existence trainer

I've been keeping a close watch on the development of Songbird , a fantastically innovative cross-platform audio player in the spirit of itunes (though it looks like it might exceed itunes in the near future). Recently version 1.0 was released, and so I thought I'd briefly review it here, as well as provide some nifty little tips that make the experience all the more enjoyable (especially for Ubuntu users). First thing, songbird is not yet in the Ubuntu repositories (hopefully this will change for the Jaunty release) - so there are two main ways to install it: Download the tarball package, extract it where you want, and symlink to it in your .bashrc (this is they way I did it). Download the Songbird deb package from getdeb: here . Once installed, there are a couple of addons that I add immediately: LyricMaster - Fetch lyrics and save them back to the file MediaFlow - Like itunes album art preview. Normally, though, I have this disabled because mashtape is much more functional...

Appearance - Pours a medium orange/amber (its lighter than I expected). A off-white (eggshell?) head that holds well and leaves a decent lacing. Smell - Very citrisy, with grapefruit notes dominating. Also the smell of hops is very prominant. Taste - Nice and hoppy upfront (the hops definitely dominate), some acidity and sweetness in the middle (definitely more pronounced malt than I was expecting), and ends on a bitter piney note, coaxing me to take the next drink. Mouthfeel - Good, strong carbonation that stimulates my taste buds when I roll it around my mouth. Drinkability - An enjoyable IPA. A little sharper than I want, and not as complex as I may desire, but a solid IPA that I would not be hesitant to recommend (though it doesn't quit live up to its name). 7/B+

Give this a try: mplayer mms://url -dumpstream -dumpfile foo.wmv

If you run linux and have .lit files then its a problem reading them. Fortunately you can use wine to get Microsoft Reader up and running. There is one extra step to get it working, though. First, download msvcirt.dll from here . Unzip it and place it in ~/.wine/drive_c/windows. Now download Microsoft Reader and install it using wine.

If you can't reply to email on hotmail in Ubuntu, the following tip should help. Its Microsoft, again, trying to be incompatible with non-microsoft products (this is type of reason hardcore computer geeks hate microsoft, bastards) - but there is a way to get it working: Type "about:config" (without the quotes) in Firefox address bar. In the "filter" box type: general.useragent.override If nothing shows up under "Preference Name", then right click the main window (i.e., under preference name) and choose "New" and then "String". Enter the following preference name: general.useragent.override For the string value, if your computer is a 32-bit architecture, then use: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86; en; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092510 Firefox/3.0.3 (all one line). If it is a 64-bit architecture, use: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en; rv:1.9.0.3) Gecko/2008092510 Firefox/3.0.3 There, that should make it work.

Athough more extensive directions can be found here , I had a hard time using it without getting a bunch of errors in the process, so I've set up this up as a guide that worked for me. I'm assuming you are using Intrepid Ubuntu on a 32-bit machine. Make sure you have enabled multiverse, universe, and the various source code repos. On the command line: sudo apt-get remove ffmpeg wget http://ffmpeg.mplayerhq.hu/ffmpeg-export-snapshot.tar.bz2 tar jxvf ffmpeg-export-snapshot.tar.bz2 cd ffmpeg-*/ sudo apt-get install liba52-dev libdts-dev libgsm1-dev libvorbis-dev  libxvidcore4 libxvidcore-dev libdc1394-22-dev libfaac-dev  libmp3lame-dev libx264-dev  libfaad-dev libtheora-dev libsdl1.2-dev ./configure --prefix=/usr/local --disable-debug --enable-shared --enable-gpl --enable-postproc --enable-swscale --enable-pthreads --enable-x11grab --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libfaac --enable-libfaad --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis  --enable-libxvid Assumi...

Preamble. Article I. [The Legislative Branch] Section 1. [Legislature] Section 2. [The House of Representatives] Section 3. [The Senate] Sections 4 & 5. [Elections and Procedural Matter] Section 6. [Compensation] Section 7. [Legislative Process] Section 8. [Powers of Congress] Section 9. [Limitations on Congress] Section 10. [State Powers Given Up to Congress] Article II. The Executive Branch Section 1. [The President and the Electoral Proces] Sections 2 & 3. [Powers Granted to the President] Section 4. [Impeachment] Article III. The Judicial Branch Section 1. [Judicial Powers] Section 2. [Trial by Jury] Section 3. [Treason] Article IV. The Federal Relationship Section 1. [States to Respect Each Others' Acts] Section 2. [State Citizens] Section 3. [U.S Territories and New States] Section 4. [Duties of the U.S. Government Toward the States] Article V. [Amending the Constitutio...

