From Pine View Farm

June, 2009 archive

Attack of the Pod People 0

They walk again by night.

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PSA 0

The Canadian Scam is alive and well in Delaware.

I heard a radio show about this several months ago; someone calls up an old folk and pretends to be a grandchild in trouble needing money sent to an address in Canada.

If you’re my age or older, read the details here and be forewarned.

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Stray Question 1

Whatever happened to “Brown ‘n Serve” rolls?

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SCP 0

I set up my new computer over the weekend, replacing the one that died. You can read about it on Geekazine.

One thing I have learned is how to use the Linux scp command to copy files between computers. I haven’t finished tweaking the networking yet and wanted to get some pictures on the webserver without, like, you know, actually walking into another room.

I found I could do it through the scp command in a terminal. This command, for example,

scp configure.jpg [username]@[local IP address]:~

copies the file “configure.jpg” from this computer to my home folder on the other computer. If I used a DNS server, I could use the computer name, but I don’t; the IP address works just fine.

The target computer demands a password and the whole process is encryted.

And it’s a lot faster than using a graphical interface. But, then, the command line is always faster, as long as you know the commands.

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Stray Question 0

Why would Dell ship a Ubuntu box with a Windows button on the keyboard?

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“Tie Me Wallaby Down, Sport” 0

It’s floating away:

Tasmania’s opium poppy farmers have been offered an explanation for mysterious crop circles in their fields which have become part of local lore: They’re caused by drugged-up wallabies which get blasted on the plant heads and hop around in circles.

That’s according to Taz attorney general Lara Giddings, who explained that she’d discovered the industry had “a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles”.

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Twits on Twitter, Sanity Dept. 1

Reese Erlick debunks the hoop-la about the “Twitter Revolution” in Iran:

First of all the vast majority of Iranians have no access to Twitter. While reporting in Tehran, I personally didn’t encounter anyone who used it regularly. A relatively small number of young, economically well off Iranians do use Twitter. A larger number have access to the Internet. However, in the beginning, most demonstrations were organized through word of mouth, mobile phone calls and text messaging.

But somehow “Text Messaging Revolution” doesn’t have that modern, sexy ring, especially if you have to type it with your thumbs on a tiny keyboard.

More importantly, by focusing on the latest in Internet communications, cable TV networks intentionally or unintentionally characterize a genuine mass movement as something supported mainly by the Twittering classes.

{snip)

The mass movement that sprang forth in the past few weeks has been 30 years in coming. It’s not a Twitter Revolution, nor even a “velvet revolution” like those in Eastern Europe.

This whole Twitter Revolution notion has more to do with Westerners being able to see the twits, while the reporters on the scene have been severely restricted. I heard an Iranian-American reporter on the Diane Rehm Show last week. At one point, she asked him a question and he answered quite bluntly, “I can’t talk about that.”

Some reporters and commentators–Andrew Sullivan, whose blog is a regular daily stop for me, is a prominent example–have been all gaga about collecting and publishing bits from Twitter, as if they somehow give a picture of what is happening in Iran. His enthusiasm is impressive and his sympathy for the underdog is commendable, but I skip those posts, just as Karen skips anything I post here about Linux

(Indeed, Sullivan has turned his blog all green as a sign of solidarity. I wore a black armband after the shootings at Kent State. Same difference, same lack of influence on the long-term course of events).

Reading the twits doesn’t help me understand what’s happening in Iran, no more than drinking Fresca truly quenches a thirst.

But if a thirsty man can’t find water, he’ll drink Fresca.

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Tatas 0

I admit it. I just wanted to use that subject line.

Read the story about India’s Tata Motors, Jaguar, and Range Rover here.

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Greater Wingnuttery XXVIII 2

Oh. My. Goodness.

I am now waiting for Court TruTV to start a new “World’s Dumbest” series.

Via Atrios.

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What’s the World Coming To? 2

You can’t even go naked at your own campsite any more.

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Curved Air 0

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Free Movies On Demand 0

Toxic Avenger II is a hoot.

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In a Binsome Mood 0

A friend of mine on the phone this morning referred to “that loony governor.”

I said, “Sanford? . . . I don’t think he was all that loony. I think he made a mistake, a mistake a lot of other men and women have made.”

