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

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?

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.

No Country for Free Men

Rick Fisk wrote an article entitled No Country for Free Men for LewRockwell.com which rationally examines the debacle in Texas in which state authorities removed several hundred children from a Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints ranch where a few polygamist men lived with their many wives. The details of the story are explained as needed in the article, and if you’re really interested, I’m sure that Google News will yield further details.

Apparently, the FLDS skirts anti-polygamy laws by not actually getting marriage licenses for each wife. It’s a loophole that probably won’t and arguably shouldn’t be closed (my views on the relationship between marriage and the legal system are very different from most peoples, but are irrelevant to this discussion). However, the part of the system which the FLDS exploits, as Fisk points out, is the welfare system.

The state may not recognize unlicensed marriage, but they also have no legitimate legal authority to turn a religious institution into a “legal” institution. However, the FLDS goes a step further by having the “unwed” mothers apply for state welfare. They don’t just want to live their lifestyle in peace, they want to have the people of the State of Texas pay so that they can afford to maintain so many wives and children.

We “normal” folks may not agree with polygamy, even though our species—and most mammalian species—is polygynous. It’s a religious belief, as well as a socioeconomic belief. However, it’s practiced in other parts of the world without incident, so it’s not inherently a bad thing.

However, relying on welfare; relying on others to allow you to live your life your way is wrong.

When you step back and examine what is going on in this case, you can see that we are being conditioned into believing that the rights enumerated in our constitutions are not inviolate as is stated, but totally irrelevant if the state merely acts as if it has authority.

Government invading our lives, you say?

And finally, Texas’ taxpayers get to foot the bill for the hundreds of lawyers who will descend on the courtroom at their expense to “advocate” for the children – as it is called in CPS administrative court parlance. I don’t know if anyone has bothered to tally up what this may cost the taxpayers but it could easily reach 8 figures by the time everything is said and done. And not one of those state-paid lawyers will be arguing that the State’s action is constitutionally unjust. Quite the contrary. They’ll be counseling their “clients” to cooperate and make it easy on everyone.

Please read the full article, No Country for Free Men. I’ve been waiting for an enlightened view of the situation, such as that article, before chipping in my two cents.

Keeping the mind and govt open

A government can never truly be open source, at least realistically. There will always be secrets; unpublished code, per say. These secrets are matters of national defense: military operations during a time of declared war, location of the president and vice president so the two are rarely together (for obvious reasons).

However, most of the goings-on of the government should be open. Obama pushes for “open government.” Ron Paul pushes for less government and, presumably, open government, since there would be far less government to hide!

However, open source projects thrive on the involvement of the people. Our current election system does not encourage responsible voting. Take, for example, Pennsylvania’s primary election results. 90,836 PA Republicans voted for Mike Huckabee, who dropped out of the race March 4, 49 days prior to the election. This is like allowing all of the Linux users in PA, regardless of technical knowledge, vote on the addition of one of three kernel features, and giving them only the name of the feature—no description, background, author, codebase, language, performance evaluation, or source! Even more appropriate would be that the developer of the feature conceded that one of the other two features is more efficient and worthwhile than his own!

I’m not saying that only those in-the-know should be allowed the vote. Mistaking my words for that would be fallacious. I believe that every person deserves the right to vote. I believe that every person has the right to have evidence of their vote. I believe that every person has the right to request vote totals for every level of complexity in the elections system: precinct, county, congressional district, state, and federal.

As versatile and open as the Constitution may be—and yes, I believe that it may need some updating to reinforce personal liberty and states’ rights—the government and governance which exists now cannot be patched.

When working on a project, a developer comes to a point where he or she realizes that there is a major defect in the software. He or she (for sake of my fingers, I’m going to use he henceforth, pardon my faux pas) has two options: patch or rewrite. He knows there are serious bugs, bugs which are inherent in the design of the code, as it has been patched since it was written. These most of these patches were good things, but some introduced more bugs which have yet to be fixed.

Should the developer continue to patch the code? Or should he rewrite it, integrating the features of the old version with more manageable code and lessons learned since it was first written?

If he continues to patch it, he treats the problem, but may not actually fix the problem. The problem might be inherent, or the problem may be caused by a combination of other features.

If he rewrites it, he’ll spend a lot of time redoing work he’s already done, but the result will be a more efficient program with fewer bugs (hopefully) and more manageable, cohesive code base. Of course, this new version will have its bugs, too, but they may be easier to find if the code is more manageable.

What the United States needs is a rewrite. The foundations of our government are solid: the Constitution, capitalism and free market economy, liberty for all. These are like the basic functions that make a program tick, “the algorithm,” per say. There are other parts that work, too. However, the maintainers of our government have diverted our attention from the core of the government, preferring us to view the only the parts it wants us to see, i.e. the bling.

