Thursday, November 01, 2007
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Work Stuff...
Well I am still on night shift, 3rd shift to be exact. I have to walk around and monitor equipment in 4 different server farms to make sure that the temperatures are within the normal rages. One nice thing is that I get to walk around and listen to music all night long! I take my Creative Zen Touch (40gig) and load it full of music to listen to. I normally get threw about 3-4 albums a night. I am at the moment listening to In The Nursery or I am at least trying to get through their discography by the end of the week. I go through cycles with my music so it is nice to have a big MP3 player to hold lots of stuff! Perhaps tonight I will take a break with the “Neo-Classics” of In The Nursery and listen to some “Dream Pop” of This Mortal Coil. Yall have a good Halloween night and get lots of candy!!!
RMStringer
******************
"Seduction is thus a central, indeed in certain respects, the central idea, in political life.
It signifies a course of action deliberately designed by one or more interested
agents to undermine and replace some established loyalty."
Kenneth Minogue (November issue of The New Criterion)
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Verizon Settles Probe Into Data Plans...
I guess that Unlimited will have to mean "Unlimited" now. All the major Internet carriers have a "cap" set, you will not know what it is until you reach it. Comcast is about 500gig a month and Verizon is much much less than that.
NEW YORK (AP) — Verizon Wireless has agreed to pay a penalty and reimburse users who were disconnected for "excessive" use of a cellular broadband service that was marketed as allowing "unlimited" use, New York's state attorney general announced Tuesday.
A nine-month investigation by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office found that Verizon Wireless disconnected 13,000 subscribers for exceeding an undisclosed monthly usage cap.
Under the settlement, Verizon Wireless will reimburse the terminated subscribers for the cost of the laptop cards or laptop-connected cell phones they bought to use the service. The company put the cost at around $1 million. It will also pay $150,000 in penalties and costs to the state.
The prosecutor's office said the company voluntarily stopped disconnecting customers based on their data usage in April.
Verizon's user agreement for the BroadbandAccess plan prohibits continuous streaming of audio or video and peer-to-peer file sharing, all of which generate heavy traffic.
It also reserves the right to disconnect or slow down traffic for anyone using too much data, but since this spring, the cap has been explicit rather than undisclosed: 5 gigabytes of data per month.
The agreement says the plan is only to be used for Web surfing, e-mail and corporate intranet access, activities that are unlikely to generate 5 gigabytes of traffic in a month.
"We are pleased to have cooperated with the New York Attorney General and to have voluntarily reached this agreement," said Howard Waterman, a spokesman for Verizon Wireless. "When this was brought to our attention, we understood that advertising for our NationalAccess and BroadbandAccess services could provide more clarity."
The company will be contacting affected customers for reimbursement.
Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of New York-based Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC of Britain.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Verizon Wireless has agreed to pay a penalty and reimburse users who were disconnected for "excessive" use of a cellular broadband service that was marketed as allowing "unlimited" use, New York's state attorney general announced Tuesday.
A nine-month investigation by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office found that Verizon Wireless disconnected 13,000 subscribers for exceeding an undisclosed monthly usage cap.
Under the settlement, Verizon Wireless will reimburse the terminated subscribers for the cost of the laptop cards or laptop-connected cell phones they bought to use the service. The company put the cost at around $1 million. It will also pay $150,000 in penalties and costs to the state.
The prosecutor's office said the company voluntarily stopped disconnecting customers based on their data usage in April.
Verizon's user agreement for the BroadbandAccess plan prohibits continuous streaming of audio or video and peer-to-peer file sharing, all of which generate heavy traffic.
It also reserves the right to disconnect or slow down traffic for anyone using too much data, but since this spring, the cap has been explicit rather than undisclosed: 5 gigabytes of data per month.
The agreement says the plan is only to be used for Web surfing, e-mail and corporate intranet access, activities that are unlikely to generate 5 gigabytes of traffic in a month.
"We are pleased to have cooperated with the New York Attorney General and to have voluntarily reached this agreement," said Howard Waterman, a spokesman for Verizon Wireless. "When this was brought to our attention, we understood that advertising for our NationalAccess and BroadbandAccess services could provide more clarity."
The company will be contacting affected customers for reimbursement.
Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of New York-based Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC of Britain.
What is your opinion?
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Senators want probe on content blocking...
I figured that Comcast and Verizon would get their asses in a sling from their actions. I did several posts a few weeks ago about these issues.
By DIBYA SARKAR, AP Business Writer
WASHINGTON - Two Senators on Friday called for a congressional hearing to investigate reports that phone and cable companies are unfairly stifling communications over the Internet and on cell phones.
Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said the incidents involving several companies, including Comcast Corp., Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc., have raised serious concerns over the companies' "power to discriminate against content."
