeteers and toddlers, Homeland Security's really on top of the modern, post-9/11 terrorist threats!
Posted by griffjon at 07:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Gold Star Mothers vs Hilary? Not so much
If you ever get someone talking about Hilary's "Infamous" snubbing of the Gold Star Mothers, a group of mothers who have lost children in the military (not connected to Cindy's new group). Please note that it's proven false, and that our president is currently snubbing, very blatantly, a similar group.
I direct you to The Daily KOS for more reading.
Posted by griffjon at 04:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Finally, the boneless chicken ranch!
Posted by griffjon at 12:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
IMF and Iraq: Ooh, can we create a new debtor state?
The Beeb reports:
Iraq faces "daunting challenges" as it struggles to rebuild its battered economy, the International Monetary Fund has warned.The violent insurgency and political uncertainties pose "major risks" to Iraq's economic recovery, the IMF said.
In its first review of the country in 25 years, the IMF called for reforms in Iraq's oil and finance industries.
If we do this "right," maybe we can create another State that's in debt up to its eyeballs such that we can puppet it into doing whatever we want? 'cuz that'll certainly make everything work out just peachy!
[/sarcasm]
Posted by griffjon at 11:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Stem Cell Nerves!
English Scientists have grown human nerve stem cells from embryonic stem cells.
Man, it'd be nice if we could devote some research dollars to that new-fangled technology over on this side of the pond, and y'know, cure some serious diseases or something.
Posted by griffjon at 11:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Aren't you a little .... short... for a terrorist?
Beware, the new face of globahl terra:
Ingrid Sanden told AP that her one-year-old daughter was stopped in Phoenix while trying to board a flight to Washington last November."I completely understand the war on terrorism, and I completely understand people wanting to be safe when they fly," she said. "But focusing the target a little bit is probably a better use of resources."
Another woman, Sarah Zapolsky, told the agency that her and her husband were stopped at Washington's Dulles airport after an airline agent told them their 11-month-old son was on the list.
They were only allowed to board after their son's passport details were faxed through by a travel agent.
-- BBC
Seriously, folks. Why does working in security deprive you of your ability to step away and apply logic to the situation? I don't think toddlers have had the time to make it through terrorism boot camps.
Posted by griffjon at 11:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Could the War on Drugs cost us in Oil?
The BBC writes:
Oil exports to the US could stop amid growing tensions between the two countries, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said.He described recent US government actions as "aggressive" in a speech at a youth festival in Caracas.
As a result, Venezuelan oil "instead of going to the United States, could go elsewhere," he said.
Venezuela exports about 1.3 million barrels a day to the US and is the world's fifth largest oil producer.
Tensions between the two countries have escalated since President Chavez accused the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of spying on his government.
Washington denies the charge and has accused Caracas of failing to co-operate in the fight against drug-trafficking.
Remember that Venezuela is the only Western OPEC member, has more oil reserves than Saudi Arabia, and we don't play very nice with them. (Chavez and Castro are buddies)
Posted by griffjon at 11:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Vanishing
Vanishing Point searches headlines and articles from major G7 newspapers and shades the countries they mention, leaving unmentioned countries transparent.
I wish it could be more granular, and you could filter out, say, just Fox News stories and see only USA, Iraq, Iran, and maybe China, North Korea and Afghanistan, and have the entire rest of the globe invisible...
(Linked from WorldChanging)
Posted by griffjon at 10:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Yay WaPo headline writers
And I'm not just sayin' that because I live with one. Today's headlines from the WaPo front page:
Roberts Not Likely to Face Significant Fight
Barring unexpected developments, Democrats say a contentious nomination battle would be futile.
Memo Cited 'Abortion Tragedy'
Roberts Backed [Funeral protest] Service for Fetuses
I think Roberts is a surprise candidate from the White House because he's generally an acceptable candidate. He's not a whacknut neocon. He has support from some groups on the left side of center. This, in itself, should be a big huge alarm.
My fear is that with his blatant denial of the 4th Amendement = Privacy guarantees link, and his anti-abortion-rights history coming into light, that he's the ideal neocon candidate, as he won't engender enough activism to enable a filibuster, but he will be anti-privacy, upholding such gems of the Bush Regime as the misnomered PATRIOT act, and probably anti-abortion. Which, considering some anti-abortion groups consider murdering doctors as completely within the realm of acceptable measures, I'm sure there are many more who refrain from such extremes who will be more than willing to find cases to push up to the SCOTUS once Roberts is sitting.
