October, 2008 archive
Wine 0
About the onlu thing I can’t reliably do on Linux that I can do on Windows is play Windows media files, the ones with the extensions *.wmv and *.wma.
This has nothing to to with Linux. Rather, Microsoft, in typical Microsoft fashion, keeps messing with the codec to keep those files proprietary in the hopes of further enslaving users to Windows.
Now, I can play some older *.wm? files. Both mplayer and VLC are capable of doing that.
Normally, this doesn’t bother me. I either ignore *.wm? files or stream them over the network to a Windows box.
But I finally got tired of commuting into the next room to watch the occasional video, did a quick webseach, and test drove Crossover Linux from Codeweavers, which uses Wine to run Windows programs on Linux or Mac boxes.
I could have set up Wine myself, but I didn’t want to learn anything; I just wanted the watch the darn video. After testing Crossover Linux for almost two and a half minutes, I went back to Codeweavers and registered the product.
Here’s picture of the result: That’s Windows Media Player v. 9 on the left, the Midnight Commander file manager on the right, this website viewed in the venerable Lynx text-based web browser at the bottom, of course, a shameless plug for the Linux Distro of Iron in the background.
Bushonomics: DOWn 1
Not that the DOW is the end all and be all–after all, it’s fewer than 50 stocks–but, well (emphasis added) . . .
Banks Shot 0
Two more bite the dust:
The closures are the 14th and 15th bank failures so far this year.
’nuff said.
Beyond the Palin 1
Abuse of power is a wingnut thing.
From MarketWatch:
As my mother would have said, “Honestly . . . .”
McLies 3
From Fact Check dot org. Follow the link the for the full analysis (emphasis added):
In a Web ad and in repeated attacks from the stump, McCain describes the two as associates, and Palin claims they “pal around” together. But so far as is known, their relationship was never very close. An Obama spokesman says they last saw each other in a chance encounter on the street more than a year ago.
McCain says in an Internet ad that the two “ran a radical ‘education’ foundation” in Chicago. But the supposedly “radical” group was supported by a Republican governor and included on its board prominent local civic leaders, including one former Nixon administration official who has given $1,500 to McCain’s campaign this year. Education Week says the group’s work “reflected mainstream thinking” among school reformers. The group was the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, started by a $49 million grant from the Annenberg Foundation, which was established by the publisher Walter Annenberg, a prominent Republican whose widow, Leonore, is a contributor to the McCain campaign.
For Fact Checks I missed while rebuilding the server, go to the FactCheck website.
Ya know, the lies are bad enough.
But what is truly appalling is that Republipartisans are so willing to wrap themselves up in willful ignorance as to profess them. And maybe even believe them.
I do not think that Senator Obama is the second coming.
Remember, I was a Dodd guy.
But, frankly, the basic rule, based on the experience of things seen, is this:
Any Democrat is better than every Republican.
The rest of the political discourse starts from that point.
The Current Federal Administrator has proved that and sealed it with a kiss.
Stray Thought: “Change You Can Believe In” Dept. 0
Give the Republican Party a 20, it will give you back five fours.
Baseball 1
As I watch the Phillies game, I realize that the Fox Sports announcers are really really bad.
Bring back Harry Kalas for the playoffs.
At least he understands baseball.
When You Got Nuttin’ 1
You dodge, weave, lie, and attack.
It’s a Republican thing. They got nuttin’.
And they are leaving the rest of us with the same:
The Dow’s close leaves it 5,585.34 points, or 39.4%, under its year-ago high.
Bushonomics: Time Runs Out Dept. 0
The Republican Party, the party of fiscal responsibility.
Yeah.
Right.
Incompetent lying hypocritical bastards.
If my wording is too circumspect, please use the email link at the top of the page and I’ll tell you what I really think.
Men without a Country 0
The outrageousness continues:
(snip)
U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina issued the landmark ruling in the case of a small band of captives, known as Uighurs, who have been held at Guantanamo nearly seven years and are no longer considered enemy combatants by the U.S. government.