Alright, it doesn't work great and crashes quite a bit, but at least its up and working. If you want to get it running I'm assuming you have a licensed version of Mac OS X "Tiger" that you have copied to an .iso file. Here's how to do it: 1. Through Synaptic or apt-get, install: pearpc 2. Next you need to create a virtual partition to install it onto. To create a 3 gig virtual drive, use the following command: dd if=/dev/zero of=3gigharddisk.img bs=516096 seek=6241 count=0 To creating a 6 gig virtual drive: dd if=/dev/zero of=6gigharddisk.img bs=516096 seek=12482 count=0 3. Now navigate to /etc/ppc and open ppc.conf in an editor (in root). Here is a stripped down version of my config file: ## PearPC Configuration File ## Start Resolution ppc_start_resolution = "800x600x15" ## Redraw interval (in ms) redraw_interval_msec = 20 ## Key codes key_toggle_mouse_grab = "F12" key_toggle_full_screen = "Alt+Return" ## Loader prom_bootmethod = ...

Looking to buy a Dell laptop? Here are some recommendations: Nowadays you want to get at least 2 gigabytes of RAM (I know it sound excessive, but if you are going to be using Vista, you will need it). Avoid celeron processors (the company is not doing that great lately) So I would probably avoid the low end Inspiron 1525 (the celeron one), the "Intel Pentium Dual Core" version definitely looks better. The XPS series is definitely the best, but only if you need all of the power it offers (but it comes at a price). Regarding the operating system: I guess you might as well get it with Windows Vista (Dell does offer Linux Ubuntu machines, but they aren't really cheaper). That said, I've totally abandoned Windows for Linux, and don't have any desire or need to go back. Its finally at a place where it is very user friendly and just requires a slight alteration of thinking in certain respects. If you buy one with Vista, you can always try Linux and then go back if yo...

Of course it is Fox News, the the reliability is somewhat in question:

My hat's off to you McCain, its been turbulent, but I still admire you. To the Hannitys, Limbaughs, Savages, and Levins of the world -- fuck you.

The Virtualbox 2.0.4 Intrepid Repo is not listed on the download site, but it DOES exist: deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian intrepid non-free If you want to try OpenOffice 3.0 (which I haven't, though I'm tempted), here is the repo: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/openoffice-pkgs/ubuntu intrepid main If you want to try Amarok 2.0 beta 3 (I love the direction it is going!), then you can add the following repo: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/project-neon/ubuntu intrepid main To use the latest version of Wine , add the following: deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt intrepid main #WineHQ - Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex" Finally, if you want to try the beta of Songbird (0.7) , you can find a link to it here .

Strong reason to be hopeful that the polling trends tell us something useful about who's going to win:

Here are the beers I've reviewed: Pomme Lambic (Lindermans) Rogue Shakespeare Stout Coors Light Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Arrogant Bastard Ale Rare Vos (Brewery Ommegang) Busch Light Other commentary on beer: American Beers and Breweries

I've been obsessed with politics lately. But I've never been interested just in the two major parties. I also love to look into 3rd, 4th, and sundry minor parties (like the Boston Tea party!). In this series, I will blog the following party platforms (if I can get around to it): Major parties Democratic Republican Major Third parties Constitution Green Libertarian Smaller parties America First American Independent Boston Tea Centrist Communist Independence Labor Modern Whig Marijuana Objectivist Populist Prohibition Reform Socialism and Liberation Socialist Socialist Equality Socialist Workers Veterans Workers World Come back to this page for links to each of them!

Bad politics. Worse theology. This is scary stuff. John Hagee is the guy who John McCain warmed up to for a while until some media scrutiny came to this relationship. NOTE: I'm someone who loves to read the Bible and debate theology, but watching this drives me fucking crazy. Here is the link: Vote the Bible, pt1

You know how when one person makes a political statement, someone else in the neighborhood feels like they have to make the opposing one? Well, over the past couple of weeks I've been amused at the exchange occurring in two adjacent neighborhood windows. Last night one of the neighbors (the one on the right) took it to a whole new level. How much stupidity does it require to think this is helping your cause?

