Category: Uncategorized

This is very entertaining…

Memos state Bush skipped out on his Texas Air National Guard duty

George W. Bush needs to answer why he regularly misled the American people about his time in the Guard and who applied political pressure on his behalf to have his performance reviews “sugarcoated.”

No! Don’t believe it, the documents are forged!

I opened Microsoft Word, set the font to Microsoft’s Times New Roman, tabbed over to the default tab stop to enter the date “18 August 1973,” then typed the rest of the document purportedly from the personal records of the late Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian.

Actually, no they’re not!

Someone posted the two images (White House released and Word generated), so I fired up an image editor and had a look. While the font character spacing are very similar, most typography experts in the threads agreed that the original had type-write like characteristics (number 8 slightly high on the line, etc.) that would be hard to reproduce in Word. More importantly, the superscript “th” which caused most of the interest is not in the same position in the two images (see attached superimposed comparison).

Politics is great. If anything, the debunking of the debunking just gives more credibility to the original debunking that the debunked debunk was attempting to debunk. Needless to say, Drudge Report, O’Reilly and Libaugh probably won’t cover the third stage of debunkery, and debunk-debunkers will continue to believe that debunk they feared had been debunked.

MeritCall: It only works with our equipment

I discovered today what I thought was probably the best deal in VOIP/PSTN offerings right now: MeritCall. No monthly fee, 1.9 cents a minute to call anywhere in the US.

The problem is, you can only sign up by buying their equipment. Their cheapest phone is a flimsy looking USB device at $79. The next device is overkill, a full-blown VOIP phone at $100.

I contacted MeritCall sales to see if they would hook me up with service using my own VOIP equipment; no dice.

Me: Hi, I’m interested in signing up for Meritcall service, but I already own VOIP equipment. Is there a way to sign up without having to purchase one of your phones?

MeritCall: Thank you for contacting MeritCall sales center. My name is Scott and it’s my pleasure to assist you. Unfortunately, since we are offering no monthly fee no contract service, there is no way to use our service without purchasing our phones. Thank you.

Me: If I buy one of your phones can I just set it aside and use my VOIP equipment instead?

MeritCall: I don’t think that’s going work. The way is to buy our phones. Thank you.

So I guess after MeritCall the best deal in VOIP is SIPPhone at 3.5 cents a minute. SIPPhone, they claim, works with any SIP capable equipment, even softphones.

Commando posted on WidgetGallery.com

Commando is a quick’n’dirty widget I wrote for Konfabulator that repeats a command every 5s and displays the results in a transperant window on your desktop.

Dear Senator,

I’m writing to urge you to take a stand AGAINST the “Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act of 2004” (INDUCE Act). As you are probably well aware, the act is extremely vague in it’s wording, leaving the courts to decide what infringes under the INDUCE Act and what doesn’t. Such an extremely vague law will clog our court system with unnecessary and experimental cases.

Wording aside, the implications of this law to technology are inconsistent with laws in non-technology areas. If the INDUCE Act were applied to automobiles, the INDUCE Act would make illegal slim jims and other tools used by locksmiths to break into cars. If the INDUCE Act were applied to highways, it would make radar detectors illegal. If the INDUCE Act where applied to music, it would make the tape recorder illegal. If the INDUCE Act were applied to movies, it would make the VCR illegal. If the INDUCE Act were applied to books, it would make the photocopier illegal. If the INDUCE Act were applied to guns, it would make hollow-point and other designed-for-human-killing amunition illegal.

The INDUCE Act is inconsistent with the beliefs of Americans. Americans buy and sell thousands of products that are designed to help us break the law, and Americans want to keep it that way. Giving Americans the tools necessary to thwart the law is America’s protection against an oppressive government, or in the case of the INDUCE Act, oppressive music and movie corporations.

President charged with a DUI: No big deal.

Brother of a Vice Presidential candidate charged with a DUI 10 years ago: OMG!!!!

Why is this even newsworthy, and why is this being brought up right now? Well, you know why.

Searching news.google, I noticed that:

“dui”: 2870 articles

“edwards dui”: 140 articles

“bush dui”: 70 articles, most of which are actually about Edward’s brother

“george bush dui”: 14 articles

George W. Bush was charged with several DUIs when he was younger. I think it’s kinda funny that “John Edward’s brother was charged with a DUI 10 years ago” is the best they got on Kerry/Edwards.

Bush: Mental illness screening for everyone!

Sadly, this isn’t a joke:

The president’s commission found that “despite their prevalence, mental disorders often go undiagnosed” and recommended comprehensive mental health screening for “consumers of all ages,” including preschool children. According to the commission, “Each year, young children are expelled from preschools and childcare facilities for severely disruptive behaviours and emotional disorders.” Schools, wrote the commission, are in a “key position” to screen the 52 million students and 6 million adults who work at the schools.