I miss representative democracy.
Posted by griffjon at 10:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 13, 2005
perspective
(can you tell I'm bored?) Seems like everyone I know in the DC area is busy! Anyhow, this being the second night I've sat around bored, I thought to myself, what the fuck did I do in 99-01 every weekend?? The answer, according to my journals, seems to be not fucking much. I would hang out with FDP99, the Gamers, and not much else. Not that either of those were bad, I'd still do both if they weren't many miles away, but... that's all I did, as far as I can tell. Dancin', more in 00/01...
Anyhow. So, tonight, I'm browsing through my old journals again for some perspective.
Sometimes, I'm downright smart:
And then, after the Corps--what the hell do I do then? Burn some savings, go to grad school? I think that will probably be the plan. I might have to live at home for a bit while I research grad school options, then once it all gets decided, just do one move to the final destination. Of course, I'll also probably need a car... Yeesh. Of course, with some work, I could probably pull off doing contract webjobs again.
I wrote that less than a month into Venezuela, worried if I'd ever have a relationship. So, I guess I wasn't quite as foresightful as it seems.
Posted by griffjon at 07:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Finances!
I reran my numbers based on the job, the cost of the metro, cost of health insurance, the prospect of being able to find increase my employment to full-time over the summer, and finding a HUGE calculation error in my favor, and some other various means, savings, etc. ... I might make it through!
I have to be more careful than I usually am about budgetting and spending, I have to keep myself to within $5 avg/day spending on non-metro, non-grocery items like coffee, beer, eating out, etc. Not sure if that's at all realistic, really, but we'll see. I also have no clue how much books will cost as of yet, so I estimated $500/semester for class-related expenses, hopefully it won't be more, maybe even less? It's also calculated on taking the metro every day of the month for an average of $6/day (minimum one-way charge is $1.35, it varies by time of day and route, but I hope to walk occasionally at least one-way to school on occasion, so hopefully that number's also high.
But, as with all my budgets, I'm sure there's some hiding numbers that I'm failing to take into account somewhere, and it's not accounting for travel or studying abroad, which I'd like to do if possible, which will most likely just eat into my savings a LOT. Hey, worth the cost.
Posted by griffjon at 02:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Google Bombing, Defending Texas
So, we all remember the amusement of typing miserable failure into Google and getting W's homepage. Not to mention where you end up if you type in Santorum. These are both cases of Google bombing.
I think we need to add a new google bomb onto the list -- carpetbagger. You can read more about the history of the term. Wikipedia explains;
Today, the term "carpetbagger" is used to describe "an outsider who moves someplace to exploit the natives and enrich himself at their expense," or "a politician who moves to another state for political reasons, such as ease of election."
Seeing as how W was born in New Haven, Connecticut, went to a private boarding school at Andover, technically Phillips Academy, in Massachusetts, and then went to college at Yale, he only actually spent a few grades in the Texas system, and even fewer in the public schools. He dodged the draft by serving in the National Guard, and then went to business school at Harvard.
He used his Daddy's money to float a variety of failed business ventures and then moved into politics using his daddy's contacts.
And his famous Crawford Ranch, where he has spent almost all of his vacation time (20% of his time in "office" as the president, he's been on vacation -- not a bad vacation package for possibly the most powerful and important jobs in the world!), is not like some mythical, been-in-the-family for ages, this-is-my-home type thing. They bought the land in 1999.
It's interesting to note that while Texas elected Bush Gov, we kept Bob Bulloch, a Dem, as Lt. Gov, which is the more powerful position in terms of real abilities in Texas. Think about that, and also remember that Kerry got 38% of the vote in Texas, despite the fact that Texas is red, and Bush's "home" state. It was a much narrower margin that one might expect in those circumstances.
The word for this kind of trickster, putting on the accoutremont of Texas, but failing to understand what it means to be Texan, is carpetbagger.
(Idea for this GoogleBomb from here.)
