MrCopilot

Honeycombs good yeah yeah yeah

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:13:34 PDT

ITS NOT SMALL NO NO NO.

Green Lantern Movie Review: Go See it.

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 22:41:45 PDT

Ah, Green Lantern, the unsung protector of the universe's sector 2814.
Good Ole Hal Jordan, DC's goto guy when they need boost sales with a number of crossover events spanning several paychecks worth of pulp.

Now at long last parent company Warner Bros looks to the Emerald Knight to see them through the Batman-less Summer 2011 blockbuster movie season. A full length live action feature film with A-list stars and a CGI budget that was out of this world even before the execs at Warner kicked in an additional 9 million towards the end of production. Which incidentally Warner will tell you had nothing to do with some very vocal fan reactions to early looks at the effects, *coughBS.
Full on promotional marketing, Action figures, Animated DVDs, Video Games, Little Paper Rings in your subway meal and Ryan Reynolds staring at you from the chocolate isle at the grocery, you know the works.

In preparation for this review, lets just say, many many comic pages with a green hue were turned over one reviewers lifetime, while another more demographically appealing female subject was chosen having only cursory knowledge of Mr Green and Sparkly.

In addition, the professional critics were consulted to excess before actual viewing. It was the most thorough drubbing of a film in recent memory and the one-upmanship barrage of insults hurled at supporting cast members, its director and herd of writers, was only to be outdone by their near universal fawning admiration of Ryan Reynold's ab-tastic physique if not his gravitas.

As entertaining as the critical review of the critical reviews was, you kinda got the vibe that maybe Warner's great green hope is not only the worst movie of the summer, but quite possibly the "Worst Comic Book Movie Ever!" which in itself is intriguing, in a Mystery Science Theater 3000 kinda way, if you are in to that sort of thing. More importantly at least one of our intrepid reviewers was actually interested to see the translation from page to screen, no matter how mediocre Dana Stevens thought it was and he was paying, so....

The Movie:

Hal Jordan is your every day mild mannered, cocky, defense weapons contractor fighter-jet test-pilot. You know the type, drives fast cars, has casual sexual encounters, not very punctual, but nice to look at. Whilst being particularly cocky Hal destroys his jet and two irreplaceable prototypes, the consequences of which nearly destroys his employer, his relation ship with his ex-girlfriend/boss/bosses daughter/wingwoman, and their potential contract with the government, also destroying the jobs of many an angry townfolk. Hal's grounded.

Oh yeah, there was some stuff going on in space too.
Good Guys are Green and use power of will, Bad Guys are Yellow, and use the power of fear. Big Bad Yellow guy, stopped and imprisoned by Green Guy. Yellow Guy escapes and mortally wounds aforementioned Green Guy. Green Guy's ring recruits Hal.

Hal eventually becomes Green Lantern defeats yellow guy, saves universe. Roll Credits, after credits ending scene setting up sequel.

Of course that description leaves a lot to the imagination, doesn't it. To make any of that appear to make any kind of sense requires a fair amount of esplaining to be done, and splaining Green Lantern does and fairly successfully, with lots of green stuff in space and some excellent voice over work. Guardians, Oa, Kilowog, Sinestro and the Corp. A tiny outline of Carol Ferris and Mrs Samuel Jackson, I mean Amanda Waller, And for no reason at all Tim Robbins as a Senator who hates his son, Tim Robbins, everybody.

What more could you ask? Top of the charts opening weekend, Done.

Was is it a great film?
No. It was at the same time over and under done.

Was it an entertaining movie?
Yes. However you can still feel the studio notes trying to wrench that away too.

Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern?
Works for us. See ya in the sequel Ryan.
Now that all the explaining is over with, make with the ring slingin.

Rating:
Go see it. Have some popcorn. We enjoyed it.
Some of it was really pretty, some of it was silly, but most of it was fun.

Note to Mark Millar, RE Worst Comic Book Movie Ever, Do you include the ill fated Fantastic Four and Captain America movies?

-MrCopilot

Thanks for the reminder, Google doodle. Chaplin is a genuis.

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 15:44:06 PDT

Every couple of decades we are collectively reminded how much of a genius artist was and is the man Charlie Chaplin. Last time it was Robert Downey Jr or Johnny Depp, this time Google video doodles us all.

I prefer the real deal myself. Happy 122nd Birthday Charlie.

This was a new one for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zskO9O3hF78

Mobile blogging

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:06:21 PDT

Mobile post from android using Blogger app from Google Inc.