They want the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee to investigate whether such incidents were based on legitimate business policies or unfair and anticompetitive practices and if more federal regulation is needed.
"The phone and cable companies have previously stated that they would never use their market power to operate as content gatekeepers and have called efforts to put rules in place to protect consumers 'a solution in search of a problem,'" they said in a letter to Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, the committee's chairman.
A committee spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter.
An Associated Press report on Oct. 19 detailed how Comcast Corp. was interfering with file sharing by some of its Internet subscribers. The AP found instances in some areas of the country where traffic was blocked or delayed significantly.
Comcast — the nation's No. 2 Internet provider — has acknowledged "delaying" some subscriber Internet data, but said the delays are temporary and intended to improve surfing for other users.
Verizon Wireless in late September denied a request by Naral Pro-Choice America, an abortion rights group, to use its mobile network for a sign-up text messaging program.
The company reversed course just a day later, calling it a mistake and an "isolated incident."
AT&T reportedly changed a service agreement that previously included language permitting the company to cancel accounts of Internet users who disparage the company.
Several lawmakers, including Dorgan, earlier this year introduced so-called legislation promoting "Net neutrality," which is the principle that all Internet traffic be treated equally by carriers.
Equal treatment of traffic is long-standing practice on the Internet. The legislation is a response to suggestions by phone companies that they would like charge Web sites extra for preferential treatment of their traffic.
Verizon Wireless is a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and Britain-based Vodafone Group PLC.
What is your opinion?
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By DIBYA SARKAR, AP Business Writer
WASHINGTON - Two Senators on Friday called for a congressional hearing to investigate reports that phone and cable companies are unfairly stifling communications over the Internet and on cell phones.
Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said the incidents involving several companies, including Comcast Corp., Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc., have raised serious concerns over the companies' "power to discriminate against content."
They want the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee to investigate whether such incidents were based on legitimate business policies or unfair and anticompetitive practices and if more federal regulation is needed.
"The phone and cable companies have previously stated that they would never use their market power to operate as content gatekeepers and have called efforts to put rules in place to protect consumers 'a solution in search of a problem,'" they said in a letter to Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, the committee's chairman.
A committee spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter.
An Associated Press report on Oct. 19 detailed how Comcast Corp. was interfering with file sharing by some of its Internet subscribers. The AP found instances in some areas of the country where traffic was blocked or delayed significantly.
Comcast — the nation's No. 2 Internet provider — has acknowledged "delaying" some subscriber Internet data, but said the delays are temporary and intended to improve surfing for other users.
Verizon Wireless in late September denied a request by Naral Pro-Choice America, an abortion rights group, to use its mobile network for a sign-up text messaging program.
The company reversed course just a day later, calling it a mistake and an "isolated incident."
AT&T reportedly changed a service agreement that previously included language permitting the company to cancel accounts of Internet users who disparage the company.
Several lawmakers, including Dorgan, earlier this year introduced so-called legislation promoting "Net neutrality," which is the principle that all Internet traffic be treated equally by carriers.
Equal treatment of traffic is long-standing practice on the Internet. The legislation is a response to suggestions by phone companies that they would like charge Web sites extra for preferential treatment of their traffic.
Verizon Wireless is a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and Britain-based Vodafone Group PLC.
What is your opinion?
Blogroll Me!
Ten ways to thwart Big Brother...
We’ve never been under such intense scrutiny as we are today. So how do we evade the snoopers? Here, an ‘off-grid’ expert offers an insider’s guide
By Nick Rosen
We live in the most watched-over society in Europe. Exposure, especially in The Observer, has done little to hold the state and private sector in check. Phone records have become police records, as Henry Porter pointed out in this paper last week, and CCTV camera records are now fed into the automatic registration number computer. Credit and store-card records have become marketing records and our email addresses are points of entry for all sorts of crime and spam.
It’s time to fight back using all the legal means at our disposal. We need to duck under the radar of government surveillance, credit-checking agencies, internet and mobile phone companies or the DVLA. I have been learning how to keep the info-snoopers at bay. My research has led me into a world of middle-aged hoodies, who cover up in shopping centres to avoid the CCTV cameras; of young computer users who keep their names off spam lists and out of reach of the megacorps; and people who live off-grid, out of sight of the system and unplugged from the utility companies. So, here’s is a survival checklist for the information age.
1 Buy an untraceable mobile phone
Travel to a town you have never visited before, to an area with no CCTV cameras and ask a homeless person to buy a pay-as-you-go mobile phone for you. That way no shop will have your image on its CCTV. You will also have an anonymous mobile.
In order to keep your anonymity, top it up in a shop with no CCTV outside. Or dispense with the phone altogether and return to the humble payphone, now the preserve of tourists and the super-poor.
