Verborrhea

According to who you choose to believe, Fidel Casto may already be dead. Fat internet douchebag Perez Hilton claims he died last week while the Cuban government claims he's doing fine. Personally I think he's alive, just old and sickly and probably looking like shit, thus not making any public appearances.

Let's assume he is dead. Ok, now what? There is supposed to be a big party in Miami. Why? What do you think is going to happen once he dies? He already handed control of the government over to his brother. What difference does it make if he's lying in bed sipping tea or lying in a box of dirt? Either way Cuba isn't "free". Starbucks and Walmart aren't going to roll in there and take over.

I don't see how it's much of a moral victory either - an 80 something man died peacefully of natural causes. He probably outlived 2/3rds of the people who had any legitimate reason to celebrate his death. We tried to kill this fucker a dozen times and couldn't. You didn't win, he did.

Nobody is going to get their shit back. Cuba is still communist and even if it weren't, you aren't getting your shit back anyway. People live there now. You might have a 60 year old peice of paper that says you own a spot of land, but the 50 Cubans living on it would beg to differ.

So why are we partying? Because a bad guy died after he lived a very long and extremely successful life? What sense does that make? Like I said, he won. He led a revolution and saw it all the way to the end. Whether you agree with him or hate everything he stands for, you have to admit he was successful. So anybody who wants to party it up when he dies must be a loser, because Castro is the winner here.

Labels: Castro

I was flipping through the pages of Life & Style, which is a weekly celebrity tabloid if you didn't know.

Why?

Because we get it at work and I had to take a shit. So I'm sitting there "reading" when I notice- there sure are a lot of exclamation points in this magazine. So I started to count them. I made it to page 61, about 2/3rds of the way through, then I finished my crap and the idea kind of lost its luster. I skipped over the advertisements because I figure that doesn't count. All told I counted 156 exclamation points. 156 exclamation points! And remember, I didn't make it all the way through. If I didn't run out of poop I bet I could have found 225.

For your viewing pleasure, 156 exclamation points in the shape of an exclamation point:

Labels: poop

I’m usually a big proponent of technology and the change it levies on society. Generally, I stand up for science when people make claims of a slippery slope or going too far. That being said, I shutter to think that given today’s capabilities virtually anyone with a computer and an internet connection can know exactly where I am at any given moment.

Websites like Phone trace are popping up left and right, allowing visitors to enter a phone number and find the exact location of where the last call was made from. It used to be that a technology such as this would be reserved for the police or FBI. Now everybody has access to it. Frightening.

Labels: technology

I'd like to talk to you today about opensource software. I am not an expert on this subject and don't claim to be. Hopefully this entry will serve as a starting point for others wishing to learn more about the opensource movement and possibly be a place where more knowledgeable folks can share what they know.

First off, what I do know about the opensource movement is that there is far too much information on both sides of the argument to get into it here. If you'd like to get into the specifics of the pros and cons, the history and the future, here is the wikipedia entry.

To those of you who are completely clueless on the subject, basically opensource (at least with regards to software) means that the source code is made publicly available. This means that users can alter the software to fit their needs or make general improvements to it - a.k.a, the shit is free.

Many of you already use Mozilla Firefox, an open source web browser that is every bit as good as (if not superior to) Microsoft's Internet Explorer. What you may not know is that many of your favorite programs have open source equivalents that are every bit as proficient as Firefox. For example:
Microsoft Office costs anywhere from $200 - $600 depending on what version you get.
Open Office is free and does everything Microsoft office can. It runs on Mac or Windows and includes
Writer - a word processor equivalent to Microsoft Word
Calc - a spread sheet = Microsoft Excell
Impress - a presentation program = Powerpoint
Base - a database program = Microsoft Access
Math - a program for editing mathematical formulae = Microsoft Equation Editor

When I say it is equivalent I mean it looks and operates just like the Microsoft program it is competing with. For example, OpenOffice Writer can read, modify and save Microsoft word documents. There are some discrepancies with regards to features but if your options are paying 200 bucks for Office or legally obtaining a program that is 95% identical, I recommend the latter.

Other opensource software includes:

Inkscape: a vector tool similar to Illustrator
GIMP: a raster graphics editor very similar to Photoshop.
Blender: a 3D animation program

There are also completely free operating systems available, such as Ubuntu. So your entire computer can be free from the grasp of Apple and Microsoft. I have never used Ubuntu or any other linux OS so I can't endorse or detract from them in any way.

There are many more opensource applications that are beyond my expertise. I welcome any of their users to comment on or explain their uses.

Labels: opensource

Dear readers,
I was out of the country for the last few weeks, but I have returned and have many new bloggings to bring you. Expect a new entry shortly. Thank you for your loyal support.

Labels: vacation