It didn't take 24 hours after the election for B.O.'s supporters to realize they had been shafted.

"I want my money today! It's my money. I want it right now!" yelled one former campaign worker.

Hmmm, seems like B.O.'s elitist cronies aren't so good at "distributing the wealth" when it's their own money. Ha ha! We always knew B.O. was a stinker.

Eventually people did start getting paid, but some said they were missing hours and told to fill in paperwork making their claim and that eventually they would get a check in the mail.

You can trust B.O.: "The check is in the mail."

"It should have been $480. It's $230," said Imani Sankofa.

You guys misunderstood B.O.'s campaign message. He's not going to bring you change. He's going to pocket your change!

See, if you make over $250 a week, you're considered "rich" under the post-election version of B.O.'s tax plan, called uPay ME (Malaise Edition).
(Hey, them's awful good wages where B.O. comes from.)

The obaminable election outcome has generated a lot of negative thoughts in me. Frankly, it's difficult to cope with.

One of the widgets on my personalized iGoogle page gives some wise advice:

Talmud Quote of the Day: Live well. It is the greatest revenge.

Indeed. And another widget gives an extremely timely verse-of-the-day Scripture:

For many will come in My name, saying, "I am the Messiah!" and will deceive many. (Mattityahu 24:5)

What happens when a Google camera vehicle needs a fill-up?
Google Gets Gas

There's an old comic that appeared in Dragon Magazine, of the DM to the players:
"... and that passage leads to the unfinished part of the dungeon you feel strangely compelled to avoid."

Sometimes you find that on web sites too. And what's more fun than finding such a site on Google?

I backed into a way to find some street level data that evidently is NOT yet linked into the main data base. Here's how to see some of it:

Follow this link - it will set up a route from one of the repeaters I maintain, just outside of Hutchinson, KS, to KCK. The important bit here is that one endpoint of the journey ends where there is a street view available.

Next, make sure you have the "street view" enabled.

Then, re-calculate the route. You should now have a camera icon at the first turn of the route. If you click it, you will be right outside the gate of the site. That's a 1400' tower, by the by, and my antennas are up at 1200'. Also, that road is a muthaphucker of a washboard - I feel sorry for the poor Googlites going down it.

You cannot zoom into the Hutchinson area and keep the street view yet - I'm guessing they are in the process of loading the data and linking it in, and haven't finished yet.

I've found quite a few areas that are in this "Schroedinger's Cat" state - it looks like there is going to be a drop soon.

Looking at the area around my house (no, I'm not giving a link) I've been able to data this sometime last fall (i.e. September to October, 2008).

(Google folks: If you read this, take US160 from Medicine Lodge to Coldwater, and take US166 from Arkansas City to Riverton. We actually DO have scenic roads in Kansas, they just aren't the major ones.)

Al-Jazeera Mistakenly Hosts Defender of United Jerusalem (has YouTube video)

The guest on this show looks like Ben Stein, but he is from the Dept. of Arabic Studies at Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv. Al-Jazeera apparently thought this fluent Arab speaker would be sympathetic to the Pale-terrorist cause. Instead, he comes out firing with almost Coulter-like sharpness. It's entertaining to see this Gatling Gun of Truth shoot out so much logic and facts, unheard-of elements on Arab TV, that the A-J host is at a loss for words at times and has to instantly grow new frown muscles to adequately show his displeasure.

The issue of contention is that Israelis are planning to establish homes in their capital city, Jerusalem. Shocking, I know. It's like, Jews in Jerusalem?!! Who has ever heard of such a phenomenon? That's like Catholics in the Vatican! Will pigs fly next?

Now, if our Secretary of State Condaljazeera Rice had been on the show, there would have been lots of smiles and handshakes. The War on Terror exempts Israel's closest enemies.

This is a repost of a story I've put up on Technocrat:

As a variant of the old "tree falling in a forest" question, if a radio DJ blabs for an hour and nobody hears him because he forgot to hit the "Live" button, is he still annoying? Well, an intrepid DJ in the UK has tried to provide an answer.