Even if you stick to your traceable phone, leave it switched off whenever possible to avoid having your movements tracked. Many phones are still traceable, so you need to take the battery out to be certain. If you have a Bluetooth phone, keep the service switched off because this is now being tested for advertising and other marketing activities.
2 Safeguard your email
If you use one of the free, web-based services like Gmail, your communications are being stored to build up a picture of your interests. Instead, you can use a service called Hushmail to send encrypted emails. Or work out a private code with friends you want to communicate with.
You do not need an email address of your own. One hacker I spoke to sends emails from cybercafes via The Observer website, using the service which allows anyone to send any article to a friend. He embeds his message into the covering note which goes with the article.
Others with their own computer use the free XeroBank browser (in preference to Explorer or Firefox), which includes several privacy-enhancing add-ons and sends all data through a network ‘cloud’ which hides most of the data you normally give away as you use a computer, but at the cost of reduced speed (http://xerobank.com/xB_browser.html).
3 Safeguard your computer and your files
There is sophisticated software that deletes all traces of your activities from your computer. Assuming you don’t have access to this, it is still worth remembering the data about you contained inside each file. Many digital photos, for example, contain within them the serial number of the camera that took them. Word documents contain the name of the author as well as traces of previous drafts.
4 Be invisible to CCTV cameras
Steve is a middle-aged IT consultant who lives in a bungalow on a smart private estate in south west London. He has never committed a criminal act. When he goes to business meetings, he wears a suit and tie, but when he walks around his local high street, he dons a hoodie. He does it on principle.
‘I don’t disapprove of the technology in its rightful place,’ Steve told me, ‘but we have an unregulated mess. It hasn’t reduced crime in any real sense - it’s displaced it in some cases.’ Media reports always say there are 4.2 million CCTV cameras in the UK, but they have been using that figure for the past two years. So it’s a safe bet we have at least six million by now, and there is no central register. You can use the Data Protection Act to request a copy of your own image from any particular camera, but that is simply a way of harassing CCTV owners, not safeguarding your identity.
5 Stay off spam mailing lists
Each time you submit your email address to register for a new website, create a special address, either on a free webmail service or on your own email server so you have control over it. Then, if the company later sells your email address or loses it through poor security, you will know exactly who to blame. And you will be able to close the account or block all email to that particular address. Again, Hushmail is useful for this. You can set it up to create these aliases for you.
6 Prevent supermarkets knowing your shopping habits
Swap your supermarket loyalty card with a friend or acquaintance every few months, after having cashed in any points you have accumulated (treat Oyster and other local transport cards the same way). You lose no benefits and it prevents tracking of specific purchasing patterns (or journeys) tied to your name and address. Use cash more often - save your credit card for emergencies.
7 Avoid utility companies’ marketing departments
Live off-grid, unplugged from the system with solar panels and rainwater harvesting. There are tens of thousands of people living without mains power, water or sewerage, in isolated cottages, behind hedgerows in caravans or in groups of yurts in country fields. And this is not just a movement for tree huggers and climate campers. Many live on boats in towns and cities, and if you live in a flat or house, you can still unplug.
8 Keep your car off the automatic number recognition system
The simplest way is to leave the car at home and use a bicycle. But if you must drive, don’t go into a congestion zone at any time. There are other legal ways to hide your registration number from the cameras - swap the light above the rear numberplate for an infrared bulb and that will flood the video-camera which operates at near infrared frequency.
9 Safeguard your NHS data
If you are born in this country, then your NHS records are inescapable. But you can choose to store them with your GP to keep them off the central computer, and this should reduce the chances of the medical records being sold (legally) to drugs companies or (illegally) to private detectives or being snooped on by the 300,000 ‘authorised users’ of the system, without affecting medical care.
There is no need to worry about, for example, records of your blood group not being available to medical staff after an accident - doctors no longer rely on paper or computer records. The automated diagnostic blood group tests are done by the ambulance crew on the way to hospital. You can get a form letter to send to the NHS from nhsconfidentiality.org.
10 Shop outside the system
The website Freecycle (freecycle.org) could provide many of your needs. It consists of hundreds of short announcements from people trying to give away stuff they no longer need: beds, TVs, bookcases, the whole of human life is there in return for the cost of picking it up from the donor. There are local Freecycle groups all over the country (and the world), each with their own local web address. Some people make a decent living gathering things from Freecycle and selling them at car boot sales.
There are full-time scavengers living off food retrieved from supermarket bins, because vast amounts of produce are simply thrown away on the eve of their sell-by date.
