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PowerBooks and Fahrenheit 9/11
- I've decided that I'm going to get a PowerBook as my next machine. Between seeing
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justincheetah's and reading more about the PowerBook tech specs, and I'm getting more and more impressed with the thought that Apple has put into their products.
At this point, I've pretty much narrowed it down to a 15" 1.5 Ghz G4 PowerBook with SuperDrive, getting a 512 MB stick of RAM in it, buying an additional 512 MB stick from someplace else, buying AppleCare, and possibly buying the JBL "Creature" speakers that I saw at the Apple Store tonight. Probably a printer, too. That should keep me in the technology game for the next few years, and hopefully make the new machine be an investment in my career. - Earlier this week, I bought a network card for my current machine (P3-450) and got that working. I was surprised that 10/100 cards go for $10 or so these days. And Linux had no problems seeing the card, either. :-)
- Earlier today, I also picked up a WRT54G router from Linksys. This router can do a number of things for me which include: 1) Playing the part of a 100 BaseT switch, 2) doing DHCP and NAT for a Broadband connection, and 3) Acting as a wireless access point. #1 was easy enough to make work, and #3 is working (and locked down) thanks to jouva's help. #2 will be working fully as soon as my DSL circuit is installed. I ordered DSL last week and have to wait 10 business days for
the shit eaters formerly known as VerizonVerizon to flip a switch in their CO. - Finally, I got the chance to see Fahrenheit 9/11 over this weekend. It wasn't as graphic as I thought it would be, and I found it to be quite educational. It pointed out the sort of things that the American media didn't cover. Like... how the Bush Family has financial ties with the Bin Ladens and that Osama isn't quite that estranged from them after all. It also covered some nasty things such as the civil liberty-sucking PATRIOT act, and that very few members of Congress actually read this horrible thing that was signed into law.
So yeah, I think Fahrenheit 9/11 is definitely worth seeing. You might not agree with all it, but you might find some parts educational, or at least humorous.
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Given Moore's past track record, I wouldn't be surprised if he was less than 100% honest in Fahrenheit 9/11.
On the other hand, servicemen my age aren't dying and losing their limbs over in Iraq because of Moore's lies.
Re: The Questing Cat
Um, I'm missing the part about how Saddam was somehow a threat to our freedom. WMDs? Sorry, those weren't found. Nukes? No evidence of that found, either. Come to think of it, I don't recall him threatening our country, much less attacking it. So how exactly was he a threat to our "freedom"?
Granted, Saddam was a mass-murdering fruit loop who shouldn't have been running a country, but I don't see how his little dictatorship threatened our country.
I also cannot help but wonder whether Iraq's oil reserves (http://www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/fellows/luft20030512.htm) had anything to do with the decision to invade. Now that we control the country, that means big big money for various petroleum companies who can set up shop there. Like say... Dick Cheney's old employer, Haliburton (http://www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/fellows/luft20030512.htm).
Re: The Questing Cat
Haliburton was likely to be involved in the region regardless of whether or not their former CEO was the VP. They're one of the largest petroleum and gas infrastructure companies in the world, by that reason along it's not surprising to see them getting work rebuilding the Iraqi oilfields. Again, in a void of hard evidence to the contrary, I'm loathe to give conspiracy theories the time of day. They fall right into the same people claiming that UFOs from Zeta Reticula are in the Nevada Desert or that the CIA/Israel blew up the WTC.
Re: The Questing Cat
>our expenditures.
Either I'm on crack, or I cannot properly parse that sentence. My understanding of the process is that us taxpayers are footing the bill for the both the war and the cleanup afterward. The companies that are awarded the contracts for this are the ones getting the money. The taxpayers aren't going to see any money coming in.
Regarding Haliburton, I'll assume that everything you said was true. The problem is is that it still creates the *appearance* of impropriety, and that is bad, as I'm sure you're aware. I'm sure there are other companies that can do what Haliburton does. This 60 Minutes piece (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/04/25/60minutes/main551091.shtml) goes into it in detail, and there are a lot of interesting questions raised, like why wasn't there competitive bidding, and the cost of the services that were charged. Those are things I'd like to know.