The founders—the original authors of the U.S. base code—have long since gone, and they would be disgusted by the mess that is the program and its code base—the federal government—today. Things aren’t going they way that they would have wanted, and there’s a growing part of the population which seeks to return the these ideas, to a set of ideas not much different in theory from the software philosophy of “do one thing and do it well.” The government is bloated, more bloated than any application to which I might possibly compare it.

The founders outlined in the Constitution—a white paper or base algorithm, if you prefer to keep up the programming analogies—the specific functions of the U.S. government. It outlined a process by which the white paper or algorithm itself could be changed to allow more functions or remove functions which endangered the users and their data. However, rather than use this process, the maintainers simply implement functions or remove functions without regard to the users’ opinions, data, or the fact that the users are supporting the maintainers financially.

A fork is nearly impossible. There is no more undiscovered land on the face of the Earth, and it would be difficult for a state to secede. It would be economically infeasible, as well as diplomatically infeasible. The citizens of the new country would have their rights and their government as the Constitution of the U.S.—and of their new country—defines, but they would not have the resources to be self-sufficient, and things imported would cost more.

Fortunately, our government is not setup like the Linux kernel maintenance group in that The President of the United States is not a benevolent dictator (at least not on paper, haha). There are, however, 50 branches of the U.S. kernel which all have their own quirks and maintainers. Like a few projects, perhaps the Debian project included, the U.S. government does have representatives, people who supposedly represent their constituents in the decision-making process having been chosen by those constituents.

The ears of the maintainer are closed. He doesn’t want hear from the users; the people. However, the representatives’ ears are open, and they must be, by definition. In order to change the course of the program; the United States, we, as users; citizens, must elect representatives who believe as we do and not settle for anyone lesser. These representatives will then make the decisions we would make if we were in their position, leading to a program which is more useful, usable, smaller, and most of all, open.

Comments on three bills in the House

A while ago, I started using GovTrack.us to watch actions on bills in the house and senate. I did so because I am interested to see how Ron Paul votes and how my Congressman, Jason Altmire, votes. I know that Arlen Specter and Bob Casey, Jr. generally are not going to vote as I would, but it’s nice to see if I’m right whenever there’s some senate action on GovTrack.

Today, when looking through the GovTrack feed, I found three recently-introduced House Resolutions that stuck out to me. I detail them and give my comments herein. I must remind the reader that I am a just little more than a beginner level interpreter of Congressional bills, so if I have incorrectly analyzed or have mistaken a meaning, please supply constructive criticism with links to references in a comment.

H.R. 6074 Gas Price Relief for Consumers Act of 2008. The Gas Price Relief for Consumers Act of 2008 was introduced by Wisconsin Democrat Steve Kagen. Section 101, the “No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act of 2008″ (NOPEC, how quaint) amends the Sherman Act, the country’s antitrust statutes, to prohibit any foreign state or agent thereof from working with another foreign state or agent thereof to limit the production of, set prices for, or otherwise restrain trade of oil, natural gas and petroleum products.

What right does the US have to extend our antitrust laws to foreign nations? This act is obviously targeted at OPEC, given its text and its apropos acronym, NOPEC. Now, I see the application of this to oil-related companies in the US which are owned by foreign governments or companies. However, if one of these companies were to be sued under antitrust laws, wouldn’t that suit give them justification to raise the prices in order afford the expensive legal process in the US?

It seems that Congress would be better off spending its time telling Japan to stop having a monopoly on Pocky or telling OPEC non-member Norway to stop being the #3 producer of oil in the world.

H.R. 6079. California Democrat Adam Schiff’s text for H.R. 6079 has not been released yet, but the description says it all:

To direct the Secretary of State to submit a report outlining the steps taken and plans made by the United States to end Turkey’s blockade of Armenia, and for other purposes.

What constitutional business has the US in meddling with arguments between Turkey and Armenia? The US is once again trying to be the bully settling the quarrel between two people it doesn’t usually pick on, thus trying to make itself feel better and look better even though it continues to illogically blockade allies of those two countries, plus many more!

H. Res. 1205: Noting that the Government of Iraq will likely enjoy $32 billion in surplus oil revenues in 2008…. Massachusetts’ Democrat William Delahunt’s H.R. 1205 recognizes that Iraq will bring in $32 billion in oil surplus this year and directs asks the government of Iraq to give $1 billion of that to refugees and displaced persons and that the Iraqi government give that money to other countries to help those countries afford the refugees. There are many clauses in the resolution, but a few are particularly outstanding:

Whereas the United States has a moral responsibility to assist those affected by the violence pervasive in Iraq since the United States invasion and should generously support the efforts of international and nongovernmental organizations to ease the human suffering of the displaced;

Mr. Delahunt, you may see a “moral responsibility” to assist, but I see a legal responsibility for the US to let the government of Iraq do what it deems right. We’ve already screwed up that country enough by meddling in its affairs and invading it without a constitutionally-required Congressional declaration of war. Money to help refugees wouldn’t be necessary if we’d have stopped military action when the “mission” was “accomplished.”

What do all of these bills have in common? They meddle in affairs of other nations and seek to impose our will and our laws in ways which are unconstitutional and illogical. No country has to listen to what another country’s politicians have to say.