Another way to avoid buying food is to barter for it. The car park of the pub in the centre of Longframlington village in Northumberland has been a barter centre for decades. On any Friday night between April and October, locals arrive and flip down the backs of their 4×4s laden with the week’s produce, whether its chanterelles, venison, pheasant, line-caught salmon or the latest crop of beetroots and lettuces.
Technically, this innocent activity is tax evasion. ‘It’s all very rustic and encourages a paper-free environment, but this can underpin what can only amount to potential income tax, corporation tax or VAT non-disclosure, or even fraud,’ said accountant Julie Butler. But does Alistair Darling really want to take another bash at the delicate fabric of the countryside?
It may seem almost comical to go to these lengths, but the ways companies and the public sector can misuse data isn’t a joke. We cannot trust them to safeguard our data or use it ethically, so we must provide our own safeguards.
· Nick Rosen is editor of the Off-Grid website: off-grid.net
What is your opinion?
Blogroll Me!
By Nick Rosen
We live in the most watched-over society in Europe. Exposure, especially in The Observer, has done little to hold the state and private sector in check. Phone records have become police records, as Henry Porter pointed out in this paper last week, and CCTV camera records are now fed into the automatic registration number computer. Credit and store-card records have become marketing records and our email addresses are points of entry for all sorts of crime and spam.
It’s time to fight back using all the legal means at our disposal. We need to duck under the radar of government surveillance, credit-checking agencies, internet and mobile phone companies or the DVLA. I have been learning how to keep the info-snoopers at bay. My research has led me into a world of middle-aged hoodies, who cover up in shopping centres to avoid the CCTV cameras; of young computer users who keep their names off spam lists and out of reach of the megacorps; and people who live off-grid, out of sight of the system and unplugged from the utility companies. So, here’s is a survival checklist for the information age.
1 Buy an untraceable mobile phone
Travel to a town you have never visited before, to an area with no CCTV cameras and ask a homeless person to buy a pay-as-you-go mobile phone for you. That way no shop will have your image on its CCTV. You will also have an anonymous mobile.
In order to keep your anonymity, top it up in a shop with no CCTV outside. Or dispense with the phone altogether and return to the humble payphone, now the preserve of tourists and the super-poor.
Even if you stick to your traceable phone, leave it switched off whenever possible to avoid having your movements tracked. Many phones are still traceable, so you need to take the battery out to be certain. If you have a Bluetooth phone, keep the service switched off because this is now being tested for advertising and other marketing activities.
2 Safeguard your email
If you use one of the free, web-based services like Gmail, your communications are being stored to build up a picture of your interests. Instead, you can use a service called Hushmail to send encrypted emails. Or work out a private code with friends you want to communicate with.
You do not need an email address of your own. One hacker I spoke to sends emails from cybercafes via The Observer website, using the service which allows anyone to send any article to a friend. He embeds his message into the covering note which goes with the article.
Others with their own computer use the free XeroBank browser (in preference to Explorer or Firefox), which includes several privacy-enhancing add-ons and sends all data through a network ‘cloud’ which hides most of the data you normally give away as you use a computer, but at the cost of reduced speed (http://xerobank.com/xB_browser.html).
3 Safeguard your computer and your files
There is sophisticated software that deletes all traces of your activities from your computer. Assuming you don’t have access to this, it is still worth remembering the data about you contained inside each file. Many digital photos, for example, contain within them the serial number of the camera that took them. Word documents contain the name of the author as well as traces of previous drafts.
4 Be invisible to CCTV cameras
Steve is a middle-aged IT consultant who lives in a bungalow on a smart private estate in south west London. He has never committed a criminal act. When he goes to business meetings, he wears a suit and tie, but when he walks around his local high street, he dons a hoodie. He does it on principle.
‘I don’t disapprove of the technology in its rightful place,’ Steve told me, ‘but we have an unregulated mess. It hasn’t reduced crime in any real sense - it’s displaced it in some cases.’ Media reports always say there are 4.2 million CCTV cameras in the UK, but they have been using that figure for the past two years. So it’s a safe bet we have at least six million by now, and there is no central register. You can use the Data Protection Act to request a copy of your own image from any particular camera, but that is simply a way of harassing CCTV owners, not safeguarding your identity.
5 Stay off spam mailing lists
Each time you submit your email address to register for a new website, create a special address, either on a free webmail service or on your own email server so you have control over it. Then, if the company later sells your email address or loses it through poor security, you will know exactly who to blame. And you will be able to close the account or block all email to that particular address. Again, Hushmail is useful for this. You can set it up to create these aliases for you.
6 Prevent supermarkets knowing your shopping habits
Swap your supermarket loyalty card with a friend or acquaintance every few months, after having cashed in any points you have accumulated (treat Oyster and other local transport cards the same way). You lose no benefits and it prevents tracking of specific purchasing patterns (or journeys) tied to your name and address. Use cash more often - save your credit card for emergencies.
