000831.html
John Krewson and Harlan Ellison at The Onion - The World is Turning into a Cesspool of Imbeciles: Mr. Krewson interviews Mr. Ellison. HmHmHmHmHmHmHm! [heart]
I've developed as curmudgeonly a manner as it is possible to wear, and I wear it like a badge of honor. It keeps a lot of the more egregious fools away from me, and with the ones who try to get through, it provides me with a way of saying, "Piss off and leave me alone." I'm expected to be mean and rude. In fact, I am neither mean nor rude. I was brought up by my mommy and daddy in Painesville, Ohio, to be polite, and those who know me will tell you--they'd better tell you, or I'll hurt 'em--that I only go after someone when they go after me. I'm like a snake sleeping on a rock. I won't bother you unless you poke a stick at me.
Joe Johnston and Damian Conway at www.perl.com - Damian Conway Talks Shop: Mr. Johnston interviews Mr. Conway, the author of Object Oriented Perl. [mumble]
Programming is a Dark Art, and it will always be. The programmer is fighting against the two most destructive forces in the universe: entropy and human stupidity. They're not things you can always overcome with a "methodology" or on a schedule....
Whatever software your trying to build, you need people who are inspired by the idea of that software. Even if they aren't virtuoso hackers: you can always teach a person to code better, or tidy their code after it's written; you can never teach a person to love your project. And without that emotional engagement, you'll never get the superhuman effort that's required to produce quality software.
...
Put 30 kids in a room with an easel, a computer, and a guitar. You'll get one Van Gogh, one Von Neumann, and one Van Halen (or Van Morrison). And 27 burger flippers. :-(
Brendan I. Koerner at Salon - Ain't no network strong enough: a review of Bruce Schneier's new book, Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World. The book apparently concludes that you can't prevent all intrusions into your systems. Software is so buggy that you've gotta live with and prepare for breaches in security. [/.]
The outlook offered by "Secrets and Lies" is so grim that readers might be inclined to join an abacus-using Luddite clan in Micronesia, far from anything as elementary as an ATM or Ms. Pac-Man machine. Schneier sympathizes; he admits that depression forced him to cease working on the manuscript for over a year. "I got two-thirds of the way through the book without giving the reader any hope at all," he writes. "It was about then I realized that I didn't have the hope to give."
Richard M. Smith at Privacy Foundation - Microsoft Word Documents that "Phone Home" - A Microsoft Word document can contain a link to an image on the web. When you open such a document, it fetches the image over the network. These feature can be used as a "web bug", to track the IP address and other information about everyone who opens the document. This idea is already used in HTML email, little 1-pixel images whose only purpose is to "phone home". Lots of pointers to this story yesterday and today. [grabbe]
Chuck Morse at Sierra Times - The Communist Background of the United Nations: contends that the U.N. was started by communists intent on a one-world socialist dictatorship, and nothing has changed over the years. [sierra]
The Communists saw the UN as a Trojan horse for Communist dominated, one world government. Left-wing ideology requires world conquest, by any means necessary, in order to achieve it's utopian goal. They support a UN as a means to this satanic end. In 1915, Lenin proposed a "United States of the World". In 1936, the Communist International proclaimed:"Dictatorship can be established only by a victory of socialism in different countries.after which the proletariat republics would unite on federal lines with those already in existence, and this system of federal unions would expand...at length forming the World Union of Soviet Socialist Republics".
G. A. Reimann at KeepAndBearArms.com - The "New" United Nations: a few details of the "choice ideas considered for inclusion" in the new U.N. charter that will be voted on early in September. Klinton and algore like these ideas. Getting them past the senate will be a problem, thank God. The time has come to pass Ron Paul's American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 1999 (H.R.1146), which terminates U.S. membership in the U.N. and kicks them out of New York City. [kaba]
- Remove the U.S. from its permanent seat on the UN Security Council and abolish its veto power.
- Create an international equivalent of the IRS to regulate and tax international commerce, financial transactions involving currency exchange, e-mail/internet use, etc.
- Establish a UN central bank and create a UN currency.
- Provide health care and a basic income for all people at the global level.
- Place U.S. military personnel under UN command.
- Create a UN standing army with authority to intervene in a nation's (American) affairs during "a crisis."
- Give the International Criminal Court authority to prosecute Americans without Constitutional protection.
- Create an International Environmental Court.
- Eliminate ownership of all firearms by private citizens.
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Without winking, Al Gore clamors for campaign finance reform while under investigation for 1996 fund raising irregularities; he lambasted "big tobacco" while maintaining ties to this industry; he blames "big oil" for high fuel prices after recommending sale of a federal oil reserve to Occidental, which enriched the Gore family. And he seems to be getting away with it. Sr. taught Jr. well. Sometimes home-schooling has a downside. But perhaps the greatest benefit from the Gore-Hammer relationship was the transfer of influence and access from Sr. to Jr. - similar to the transfer from Julius to Armand. Therefore, as Vice President, Al Gore became the expert on U.S.-Russian relations.
A socialist is a fascist that has not achieved sufficient power. Concealed behind Al Gore's Tennessee country boy façade is a hard-edged leftist -- Washington reared, privately schooled, and Ivy League educated. Gore salivates for the chance to secure his place in history by placing the U.S. under the global authority. The Constitution be damned.
FoxNews.com - One Libertarian's Plans: Doing Away With Government As We Know It: not much new here, but good to see it at a mainstream news company. [market]
Bill Sammon at the Washington Times - Woman who questioned Gore now faces IRS inquiry: ask a question, get a tax audit. That's the story of the Klinton-gore administration. [market]
Marko Cunningham at KeepAndBearArms.com - A Declaration of Civil Disobedience: One man's peaceful response to the Brady bunch'es policies. [kaba]
As an individual, I will choose to disobey whenever you enact a law inconsistent with my basic right to self-defense. Try to force us into registering our guns, or giving them up altogether, just so you can garner support for your next election, and you face the responsibility for whatever happens next. Many of us will refuse to obey, and then you will have a choice between trying to enforce this law or silently ignoring those who choose to disobey it. A law that is not obeyed, and cannot be enforced, does more harm to you than it does to those you try to govern. As Albert Einstein said after the repeal of the Prohibition laws, nothing will cause more disrespect of government than the enactment of laws that cannot be enforced. And make no mistake, a general gun registration or outright ban can only be enforced by sending the police from door to door, forcefully entering those homes which refuse to cooperate. How many dead citizens are you willing to tolerate before you repent? How many police officers are you willing to sacrifice? More importantly, how much of this is the general population willing to take? The war on drugs has brought about the demise of most civil rights, a war on guns would bring society to its knees. You've declared drugs illegal, yet they are available on most every street corner in this country. What good will a ban on guns do?
Molly & Sanai at Palm de Cool! - "Palm m100" 8Mbyte Upgrade: Instructions on upgrading Palm's new hand-held from 2 to 8 megabytes. Personally, I don't relish unsoldering and resoldering a surface-mounted RAM chip, but these guys managed it. [/.]
