So, the Circuit Court for California are debating the merits of various voting methodologies. Specifically Punch card ballots.

The case involves mostly liberal politicos calling for a suspention in the Recall election of California based upon the notion that an inanimate object can cause "Disenfranchisement" of a certain clase (or classes) of people.

What nobody has brought up, is the disenfranchisement of those who support the recall, if the process is held up for MOSTLY political reasons.

The whole reason this is being suspended isn't because of punch cards, it is because of Grey Davis vs Arnold (and the gang of 135). If this was the other way around, I would be willing to bet a ton of money that they would be quiet, not saying a PEEP.

Further, to insult the core group(s) of voters by insiuating that they are incapable of punching ONE HOLE is incredible. Besides, if people are that stupid, then their votes shouldn't count. I mean, if you can't figure out a ballot, perhaps you shouldn't be voting.

I think it isn't any supprise to note, that it is the DEMOCRATS who are courting the STUPID vote. That should be an indication of what it takes to be a democrat.

Remember, I am Libertarian, not a Rebublican. They have their issues too.

I am taking advice from my personal slashcounselor to post a recipe. The only thing is, this recipe is (was) top secret and only known by a few close associates before today.

It is my recipe, I made it up, and everyone who has tasted it claims it was the "best ever".

16 oz frozen sweetened strawberries.
1 12oz can Kerns Strawberry Nectar.
1/2 cup 1/2 & 1/2
1/4 - 1/2 cup Rum dark Rum (optional)
Whipping cream to top.

In a blender mix strawberries, nectar and 1/2 & 1/2. The Can of Nectar should be VERY cold, almost frozen. The 1/2 & 1/2 is used to help thicken and smooth the blend. Blend till smooth and creamy.

If you use rum, that too should be VERY COLD. Colder the better, as the cold helps keep the Mix THICK.

Pour in to small glasses, and top with Whipping Cream. If it is fresh strawberry season, you can add a fresh strawberry on the edge of the glass for an elegant touch.

Okay, so my occasional slashcomment is modded as "funny" or "insightful" often enough to give me good karma (for what ever that is worth). So how come there are hardly any "Fans" out there.

Thank goodness, one of my friends actually lets me know that at least there is someone as crazy as I am out there. You know who you are.

Anyway, short of being a girl, how does one become famous on slashdot? Any Ideas? Bueller? Bueller?

On a sad note, one of my favorite musical artists died last night. Tonight, I will walk the line one last time.

Okay, one of my bosses comes to me today (Thurs) to try and promote the latest greatest "Content Management System" for our web site. But the story doesn't start there, it starts tuesday at the bi-monthly tech meeting for all the techs in the department (spread across various sites).

At that meeting, this boss (not pointy head by any stretch), mentions that several schools have set up new web sites using this Content Management system, and mentions how crappy my web site looks, and how it could be helped by a "content management system" like this.

That is when I first mentioned that I am running a content management system, that didn't cost a dime. And the site's crappy features were do to NOBODY willing to learn how to use the system.

She was explaining all the various things that this new system could do, and I kept saying "Mine does that" to EVERYTHING. No FTP (yup), No HTML (Yup), Management features (yup), secure editing (yup)......

Well that went over like the lead brick I knew it was. Which leads us to today's meeting (un announced). She showed me the system (looks nice, easy etc). And I gave a tour of ours.

It was then that she realized that it wasn't the tool that was causing problems, it was the people.

Which gets me to my next point. Why do people use the phrase "I am not techological" to mean "Don't even try to teach me as I am not willing to learn"?

I mean how hard can it be to WYSIWYG a Web Page? Cut and Paste from WORD etc. I could understand if I were talking about Perl or the intracacies of Network protocols and the OSI model.

But I am not. I am talking about click here, click there, type this, and bam, you have a web page. Want a calendar, click "Calendar", want to add an image, click "Image".

Yes, it is NOT the tools, it is the PEOPLE. Spending money on a "professional" system is not the answer, unless it is "why are we broke?"

---steps down off of High Horse---

Okay,

I have moderation points again. But this time, I am taking requests for moderation, both UP or down. First five suggestions taken will be awared the points.

