Cope With It

It is people like this that realy frighten me.  They fail to see how their backwards, closed minded interpretation of the world is going to render this nation a third world backwater in a few decades.  Open your mind.  Faith and openmindedness are not mutually exclusive.  There is a good reason that the separation of church and state  exists in this country.

CNN.com – Rep. Harris: Church-state separation a lie – Aug 28, 2006
MIAMI, Florida AP — U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris told a religious journal that separation of church and state is “a lie” and God and the nations founding fathers did not intend the country be “a nation of secular laws.”

It’s about damn time that someone stood up to this kind of crap.

CNN.com – NSA eavesdropping program ruled unconstitutional – Aug 17, 2006
A federal judge on Thursday ruled that the U.S. governments domestic eavesdropping program is unconstitutional and ordered it ended immediately.

It has already been announced that there will be an appeal, but this is going to get interesting, I would love to see this one come up in front of the Supreme Court.

I have one thing to say about this….why are they only now doing this. I was using disk encryption to protect sensitive documents 5 years ago in the Military. But they are finally doing the right thing, after having two computers containing sensitive data stolen. Too late folks, building a gate after the horses get out. Not enough for those of us who were put at risk by one or both thefts.

VA to Encrypt All Computers
The Department of Veterans Affairs has announced a plan to encrypt critical data on every laptop computer in the agency within the next month.

According to a release provided to eWEEK by spokesperson Matthew Burns, VA Secretary James Nicholson is announcing a new data security program that will begin immediately.

see also this and this

Well, I just had to replace my laptop. I bought a Compaq v2000 back in March, to use with my new job. Well yesterday something in it fried. It won’t boot up reliably and when it does it might work for like 15 minutes before freezing. This morrning I sat down to try to fiure out what happned and it won’t boot at all, it starts to and then it freezes up and the screen slowly goes white. Not pretty.

Well, I am an IT professional, and I cannot work without a computer, so I went shopping. I am now the proud owner of a new HP Pavilion dv5000 computer. It’s about twice the machine that the v2000 was.

My biggest issue was trying to figure out how to get all my work off of the old computer. No store around here carries a 2.5 inch HDD enclosure. So I ran back out and just bought the cheapest external HDD I could.

The store clerk who decided he could help me kept trying to sell me larger drives, and just couldn’t get it into his head that the first thing I was going to do was to rip the damn thing apart and install my own drive into the chassis.

If you work in retail, please, please, please…if the customer seems to know wat they are doing, leave them alone, you will only make yourself look like a fool.

Speedtest.net

Probably one of the slickest looking sites I have seen for doing speed tests. Also it lets you put up little banners:

Ladies and gentlemen….the terrorists have now won.

CNN.com – No lotion, long lines in U.S. airports – Aug 10, 2006
The hours-old ban on all liquids and gels from carry-on luggage left little option but to throw away juice boxes, bags full of makeup, perfume and bottles of liquor and wine. Baby formula and medicines were exempt but had to be inspected.

“They’re ridiculous, but that’s part of the price you pay for traveling during a time like this,”

We have failed. The only way to win this war is to inspire more terror then they can, but we here in this country just lack the heart to do so. Until we can muster up the courage and resolve to do so then things will continue to get worse and worse for us. Little things like this will continue to build up until life becomes intolerable.

Until we are willing to meet the terrorists on a level playing field, we will lose. You cannot hold back when your opponent does not. They are willing to kill civilians. They do not care if it is a man, woman or child, they will kill to win. We cannot hope to win until we are able to do the same.

It isn’t a happy thought, but it is something that needs to be looked at hard.

You just gotta chuckle when you hear about something like this.

Agile Ajax: The Bonehead File – Lousy Ajax Training
The Bonehead File – Lousy Ajax Training

I agree with the just get a book, and preferably one where you can sit down in the coffee shop and review it before shelling out the 40,50 or more dollars to buy it. I was recently bitten by that, the back of the book and title seemed to be telling me that the book was what I was looking for, yet later that evening when I actually sat down and started reading, I discovered that the book was VERY vendor specific, dealing with software that I dont have access to, nor will in the conceivable future. Thankfully the bookstore was right next to the hotel I was in, and I discovered this before I was 200 miles further down the road, and nowhere near a place I coule return the book to.

Welcome to the touchy feely world again. This is something that we are even now beginning to reap the results of.

CNN.com – Should we let kids feel exclusion’s sting? – Aug 8, 2006
The idea that protecting kids from rejection is crucial to safeguarding their self-esteem has gained momentum in recent years.

I’m sorry, but self esteem, just like anything else in this world is something to be worked for. If you have none, then work on building some. Simple. “Protecting” the self-esteem of children is going to do nothing but raise a generation of people who feel that they are entitled to whatever they want. Unfortunately this just isn’t true. There are alot of things that I want that I just can’t have. By not teaching this at a young age, we are going to destroy the future of this country. We are going to rapidly become a backwater nation, as places such as China, where competition is fierce from a young age, pass us by and become the new world powers. Teach your children how to cope with rejection and failure. This is something that too many people do not know. Hence the numbers of people getting killed over things such as rejection in a relationship. If you can teach a child how to deal with failure and rejection then you will have a healthy, well adjusted child. When you teach them that no matter what they should get what they want in life without having to work for it, then you will be raising a spoiled brat.

Rejection and failure – Cope With It!

I’ve started learning more about SOA . I came across the following and figured I would share it with the world:

The irresistible relationship between SOA, stacks and open source software
SOA stacks are a hot topic. Actually, stacks are a hot in general and SOA is no exception. A software stack is created when applications and services that would typically run on their own are integrated into what looks like a stand-alone solution.

Some extreme examples of software stacks are the Linksys routers and TiVo digital video recorders. In these examples, several software components, including the Linux operating system, are combined and distributed as a single appliance.

I am a fan of good green teas, not the dust in a pouch that you can buy for $1.99 at the local grocery store, but a good loose full-leaf style tea, like you can order from Adagio Teas. I stumbled across this article that gives some really good tips about how to properly brew tea in general and green tea in particular. Its well worth the read.