Gotta love those 12-hour days...

Actually, I like them and I hate them. I adore them because they afford me and my homies at work the chance to have a six-day stretch off. When I'm working them, I am sometimes less than fond of them because Suzanne works during the day and I don't get home until around 7 PM. At least the 12-hour days beat the 12-hour nights.

We just had time to eat dinner this evening and go fetch some ice. While we were eating (and when we got back from fetching), I saw one of the scariest reminders that we are indeed growing older. I tried to avert my eyes from Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers as much as possible.

The election season is nearly over and I'm tired of it. I'm also tired of the latest controversy (Kerry's example using Darth Cheney's daughter). Yes, it was a politically inspired barb. It may or may not have been planned. However, if the Grand Uniter and friends weren't so hell-bent on passing an amendment designed to deny a certain group of people freedom to live as they choose (at no harm to others), we wouldn't be having this little problem. My marriage isn't threatened by this. What's next, a federal marriage license?

Hahaha! Save for traveling, I currently have no use for a cell phone. Suzanne has one and we use it when we are traveling. The only problem I could see with this is if someone had an emergency call or was waiting for an important call. However, don't most modern cell phones have a "vibrate" feature? Our father...[ring-ring-ring], who art in Heaven, [opening chords of Beethoven's Fifth]...hallowed be thy [insert your own ring tone here] name...

I don't get spyware on my home machines. I can't say the same about some of our machines at work. I don't know if it's just irresponsible clicking, lack of attention, or stupid downloading habits, but one machine was swamped. Fortunately, I was able to de-louse the 'puter in question. I'm sure it will be bogged down again soon. The odd thing is that the AV solution that my company uses says it protects against some of the programs that were present. I firmly believe that in most cases, the user will remain the weakest link. Tech will be part of the solution, but there are clever folks out there who will figure away around the tech. The easiest way around the tech is often right through the user.

Well, I should probably skedaddle. Suzanne works way too early and I'll be off on a merry 12-hour adventure. Nighty-night!

Ivan Shamiakin died today...

I had no idea who that was either. I just wanted to see if any notable deaths had occurred today. There's a limited selection of Shamiakin stories here (one German, one English, three Russian). I'm going to read the English one.

Yahoo! appears to have recently made more of their news content available via RSS. The speaker at Gnomedex said they would be increasing the amount of RSS material available. We also received Yahoo! Search mousepads as schwag in Tahoe. To see the shortcuts to use with Yahoo!'s search instead of that other one (which I totally dig), click here.

We caught wind of this at work today via e-mail. This is a prime example of what we'd call a teamwork failure. Nuclear operators work long and weird hours at times. We're supposed to help each other and make sure that we keep doing it right (e.g. staying awake). Nuclear worker fatigue is not a new issue by any means (as can be ascertained here). I just hope that the actions of one sleepy individual don't get the proposed working hour restrictions being suggested by this group rushed into place. We try our utmost to keep each other out of trouble where I work.

Ever in the mood to try something new, I downloaded this cool THING.

Thank you Thing.

What is this thing, you ask?

I've downloaded the Google Desktop search tool.

Oh yeah... one other cool thing I've downloaded recently is IZArc. Why do I like it? Here's one part of the answer:

"IZArc is the ultimate archive utility suports many archive formats like: 7-ZIP, A, ACE, ARC, ARJ, B64, BH, BZ2, BZA, CAB, CPIO, DEB, ENC, GCA, GZ, GZA, HA, JAR, LHA, LIB, LZH, MBF, MIM, PAK, PK3, RAR, RPM, TAR, TAZ, TBZ, TGZ, TZ, UUE, WAR, XXE, YZ1, Z, ZIP, ZOO."

The price is right (free, although I'll strongly consider supporting their work monetarily), the install was quick and easy, and from what I can tell, IZArc can decompress most anything. Very cool!

Perhaps more later...

I do NOT support John Kerry. I do NOT support George Bush.