7 Avoid utility companies’ marketing departments
Live off-grid, unplugged from the system with solar panels and rainwater harvesting. There are tens of thousands of people living without mains power, water or sewerage, in isolated cottages, behind hedgerows in caravans or in groups of yurts in country fields. And this is not just a movement for tree huggers and climate campers. Many live on boats in towns and cities, and if you live in a flat or house, you can still unplug.
8 Keep your car off the automatic number recognition system
The simplest way is to leave the car at home and use a bicycle. But if you must drive, don’t go into a congestion zone at any time. There are other legal ways to hide your registration number from the cameras - swap the light above the rear numberplate for an infrared bulb and that will flood the video-camera which operates at near infrared frequency.
9 Safeguard your NHS data
If you are born in this country, then your NHS records are inescapable. But you can choose to store them with your GP to keep them off the central computer, and this should reduce the chances of the medical records being sold (legally) to drugs companies or (illegally) to private detectives or being snooped on by the 300,000 ‘authorised users’ of the system, without affecting medical care.
There is no need to worry about, for example, records of your blood group not being available to medical staff after an accident - doctors no longer rely on paper or computer records. The automated diagnostic blood group tests are done by the ambulance crew on the way to hospital. You can get a form letter to send to the NHS from nhsconfidentiality.org.
10 Shop outside the system
The website Freecycle (freecycle.org) could provide many of your needs. It consists of hundreds of short announcements from people trying to give away stuff they no longer need: beds, TVs, bookcases, the whole of human life is there in return for the cost of picking it up from the donor. There are local Freecycle groups all over the country (and the world), each with their own local web address. Some people make a decent living gathering things from Freecycle and selling them at car boot sales.
There are full-time scavengers living off food retrieved from supermarket bins, because vast amounts of produce are simply thrown away on the eve of their sell-by date.
Another way to avoid buying food is to barter for it. The car park of the pub in the centre of Longframlington village in Northumberland has been a barter centre for decades. On any Friday night between April and October, locals arrive and flip down the backs of their 4×4s laden with the week’s produce, whether its chanterelles, venison, pheasant, line-caught salmon or the latest crop of beetroots and lettuces.
Technically, this innocent activity is tax evasion. ‘It’s all very rustic and encourages a paper-free environment, but this can underpin what can only amount to potential income tax, corporation tax or VAT non-disclosure, or even fraud,’ said accountant Julie Butler. But does Alistair Darling really want to take another bash at the delicate fabric of the countryside?
It may seem almost comical to go to these lengths, but the ways companies and the public sector can misuse data isn’t a joke. We cannot trust them to safeguard our data or use it ethically, so we must provide our own safeguards.
· Nick Rosen is editor of the Off-Grid website: off-grid.net
What is your opinion?
Blogroll Me!
Things That Piss Geeks Off...
Thanks to Rea Maor:
The Geek community is sometimes one of the easiest demographics to peg. Go to Star Trek conventions, have a level 78 wizard in a MMORG, collect manga? OK, you’re in. Try that with soccer moms or middle managers. You’re likely to end up running into a soccer mom who is a middle manager. One of the most gregarious attributes of geeks is that when you have one geek mad at you, they’re all mad at you at the same time.
Here’s something that I think may help non-geeks deal with geeks a little easier: when you have a whole slew of geeks mad at you, and you don’t know why, check this list:
Laziness - Number one, and probably numbers two through five as well. I’m not talking about body-lazy; geeks here are indifferent. But mental laziness drives geeks to scream and claw down masonry. If you ever want to get flamed to a golden brown with a side of Hollandaise sauce, just pop into a chat and ask a question that Google could have answered, or post in a forum with a question that’s answered on page one of the manual.
Irresponsibility - Geeks are big believers in “they are best helped who help themselves”. If you got into a jam through your own stupidity, a geek will be more likely to point it out to you than offer sympathy. Did you get ripped off in a 419 scam, get a virus from an email attachment, or get your site hacked from leaving a gaping hole in your password verification method? You should have known better, sniff the geeks.
Greed - Now, a little greed isn’t too bad. Geeks have jobs and like to make money, too. But when a corporation or industry takes it too far and does stuff like… oh, say… force a mom to take her baby video offline because it contains a Prince song. Stuff like that draws the ire out of the community. Boooo! Mean, mean Universal Music Publishing Group hates mommies and little babies!
Inept Bureaucracy - Geeks lack patience. When they go to the government or their management to get this simple little thing done, and it takes filling out mountains of paperwork to do it, they’re just as likely to say “forget it”, or else try to look for clever ways to bypass it. To a geek, time isn’t just money; it’s life’s breath.
