Eediots!

We’re back!

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— caesar @
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4:32 pm

Wow, eediots is back. I wonder if anyone still reads or remembers this site. Other than the %#$@@% linkspammers, of course. We ought to turn off comments by unregistered users altogether…

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Death of the Internet predicted, mpeg at 11..

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— caesar @
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4:29 pm

From an interview with SBC CEO Edward Whitacre:

How concerned are you about Internet upstarts like Google (GOOG ), MSN, Vonage, and others?
“How do you think they’re going to get to customers? Through a broadband pipe. Cable companies have them. We have them. Now what they would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain’t going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it. So there’s going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they’re using. Why should they be allowed to use my pipes?”

To answer Whitacre, the answer is simple, and direct. You should allow them to use your pipes because that’s the destination that I’ve chosen to get to. And I’m your customer, the one who’s paying for those pipes.

Whitacre seems not to grasp the fact that the Internet is a network of networks. He’s telling his customers in this quote that if you’re a customer of SBC, and you want to recieve content from someone who’s not a customer of SBC, you’re going to be shit outta luck.

The concept is simple. I, the end user customer, pay SBC to move my packets, and any packets I request to be sent to me, from point A (my location) to point B (the location where the content resides). No more, no less. If I request a page from Google, it’s not Google using SBC’s pipes for free. It’s me, the customer, who pays for my pipe every month, using those pipes. You would think that, as simple as this concept is, the CEO of a multibillion dollar company could grasp it.

Read the whole interview here: http://www.businessweek.com/@@n34h*IUQu7KtOwgA/magazine/content/05_45/b3958092.htm

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Vonage sued by the State of Texas over 911

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Technology

— caesar @
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10:57 am

The State of Texas, in a seriously misguided move, is suing VoIP provider Vonage, claiming that Vonage does not make it clear to customers that they do not provide traditional 911 service. This was brought about by a story a couple weeks ago here in the Houston area, where a teenaged daughter tried to call 911 from a Vonage phone during a burglery in which her parents were shot.

Why do I think this lawsuit is misguided? I’m a Vonage customer, and the case is without merit. Let me describe the layout of the booklet that describes the features of your Vonage service, the one that you get with every new VoIP adapter. Page 1 is the inside cover, and is blank. Page 2 is a place to write down your new Vonage phone number, serial number, etc. Page 3 is a general “Welcome to Vonage” type thingy. Page 4, the second “real” page of the manual, talks, in big, BOLD print, HOW TO ACTIVATE 911, and HOW IT’S DIFFERENT FROM TRADITIONAL 911!! Holy Shit! Right there! In BOLD! Where you can’t possibly miss it, unless you don’t bother to RTFM! The booklet, after discussing 911 (taking two pages to do so) then goes on to talk about other features, like voice mail, call forwarding, etc. But there it is, right at the front, 911. In fact, you see the 911 thing BEFORE you see the welcome to Vonage thing when you open the booklet, because our eyes naturally expect books to start on the right hand page, and not the left, so our eyes are drawn there first.

Then there’s the phone and account activation process. This process takes you through all the steps required to activate your phone and create your account. And it tells you that you have to activate the 911 service. So does the confirmation e-mail you get when your account is created. So does the dashboard page that you’re taken to when you sign in for the first time. In numerous ways and instances, Vonage makes it quite clear that 911 service is not activated by default (it can’t be, since the phone number is NOT tied to a location, unlike traditional phone service) and that you have to activate it and indicate where the phone is located so that they can route the call to the proper 911 center, and they explain the difference between their 911 service and traditional E911.

While it’s tragic that these people got shot, the fact that their 911 service wasn’t activated is because of their own stupidity or ignorance, and suing Vonage isn’t the answer, neither for these people nor for the State of Texas. Any judge worth his salt will take one look at the manual and dismiss the case, with prejudice, based on the (lack of) merit.

