Journal Oct 2004
A few tech notes here: Mandrake Linux 10.1 Official is now available for pre-order (packs) or download (free for club members), soon available for download for the general public. (I'd try a foreign mirror; it tends to get pretty busy on the US servers in the first few days.) Mozilla Firefox 1.0 final release is coming 09 Nov 2004 with, I believe, a big launch party. Currently, 1.0 Preview Release is available. Finally, silicon.com reports that the US government has been looking into open source software and nearly praised Linux, but that report has been edited down. Maybe Microsoft got their paws into this one. It's almost driving me to get an iMac or iBook or at least running mostly Linux on my laptop.* Microsoft's scare tactics (hmm, a fear campaign?) and not-so-secure software are enough to drive a significant portion of their market share away from their OS, and probably other Microsft products, in protest.
Speaking of fear campaigns, watch The Apprentice from last night and see which campaign does better for recruiting for the NYPD, the one using fear or the one using hope (or at least duty)? Lots of parallels available, I think, for presidential campaigns this year.
By the way, I forgot to say congratulations to the Boston Red Sox. YEAH!!!!!!!!! The curse is over! It's a miracle! Another miracle: Timmy's well on his way to being fully potty trained -- number two in the potty!! (Is that TMI**?) Well, hopefully these things come in threes, and we'll see another miracle happen on Tuesday =).
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*Pros for Linux on x86/IA32/Pentium/Athlon: generally free, tons of good software (mostly open source) available to replace commercial software on Win32, and with Mandrake 10.1, better wireless connectivity and laptop support (I have yet to try it out, though.)
Pros for Mac OS X on PPC: widely used commercial OS based on BSD Unix (mostly FreeBSD), the core of which (Darwin, for Mac OS X) is open source, lots of both open source (you can probably compile any platform-independent Unix software for Darwin/OS X/PPC) and commercial software available, and Apple's reputation for ease of use.
Unfortunately, I don't have money for an Apple yet. I'm going to try Mandrake 10.1 and report it here soon.
**Too Much Information
Check out this bizarre endorsement of Bush from the Denver Post. At times it sounds like an endorsement of Kerry.
Also check out this video, Eminem's Mosh (some expletives heard!), which Moby, of all people, calls "...the best thing that i've seen all year. it's an amazing song and an even more amazing video. please go watch." ("This Video, 10/26/2004 - New York City in Moby's Journal/Tour Diary)
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Argh, I can't believe voter suppression is still going on. It's going on in Nevada, Ohio, and, of course, Florida (Greg Palast, Harper's Magazine, October 2004). Will it end? What happened to the democracy we're fighting for? Many died for the right to vote, so it's something we cannot take for granted.
To find your polling place quickly, go to http://www.mypollingplace.com/. For voting rights, go to http://www.myvotemyright.com/ or http://www.ourvote.com/. There's also a wallet-sized election protection card, courtesy of MoveOn.org.
By the way, it looks like Kerry supporters tend to be better informed than Bush supporters.
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On Saturday, several of us went cave exploring ("spelunking") in the Anza-Borrego desert. It was challenging and a lot of fun. We went to the mud caves of Arroyo Tapiada, where running water had formed caves in the hardened mud. Some of the caves have exits on the other side, and some just ended, but the ones we explored had no major branches (just a few feet or so in a different direction). Each of these caves were very linear only in being non-branching, but they were all quite tight and winding.
Our two guides were students working at UCSD's Outback Adventures, who knew which caves to explore and in the optimal order. The first one was called "Big Mud," a good primer one. This was fairly spacious, lightly challenging, and had an exit on the other side, which looked conical like the Sarlaac pit in Return of the Jedi. On this side, were scaler the side of one mound to see the tops of the other mounds. The next one was, as you may have guessed, "Little Mud" and was quite challenging but only in tightness. This one required a crawl to get through the entrance. It was almost crawling the whole way through, and ended in a skylight (which we didn't exit). The next one was "Chasm Cross," which was fairly easy and had a chasm several feet deep to cross. The exit led to another winding open area that looked like the inside except for the lack of roof. Most likely this area's roof caved in to make it open. This open area led to several other areas, but in the middle (which we missed at first), was our last cave, "E-Ticket," named (presumably) after the most valuable ticket at Disneyland when they still had a ticket system before all the rides were included with admission unlimited. This was the most challenging one, and had many options for high or low track (both led to the same place, as in the other caves), and at one point had a middle track too. This one only ended in a skylight for us (it would have taken a lot longer to get to the real end), but was the most rewarding when reaching that point. It was getting late anyway.
All you need is a headlamp and possibly dust masks (I need them when dusting around the house or visiting someone with certain kinds of cats), but no rope or climbing equipment. It's a unique experience that I recommend to anyone who can do most other kinds of outdoor physical activity.
I'll post pictures up along with our other missing pictures one of these years =).