Seems to work well enough:
Painless publishing to multiple Blogger blogs, Check.
Attach images, Check.
Attach photos from camera, Check.
Editting published posts, Check.

Apple vs Everyone.

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:03:37 PDT

Not a day goes by without rampant speculation on the machinations and possible motives of Apple or Steve Jobs splashed all over the blogowebspheretubes.

Yesterday, for once the news was just that, actual news. None of that speculative unsourced stuff we are used to seeing. As often is the case with real news, it requires more than a "sound bite" of history to understand the impact of the "new reality". But hey this is the internet, right?

&nbdip;Library of Congress Wants You to Root Your Android Phone&nbdip;

&nbdip;An Emancipation Proclamation for the iPhone&nbdip;

MrCopilot

That's it I'm going back to Windows

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 17:17:21 PDT

I've had it. I can't stand the independence of my PC smugly running for months and months without needing any support from me whatsoever.

I miss the reboots, the re-installations, and oh how I miss the joy of re-purchasing my OS every couple of years. I miss the constant support calls from relatives. I miss the hour a day I spent on my kids.

So sign me up Mr. Balmer.
You win and Season's Greetings.

MrCopilot

If you are in China you cannot read this.

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:16:57 PDT

The wise and powerful leaders of China have decided to shield their fragile citizenry from the wretched horrors of words on a screen.

It always starts out in cases of Government Censorship (tripped another flag) that only some small collection of words cannot be looked at. Obviously there would be no point in restricting information that your economy may depend on for growth.

The Chinese government encourages the development and spread of the Internet, and promotes the opening of the Internet to the outside (world). Discussion and expression on China's Internet are very lively, and digital commerce is developing rapidly. The facts demonstrate that China has a healthy environment for investing in and developing the Internet. China will unwaveringly adhere to a guiding policy of opening up, and it welcomes participation by foreign businesses in developing the Chinese Internet."

See, China is still cool.

China has a simple solution, Mandatory Self-Censorship.

All companies operating in China must, well I'll let China explain.

Figuring out how to make good on our promise to stop censoring search on Google.cn has been hard. We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement. We believe this new approach of providing uncensored search in simplified Chinese from Google.com.hk is a sensible solution to the challenges we've faced—it's entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China. We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision, though we are well aware that it could at any time block access to our services. We will therefore be carefully monitoring access issues, and have created this new web page, which we will update regularly each day, so that everyone can see which Google services are available in China.
Google Blog

Oh thats not China's response, that was Google.

An unnamed official representing China states.

Foreign companies operating in China must abide by Chinese laws. Google has violated the written promise it made on entering the Chinese market. It is totally wrong in halting (censorship) filtering of its search provider...

All coverage is provided via China's official news agency. You can lose quite bit of time reading through the Chinese Embassy press releases, Foreign Minister Q&As. May I recommend you lose at least a few minutes at the winner for all time best government acronym, the Ministry of Science Technology also known as MOST. most.gov.cn

I particularly enjoyed this most-posted LAW while looking for the regulations that were so maliciously disregarded by Google. I'll just quote the first Chapter, but really, go read the whole thing.

Law of the People's Republic of China on Popularization of Science and Technology

Article 1
   This Law is enacted in accordance with the Constitution and other related laws for the purpose of implementing the strategy of invigorating the country through science and education and the strategy of sustainable development, redoubling the efforts to popularize science and technology, raising the citizens’ scientific and cultural level and promoting economic and social progress.

Article 2
   This Law shall apply to activities conducted by the State and the community to popularize scientific and technological knowledge, promote scientific approaches, disseminate scientific ideas and carry forward scientific spirit.
For popularization of science and technology (hereinafter referred to as PST), such ways as may make it easy for the general public to understand, accept and participate in shall be adopted.

Article 3
State organs, armed forces, public organizations, enterprises and institutions, anal Grassroots organizations and other organizations shall work for PST.
Citizens have the right to participate in PST activities.

Article 4
PST is a public welfare undertaking and an essential component of the socialist material and spiritual civilization. It is a long-term task of the State to develop the PST undertaking.
The State supports efforts for PST made by people in minority ethnic areas and in outlying and poverty-stricken areas.

Article 5
The State protects the lawful rights and interests of the PST organizations and workers, encourage them to carry out PST activities independently, and initiate PST undertakings according to law.

