tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-290699292013-01-14T11:53:18.164-05:00Opinionated? Damn straight.<br> Nobody posts, so I must be right.<br> And, I did all this on hotbot in 1994.<br><br> Neither left nor right - common sense is irritating, isn't it?jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.comBlogger102125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-12859758218287982922013-01-14T11:50:00.000-05:002013-01-14T11:53:18.195-05:00

In every instance, we failed the victims long before the madman touched a firearm. One cannot rationally argue that these people descended into madness in a vacuum. Someone, somewhere knew something. And did nothing. The "this is not my problem" attitude condemned the victims to their fate. In short, we are ALL to blame. People here don't ask anyone else if they're okay (incidentally, a study

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-23975956767418856162012-01-26T10:58:00.002-05:002012-01-26T11:27:12.033-05:00

Going between client sites all the time I also get to touch a lot of "enterprise" time tracking software packages. Most of these must be the most retarded (apologies to those with mental disabilities, there is no way you could actually invent something that dumb).Of course, companies need to know what their employees and consultants are spending their time on. This is not the problem. But ERP

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-42507052248559657952012-01-18T10:26:00.003-05:002012-01-18T10:39:16.023-05:00

Apparently it still costs $10 to see Dr. Martin Luther King's speech in case you missed it.Awesome. People will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their bank account and depth of their rolodex.In other news, the SOPA protest is in full swing. It is definitely an interesting list of supporters, who won't be getting any of my money. Ironically, the right-wing "let

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-69329221980746054092011-01-26T11:24:00.002-05:002011-01-26T11:27:35.549-05:00

Well, I can't say I am surprised.I went to look to download Adobe's PDF Reader today, but it kept on wanting to install some third party download manager. Since that's now impossible, I wanted to read about what kind of data the download manager collects, and what it does to your system. Naturally, I went to the EULA (End User License Agreement) page.Surprise! They're all in PDF format.I'd have

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-14847502216077649242011-01-20T11:08:00.002-05:002011-01-20T11:21:47.447-05:00

I have been spending the last couple of months working educating a client about cloud computing, building demos, and so on. If I hear another sales droid try to explain cloud computing in the terms of their products, I'll puke.A couple of observations that most sales droids seem to not be aware of:Having VMWare installed is not cloud computingOracle software (including WebLogic) is fundamentally

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-62128525412160662222010-02-02T15:07:00.002-05:002010-02-02T15:17:39.944-05:00

In its infinite wisdom, VANOC included bits of Leni Riefenstahl (yes, that Leni Riefenstahl) in its promotional videos. Awesome - now all we need is bits of 1984 in there, and we'd have the perfect video track to what's turning out to be the largest military presence in western Canada since World War II. Fifteen minutes of hate, anyone?In other news, almost 1000 new CCTV cameras now go live in

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-16580321922593572402010-01-19T10:24:00.003-05:002010-01-19T10:34:33.372-05:00

Microsoft contends on its security blog that a heretofore unknown vulnerability is responsible for the EPIC breaches at Google. Logic would let one surmise that this is likely the same attack vector used to breach DoD contractors' systems too, to get to the supposedly unclassified specificatons of the F-22 Raptor as well as some submarine technology.Affected are IE 6, 7, and 8, most revisions,

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-55272202778704411592009-12-21T13:24:00.009-05:002009-12-21T13:58:55.075-05:00

Just in: Vancouver Olympics Committee embarrassed to ask Vancouver Symphony to "Milli Vanilli" their music.It's true, I read it all on the CBC (credit them for the pic on the right too).First comes the article:http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/12/19/symphony-olympics.htmlAnd then their hasty apology:http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/12/20/

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-28935617295195794772009-12-10T16:21:00.003-05:002009-12-10T16:31:44.689-05:00

I keep seeing the ads for the Intel (r) Core (c) i(tm)7(tm) (sorry to any lawyers if I messed up the r's and c's there) processors with the "turbo boost" feature.Did you know my IBM PC XT clone had this too?Does anyone at Intel remember why few 286 and even fewer 386 boards (PC Chips 386SX boards excepted) even bothered still including pins for the "turbo button"? (Yes, I know it's something you

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-6685779006334515792009-10-05T14:37:00.003-04:002009-10-05T14:57:02.850-04:00

Well, I guess it was inevitable - a successful DDoS attack on a moderately popular service hosted in the Amazon cloud. Blog posts from Jasper detailing the attack are here.For starters, Amazon tried to hush it over, although the different outages amounted to more than a few hours, with the excuse that disclosure would enable more effective attacks (and hence the corporate idiocy tag). The hubris

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-84297358895059777902009-07-31T15:14:00.003-04:002009-07-31T15:19:45.129-04:00

I am getting sick of hearing "cash for clunkers is out of money" between dealership car ads.So let me get this straight - anyone dumb enough to buy a car that didn't even get 20 mpg, bitched about it, gets a reward of up to $4500 for my stupidity.Got it, thanks - the rest of us responsible proles subsidize the stupid and self-centered once again.

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-50074421293019081002009-07-14T12:22:00.002-04:002009-07-14T12:26:47.454-04:00

This is almost too funny to pass up - DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier calls iPhone users cowards for using an application that alerts them to DC speed cameras, and then laments how getting the software banned would be impractical. I guess they get brownie points for going to DC in the first place, but NO points for going the speed limit.I call them cowards for having their digital rights managed.