Hypocrisy - Ooooo! Don’t say one thing and do another around a geek; they will catch it, document it, and post it for all time. For instance, if you’re a paid corporate shill, that’s all you; the most you get is mild dismissal. But keep being a paid corporate shill while pretending to be one of the geek bunch, and may Cthulhu have mercy on your soul!
What is your opinion?
Blogroll Me!
The Geek community is sometimes one of the easiest demographics to peg. Go to Star Trek conventions, have a level 78 wizard in a MMORG, collect manga? OK, you’re in. Try that with soccer moms or middle managers. You’re likely to end up running into a soccer mom who is a middle manager. One of the most gregarious attributes of geeks is that when you have one geek mad at you, they’re all mad at you at the same time.
Here’s something that I think may help non-geeks deal with geeks a little easier: when you have a whole slew of geeks mad at you, and you don’t know why, check this list:
Laziness - Number one, and probably numbers two through five as well. I’m not talking about body-lazy; geeks here are indifferent. But mental laziness drives geeks to scream and claw down masonry. If you ever want to get flamed to a golden brown with a side of Hollandaise sauce, just pop into a chat and ask a question that Google could have answered, or post in a forum with a question that’s answered on page one of the manual.
Irresponsibility - Geeks are big believers in “they are best helped who help themselves”. If you got into a jam through your own stupidity, a geek will be more likely to point it out to you than offer sympathy. Did you get ripped off in a 419 scam, get a virus from an email attachment, or get your site hacked from leaving a gaping hole in your password verification method? You should have known better, sniff the geeks.
Greed - Now, a little greed isn’t too bad. Geeks have jobs and like to make money, too. But when a corporation or industry takes it too far and does stuff like… oh, say… force a mom to take her baby video offline because it contains a Prince song. Stuff like that draws the ire out of the community. Boooo! Mean, mean Universal Music Publishing Group hates mommies and little babies!
Inept Bureaucracy - Geeks lack patience. When they go to the government or their management to get this simple little thing done, and it takes filling out mountains of paperwork to do it, they’re just as likely to say “forget it”, or else try to look for clever ways to bypass it. To a geek, time isn’t just money; it’s life’s breath.
Hypocrisy - Ooooo! Don’t say one thing and do another around a geek; they will catch it, document it, and post it for all time. For instance, if you’re a paid corporate shill, that’s all you; the most you get is mild dismissal. But keep being a paid corporate shill while pretending to be one of the geek bunch, and may Cthulhu have mercy on your soul!
What is your opinion?
Blogroll Me!
Fall season
We finally had some cold weather last night. it got into the low 30s. i had to bring all of my house plants into the house. Sondra always loves this time of year because the house becomes a jungle! Also this weekend we have Daylight Savings Time once again. DST Ends at 2 a.m on November 4th. I will be at work that night as i am scheduled to work some overtime the next two weekends.
Just a note: For the U.S. and its territories, Daylight Saving Time is NOT observed in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, and Arizona . The Navajo Nation participates in the Daylight Saving Time policy, even in Arizona, due to its large size and location in three states.
What is your opinion?
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Just a note: For the U.S. and its territories, Daylight Saving Time is NOT observed in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, and Arizona . The Navajo Nation participates in the Daylight Saving Time policy, even in Arizona, due to its large size and location in three states.
What is your opinion?
Blogroll Me!
Sleeping time...
Over the past few years i have had trouble getting to sleep and then staying a sleep. When i would try to go to sleep, my mind would start to race and i might be physically tired, but my mind would be wide awake. I do not know the reasons for this, perhaps it is from when i used to abuse drugs as i required little or no sleep. I might have dammaged my sleep cycle from those activities. I have always been a lite sleeper and if i were to get woken up, it would take me hours to get back to sleep. I also have to have some noise in the room like a fan or music. When i lived in Texas, i had music playing all night and i slept better.
While i lived in Massachusetts, i tried Ambien, but i did not like it so i switched to Lunesta. I stayed with it till i got to Richmond and then i had to up the dose to a 3mg pill. i have been on it for about 2 years and it stopped working on my. It would not keep me sleeping all night like it is supposed to do, so i decided to switch to 12.5mg AmbienCR. So far, i have been on it for a week and it is great. it puts me to sleep and keeps me a sleep like it is supposed to.
When i am able to switch to a normal work shift like a day shift, i will get off of the sleep aids. At this time, they are needed so i can sleep during the day as it is hard. Or at least, i would like to get off of them, but if i need them to sleep, then i will continue to take them. We all have to sleep somehow.
What is your opinion?