If OPEC doesn’t play nice, what is the US going to do? Bomb them? Hardly, even that seems to be the most common answer to non-compliance with the wishes of Washington. If Turkey continues to blockade Armenia, what is the US going to do? Alienate our relations with Turkey in order to help out Armenia? Or are we just going to give guns to the Armenians and money to the Turks, like we did in the middle east with several nations there?

If Iraq won’t give $1 billion to its refugees, what is the US going to do? Will Bush or his successor promise to keep troops in Iraq or continue bombing, thus forcing even more Iraqis out of their homes?

The US has no ground on which it can stand in regard to these bills. It’s empty posturing by delusional politicians who think that they can exercise their will on anyone they choose.

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.

The Daily Newscaster story Secret Service confiscates books, buttons from Ron Paul delegates should piss you of beyond all comprehension. After reading that story, you should be so livid that you could Hulk out and start flipping tables in a manner that Jesus would appreciate.

It shouldn’t matter if you are a Democrat, a Republican, a Libertarian, a Constitutionalist, a Green, or any other party. It shouldn’t matter if you are a capitalist, socialist, communist, constitutional monarchist, or anarchist.

The sneaky confiscation of materials from any delegate to a party convention—especially a federally recognized and federally funded convention—is an abomination and every single member of the party, and any competing party, should be up-in-arms and condemning of such illicit behavior.

This isn’t the Republican party I for which I signed up, and if you’re reading my blog and you’re a Republican, I’m sure it isn’t the party for which you signed up, either.

If it is, leave the party. Go start your own neo-conservative party based around the principles of censorship, control, and centrist propaganda. Better yet, leave the U.S. and go back to from whence you came. I don’t want you here and you are probably not my friend.

I’m taking my party back, and if there is no one with me, I’m gone.

Performance of my PHP stddev implementation versus PECL

Yesterday, I showed my implentation of Don Knuth’s on-line standard deviation implementation.

Today, I have for you, my interested reader, the results of a quick benchmark on my code versus the PECL stats package.

Here’s the script for the benchmark:

function stddev($array){
 //Don Knuth is the $deity of algorithms
 //http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithms_for_calculating_variance#III._On-line_algorithm
 $n = 0;
 $mean = 0;
 $M2 = 0;
 foreach($array as $x){
     $n++;
     $delta = $x - $mean;
     $mean = $mean + $delta/$n;
     $M2 = $M2 + $delta*($x - $mean);
 }
 $variance = $M2/$n;
 return sqrt($variance);
}

function mt($precision=4){ return round(microtime(true),$precision); }
function echodiff($start,$end){ echo ($end - $start) . " μs to execute\n"; }

//first, let's prepare a set of arrays.
mt_srand();
//four arrays on different orders of magnitude
$array10 = array();
$array100 = array();
$array1000 = array();
$array10000 = array();
$array100000 = array();
$array1000000 = array();

for($i=0;$i<10;$i++) $array10[] = mt_rand(0, 100);
for($i=0;$i<100;$i++) $array100[] = mt_rand(0, 100);
for($i=0;$i<1000;$i++) $array1000[] = mt_rand(0, 100);
for($i=0;$i<10000;$i++) $array10000[] = mt_rand(0, 100);
for($i=0;$i<100000;$i++) $array100000[] = mt_rand(0, 100);
for($i=0;$i<1000000;$i++) $array1000000[] = mt_rand(0, 100);

$ars = array($array10, $array100, $array1000, $array10000, $array100000, $array1000000);
foreach($ars as $ar){
       echo "Trial of " . count($ar) . " elements.\n";
       $mine_start = mt();
       $mine_out = stddev($ar);
       $mine_end = mt();
       echo "Mine: ";
       echodiff($mine_start, $mine_end);
       $php_start = mt();
       $php_out = stats_standard_deviation($ar);
       $php_end = mt();
       echo "PHP/PECL: ";
       echodiff($php_start, $php_end);
}
?>

These are the results on my machine, an Athlon X2 6000+ with the max memory size in php.ini set to 2048M.

[colin@rahab Source]$ php stddev.php
Trial of 10 elements.
Mine: 9.98973846436E-5 μs to execute
PHP/PECL: 0 μs to execute
Trial of 100 elements.
Mine: 0.000200033187866 μs to execute
PHP/PECL: 0 μs to execute
Trial of 1000 elements.
Mine: 0.0019998550415 μs to execute
PHP/PECL: 0.000200033187866 μs to execute
Trial of 10000 elements.
Mine: 0.0218000411987 μs to execute
PHP/PECL: 0.00450015068054 μs to execute
Trial of 100000 elements.
Mine: 0.216400146484 μs to execute
PHP/PECL: 0.042799949646 μs to execute
Trial of 1000000 elements.
Mine: 1.13669991493 μs to execute
PHP/PECL: 0.213500022888 μs to execute

Approximately .8 μs isn’t much, but it could be higher if the dataset it much higher and the calculation is repeated several hundred times. Regardless, it shows that you should probably take the time to simply install PECL stats and use it instead of trying to roll your own.

