Thursday, October 30, 2008

Adding BTNX

There are two ways to get the repository configured: the GUI way and the command line way. I think the command line way is a little quicker, but I’ll give you both. Remember, if you are not running Hardy, you will need to change all instances of hardy throughout these instructions to feisty or gutsy, whichever you are using. Olli did packages for all three versions. If you don’t know which you’re running, go to System > About Ubuntu and read the window that spawns. Your version will be in there somewhere.

First the command line way.

echo -e "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/daou/ubuntu hardy main\ndeb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/daou/ubuntu hardy main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/btnx.list
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install btnx btnx-config

Then, I’d recommend using btnx-config from Applications > System Tools > btnx to configure the tool. You could also do gksu btnx-config at the command line to bring it up.

Next, the GUI way.

If you already have btnx installed, go to System > Administration > Software Sources. Go to the Third Party Software tab. Click +Add and paste the line for each of the two APT lines: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/daou/ubuntu hardy main and deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/daou/ubuntu hardy main. When you click Close, it will ask if you want to reload the sources. Confirm the reload.

If you do not already have btnx installed, go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager. Go to Settings > Repositories and follow the above instructions. One the list finishes reloading, Search for “btnx” and the two packages will be shown in the main screen. Click each to mark it for installation, then click Apply. When it’s finished, you can access btnx-config through Applications > System Tools > btnx from the top panel.

Syrians rally against US Terrorist Attack

Thousands of Syrian people have staged a mass rally in Damascus to protest at a deadly US terrorist raid that killed 8 civilians in a Syrian village.

Syria strongly reacted to the US aggression, calling it a "terrorist attack" that resulted in the killing of innocent civilians.

Demonstrators waved Syrian flags and banners reading "No to American terrorism" and "American democracy: the killing of civilians at Abu Kamal," the border area targeted in Sunday's US raid.

"Colonialists, listen, the people of Syria will never be brought to their knees," chanted the protesters as they gathered in the heart of Damascus.

Security was boosted in the area in Damascus housing the US embassy, which was closed on Thursday due to the demonstration.

On Tuesday, the Syrian Cabinet wrote a scolding letter to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council, slamming United States' Sunday attack that killed the eight civilians including four children.

US-Syrian crisis intensifies, USS (Nest of spies) embassy may close

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Quick Analysis: EU Personal Bailout Plan Grants For Individuals and SMEs - Partial Texts of Economist assessments

The recently announced EU Personal Bailout Grant for individuals has received rave reviews from some of the world's most respected economists. Following are some of the comments being made. I'll start the list with the most notable one so far made by Economist

"the smartest move ever made in the history of modern macro-economics"

"Micro propping of macro-economic structures via a bailout grants is the fastest path to a domino effect and is a very ingenious way of controlling the credit crunch."

"The grant is a bold step that shifts focus from the big guys to the little guys. 20 years ago such a move would have been seen as downright crazy but today it may just be the tonic that the world needs"


"Europeans must have very brilliant economists to have been able to come up with this idea...a sure recipe for success"



So who's against the Bailout?

Friday, October 17, 2008

EU release details of the personal bailout plan grants

From CNN:

PARIS: Further details of the personal bailout plan approved by European Union leaders in Brussels on Wednesday has been released at a press conference in Paris. In its statement, the Union elaborated on the modus operandi for the selection of awardees, processing of grants and execution of projects.
According to the statement read by EU Commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger "All awardees will be selected randomly from the EU world database. This database contains some 500 million email addresses of individuals from 96 countries."

"When this selection has been made, the recipients shall be informed through electronic mail and will then be provided with a questionnaire to answer. The purpose of the questionnaire is to enable the processing agent tailor the grant to suit the needs of the recipient's local economy. For optimal speed and greater security, communications during the processing of the grant will be done via electronic mail"

"All grant recipients will go through a preliminary identity verification to be carried out by EU officials after which they will be issued with an Authority to Claim and then handed over to 3rd party EU appointed strategic partners who will complete the processing of grants on a regional basis."
"The grants will be processed very fast because it is essential that the funds get to the recipients quickly so that they can start paying up the loans. Timing is of the greatest essence therefore and delays must be minimized. One of the strategies we will employ to expedite the process is to cancel and re-award any grant where the recipient wastes too much time."

The statement also hinted that recipients may be required to meet certain financial requirements before having their grants processed and that any grant which is not processed by the recipient within the stipulated time will be cancelled and re-awarded to another person drawn from a waiting list.
However in answer to reporters' questions, the spokesman noted that all grant recipients will be processed on a case-by-case basis and that some requirements may be waved depending on the particular case or the region in which the recipient lives.

The Personal Bailout Grant is an EU strategy to combat the crumbling financial markets of the world by giving out grants to individuals so that they can pay back their personal debts and also set up business enterprises. The aim of the grant is to shore up liquidity and cash flow in local economies and has been widely acclaimed as a "smart move".


COMMENT: Tis about damn time the government start looking out for the masses and tax payers instead of ploughing their money into schemes that will save only the big companies who are the cause of the global crisis in the first place. kudos to the European union, hope other governments (like the USA) will follow suit with similar plans.