Paul Tibbets, the man who flew the B-29 bomber Enola Gay, which dropped the first atomic bomb, has died at the age of 92. The following is probably the best insight into his life:

Now happily ensconced in a new job, I still get a raft of emails from recruiters. No matter how you try to shut down a job search, their are always recruiters who have somehow not gotten the hint or have dredged up a copy of your résumé from 5 years ago and think you're still looking for a job. What cheeses e off most? Glad you didn't ask, but I'm going to tell you anyway:

1. Farmers - recruiters so lazy that they simply do a bulk search, grab your info without reading it, and send you a job that you are clearly not qualified for
2. Tech-ignorant - nowhere on my res does it say that I work with Java, but I get requests to look at Java jobs all the time. The only place Java appears on my résumé is in the word "JavaScript"
3. Job-ignorant - I suspect a lot of recruiters simply use on-line tools to match jobs to résumés, because it's clear they don't read their own job copy. If I live in NJ, and a job is in Michigan, and they are looking for only local applicants, do I qualify?
4. Used-car salesman - yes, the canned patter recruiting email... how I love them so.
5. Do my job for me - of course, since you've done such a lousy job is sending me a job description that clearly doesn't fit me, I'd be more than happy to pass on the job description to my good friends in the tech business. I realize referrals are a great way to drum up business (I made the mistake of trying to sell life insurance), but I really don't think much of passing around jobs unless there's someone I know who is out of work and could use the help, which happens very rarely.

Or perhaps just clueless... Getting Out of Hand

Here's an interesting little piece of hackery (if that's not a word, I claim authorship).

So, it was not your typical weekend:

1. Went to Boston to see my first ever Red Sox playoff game (got the tickets from a Yankee fan who mysteriously did not want to use them). So of course I get a pretty good game which goes extra innings and sees the BoSox get hammered in the 11th. On the up side, my boys got Steven King's autograph on their tickets, and they met John Kerry (for whatever that's worth these days)
2. Saw the aftermath of two pretty bad accidents - one going up to MA, and one coming back. Second one closed I-84 in Connecticut for a while; I suspect they had to bring in a helicopter. One burned out pickup, one car with the roof torn off (no doubt by the jaws of life), and then one wrecked SUV.
3. Went to Salem to see the Witch museum and of course, Halloween season was in full swing there. Strangely, I saw quite a few people missing front teeth -- must be where they congregate.

And to top it off, on my way to work this morning I saw a white Dept. of Homeland Security van crusing down the highway and watched a hawk swoop down and kill something by the side of the road. Autumn has definitely arrived.

OK, I'm going off on a rant here (apologies to Dennis Miller)... I hear something on the radio this morning about Blender magazine's list of the 40 worst lyricists in rock. Number 1 is Sting, and I'm on the fence about that, but then they get to Number 2: Neil Peart, drummer/songwriter for Rush. OK, now you've pissed me off.

I take enough flack for liking Rush (my wife doesn't get it, but then I don't get her love of Bruce Springsteen, though she grew up near his house... but I digress...) from those who don't consider them a real band, determine them to be formulaic, and generally have contempt for their music. Like being a Red Sox fan, you learn to live with it. But this just shows how far some people have their head up their ass. While no one will confuse Neil with Shakespeare, the songs he's written over the year have heft and resonance, and he does come up with the occasional turn of phrase that leaves you scratching your head, but then have you listened to some of today's pop tunes or rap songs? It just goes to show that intellectual snobbery is alive and well in the universe, especially when it comes to criticism.

I also found number 10 interesting: Jim Morrison. Now, you can go two ways here: his lyrics can be out there, but the fact is, backed up by the music, he created a lot of powerful stuff. Again, too intellectual for "the critics."

George Takei is now an astronomical object. Well, his name is anyway. The International Astronomical Union's Committee on Small Body Nomenclature approved the re-naming of asteroid 1994 GT9 to 7307 Takei in honor of the Star Trek actor.

...of the impending apocalypse. That and the general ignorance of people.

Video- "The View" co-host doesn't know if the world is round or flat

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'

- Ronald Reagan

It is bad enough that the Chinese government tries to control people in this life, now they are trying to do the same in the next life. According to a Newsweek article, the Chinese government is attempting to legislate reincarnation. Specifically, they have passed a law to regulate how Buddhists reincarnate themselves. This is seen as an indirect stab at the Dalai Lama, since theoretically he is reincarnated in Tibet, and the law would "prevent" Buddhists living outside Tibet from reincarnating in Tibet. This could lead to a scenario where Buddhists are faced with two Dalai Lamas: one the true reincarnation and the other a Chinese-picked version. No matter how you cut it, this has to be one of the more idiotic ideas ever posited.

From the "I told you so!" department, comes an article in the LA Times that should come as no surprise. Now that Hugo Chavez is firmly ensconced as leader of Venezuela, he is seeking to remove the term limit provision from the Venezuelan constitution. He proposed adding one year to the term of the President, making it 7 years, then eliminating the 2-term limit. Thus, he would be President of Venezuela until 2013, and then be able to run perpetually. To quote the article:

Not unlike Hitler and his friend Fidel Castro, he's seeking to do this through legal means, to give it the veneer of legality while behind the scenes he is setting up his dictatorship-for-life. Following the pattern of the centuries, he's throwing state money at social programs, causing the people to believe that he is their champion. Give it ten years, and he will be firmly entrenched, busy stamping out all opposition while continuing to profess his love of the Venezuelan people even as he gives them no choice in how their country is run.

History repeats itself.

Well, I guess this was inevitable, though I would have thought something like this would have happened in California. Apparently, a couple in China is try to name their child '@'. At first glance this seems ridiculous, but the explanation behind it is interesting:

Can you imagine this kid trying to fill out an online form? I'm thinking Prince would approve.

Ever since I lost my job last month, I find myself Slashdotting a lot less, even though I'm on the computer almost every hour looking for work. I'm beginning to think that Slashdot is a lot less attractive when you have all the time in the world to read it and respond, perhaps because there's no external pressure to type fast and make it look like you're doing actual work.

Take the case of this GEICO customer from Cybertron

I'm hoping to shift gears in my IT career, and it would seem Linux is a good direction to go. I'm currently going to try and turn an old PC I have into an Ubuntu server so I can get some hands-on experience, but I'd really like to find a good program to become a Linux sysadmin, especially if it were something I could do on-line. Anyone have any ideas?