Cleaning my Cooler Master Cosmos S

The side panel of the Cooler Master Cosmos S PC case has a 200 mm fan and a grating which covers the entire side. The grating is hard, and protects the fan from damage. Inside the grating, though is a lighter mesh which prevents dust from being sucked in by the fan.

This design keeps dust out while providing an enormous amount of cooling for the entire motherboard.

However, cleaning it is annoying. One must unscrew the inner mesh and its panel, then pop the panel out of a number of tabs. Once that’s open, one can carefully clean it. It took me approximately 20 minutes to clean it.

Check out the picture for the amount of dust which had accumulated since mid-March when I reviewed it for ThinkComputers.

Pittsburgh Lights

I have been a resident of Pittsburgh for a few days more than two months now. While this is not the first time I’ve lived alone (lived alone during the summer of 2006 at an apartment in New Wilmington), it is the farthest from home I’ve lived.

It’s been a little weird not seeing my parents every couple days or so, especially when I’d lived at home since August 2007 while commuting to Robert Morris University in Moon Township for my Masters coursework. Even when I lived in New Wilmington, I went home for dinner every two or three days and did all of my laundry there. I could have packages shipped there without concern for safe delivery. If I hadn’t had a chance to go shopping, I could run home and grab a peanut butter and jelly sandwich if there were no better-tasting leftovers in the fridge.

Work is going very well. I enjoy it, and look forward to it. I’m working for Clayton Kendall, a promotional marketing company which also runs Rush Imprint, the fastest imprinted goods purveyor on the Internet. The company does a lot of business-to-business sales, selling client company goods to its franchises or employees. Our developer team is small, but we know what we’re doing. We’ve had our crises, but we work through them and come out all the better.

The dining room and living room ante-furniture

I’m growing acclimated to my apartment. It is very spacious for my general needs. My 10′ x 12′ bedroom—not yet finished and still quite messy from the move—is more than sufficient, given that the room in which I lived until I was 16 was approximately 6′ x 10′, and my newer room was 12′ x 14′. All I really do in my room is sleep, so it doesn’t need to be large.

The kitchen is lacking the kind of counter space to which I’d grown accustomed at my New Wilmington apartment (having a 4′ x 8′ island spoiled me forevermore), but I moved a table from the computer room into the kitchen. I now have sufficient space to enjoy my dinner without having to clear off the dining room table, which has become somewhat of a warzone/workshop. I cook much of my own food, generally enjoying six of seven dinners at home per week. Lunch is a different story; I usually eat a Lean Pocket or can of Spaghetti-Os or something like that.

I’m probably going to do the living and dining room in a dark red, navy blue, and hunter green motif, with the natural maple color of my furniture as a base. The curtains are probably going to be red. The green will be provided by a number of plants, as the apartment does get quite stuffy and I’ve really noticed a difference in the air down here, inside the apartment and outside around the city, too. I don’t know the source of the blue, yet, but I think it may be in the furniture. I don’t know; I need to talk it out with people who know more about home decoration than I.

Stained Ikea table for a Colinese flare

A few nights ago, Jon helped me move my new computer desk into my computer room. I have yet to finish moving everything else back into the room; it’s a work-in-progress. I like having a much larger workspace. I can spread out more, but I also have to try to keep things cleaner than they were on my messy desk at home. I’ll also have some room to review larger hardware items without having to use my bed as a photography table.

I do, however, still need to figure out how I’m going to set up two printers, a development server in a micro ATX case, a 16 port gigabit switch, a router, a four bay NAS, a one bay NAS, and two USB hard drives plugged into a Linksys slug NAS. Oh, and I have three laptops (XO, Eee, Averatec 3270 which will be soon replaced by an ASUS F9) and another development server (Vojistilo, for Vojisto), the latter of which has yet to even make it to my apartment.

I’m not quite used to paying bills yet. I’ve never had bills other than quarterly college loan bills, all of which now have turned into simple interest notices because I was unable to afford the payments while doing my Masters work (a normal thing for PA students). My bills aren’t outrageous by any means; I’m living well within my means and have a nest egg for emergencies. I’m worried about the stability of the American dollar, though, so I’m looking at investment options in precious metals and foreign currency/foreign banks. That’s fodder for another post, though.

I’m also not used to having an income. That’s been my excuse for a few excesses lately, like camarones a la diabla, which is usually $15 for a dinner. “I have an income, now,” I say to my friends, most of whom have enjoyed salaried employment for at least a year. I know I’ll have to cut back when I have to start paying on my student loans, but that’s to be expected. I’m enjoying sushi and the like now while I can.

It’s quite convenient to have a Giant Eagle and an Aldi less than a mile away. I was so accustomed to driving 10-20 minutes to get groceries. These locations are within walking distance, but seeing as though I generally buy my groceries in waves, I have yet to actually walk to either. There’s also a Rite-Aid across the street from Aldi and a Taco Bell even closer, Dominoes, too.