Posted by griffjon at 12:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 12, 2005
le sigh
I suppose this is a sign that I need to put more effort into making more connections in DC. It's Friday night, my flatmates have all vanished, and I'm perched here on my computer with nothing but an overwhelming to-do list to keep me occupied. I'm at the lost-in-new-city stage of my DC experience; I knew Austin very very well, and had many people to go and do random shit with. Here, I know only a few people, and none of the cool/fun/cheap/neat places to go. Yet. I'll figure it out, but for now, it's still frustrating. I've been spending a lot of time wandering the downtown area, getting a better feel for it. I found chinatown today, and by extension, I a Texas BBQ place (in chinatown, of course) that smelled and looked pretty authentic, and had Shiner in the fridge. I might reward myself with that this weekend, if I get my to-dos down a bit.
I need to:
-Bite the bullet and get a cell phone. I've pretty much decided on Verizon, I just need to do the deed.
-Sign up for GWU's healthcare, pay them money, and cancel the crappy CorpsCare and get a bit of money back from them
-buy some clothes -- I should've done this in Austin; DC is a very suit and slacks kinda place, and I'm, uh, not. Nor do I want to be. I'll be f'in Austin-informal, THANKS, and no I won't be wearing long sleeved shirts and a suit when it;s 100 and muggy outside. I'm not stupid. Also, it's not like I am ever the height of fashion, but DC has an incredible amount of UGLY shirts. Gah. Maybe I'll use some of my Amazon gift cert to buy clothes over the Internet, it can't be worse than wandering from shop to shop looking for something reasonable here.
-get my birks repaired -- they;re almost through, and were just repaired in January. :(
Actually, a lot of the other liners are easier. Buy some stuff, look up a few things, and I've been knocking these off as I go. I think I'll make it my goal this weekend to figure out how to buy the healthcare and how to get refunded from CorpsCare.
I'm anxiously awaiting my finger to heal, it is REALLY ANNOYING to type without my right index finger. I sliced a chunk of skin off the top hanging my corkboard :(
Posted by griffjon at 09:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Notes from DC
I have a job offer; $18/hr with available pro-rated health (GWU still overall is a better deal I think), and paid time off.
I am approved for a consortium class at Georgetown, and it still has seats available; which rocks. I get the best of both worlds; a recognizable degree from GWU in public policy, GWU's financial aid package, and can occasionally pick a GTown (or whatever) class! Yay.
I think the best way to describe my 'hood is that I often feel like part of the gentrification shock troops.
Posted by griffjon at 05:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Who needs labor rights?
Well, so much for using jobs to find people who share common interests, and professions to hang out with or date;
It is a regular pastime for co-workers to chat during a coffee break, at a union hall, or over a beer about workplace issues, good grilling recipes, and celebrity gossip. Yet a recent ruling by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) allows employers to ban off-duty fraternizing among co-workers, severely weakening the rights of free association and speech, and violating basic standards of privacy for America's workers.
Posted by griffjon at 05:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Cindy
ThisModernWorld has a good scroll of quotes and stories about who is serving in this war, and who's being hypocritical. I'm sure you can all guess, but the stories are compelling.
Posted by griffjon at 05:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 10, 2005
Roberts
The Daily KOS has a good story on the foreheadslap that is the Roberts nomination. Note to self: If I ever nominate someone to the supreme court, DO MY HOMEWORK BEFORE NOMINATING!!
Posted by griffjon at 03:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 08, 2005
New Linux for Laptop
So, I have this old Dell Latitude (CPi300). I had Knoppix 3.4 running on it, with the problem that it just couldn't do my CS3237 sound card. The only Linux I'd ever been able to convince to use that card was an old Xandros release.
I upgraded to Knoppix 3.9. It's a vast improvement, but still no sound.
I installed Xandros's current edition, which,in addition to having no sound, also is teh suck now. It hobbles Linux down and makes it impossible to do anything fun with. Switching wireless networks requires root privilege. F that.
So now I'm downloading Ubuntu (with the plan to install kubuntu, a KDE desktop for it), to see how I like it.
If anyone has suggestions of a distro I should try, please. My requirements are:
- Hardware detection -- if I have to be editing XFree86.conf or whatever, I don't want it. sorry, I'm more lazy than leet. I don't want to fuck with modelines. ever. again.
- debian based -- I love apt-get, what can I say? Moreover, I hate hate hate yum and rpms and dependency hell.
- decent wlan support -- I don't want to go into the control center to change wireless networks. This shouldn't be a problem if apt-get works right.
- Supports aging hardware. This system is a P2 300mhz with 128MB ram and a 6G HDD. It ain't fancy.