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While i lived in Massachusetts, i tried Ambien, but i did not like it so i switched to Lunesta. I stayed with it till i got to Richmond and then i had to up the dose to a 3mg pill. i have been on it for about 2 years and it stopped working on my. It would not keep me sleeping all night like it is supposed to do, so i decided to switch to 12.5mg AmbienCR. So far, i have been on it for a week and it is great. it puts me to sleep and keeps me a sleep like it is supposed to.
When i am able to switch to a normal work shift like a day shift, i will get off of the sleep aids. At this time, they are needed so i can sleep during the day as it is hard. Or at least, i would like to get off of them, but if i need them to sleep, then i will continue to take them. We all have to sleep somehow.
What is your opinion?
Blogroll Me!
Tree of ghostes
Monday, October 29, 2007
Mack: News From the Real World
Thanks to Mack Hall for letting me post this.
News From the Real World
Researchers from a Welsh university have discovered a 400-year-old clam off Iceland. When the clam was transported to Wales it immediately demanded refugee status, a government apartment, social services in its own language, and a weekly check, and declared a bitter hatred of all things Welsh.
California prisoners are helping fight wildfires at one dollar an hour, while FEMA employees have held a completely fake press conference in order to deceive the American people. Given their record, perhaps FEMA staffers should be the ones dressed in orange jump suits and working for a dollar an hour.
According to the BBC, many Bolivians consider a llama fetus to be sacred. Perhaps the typical resident of La Paz drives around with a llama fetus on his dashboard, or carries one in a knitted cover. Maybe Bolivians have silly religious arguments that are prefaced with "Well, my llama fetus says…."
Do Bolivian schools feature a Meet Me at the Pole With Your Llama Fetus day?
A theorist (whatever that is) from the London School of Economics predicts that the human race will split into two different species. This is old news, as there are already two kinds of human beings, those who believe there are two kinds of human beings and those who do not.
Who does a grief counselor visit when he has a grief?
According to The New York Times, Democrats in Congress are planning a shorter work-week. And some people say there is no God.
California's state environmentalist pests are distressed about the air pollution from the fires. Smoke. It's called smoke.
Homeland Security has pressured New York to grant driving licenses to illegal aliens. So what will New York do if illegal aliens drive without licenses? Arrest them for violating the law?
The Italian government has determined that a series of unexplained house fires is due to space aliens. Maybe the space aliens are angry about not being issued driving licenses.
A police ball in Philadelphia when a police officer and his ex-girlfriend, a former police officer retired on disability, traded punches. The news article does not mention who answered the 911 call.
The CEO of the premiere American manufacturer of body armor has been arrested for spending some ten million (yep, that's seven zeroes in all) of his company's dollars on a party for his daughter. Other young people, posted to Iraq, will be glad to hear that.
Ten million dollars of other people's money for his own bloated ego -- who does this guy think he is, the Archbishop of Los Angeles?
G. I. Joe is going Belgian. He will now be part of an international based in Brussels, the imperial capital of Europe, and will be fighting a Scotch arms dealer. And one can understand; every man or woman in Europe sleeps fitfully because of the ongoing fear of being attacked by Angus and his Flaming Haggis of Death.
A Japanese-owned English-language school system in Japan has collapsed, leaving hundreds of English teachers, all British subjects, stranded and moneyless. One would think that even an English teacher would have enough sense to keep a return ticket and some backup funds.
CBS reports that French Prez Sarkozy walked out of a 60 Minutes interview. The question is why he ever agreed to visit that last barricade of Roosevelt's New Deal and risk being gummed to death by cranky old men who haven't enjoyed a fresh idea since 1956.
And now you may fold this excellent newspaper, sit peacefully on your porch with a cup of coffee, and take comfort from the fact that competent men and women, most of them freely elected, are running the world.
-30-
Croydon is a remarkable place. I went there once or twice, and I discovered that it possessed, among other things, at least five or six new religions.
-- G. K. Chesterton
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens
WE went there last night to Howl-O-Scream and we had a blast! It was funny to see how sacred some people really are. Most of the rides were working and they were fun to do as always. We rode several roller coasters last night and we did a few haunted houses. I have a few pics to put up tomorrow. It was well worth the money for it. The park had over 24,000 people in it last night. I was really surprised about that and I was told that last weekend they had to close the park several times due to it being at max capacity which is 34,000 people!!! Tonight is the last day it is opened for the season. At the end of the night, we rode the Loch Ness Monster 5 times!!
SO we will be going next year…
RMStringer
+++++++++++++++++++
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Max Ehrmann, "Desiderata"
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Rain...
Over the last 4 days we have had 5.25 inches of rain in our area. I am very grateful about this as we have been in very bad drought. We had only 1.11 inches of rain in nearly 60 days before the rain event that we have had over the last 4 days. It is supposed to be cool and dry over the next week.
RMStringer
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood
over questions of reality and illusion.
