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I upgraded to Firefox 1.0 from PR. Without knowing that there were some serious issues with update.mozilla.org. Also, some of the extensions that I loved the most don't work in 1.0.

Tempted to switch back to PR until they fix stuff. Not having close tab on double click is like losing a limb when it comes to web browsing. Grrr. I'll give them a day or two... if all is not well by then... BACK TO Preview Release!

Days like this I wish I were a better coder really. I'd love to roll up my sleeves and help out, really. But like Fry in Futurama, I have stupid fingers. Some of us are just NOT talented programmers. Sigh. Now I'm frustrated with my browser and my inherent talents and abilities.

Lol. Just posted something to one of the new "politics" discussions and I realized that I was too tired to really proof read it. So I have a feeling I'll wake up in the morning with a couple of freaks and maybe some flames. Oh well, express an opinion about Americans and you'll get trashed. Doesn't actually matter what the opinion is.

But the other day one of my students asked me what I thought of the Americans. I'm Canadian and living in Spain, and whenever something American comes up I'm instantly assumed to be the local expert. Just because I could infiltrate and live among them without ever being discovered - white, neutral accent and a life time of getting tv signals bleeding across the boarder. I didn't feel like getting into a discussion about Americans in an ESL class so I sort of made an off hand joke, "Half of them are crazy, and none of them know which half."

But I guess I do have an opinion about Americans and it's one that surprises Europeans and most Canadians when I actually talk about it. The normal response to opinion questions about Americans, especially since Bush really realized that 9/11 gave him carte blanche to do what he wanted, has been a sort of reflexive anti-Americanism. I sort of don't blame people for it, and have occasionally, unthinkingly been party to it myself, but my real attitudes are much much more complex.

First off, I need to repeatedly remind myself that GWB is NOT America. When he does something that pisses off the rest of the world, it reflects on America, it makes America look bad, but it doesn't actually make America bad. Second, even if he gets re-elected, and hell, even if he wins in an undisputed landslide this time, I still don't believe that that will undo all the good things America has done.

I keep thinking about America in terms of it's own history. People cannot deny that America, historically, until recently was mostly good for the world. For years America was the world leader in R&D and technology. Although France was a modern democratic republic first, the Americans really showed the world how to do it properly. They did the right thing in WWI, and again in WWII and for most of their history have been a force of good on this planet. Even with all the indictments against them in the second half of this century, the Americans are still a veritable generator of new, interesting and just plain good ideas. That doesn't absolve them of the bad stuff... but the bad stuff doesn't cancel out the good either.

What I find fascinating about America is that if you ask an American what the greatest things their country did in its own history (wars excepted), you'll get an interesting list.

The Revolution against King George and the establishment of the Modern Democratic Republic

Freeing the slaves

Giving suffrage to women

End of Segregation

I'm not American, but I'm sure they could name more. The point is, with each one of these things, there were always a huge number of people, initially the majority, that were against it. Doomsayers always said that this would be the end of society. Often much blood was spilled over these changes. Really. Try to think of a single thing of real historical significance that happened in America without there having been a huge internal conflict over it. Maybe it's something fundamental about the character of Americans. Maybe they can't do really great things without huge internal conflict, first. Maybe they can't really move forward without half the population trying to hold them back. But they do chug on forward, and they will for a long time to come.

Anyway, that's my two cents. I love the whole crazy schizophrenic country, and they're so divided right now they've got to be cooking a whopper of a leap forward. Good luck with that and don't blow up too much while you progress.

Note, it's not to say that I forgive them for all the ugliness and evil they've been a party to or responsible for, especially in the last 50 or so years. That's just not the only side of America there is. I think that their own historians will look back on this age with a mixture of condemnation and shame, just as modern ones look at the ugly blotches on our past. My point is that the progress still is generally forward, at least, I think it is.

But I'm really too tired and I'm going to bed now. Tomorrow I'll probably read this post and grimace.

Posting this here as well as submitting it to Ask Slashdot.

Back home I'm the guy that my friends call when they want to buy a new PC - no need to elaborate, most /.ers are that guy. But I'm in Spain for the better part of a year at least, and the PC I'm using just will not do. So what do I need to know about buying a PC overseas? How hard a time will I have sending it home? Any generic overseas or Spain specific surprises I should look out for? How about finding a good store? Back home I could spot a good shop in 10 seconds, here I don't know what to look for, or what to look out for. Advice? I'd talk to the local nerds, but here they'll ALWAYS take you to their close friend first and that's not always good.

Got a SIP Phone a while back and for a while I was loving it. Dirt cheap calls to Canada, Chile and Columbia (although it was sometimes spotty getting through to Columbia) and free calls to my brother with his SIP Phone. So we went on vacation to three weeks, came back and the damn thing doesn't work. Piss off. Here in Spain, Telefonica charges extortion rates for long distance so we're back to going and buying phone cards. Which is still more expensive than the SIP Phone.

I've tried everything to get it working so either the device is broken, or Telefonica has suddenly decided that they're going to block UDP. It's possible, but I somehow doubt it. I doubt there are more than 5 people at Telefonica that know what UDP is. Sigh. Oh well, we're going to take it into a friend's office and try to get it working there. See if a different ISP works.

Have to say Tom (Hudson) you invested more energy than I could have in that thread arguing with OnLawn(the Troll). I lurked for a while and considered trying to post something but you had a knack for making most of my arguements for me. I would have posted this in reply to your latest journal entry, but you didn't have comments enabled. (I think I know why.)

I'm a fellow Canuck, and a liberal (philosophically speaking, not political party) of the same stripe as you. Kudos on the win in the argument.