Speaking of walks, I went on a walk a few days ago whilst Rahab, my primary workstation, compiled a custom Linux kernel (I finally have sound in Flash on my Creative X-Fi!). I walked around the neighborhood and then down towards a park and ride off of Rt. 30 behind the Westinghouse Atom Smasher. A coworker said that there was a staircase from the park and ride up to the road behind the Atom Smasher facility. There is, yes, but it’s fenced off because there aren’t many stairs remaining on it.

When I returned, I realized how tired I was. I haven’t gone on a walk since I moved. I think I’m going to have to restart that ritual. I’ve been watching closely the things I eat, having put myself on a sort of “zig zag” diet. This diet plays on the body’s switching between high calorie day/increased metabolism and low calorie day/decreased metabolism to foster gradual weight loss. Basically, I maintain a low calorie diet (~1,000 calories) for four days, then have a high calorie day (2,000 calories). It’s worked out well thus far—I’ve lost approximately five pounds since I moved. My goal is to weight approximately 200 pounds by Christmas—it’s a lofty goal, but I’m working toward it.

I don’t have anything to report regarding the romantic parts of my life, other than that it’s a work-in-progress. It will suffice to say that I’ve realized I need to work on myself before I can work on an “us,” but I certainly will not turn down potential opportunities.

While Clayon Kendall is the primary consumer of my time—and payer of bills—I do still write for ThinkComputers and BIOS LEVEL. The former is getting busier and busier: Bob Buskirk, the owner, has been posting a review almost every day. Most recently, I wrote a review of the CineRaid Quad-bay SATA/SAS RAID Device, an awesome external RAID device for professional graphics folks. I’m working on a few power supplies, and then I’ll have another NAS for review. I’m also working on an article about the ASUS Eee PC and some creative hackery with it.

BIOS LEVEL is picking up a bit, but we posted fewer reviews in July than in June and saw less traffic. Our peak traffic recently was the day after Sean Potter posted his article on Using chroot to recover root passwords. A second, lesser peak was the day after John Yackovich posted his review of the Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750W power supply. Sean and I have some exciting articles planned for August, as well as an awesome contest in conjunction with Pittco! Later in the month or in early September, I might have an article on creative uses of the Wiimote with Linux. In October, much of the BIOS LEVEL staff will be in attendance at Ohio Linuxfest, and I’ll be reporting from it.

Speaking of Pittco, Iron Storm 9 is August 16 and 17 at the Castle Shannon Firehall in the South Hills of Pittsburgh. It’s $25 for 24 hours of food, fun, and fragging. I still have a few power supplies I’d like to sell, so if you’re looking to build a computer or give your current one some extra umph, please talk to me before, during, or after the event. I’ll make you an offer you shouldn’t refuse.

Oh, I almost forgot. I have a Masters degree now

I think that’s it for this life update. I’d better cut it off here before I beg too many “TL;DR” from readers. Follow me on Twitter (colindean) or Identi.ca (colindean) to get my daily updates and such.

Video Games Ratings Enforcement Act introduced in to the House

Congressman Altmire,

I write to urge you to argue and vote against H.R. 5990, the “Video Games Ratings Enforcement Act” recently introduced by Rep. Jim Matheson [D-UT]. This legislation unfairly targets video games without citing a reason for the ban on sales to minors, and fails to acknowledge the similarly violent, sexual, and other objectionable content of equivalently-rated television and film.

The Entertainment Software Ratings Board is merely a self-regulatory body established by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). The review process for video games is based on developer submission of pre-recorded content to the Board, not the Board or its agents actually playing through the video game. This can result in omissions causing a lighter rating or misjudgments causing unfair, heavier ratings.

In fact, two major video game publishers/distributors–Activision and Vivendi Universal–recently left the ESA. A third and one of the largest of its kind in the world, Electronic Arts, is rumored to be considering leaving, as well. They disagree with the ESA’s policies; that is their reason for leaving, as far as I know.

Also, there is no constitutional grounds for this prohibition. Article I Section 8 of the Constitution makes no mention of entertainment media, and more than likely citizens’ rights groups will cry foul that this legislation violates the First Amendment. The interstate commerce clause would allow the Federal government to prohibit sales to minors or mandate rating across state lines as partially stated in Section 2(a) of H.R. 5990, but not within the states–that’s a states’ rights issue supported by the Tenth Amendment.

Moreover, the legislation will do almost nothing to prevent video games with content not meant for minors. Parents will purchase games for their children irresponsibly and without regard for content. If the federal government should do anything in regards to video games with objectionable content, it should urge the ESA and ESRB to educate parents about the rating system and perhaps ask the ESA to mandate that all retailers adhere to guidelines and face penalties or ejection from the ESA if a retailer is caught selling high-rated video games to minors.