However, hearing Dubya and Bill Frist (post-debate) say that John Kerry has done nothing in 20 years is getting slightly shallow, old, and seemingly misleading. I don't know how Kerry's record compares to that of any other Senator. However, he has sponsored bills and amendments to bills. Click on the links below to see the list of bills, amendments, and/or resolutions that Kerry has sponsored since 1985:

99th Congress (1985-1986)
100th Congress (1987-1988)
101st Congress (1989-1990)
102nd Congress (1991-1992)
103rd Congress (1993-1994)
104th Congress (1995-1996)
105th Congress (1997-1998)
106th Congress (1999-2000)
107th Congress (2001-2002)
108th Congress (2003-2004)

In order to maintain a hint of objectivity, I must note that I can't think of a bill with Kerry's name on it as I can with McCain-Feingold, Sarbanes-Oxley, or Nunn-Lugar-Domenici. However, that doesn't mean he's been windsurfing for 20 years...

Yeah, today was (and still is) pretty mundane...

Well, at least it was mundane once I woke up. I'm ready to go back to work. Excepting the 12 hours of OT I worked on Sunday night, I've been off since last Friday morning. Today is the beginning of Suzanne's weekend.

Can you imagine what life will be like for Lynndie's baby if she gets hammered at her court martial?

Speaking of the Iraqi abuse...

The RAND Corporation released a paper earlier this year titled Public Diplomacy: How to Think About and Improve It (.pdf file). I'm sure that Lynndie and her compadres didn't do much for America's image. The paper brings up some of the works of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela. There are some great online repositories that include some of their respective works here and here.

I was considering watching the debates this evening, but we're not going to. First, Suzanne says she would be bored to tears. Second, most of the things we'll hear have been said repeatedly for at least the past ten months. Third, I've lost interest...

I haven't lost interest in seeing that Mike gets votes. Unfortunately, I won't be able to take part in the activities of the QC Badnarik Meetup group this weekend. This happens to be the weekend when they plan to hit the streets waving Badnarik signs. However, duty calls and seeing that I recently returned from vacation, I can't justify taking the time off this weekend. Drat!

I'm glad to hear that the US Supreme Court will tackle "Ten Commandments" issues. That could get interesting.

Well, I've gotta run. Suzanne's jonesing to get to Outback.

Suzanne was telling me that our niece called my in-laws today...

Our niece and her family had just returned from visiting Mickey Mouse. Olivia was telling my parents-in-law that today was a day off from school. I had no idea that today was a holiday (or at least local students had the day off). I suppose that the shiftwork addles my sense of time. 512 years... Damn, time flies!

Speaking of Christophers...

Go easy Kal-El!

Sean Penn... piss off! I really don't think that Trey and Matt are trying to encourage people not to vote. They might say something along those lines, but they are trying to be funny. That's what they do. Participating in the 2000 vote must have been a frustration to the 500,000 more people who voted for Gore over Dubya. The issue is even worse when you consider the usual complaints about "wishing for different options" and "voting for the lesser of two evils".

I love this picture. I was checking out Yahoo! news and I noticed that the lead picture in their news slideshow was a lioness carrying her cub from the Aalborg Zoo. That led me to the Aalborg Zoo website. I don't believe that I've ever gone to zoo sites looking for great animal pix. I love well-taken pictures of animals. I think it comes from having had a multi-volume animal encyclopedia set when I was younger. The pictures were gorgeous and the information about the animals was substantial for my age at the time.

I have to apologize...

I realize that I might sometimes come off as a raving lunatic bastard when I post here (particularly when talking about those who are in charge). I'm not a raving mad individual. I'm just frustrated by the political duopoly machine at times. I love this place and I wouldn't live anywhere else. That being said, I feel it necessary to spread the word that there ARE alternatives. Yeah, I won't change anything. Not by myself. I've heard catchphrases like "I wish there was an alternative choice" so many times. There are alternatives. I have mine, but there are others. However, when an alternative is presented, many people often seem to stick with one of the big parties for fear of a wasted vote. I don't see it changing anytime soon.

Here's why I feel that's dangerous. Bush says he believes in the concepts embodied in the UN. He also says that we won't ask them for permission to defend our country. He is right there. At one time, Kerry said that our troops wouldn't be deployed without the blessing of the UN. More recently, he mentioned the "global test". That's BS! However, my take on things is that Bush's war on terror (and the one in Iraq) have the potential to (and are) leading us down a slippery slope of interventionist foreign policy. When I speak about my choice, one of the biggest complaints I hear invokes the demon of isolationism. It's true (somewhat). If my choice became reality, we would try as much as possible to extricate ourselves from the governmental affairs of the rest of the world. I don't feel that that's a bad thing. We've opened and rubbed wounds in the interest of the US for the past one hundred years. Stepping back wouldn't end terrorism, but it would allow us to focus better and let us stop rubbing SOME of the wounds that, while not causing terrorism, aggravate the situation.