Wow. You can tell he really wrestled with the issue and listened the force of his convictions. He's right: embedded in the American way is a tendency towards equality and social justice. Slavery could not withstand this tendency, and neither will other institutionalized forms of discrimination. Certain freedoms were at stake and he could not bring himself to stand up against them. Bravo, mayor.

It turns a little odd in the middle.

O'Reilly's Map Pollster's Map

Well done, Olbermann.

"And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need" - Acts 2:44-45 "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" - Karl Marx

Conservatism has become more and more divisive, ideological, and narrow over the last decade. At least it has in its popular expositions exhibited in present political discourse. Conservatives, if they want to save their movement, need to take it back out of the hold of the self-proclaimed conservative exponents and pundits like Limbaugh, Hannity, and - in fact - the entire right-wing radio talk-show circus that only appeal to non-intellectual gut reactions of listeners who are either easly swayed by incendiary remarks or want to affirm some loose and vague notions like small government and/or social values. Both todays conservatives and liberals are part of grand western democratic liberal tradition that they have forgotten about and that they need to re-appropriate in their thinking. Conservatives in particular need to be careful not to claim that only they have the monopoly the views of America's founding fathers (which are a significant part of this tradition) and they need to ...

Brilliant!

He's put the case as straightforwardly and eloquently as I've heard from anyone:

I'm sad McCain's campaign soured me on him a little bit. This is the charming, good natured man that I really admire.

He writes : A year ago, when everyone, including the man I’m about to endorse, was caterwauling to get out of Iraq on the next available flight, John McCain, practically alone, said no, no—bad move. Surge. It seemed a suicidal position to take, an act of political bravery of the kind you don’t see a whole lot of anymore. But that was—sigh—then. John McCain has changed. He said, famously, apropos the Republican debacle post-1994, “We came to Washington to change it, and Washington changed us.” This campaign has changed John McCain. It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget “by the end of my first term.” Who, really, believes that? Then there was the self-dramatizing and feckless suspension of his campaign over the financial crisis. His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless. And finally, not to belabor it, there...

It has gotten a lot easier to discover the artist of a song you hear on the radio or in a movie nowadays. Most of the times its sufficient to take down some of the lyrics and do a google search on them. But sometimes it is not so simple - think about electronica or other music without lyrics. I have a couple of clips on my computer which include samples of music that I would love to know the artist of. How, then can I find out? Here is one way that I've found (if there are better ways, please let me know by leaving a comment). First, you need to extract the audio from the video file. For avi, mpg, or flv files you can do either: ffmpeg -i my_video_file.avi extracted_audio.mp3 or mplayer -dumpaudio my_video_file.avi -dumpfile extracted_audio.mp3 You may need to extract the part that you want using Audacity. Now the question is: How do we go about identifying the extracted audio? The method I used was to install MusicBrainz Picard . which can use audio fingerprinting to identify the ...

This link seems to work in VLC, but I'm having problems getting it to work in mplayer and Amarok. http://citadelcc-wls-am.wm.llnwd.net/citadelcc_WLS_AM EDIT: The following works in Amarok: mms://68.142.72.86:80/citadelcc_WLS_AM?MSWMExt=.asf

Its painful to watch, yet I can't look away How to Rap, according to Mr. T

Hannity gets his ass handed to him. That is what happens when you base your entire shtick on a tactic which is a classical instance of poor reasoning. Bravo Gibbs! And Colmes, whose admirable instinct was to defend his co-host from the charge of antisemitism should have also driven home the point that it shows the inanity of this entire line of reasoning.

Neil Boortz does offer an interesting perspective on last night's debate. Check out the "Just So Frustrating" and "The Rich Should Pay Their Fair Share!" parts of today's post .

Factchecking, otherwise known as due-diligence, is very important in evaluating the credibility of the candidates. Are one or both of the candidates willing to state straight-out falsehoods in order to win some cheap votes? For example, McCain has consistently misrepresented Obama as someone who wants to raise taxes across the board, esp. on the middle class. The fantasitic site FactCheck.org has this to say about such a claim: It's a pretty standard Republican theme: "Democrat X favors higher taxes and wasteful spending." But the McCain-Palin campaign has repeatedly pushed this line far beyond what the facts will support. Among the whoppers: that Sen. Barack Obama has voted to raise taxes on families earning as little as $32,000 per year, that Obama wants to tax your electricity and your heating oil, that he has voted for "higher" taxes 94 times, and that he will raise taxes for 23 million small-business owners. Each of these claims is false. ... As for Obama...