Re: The Questing Cat Part 3...
TTLG's CommChat is nice if you want a mix of serious and silly, with a block of very smart people on both sides of pretty much any argument. The political arguments have been getting a bit old lately, but they still fill pages before threads die.
Though I don't regularly follow their topics, Ku5oshin's comment section is quite lively, and I've seen some quite impressive arguments constructed there. Less silly, more serious.
Basically, anything with neutrality. Which means international membership (because the US is not the world) and no obvious political bias (like The Young NeoCons' Bush Fanpage Forum).
Re: The Questing Cat Part 3...
(and you might get a more symppathetic audience here if your arguments didn't pretty much summarize to "I'm right because we're not the bad guy". If France was doing what the US is doing, with the US opposing, would you still say it was justified? How about Germany? If China attacked 2 nations in South America under the ill-argumented guise of terrorism and proof in the region of "out intelligence says", would it be okay also? How much of the actions you defend are only morally okay because they are done by your nation, and would seem mighty suspicious if they were done by, say, a nation you distrusted? This is the issue, see. "Because it's being done by the USA" is not a valid argument)
Re: The Questing Cat Part 3...
Re: The Questing Cat Part 3...
Woe is the wounded hero.
*giggles and hugs*
You know, there are ways to phrase sentances without drama. :>
Re: The Questing Cat Part 3...
You're justifying the war with things that happened because of the war?
...seek to impose Talibanesque Islamic law on the entire region
Ignoring for a moment here the fact that how they run their own country is their own damn business, how exactly is deposing one of the few non-Islamic rulers in the region going to help you with that?
...and later the world and in the shorter term seek to wage genocide against the Jewish state and mass murder against the West in general and the US in particular.
Re: The Questing Cat Part 3...
You really don't see your fallacies, do you?
> I can play the picture game too.
Yeah, it's just a shame mine was a fitting analogy and yours yet another appeal to emotion fallacy. Come back when you can articulate why posting mangled fetus photos in an abortion discussion is a fallacy. Hint: it's not because it looks icky.
And stop saying bullshit like "you guys", there is no fucking you guys, the world is not made of little boxes.
> If memory serves...
Your memory serves you incorrectly. Also, you oh so flaunt the prosperity and salvation democracy will bring, yet when I mention that they might choose [you know, what democracy is about] Islamic law you balk and protest about the horrors it will bring. So basically, you're all for the people of Iraq having democracy in their country, as long as they do it the way you feel should be done? Some democracy.
Re: My Final Post. Really.
You're not making any points. You're just saying "we were right to attack because they are the bad guys- here is what makes them the bad guys". Those aren't points, that's not an argument, that's vilifying the other side to justify your own actions [Communism anyone? In case you didn't get it, that's what my picture was referencing, the connection between Communism and Terrorism as political tools].
But okay, let me elaborate on what I said and was ignored before- what the Iraqis did during the war bares no consequence on the validity of starting the war with Iraq whatsoever. What the Taliban did bares no consequence on the validity of starting the war with Iraq whatsoever. None. At all. Nada. Moving on.
> An appeal to emotion does not make it fallacy.
Alas, it does.
> And "come back when you see things my way" is not the sign of an open mind.
So, "ability to avoid logical fallacies" equates "seeing things my way"? Well. Thanks?
> I've cited sources, facts, and answered every point and claim in turn. I have made my points logically and can back up everything I say.
Like how cutting people's heads after the war had already started justifies starting the war? But hey, no need to defend yourself, you already stated previously that appeal to emotion is apparently not a logical fallacy.
> I've proven I can change my mind and see the merits of other arguments... can you?
Now see, the problem is, I see and know what your argument is; or at least its basis. You're upset that people are attacking your nation, which has throughout its history done and helped many a nation, and you see this as just another extension of that effort, hampered by other nation's fear, or greed,or whatnot.
Unfortunately, this also appears to blind you on the little issues like "the reasons the war was started for were false", "the administration was aware of how flimsy some of them were even while they stated they were hard facts", "we're not giving in to terrorists... by reducing our own civil rights", "the best way to fight terrorism is to say Fuck Off to your allies when they don't jump and bark when you ask them to", "we're being led against Islamic Extremists by a Christian Fundamentalist", "we support our troops by cutting their pensions and making them pay for their own health insurance" and a plethora of others that are Okay Because It's War. Or something.