I know this: if life is an illusion, then I
am no less an illusion, and being thus, the
illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I
love, I slay, and I am content.
(Robert E. Howard, Queen of the Black Coast, Weird Tales, May 1934)
Friday, October 26, 2007
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Rain so far...
Well, so far since it has been raining, we have gotten 3.75 inches of rain and we are expecting about 1-2 more inches by early Saturday morning!
RMStringer
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
"Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced
equation inherent to the programming of the matrix.
You are the eventuality of an anomaly, which despite
my sincerest efforts I have been unable to eliminate
from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision.
While it remains a burden assiduously avoided, it is not
unexpected, and thus not beyond a measure of control.
Which has led you, inexorably, here." - The Architect, The Matrix Reloaded
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
The Blog...
I am going to try to give the blog more attention and have better content. I am working a new job, same company, but at a different site and i do not have access to the Internet at night. I have more time at home and i will try to devote more time to research to bring better content to you my readers.
Thank you for your patronage...
What is your opinion?
Blogroll Me!
Thank you for your patronage...
What is your opinion?
Blogroll Me!
A few memories…
When I was born, it was in Austin Texas. I was born at Seaton Memorial, which is no longer there. It has been torn down. We lived in campus housing there at UT and some apartments on North Lamar Blvd. They are still there. Soon afterward, we moved to Kirbyville Texas where I lived until my 8th grade year then I moved to Jasper to live with my mother and I graduated from Jasper High school in 1989.
Throughout my whole life I always wanted to live as far away from there as I could, I even said that I wanted to live in New Your City, I got very close to there, Massachusetts was about 5 hours from there. I also felt this incredible draw to Austin Texas. I did make it back to Austin, but it was not what I expected.
I was a big partier when I was about 18 years old until I was 29 and I decided to get my life straightened out. All the while, I always had the vision or dream if you will about if I was able to go and live in Austin that my life would be complete. I would have the friends that I wanted to have and the job that I needed, the girl, bla bla bla and so on and so forth. I can still picture that scene with me and my friends walking down a street in Austin laughing and joking with each other. I can still remember the clothes and hair that I would have as strange as that is.
Looking back on this dream, I can tell that I was part of my addiction manifesting itself at an early age. I was never really comfortable in my own skin even at an early age; I had friends and had what I wanted, but it was more than that. I was an unrest that I could never put my finger upon until later in my life after I got clean and sober. I have been clean and sober for over 5 years now. I did make it to my promise land, Austin, and the things that I sought after for so many years did not come to fruition. I was deeply in the throes of my addiction at that time and was miserable with myself and everyone around me.
Some good did come out of me moving to Austin, I did get clean and I did get married to a very special and wonderful person whom I love and admire. I have a wonderful daughter. I have a family of my own and even though at times it might be hard, I would not trade it for anything in the world. We have done more in the last 5+ years together then I could have ever have hoped for when I was out there suffering with my disease. My life has turned out well, better that I could have hoped for thanks to my wife who has stood there for me when times were bad.
With that, I bid you a good night…
What is your opinion?
Blogroll Me!
Throughout my whole life I always wanted to live as far away from there as I could, I even said that I wanted to live in New Your City, I got very close to there, Massachusetts was about 5 hours from there. I also felt this incredible draw to Austin Texas. I did make it back to Austin, but it was not what I expected.
I was a big partier when I was about 18 years old until I was 29 and I decided to get my life straightened out. All the while, I always had the vision or dream if you will about if I was able to go and live in Austin that my life would be complete. I would have the friends that I wanted to have and the job that I needed, the girl, bla bla bla and so on and so forth. I can still picture that scene with me and my friends walking down a street in Austin laughing and joking with each other. I can still remember the clothes and hair that I would have as strange as that is.
Looking back on this dream, I can tell that I was part of my addiction manifesting itself at an early age. I was never really comfortable in my own skin even at an early age; I had friends and had what I wanted, but it was more than that. I was an unrest that I could never put my finger upon until later in my life after I got clean and sober. I have been clean and sober for over 5 years now. I did make it to my promise land, Austin, and the things that I sought after for so many years did not come to fruition. I was deeply in the throes of my addiction at that time and was miserable with myself and everyone around me.
Some good did come out of me moving to Austin, I did get clean and I did get married to a very special and wonderful person whom I love and admire. I have a wonderful daughter. I have a family of my own and even though at times it might be hard, I would not trade it for anything in the world. We have done more in the last 5+ years together then I could have ever have hoped for when I was out there suffering with my disease. My life has turned out well, better that I could have hoped for thanks to my wife who has stood there for me when times were bad.
With that, I bid you a good night…
What is your opinion?
Blogroll Me!
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4 New Tracks!! #Bandcamp
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