Polidiotics - defined by me as the practice of politics by complete idiots. As far as I know, this is my word although it seems obvious enough that someone should have thought of it before now. Henceforth, people who are involved in polidiotics are known as polidiots. See how simple this is. Soon,there will be degree granting programs to polidiotic majors at Harvard. or Brown or even USC!
I can see it now. Al Gore will be the Polidiotic candidate for President, with Bill O'Reiley as his press secretary. Martha Stewart as the Attorney General and Oprah as the National Librarian. Why, this is exactly what this country needs, a third party. Well, wait a minute. We would have to rename all of the parties to Polidiotics 1, 2 and 3, since they are all fully qualified polidiots.
Our national task becomes finding the least qualified polidiot and voting them into office. Let freedom ring!!! Have another Starbucks.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Here we go, again
They say things come in threes. I sure as hell hope so, because if I have to reinstall Windows one more time, I may become a Buddhist monk. This latest problem resulted from a bad USB port shorting out and wiping out the power supply. Or I guess that is what happened. I plugged a Creative Zen Touch into the USB port, the computer shut down instantly and I had to replace the power supply.
After replacing the power suply, I discovered Windows was hosed again so here I went. Three times in a week, not counting one foray into Vista (which didn't work out too well!). Anyway, I decided to change from 2 320 GB hard drives in a RAID(0) to 2 500 GB drives in a RAID(1). Which brings up a question; If you defrag the working drive, does the mirrored drive get defragged also? All I can find only refers to the striped RAID (0) array. Anyone out there???
Back to polidiotics. Finally, people are beginning to ask questions about Obama's lack of experience. He has never taken a stand on anything he did not later back away from.; Who will be his advisers? Particularly his economic advisers, although his National Security person is crucial. Oprah won't cut it! I am not opposed to him because he is black, but because he is unable to frame a coherent response to pointed questions.
McCain is no better. His ideas on illegal immigration are ludicrous. It's painfully obvious he is nothing but a schill for businesses dependent on cheap labor.
Neither he nor Obama have any idea how to get out of Iraq without incuring massive casualties. The troops are not going to just go to the airport and get on a plane. They will have to fight their way out. Didn't we learn anything in Vietnam? Or from the British in southern Iraq? It will be a fighting withdrawal of 150,000 men and an untold number of civilian contractors, along with Iraquis who have worked with us. I think it would be safe to say 2 to 3 million people trying to leave.
No national energy policy other than Gore's goal of completely switching over to green energy sources within ten years. What is he smoking (and inhaling deeply)? The technology is not there to provide infrastructure. We do not have the public funding available for works such as this. There is no consensus of what kind of energy we need to concentrate on.
Using food for energy is worse than stupid. Biomass might be a way out but that remains to be seen. Simplest thing right now is to make trading in oil futures illegal. Then slap a tax on the excessive profits earned by big oil. Use that money to start funding alternative sources research and development. Cut through the red tape surrounding nuclear power. Put an excise tax on all vehicles with less than a true 25 mpg average, with the rate going up the worse the average is. Encourage telecommuting by establishing a national broadband policy for reasonably priced high speed access to a more secure and speedy web. Quit worrying about Daylight Savings Time, which actually uses more energy, and start worrying about solving these problems. Then we can worry about world peace and such.
After replacing the power suply, I discovered Windows was hosed again so here I went. Three times in a week, not counting one foray into Vista (which didn't work out too well!). Anyway, I decided to change from 2 320 GB hard drives in a RAID(0) to 2 500 GB drives in a RAID(1). Which brings up a question; If you defrag the working drive, does the mirrored drive get defragged also? All I can find only refers to the striped RAID (0) array. Anyone out there???
Back to polidiotics. Finally, people are beginning to ask questions about Obama's lack of experience. He has never taken a stand on anything he did not later back away from.; Who will be his advisers? Particularly his economic advisers, although his National Security person is crucial. Oprah won't cut it! I am not opposed to him because he is black, but because he is unable to frame a coherent response to pointed questions.
McCain is no better. His ideas on illegal immigration are ludicrous. It's painfully obvious he is nothing but a schill for businesses dependent on cheap labor.
