Mitchell Glucroft Online

Romney Comments on Auto Bailout

2008-11-19T09:10:00.002-06:00

Preach on, Brotha Mitt!

IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

Let Detroit Go Bankrupt

Bourbon, Usability, and Beer

2008-11-17T07:03:00.006-06:00

If any of the 0 people that read this blog AND use Blogger are using Safari as their web browser, are you having problems cutting and pasting into the post editor? When I try to paste some copied text it appears on the same page as the editor but below it in a blank part of the page that you shouldn't be able to type on but you can when this pasting error occurs. It can't just be me. Maybe my computer's insane.

One of the many things that continues to bug me about my interaction with computers is the seeming inability of the application to get get out of the way of what I'm trying to do. For example, why am I seeing the address bar, links bar, close, minimize, maximize buttons, etc.? Or like when you're working in Word, you don't need to see any of that when you're just typing. Why don't the borders, pull-downs, and all that fade away when you don't need them? All that stuff wastes valuable screen real estate. A web browser should display the site and get out of the way. The desktop shouldn't ALWAYS show stuff that you don't care about at the time. There's probably a quarter of my screen taken up with crap I don't need most of the time. Why is it there?

micromachines

2008-11-15T08:04:00.004-06:00

That's a grain of pollen and red blood cells sitting beside a nano-machine!

It's blowing my mind.

Micromachines

Not THESE Micro Machines!

I cleaned the keyboard!

2008-11-14T12:53:00.002-06:00

The keys on this HP Pavilion laptop occasionally don't work, so I decided to clean the keyboard. That involved removing the keyboard, which wasn't difficult but it wasn't easy, either.

After some googling I found a service manual online and saw which screws had to come out. There was one on the back of each lid hinge. Once I removed them it was just a matter of popping off the plastic piece which has the speaker grill, one-touch buttons, and power button. And then there were four more screws to remove. Glad I got that set of mini-screwdrivers. When I finally freed up the keyboard I about tore the ribbon that connects it to the motherboard (or whatever it is the keyboard is connected to). So be gentle when you go to lift the keyboard from the computer. To loosen the ribbon I slid up a white plastic collar that holds it in place and the ribbon popped from on its own. Sweet. The keyboard was finally free of the rest of the computer!

I took some CleanSafe dust remover to it and blew the crap out of the keys...or at least a bunch of it, which appeared to be mostly cat hairs. Nice.

I put it all back together and here I am, testing the keyboard. It's performing better than it was before, but there are still some occasional hiccups. There are probably still some stray hairs in it, but I can live with its current performance. Maybe it was just a crappy keyboard to begin with.

Open Source mini-spew

2008-11-10T12:31:00.003-06:00

One of these days I will update the look of my blog/site. This is pretty much lowest common dominator in the design department...kinda like a newspaper on the web, but I'd like to present a little bit more advanced image, ya know? I'll work on it.

I started a new Tumblr blog: Open Source Force.

Open source matters are on my mind a lot because of my interest in anarchism and the ability of humans to work together to create wonderful things without having to be threatened by some external profit/control-driven entity. Open source software and hardware are made by people who believe in what they're doing, and they do it whether they make money from it or not. Granted, the quest to make money is not inherently ignoble and there are plenty of open source producers who couldn't care less about the philosophies behind the concept and just want to make money. Yeah, but regardless of the producers' motivations, the product itself is something that is good and noble. Releasing and/or producing an open source product is a display of pride and faith. It shows you believe in something other than wanting to squeeze every last dollar out of an idea and not let anyone else take a whack at it.

Open source is an anarchist, artistic, inventive Way. I recommend it.

election day unemployment rambling ruminations

2008-11-04T11:32:00.003-06:00

In the midst of my current joblessness, I've been feeling a resurgence of rebelliousness. I'm being radicalized by unemployment. I can feel it happening. Of course I'm going to feel bad things towards a system that isn't currently working for me. It's the story of radicals around the world. Do you think most suicide bombers come from good economic situations?