Two sites you should check out for extensive coverage on the truths, half-truths, and outright lies that are circulating about the presidential candidates are Politifact and FactCheck . A list of the most egregious lies can be found here . These include:

It is 13 years to this day that he was acquitted of murder. No doubt he is sure to appeal.

Spoiler: False .

Appearance - Light yellow. Looks like ginger-ale with extra carbonation and fizz. Smell - Corn, more corn, and sweet metal. Taste - Corn and water, with the added flavor of the can (mmm... can). Nothing too offensive, but very boring and bland. Quintessential shit beer (they should win a prize for this). Mouthfeel - Beer flavored seltzer water. Drinkability - Why? I mean seriously. At least upgrade to Natural Light. Could be good for cooking (I think that's what I'm going to do with the rest). F/1

Appearance - Pours a light hazy amber with a large frothy white head that holds fairly well and leaves only a slight lacing. Lots of carbonation. Smell - A somewhat sweet aroma, with apple notes and a little cirtrus hops. . Taste - A little sweet/malty, a little spicy, and ends on a sour note, though not as flavorful as the smell might portend. The most prominent flavor is that of sour apple. Mouthfeel - Medium-bodied. Smooth, crisp, and even somewhat creamy. A little excessive on the carbonation. Drinkability - Although somewhat muted on flavor, it's an easy and drinkable beer. I probably wouldn't drink more than two in a row, though, because the sourness gets to me B+/7

A fascinating trek through history (also don't forget to look at the election facts at the bottom).

It is only been in the past year and a half that I have come to realize that America does have some great breweries and produces some fantastic beers. Before this, I bought into the meme that almost all American beer is shit. And the fact is that like 50% of American beer sales (by vol) is from the Anheuser-Busch company alone (though is it still an American company ?) - which absolutely does produce LOTS of shit: Budweiser and its derivatives (drinkable, but not really anything good about it), Michelob, Rolling Rock, Natural Light (bad beer flavored water), and Busch varieties (we're getting into the real shit). Unfortunately, this is what a lot of Americans like. Maybe they've bought into the advertising campaign, maybe they just haven't experienced great beer, maybe they only drink beer to get drunk, or maybe they've dulled their taste-buds to the waterry sorta-beer-flavored macro varieties. You know that someone hasn't really learned to appreciate good beer when...

Cardinology is due out Oct 29. If you want a sneak peak of what it will sound like, then there is a compilation of live versions of the songs here . Check it out! First impressions: I agree with one of the commentators that it might be too jam bandy (as it was in a concert I saw him in about a year ago) and a bit more mellow than I might prefer. But even so I'm definitely looking forward to it. Technorati Tags: music , ryan.adams

Even though he does parody other radio talk show hosts in certain respects (e.g., silly criticisms of Obama), he does have an independent streak in the way he looks at things. (Also, he is not boring, repetitive, or a propagantist hack for the right a la Hannity). I may not agree with what he says in today's Nealz Nuze , but at least it is a voice of fresh air in the conservative dominated radio talk shows: JUST KEEP THE HATE MAIL COMING! (BY THE WAY, I'M NOT A REPUBLICAN) Subject: Immaturity of American Voter Name: Corbett It's always some excuse with you Republicans. You present us with John McCain as your candidate & then call the American voters immature because they want nothing to do with the author of McCain-Feingold, the man who voted against tax cuts & the man who sabotaged the nomination of conservative judges. When will you people grow up? Grown up people take responsibility for their mistakes. They don't blame others and they don't call people n...