Neither he nor Obama have any idea how to get out of Iraq without incuring massive casualties. The troops are not going to just go to the airport and get on a plane. They will have to fight their way out. Didn't we learn anything in Vietnam? Or from the British in southern Iraq? It will be a fighting withdrawal of 150,000 men and an untold number of civilian contractors, along with Iraquis who have worked with us. I think it would be safe to say 2 to 3 million people trying to leave.
No national energy policy other than Gore's goal of completely switching over to green energy sources within ten years. What is he smoking (and inhaling deeply)? The technology is not there to provide infrastructure. We do not have the public funding available for works such as this. There is no consensus of what kind of energy we need to concentrate on.
Using food for energy is worse than stupid. Biomass might be a way out but that remains to be seen. Simplest thing right now is to make trading in oil futures illegal. Then slap a tax on the excessive profits earned by big oil. Use that money to start funding alternative sources research and development. Cut through the red tape surrounding nuclear power. Put an excise tax on all vehicles with less than a true 25 mpg average, with the rate going up the worse the average is. Encourage telecommuting by establishing a national broadband policy for reasonably priced high speed access to a more secure and speedy web. Quit worrying about Daylight Savings Time, which actually uses more energy, and start worrying about solving these problems. Then we can worry about world peace and such.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Enough politics, let's diss tech support
I've been fighting a battle for the past week, brought on by the ludicrous tech support at Wildblue Satellite. Since I live out in the boonies, my only viable option is Wildblue and I have been very happy with them for almost a year. But a week ago, my email died. I called and was told I needed to go online and chat with a knowledgeable tech rep.
Having done this with Dell (out of desperation since I understand typed English much better than spoken English with an Indian accent), I figured this was probably better. Big mistake. While not in the guru league, particularly in the high speed internet area, I have worked with computers since the original XT (yes, 2 360K floppies and 256K RAM) and all MS Oses since DOS 2.11. So I should have known better than to do what she told me to do. My bad! Upshot was a reinstall, the first in over six months, which is a record for me.
Now I had all of my drivers backed up, I thought. And all were, with the exception of the on board audio for my Dell XPS 410 which needs a Sigmatel driver. With all the finger pointing, I can't figure out who fucked up, Sigmatel, IDT, Dell or Microsoft. But I got no audio now. I did finally get Wildblue to admit I had been locked out of my email account for "excess" activity. Obviously, someone spoofed my address to spam a bunch of folks. Got that fixed but still no audio.
Trying to make sense of Dell's website is like trying to figure out the rules for cricket without an Englishman handy or for baseball without one of us Yanks around. Can't be done. I know my machine is a DXP061. But the most recent Dell driver for a DXP061 is for an Optiplex and won't install on the XPS. I finally figured out it must be a Vista driver and I have XP. But Dell doesn't tell me that, I just inferred it. Love that word, inferred. Makes me sound intelligent.
So I go back to a 2006 driver from Dell. Hell, this is older than my previous Dell, much less this one. What kind of deal is this!!! BTW, Mr. Ed Bott, in his May 9 post on this exact matter http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=1965 fails to mention if this driver is for XP or Vista. Knowing Ed is a Vista man, I should have assumed Vista. My bad, again!
So, anyway, I get it working and start the laborious reinstall of all the apps. Guess what?? A week into this, a BSOD! No idea of why. Mickeysoft's idea of a helpful screen isn't mine. Googled it on my laptop and guess what? I have a driver problem. No shit. Try system restore. It tells me it can't restore. Try another restore point with same result. After three more tries with the same result, I say Clusterfuck and reinstall again. Now, I got no audio again and the 2006 driver doesn't fix the problem. So here I am, with no audio. But I got email! This is a FUBAR SNAFU if I ever saw one.
More later
Having done this with Dell (out of desperation since I understand typed English much better than spoken English with an Indian accent), I figured this was probably better. Big mistake. While not in the guru league, particularly in the high speed internet area, I have worked with computers since the original XT (yes, 2 360K floppies and 256K RAM) and all MS Oses since DOS 2.11. So I should have known better than to do what she told me to do. My bad! Upshot was a reinstall, the first in over six months, which is a record for me.
Now I had all of my drivers backed up, I thought. And all were, with the exception of the on board audio for my Dell XPS 410 which needs a Sigmatel driver. With all the finger pointing, I can't figure out who fucked up, Sigmatel, IDT, Dell or Microsoft. But I got no audio now. I did finally get Wildblue to admit I had been locked out of my email account for "excess" activity. Obviously, someone spoofed my address to spam a bunch of folks. Got that fixed but still no audio.