If such legislation passes and withstands a constitutionality trial, then a dangerous precedent will be set by which other entertainment media (books, film, television) could, or even /should/ be equally regulated/prohibited.

Letter to the Editor regarding the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae bailout

Dear Editor,

Recently, government-sponsored, private lending companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were affected so deeply by the present housing debt crisis that Congress has taken it upon itself to bail out the two to prevent them from going bankrupt and foreclosing on hundreds of thousands of Americans.

These two corporations combined own or guarantee approximately half of the country’s $12 trillion mortgage market, according to the New York Times.

It will take at least $400 billion, and, by S&P estimates, as much as $1 trillion in order to bail out these two troubled government-sponsored enterprises. Where would this money come from?

It will come from America’s debtors: ourselves.

Right now, the national debt is $9,545,842,200,233.46—nearly $10 trillion, up from $6 trillion in 2001. If the bail out would cost $400 billion, each American is responsible for $1,300 of that—in addition to the $31,355.92 we already owe. If the bail out would cost $1 trillion, each American would be responsible for another $3,300 of the national debt.

The House passed a bill which essentially authorizes the bail out, which will help approximately 400,000 Americans avoid foreclosure. However, that’s only $1,000 per person, folks.

Congress is authorizing the expenditure of money which is not its to give. I urge News readers to read Congressman David Crockett’s “Not Yours To Give” to understand my perspective in this situation.

Also, I urge New readers to call the office of Senators Specter and Casey and urge them to vote against any legislation which authorizes this misplaced government charity to save mismanaged corporations which practiced unethical lending. I urge readers to contact the office of Representative Altmire, as well, and discover how he voted, congratulating him if he voted against the bill, or the opposite if he voted in favor of it.

Update on Gas Price Relief for Consumers Act of 2008, a.k.a NOPEC

According to Reuters, the Gas Price Relief for Consumers Act of 2008 passed the House 324-84 today. The GovTrack status page for the act has yet to be updated, though—it is usually updated a day or two after action is published on THOMAS.

I commented in my previous entry, regarding overreaching and unenforceable foreign policy bills in the House.

Read this quote from the article a few times and really think about it.

The bill would subject OPEC oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, to the same antitrust laws that U.S. companies must follow.

How is the US going to enforce this? The US has no legal authority or ability force its laws upon other countries, other than by gunpoint diplomacy, a policy which has already harmed the US enough.

The Bush Administration, in a rare bout of intelligence, said that the bill “would likely spur retaliatory action against American interests in those countries and lead to a reduction in oil available to U.S. refiners.” This would obviously increase the price, not reduce it at all.

Fortunately, the bill still has to go through the House, where it will hopefully fail with not more than 10 minutes of debate. Clearly 324 Congresspeople are delusional and think that they can exercise their petty will against other countries’ governments.

Rep. Kucinich introduces 35 articles of impeachment against President Bush

Ohio democrat Rep. Dennis Kucinich introduced yesterday 35 articles of impeachment against President Bush.

Please read these and call your representative. It is imperative that you call and not email.

These are presented herein with references to further examination by ImpeachBush.tv.

Resolved, that President George W. Bush be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and that the following articles of impeachment be exhibited to the United States Senate:

Articles of impeachment exhibited by the House of Representatives of the United States of America in the name of itself and of the people of the United States of America, in maintenance and support of its impeachment against President George W. Bush for high crimes and misdemeanors.

In his conduct while President of the United States, George W. Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has committed the following abuses of power.