The United States is refusing to repatriate the Uighurs to China, since China considers Uighurs to be prima facie terrorists and rebels, and doesn’t want to admit them to the United States because, for some reason or other, they just might be bearing a grudge.
But today, an appeals court enjoined the order so that the government could “have more time to make arguments in the case.”
Note the argument was described, in the first link above, as using to keep these innocent persons incarcerated (emphasis added). It boils down to “King George the Wurst doesn’t want to.”
Justice Department lawyers had argued that only the president had the authority to allow the men into the country. They also said the judge was barred from ordering the entry of detainees if they had ties to terrorist groups.
Just because I haven’t quoted it in a while, here is the oath of office that King George swore:
Frankly, Pascal nailed it.
A Present from My Bank 3
Came in the mail. They really do not have to remind me.
I’d tell you which bank it was, but I don’t know what name they are trading under today.
And why are they mailing books all over the country when they are gasping for air already? This is they kind of good business sense that got them into trouble in the first place.
Furrfu!
Bushonomics: Creampuff Dept. 1
Wanna buy a used car dealership?
The national outlook is likewise grim. Last week, Ford Motor Co. reported U.S. sales had dropped 34 percent in September. And yesterday, normally bulletproof Toyota Motor Corp. saw its shares experience their largest one-day drop in decades on fears of a global recession.
Penske Chevrolet is among a batch of dealerships in Southeastern Pennsylvania and South Jersey to close or merge during the last month. Dealerships in Hammonton and Elmer, N.J., also shut down in recent weeks or are on the chopping block, and others are rumored to be next.
Most affected are dealerships selling autos by the Detroit “Big Three” – Ford, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler L.L.C., said John Devlin, vice president of the Pennsylvania Automotive Association in Harrisburg.
Praying Liberally Wilmington Update 0
Right over there—->
Another Day Playing SysAdmin 3
This time it was getting the new Windows box on line, setting up the firewall, and verifying that it works properly as a print server for my network.
I also did a few things I always do to Windows XP computers.
I went into Control Panel–>Administrative Tools–>Services and disabled the “Security Center” nagware service. I have a firewall and I have an antivirus. If Microsoft “Securty [gag] Center” is too stupid to recognize the existence of the NetDefense firewall, it can go pound sand.
I went into Control Panel–>System–>Advanced–>Error Reporting and turned off Error Reporting. I have no interest in telling Microsoft anything about my computer usage. Goodness knows, they do enough sniffing on their own.
I went into Control Panel–>Date and Time–>Internet Time and changed the time server from Microsoft to a U. S. government server, although, heaven knows, the U. S. goverment has no more scruples about spying on citizens than does Microsoft.
My brain is tired.
Regularly scheduled imprecations and invective resume tomorrow.
On Top of Everything Else 3
The Family Windows box died.
“Hard Drive not found.”
Made sure everything was plugged in tight inside the box.
It was.
I ran out to Second Source and got another one. After a week-and-half playing IT Tech to my webserver, I really didn’t feel like playing bench tech to what is almost certainly a failed hard drive.
When I get a little energy, I’ll remove the harddrive, jumper it to slave, slap it into another computer, and see if I can salvage anything. All my important data is backed up in two or three different places, but I can’t say that about all the computer users in the house. . . .
I’m Back, and I’m Drinking Liberally To Celebrate 0
At Tangier, 18th and Lombard, Philadelphia, at 6 p. m.
Briefly speaking, my database went kerfluie. My two or three regular readers will remember a short period during which posts were appearing twice.
It mysteriously started and mysteriously went from every post to occasional posts. I checked the database using the admin tools, and they found nothing wrong, but I think that was when the problems started.
You will note that I’ve had to drop back quite a while to find a valid backup. I did try to muscle the current database into MySQL, but it was too far gone.
I don’t kid myself that my drivel is all that important, but I apologize to those who have put time and energy and thought into comments and whose comments are gone.
I’m still have some tweaking to do and you may see some minor changes in performance over the next few days, but pretty much what you see is what you’re gonna get.
For the geekily inclined, the gory details are below the fold.