This is a pet peeve of mine, and I'll address this to the (probably very small) set of DJs that might read Technocrat:

I don't listen to FM radio to hear you yap. I don't care what you think of the previous song, the next song, the weather, politics, the latest Hollyweird scandal, sports, the latest sports scandal, local events, or anything else. I don't care to hear you braying like a jackass over your not-funny "jokes" - no matter how much you horselaugh, you aren't going to make me think the joke's funny.

To put it bluntly: You suck. Every second you talk sucks. If you talk for more than a couple of seconds I will change the channel. If I wanted to listen to talk radio I'd be down on the AM dial. All I want to hear out of your gob is

• The artist and title of the previous "N" songs (where "N" should be larger than 3)
• The artist and title of the upcoming "N" songs
• Any news of critical importance: severe weather alerts, traffic alerts, and matters of world altering importance (hint: if kids won't be studying the event in history class fifty years from now, it isn't important.)
• Station ID *when required by the FCC* (as in, I don't need to hear that I am listening to "Bob FM" every five seconds - I am a man, not a goldfish.)

The only reason I am listening to radio rather than my MP3 player is that I've listened to my music collection until the edges are worn off the 1's. So have a nice frosty glass of shut up and play the next song.

A number of years ago, the Catholic clergy abuse scandal hit the press and things have never been the same. The Catholic Church (in America, primarily) was hit with lawsuit after lawsuit alleging abuse of minors. In most cases, these lawsuits were justified. The victims were never really believed when they made their initial allegations, or the perpetrators were shuffled from one job to another, never really receiving their just punishment.

However, the Catholic Church was unjustly painted with the "pedophile" label, with many critics heaping criticism upon the principles of celibacy. The argument went that, without another release for underlying sexual tension, priests turned to abuse of children. A small number of voices pointed out that the percentage of priests exhibiting this aberrant behavior was pretty much in line with other professionals, teachers, policemen, etc. That the percentage of priests in relation to the entire priesthood was pretty much the same as the percentage of sexual criminals in relation to the population as a whole. By and large, these voices were not heard or ignored when they were.

Well, it's been interesting recently to read about sexual abuse by teachers making the headlines. It's just as heinous as sexual abuse by members of the priesthood. Accused teachers shuffled from school district to school district, never really receiving the punishment they deserve.

From the article:

Lawmakers say they are concerned about an increasingly well-documented phenomenon: While the vast majority of America's teachers are committed professionals, there also is a persistent problem with sexual misconduct in U.S. schools. When abuse happens, administrators too often fail to let others know about it, and too many legal loopholes let offenders stay in the classroom.

Sounds very familiar to me.

I only hope that the people who levied such criticism upon members of the Catholic priesthood do so in equal measure to those others who we place in a position of trust, our teachers. However, I'm cynical enough to believe that this won't be the case.

In closing, I pray that the media attention paid to these types of scandals shines a spotlight upon this predatory abuse by any member or sector of society, religious or secular. I pray that all perpetrators are brought to justice and that the victims find some measure of relief and closure.

The inspiration for this JE and source of most of these lines is here.

You might be a Fredhead if...

...you blame America last.

...you think "Borders" means solid walls, not a latte-serving bookstore.

..."great hair" is low on your list of presidential requirements.

...you kinda like it when terrorists are made uncomfortable.

...you think non-binding resolutions are for sissies.

...you liked the Conan movies but thought Arnold looked a little wimpy.

...you think Chuck Norris is a pale imitation of FDT.

...you don't wear sunscreen, comfortable in the knowledge that with Fred as your ally, the sun would never dare.

...you know that Fred won't need to push for legislation to make taxes lower... the taxes will crouch in fear on their own when they see Fred coming.

...call you crazy, but you'd prefer a presidential candidate who actually shares your conservative views.

...you think that it is suicidal for Republican candidates to tout awards given to them by the Liberal Media (i.e. Time Magazine; also the AARP!) in their campaign material, especially during the primaries.

...you believe the South Carolina primary is going to look like this after "Bald Bull" Thompson charges over "Little Mac" McCain.

...you think that today's serious foreign policy issues will take more than hillbilly charm and naiveté to handle.

...you prefer movies where American troops are the good guys.

...you think it's great if a murderer finds God, but that doesn't mean he should be let out of prison.