Article 6
   The State supports all quarters of society to initiate PST undertakings. Such undertakings may be operated under market mechanism.

Article 7
Work for PST shall be characterized by mass participation, socialization and regularity and shall be integrated with practice and carried out in light of local conditions, and take various forms.

Article 8
In PST, the scientific spirit shall be upheld and pseudo shall be opposed and resisted. No unit or individual may, in the name of PST, engage in activities at the expense of public interests.

Article 9
The State supports and promotes cooperation and exchange with foreign countries in the field of PST.

Now, I'm no fancy city slicker Beijing lawyer, but by my count, The government blocking access to Google's services would seem to violate 6 or 7 of these Articles of Chinese Law, and violate the spirit of the Popularization of Science Technology Law in total.

The State supports all quarters of society to initiate PST undertakings. Such undertakings may be operated under market mechanism.

No Thanks, Chinese citizens don't need the customers sent by Google search or the information found by same. Nor are they secure enough in their national loyalties to view random blogs ranging from technology sites like this one to the weekly habits or fern growers. The people of China cannot be exposed to unfiltered YouTube videos of teen Lady Gaga impersonators and clips of cats and puppies falling asleep.

Citizens have the right to participate in PST activities.

Or do they?

Can you say World Trade Organization? I bet Google can.

No, no, no, the government of China must actively protect its citizenry. Apparently by blocking foreign websites wholesale without regard for actual content.

"Online opinion exchanges are very active in China and e-commerce grows rapidly here. As facts have demonstrated, the environment for Internet investment and development in China is sound," Xinhua

I wonder how much of that exchange of opinion and commerce runs through a Google server at some point in the transaction? Every Chinese language web page that I have ever even remotely understood was translated by Google, and although my count may be higher than most, I'd bet that experience is typical. On this side of the wall, Google facilitates commerce into China. With it's immense population, an increasingly upwardly mobile consumer base, China is as important to Google as Google is to the Chinese people.

As a citizen, I would be vary wary of my government, if it actively tried to block access to the biggest bridge to the global marketplace. But hey, who knows, perhaps the Chinese people appreciate the way their leaders protect them from the rest of us.

If the government of China is to censor me from its people without cause (not cool, China, not cool), the least I could do was to offer my "Lively Online Opinion" on this action.

There is an interesting, but distracting side story with accusations of international espionage, cyber targeting of Human Rights Activists, privacy intrusions, and other high technology skulduggery. China of course denies this fully and completely.

Rather than get bogged down in the details, I suggest we all just wait for the inevitable movie. Somebody call Matt Damon. I was more interested in how the
Chinese people feel about this turn of events. Any of you digital gold farming, boot selling spammers care to comment?

MrCopilot

In the spirit of the Season

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:30:07 PST

I want to say thank you.

I want to say thank you to all the people of the world who contributed to the following efforts, without ever having even met me.

My Employment: Tools that make my job not only easier and more productive but honestly, possible at all.

My Entertainment: Continuing to make it accessible and affordable.

My Curiosity and Education: The ever expanding index of knowledge accessible at my fingertips.

My Creative Outlet: Tools and infrastructure to give any human the ability to broadcast to the world whatever they want.

To list them individually by name, this post would quickly be the focus of the entire blog. Although not a bad idea, (mental note....) So keep in mind, if I leave you out. Thanks.

Richard, Lawrence, Linus, Bruce and Eric, Sergey, Larry, and Eric, Mathias, Aaron.
TO all of you who use, develop, report bugs for, write articles, criticize and praise open source projects like KDE, Debian, Linux, Busybox, Ant, Apache, Ruby, GNU anything;
To all the trolls in Europe, and the Ubuntu groups from here to S Africa, To the Podcasters and Support Sites and Forums, To all the managers, who after being shown, recognize not only the value and cost savings, but also the efficiency gained by having access to the source and documentation and a community. I even want to thank Big old blue, IBM and it's new generation of software engineers freed from the shackles and limitations of the previous model.

In the spirit of the season I want to also thank Microsoft, Thank You for showing me the error of my ways. And Kudos to you for making a nice tidy bundle in the process. Specifically thank you Bill. Thanks for leaving us Steve. Its almost as if you wanted to make the transition easier.

I want to thank you the consumer for choosing your devices based on their functionality and ease of use rather than their Operating System Developer.

So once again, on behalf of myself, my employer and my family:

Thanks to all of you, and have a Happy Thanksgiving.