- Supports my frickin sound card.
Fine, so I'm being picky. I feel I've done at least some of my duty in the Linux-setup-karma with getting an LTSP working for a large lab of random computers, remastering Knoppix, and man, I installed RedHat when it was even worse than now, pre-yum/package management. I feel Linux really has to get smoother in the install process, without loosing its configurability (as in the Xandros case), or it'll just not overtake Windows.
Posted by griffjon at 07:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Daily KOS for the lazy, 'cuz...
Wow, Consitutional trials still work, even post-9/11!
Curmudgeon (White House refusing to divulge documents on Roberts to the Senate under the same tactic that Clinton got in hot water for using)
Dude, where's my 4th amendment?
And, did Roberts support clinic bombing?
With all this going on, you'd think our pres would be on the job more?
49 - the number of vacations that Bush has taken since he was inaugurated in 2001 5 - the number of weeks that Bush will spend on vacation, starting yesterday. It is the longest presidential vacation in at least 36 years. 319 - August 3, 2005 was the 319th day Bush has spent on vacation since his 2001 inauguration. 20% - the fraction of Bush's presidency that he has spent on vacation
Posted by griffjon at 07:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 07, 2005
Adios
Cuban singer Ibrahim Ferrer dies
Que te vayas bien
Posted by griffjon at 10:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 06, 2005
Cell Phone Shopping
Shopping for cell phones here is such a pain! First off, the companies are all horrible and charge you insane amounts of money for EVERYTHING. Seriously. Text messaging is a nickle per sent or received. You pay for calls you make or receive -- which means that each call made from one cell to another is double-billed.
Man, I really miss Jamaica's digicel network -- GPRS (free for a long time, then $20/month for unlimited 28kpbs data), free to receive calls and texts, sending texts was cheap, and it was all pre-paid, but cheap (especially considering the land lines had per-minute costs, even to local numbers!) (it was maybe a few cents more expensive to call the US than a landline in Jamaica).
Anyhow. Digicel's not here. So I have to decide between T-Mobile, Cingular, Verizon and Sprint basically. Cingular has the most people I know, and has free in-network calling, which is a bonus, but it has horrible service, doesn't work inside the metro (admittedly, few do), and it's Ma Bell repackaged. (Really, they all are.). T-Mobile has the only decent plan under $40/month, for $30/month with unlimited nights/weekends, but I can't figure out if the long distance is included with the unlimited nights/weekends part, and it doesn't have much coverage outside of urban areas. Also, the terms of the coverage include such gems as "CLASS ACTION WAIVER. WHETHER IN COURT, SMALL CLAIMS COURT, OR ARBITRATION YOU AND WE MAY ONLY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST EACH OTHER IN AN INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY AND NOT AS A CLASS REPRESENTATIVE OR A CLASS MEMBER IN A CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION. "
Oh, that's fair. I, as a grad student with a part-time job, can feel free to sue, one-on-one, a huge telecom company, and am contractually barred from entering into a class-action suit where we could actually pool enough money to hire a decent lawyer. Not that I expect to have to deal with that, but that inherently pisses me off.
I should learn not to read terms, they just make my blood boil.
Cingular doesn't have coverage in San Angelo, sadly, which is a mark against it, T-Mobile claims to.
Sprint has the best, we-don't-fuck-you-over-(anymore) plan, but it's not very feature-rich. It has roaming agreements with the other carriers, but of course you get to pay for that.
Any suggestions?
Posted by griffjon at 09:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 05, 2005
Coffee
More proof that coffee is good:
Lexicat on LJ compiles coffee research!
Posted by griffjon at 09:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Chevron
Boing Boing runs a story on what happens when capitalism goes without any checks.
The bodies of the dead Nigerian villagers had not yet grown cold when the Nigerian navy captain presented Chevron with a bill: 15,000 naira, or $165 for responding to ``attacks from Opia village against security agents.''Within 24 hours Chevron paid up. It would be years before the San Ramon-based energy company would acknowledge the role it played in the destruction of Opia and another small village called Ikenyan in Nigeria's oil-rich delta in January 1999.
The receipt for the January 4 army raid, which left four villagers dead and nearly 70 missing and presumed dead, came to light only this summer as part of a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of the victims in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. It is being reported first on MercuryNews.com. The receipt also is among documents obtained by the Mercury News.