The only restrictions I have are,

1)Trolls will be Modded as -1, at my descretion
2) Find the obscure post that deserves moderation
3) If you comment on a request, and I think you are trolling for Moderation points I will MOD you -1

I don't have the time or energy to read every post. I am looking for truly "INTERESTING" or "FUNNY" posts that have been ignored and neglected.

On your mark,
Get Set,
GOOOOO!

I am getting ready to deploy a new server for some sort of groupware system. I am strongly considering using OpenGroupware, a newly opensourced (formerly propriatary) groupware system.

But I have had no experience with this particular system and am wondering what are the REAL LIFE requirements for this software. I am mainly looking at Processor/HD Space.

I know that much will depend upon how many users and such, having built a Exchange Server or two (Ewwww). But not knowing the average "Per User" load, I have no idea where to start.

Going to the web site http://www.opengroupware.org doesn't provide any sort of planning or requirements page.

I have a few months to try to get this organized and setup, and I am just looking for info right now.

Last question, what other OpenSource Groupware Servers are there?

Have a great weekend.

My goodness,

I just reread my last journal entry, and thought to myself "What kind of Crack were you smoking that day?"

Reminder to self: Don't write in your journal when you are both hot and tired.

Not to worry, I am not on Crack or any other drugs, nor was I on that day in question. In fact, if I were smoking something, it wouldn't have been Crack, but that green herb, not that I smoke anything anymore. Body is a temple thing.

And if I was on the Ganja, I assure you my ramblings might have made alot more sense. When I was a pot head (My nick in College was "IronLungs", had a theme song and everything, thanks Ozzie), I got my first "A" in my English 101 class writing while stoned.

The professor said "Whatever you did to write this keep on doing it". No Kidding! I am dead serious. My only thought now, was that that the professor figured I was stoned and was encouraging me to stay that way.

Come to think of it, my last JE must have been some sort of "flashback" or something, yeah, thats the ticket. A flashback, that really explains things doesn't it.

Hopefully this JE makes more sense.

Yes, I once again got to be a Moderator. I am not wasting my Mod Points again. So, I am modding up people at random, rather than waste them. HA! Making Moderation Interesting is not my idea of fun.

Random Moderation is fun. Who knows That "Insightful" moderation you are bragging to your friends about just might be ..... Random act of Kindness, and not really reflective of a "Insightful" comment.

Then again, it might be because I like your name. HA! Moderation points, the new Toy to play with.

In addition, I have taken my first steps at Meta Moderation, where the object is to moderate the moderation. While this seems interesting, in my mind, I usually take things to the furthest logical end to see how workable or sick an idea really is.

In this case, I want to Meta Meta moderate. I want to meta moderate the Meta Moderators. You know to see how "helpful" the Meta moderators are at moderating, and moderate them on their meta moderation skills.

I doubt that will happen though.

Okay, I did something kinda silly yesterday. It was kind of brash and mostly out of charactor for me. I offered my services as Ahhhhnold's Technology Consultant.

Not that I expect any sort of real answer. But wouldn't it be funny if Ahhhhnold let me be his campaign Technology Advisor?

I would do it for free, if given the chance.

Sounds like a Sex thing doesn't it. Well, its not you horny slashdotters. It is Moderation points.

I would like to see Slashdot set up a system where you can earn/keep moderation points, and not be limited to one chance in a blue moon to moderate.

Perhaps 10 Moderation points a week, 25 max in the bank. Mind you these are just suggested levels.

How about click an advertisement link, get 1 point (per day, upto 10 extra per month). I also think that ACs should be -1 to start. If they are good posts, it won't matter, but most ACs are crap, not worth reading. People posting with 50 total troll posts are -5 to start (Yeah I know, nothing lower than -1), you know which ones I am talking about.

Anyway, it is nearing the end of the day, and I have 5 points and nothing I want to say. So I have modded up 5 journal entries of someone, not that they needed the extra Karma. Your welcome my friend, I think you know who you are.

Use them or lose them.

The field is mostly set, and we have all sorts of people running for Governor of California. Appearenly over 500 people have taken out papers to run for Governor of this formerly fine state.

The biggest name is obviously "Ahnold". But other notables are Mrs Huffington, Mr Flint, Mr Uberoth, Mr Bustamonte.

Alot of others who are more psuedo famous are also running, in nothing more than to pad their resumes with "Former Candidate for Governor".