In the spirit of the coming season, I have something I'd like to give to all of you, but not today. In the coming weeks I will be unveiling it. Please stand by,

MrCopilot.com

Les Paul, Legendary Life ends at 94

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:50:55 PDT

Legend of Rock and Roll, Inventor and father of the sweetest sounds of Rock, Les Paul died on Wednesday at the age of 94.

Rolling Stone Coverage

Thank You sir.

Clapton, In Your Honor, on your instrument in 64....

Twitter facebook outage plot thickens, wait, there was and nobody could tweet?

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:41:33 PDT

Quote of the day goes to LeetLuXX0rz a commment on the contuing saga of twitdown 2009.

by L33tLuXX0rz August 6, 2009 5:16 PM PDT
That is quite intense to just target one person. But I guess we can say that although millions of people experience discomfort Im quite sure these were some of the most productive hours some people experienced since joining the social media revolution.

Actually, theres quite a few choice quotes in the actual article particularly the one from google.

A Google spokesman offered this statement: "We are aware that a handful of non-Google sites were impacted by a DOS attack this morning, and are in contact with some affected companies to help investigate this attack. Google systems prevented substantive impact to our services."

Nissan sees a futire in Zero Emmision Vehicle

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 13:27:59 PDT

After lagging behind the rest of the automotive industry for the last few years, Nissan has finally jumped on the bandwagon, and turned over a new L eaf.

Capitalizing on it's partnership with Renault, Nissan announced their Zero Emission all electric production vehicle dubbed the Leaf scheduled to hit selected U.S. markets in 2010.

Although no pricing is yet available, Nissan claims the MSRP will be in the range of the average V6. While most manufacturers are charging a premium for their electric vehicles, Nissan is considering a leasing arrangement for the expensive battery technology. While the consumer owns the car, Nissan would lease the battery components, effectively rendering the normal economic advantage of not having to pay at the pump a moot point. The added benefit being, when the battery has reached end of life (typically around 10yrs), Nissan would still be responsible as long as the lease is still in effect. I imagine this would give them maximum flexibilty to take advantage of cost savings over time and keeping the (ever more profitable) lease agreement in place.

Nissan claims cooperation with local governments to help build the education and infrastructure required for charging and maintenance of all electric vehicles.

Nissan looks at this car as the stepping off point to an everyday commuter EV not just another expensive toy. With nearly 100 mile range, and a 30 minute charge time, a ton of gadget friendly technology, combined with their possible leasing scheme, could this be THE EV to rule them all?

We'll let you know in 2010.

For more info check out Nissan's Leaf WebSite where they are utilizing twitter technology to answer user questions. Something I've not seen before.

Update: Gas2Go has some more pics and in depth Info, thanks Nick.

Note to Apple, RE Google Voice & iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 20:58:56 PDT

Mr Jobs,

As you must no doubt be aware, Google has submitted their Google Voice application for inclusion in your beloved App store, with hopes of taking up a small square of real estate on the most popular tech toy since the invention of the mouse.

Word on the street is that, in your infinite wisdom, you have chosen to reject this application, and I'm sure you have your reasons. Competing functions, network bandwidth considerations, I'm sure they are very similar to the reasons not given for the initial rejection of Skype on the iPhone.

It is well known that you were out of office for extended periods over the last 18 months. I wonder if you had time to watch any of the political coverage as you were recovering.

It would seem impossible, that you were unaware that one of the lead technical advisers to the current administration was one Eric Schmidt, Google Chief Executive and Apple Board Member. Given this fact, one would think that Apple would think twice before tweaking the nose one of it's own board member in such a transparently anti-competitive manner.

Google makes a phone OS as well, as I am sure you know, but not content to offer their services to their brethren only, The Google Voice application for iPhone was developed at some expense to Google, and offered up for use on your platform as well as some other not so picky handsets. Clearly a cum baya moment if ever there was one.

Even as the tech world is now is scrambling to cover the fallout from your decision, the mention of Mr Schmidt's association has not even come up. Odd that, it would seem an obvious line of journalistic investigation.

One well placed phone call from Google's Chief Executive and the questions would start flying. But perhaps I am jumping to conclusions here. There is, of course, no direct evidence that the aforementioned phone call ever took place, It could be that the FCC was just reading the news, and saw a problem for the public and is acting proactively to ensure and foster fair competition. Yeah, that sounds like a government organization.