Trying to make sense of Dell's website is like trying to figure out the rules for cricket without an Englishman handy or for baseball without one of us Yanks around. Can't be done. I know my machine is a DXP061. But the most recent Dell driver for a DXP061 is for an Optiplex and won't install on the XPS. I finally figured out it must be a Vista driver and I have XP. But Dell doesn't tell me that, I just inferred it. Love that word, inferred. Makes me sound intelligent.
So I go back to a 2006 driver from Dell. Hell, this is older than my previous Dell, much less this one. What kind of deal is this!!! BTW, Mr. Ed Bott, in his May 9 post on this exact matter http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=1965 fails to mention if this driver is for XP or Vista. Knowing Ed is a Vista man, I should have assumed Vista. My bad, again!
So, anyway, I get it working and start the laborious reinstall of all the apps. Guess what?? A week into this, a BSOD! No idea of why. Mickeysoft's idea of a helpful screen isn't mine. Googled it on my laptop and guess what? I have a driver problem. No shit. Try system restore. It tells me it can't restore. Try another restore point with same result. After three more tries with the same result, I say Clusterfuck and reinstall again. Now, I got no audio again and the 2006 driver doesn't fix the problem. So here I am, with no audio. But I got email! This is a FUBAR SNAFU if I ever saw one.
More later
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Finally
Well, this may be a little less controversial, but not much.
Why can't the SEC get any media love? It doesn't seem to matter what sport we are talking about either. In football, it is Notre Dame (how lame!), USC I can't see it!), the PAC 10 in general, and the Big 10. In basketball, it's the ACC, the Big 10 and the PAC 10. In baseball, thanks to LSU, there is some respect for the SEC but the PAC 10 rears its ugly head there also.
Last year, we had Florida, as much as I hate to admit it, winning the National Championship in both football and basketball, in spite of playing football in the SEC. LSU won the National Championship in football on the field in 2004 and 2008, in spite of what Pete Carrol would have you believe. Why was Ohio State even on the field in 2007 and 2008? They are obviously not even capable of playing Vanderbilt! Oklahoma was embarrassed in 2004 by a LSU team which was a heavy underdog. LSU was a heavy underdog to Ohio State again in 2008. Florida was an underdog against Ohio State also. I don't really want to get started on Notre Dame or Penn State. Ara Parseghian is long gone and Joe Paterno should retire.
Who the hell does USC play? The PAC 10 doesn't even have a play-off, for gosh sake! So all the Trojans have to do is dodge an upset by a 30 point underdog and they are crowned National Champs by the media. Pete Carroll evidently knows where the stumps are because I know he doesn't actually walk on water. I wish we could have a game between LSU and USC tomorrow, in spite of LSU not having a starting quarterback who ever started a game.
Why can't the SEC get any media love? It doesn't seem to matter what sport we are talking about either. In football, it is Notre Dame (how lame!), USC I can't see it!), the PAC 10 in general, and the Big 10. In basketball, it's the ACC, the Big 10 and the PAC 10. In baseball, thanks to LSU, there is some respect for the SEC but the PAC 10 rears its ugly head there also.
Last year, we had Florida, as much as I hate to admit it, winning the National Championship in both football and basketball, in spite of playing football in the SEC. LSU won the National Championship in football on the field in 2004 and 2008, in spite of what Pete Carrol would have you believe. Why was Ohio State even on the field in 2007 and 2008? They are obviously not even capable of playing Vanderbilt! Oklahoma was embarrassed in 2004 by a LSU team which was a heavy underdog. LSU was a heavy underdog to Ohio State again in 2008. Florida was an underdog against Ohio State also. I don't really want to get started on Notre Dame or Penn State. Ara Parseghian is long gone and Joe Paterno should retire.
Who the hell does USC play? The PAC 10 doesn't even have a play-off, for gosh sake! So all the Trojans have to do is dodge an upset by a 30 point underdog and they are crowned National Champs by the media. Pete Carroll evidently knows where the stumps are because I know he doesn't actually walk on water. I wish we could have a game between LSU and USC tomorrow, in spite of LSU not having a starting quarterback who ever started a game.