Is Gnomedex 5 in the works already? If we can make it next year, we will.

Well, I don't know what happened to the DHS Daily Reports culled from the news media at www.nipc.gov. If you're interested in those types of matters, there was some interesting info culled from the news and put all in one place. This source has reports that appear to be maintained.

The mainstream news won't talk about alternative events that happened outside of tonight's debate so I will...

The candidates of the Libertarian and Green parties were arrested while attempting to gain access to the Presidential debate this evening. These two men are Constitutionally eligible and have sufficient ballot access to be theoretically capable of winning. The catch-22 experienced by these alternatives is extraordinary. They won't be admitted to the debates as run by the Commission on Presidential Debates because they don't poll at an arbitrary 15% in national polls. They will never get there unless the Libertarians (or Greens) get a candidate who is filthy rich or ultra-famous. This is sad. Voices are being squashed.

For the Libertarian account, read here.

For the account from the Green Party, read here.

Intel bonanza doesn't lend a great deal of credibility to Dubya and company...

The past two days have seen some interesting information come to light. The first was the news about a CIA report that found no conclusive evidence of ties between Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Saddam Hussein. The second is the massive report about Saddam's WMD. I haven't read any of the material I am linking to yet because I have the pleasure of going in to work soon. The prepared testimony of Charles Duelfer and Brigadier General Joseph J. McMenamin, USMC before the Senate Armed Services Committee can be downloaded here.

We truly have a great country. Information like this is frequently available in near real-time when it's not being subjected to highly restrictive secrecy barriers. Sometimes those barriers are necessary.

The CIA has a wealth of useful information available on its website.

Although we don't hear much about the Mars Rovers anymore, they are still alive and kickin'. I almost forgot that our names are in the cosmos. Here's my proof. Here's Suzanne's.

Well, I have to run. Bye!

As I've noted before, the cable news channel we typically stick with is MSNBC...

However, like every other news channel, as soon as the candidate debates are over, they analyze them to death in search of the elusive answer to the question of who won. What follows here is only my opinion, so please take it as such. I feel that the American voter has lost. There are a few undecideds left out there. They have probably waited for these debates as part of their decision-making process. What they are getting is a sanitized, scripted, and lackluster rewording of the stump speeches that we've all been hearing for close to a year now. Hell, check out the Memorandum of Understanding for this year's farce. The candidates can't directly question each other or participate in any alternative debates. I won't even mention what I think of the fact that Constitutionally qualified candidates with sufficient ballot access are excluded.

The Nobels for Physics, Chemistry, and Physiology/Medicine have been announced. The awards for Literature, Peace, and the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel are due to be announced on October 7th, 8th, and 11th respectively. The Nobel site has some excellent material (or links to material) on Nobel winners.

The ACLU has a great portion of their website devoted to the Patriot Act and FOIA material they have obtained regarding Patriot. Searching through some of it, I found this chart of what the government can and can't do and under what circumstances. You've got to love the net!

This is a test...

This station is conducting a test of the Email Blogcast System. This is only a
test. In the event that this had been a real post....yada-yada-yada. You get
it.

RIP Rodney...

Now to less important news...

We're actually watching the debate between Cheney and Edwards. Suzanne isn't watching very much. It would be cool if Edwards brought up Halliburton and Cheney dropped the F-bomb again. At least Cheney isn't making goofy looks of exasperation...

Speaking of the F-bomb...I was filtering through some of the IP traffic to my site. I noticed that several of the IPs were from Saudi Arabia. Without thinking much about it, I went searching through some of the IP range. It just so happens that I have IE titled with...let's just say a very colorful title. Hopefully I won't offend anybody who will be reading their logs. Must...use...Firefox...

Speaking of Firefox...Give it a shot!

John Edwards is bitching about outsourcing and John Kerry voted for NAFTA in 1993. I suppose that's similar to Cheney's disagreement with Dubya about the Federal Marriage Amendment. Viva la revolucion! When I mention to people that I'm voting Libertarian, people ask the inevitable question about a wasted vote. I always opine that a vote for either of the political juggernauts is a waste.