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Blog linkspammers must die

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— caesar @
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4:15 pm

So, all you assholes posting spamvertising links in the comments section, be aware that permission to peddle your crap on this site is explicitly denied. You don’t own this site, you don’t pay for this site, and using this site to advertise your shit is not welcome. Go club some more baby seals or OD on viagra or something. And while you’re at it, turn yourselves in to the FTC for the fraudulent pieces of shit you are.

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“I was just following orders…”

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— caesar @
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6:01 pm

Charles Graner was convicted on Friday on five charges related to the Abu Ghraib scandal. His defense is one that is going to be used by other defendants, whos lawyers will claim that they were just following orders.

One of the things that the defendants, and the counsel for the defendents, seem to have forgotten, is that American military personnel are sworn to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States” and to “obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to the regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”

The upshot of this is that they are still bound by the UCMJ. What does this mean in a practical sense? It means that they’re supposed to obey all lawful orders given them. If, and the case is still unproven, they were ordered to do what they did, they were morally, ethically, and legally obliged to refuse such orders. “I was just following orders” has never worked as a successful defense in recent history; such a defense was attempted at Neurenburg, and in many cases since then, with always the same result: conviction of the wrong doer.

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Indonesia rescinds call for foreign troops to leave

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Tsunami

— caesar @
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10:19 am

Acknowledging that US forces have been the backbone of relief efforts throughout the affected region, Indonesia’s government Sunday rescinded its call for foreign troops to leave by a specific date. At the same time, they increased their death toll by 5000, with another 12,000 still listed as missing.

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Tsunami Relief and America’s Role

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— caesar @
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3:54 pm

It’s been fascinating to watch the political and media wrangling in the wake of the tsunami. America’s efforts were described as stingy, an accusation that I’ve seen repeated recently in the traditional media. It’s time to debunk some of the myths.

The US government has initiall allocated $350 million in an aid package. This would seem, at first glance, to be a small amount of money when compared to the $764 million promised by Australia, the $690M by Germany, and $500M from Japan. But let’s examine the real numbers. The $350 million in aid being promised by the US doesn’t count military spending, which was estimated on the 5th of January to be $6M a day, and expected to increase as more ships, aircraft, and personell move into the area. That’s $42 million a week, or more than $80 million since the tsunami first rolled ashore in Banda Aceh. And that’s just the money spent by one branch of the US military to provide humanitarian aid, the Navy. There are millions more spent by the US Army and the Air Force, which has been flying supplies to the aire non-stop since day one on a variety of aircraft, such as the C-130, the C-17, and the huge C-5 Galaxy. Let’s look at the $500M offered by Japan. There’s a clause in that grant…that states that they can only have that money if they spend it buying Japanese goods and services. Hardly an aid package, rather a taxpayer funded boost to the Japanese economy disguised as disaster relief.

Let’s examine the UN’s involvement in the disaster relief efforts. The UN has claimed all along that they should be in charge of coordinating the response to the disaster. One UN staffer even had the audacity to claim that the UN was the only organization with the moral authority to respond to this disaster. Moral authority? Excuse me? On Jan. 3, as this blog reports, the UN’s primary concern was coordinating 24 hour catering for the meetings they were having at a 5-star hotel removed from the real action. No UN peacekeepers, no UN aid workers, no UN supplies…the real work, on the ground, in the disaster area, saving lives, is being done is by the US, Australian, and Singaporean military and aid workers. It appears that nobody in the area really expects, or even wants, the UN to be involved. Perhaps because they don’t want their women and children raped by UN “Peacekeepers".

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Shortsightedness runs rampant through Congress

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— caesar @
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2:11 pm

If you’ve been paying any attention at all to the recent budget brouhaha, you’ll notice that the National Science Foundation took a beating, with it’s budget being slashed by Congress. Not only did they not get what the President asked for in his budget, but they didn’t even keep up with inflation.