...you think America's sovereignty is kinda important.

...you think anyone who talks about how the rich aren't "paying their fair share" is a whiny little Communist.

...you think someone didn't draw those border lines on a map just for fun.

...you'd like Osama bin Laden's next video to be him pleading, "Someone please help me!" before he's pummeled on screen by the U.S. president.

...you think that the fact the Europeans do something is a good argument for doing something else.

...you love animals... right beside the mashed potatoes.

...you believe that socialized medicine might prove about as effective as public education.

...the phrase "giant corporations" means to you millions of middle-class investors and millions of jobs for the economy.

...the only video you want to see of terrorists is from the camera of a Predator before they disappear in a flash.

...you believe that affairs in the White House should be political in nature, not extramarital.

...you advise that environmentalism should start with reducing government paper wasted on printing non-English documentation.

...you expect the government to secure the border and protect the country rather than give you a free pony.

I am elated to have finally found a Republican candidate that I like. One that I can even rally around! One who has a chance.

First, let's cover the rejects.

Guiliani - never considered him; too liberal

McCain - never considered him; had often mistaken him for a Democrat

Tancredo - sounded good; didn't know much about him, but has exited the campaign anyway

Romney - He's the first one I started to like at all. His Mormonism bothered me, but I thought that if he had integrity, the right values, and decently conservative policies, he was the best choice we were going to get. Turns out he's not very conservative, though. Moreover, then came along...

Huckabee - A "true" Christian. I was a Huckabee fan for a couple of weeks or so. But I started thinking: Bill Clinton was "Christian" too -- i.e. professing Protestant, non-Mormon -- and what did that get us? I then realized that we are making too much of religious labels. To drive home the point, Jimmy Carter was a ""'"'"born again'""'"" Christian. And what a nightmare!
Religion aside, Huckabee has been shown to be pretty liberal on a lot of issues, such as taxation, immigration, and environmentalism. I don't have links, but you can look it up. He's simply not a conservative. The things he says sounds like they come out of the mouths of Bush-hating liberals. You'd think Huckabee would get the endorsement of MoveOn.org. Really, if it weren't for Huckabee's Christian statements, he would get more support from the Left than Ron Paul. Speaking of whom...

Ron "UFO" Paul - He should run on the Libertarian ticket. On the moon. :)
EDIT: Sorry, I was confused here. The "UFO" reference has to do with a news story about candidate Dennis Kucinich. It's pretty bad that I mistook a GOP candidate for a Communist. Bad for him.

But let me return to Huckabee. The man has played fast and loose with the truth. The first incident was his claim that he had a theology degree, which isn't quite true. Of all things to be weaselly about! But I was going to give him a pass on that. Chalk it up to off-the-cuff misstatement/exaggeration, heat of the moment, etc. But there have been other incidents where he's just not been shooting straight. The latest is this incident. Follow this:

1. Goes positive: Huckabee pledges to have positive campaign
2. Goes negative: Under pressure, H. spends $30,000 on negative ad against Romney to counter Romney's ads
3. Goes positive: H. pulls ad from stations at the last moment saying he will stick to a positive campaign; H. holds press conference announcing this action
4. Goes negative: H. shows his negative ad at said press conference, allegedly to prove to the "cynical" media that the ad actually existed

The cynic will not fail to notice that through this maneuvering Huckabee was able to get his attack ad aired throughout the media for free instead of having to pay the networks. All the while, maintaining his stance (and a straight face) of having a consistent policy against negative ads. Folks, this is more Clintonian than Clinton. I don't want to see what this would be like when a President Huckabee is faced with serious issues! I personally don't even mind negative ads, per se. That's not the point. The issue is integrity and trustworthiness. I do not trust Mike Huckabee. Period.

Someone I do trust is Fred Thompson.
First, the downsides: not charming, doesn't have a "face for television", mannerisms are mildly annoying, not an eloquent orator (although a better speaker than Bush). But so what? Thompson is conservative on every issue.

Fred Thompson is conservative:

• fiscally
• socially
• consistently!

None of the other major Republican candidates can say that. No one else.

I made up my mind yesterday. This video I saw today sealed it for me. (I have not seen any of the debates except a little on YouTube, because I generally don't watch TV.)