Producing a shinny new updated Windows XP disk is easy if you have (or at least know about) the right tools. Assuming you have a XP service pack 2 installation cd (or iso), you can do any of the following if you like: slipstream sp3 into it incorporate hotfikes incorporate, say, SATA drivers - if you want to be able to install in on many (if not most) new computers. incorporate programs like: Firefox, VLC, WP11, IE7, etc. If you want to integrate Windows Media Player 11, do this before following the instructions below. If you want to integrate drivers from DriverPacks , again, do this before using nLite. First, make sure you have Net Framework 2.0 installed, and then get a copy of nLite and install it. Then copy the entire content of your WinXP CD in some local folder (e.g., C:\XP). Note: nLite will do copy it for you if you point it to the CD. If you want to slipstream sp3 into the disk, download it from here . Get all the programs you want to include in your new XP disc. You can ...

When Hardy first came out, I was somewhat disappointed. I was experiencing a large number of bugs and unusual system instability. I even listed some of my main complaints here and here . I've continued to use Hardy, but I've had my eye on the next version of Ubuntu, code-named "Intrepid Ibex", which comes out at the end of the month (October). Rather than wait until it is entirely ready, two nights ago I decided to go ahead and update my entire system to Intrepid and file bug reports when needed. (Although it is not recommended on production machines, the process of updating to the next version is really easy. It can be done running the following command: sudo update-manager -d ) So far, I've been pleased with my experience. There is nothing revolutionary about Intrepid, but it does feel a lot more stable than Hardy (ironically, even in its present alpha stage). In all honesty, it is the experience I was hoping for with Hardy. Better late than never, I guess. ...

Appearance - A deep dark cloudy amber with soft cascading bubbles that form a large frothy white head that dissipates slowly, leaving a beautiful lacing around the glass. Smell - A sweet piney scent (with the sweet predominating) and a touch of citrus. Taste - Coats with mouth with a great balance of malt and hops wrapped up with an underlying caramel base. Mouthfeel - Thick, smooth, and creamy, with a gentle carbonation. Fantastic. Drinkability - I want to drink more, but I'm hesitant to do so when I need to wake up early. My mouth wants more for sure. Maybe one more wouldn't hurt... A/9

Politics, Religion, Science These also happen to be the three most prominent items in the present culture wars. Historically, I wonder which of these three has lead to more deaths generally.

Yay for the next season of The Office!

Bravo fellas, bravo!

I've been watching a lot of hulu.com video's lately. Ok, so they are embedded by with ads. Not a problem. They do everything else right: high quality streaming video feed, they allow embedding, there is lots of good content, it works on multiple platforms (unlike siverlight), and the ads are not that intrusive. And they are pretty damn secure too - I've been trying to figure out if there is any way to download them, and I've yet to figure it out. Good job so far!

If you haven't seen The Office (the american version), then it is definitely worth checking out. Season 5 started today - I'll embed the video once I find it. For now, here is the last episode of season 4.

Appearance - Pours a light, clear amber with a medium white head that retains well and leave a nice lacing around my glass Smell - A citrus smell, with underlying floral and pine notes. Taste - Citrus (mainly grapefruit) and hops upfront. The bitterness from the hops is prominent. The taste lingers in the mouth. Mouthfeel - A nicely carbonated, balanced feel. Crisp, clean,  bitter, giving way to soft creaminess. Drinkability - Very tasty. One of my favorite pale ales (a staple of mine). Strongly recommended! A-/8

This makes me somewhat sad. Its obvious that Letterman has great respect for John McCain, so its a shame that McCain ditched Letterman for a different interview. In response Letterman gives him a proper lashing. And Letterman's makes a great point as well: McCain should not suspend his campaign - he should have let Palin take the reigns of the campaign in his stead. (I mean, if she can't do that, how can we expect her to be ready to lead the country. The answer is obvious - she can't.) Sad. I still respect McCain, but I'm having a hard time trusting his judgment as of late. David Letterman Reacts to John McCain Suspending Campaign

First, by year (my top 5 for each year): 2000 Kid A - Radiohead Transcendental Blues - Steve Earle Heartbreaker - Ryan Adams American III: Solitary Man - Johnny Cash Since I Left You - Avalanches 2001 Gold - Ryan Adams Time (The Revelator) - Gillian Welch The Swimming Hour - Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire At Dawn - My Morning Jacket Burnside on Burnside - R.L. Burnside 2002 Demolition - Ryan Adams The Creek Drank the Cradle - Iron and Wine Jerusalem - Steve Earle Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco Control - Pedro the Lion 2003 Hail to the Thief - Radiohead Master and Everyone - Bonnie Prince Billy Blackberry Belle - The Twilight Singers Terroir Blues - Jay Farrar Give Up - The Postal Service 2004 Real Gone - Tom Waits Set Yourself on Fire - Stars Good News for People Who Love Bad News - Modest Mouse More Adventurous - Rilo Kiley Seven Swans - Sufjan Stevens 2005 Illinois - Sufjan Stevens Jacksonville City Nights - Ryan Adams and the Cardinals Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Ye...