In closing, keep an eye out here.

We DID make it home safely last night around 8:30 PM...

The plane ride was fairly uneventful but driving damn near straight into the sun while leaving Chi-town in the thick of traffic was quite a feat. Suzanne and I thought that Gnomedex kicked ass. As usual, I don't normally meet a whole lot of new people when I go to something like this because I hang around with Suzanne and beyond that, I'm fairly introverted. I am pleased to have met and chatted up Jim and Michael. Additionally, meeting and talking to the individuals responsible for majorgeeks.com was A-OK! We're already raring to go next year...

One thing that a rep from Yahoo! brought up on the closing night was their newly retooled "My Yahoo!" portal. I was using it before we even went to Lake Tahoe. One ultra-cool feature they have set up is the ability to integrate RSS feeds right into your own "My Yahoo!" page. You can also do this with your favorite blog(s). See?


Obviously, you have to be signed up on Yahoo! to use the features available, but it's nice to be able to view the latest headlines and blog posts all in one convenient spot. If you do sign up, be sure to visit your account page and set up the "marketing preferences" as necessary.

I knew I should have called in last night to see if I was supposed to work today. As it happens, I didn't. Oh well, I was in and out very quickly.

One last thing... If you run Windows and want a good graphics editing program on the cheap, think about getting GIMP for Windows. When I was trying out Linux on my desktop, I used The GIMP and I loved it. Having played around with it for a few hours this afternoon, I was reminded of the fairly extensive feature set that it has.

I didn't wake up until 8:30 this morning.

After Suzanne went back up to the room, I was still feeling froggy. I went back down to the Gnomedex lobby area and chatted with Mike for well over an hour. As the 2 AM witching hour approached, I wasn't yet ready to call it a night. I didn't really feel much like hitting the streets so I checked out the dance club in the hotel. I didn't crash until four in the morning. Suzanne finally succeeded in waking me up at 8:30 this morning. Now I'm whipped! I'm exceedingly happy that there's a Starbuck's in the hotel lobby.

Can I please call it Faux News now?

This wasn't actually posted until 10:30 AM Tahoe time. I tried like hell to get it up last night (keep your mind out of the gutter), but I was having no luck at all. This is what I was thinking around midnight last night.

I realize that this isn't the norm, but I'm still frequently bothered by Fox News. I'm not bothered by their opinion-based prime-time programming. I'm bothered by the whole "Fair and Balanced" thing. Hell, it doesn't matter much anyway. I watch MSNBC at home because I find Keith Olbermann to be extraordinarily entertaining.

Sad news...

It's exceedingly sad that Lori Hacking's body has been found, but it might be possible to find slight solace in the fact that she can now be given a proper burial.

Suzanne and I went to our room after the band finished and the prize giveaways were done. We watched a little bit of the vidiot box but I was feeling fairly antsy. I'm still antsy. I convinced her that we could at least head down to where we have free wi-fi. The area has mainly cleared out, but there are a few people left yakking about everything tech under the sun. Entertaining...

If you haven't heard by now, John Kerry and El Dubya had a little debate on Thursday evening. I didn't watch a great deal of it because the canned responses would have probably pissed me off. David Cobb and Michael Badnarik also had a debate on Thursday evening. Who are those guys? A free registration (including details like phone number) is required at the Free-Market News Network, but they have archived video of the debate between Cobb and Badnarik. It's entirely too bad that Badnarik and Cobb won't be seen with Dubya and JFK. What do you expect, a democratic process?

Howwwwwwwwwwwwwwdy-ho!

It's pretty much the end of the first official day of Gnomedex. The schedule for the day was as listed at the Geeks Gone Wild conference schedule for October 1. This is the third year that we have attended Gnomedex. The previous years had individual speakers speaking one at a time. The previous years saw individuals like Leo Laporte, Doc Searls, John C. Dvorak, Rob Malda, and a number of other people speaking. The format for this year was panels. I enjoyed the format change. This years speakers are listed at the schedule link above. I enjoyed the dialogue generated by having the panels. The Silicon Valley Houserockers are rockin' the house and being interrupted every once in a while by the folks from Via who are bound and determined to hand out a crapload of prizes and Gnomedex swag. That's cool!

Well, we made it to Gnomedex relatively unscathed!

Here are the first pictures I've taken. They're not awesome or anything, but they're a start.