Chevron has denied any responsibility for the death or injuries that occurred that day. Charles Stewart, a Chevron spokesman, said the payment to the captain reflected ``a longstanding industry practice of paying a small amount for each day'' to military personnel who protected ``the people and the property of the oil companies located in the Niger Delta.''
...
Still, Chevron's involvement in the events in Africa are crucial, human rights activists say.
``It's important to look at Chevron's own record, '' said Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, one of several law firms representing the plaintiffs.
``It's important to look at the allegations of this lawsuit against the backdrop of violence and communal unrest in Nigeria,'' Stewart countered.
In a motion requesting dismissal of the lawsuit, Chevron initially cited press reports that Opia and Ikenyan had been destroyed by a rival tribe. But company documents later surfaced describing how the attacks had occurred a day after Opia youths had visited a nearby Chevron rig and demanded compensation.
Such demands have been common since the mid-1990s, as tribal communities around the Delta have sought a greater share of oil wealth and compensation for spoiled fishing areas and blighted farm land.
When oil exploration began in the 1950s, residents hoped for an economic bonanza. But the anticipated boom never materialized. Half a century later, the 20 million residents who live in the Niger River Delta continue to eke out a bleak existence while the oil fields surrounding their communities rank among the top producers of high-grade petroleum in the world.
(From Mercury-News (BugMeNot REgistration works)
Posted by griffjon at 07:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Why I read BBC
Posted by griffjon at 06:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Breather
(deep breaths)
OK.
Yup, I'm in DC. I've almost totally unpacked, boxes are gone or at least empty, and my room is arranged decently enough. Still some things to be hung on walls and whatnot, but it's at least feeling like a place I can be in without tip-toeing around boxes now.
Today I finally am catching up on the various things, emails, journal-reading and newsing. (sigh). Also, I'm making it a point not to walk too far today, as my feet are expressly not happy with me right now, and all blistery.
Let's go through the journey!
Saturday, Mom, Dad, myself and Tucker (an Austin friend) packed the Trailblazer to absolute max capacity. I wasn't able to fit quite everything, and left my desk, chair and lamp, but squeezed in my bookcase and futon. Post-stuffing, I headed up to Dallas to have a short day and relax a bit before the drive with Cory and some of her closest friends.
We left mid-morning on Sunday and drove all the way to Memphis, Tennesee. Mostly lots of lush vegetation. We made great time and were able to explore Beale street a bit, saw some good live music and all.
We left again mid-morningish and pulled into Asheville, North Carolina the evening, just in time to get some random caribbean-cuisine downtown. We stayed in some cute log cabins just outside of town.
Unfortunately, we had to get up and go pretty early the next morning, but I hope to be able to go back to Asheville and explore it more, it is a total hippie/hipster town in the middle of nowhere. OK, that, and one store had stuffed gaming dice (d20s, d12s, etc.), which I really want now. I believe my quote at the time was something to the effect of "hanging those from the rear-view would be totally gamer-pimp."
We drove out of Asheville and enjoyed the fantastic mountain scenery between there and Virginia, but it was a long long haul into DC. We arrived at peak rush hour, too, both needing to pee rather badly, and we managed to take the wrong 3rd street the first time around (DC has numbered N/S streets that spread out from the capitol, so there's a 1st St. NW on the west side, and a 1st St. NE on the other. It sucks.
DC is a horrible city to drive in; it's all unpredictinly one-way streets, diagonals, narrow, and poorly signed. All props to Cory for doing all the DC driving, I would've gone catatonic by the end. Even Cory, a skillful driver in much better practice than I, was getting a bit flustered by the end.
We did a rushed unpacking job, getting most of the small crap out, and then went to meet an RPCV living in Maryland who was Cory's best friend from Jamaica and K for dinner in Dupont Circle, then returned to my new home and crashed out.
Wedensday, we had brunch at Ben's Chili Bowl in the U, and returned the car, then did the Mall. We went to the American History museum, which has an excellent Civil Rights exhibit, and the Natural History Museum, then to the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.
We then managed to get lost AGAIN, thanks to the NE/NW problem, finding another RPCV in the area for dinner at the Flying Scotsman (supposedly the only Scottish bar in DC). It didn't help that we were dehydrated and hadn't eaten since brunch, but had done a LOT of walking up and down the Mall. We were grumpy until the water, beer and munchies started appearing.
