Want a good laugh? Follow these simple directions…
1. Watch this news clip.
2. View this flash file.
3. Laugh, repeat.
Archive for January, 2003
I’m beginning to become very frightened of our government, and very angry at the same time. Reports abound of people being held by our government without trial, without legal representation, without even being charged. They’re just being “detained”. All in the name of “national security”.
Typically, these people are not American citizens. Sometimes they’re in this country illegally, although not all of the time. Sometimes, they’re caught abroad. Regardless, these people have essentially no criminal rights. None. Of course, they’re not American citizens, right? So they’re not entitled to the rights guaranteed by the 5th, 6th, or 8th amendments? True, they’re not. However, hasn’t it always been America’s intention to spread democratic rule to the rest of the world, to promote the same freedoms and values given to us by the constitution? So why, then, would we not offer these same basic rights to foreign citizens? I just don’t understand it.
If you think I’m just being paranoid, if you think these non-American citizens don’t deserve our rights, then that’s your choice. However, how do you feel about the two (and maybe more) American citizens being held without these rights?
The January 10th episode of This American Life. Listen to it.
While searching for a way to fix an IBM Thinkpad 1200 with a bad power connector, I stumbled upon a website called Computer Gripes. Apparently, this guy finds any and everything he can to bitch about (in regards to technology), and posts it on his site. Some of his complaints are legitimate, some petty, and some downright ignorant. I was reading through his section on the Sony Clie S320, a device which I also own. From what I could tell, the majority of his gripes came from the fact that he didn’t know how to use the device.
I guess it just seems silly to focus on the negative aspects of your experiences. Granted, one could argue the point that it’s like a review site, so he’s warning other users of the “problems” that he encounters. However, review sites also focus on the good aspects of a product, and he never seems to log his positive experiences with technology, just the negative ones. He seems to spend a good deal of time on the site, as it’s updated regularly, and has many entries rich with information and screenshots. Imagine how useful this site could be if he focused on his positive experiences, or documented work arounds and solutions to his problems with as much vigor. Oh well…
I have also added a section to the site called the BOFH log. It’s essentially a running log of my day at work. It’s a way for me to purge my frustrations, as well as work out ideas that I have to better run my network. In the end, I hope somebody will get something useful out of it. I plan to update the BOFH log several times a day.
I’m also considering move my photo album to something easier to manage from my PC. I’m not sure what, but I want to be able to take photos from my new digital camera, and put them right onto the site after some editing. We’ll see what I find.