Dude, our hotel in Chicago (Des Plaines actually) has an Indian TV channel with Indian soaps...

OK, so that's not really quite my speed (or Suzanne's). In fact, she just flipped the channel. I'm normally the one who wants to gain knowledge (or at least hear the news) by watching the idiot box.

Congratulations to Judge Victor Marrero. He's the judge who wrote today's opinion that portions of Patriot's investigation rules and non-disclosure requirements are un-Constitutional. Here's the conclusion:

"To summarize, the Court concludes that the compulsory, secret, and unreviewable production of information required by the FBI's application of 18 U.S.C. § 2709 violates the Fourth Amendment, and that the non-disclosure provision of 18 U.S.C. § 2709(c) violates the First Amendment. The government is therefore enjoined from issuing NSLs under § 2709 or from enforcing the non-disclosure provision in this or any other case, but enforcement of the Court's judgment will be stayed pending appeal, or if no appeal is filed, for 90 days."

I don't hate the government or any of the people we have elected (or hopefully might send packing back to Crawford). I just drastically disagree with them and I think they want too much space in our lives. Patriot was a knee-jerk reaction after an extraordinarily traumatic event. It's time to go back to the drawing board and make sure that we are protected but safe under the Constitution. John ("To those who pit Americans against immigrants, and citizens against non-citizens, to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies and pause to America’s friends. They encourage people of good will to remain silent in the face of evil. Our efforts have been crafted carefully to avoid infringing on constitutional rights while saving American lives.") Ashcroft's phantoms might be real after all.

If you're wondering about that 18 U.S.C. § 2709 thing, look no further than this link.

Lake Tahoe, we're almost on the way!

Are the "war on terror" and/or our little adventure in Iraq a war against Islam?

I happen to believe that they come dangerously close. Why? No, it's not because the overwhelming majority of present day transnational terrorists are radical adherents of Islam. It's because of the things our country does. For some reason, many of our elected leaders feel morally responsible for ensuring that democracy, tolerance, diversity, and many other facets of our way of life take root and thrive in other countries. One of the latest examples was the 2004 report from the State Department on International Religious Freedom.

Why do I believe that America's overwhelming desire to see other countries accept freedom, diversity, and tolerance partially constitute a battle against Islam? Islam means submission. I believe that it would be possible for a predominantly Muslim country to hold free elections and follow parts of our way of life (if they desired). However, there are portions of life which are completely bound with the requirement to submit. That requirement for submission would preclude some of the tolerance and acceptance of diversity that many in the West see as prime virtues of a free society.

Our operation in Iraq was primarily based on "WMD". When it began to appear that WMD wouldn't be found, the thrust started to move to, "But we freed an oppressed people from a brutal dictator." Later on in the occupation, some talk of a Constitution based on Sharia law started to occur. We couldn't have that! Paul Bremer threatened to put the kibosh on that. Such a constitution wouldn't be in line with our desire to have a democracy in the Middle East.

The Michael Ledeens of the world try to brush aside the naysayers by using Reagan's "victory" against those damn pinko Commies as proof that America can and will force her values elsewhere in the world. What price did that come at? In the book Imperial Hubris, the anonymous author recollects a Senate hearing from the 80s in which a Senator acted surprised that the future Afghan leaders would be "anti-American Muslims". What enemies of our future are we supporting/creating in our current campaigns? Only time will tell...

There is a time to be brutally vicious. We've already missed on one count. Osama's head wouldn't be a magic bullet to stop the "war on terror". However, it would show that we're not screwing around when we say "dead or alive".

All of that gets away from the point that, for some reason, we think that the religious affairs of other countries need to be conducted as they are in America. That is arrogant. It also comes dangerously close to being "fightin' words".

I've finally done it...

No, I haven't figured out the answer to any fundamental questions of life (e.g. "Why are we here?") yet. However, I finally got my Badnarik for President yard sign put in my front yard.

Take two...

My mother called during the initial airing of Persons of Interest. It was good to talk to her and she was wishing us a good trip to Gnomedex. I could have recorded it on the Replay earlier I suppose. I just didn't think about it...

So far, this show is pretty good. It's not a lightning-paced anti-terror flick. It's just the story of twelve of the thousands of people who were detained after 9/11. I'll break to actually pay attention to this documentary now.

Ta-ta!