If you’re unfamiliar with the National Science Foundation, a quick background: the NSF provides grants and other funds for the basic research that allows our contry to maintain its technological and scientific preeminance. They fund a variety of programs in a variety of fields, including computer science, mathmatics, physics, medicine, archaeology, genetics, astronomy, chemistry…virtually the entire range of human scientific study. At a time when we’re graduating fewer and fewer engineers and scientists, and our students are falling behind other countries in the comprehension of maths and science, is cutting the funding of this federal agency, one of the few that produces a real, tangible benefit in our lives and economy, really such a wise move? Appearantly Congreess thinks so…

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Where are the Parents?

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— meconlen @
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3:25 pm

I sometimes disagree with The Daily Kos, but in this one I think they are on to something.

They make the argument that this administration is in part driven by the desire to not be their parents and elders, to set their own way in the world. The problem being that their “world” is my world and your world and everyone else’s world and they don’t seem to realize that.

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Ethics

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— meconlen @
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2:25 pm

One day a democratic congressman found him self indicted for a crime. His associates on the other side of the isle decided this wasn’t the sort of thing they wanted in people who have leadership positions in the House so they made a rule that says you can’t both be in a leadership position and under indictment. It actually makes sense as you’re likely to be elsewhere defending yourself rather than leading.

So what happens when DeLay gets indicated? They changed the rules.

No shame.

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Amend for Arnold

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— meconlen @
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7:14 pm

How do you know when people are really being self serving in their view of proper legislation? How about when they want to amend The Constitution so they can elect a specific person to office.

Amend for Arnold is just that.

Does anyone wonder what the down side is about amending The Constitution to allow this to happen?

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Florida Election Hacked?

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— meconlen @
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11:06 am

I received the following article from one of the computer security mailing lists I’m on. I’ll be curious to following it if in fact the FBI is involved. It will be nice to have the government looking in to such things. [Ignore the fact that the government is run by Bush for now].

I have no idea how true or not any of this is. The only reason I pass it on is the fact that it claims the investigation is being passed on to the FBI.

At the end of the article there’s a bit about Bev Harris from blackboxvoting.org and the GEMS software used to count votes. Very interesting.

(more…)

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Like, you know…

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— meconlen @
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12:47 pm

When did Senators start using the phrase “you know", like, you know, when they are talking?

Senator elect John Thune speaking about Arlen Spector

“But I think it’s going to depend upon an understanding from many of us, particularly new members, the freshmen who are coming in, who are concerned about the things that he said and were, many of us, elected, you know, because we spoke about the importance of judges and having judges on the bench who are going to be judges who interpret and apply the Constitution, the laws of the United States.”

Senators are, you know, supposed to be able to speak properly. It’s like, I dunno.

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Religious Conservatives

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General

— meconlen @
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11:22 am

There’s a new name for religious conservatives… …theocons.

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Draft coming

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1:31 am

The Daily Kos has an article on backdoor drafts and how hard they are looking for soldiers. In this case the person has been out of active duty for 13 years. He’s served all his obligation for active and inactive status. Once they run out of Gulf War vets to bring back what’s next? If you were 18 in 1991 you’re now 31… …they will run out sooner or later.

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Values, but Who’s?

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1:54 am

The Republicans own. They have a political organization unlike any other. MoveOn.org, the DNC, the DLC, everyone else pales in comparison. They run it from the top down. What’s the advantage?

They start with the local state races. They get their people in to state office. This lets them set districting patterns that will give them their congressman and senators. They have the governors mansions. They spend a lot of money to get this done. Why? Because these people are the core of the ground game for the national elections. They set the tone and the volume level of the message. They gear it to their own people who they know and who know them. Then when the national candidate comes in and talks values, talks morality, talks about abstract concepts he’s talking straight to you. He’s talking to you about the values your congressman talked about, the values your governor talked about, the values your city councilman talks about.

The fact is, Bush didn’t campaign in a lot of states, but he was able to make enough noise in national television spots and the debates that gave him the overwhelming popular vote (with respect to the last campaign). He got everyone out to the polls to vote for the values their local representatives have campaigned on. The only Republican strong enough to disagree with him is Arnold, and well, when you’re George Bush you don’t argue with Arnold, you use him as much as you can and realize you’re not getting California. Bush (nor I) are ready to get pumped up by Arnold.