Aside: I do not care that he had an affair, other than that he professes a political creed that claims to embrace and desires to legislate “family values” (meaning sexual Miss Grundyism and not meaning, say, good health care and a living wage, which in the Republican world have nothing to do with families)–embraces “family values” as opposed to embracing other persons’ families.

Unfortunately, I know lots of families touched by infidelity; some of the persons, both strayers and strayees, have, indeed, done loony things–but they were not loonier than any of the rest of us. The outcome was never good, but the persons were not unredeemably evil.

One more time: It ain’t the sex. It’s the hypocrisy, the hypocrisy that Republicans have institutionalized in their platform and behavior, of loudly pointing at and condemning in others what they do themselves.

Anyhoo, we kicked the topic around a bit and, then, after a little more discussion, she suggested that he actually belonged in the

(wait for it)

Read more »

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Stray Question 0

As I read this article, I wondered why, whenever the potential cost to the government of reforming healthcare coverage is mentioned, the potential savings to business, consumers, and the overall economy are not.

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Twits on Twitter, Promises Dept. 0

Alexander Cockburn asks

How much easier it is to raise three–or 3 million–rousing tweets for the demonstrators in Tehran than to mount any sort of political resistance at home! Here we have a new Democratic president, propelled into office on a magic carpet of progressive pledges, now methodically flouting them one by one, with scarcely a twit or even a tweet raised in protest, aside from the gallant efforts of Medea Benjamin, Russell Mokhiber and their comrades at the healthcare hearings in Congress.

On the same general subject, DougJ asks

This amount of bureaucratic crap Americans have to go through to get health care sickens me. How on earth can anyone whine about government red tape when, right now, every . . . insurer and hospital has their own crazy set of forms you have to fill out (forms which usually only exist in hard copy or Microsoft Word form, btw)?

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Much Ado about Not Much 1

A bus passenger received a text message about the death of Michael Jackson and read it aloud. Then . . .

The unidentified bus driver opined that “Michael Jackson should have been in jail long ago,” prompting Kiernan, 60, to retort that “the world just lost a great musical talent,” the police report said.

It said the last remark enraged another passenger, Henry Wideman, who started a swearing match with Kiernan, then pulled out a knife and chased Kiernan down the aisle with it.

Frankly, I have had it with this subject.

Michael Jackson was a good singer and dancer, a nutcase through no fault of his own, and possibly dangerous to himself and others, but, from the press and blog reaction, you would think he was the reincarnation of Bach, Beethoven, Verdi, the Beatles, Bill Haley and Comets, Galileo, Dante, Shakespeare, Benny Goodman, John Phillip Sousa, Sarah Bernhardt, and E. T. the Extra-Terrestial all in one package.

He was not.

Read more »

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Strong Foot of the Law 0

An off-duty Dover police officer, who attempted to restrain a reckless driver at the Dover Mall, had his foot run over when the car’s three other occupants tried to flee arriving officers, police reported today.

The mopes are in the pokey.

On top of everything else, one of them hit the officer.

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Restore from Backup 0

The new laptop arrived, a week early right on schedule.

I’m setting it up even as I type (that means I told it to copy some files over the network, then I wandered off to do other things).

Jeez oh man! I’ve got more than 16,000 files in my docs folder!

Look for a post on Geekazine when I’ve got it all fine-tuned.

Addendum:

This puppy is sweet. The only complaint I have is the position of the speaker jack. It would be great for headphones in an airport (it’s in the front below the keyboard), but it’s lousy on a desk or table. I’ve now got one more wire that’s not out of the way.

The wireless works flawlessly (wireless is the Achilles heel of Linux, because so many manufacturers of wireless components do not make native Linux drivers), the webcam works, and everything is now restored from backup. I haven’t tested out Ekiga yet; that’s tomorrow.

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Beauty May Be Skin Deep 0

Stupid goes all the way to the bone.

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Dustbiters 0

The FDIC is mopping up:

Community Bank of West Georgia, Villa Rica, Ga., ain’t no more.

Nor is Neighborhood Community Bank, Newnan, Ga.

But wait! There’s more! It’s Billy DisMaying!

MetroPacific Bank Irvine, Calif.
Horizon Bank, Pine City, Minn.

Addendum, with the morning coffee:

Mirae Bank, Los Angeles, Calif.

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