It's a matter of national security for the US to strengthen its economy. Otherwise the likelihood of homegrown terrorism grows signficantly.

I'm suggesting that the preponderance of nontraditional work schedules is a threat to national security. Such schedules cause, continue, and exacerbate the disillusionment of workers. People with chaotic living patterns are drawn towards job with chaotic schedules ungrounded in reality. Nontraditional work schedules are bad for this country.

Everybody agrees that it's nice to have weekends and holidays off, but they're afraid to demand it. After a handful of years in the bar/restaurant industry I'm tired of working when everyone else is playing and relaxing. I got into that world because I wanted to be with people, but what it ends up doing is confining you to the shiftless, limited group of bar/restaurant people and college students and the unemployed. I mean, who else doesn't need to be up in the morning? On a Tuesday?

We've created a consumer world where we expect to be able to shop and buy things and get tech support every freakin second of the day, all week long, all year long...never stopping, never taking a break...always there.

What do we really need at all times? The cops, firefighters, EMTs, constantly aloft nuclear-armed bombers...all these things I acknowledge as needing to be at hand at all times. But is it really right to think it's OK for that cook to be grilling your steak at 10:30 PM when he should be home with his wife and kids? Is it his fault that he took the job? Or is your fault for creating the need?

Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex Works For Me

2008-10-31T11:03:00.004-05:00

Every time a major new Ubuntu release is unleashed I download it and try it out. I've loaded Ubuntu onto an iBook G4, Toshiba Satellite, and most recently on an HP Pavilion. I would've left it on the Toshiba but I needed it to run XP and Office. The HP fell into my hands and I quickly loaded Ubuntu on it, but was frustrated but the difficulty of setting it up to use the Broadcom wireless chipset. I followed the instructions available all over the Web, but nothing seemed to work for me, and so I relegated it to the closet.

Intrepid Ibex led to the resurrection of the HP. I'd heard that Ubuntu was finally playing nice with Broadcom (or vice versa) and it's true. After installing Ubuntu 8.10 on the HP there was an icon at the top of the screen prompting me to download new drivers. I restarted the computer and the wireless card works! Finally!

I now unequivocally recommend Ubuntu to anyone looking for a free, open source alternative to Windows or Macintosh.

The Business of Zune Musings

2008-09-15T13:56:00.004-05:00

Came across this at Beyond Binary:

Why did Microsoft get in the Zune business? Why is it an important business to be in?
Belfiore: We think the possibilities for creating value for people around how they are entertained...is incredibly important. The potential for doing great things for people is huge. It can affect a wide range of devices, from portable devices that you carry around to devices that are hooked up to your TV to devices that look like what you think of as your PC or laptop today. We aspire to really making people's lives better in the way they are entertained. Being able to create those connections between people and get them content on whatever kind of device it is, we think is important and compelling and worth doing.

Joe Belfiore is apparently the guy in charge of the Zune for Microsoft. Whatever. I just want to pick at his words a bit.

His first response to the question of "Why is MS in this business?" is the stupendously obvious "To make money." Duh. That's what "creating value" means.

Then he says they want to do "great things". Wow. Walkmen...er iPods...er Zunes or whatever are now on the same level as feeding the poor and providing clean water for everybody. Those are great things.

The next sentence he's saying that they can defeat Apple by spreading the Microsoft...er Zune music experience across a wider and more popular selection of devices...and reach more people...and make more money. The Zune mission encompasses MP3 players, TVs, and computers. What about Zune theaters?

They want to improve people's entertainment experience. I'm all for that. Tough to pick on that one.

They want to connect people by the music they listen to and movies they watch. OK. He reiterates that their efforst are not limited to the Zune device itself. It's like Zune is Microsoft's codename for Entertainment. "We will entertain the people in every facet of their life and we will commodify it and connect people via their interests to create more profitable ad networks and virtual parties and we will call it Zune." Or is that XBox?

I'm confused.

They think in images—prose is for them a code

2008-09-12T09:59:00.001-05:00

My wanderings around the web which led me to this post, in reverse:

A contagious information pattern that replicates by parasitically infecting human minds and altering their behavior, causing them to propagate the pattern. An idea or information pattern is not a meme until it causes someone to replicate it, to repeat it to someone else. All transmitted knowledge is memetic.

Meme

The only ones who actually wish to share the mischievous destiny of those savage runaways or minor guerillas rather than dictate it, the only ones who can understand that cherishing & unleashing are the same act—these are mostly artists, anarchists, perverts, heretics, a band apart (as much from each other as from the world) or able to meet only as wild children might, locking gazes across a dinnertable while adults gibber from behind their masks.

WildChildren

"Rebellion to tyrants
is obedience to God."
—Thomas Jefferson

Deoxyribonucleic Hyperdimension

Which I got to by way of Directory > Society and Culture > Cultures and Groups > Cyberculture.

Does anyone still use Yahoo's directory search? Does anyone remember when that's basically what Yahoo looked like? Remember when it was just a college project?

Exploring Yahoo's directory provides more opportunities for random finds compared to the more common keyword searches. The directories offer you avenues of exploration you may not have thought of otherwise.

Chrome Your Windows

2008-09-04T07:19:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I downloaded Google's new web browser, Chrome. I went so far as to bring my old Windows laptop out of its bag in the closet, slog through the Service Pack 3 install, and a slew of other updates in order to test drive Chrome. I've gone back and forth from Chrome to Internet Explorer (7) to Safari. Chrome seems to be faster than IE. The Safari comparison isn't fair because it's on my iBook G4 which has 4x as much RAM as my Windows computer, a Toshiba Satellite which I've had for like 6-7 years. Also, I'm not familiar with Windows shortcut keys so I can't switch through different windows as quickly as I can on my Mac. I like to work with multiple browser windows as opposed to multiple tabs. I like the expose feature (or whatever it's called) on OS X which lets me view all my open windows at once. Yeah, with XP, I can just look down at the taskbar and see what's open but it gets crowded quickly and isn't as easy for me to find what I'm looking for.

Anyhoo, this is supposed to be about Chrome. Like I said, it appears to be faster than IE and so far every page I've looked at has come up looking good and proper. I LOVE how Chrome allows you to pull tabs out into separate windows and put them back into one window by simply dragging and dropping. That's cool. I also like how it allows you to easily convert something like Blogger to a sort of standalone widget. In Google's words:

Many websites, such as email services, operate like actual programs, similar to those on your computer desktop. Google Chrome supports these web applications by providing a special window designed specifically for web applications.

Microsoft might be annoyed by the emergence of a Google web browser but there's an upside: Chrome encouraged me to step away from my Apple for a bit and get reacquainted with my Windows-based machine.

another week, another storm

2008-08-26T07:06:00.003-05:00

I'm happy to be attending Pensacola Junior College and I think I can get a good, worthwhile education there, but that school definitely has its moments of disorganization. Last night was my first night of class for the fall semester. My Monday class is called Electronics for Technology and for its grand beginning we learned that we don't yet have an instructor. We didn't get a syllabus and, because of Labor Day, we won't be meeting again until September 8. I wonder if we'll get a 2 week discount on the class. Oh well. I didn't really have money for the textbook yet, anyway.

There's a hurricane in the Caribbean. Great. Its name is Gustav and it's headed for Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Cuba. Then it's supposed to move into the Gulf of Mexico. Forecasters aren't sure what it's going to do from there but they are describing it as a major hurricane. The Pensacola area just dodged Tropical Storm Fay. Now we have to keep our eyes on Hurricane Gustav. I hope it doesn't hit us but the problem with that line of thinking is that it means I indirectly hope the storm wreaks havoc and destruction on someone else. It's going to do serious damage to someone, somewhere. I just don't want it to be me. I don't want it to hurt anyone, but if it comes down to you or me... Keep track of Gustav and his incipient siblings at the National Hurricane Center.

Early mornings are no time for moral dilemmas. Time to return to the comfort of Gizmodo and beyond.

survival of the luckiest

2008-08-20T06:53:00.003-05:00

This is why you don't play around outside, especially with wind-driven devices, during tropical storms. The story linked below is a story of stupidity and courage. I wonder if the wind-thrashed man will end up making a bunch of money from it.

Wind Blows Kite Surfer Into Bldg.

GI Joe Resolute

2008-08-09T07:11:00.003-05:00

If this GI Joe cartoon ever gets made, myself and many others will be giddy and spend money on it.

GI Joe Resolute

Snake Eyes RULEZZZZZZ!!!

the nobility of vcr repair

2008-06-18T12:57:00.004-05:00

I just finished up my "Intro to Computers in Technology" course. The book we used was called Computers are Your Future. Hell, they're already my present so that potentially ominous-sounding title strikes me as just plain silly...like something out of the 80s. It was a good course, a nice return to the ridiculous halls of academia.

I'm currently debating between the various emphases. The main areas I'm thinking about are consumer electronics and medical electronics. It seems to make sense for a number of reasons to focus on medical equipment. I know I don't want to focus on computers and/or networking equipment. I don't want to be a computer repair guy, I know that much. But beyond that I'm not sure yet. I could end up repairing industrial equipment. Who knows? I think I'd rather do something at least somewhat noble, though...and that takes me back to medical equipment. The decision doesn't have to be made yet, though. Maybe "noble" means fixing your TV. That'd be cool.

Big ups to Ben at Homebrew Junkie for his AWESOME new winemaking videos.

Verizon Wireless Buying Alltel for a Bazillion Dollars

2008-06-05T11:53:00.003-05:00

By the end of the year, AT&T's reign as the largest wireless service provider in the United States will come to an end and Verizon will ascend to the throne: Verizon Wireless Agrees to Buy Alltel for $28.1 Billion.

here we go with Linux again

2008-05-23T11:57:00.005-05:00

I'm putzing around while kinda, sorta doing a bunch of mundane and/or domestic tasks.

The dishwasher just gone done and waits to be emptied. The clothes washer is at work on a load of pants and shorts. The dryer is working on undergarments and shirts. The HP Pavilion is restarting as I type this. If all goes well, it'll restart running Kubuntu. I've already tried it once and failed. After the first restart following the first install, the computer got stuck right after loading the BIOS. It'd stop with a black screen and in white text, "No Operating System Found". I'd call that a serious problem.

It appears that all has gone well this time. Now there remains one more big sticking point: getting the computer to recognize its wireless hardware. It's ridiculous that it's even a hassle. I believe it has something to do with open source vs proprietary software, but I'm not totally sure about it. I do know that Broadcom is a major player in mobile and wireless hardware, so it's odd that its products aren't easily supported on one of the most popular Linux distrubtions. Anyhoo...all I have to do is connect it to the router via ethernet cable and do a little command line wizardry and the wireless will be up and running. I had to do the same thing when I loaded Ubuntu on my iBook G4 (which I don't recommend doing unless you're a masochist or really good with computers...or both). If your computer has a Broadcom wireless card, you can find the solution to your Linux installation woes here: How to: Broadcom wireless cards.

UPDATE: The instructions in the above link ended up not working. I'm working on a solution.

Hezbollah in Nikes just do it

2008-05-09T08:23:00.005-05:00

My morning news wanderings started with the obligatory spin through the Pensacola News Journal. The only article I bothered with there had this headline: Santa Rosa takes deed to part of Tiger Point road. Don't ask me why I even cared about that one. I guess it's because a government entity is gaining ownership of a piece of land and not paying for it. I'm not saying it's bad; that's just what hit me when I read the headline.

After checking out the local scene I went over the MSNBC to see what was shakin' nationwide and around the world. Right at the top, the featured story: Hezbollah gunmen seize large sections of Beirut. I can't say my initial interest had anything to do with concern for the people living in the city or the local/international political scene in the areas there. What caught my interest was the photo alongside the lead story.