Thursday I saw Cory off, sending her to have lunch again with her friend in Maryland before she flew out, and then I went about unpacking a bit and then to my job interview at a crisis hotline in Virginia. It looks like a good match, and they're calling references, and I'm meeting the rest of the staff Monday. They're a non-profit and need to be able to hire one IT generalist to handle their entire system, and most of the skills they need are things I've had experience with at one level or another, and nothing that I couldn't pick up quickly, so I'm hopeful on that front. It's a bit of a commute, but *shrug* so's everything.
I got back from the interview yesterday and realized that I'd failed to eat... well... pretty much anything all day, so I cooked a quick high-protein dinner and chilled for a bit.
Today I've done the majority of unpacking/moving things to their real locations and trying to not do much else. Hopefully this weekend I'll be up for some hanging out if I can link up with some subset of all the DC peeps.
Oh, the house! It seems pretty cool. The people and pets are friendly, and everyone's pretty laid back.
Posted by griffjon at 02:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Bolton
Just registering my disgust with Bush going behind the backs of the Senate to put Bolton into office. It's sad and scary when a president is so nervous about a nomination that he can't even risk putting it through the Congress, where his own party is in the majority.
Also, usumcusane on livejournal makes some good points about what this means as to where Bolton's loyalties lie -- with the Pres, not the Congress or the nation represented therein.
Posted by griffjon at 10:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
3 hand; bunch!
So, you all know the Harry Belafonte Banana song, right? One foot, two foot, three foot, punch!
Well, it actually is a banana loading song, sung by banana farmers selling their bananas to the ships; and it's one hand, two hand, three hand, bunch!. Each "hand" of bananas (a bunch in American terms) that they can't sell, they have to take back to the farm with them, often carrying them back one their heads.
Anyhow. I learnt this through watching Life and Debt and listening to Miss Lou.
I get to this because, especially after the US/WTO subsidies/tariffs problem in the last post, and CAFTA, we see what happens to countries giving preferred trade as a favor to their former colonies which are now struffling to get by, as opposed to trying to make a profit; they actually get slapped down, as opposed to ignoring the rules.
The new tariff had aimed to safeguard exports from countries in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group.Most were former colonies, and for years their banana crop had received preferential treatment.
--BBC
It's actually nowhere near as bad as the WTO claim that the US made a few years back (under Clinton) to attack this preferential treatment for the improvement of Dole.
Posted by griffjon at 10:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
"Free Trade"
When I talked about CAFTA, subsidies and tariffs like this was what I was referring to:
Japan has hit back against the US in a spat over a controversial anti-dumping trade law and said it plans to raise import tariffs by 15% on 15 products.The trigger for the move has been the US's Byrd Amendment, a law that hands out the money collected in anti-dumping levies to the industries most affected.
Japan, along with other nations, challenged the law and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) declared it illegal.
The European Union and Canada already have imposed retaliatory sanctions.
Despite the WTO ruling and assurances from the US that it would phase out the amendment, it is still operating and earlier this year millions of dollars were distributed to US firms.
We need to work on this definition of "free" we're using.
Posted by griffjon at 09:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 04, 2005
Para-military Corps?
The Washington Post among others reports on the ability to use Peace Corps as a way to complete your military service requirements.
I can't begin to describe how bad of an idea this is.
First off, the whole military mindset is generally 180 degrees away from the Peace Corps mindset. This is rather obvious.
Of course, some military do do humanitarian work, but it's still not sustainable development. In the military, you get to throw money at problems until they go away (or get hidden); in Peace Corps, there is zero money to throw. It's community development; if you can't help the community to organize and do something, if you can't teach their children better, you haven't really done anything.
Further, I'm not sure the military servicemen know what they're getting in to. The Marine contingent in Jamaica that guarded the embassy was forbidden to wander into parts of Ja where Peace Corps volunteers work except when guarding an US Mission envoy. Hell, they got hazard pay there. We got.... jack shit for pay, and that's how it's supposed to be.
Posted by griffjon at 10:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 01, 2005
Moving: North Carolina
Safely in Asheville, NC, staying in a log cabin. the Internet's flaky, and we're tired, and have a long road tomorrow.
Asheville's a cool towb, wish we had more time to spend here
Posted by griffjon at 10:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack