March 2004

Does this sound like our President?
GLOCOM Platform – Opinions:

At Harvard Business School, thirty years ago, George Bush was a student of mine. I still vividly remember him. In my class, he declared that ‘people are poor because they are lazy.’ He was opposed to labor unions, social security, environmental protection, Medicare, and public schools. To him, the antitrust watch dog, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Securities Exchange Commission were unnecessary hindrances to ‘free market competition.’ To him, Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal was ‘socialism.’ Recently, President Bush’s Federal Appeals Court Nominee, California’s Supreme Court Justice Janice Brown, repeated the same broadside at her Senate hearing. She knew that her pronouncement would please President Bush and Karl Rove and their Senators. President Bush and his brain, Karl Rove, are leading a radical revolution of destroying all the democratic political, social, judiciary, and economic institutions that both Democrats and moderate Republicans had built together since Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Yes, this sounds like our President.

I win
In a search on Google for train from san diego to los angeles, I am #3, and amtrak.com is not, on the page except for a sponsored link.

Ha ha.

More Atom
San Diego Bloggers. now has its own Atom Feed. (Don’t click that unless you have an Atom Enabled newsreader. It will only confuse you).

Passion of the Christ Merchandising; Thoughts without yet having seen the film
At ShareThePassionOfTheChrist.com you can get products tied into the film. Including a Crucifixion Nail Pendant.

I have not seen the film yet. By all accounts it is bloody and violent and lacking almost entirely of the “good bits” of the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

A movie about Jesus, it strikes me, ought to showcase more of his teachings of love.

I’m not sure there’s much to redeem a movie that’s all torture.

If you’re looking to find out more about the life and particularly the teachings of Christ perhaps you could look at the Jefferson Bible, a favorite of mine.

The idea of Christianity is this (see: John 13:34-35) at somewhere like biblegateway or another online bible source:

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

That Jesus was comdemned to die and crucified are fact. To think that it must be done as a modern action movie—with slow motion blood and gore—I find it sad that it would take all that shallowness—to communicate the story of Christ.

It’s a shame the movie does not show more of the context of the life of Christ.

But every age reconstructs Christ around their own time—and perhaps in this time of war and strife, what people might seek would be to retell the story as hyperviolent tale of persecution and torture, with plenty of gore and blood.

This does not sound like the life of Christ, it sounds like Kill Bill.

Christmasness
Something from the editorial floor of Artlung.com, a would-be Christmas letter from 2003 that never was. I was fixin’ to delete it, then I thought, why not blog it!

So here it is…

Who won’t go up on the housetop click, click, click or down thru’ the chimney?

It’s good Saint Nick if he has to fly commercial. His boots would be taken and his suit of red searched. And those Five golden rings better be declared to customs before crossing the international border. Bobby won’t get a pair of ice skates. They could be used as a weapon along with what should go in the stocking of little Will: a hammer and lots of tacks. Forget about that ball and a whip that cracks too. Or Suzy’s sled. It won’t fit in the overhead compartment or under the seat in front of him.

It might appear thus on FoxNews: An elderly gentleman calling himself only “Mr. Claus” was detained by agents of the Transportation Security Agency December 24th attempting to board Reindeer Airlines at Juneau International Airport. Sources inside the Department of Homeland Security indicate that the man, heavyset and with a twinkle in his eye, had likely entered the country illegally via the North Pole. In the interests of the administration’s War on Terror, a jolly old elf such as this, bearded, and carrying no identification is being treated as a “high probability suspect.”

And perhaps later….

The “Claus Case” has taken a turn… DHS and FBI agents report that the “Elf-Man” has escaped custody despite being under heavy guard. Apparently during a break in interrogation he for milk and cookies he disappeared from the holding area. The only possible exit in the security area is reportedly a chimney. Agents are at a loss to explain this circumstance, but say that the fat man left a note saying “Merry Christmas to All, and to All, a Good Night.”

Not funny enough, not satirical enough, not well-formed enough. Good enough for the blog, not good enough for the Writing section.

And to all a good night!

IBM launches ¡TradúceloAhora! Automatic Translation Project across the United States
I maybe could use some of this in my Spanish class…

Hispanics with access to English content on the World Wide Web will soon have access to richer, higher quality information through a new initiative announced today by IBM. Working in close partnership with Hispanic non-profit organizations in major urban centers across the country, IBM researchers will refine and perfect state-of- the-art software that will effectively translate English content into Spanish on the Web.

Through the new grant program, called ¡TradúceloAhora! (Translate Now) Automatic Translation Project, IBM will provide access to English-to-Spanish translation software for 30 non-profit groups that serve the Hispanic community in Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami and New York City. The clients and staff of these organizations will collaborate to provide ongoing feedback about the usefulness and the clarity of the translation software to an IBM research team. With regular input from users, the translation technology will improve, become clearer and more refined — and ready to benefit the communities it is designed to serve.

Well, maybe not. But it’s kind of interesting.

Panther and wget
The version on apple.com—wget 1.8.1 – works fine on Panther.

wget and curl are my favorite unix utilities.

You can watch Frontline..
online ... or at least some of them.

What Level Unix Geek Are You?
I’m a dog: knowledgeable user.

Check for yourself: Hackles Cartoon Archive

9 Days Away?
March Mingle will be on the 10th. It should be great. More at SDCFUG.org.

We’d like to make this a technology agnostic event that brings together developers of all kinds, a sort of annual “Technology Woodstock” or “Ultimate Geek Happy Hour” for San Diego. To this end, we have gathered together a few sponsors and rented out a private gameroom at Dave and Busters. To kick things off this year, some folks from Macromedia San Diego (formerly eHelp) will be joining us at the event. No sales or technical presentations, just talking shop and munching on finger food while relaxing and enjoying the games and atmosphere. Oh, and did we mention we will have door prizes including books and software?

Be there.