But then I remembered an important topic that I hadn't seen Thompson address. Fortunately, a little Googling put a big smile on my face. I will be very happy to support Fred Thompson with my vote in the Republican primary.

This feels like a mega-spam entry, and I'm very self conscious about posting it, but I'm excited about this and I wanted to share . . .

I just published my third book, The Happiest Days of Our Lives. I mention it here because it's all about growing up in the 70s, and coming of age in the 80s as part of the D&D/BBS/video game/Star Wars figures generation, and I think a lot of Slashdot readers will relate to the stories in it.

I published a few of the stories on my blog, including Blue Light Special. It's about the greatest challenge a ten year-old could face in 1982: save his allowance, or buy Star Wars figures?

After our corduroy pants and collared shirts and Trapper Keepers and economy packs of pencils and wide-ruled paper were piled up in our cart, our mom took our three year-old sister with her to the make-up department to get shampoo and whatever moms buy in the make-up department, and my brother and I were allowed to go to the toy department.

"Can I spend my allowance?" I said.

"If that's what you want to do," my mom said, another entry in a long string of unsuccessful passive/aggressive attempts to encourage me to save my money for . . . things you save money for, I guess. It was a concept that was entirely alien to me at nine years old.

"Keep an eye on Jeremy," she said.

"Okay," I said. As long as Jeremy stood right at my side and didn't bother me while I shopped, and as long as he didn't want to look at anything of his own, it wouldn't be a problem.

I held my brother's hand as we tried to walk, but ended up running, across the store, past a flashing blue light special, to the toy department. Once there, we wove our way past the bicycles and board games until we got to the best aisle in the world: the one with the Star Wars figures.

I'm really proud of this book, and the initial feedback on it has been overwhelmingly positive. I've been reluctant to mention it here, because of the spam issue, but I honestly do think my stories will appeal to Slashdotters.

After the disaster with O'Reilly on Just A Geek, I've decided to try this one entirely on my own, so I'm responsible for the publicity, the marketing, the shipping, and . . . well, everything. If this one fails, it will be because of me, not because a marketing department insisted on marketing it as something it's not.

Of course, I hope I can claim the same responsibility if (when?) it finds its audience . . . which would be awesome.

(The following is a copy of a posting I made to Technocrat, just in case there are any fans of mine who don't read Technocrat, and who are hams)

Well, we are T-5 days and counting to Route 66 On the Air 2007, 8th Sept. 2007 to 16th Sept. 2007. I will be out in Riverton, Kansas, representing the fine state of Kansas and reminding everybody that, yes, Route 66 does go through Kansas.

I'll be operating as W6M, an official Route 66 On the Air station. Any Technocrat readers who want to make the trip to The Eilser Brothers General Store, please do!

Also, if anybody cares to head over to Wikipedia and state that you feel that this is at least as notable as every minor character in Yu-Gi-Oh, be my guest.

The frequencies this year are:

. 80 meters | 40 meters | 30 meters | 20 meters | 17 meters | 15 meters | 12 meters | 10 meters | 6 meters
CW 3533 kHz | 7033 kHz | 10110 kHz | 14033 kHz | 18080 kHz | 21033 kHz | 24900 kHz | 28033 kHz | 50033 kHz
SSB 3866 kHz } 7266 kHz } N/A | 14266 kHz | 18164 kHz | 21366 kHz | 24966 kHz | 28466 kHz | 50166 kHz

I'll be operating SSB mostly, probably in 20 meters, but it will depend upon the band conditions. Hopefully, this year I should have a G5RV up about 50 feet for the whole event, rather than operating most of the event on the screwdriver on my car like last year. I may have a few other operators show up as well (I sure HOPE so!), but I'll try to operate as much as I can.

Here's the sponsor's web page, as well as The Wichita Amateur Radio Club's page (my club's page).

I am a professional software engineer. I make my living THINKING - long, hard and deeply. Interruptions are very expensive, and I don't suffer them lightly. Magazines, email, and things like this journal entry aren't interrupts: they are tasks I run when I am blocked on my main tasks (e.g. during compiles and downloads to the target.)