Doesn't it look like that could've been a posed shot? Look at the guy standing up in the middle, against the wall. He's pretty buff isn't he? And don't they all look clean? The one guy's clearly wearing Nikes. Go Nike. Just do it. Is Hezbollah sponsored by Nike? I like how it says HOT on the building's walls. I'm not saying this is a posed shot. I'm just saying it looks like one. Not all armed insurgents/revolutionaries are dirty, poor, hiding in caves. It's a crazy world we live in. The picture above says to me, "Welcome to 21st Century warfare."

I noticed the pic was from Reuters so I went over there to investigate further. There, too, the Hezbollah story was top news, though not quite as prominently featured as it was on MSNBC. The Reuters story, Hezbollah impose control on Beirut, is more thorough than MSNBC's. That doesn't surprise me. It's to be expected. They have different audiences. Of course the images caught my interest again and I clicked into the photo slideshow related to the story. The crazy pic from above was in there. The first one is really cool, too.

Another thing worth noting in the pictures from the conflict is how it shows that Beirut is a modern city with modern culture. If it can happen there...

Engadget is a whiny baby

2008-05-08T08:11:00.005-05:00

Engadget recently distilled a NY Times article into a blog post, Microsoft and NBC working on copyright filters for Zune? They go through the routine of how it's bullshit that companies are trying to protect their property, as if we have an inherent right to do whatever we want with whatever we want. I'm mostly sympathetic to such views. I believe in freedom, and that means I believe that people/companies have the freedom to protect their shit. It's no more "wrong" for Microsoft to want their products to protect the rights of their clients than it is for me to want to be able to watch a movie, which I copied from you (illegally), on my media player. Companies (and a lot of people) exist so they can make money. Giving their products away for free or sitting idly by while people just take whatever they want doesn't make any sense. There's not a lot of proof that illegal sharing (LOL...illegal sharing...thou shalt not share) is pilfering from the coffers of the corporations and it's impossible to totally lock down your stuff but that doesn't mean that companies are evil or foolish for wanting to try to lock down their property. It's like not bothering to put locks on your doors because there are ninjas who can pick them. Whatever. I lock my doors.

And then Engadget goes on to bitch about Micro$oft and AT$T working on filtering copyrighted material at the ISP level. I just don't get why people think that companies are evil for trying to prevent them from doing shit that's illegal. Again, I'm not against file sharing. I'm just against the belief that for-profit entities are wrong for attempting to maximize profit. If you have a network that you built and paid for then you'd want to do what you want with it. Is it so wrong for there to be forces patrolling the internet in the same way there are forces patrolling our highways trying to bust people for breaking the law? Only the staunchest anarchist would argue that there is no good reason for the existence of police. You don't have to be for such groups. Do what you want to do and accept the fact that your behavior brings you enemies. Repercussions make life fun, right?

a pin drops, mobile broadband users hear it clearly

2008-05-07T08:54:00.006-05:00

Sprint Nextel and Clearwire are merging.

From a Sprint press release:

Sprint and Clearwire to Combine WiMAX Businesses, Creating a New Mobile Broadband Company

Intel, Google, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks to Invest $3.2 Billion in Combined Company, at Target Price of $20.00 per Share

Formation of New Company Brings Together the Nation's Leaders in Communications, Technology Innovation and Entertainment

New Company to Speed Deployment of First Nationwide Next-Generation Mobile WiMAX Network

Transaction Designed to Unlock the Potential of Clearwire's and Sprint's 4G Assets

New Company to be Led by Seasoned Management Team from Clearwire and Sprint's XOHM Business Unit; Board of Directors to Include Leading Wireless and Cable Executives

Google's involved? Cool. That means the new company (which will be called Clearwire) will be easily accessible by the widest range of devices possible. It'll make it easier to use the phone you want and it'll be easier for hardware and software developers to create cool new devices and applications.