I just found this show. I'd never heard of it before, but it is both funny and insightful (and somewhat prophetic). Here are some clips:

Get it here .

Classic, original Mac vs Windows TV Ad

A word of warning, this ad is very annoying (he's trying to hype something that really sucked). It reminds me of the movie UHF. Ripe for parody and laughs. Windows 1.0 ad

Some beers don't really deserve a review. Coors Light is one of them. But because I'm really poor until I get my next paycheck and I'm procrastinating right now, here's a review nonetheless. Yes, I'm even going to go through the standard rundown: Appearance - Pours a crisp, golden color, with big bubbles that form a quick white head that disappears immediately. Looks more like a 7-up than a beer. Smell - A little sweet, a little malt, a little chemical. The smell of cheep beer - reminds me of college. Taste - Carbonation, water, and a touch of flavor. Mainly water. Maybe a hint of corn or grain. Drink it while it is cold, because when it warms it does aquire more of a taste, but not in a good way. Mouthfeel - Not even sure how to address this one. Light. Watery. Gets flat fast. Drinkability - As long as it is cold and you swallow it down quickly, its drinkable. Best after mowing the lawn (even recommended!), but other than that not much going for it. In light doses ...

A great tutorial can be found here . From the article: In case you are wondering, Dropbox is an online storage site that allows you to back up and sync your files right from your desktop. It comes with a desktop application that you can install in your OS and backing up files is just a simple drag and drop to the Dropbox folder in your hard drive. Any files added/removed from the folder will be automatically sync with the online server as long as you are connected to the Internet.

Apparently Michael Reiss , the first ever director of education at the prestigious Royal Society, has caused an uproar with his comments about creationism and science classes. And what did he say? The complaints of his critics make it sound like he wants creationism taught in science class. Just listen: Richard Roberts : "I think it is outrageous that this man is suggesting that creationism should be discussed in a science classroom. It is an incredible idea and I am drafting a letter to other Nobel laureates - which would be sent to the Royal Society - to ask that Reiss be made to stand down." Rowan Hooper : "to the dismay of many scientists in the UK, the director of education for the Royal Society, Michael Reiss, has called for creationism to be taught in biology classes in the UK." The only problem - these claims are false. False and easily disproven. These critics seem to have binary lenses on: viewing anyone who talks about this issue as either for creationi...

Spot on. Brilliant! Hillary Clinton Sarah Palin Press Conference A more stable link is found here, but it starts with an ad:

Lately a bunch of sites have been moving from Flash to either Silverlight or Adobe AIR for their video feeds. Unfortunately, neither are officially supported yet on the Linux platform in general, or on Ubuntu in particular (that said, there is a lot of hard work being done to change this: check out mono and Adobe AIR for Linux ). Its easy to feel left behind. For example, I wanted to watch the live feed from foxnews.com on the huricane Ike. Unfortunately, it requires Adobe AIR. What could I do? I'm not one to feel sorry for myself, so I figured I'd do some hacking and tinkering around and see if I could get it to work anyway. And I did! Here is what you need to do: First, download the alpha of Adobe AIR for Linux here . Using the command line navigate to the download, and type: chmod 755 adobeair_linux_*.bin Type: ./adobeair_linux_*.bin [this will execute gksu automatically] Follow the directions. Once it is installed: close and restart Firefox [I'm not sure this step is...

She didn't do a horrible job, but definitely didn't hit the ball out of the park. The partisan right is on the defensive on this one, blaming Charlie Gibson and the "leftist" media for the weak performance. The partisan left, on the other hand, is going to view this interview as clear indication that she doesn't know what she's talking about (as if a good performance would have changed their minds). One of the main problems, though, was the fact that the McCain campaign shielded her from the media for two weeks, which indicates that she's not ready for the office on day one. So its no surprise that Gibson made this the focus of his interview. Her fairly canned responses didn't indicate to me that she has thought in an independent fashion about many of these questions. Where all the questions fair? Not really. The one about the "Bush Doctrine" seemed to me to be problematic, for example. There are two ways to look at it: It could be seen as a ...