1. Article I - Creating a Secret Propaganda Campaign to Manufacture a False Case for War Against Iraq.
2. Article II - Falsely, Systematically, and with Criminal Intent Conflating the Attacks of September 11, 2001, With Misrepresentation of Iraq as a Security Threat as Part of Fraudulent Justification for a War of Aggression.
3. Article III - Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, to Manufacture a False Case for War.
4. Article IV - Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Posed an Imminent Threat to the United States.
5. Article V - Illegally Misspending Funds to Secretly Begin a War of Aggression.
6. Article VI - Invading Iraq in Violation of the Requirements of HJRes114.
7. Article VII - Invading Iraq Absent a Declaration of War.
8. Article VIII - Invading Iraq, A Sovereign Nation, in Violation of the UN Charter.
9. Article IX - Failing to Provide Troops With Body Armor and Vehicle Armor
10. Article X - Falsifying Accounts of US Troop Deaths and Injuries for Political Purposes
11. Article XI - Establishment of Permanent U.S. Military Bases in Iraq
12. Article XII - Initiating a War Against Iraq for Control of That Nation’s Natural Resources
13. Article XIII - Creating a Secret Task Force to Develop Energy and Military Policies With Respect to Iraq and Other Countries
14. Article XIV - Misprision of a Felony, Misuse and Exposure of Classified Information And Obstruction of Justice in the Matter of Valerie Plame Wilson, Clandestine Agent of the Central Intelligence Agency
15. Article XV - Providing Immunity from Prosecution for Criminal Contractors in Iraq
16. Article XVI - Reckless Misspending and Waste of U.S. Tax Dollars in Connection With Iraq and US Contractors
17. Article XVII - Illegal Detention: Detaining Indefinitely And Without Charge Persons Both U.S. Citizens and Foreign Captives
18. Article XVIII - Torture: Secretly Authorizing, and Encouraging the Use of Torture Against Captives in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Other Places, as a Matter of Official Policy
19. Article XIX - Rendition: Kidnapping People and Taking Them Against Their Will to ‘Black Sites’ Located in Other Nations, Including Nations Known to Practice Torture
20. Article XX - Imprisoning Children
21. Article XXI - Misleading Congress and the American People About Threats from Iran, and Supporting Terrorist Organizations Within Iran, With the Goal of Overthrowing the Iranian Government
22. Article XXII - Creating Secret Laws
23. Article XXIII - Violation of the Posse Comitatus Act
24. Article XXIV - Spying on American Citizens, Without a Court-Ordered Warrant, in Violation of the Law and the Fourth Amendment
25. Article XXV - Directing Telecommunications Companies to Create an Illegal and Unconstitutional Database of the Private Telephone Numbers and Emails of American Citizens
26. Article XXVI - Announcing the Intent to Violate Laws with Signing Statements
27. Article XXVII - Failing to Comply with Congressional Subpoenas and Instructing Former Employees Not to Comply
28. Article XXVIII - Tampering with Free and Fair Elections, Corruption of the Administration of Justice
29. Article XXIX - Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965
30. Article XXX - Misleading Congress and the American People in an Attempt to Destroy Medicare
31. Article XXXI - Katrina: Failure to Plan for the Predicted Disaster of Hurricane Katrina, Failure to Respond to a Civil Emergency
32. Article XXXII - Misleading Congress and the American People, Systematically Undermining Efforts to Address Global Climate Change
33. Article XXXIII - Repeatedly Ignored and Failed to Respond to High Level Intelligence Warnings of Planned Terrorist Attacks in the US, Prior to 911.
34. Article XXXIV - Obstruction of the Investigation into the Attacks of September 11, 2001
35. Article XXXV - Endangering the Health of 911 First Responders

Are these articles of impeachment likely to succeed? No, but at least those who vote in favor of it can say they tried, just as Rep. McKinney tried to impeach Bush in January 2007.

Govt and open source

Warning: this article gets a little ranty, but please, bear with me and help improve my thoughts by commenting.

Doc Searls of Linux Journal linked recently in his article Is government open source code we can patch? to an article by Britt Blasser entitled “Oh, if only government went in for an open source make-over…”. The article indirectly cites through a reference to Phil Hughes’ own Our Internet article two articles, FCC: Moving Beyond Network Neutrality and Our Internet!, by Bob Frankston, who Doc Searls recently interviewed for Linux Journal in Beyond Telecom (non-free registration required, subscribers can get it free).

In his article, Searls says:

Democracy is by nature “our government”. The open source twist on that we put it together and can hack improvements to it. Think of elected officials as committers and maintainers and you start go get the idea.

The analogy isn’t perfect, because by nature open source code is purely practical: it has to work. While government often does not. All government is buggy. In the worst cases it crashes outright and is replaced or supplemented by corrupt alternatives.

This analogy is fairly strong. However, commenter Frymaster supplies an addendum which strengthens it:

The US Constitution itself is open source, if you will, and editable. “The Framers” intended that Americans would change it to meet changing times, hence the series of amendments covering key rights like voting, and, most importantly, consuming alcohol. But they set the bar high, requiring super-majorities in both houses of Congress PLUS each of the states.

The Constitution certainly is open source. We’re free to change it, and other countries, fledgling or long-established, are welcome to take our code—our elemental specification of government—and adapt, implement, and utilize it. We’d like to receive contributions back, because they might be worthwhile enough to include in the trunk code. Even if these modifications aren’t strong enough for trunk, they might be strong enough for that government to maintain as a branch.

The Constitution is inherently good. Some might argue that it is outdated, but these folks are in error and their sentiments should be dismissed if they believe that it is irrelevant and should not be followed. The Constitution establishes a rule of law, wherein all citizens of the land give rights to a union of states, called the United States of America. It establishes procedures for updating it through amendments, which require a majority vote not only by two small bodies of people, but a majority vote of the several states, as Frymaster reminds us. This amendment process keeps those two smaller bodies of 535 people from legislating away the rights of their constituents.

Esperanto as the browser’s main language

A few days ago, I wrote at work a script which collected information useful to the developers when troubleshooting a customer’s experience on one of our sites. This script checked things such as browser version, operating system, Java existence and version, Flash existence and version, Javascript support, and CSS support. All of this information is either sent via the HTTP request headers or is determinable through interaction with the customer, asking if they can see any No items which should show Yes if the item is installed, enabled, and working.

One item I decided to include for the hell of it was language, through the HTTP request Accept-Language header. Tired of seeing the standard en-us displayed every time I loaded it, I decided to add Esperanto to the fore of the header. I did this by adding it in Firefox’s language options chooser in the Content option panel.