Another partner in this deal that caught my eye is Bright House Networks. Who the #@%* is Bright House? I did a little googling and was surprised to learn that Bright House sells cable, phone, and internet service as nearby as Cantonment and Defuniak Springs. Who knew?

Will next year's NASCAR season be dubbed the Clearwire Cup Series?

Robot Apocalypse

2008-04-24T11:31:00.006-05:00

Engadget recently brought to mine eyes the following disturbing/inspiring video of remote control robot laser battle madness:

What are those robots? At least some of them are Kondo KHR Series robots. You can have one for the low, low price of $1445 plus shipping from Sozbots. It's cool that we have such toys but it's disturbing because that video is a glimpse of the future of warfare.

If you're not concerned, you need to see this video from the future:

In The Know: Are We Giving The Robots That Run Our Society Too Much Power?

Don't panic.

The Internet Today

2008-04-21T11:48:00.003-05:00

Today on the Internet I met a young man named Bryan Bishop. I didn't meet him in the conventional sense. I first met him on Slashdot when he posted this question, What is the first day in a University Lab Like? Again, I didn't meet him as in, "Hi, I'm Mitchell. Nice to meet you." "Hi, I'm Bryan. Nice to meet you." I met him in an Internet sort of way. His words gave me a bit of an introduction to him. Intrigued, I clicked his name and wound up on his homepage. What an interesting fellow. It's amazing to see someone who's done so much and has so many interesting ideas. I clicked around on some of his links and followed some threads here and there and generally spent a whole bunch of time reading somewhat random stuff of interest to a high school senior in Texas. I found some really cool sites, my current favorite being KurzweilAI.net. If nothing else, check out their trippy search function, The Brain. Thanks to Bryan for being a cool guy who puts worthwhile things on the Internet. I wouldn't know the guy if I tripped over him but I feel like I kinda know him a little bit now.

In other thrilling Internet goings-on spotlighted by Slashdot, there's an article at Yahoo! about the ongoing existence of the top level domain for the Soviet Union, Back in the USSR: Soviet internet domain name resists death. Maybe the old American Confederacy could get its own TLD. Or the Republic of Texas. That'd be cool.

the sound of the celestial realm

2008-04-18T10:02:00.005-05:00

Early this morning, the Colorado Rockies defeated the San Diego Padres 2 to 1 after 22 innings of play. 22 INNINGS!!! It took them over 6 hours to finish the game.

Wait a minute.

So is it a big deal because the game ran so late, 1:21 AM? Or is it a big deal because they played for over 6 hours? Both?

I'm on my feet and moving around for more than 6 hours on a regular basis. And I've been on my feet and moving around for longer than that and past 4 AM a whole bunch of times. Aren't these guys professional athletes? I guess most of them couldn't hang in the bar and restaurant industry.

Yeah, the story's good in the confines of Major League Baseball news but it's not much in the way of human performance. There is some excellent stuff here, though:

"This was a good game to get outside yourself," Hurdle said. "About the 16th inning, I said, 'Hey boys, no matter what's in front of us, there's a world of people out there who've got harder rows to hoe than we do. No matter what happens the rest of the night, have some fun with this thing.' "

Now that's something I can respect. Even if it's just a game it's still a real battle that you really want to win. Go through some tough times with a bunch of other people and you'll be bonded to them. That's something that interests me. The men on those baseball teams went through something intense and real that night, and probably some unreal stuff, too. Imagine slugging it out under all those lights in front of all those people. I bet all those guys slept well after that.

Maybe the game was a testament to man's ability to stave off boredom.

Anahata (Sanskrit: अनाहत, Anāhata) is the fourth primary chakra according to the Hindu Yogic and Tantric (Shakta) traditions.
In Sanskrit the word anahata - means unhurt, un-struck and unbeaten. Anahata Nad refers to the Vedic concept of unstruck sound, the sound of the celestial realm. [Anahata]

Verizon connects man with dead wife

2008-04-10T13:26:00.003-05:00

If I didn't know better I'd have thought this was from one of William Gibson's novels:

When Verizon upgraded Charles Whiting's telephone service, his wife's voice, saying, "Catherine Whiting," disappeared from his voicemail system.