This one is one of my favorite stouts. Appearance - Dark and smooth. The medium head is infused with brown, and laces the glass nicely. Smell - Hints of chocolate and a little bit of coffee. A touch of roasted malts. Taste - Starts with a malty taste, espresso middle, and then ends on a sweet chocolaty note. Once its down, it leaves a hoppy bitterness, making my mouth want the next sip. Complex, delicious. Mouthfeel - VERY well balanced, somewhat creamy. My mouth sooo approves. Drinkability - I want to drink this slowly, enjoying each mouthful. Not too heavy. A+/10

This ad is a new low for the McCain campaign - it is pure slime. Unforgivably so. This is Rovean politics at its worst. Remember your out-of-wedlock black baby, McCain? Yeah, this shit is in the same league. It's been thoroughly debunked here . I hope Carville is right (the second video) and that McCain didn't really know about it. I still believe that McCain is an honorable, decent person. I hope he repudiates it and fires those who put his name on this despicable ad. Education Carville: McCain Too Honorable to Have Approved Sleazy Ad

"I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phony outrage and swift boat politics. Enough is enough!" - Obama Couldn't agree more, the phony outrage pisses me off.

One of my favorite recent Daily Show clips:

Part 1 can be found here . Barack Obama v. Bill O'Reilly - Part 2 of 5 - Sept 8 2008

Mark Shuttleworth just sent out an message giving the broad sketches of his vision for the iteration of Ubuntu after Intrepid Ibex, code named "Jaunty Jackalope". One thing I love about the way that Ubuntu code names work is that they are meant to reveal something about the focus of that development cycle, and ultimately the distribution itself. In the message Shuttleworth reveals three primary goals for Jaunty, which he decribes as follows: "The Jackalope is known for being so fast that it's extremely hard to catch, and breeds only when lightning flashes. Let's see if we can make booting or resuming Ubuntu blindingly quick." "Another goal is the the blurring of web services and desktop applications. "Is it a deer? Is it a bunny? Or is it a weblication - a desktop application that seamlessly integrates the web!"" "Those bizarre-but-fearsome antlers might well remind one of the intricate pattern of collaboration between developers in...

Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex Alpha5 Virtualbox 2.0 OpenOffice.org 3.0 RC1 Mozilla Firefox 3.1 Alpha 2 Not a bad week!

If you use Firefox, but occasionally need to pretend your browser is IE, Safari, or even the Iphone browser, you can using User Agent Switcher and the user-agents provided here by Brent Strange (thanks!). The import file includes the following spoofs: Internet Explorer MSIE 8 (Win Vista) MSIE 8 (Win XP) MSIE 7 (Win Vista) MSIE 7 (Win XP) MSIE 7 (Win Storage Server) MSIE 6 (Win XP) MSIE 5.5 (Win 2000) MSIE 5.5 (Win ME) MSIE 5.0 (Win 95) MSIE 4.01 (Win 95) MSIE 4.0 (Win NT) FireFox FireFox 2.0.12 (Win Vista) FireFox 2.0 (Win XP) FireFox 1.5.0.6 (Fedora Core 5/Linux) FireFox 1.5.0.4 (Debian Linux) FireFox 1.5.0.3 (Mac OSX) FireFox 1.5.0.1 (Win Vista) FireFox 1.5 (Win XP) FireFox 1.4 (Win XP) FireFox 1.0.7 (Win XP) FireFox 1.0.6 (Win XP) FireFox 1.0.5 (SlackWare/Linux) FireFox 1.0.4 (FreeBSD) FireFox 1.0 (Win XP) FireFox 0.9.3 (Win XP) Opera Opera 9.1 (Win XP) Opera 8.0 (Win 2000) Opera 7.6 (Server 2003) Opera 7.51 (Win XP) Opera 7.5 (Win XP) Opera 7.5 (Win ME) Opera 4 Opera 3 Opera 2 Op...