So what do the Democrats do? They need to define the core values of the party. They need to spread that message. Then they need to decide what each local politician and representative is going to be responsible for selling in their area and have them sell it. That way when the national candidate comes in to talk to voters people already know what to expect. They know what they are listening for, and they get it.

Why is this? I believe it’s because it’s too easy to attack a national candidate. Once you run for President you’re skeletons are coming out. They are going to find every way to attack you and they will. On the other hand it’s nearly impossible to find ways to attack 200 congressman, 45 senators and thousands of state and local level politicians. These are the guys building the trust for the message. The national candidate then comes in and says “What he said! Yea!” and flies away.

And the crowd goes nuts. They know where he stands on every position. The trust they have for their local candidates is transfered magically to the national candidate. There’s a warm glow everywhere.

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Maureen Dowd on What to Expect

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1:51 pm

I have a lot of respect for conservatives. On the other hand there’s the politicians who use them. I really believe most conservative politicians are no worse than most liberal politicians but those aren’t the ones we have in power at the moment. These are.

How do we reach out to the voters to show them where the country is heading, why and how there’s a better way?

The first step is to respect their views.

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The 527 Groups

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12:55 pm

Senator John McCain on 527 groups

This article does two things. First it moves the blame for them off of his legislation and on to the FEC which failed to do anything about them. The second is it starts his run for the White House in four years.

The Washington Post has this to say

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Balance

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12:41 am

Issues that are going to divide this country in the next four years are issues that come down to competing values. When there is a balance between these values things run well. I believe in the next four years we will see an unbalancing if these values.

In the war on terror there’s the values of security and liberty. In the pro choice/pro life fight there’s the values of life, liberty and planned parenthood. The issue of homosexuality there’s the values of liberty, equal protection and the conservative family.

What happens when security, life and the conservative family are placed above liberty, planned parenthood and the conservative family? How do we identify these things and present a different way to lead this country?

I believed that if Bush won reelection it would be the worst thing to happen to this country since I’ve been able to pay attention and likely since McCarthyism. Now that he’s one reelection it’s time to hold him, his allies and his policies accountable. Despite the small margin of victory and the divided nature of his support he’s got a clear mandate. The GOP owns congress. There’s only five senators holding him back from having everything he wants in the Senate. He’s going to execute his plan. This plan will cause problems and the way to attack them is at the foundation, the principles and philosophy he uses to govern this country.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe everything will get better in the next four years. I’m not counting on it though.

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Terrorism and Homoism

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2004 Election

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12:19 am

If you’re on the west coast and plan on watching The Daily Show tonight don’t read this…

The show makes a great point. Two major issues of this campaign which brought Bush a victory are terrorism and, as the Daily Show called it, homoism. The question then was why would New York city, a place close to both terrorism and with a large homosexual population, vote overwhelmingly for Kerry? Manhattan went for Kerry with 82% of the vote.

The answer was that people in Manhattan is “too close” to these issues. Only the people in the red states can really stand back from it and take it all in and understand it.

Yea

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Eediots!

11/1/2005

We’re back!

Death of the Internet predicted, mpeg at 11..

3/23/2005

Vonage sued by the State of Texas over 911

2/20/2005

Blog linkspammers must die

1/17/2005

“I was just following orders…”

Indonesia rescinds call for foreign troops to leave

1/9/2005

Tsunami Relief and America’s Role

12/10/2004

Shortsightedness runs rampant through Congress

11/19/2004

Where are the Parents?

11/18/2004

Ethics

11/16/2004

Amend for Arnold

11/9/2004

Florida Election Hacked?

11/8/2004

Like, you know…

Religious Conservatives

Draft coming

11/5/2004

Values, but Who’s?

11/4/2004

Maureen Dowd on What to Expect

The 527 Groups

Balance

Terrorism and Homoism

August 2010
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