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I've got a few links to share. One is a theme pack for Windows XP that makes Windows look like Mac OS X (Aqua theme): Iceman's Emulation Page. Actually they have other software to emulate (behavior, not run real Mac OS X programs) parts of the OS specific to OS X. For those of you with Windows 2000 or earlier, there is ShellWM that adds theme support in Windows beyond the standard "Control Panel | Display" kinds of themes. It doesn't work for every program, and their current workaround is an exclusion list for unsupported programs. For KDE users, there's a theme in KDE-look.org -- Acqua (Italian spelling).
I'm a big fan of customizing whatever GUI I use, so aesthetics as well as productivity. For example, I have sub folders of the Start Menu in Windows (in the same level as Programs) that allow me to use the Windows key followed by a combination of letters to access frequently used documents and programs. I'll get into that later. Maybe I'll write an installer for it using NSIS, the Nullsoft Scriptable Installer.
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Argh...I've been lagging in my journal entries. I usually compose them when I have some free time at work during breaks. It's been pretty busy now. I'm getting tired of politics, and I'm sure you are too. But the race is very important, and my best hope is that people really do know who they're voting for, and who they're not...you know, that "educated electorate" thing.
It always makes me feel better when someone who disagrees with me politically can still have a constructive discussion with me. As long as they make informed decisions, their vote is not lost, because it still represents them, and isn't that what democracy is all about?
Once again, the polls are changing with the tides. But again, given that the polls do not accurately reflect America due to their non-landline, likely-voter, party-skewed sample, maybe we can see the future by correcting for that non-representative-ness. Is that a word?
Don't lose hope!
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Yesterday we all went to Sea World, and of course, Timmy had fun. No, we're not doing a theme park tour, but we're fortunate to have friends with connections. We saw polar bears, penguins, dolphins, killer whales, and sharks. Of course I forgot about charging my camera battery (and using my spare, whihc I forgot to bring), but I got some good shots. At least now both batteries are charged =).
Nothing new in election news except it's probably going to get uglier now that the election is close. The Cheneys are publicly upset about comments made by Kerry during the debate similar to comments Edwards made that Dick Cheney thanked him for. I guess there's nothing else the Bush campaign wants to focus on than that since Kerry did so well.
Brace yourself. Avoid FOX News like the plague. Get informed. Vote.
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Somewhat surprisingly, CNN.com reports that for debates, Kerry is 3-0. They have their own fact check, and here's the FactCheck.org article for the third debate. I noticed while watching the debate that Kerry slightly revised his statement about the $200 billion spent on Iraq to the more accurate $120 billion actually spent with a projected $200 million total by the war's end, which FactCheck.org has been saying all along.
Bush keeps hammering Kerry on the "global test" remark, but he and his campaign miss the point. The global test was explained by Kerry as the test where the people of the country, and the world, understand the justifications for war when all is said and done (not necessarily before, which would accomodate a global veto). It's unfortunate that he used the word "global," which, to the Bush campaign means a possible global veto, and in fact mischaracterizes it as such. Kerry specifically said in the second debate that he would never give any country a veto over whether or not we should go to war.
Truth-telling is an important campaign issue, as well as a moral issue. Who's really telling the truth? Who has told the truth in the past? Who's done the best job of characterizing his opponent fully and without statements or phrases taken out of context? Why do I keep asking questions? It's important and not unpatriotic to question our leaders.
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I was pretty busy at work, and I actually got to sleep early, so I skipped a journal day.
Timmy was really good yesterday. He had a good day at daycare. He ate all of his lunch. All of the kids in his room are friendly to him and to each other. He ate his dinner. He closed his browser (Firefox, of course) when I asked him to after playing his online PBS and Disney games. He took a bath, ate his vitamins, brushed his teeth, and went to bed before 10. Of course, I had to lie down with him and read a story, and he didn't get to sleep until 11, but still not bad.
Here comes my regular thing (recently): please watch the final presidential debate tonight at 6pm PDT (9pm EDT) on any major network except Fox, then turn off the TV. Then discuss it and vote in online polls. It's the least that can be done, even though those are skewed too. Maybe not as much as the media polls since the sample group is skewed for "likely voters" which don't include newly registered voters, registered voters without land phone lines, or registered voters who didn't vote last time. Bottom line: please don't let polls discourage you from voting.
Also, by now you may have heard about the Sinclair Broadcast Group (here's the article on mediamatters.org), showing an anti-Kerry attack film as "news", pre-empting other shows playing on (up to) all of their 62 affiliates. Being a political film, this should demand equal time, right? And haven't we already debunked the lying attacks on Kerry's service? (Attacks on Bush's record have also been (so far) debunked, but remember, the first lady said the documents are "probably fake" which implies the content could be true.)
If you have a problem with this, the best form of activism is by calling the FCC (1-888-225-5322) or emailing them at freepress.net.
Less than three weeks to go! I got my ballot booklet yesterday, and I'm fired up to vote. In fact, I'll probably go absentee and mail my ballot at the post office hub nearby.