Whatever the reason, the FCC has, in fact, decided this whole situation is worth a look-see. The finger pointing on whose call it was to deny this little square to Google has already begun. Some point at AT&T, while AT&T is pointing squarely back at Apple.

AT&T does not manage or approve applications for the App Store. We have received the letter and will, of course, respond to it.Customers can use any compatible GSM phone on our network, not just the ones we?ve approved and sell. And they also can use apps we don?t approve. We don?t approve iPhone applications.

Seems pretty cut and dry. Except that Apple has a responsibility to it's carrier partners to deny any app that will negatively impact the carrier's network or business model. An argument could be made, and indeed has been made, that Apple was just honoring this agreement (Which we are not privy to the text of).

So in closing, Steve, if I may call you Steve, what gives here?
Where is the legendary foresight? (Not seeing the inevitability of Govt intervention.)
Where is the visionary thinking? (If the carrier can't compete with VOIP that is their problem)

Where is your responsibility to your customers on this?

Meanwhile Google is not content to stand idly by.

"We work hard to bring Google applications to a number of mobile platforms, including the iPhone. Apple Inc. did not approve the Google Voice application we submitted six weeks ago to the Apple App Store. We will continue to work to bring our services to iPhone users - for example, by taking advantage of advances in mobile browsers."

Translation: It's coming whether you or At&T like it or not, so why the runaround? Maybe your hope is just to cripple it in the same way as Lattitude.

Thanks for listening,
MrCopilot

Dear Mr President.

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:01:43 PDT

To the Office of President Barack H. Obama:
Submitted through the White House Office of Public Liason

I have been researching the development of transportation transformation from fossil fuels to renewable energy for some time now.

As I am sure the administration is aware, governmental incentives do spurn consumer interest and capital investments.

Given the problems facing the American auto industry and the massive amount of on the road "dirty" vehicles, has the administration considered any policy to incentivize conversion of existing vehicles to electric or hybrid technology?

It would seem logical to assume the new energy economy development costs to the auto industry could be reduced by creating and offering to the public "engine" technology that mates with standard proven drive train, braking and chassis designs. This development would help ensure the jobs of many of the American auto workers and suppliers.

As dealerships are cut, so are jobs cut in the auto repair and maintenance shop in the back.

If the the government in conjunction with the major American auto companies would invest in this type of retro-greening technology, a significant revenue stream could be realized for the participating companies with the added benefit of reducing both our carbon emissions and dependence on foreign oil.

In all the debates on these issues I have heard nothing to address the current number of vehicles on the road.

As many enthusiasts around the country will attest not only can this be done, it is actively being done. Their only question is, "Why wouldn't the auto industry and government like to be involved?".

Environmental researchers, Electrical engineers, Consumers and Laid off mechanics would all surely agree this would be a positive initiative.

To reiterate the specific question:
Has the administration considered any policies to incentivize conversion of existing vehicles to electric or hybrid technology?

Thank You, you may view this annotated and with public comments at http://mrcopilot.blogspot.com/2009/03/dear-mr-president.html

Bill Gates unleashes Bugs, No kidding.

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:22:45 PST

True to his nature, Microsoft founder unleashed an untold number of Bugs on the giants of technology during his talk at the TED conference.

This time he could confidently assure conference attendees that the bugs carried no virus.
Yes Malaria, these bugs were a swarm of mosquitoes.

That's about all I want to contribute to besmirching Mr Gates in regards to raising awareness of the problems of Malaria.

But feel free to add your own captions to the picture in my head of Bill releasing bugs.

Here are the first few that came immediately to mind.

"I know, Bugs, Bill Gates, who'd a thunk it?"

"Relax, they're features."

"We'll take care of these with the next service pack"

-MrCopilot

Election 2008:Postscript

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 06:16:05 PST

Just under a month after America's most historic election since the Kenedys, it feels like the perfect time for bit of sober considered reflection.

At tmes throughout the general election, it felt as if we were all part of an old fashioned 80s style grand wager.

Randolf: Isn't it a wonderful time to still be alive, and wealthy, Mortimer?

Mortimer: We've certainly witnessed and profited on a chunk of history.

Randolf: Indeed, capitalizism defeating comunism, the dot com bubble over shadowed by the Internet, the triumph of equal rights over racism.

Mortimer: I think the latter may be a bit premature.

Randolf: Surely, with african americans, and other minorities in congress, on the supreme court, not to mention cabinet posts, America must be seen as an society of diverse equals.