Of course, drugs are the answer:

The commission also recommended “Linkage [of screening] with treatment and supports” including “state-of-the-art treatments” using “specific medications for specific conditions.” The commission commended the Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP) as a “model” medication treatment plan that “illustrates an evidence-based practice that results in better consumer outcomes.”

What the commision doesn’t say is that the TMAP project exclusively used drugs provided by Eli Lilly, a pharmacom who Bush Sr. sat on the board of, and Bush Jr appointed Lilly’s CEO to a position on the Homeland Security council.

Did I post the portrait of Alan Human? (oh well, there it is). Contrast Alan’s writing to the statements above:

My feelings about [mental illness treatments] and the way it treats people are very strong indeed. I think it’s organised harm, basically. They break your personality with drugs and the way that they treat you, until you’re just a brain dead zombie. The ethnomethodology of [mental illness treatment] is very crude. The standard medical model is that schizophrenia is a chronic condition, it can’t be cured and can only be managed by symptom management with medication. The first question they ask you when you have a schizophrenic interview is, ‘do you hear voices and have visions?’ You say ‘yes’, and they say, ‘OK, off you go, 1600 milligrams’.

I especially like this statement from Alan:

They don’t have any overall holistic approach at all. I think schizophrenia is a rational response to experience.

Is this how you win the War on Drugs? Change the rules of engagement? 🙂 Come’on.. go watch Requiem for a Dream. They’re all the same.

“if you don’t get in line; we’ll lock you away” – Dave Matthews Band

Stratfor comments on the US and France

The French suggested to the United States that it give the new Iraqi government veto power over major American operations in and from Iraq. The United States, via President George W. Bush, who was in France memorializing U.S. troops who died liberating France, declined the French suggestion.

…regardless of events during the past year, France and the United States cannot resist tussling. French President Jacques Chirac knew perfectly well that the United States was not going to give the Iraqi government veto power over U.S. forces. The French raised the idea only to get the inevitable U.S. rejection. The thing to remember here is that anti-Americanism plays well in France, and anti-French feeling plays well in the United States. Although John Kerry speaks of being more open to allies, if Bush can make France the whipping boy and make Kerry into a Francophile, Bush picks up votes, just as Chirac does when he baits Bush. Chirac and Bush do need each other.

SEQ541: Software Pattern-based Sequencer for OS X

I was up really late last night and wrote a pattern-based sequencer for OS X. Motivation: my Roland SH-32 synth doesn’t have a sequencer built-in, but I wanted to play it “live” and in sync with my Korg ER-1 and Korg EA-1 (“Electribes”). I could have just used the sequencer in the EA-1 to drive the SH-32, but then I’d be losing a synth essentially. The EA-1 is still a great synth, I don’t want it to go to waste! 🙂

Anyways, if you’re a Mac user and you have this super-specialized need like I do, check it out! 🙂

Kerry, the “real” war president?

It’s no secret that Bush has been trying to label himself as “the war president” (Economist, Apr 2004). However Kerry this week announced that, if elected, he will send an additional 40,000 troops to Iraq to fight the war (Bloomberg). Contrast this with claims I’ve heard on Air America Radio (I can’t find a reference, see below **) that Bush’s 2006 budget plan calls for a $900M+ budget cut to the Department of Veterans Affairs and closures of 11 VA hospitals, and you can’t help but wonder, who is the real war president?

When the military first gave their plans for invading Iraq, they presented a strategy that called for 300,000 – 400,000 ground troops. Bush asked they do it with 100,000, so they did. Grossly understaffed, Bush has since sent another 30-35,000 troops to Iraq and extended stays twice for many classes of troops (from what I’ve heard). There have also been numerous reports that thousands of foot soldiers are either lacking or have extremely poor equipment (Vietnam era flak jackets, “Inferior” flak jackets).

Kerry wants to add troops… Bush wants to cost-cut… Who’s the real war president here?

Sad times if you’re an anti-war demonstrator. Maybe Kerry really should draft Nader.. 🙂

** Yeah so I can’t find a reference for this. They claimed on the air that this was in “Bush’s 2006 proposed budget.” I can’t find anything in Google News about it. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Air America lied and lied the same way Fox News does.. Al “O’Franken” Franken probably had an “a ha!” one day when he realized “two can play this game!” 🙂 Hehehehe… If anyone finds a reference please let me know…

My new cellphone plan: $25/year

T-Mobile is running a promotion right now for their pre-paid wireless where if you put at least $25 on your account any additional minutes you add are good for one year.

If you’re like me and you rarely use your cellphone, this turns out to be an incredibly good deal. No monthly fees, no hidden taxes or surcharges, and you pay only for what you use.