I claim no responsibility for the contents of this blog

I just happened to come across it, and somehow knew the username and password so that I could migrate it to my Google account. I, of course, am in no way affiliated with this nut. (Thank goodness.) Just so you know.

Experiences with Airport Express

So last weekend I got an Airport Express, solely to stream music to a stereo.

My iMac doesn't have a wireless card, but I do have a DSL modem with wireless capabilitity.

The setup assistant is really dumb. It does absolutely nothing if you don't have a wireless card. Plus, when I installed it, it deleted my copy of iTunes!

I finally realized that to connect the two I couldn't connect the computer through the router to my modem, I had to connect it directly to the modem. I can't make them peers on the router because then nothing works. It's like the modem refuses to do DNS on more than one computer. Anyway, I'm probably going to end up hardwiring it.

This post probably didn't make much sense. Oh well.

Rebuttal: Lifting the Censor's Veil on the Shame of Iraq by Bob Herbert

Um, Bob, your point is . . .

This column focuses on an individual, Aidan Delgado, who was in Iraq and experienced many "dehumanizing" events. The main thing is that he has pictures. He has pictures of bad things that American soldiers were pretending to do do dead Iraqis. Okay, so what? What does this have to do with censorship? In fact, he uses the word "censor" only 3 times in the course of his column. One of these uses was in the title.

He claims that the war we see on the media is "censored and sanitized." Yeah. "3 American soldiers killed in Iraq!" "More American Casualties in Iraq!" etc . . . That's sure censored and sanitized, focusing on the death of Americans in Iraq every day.

The "agonizing bloodshed and other horrors that continue unabated in Iraq," as he calls them, are mostly performed by the Iraqis. The American soldiers wouldn't be getting killed or killing Iraqis weren't attacking.

He says that if the"censor's veil" was lifted, "support for any war that wasn't an absolute necessity would plummet." Yeah. That's exactly what happened in World War I, huh. Hundreds of thousands (not hundreds) of American soldiers died. That war wasn't an absolute necessity. Public support for that war was rather high, in fact.

So at the end, his point has changed from so-called "censorship" to an investigation of the war. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you supposed to stay on the same topic throughout a piece of writing?

This guy also works for the New York Times. I'm scared that I ever even considered wanting to get that paper. Editorial excellence. Hah!

Bragging

I - I can't help it anymore. I've been holding out, but I can't resist. I have to brag about this: SAFARI WAS FIRST TO PASS THE ACID2 TEST! HAH!

The Future of the Internet

Soon, a bunch of horribly designed, ugly websites will be popping up all over. This is because of the many people taking a so-called "Web Design" class who will soon finish. Now, I'm sure there are web design classes that don't teach old, archaic techniques, but still . . .

In Mesa Public Schools students of the web design class are taught to:

• design their web pages for one browser (guess which)
• use markup that represents style, not structure
• use tables for layout
• not use PNG graphics because "they aren't supported"
• make their sites generally ugly
• kill innocent civilians

Okay, maybe not that last one, but the others are true.

The thing is, these kids think they know how to design webpages now. So, of course, they'll find a way to put them online. And get pirated copies of Dreamweaver.

Ideas on Concrete

Last weekend, I was working with concrete and noticed something: a bag of concrete weighs about the same as my brother, but my brother is much easier to carry. From this, I concluded: Concrete is heavier than it is labeled. Actually, it means that concrete bags should be shaped like people. Or at least like Strong Mad. Only maybe narrower. I don't know.

The New Food Guide Pyramid: Ummm . . .

The new food guide pyramid doesn't make much sense. For one thing, there's no clear outline that can be put on cereal boxes. That's going to be a major problem for the government. How are they going to get this information out without it on cereal boxes? That's where I learned about the old food pyramid. Furthermore, this pyramid is harder to draw. That's a problem for art-deficient teachers. Even more, the symbolism is all off. If you take one of the food groups out, there is still a pyramid. Whereas, with the old one, if one food group is taken out, there is no pyramid. Does that mean I can eat only, say, fruits and proteins and still be okay?

Rebuttal: Bush Disarms, Unilaterally by Thomas L. Friedman

Sometimes liberals can be morons. I take it upon myself to show that they are wrong.

Completely absurd. Thomas Friedman accuses Bush of not creating a "New New Deal" to "make more Americans employable in 21st-century jobs." As if that is a bad thing. Let me explain. The whole concept of capitalism (on which this country is based) promotes little government interference. The New Deal made millions of Americans dependent on the government for their jobs and future. That's a good thing? Further, he says that the Treasury "won't lift a finger to prevent the expensing of stock options, which is going to inhibit the ability of U.S. high-tech firms to attract talent." And he shouldn't. If it's so difficult to attract talent, the free market will force U.S. companies to do whatever is necessary to get talent. "We have movie theaters in certain U.S. towns afraid to show science films because they are based on evolution and not creationism." WHAT ON EARTH DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION?!?!?!? (Which sentence does not belong in this article, kids?) If the people in the town don't want such films, then the theater has no obligation to show them.

Bush has done things to help the economy. Whatever the liberals say, it was a tax cut for everyone. You don't think that has helped the economy?

Friedman also accuses Bush of not doing enough to promote broadband internet. Maybe some Americans just don't want broadband. Maybe they have no interest in it. What is it going to profit the U.S. to shove broadband down people's throats?

Finally, "It's as if we have an industrial-age presidency, catering to a pre-industrial ideological base, in a post-industrial era." What on earth is that supposed to mean? Wasn't FDR an "industrial age president?" Wouldn't a "pre-industrial ideological base" be one that has been around long enough to have existed before the Industrial Revolution? Wouldn't such an ideological base be more likely to continue existing?

In conclusion, Thomas Friedman should not be allowed to say such stupid things. But he probaby will continue to be allowed to. And he will. That's a shame.

Idea: Annotated English

Often regular English encountered in books, movies, and songs can be unclear. For example, in the song "Home on the Range" the line "and the skies are not cloudy all day" is unclear. Does it mean that the skies are not cloudy all the time, or does it mean that the skies are never cloudy?

I have begun to come up with a solution to this problem. I call it Annotated English. Basically, it is the introduction of various other types of punctuation into the english language to make it more clear. For example, the song excerpt previously mentioned could be annotated in two ways:
"And the skies are [not cloudy] all day," or,
"And the skies are not [cloudy all day]."

As I develop this idea further I will post more on this blog.

Web-based email is horrible!

Yesterday I tried to post something here via email. It didn't work. I decided to post it manually, but when I logged into my web-based email account, the email did not show up in any folder, including "sent." So the post that I spent 30 minutes on is now gone. I'll have to recreate it or something.