Global cooling
Yes, Virginia, cooling! What will happen to us if these studies are correct? See http://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/globalcooling.html for an opposing viewpoint to the Al Gores of this world.
It seems we no longer have to deal with just the military/industrial complex in this country. The Global Warming Coalition has surfaced in all its glory. The consequences of global cooling, instead of global warming, are at least as catastrophic as the many wars in which we have been involved. What will happen if we succeed in reducing warming at a time it is already being reduced naturally? The movie Day After Tomorrow may truly be prophetic. Mexico may have an illegal immigration problem.
What the vast majority of people, myself included, do not realize is how small a decrease in temperature is needed to cause a huge change in the weather. The temperate zone is balanced on a knife blade with almost unimaginable consequences from a fall.
Like I said earlier, vote the bastards out and try to get some people in there who have some kind of scientific background! We need to get the Federal government out of the business of telling us how to live. The states also. I am beginning to believe we are headed for civil war, not necessarily by states wanting to secede from the Union, but by American citizens who have wearied of the constant erosion of our freedoms.
Taking away freedom in the name of protecting us from terrorism, or any other reason, should be anathema to the American public. It is naught but a protection scam, no better than those seen on TV crime shows. Rather than protection in return for money, we have protection in return for power. In the same way, the entities providing the "protection" continue to insinuate themselves into the entity being "protected" until that entity is no longer viable (He's dead, Jim!)
It seems we no longer have to deal with just the military/industrial complex in this country. The Global Warming Coalition has surfaced in all its glory. The consequences of global cooling, instead of global warming, are at least as catastrophic as the many wars in which we have been involved. What will happen if we succeed in reducing warming at a time it is already being reduced naturally? The movie Day After Tomorrow may truly be prophetic. Mexico may have an illegal immigration problem.
What the vast majority of people, myself included, do not realize is how small a decrease in temperature is needed to cause a huge change in the weather. The temperate zone is balanced on a knife blade with almost unimaginable consequences from a fall.
Like I said earlier, vote the bastards out and try to get some people in there who have some kind of scientific background! We need to get the Federal government out of the business of telling us how to live. The states also. I am beginning to believe we are headed for civil war, not necessarily by states wanting to secede from the Union, but by American citizens who have wearied of the constant erosion of our freedoms.
Taking away freedom in the name of protecting us from terrorism, or any other reason, should be anathema to the American public. It is naught but a protection scam, no better than those seen on TV crime shows. Rather than protection in return for money, we have protection in return for power. In the same way, the entities providing the "protection" continue to insinuate themselves into the entity being "protected" until that entity is no longer viable (He's dead, Jim!)
FISA
Sorry, no USC/PAC 10 bashing in this post. Maybe later. As usual, Ars Technica has an excellent piece on an issue that is not precisely technical but touches on technical issues.
See http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/fisa-compromise.ars for an excellent concise explanation of FISA and why it is so important. Fits in rather well with my previous rants about this administration and the Congress.
Vote the bastards out!
See http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/fisa-compromise.ars for an excellent concise explanation of FISA and why it is so important. Fits in rather well with my previous rants about this administration and the Congress.
Vote the bastards out!
Friday, July 4, 2008
Indeependence Day
Nope, not a typo. I figure we're in too deep and it's time to put an end to it. Vote the morons out! Vote the hacks out! Vote the crooks out! Vote the weaklings out! Yes, vote 'em all out and try to vote some intelligent, honest people who believe in what's right for America rather than what's best for them. Term limits and stronger, enforced ethics laws. Pressure your duly elected representative to pass the exact same ethics laws they passed for Federal employees. No more, no less. Then enforce them.
Another day and no new war going on yet. Maybe Bush will wait until after the election. Then, he has a free hand, so Iran better start digging their shelters.
I promise tomorrow I will post a little less controversial piece; which conference has the better football programs, the SEC or the PAC-10. Should LSU and USC play to determine the "Team of the Millenium?"
Another day and no new war going on yet. Maybe Bush will wait until after the election. Then, he has a free hand, so Iran better start digging their shelters.
I promise tomorrow I will post a little less controversial piece; which conference has the better football programs, the SEC or the PAC-10. Should LSU and USC play to determine the "Team of the Millenium?"
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