Overall, I was extremely annoyed by the crowd, but the speech was not that bad. The fact that Obama and McCain are the two presidential candidates attests to the fact that the conservative movement is languishing. 10:57 - His war story. Its worth hearing. 10:55 - He is trying to be post-partisian. It is falling flat on the crowd, but his record here is solid. This is a slap on the face of partisan hacks. This is why I've always liked McCain. 10:53 - A lot of what he says is an implicit criticism of the Bush administration. Good. 10:50 - Foreign policy segment. Nothing concrete, but his emphasis on working with other countries is a breath of fresh air. And his blunt claim that war is evil is very much needed. Reminds me of Obama's claim in Saddleback that sometimes much evil is done in the name of good. 10:47 - Constantly misrepresenting Obama's views, esp. on energy. Besides the Republican base's short-sighted emphasis on "drill here, drill now" I don't th...

Appearance - This beer is a translucent mix of orange, yellow, and brown. Reminds me of frothy unfiltered apple juice. Lots of sediment. Smell - Heavy sour apple smell. Pungent, and very sweet. Taste - Sweet (too much for my taste), ending on a sour, tart note. Takes a couple of sips for my mouth to adjust to it. Mouthfeel - The carbonation stimulates my tongue, making it a pleasure to roll it around my mouth. If it weren't so sweet, I'd let it linger longer. Smooth going down, but sticky on the lips. Drinkability - Overall I like it, but I'm sure I can find one better suited to me. The sweet overwhelms the subtlety this beer might otherwise have. B-/6 (out of 10) Btw, here's how my point scale relates to my letter scale: 10: A+ 9: A 8: A- 7: B+ 6: B-/B 5: C/C+ 4: C- 3: D/D+ 2: D-/F 1: F

Recently, one of my favorite firefox addons stopped working: CustomizeGoogle . This extension provided search suggestions when typing a query into google. Unfortunately, for some reason it stopped. After following the directions on the addon website and some additional fiddling, I was able to get it working again. Here's how: Set http://www.google.com as your homepage, not the one with the Firefox logo on it Disable Google Suggest in CustomizeGoogle. Click on preferences on www.google.com and make sure "Provide query suggestions in the search box" is selected. Click Save Preferences. Clear your cache (without doing this it still didn't work for me). EDIT: Doesn't seem to work with Google UK. More info can be found here .

Diddy Blog #12 "Gas Prices are Too High"

I use VLC to see these: NBC Streaming feed CBS News streaming feed If anyone knows of more useful feeds, let me know and I'll compile a list.

I use a Dvorak keyboard mapping exclusively. Sometimes, though, certain computers make it difficult to change the keyboard mapping from its default QWERTY configuration. Assuming your browser has Javascript enabled, you can use this online application to translate the keyboard map for you.

I'm not voting for him, I really do like McCain. Although I don't know much about Palin (besides a cursory overview), I like the spirit behind the choice. She's fiscally conservative, but apparently doesn't always toe the line of the GOP base. She can give us a better perspective about our energy resources in Alaska, and she is a new face that challenges the Democratic Party's characterization of McCain as the same-old,same-old. Regardless of who wins, this is going to be a historic election. One other thing: if you haven't seen this ad by McCain, its worth seeing: Pure class: "Convention Night" (McCain congratulates Obama on Obama's historic receiving of the Democratic nomination)

If you've trying this on any of the alpha releases of Intrepid, you've probably gotten a kernel panic while its trying to boot up. If you've had this trouble, then apparently there is good news on the horizon. According to the main bug reporting page , a fix has been recently committed. I'll test it out in the next couple of days and post any instructions or tips on getting it to work. Check back!

I understand why they are trying to tightly link McCain to Bush - Bush is unpopular now and the closer you can tie the two the more likely voters will feel uncomfortable with McCain. The only problem is - of all Republican senators - McCain has been one of the most visible and staunch critics of Bush during his presidency. While most other Republicans either fell in line or else criticized Bush for not being conservative enough, McCain was constantly in the news for opposing Bush policies. Boortz (who's very amusing, though I very rarely agree with his opinions) has a good list of issues where Bush and McCain did not agree: McCain fought for campaign finance reform — McCain-Feingold — that Bush resisted and ultimately signed because he had no choice. McCain led the battle to restrict interrogation techniques of terror suspects and to ban torture. McCain went with Joe Lieberman on a tough measure to curb climate change, something Bush denies is going on. McCain opposed the Bush tax...