Heck, if I had an extra $3500 bucks laying around, I would have run. If I could find 65 people to sign a petition that is.

Not really belonging to a political party, as none really suit me, This race will no doubt offer me a wider choice of idiots to plug my nose to vote from.

Not a typical conservative, and definitely not a typical liberal, I have some pretty strong feelings on issues that just don't fit any platform offered by most parties.

I am a Messianic Christian Libertarian with realistic anarchist tendancies. Human Government is evil, and all forms of it are flawed. Some forms are more flawed than others. Some are more realistic than others which are idealistic. Most are frought with the same error, that OTHERS can decide for ME what is best for others (all) at my expense.

Let me hear your views.

SharpFang #651121 wrote the following about some freak of his:

"He landed on my "friend" list. I'm just full of compassion."

I wonder where He got that idea. Hmmmmm. Maybe it is time for him to be one of my fans, since he is copying my ideas.

My life is so boring. So it really amazes me when it becomes abundantly clear that someone actually reads my journals (Thanks Bethanie).

In fact I find most public journals to be quite egocentric to the authors, which really makes them fairly boring in nature.

I do, however, understand the nature of trying to make the whole net experience more "personal". But my experience is that most of the people I have met on the net are indeed real people, but are a limited edition of themselves, crafted and carved from all of their experiences into the self image they WISH they could be (whether that be a port star, or super human).

And to make it very clear, I am guilty of that which I am accusing.

My questions are these: "How much of you is real, and how much of you isn't real? How much of you is NOT found in your "online personality".

To be fair, Most of me is real (now). I found that trying to create alternate personalities was difficult at best, and crazy (MPD type) at worse.

However, I hold my card very close to my chest, so that the Internet doesn't know all about me either.

So, how 'bout it? Who are you?

Today, like many days past, I have been awarded 5 mod points to give out to whomever I choose. However, today, unlike most other days, I am not modding posts on articles, but only in other peoples journals.

Why people don't mod journal entries is beyond me, and my hope and goal is to have the journal moderation system UNLINKED with the article moderation system.

Perhaps if the journal Mod system was reflected in the Friend, Foe, Fan, Freaks it would provide a much better way of recognizing who your friends and fans, foes and freaks really are, rather than some drive by random choice.

This is my chance to improve Slashdot. If you like this idea, tell the Slashcoders to get right on it.

What hasn't already been said on slashdot and elsewhere? Okay, my $.02, not that you asked.

SCO is so screwed. I can smell class action lawsuit by everyone and their brother over this mess. Even now they cannot be bought out for fear of the shareholders of the Dark Knight (IBM) suing the pants off the Board of directors.

Every couple of days, SCO issues a FUD missle to the whole technical community, not really careing where it hits.

IBM, on the other hand, is playing this marvelously. They know exactly what SCO is worth, and aren't buying anything (literally or figuratively). They are just sitting quietly, problably morbidly curious about the next move SCO is going to make.

SCO is playing right into that quiet hand of IBM, by complying with an increasing clownish act. The idiocy of the people at the top of SCO is truly a remarkable example of the Peter Principle.

The rest of the Linux community (FSF, Red Hat, Gnu, Stallman et al) is doing a remarkable job at digging up various pieces of evidence that should dismantle the whole court case (if it reaches there), SCO is planning to bring.

Which is why SCO is acting more insane every time they open there mouth. They say something and it is immediatly swarmed upon by the various Slashkids, and rip to IANAL pieces. Some of which are quite intellegent.

So who is missing from this whole mess? Sun and Microsoft have bought into SCO's FUD missle program. Red Hat, SuSE, FSF, ESR, RS etc have all spoken out on this.

There is ONE big tech company that is absent from the fray. One Company who could come in and do something rather BOLD and OFF Kilter, when compared to the rest of the Industry. That being the Reality Distortion Field (RDF) activated company of Jobs, Apple.

What would Apple do with the remenants of SCO? Frankly, I haven't a clue. Really! Steve Jobs is just wacky enough to try something like this, and to ultimately brilliant enough pull something wild out of his ArseTechnica. Worse case scenerio, is that Jobs blows it and activates another burst of the RDF. At least SCO will be put to rest by then.

You heard it hear first.