Phone calls, on the other hand, are interrupts. And since I don't know who is calling me until I take the call, I cannot leave that particular interrupt masked most of the time.

As a professional, I can get a very large number of professional magazines free of charge - EDN, EE Times, and the like. They get their money by selling ads, and their revenues are based upon their circulation.

And I have no problem with that - I will look at the ads that relate to my current situation, and ignore those that don't. They don't cost me time.

Now, when a magazine wants me to renew, and sends the renewal form on the front of the magazine, and they pay for postage, then I will renew the magazine if I find it valuable. If I don't find it valuable, and they pay for postage, then I will do them the courtesy of sending them the renewal with a "No thanks".

If they think I am going to chase up a stamp to send the response back to them, they are stupid. I am not going to spend 39 cents to tell them I am not interested - they can infer that from my lack of response.

I *also* do NOT give out my fax number, telephone number, or email to magazines - if they wish to communicate with me, they can do so by the US postal service. Again, I don't want to be interrupted.

Long ago, I decided upon a very simple rule with respect to magazine that call me on the phone about renewals: I cancel them. Immediately. I waste no time on the phone - I say "I'm sorry, I don't take magazines that call me on the phone at work. Goodbye. <click>".

That's a pretty clear "NO", isn't it?

Evidently, not for EDN. They have been calling me about once a week for the past month. They called me yesterday. They got the standard response.

I also decided that the next time they called me I was going to be "smart lazy" rather than "dumb lazy": I would spend more time on the line to insure that I wasted no more time in future.

Guess what happened a few tens of minutes ago? If you guessed "they called me again" then you are paying attention, which is more than I can say for the phone monkeys employed by the company that EDN employs for "circulation retention".

So, I made it very plain that:

1. I had no interest in any magazine that called me on the phone.
2. EDN was such a magazine.
3. I was NOT going to renew.
4. I had so informed them on multiple previous calls.
5. I wanted my name removed from their calling list.
6. I wanted my name and number ADDED to their DO NOT CALL list.

Now, I know how these telemarketers (and that is who I am dealing with, telemarketers) operate. Anything less than a clear "FUCK OFF AND DIE NO I DON'T WANT YOUR CRAP STOP CALLING ME" is ignored - these guys are judged on their "retention rates", and paying heed to a NO that doesn't fit their narrowly defined parameters will hurt those rates.

I don't give a shit about their rates. I said NO. Honor it.

Of course, this being a business line, it is NOT eligible for the Do Not Call list.

So, instead, I will pass this on:

DO NOT SUBSCRIBE TO EDN (Electronic Design News).
DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, GIVE ANY "FREE" MAGAZINE ANY CONTACT INFORMATION BEYOND YOUR ADDRESS.
SHOULD THEY GET YOUR EMAIL, FAX NUMBER, OR PHONE NUMBER, TELL THEM IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS TO REMOVE YOUR INFORMATION FROM THEIR DATABASE AND NOT CONTACT YOU AGAIN.

Well, where I work we just bought a new DSP development station, to evaluate a potential chip for our RF signal processing. Any chip that can spit out a 16 million point complex FFT in 43 milliseconds is well worth investigating.

And it was a steal at the price: most such platforms cost several thousand dollars, this one cost less than US$700.

It was really fun, calling our IT department and saying "I need a monitor and network drop for my PS3" and it really being work related.

Now, we just have to get a screen on it and install Linux.

UN Watch:

Dictators Fidel Castro of Cuba and Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus will be celebrating the UN Human Rights Council's likely adoption tomorrow of a new reform package that will see both regimes dropped from a blacklist, while Israel is placed under permanent indictment.

Fair and balanced.

As for the experts on other countries - on Burundi, Cambodia, North Korea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Liberia, Burma, Somalia and Sudan - all of these may soon be eliminated, as threatened by the Council majority comprised of dictatorships and other Third World countries, under a gradual "review" process.

Excellent. Nothing like a peer review process to keep everyone accountable.

Pending their fate, all experts will be subjected to a new "Code of Conduct," submitted by Algeria in the name of the African group...

In related news, China has authored a Reproductive Rights policy for the world body. And the Taliban will be submitting a new "Dress Code."

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