Re: My Final Post. Really.
And how does that leap to "ergo, he is an Islamic Extremist"? Or is the fact politicians invent stuff to appease the masses new to you? If Bin Laden decrees you a heretic then you're not much of an extremist.
> Show me one instance where Islamic Law has been *chosen* by a populace...
Iran. Late 70s, early 80s. There was a religious backlash in most of the world at the time (also the start of the politically stronger Christian fundamentalist movement in the US) and in Iran, a democracy with a reasonably modern society the people, that is to say older/adult people, overthrew it for Islamic law instead, because they felt it (this is good, tell me if it's familiar in any way) "eroded their moral values and went against god". What Iran is now is not what Iran was in say 1975.
> It is not something the people of Afghanistan or Iraq had before we went in...
Yes, Afghanistan, the shining example of democracy in the darkness of the Middle East. Come on...
> You choose to live your own life that way, that's fine. I have no problem with that. You start trying to impose such laws on others, attacking them for having different values or faiths and forcing them to conform to your ideals, denying *them* the right to choose... that's quite another.
No, democracy = majority rules. That's it. That's the whooooooooole deal. Voting representatives? Nothing to do with democracy, that's the Republic bit. Human rights? Nothing to do with democracy, that's your Constitution. Democracy just means that the majority decides. If 51% of people decide that all left handed people should die? Democracy doesn't care, it has nothing to do with it, if it's stopped it's due to other governmental tools [like prementioned], not itself.
> The Iraqis now have the right to choose their own system and destiny, and as their society heals, to live their lives freely.
Unless of course the same thing happens to them that happened to Afghanistan; like say, Bush pulling troops and funds to attack another country, leaving the country to be ruled by local warlords.
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this war was not about freeing the iraqis, don't even think about offering that as the reason we went to war. it wasn't about WMD's either. nor was it about an imminent threat to our country.
try defending any of those proposed reasons offered by our gov't.
they haven't tried.
Was it one of those really cheap Realtek chip NICs?
/*
* The RealTek 8139 PCI NIC redefines the meaning of 'low end.'
* This is probably the worst PCI ethernet controller ever made
... Techincal rant snipped...
* It's impossible given this rotten design to really achieve decent
* performance at 100Mbps, unless you happen to have a 400Mhz PII or
* some equally overmuscled CPU to drive it.
*/
I have the gigabit version of this thing on my motherboard. I honestly can't say I've had any problems, but I have a 2.2GHz CPU to take up the slack.
Re: Was it one of those really cheap Realtek chip NICs?
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If you buy 3rd party RAM, I recommend checking out Other World Computing. The faster Apple gear tends to require RAM that really does meet the specs; flaky RAM causes many system crashes. Other World Computing has good RAM and they stand behind it.
The best way to get a 512 stick in the machine is to use the online Apple Store and do a build-to-order, specifying exactly the memory you want. 512Mb retail machines will almost certainly have 2x256Mb in them, which is probably not how you want it.
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>The best way to get a 512 stick in the machine is to use the online Apple Store
>and do a build-to-order
Ugh. I was kinda hoping I could get something from the Apple Store, but I don't think that'll happen, either. I hung out at the Apple Store in King of Prussia for about 15 minutes last night, and amazingly enough, no one approached me. Not even after I started writing down the specs/prices from some of the stuff there.
I might go back in a few days dressed more business-like and see if they actually notice me this time.
Nope.
Apple gear sells itself. It's all laid out nice and pretty and you're free to browse unmolested. You play with it and RTFSpecs, and if you need help you ask someone.
I think it's actually part of the policy there.
Re: Nope.
I think I'll do what a co-worker did. He brought up a shell on one of their machines. That brought the employees running. :-)
Re: Nope.
"let's see, is it rm /rf or rm -rf?"
I think it's Maxtor you're looking for.
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Me? I'm waiting on Verizon FIOS