Lo and behold, the language code eo appeared before en-us on my script and I was happy. It was the end of the day, though, so I shutdown shortly thereafter and went home.

The next day, I was startled when the two sites I almost always open first, Google and Meebo, displayed text to me in Esperanto! I had totally forgotten that I had altered my Accept-Language header.

I haven’t changed it back. “Why?” a perplexed reader may ask. I continue to use Esperanto as my main browser language for a few reasons.

1. Immersion. When a site appears in Esperanto, I’m forced to translate. I don’t let myself change it unless I am in a rush. So far, I have not changed it.
2. Internationalization. I fancy myself a proponent of software i18n and l10n, so it is educational to me to see how other sites have performed their i18n. I assume that most use either gettext or defines, wherein every string is set in a file with a series of global constants.
3. Obscurity. It keeps people off of my computer

So, in there interests of determining the penetration of Esperanto as an internationalized and automatically-detected language for the web, I’ve compiled a list of sites which I often visit that have Esperanto strings shown when visiting with a browser which specifies that Esperanto is the preferred language.

• Google (just search, from what I’ve seen)
• Meebo (still missing a few strings, though)
• Twitter (largely untranslated, though)

Some sites surprisingly lacked Esperanto internalization, but it’s not a problem: Esperanto was never meant to be anyone’s first language!

• Yahoo!
• Flickr
• Zooomr
• YouTube
• MySpace
• Facebook
• Digg
• Twerq
• Wordpress
• Revver, Livejournal, Blogspot, and most others I visited

Some readers may be surprised that Wikipedia is omitted from these lists. Wikipedia does not internationalize its main page because all of the languages are listed as a links to the main page (cxefpagxo) of the language’s subdomain itself.

I’m neither surprised nor miffed that there number of sites that do have it are so few. As I stated previously, Esperanto isn’t meant to be anyone’s first language. It’s a quick, intermediary language. I assume that the aforementioned sites with Esperanto internationalization have someone one staff who speaks it fluently, and the translation process for it was effortless.

I hope to integrate i18n into a few projects I’m developing currently. By “hope”, I mean “will.”

Esperanto as the browser’s main language

A few days ago, I wrote at work a script which collected information useful to the developers when troubleshooting a customer’s experience on one of our sites. This script checked things such as browser version, operating system, Java existence and version, Flash existence and version, Javascript support, and CSS support. All of this information is either sent via the HTTP request headers or is determinable through interaction with the customer, asking if they can see any No items which should show Yes if the item is installed, enabled, and working.

One item I decided to include for the hell of it was language, through the HTTP request Accept-Language header. Tired of seeing the standard en-us displayed every time I loaded it, I decided to add Esperanto to the fore of the header. I did this by adding it in Firefox’s language options chooser in the Content option panel.

Lo and behold, the language code eo appeared before en-us on my script and I was happy. It was the end of the day, though, so I shutdown shortly thereafter and went home.

The next day, I was startled when the two sites I almost always open first, Google and Meebo, displayed text to me in Esperanto! I had totally forgotten that I had altered my Accept-Language header.

I haven’t changed it back. “Why?” a perplexed reader may ask. I continue to use Esperanto as my main browser language for a few reasons.

1. Immersion. When a site appears in Esperanto, I’m forced to translate. I don’t let myself change it unless I am in a rush. So far, I have not changed it.
2. Internationalization. I fancy myself a proponent of software i18n and l10n, so it is educational to me to see how other sites have performed their i18n. I assume that most use either gettext or defines, wherein every string is set in a file with a series of global constants.
3. Obscurity. It keeps people off of my computer

So, in there interests of determining the penetration of Esperanto as an internationalized and automatically-detected language for the web, I’ve compiled a list of sites which I often visit that have Esperanto strings shown when visiting with a browser which specifies that Esperanto is the preferred language.

• Google (just search, from what I’ve seen)
• Meebo (still missing a few strings, though)
• Twitter (largely untranslated, though)

Some sites surprisingly lacked Esperanto internalization, but it’s not a problem: Esperanto was never meant to be anyone’s first language!

• Yahoo!
• Flickr
• Zooomr
• YouTube
• MySpace
• Facebook
• Digg
• Twerq
• Wordpress
• Revver, Livejournal, Blogspot, and most others I visited

Some readers may be surprised that Wikipedia is omitted from these lists. Wikipedia does not internationalize its main page because all of the languages are listed as a links to the main page (cxefpagxo) of the language’s subdomain itself.

I’m neither surprised nor miffed that there number of sites that do have it are so few. As I stated previously, Esperanto isn’t meant to be anyone’s first language. It’s a quick, intermediary language. I assume that the aforementioned sites with Esperanto internationalization have someone one staff who speaks it fluently, and the translation process for it was effortless.

I hope to integrate i18n into a few projects I’m developing currently. By “hope”, I mean “will.”