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-41929563953484556582009-07-13T11:41:00.004-04:002009-12-21T13:59:49.161-05:00

I read this, thought about it, and after a while, wondered why nobody else picked this up.Read it on the CBC!I am sure they'll be near the arctic circle, if they don't arrest people for applying for a "permit to protest." Add to it the recently filed lawsuit against the RCMP going by known protesters' houses and telling them "we're watching you" and this is taking on a whole new dimension.

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-19321003898093548222009-06-23T14:19:00.003-04:002009-06-23T14:30:12.634-04:00

Well, well, this is like the Herpes virus of VoIP: Ooma got another round of funding - a whole $14 million's worth. I guess by the preceding sentence I am nowhere near as optimistic about their survival as the author of the column I linked to.While I applaud Ooma for their ability to convince some people to hand over other peoples' money, one needs to look between the lines of what's going on in

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-12889786417526911012009-06-12T19:55:00.004-04:002009-06-12T20:13:40.348-04:00

Well, us proles will now have to live with digital transmission "quality."My disclaimer: I have cable, from none other than Comcast. I always wonder if there is a good cable company, but that's enough for a whole blog on its own. And don't ask me about the esteemed products by Scientific Atlanta (now Cisco)...Here are my notes:1. So you transmit a HD signal, right? Why would you then use it to

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-61354527746215107932009-04-07T18:57:00.002-04:002009-04-07T19:16:40.349-04:00

From her AP soapbox, Deborah Hastings once again makes her point for gun control, stating that since the murderers responsible for the latest shootings had permits (to possess, not carry), we're all guilty by association.She knows so little about the reality of firearms legislation that she confuses the license to possess (required in New York state, for instance) and a license to carry (called a

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-85335766323103062812009-03-18T16:07:00.003-04:002009-03-18T16:14:57.490-04:00

The Yahoo Story.Totally stuck up dot-com ridealong company gets bought by suit-and-tie company able to admit that they sometimes don't know what they're doing.This will end in tears.Let me see now, I saw a picture last night that reminds me of this situation:Credit to the good crew at AR15.com - they make some of the funniest pictures.

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-51888638880561464452009-03-18T15:44:00.003-04:002009-03-18T16:05:51.623-04:00

So I have been working at this gig at a client site. They're pretty much squared away, and don't question that there are huge advantages to minimizing the installed software on systems. Stopping unneeded services isn't enough. With operating systems as big as Solaris 10, you'll blow your maintenance windows if the latest patch cluster has to patch everything. Never mind that you're enabling the

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-76831389950643829932009-03-05T13:22:00.002-05:002009-03-05T13:26:42.075-05:00

Well, I think Sirius is doing a thorough job of mismanaging their acquisition, XM Radio.First, they kill off the best channels, even the mildly alternative Fred, Lucy, and Ethel.Now they want to charge for everything, including online listening (you know, for those people who work somewhere where their mobile XM receivers don't work).XM NavTraffic never worked convincingly, although I think part

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-77649978435543022242009-02-12T12:21:00.003-05:002009-02-12T12:30:02.916-05:00

So apparently this guy and his buddy supposedly managed to get a few million dollars' worth of free calls: Fugitive VOIP hacker cuffed in MexicoNice. I am sure there is a lot of amortized equipment (corporate jets and the like) in that price. How many minutes does that work out to? Tens of millions? It's not like they're in orange tokens like AT&T commercials or anything. Let me guess - they

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-35889849318389160962009-01-30T12:12:00.002-05:002009-01-30T12:13:40.721-05:00

Awesome. Gun, yep. Liquor, yep.It's nice to live somewhere where you can do that, and not cause a panic in the sheeple.

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-30049282997003805582009-01-30T11:30:00.003-05:002009-01-30T11:33:14.896-05:00

Thanks to AT, who reminded me of this snippet.Rumor has it that Yoomba, the contact-list-spamming VoIP service was shut down this week.www.yoomba.com is down, FWIW. Sad to see that at best, highly impolite business practices survived this long.

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-44408924510792212702009-01-30T11:20:00.002-05:002009-01-30T11:26:05.156-05:00

I realize that this blog has strayed from technical stuff to politics, but unlike politics, most technology seems to achieve what it sets out to do.So now, get this: apparently the homeland secretary wants criminal aliens out of the US.As a law-abiding, legal alien, I am surprised to learn that this is not the case already. But then, they don't kick illegal aliens out, either. Why am I following

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-78532330930235700092008-11-01T12:55:00.006-04:002008-11-01T13:37:50.855-04:00

Voter apathy abounds once more, as people get tired of the hyping for the big election. But no matter who wins, the real winner is big government. You have two candidates promising to expand government to do this and do that, and insisting the USA can support its debt load to pay for it. While that may be true, I remain unconvinced that more government is the cure to the ills that ail us.Let's

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29069929.post-4528823446016469912008-10-13T11:48:00.002-04:002008-10-13T11:57:07.986-04:00

As there is further evidence of the bills on the unsustainable becoming due, let me remind you, humbly, of this:Eight billion in farm subsidies. (Federal budget, 2006)One trillion in oil company subsidies. (est.)One trillion in nuclear energy subsidies. (est.)Now, please explain to me where the capitalism part comes from.For all of the blaming of the "free market's" role in the economic

jaydubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08943326839825003278noreply@blogger.com0