She had died in 2005 and Whiting said he listened to her voice every day for comfort. He blamed Verizon for the loss, saying, "Now they took her voice away."

There's a whole novel waiting to be written based on that little story, Lost Voicemail of Man's Dead Wife Restored by Phone Company. It really is touching, and not just touching in a sci-fi and cyberpunk sort of way. That man took joy and happiness from being able to hear is dead wife's voice. Verizon accidentally took it away and they oh so nobly returned it...almost like bringing his wife back from the dead. Verizon says, "We have your dead wife on our computers. Would you like to talk to her?"

In other real-life cyberpunk tales, Wired's Threat Level blog has this cautionary tale, Industrial Control Systems Killed Once and Will Again, Experts Warn.

On June 10th, 1999 a 16-inch diameter steel pipeline operated by the now-defunct Olympic Pipeline Co. ruptured near Bellingham, Washington, flooding two local creeks with 237,000 gallons of gasoline. The gas ignited into a mile-and-a-half river of fire that claimed the lives of two 10-year-old boys and an 18-year-old man, and injured eight others.

Wednesday, computer-security experts who recently re-examined the Bellingham incident called its victims the first verified human causalities of a control-system computer incident.

Computers killed people!?

But the factor that intrigues Weiss and fellow researcher Marshall Abrams, a scientist at MITRE, is a still largely unexplained computer failure that began less than 30 minutes before the accident and paralyzed the central control room operating the pipeline, preventing workers from releasing pressure in the line before it hemorrhaged.

An unexplained computer failure? Malicious and/or stupid hackers could've done that. Perhaps hackers backed by a rival company. Perhaps hackers backed by a rival country. Perhaps they were both. Perhaps there's no difference. I'm just sayin'...

From serving to soldering...

2008-04-09T10:29:00.003-05:00

Recently I registered for my first class at Pensacola Junior College in my quest to get an Associate in Applied Science degree in Electronics Engineering Technology. Talk about a career change: switching from being a restaurant/bar work to an electronics technician. Given my epicly bad academic history, it'll be interesting to see how this particular academic adventure goes. I think it'll be a good one.

The class I've registered for is called Introduction to Computers in Technology.

A first computer course, geared to providing technology students with a working knowledge of computer hardware and software related to their vocation. This course focuses on five concepts; basic keyboarding, word processing, computer hardware, operating systems, and basic computer maintenance.

I just hope the class is up to date because farther down in the description it says the student will learn to operate Windows 3.1. Windows 3.1!? That's what I had on my computer when I graduated from high school 14 years ago.

From the world of food and drinks to computers and circuit boards. Woohoo!!!

Priests of Vulcan say, US has bad breath

2008-04-08T12:22:00.004-05:00

Yahoo! recently posted an article about CO2 emissions in the US, Where Global Warming Begins. The following, insanely interesting video is embedded in the article. Created by the Vulcan Project at Purdue University, the animations in the video bring to life the climate-altering mechanical breath of a nation.

For my Gulf Coast readers, check out how much CO2 emissions are coming from around our seemingly pristine beaches. Looks to me like the air and water of the Gulf of Mexico are an international dumping ground. Also notice that the graphic in the Yahoo! article show that the rapidly growing Southeast is increasing its CO2 output as the Northeast decreases. Great. Here in Pensacola we're right in the path of the growing plumes of pollutants coming from Southeast Texas, New Orleans, and Mobile. And it appears we're creating plenty ourselves.

Wouldn't it be nice if our region could grow responsibly, in a sustainable manner?

Oh, that's right...growth, as we know it, is unsustainable.

Is collapse inevitable?

Will we change our ways and be better citizens of Planet Earth? Videos like the one from the Vulcan Project go a long way towards educating people on the consequences of our technologies and reminding us that we are part of a global community.