Archive for December, 2008

The Jason Lewis Show

Friday, December 12th, 2008

Democracy (mob rule) is like the foxes guarding the henhouse and voting on what to have for dinner.

A republic is when the chickens are armed.

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I’ve always said that fundamentally liberalism is an attack on human nature, if you think that liberalism is the essence of making people do that which they would not do if they were free to choose. (Short audio clip: Jason Lewis Show, 12_10_08, 5pm)

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Another smart talk radio host with lots of great points that really isn’t accomplishing anything, unfortunately. And the government is looking to shut them down eventually.

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“The players and the union are thrilled,” Jeffrey Kessler, an attorney for the NFL Players Association, told The Associated Press. Kessler said the judge’s timeframe is long enough that the players can finish the season and go to the playoffs if their teams make it that far.

 

For those not following the story, 5 NFL players were suspended for taking Starcaps, which have a NFL-banned substance but the substance is not listed on the Starcaps list of ingredients. Unfortunately, Starcaps is a dietary supplement, and the NFL said "BE CAREFUL TAKING DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS, SOME OF THEM DON’T LIST ALL THE INGREDIENTS IF YOU ARE NOT SURE CALL US TO FIND OUT IF YOU TAKE SOMETHING THAT HAS A BANNED SUBSTANCE THAT IS NOT LISTED YOU WILL HAVE NO EXCUSES." Sorry for yelling. Anyway, the point of the matter is that the players are under contract (legally speaking) and they breached their contract and the NFL was going to punish them as specified in the contract until the players appealed to the government and the government is now going to decide if the players need to abide by their contract or not.

Moral of the story? If you sign a contract and you later change your mind, just as the government to interfere. Like, say, with your mortgage.

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Best of /.

Thursday, December 11th, 2008

Slashdot Poll: I Backup My Personal Data..

  • Weekly
  • Monthly
  • Every Few Months
  • Once A Year
  • Continously
  • Never
  • After My Hard Drive Fails
  • Whenever I Lose The Old Backups

First post:

Backup? Never.

My personal data isn’t worth backing up.

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Slackware 12.2 Released

“Well folks, it’s that time to announce a new stable Slackware release again. So, without further ado, announcing Slackware version 12.2! Since we’ve moved to supporting the 2.6 kernel series exclusively (and fine-tuned the system to get the most out of it), we feel that Slackware 12.2 has many improvements over our last release (Slackware 12.1) and is a must-have upgrade for any Slackware user.”

First post:

Great Work!

I’m sure both of you still using Slackware will be very pleased! ;)

Reply:

I’m sure both of you still using Slackware will be very pleased! ;)

There’s somebody else? ;)

Don’t complain. You don’t have to read this.

Oh, this morning (3AMish) I was editing some PowerTrip morning show. Funniest stuff I’ve heard in a long while. Then I realized: no one is going to listen to this. I closed without saving. Probably lost thirty minutes of work.

Posted in KFAN, tech | Comments Off

WEP, WPA, WPA2, and Windows XP

Thursday, December 11th, 2008

I found out this morning around 4AM that my old Belkin router actually works just fine. The problem is Windows XP, not the router. Windows XP doesn’t natively support WPA2. A little quote from Neosmart:

The only problem? Windows XP isn’t compatible with WPA2-secured networks without a special update for WPA2 encryption support. That’s understandable, after all, WPA2 didn’t come out until after Windows XP SP2. But the problem is, it’s not even on Windows Update! Windows Update, always quick on the mark with the monthly Malicious Software Removal tool and other recommended updates surprised us by not showing the littlest inkling that there was an update as important to security as WPA2 available for download. It’s been available for manual download – only with Genuine Advantage validation – from Microsoft since May 2005… That’s a long time to be waiting! ((Direct Download Link: KB893357))

So, I didn’t know that I had turned on WPA2 and that XP didn’t support it. I know I had turned on WPA on my router because I knew that WEP is worthless, but I guess I must have tried WPA2 also. After turning on WPA2, I couldn’t connect to the network. Quick conclusion? Something’s wrong with the router. So I dropped $40 on one and I didn’t have too. Hurray.

Posted in my life/after college, tech | Comments Off

re-enrolling

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

Well, looks like I’m going back to college.

 

Just kidding. I’m in the process of acquiring a part-time job, M-F, 8-noon along with hours every other Saturday. It’s not really like college, because:

  1. I’ll be making money instead of giving money.
  2. I won’t have to show up for choir at 7.
  3. There’s no homework.
  4. And a bunch of other things, really…

But I should be pretty busy.* Hurray. Now for that 40" HDTV so we can have bus parties at my place…

Ok, not really. I need to talk about my podcast-listening experience. Soon. Very soon.

*That’s the one similarity in case you’re not bright enough to get it.

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a little behind…

Monday, December 8th, 2008

So I just updated to a fall theme as winter rolls in. Brilliant of me. I’ll try to get a winter theme up soon…

Posted in general | Comments Off

hear ye, hear ye

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

Ok, well, I don’t really have much to say, it’s just been so long that I (almost) feel bad.

I haven’t read Slashdot in a while. I just opened it up a few minutes ago and saw:

Doctor Performs Amputation By Text Message 2008-12-03 18:50

Posted by samzenpus on 2008.12.03 18:50
from the l33t-5ki11z dept.
Medicine
Peace Corps Online writes "Vascular surgeon David Nott performed a life-saving amputation on a boy in DR Congo following instructions sent by text message from a colleague in London. The boy’s left arm had been ripped off and was badly infected and gangrenous; there were just 6in (15cm) of the boy’s arm remaining, much of the surrounding muscle had died and there was little skin to fold over the wound. ‘He had about two or three days to live when I saw him,’ Nott said. Nott, volunteering with the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, knew he needed to perform a forequarter amputation requiring removal of the collar bone and shoulder blade and contacted Professor Meirion Thomas at London’s Royal Marsden Hospital, who had performed the operation before. ‘I texted him and he texted back step by step instructions on how to do it,’ Nott said."

Pretty amazing, but that’s not why I posted that. Recently, Slashdot has begun letting users tag stories with relevant words to group similar stories. For instance, some of the tags for this story are "science, medicine, sms," and the one that made me laugh and is the reason for this whole post, "canyouhearmenow."

(Tags have to be one word: "can you hear me now" would be five separate, unrelated tags.)

In other, unrelated news, after the Wild’s 6-5 loss to the Avelanche, Tenna-B (aka Brandon Mileski), the producer of the Common Man program, guaranteed the Common Man that in their next game the Wild would not give up 4 goals. As a matter of fact, he went so far as to say that if the Wild would give up four goals, he would pack up and leave town.

Good thing they won 4-0.

I can’t find the official stat, but Monday – the aforementioned 6-5 loss to the Avs – was the first time in team history that the Wild lost a game when they had scored 5 goals. I think they were around 65-0-1. That’s pretty impressive.

Posted in KFAN, sports, tech | Comments Off