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Here's the FactCheck for the second presidential debate. When looking at all the articles of FactCheck.org, maybe we should wonder, who's making the bigger distortions? Or, who's making distortions on more serious issues?
Also, I watched Uncovered: The Whole Truth on the War on Iraq and Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, both by director Robert Greenwald. Why hasn't the FOX News Channel been called on its obviously unfair and unbalanced "coverage" of "news"? See the truth at the progressive website Faireness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR.org).
"If you're not appalled, you haven't been paying attention." This applies well to the FOX "News" Channel, or more correctly, the FOX Propaganda Channel, or the FAKE News Channel.
Also, factcheck.com now links to a search for itself, which in turn links to the actual FactCheck, FactCheck.org.
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Please watch the presidential debate number two tonight at 9pm EDT (6pm PDT) on major networks except FOX, then turn off the TV. FactCheck.org should have the fact checks by tomorrow.
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It's interesting that Raj on the Apprentice went partisan tonight. It's not surprising since it's a show about business with Donald Trump. He kept going at it too, but I don't really care. I'm bipartisan in my TV watching. I still respect Raj because he seems to know how to lead.
Ultimately, respect is important, and since political opinion is strictly opinion (when it doesn't interfere with everything else), then when someone deserves respect (most people do, I would imagine), they should get it. And that's why when people of differing opinion talk to each other, I think it's important to maintain that respect, even if it's hard to find. We should be calm and cool, and we should speak about facts.
I hope you're not tired of this political talk, but it's currently the foremost thing on my mind. This year is the first year I've really followed everything in the media as well as check facts outside of the general media. It's pretty exciting.
There are so many things wrong with this world, but there are so many things right too, and I believe progress is made by progressive people. However, in this world we need both conservative and liberal people, and both can be progressive.
I hope this journal will be interesting when the election is over. I hope it's interesting now. I hope I'm not sounding pedantic because I know I sometimes have a problem with that. What's more important, though, is that these words come from me, and I'm finding my voice for the first time. At the very least, keeping this journal is intended to be a learning experience for me. "Never stop learning." I hope none of us in the world ever stops learning, but learning everyday, and from everyone around us.
I'll be more entertaining in four weeks. I promise. =)
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It's interesting that VP Cheney mentioned FactCheck (which I've been mentioning for a while now) last night, because (a) he said "FactCheck.com", which forwards to the website of George Soros, a billionaire investor who argues that President Bush should not be re-elected, and (b) the actual site, FactCheck.org gives not only the truth about Halliburton, but how both campaigns are misleading, as well as the GOP-funded smear campaign, the Swift Boat Veterans for "Truth" (quotes added, because their claims have been disproven, yet they still produce ads misleading the public). Here is today's article on the VP debate.
It's also interesting that many people don't know that Bush campaign speeches are "rallies" that require attendees to sign loyalty oaths not to question or heckle the speakers, whereas Kerry campaign speeches are open to all, and when Kerry gets asked a question by a heckler, he answers it well. Of course the heckler will ignore the answer and shout "four more years", but the crowd around him will shout "four more weeks."
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We went to the observance of the 40th day after Lola Alice's passing, which was yesterday, coincidentally my sister-in-law's birthday. We had the observance Mass Sunday, then celebrated Marsha's birthday yesterday at Disneyland. Of course, Timmy had fun there and also on Sunday being with family.
Please watch the vice presidential debate tonight at 9 EDT/6 PDT on the major networks except for Fox, or listen to it on NPR or Air America Radio.
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I have to share a couple of anecdotes of Timmy before I forget them. Those of you who know Pokémon will appreciate this one. A couple of weeks ago, we went to church, and I had to take Timmy to the bathroom. He went to the toilet just fine, and I washed his hands and gave him a towel. I used one and threw mine away, but when Timmy threw his, he rolled it into a ball and said "I choose you!"
Last night after dinner, Timmy was opening a fortune cookie and broke some wind audibly. When he finally got his fortune out of the cookie, Maureen read it, and it said, "All the troubles you have will pass away very quickly."
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So far (10 am PDT) it looks like the polls give Kerry a "win" for the debate. To check facts on both candidates, check this FactCheck.org analysis.
Politics is always a sensitive subject, so it's best to be civilized when speaking with someone of a different (or, at the extreme, an opposite) point of view. It's best to avoid slogans used by either campaign and focus on facts, not opinions.
That's all I have to say about that.
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Past Journal Entries: 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001
2010 Journal Entries: Nov
Common and favorite references and their acronyms:
- Washington Post (WaPo): http://www.washingtonpost.com/ (requires free login)
- Moby's journal: http://www.moby.com/journal/
- Sojourners (Sojo): http://www.sojo.net/ (requires free login)
- Tom's Hardware Guide (THG): http://www.tomshardware.com/
- Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF): http://www.eff.org/
- SourceForge.net (SF): http://www.sourceforge.net/
- My referral link for a free Mac Mini (legit): http://www.freemacmini.com/?r=160454 (why this is here)