Mortimer: But never the top post. I'd wager a well educated, articulate, fully qualified black candidate with a populist platform would lose to almost any rich white candidate no matter how incompetent a campaign he runs.

Randolf: Would you indeed, I agree to your terms sir, and I think I know just the two chaps for the job.

Daily, we watched McCain start and stumble through as Obama hardly missed a step, no matter the issue

On election night we all watched as the numbers rolled in. Taken as a whole there is a signifigant Obama margin. On a district basis however this was a lot closer race then I feel comfortable with.

Given the incomptence shown by the McCain campaign, it is startling to me how many americans were willing to give the reigns of American power over to him.

Just how close did Mortimer come to being a dollar richer?

4%

Staggering, isn't it? 46% of Americans comprised of those who voted for McCain, combined wth those voting against Obama. My shock at this number is tempered by the majority of these voters seem genuinely supportive of the incoming administration and maybe even a little prouder of America.

Of course, the transition team's swift and confidence inspiring actions haven't hurt either. Weekly adresses, near daily economic press conferences are showing a clear purpose to action that is (sadly) refreshing.

Experts being appointed to advisory positions in the administration may seem like a no-brainer to most people, but it hasn't been seen in recent memory.

Cabinet members being appointed "early" gives us all some hope that there maybe some grown ups in the room during the remaining days of the current administration.

Spend a little time over at change.gov and you begin to realize this guy really does believe he is a representitive of the citizens. The general feel of interaction is "we may not always agree but we are here to listen, and welcome your help."
Which, again, is (sadly) refreshing. I get one other impression, this president has a firm grasp of the role technology can, should, and will ever more play in governance. Having Eric Schmidt as an advisor probably does not hurt.

Even that word, governance has meaning again.
Websters says:
The act of governing; specifically: authoritative direction or control.

Also, refreshing, and not scary.

In summation. I have to agree with Randolph on this one. It is indeed a wonderful time to be alive.

The End of the BSD?

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:17:35 PDT

Bracing myself for another ill conceived, passionate argument for the exaggerated, premature death of the BSD family of Operating Systems, I clicked the following link. The End of BSD

Instead I stumbled across a new definition of what I thought was a familiar acronym.

The term entered the lingua franca via Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker. (Relevant quote: "If he could make millions of dollars come out of those phones, he became that most revered of all species: a Big Swinging Dick.") BSDs are the perennial winners of the game of conspicuous earnings (giant bonuses), conspicuous consumption (giant co-ops and summer homes), and conspicuous philanthropy (giant plaques on public edifices).

Despite the all too appropriate vulgarity, the article does a fine job of trying to explain one small piece of the financial crisis. Making sure we know at least some of the guys responsible have lost a pretty chunk of change. I know I feel better.

Meanwhile, never fear, our government is on the case, even on the Sabbath. Announcing an agreement on details of the proposed plans.

While some lawmakers argued against Congress setting an artificial timetable, Sen. Robert F. Bennett (R-Utah) warned Saturday that delay would be deadly.

"What will they say come Monday if another major bank fails?" he said. "What will they say Monday if the international markets refuse to buy any American paper? One of the reasons you cry wolf is because there is a wolf actually at the sheepfold."
LATimes

Yep sounds all wrapped up to me.

Details of the plan are:

The $700 billion would be disbursed in stages, with $250 billion made available immediately for the Treasury's use.

Curbs will be placed on the compensation of executives at companies that sell mortgage assets to Treasury. Among them, companies that participate will not be able to deduct the salary they pay to executives above $500,000.

An oversight board will be created. The board will include the Federal Reserve chairman, the Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, the Federal Home Finance Agency director and the Housing and Urban Development secretary.

Treasury is allowed the option to take ownership stakes in participating companies under certain circumstances.

Treasury may establish an insurance program - with risk-based premiums paid by the industry - to guarantee companies' troubled assets, including mortgage-backed securities, purchased before March 14, 2008.

Source: CNN Money

See we'll all be fine. Continue shopping normally.

MrCopilot

McCain Obama Debate #1

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 14:29:25 PDT

Politics.

Debate 1 Foriegn Policy

War:
Obama
Get out of Iraq, Get more into Afghanistan, and maybe a little into Pakistan (Couple of Predators don't really count, do they?) Reserves the right to talk to any one at the time and place of his choosing in order to keep America Safe.

McCain
Keep "winning" in Iraq, Keep losing in Afghanistan, Wouldn't threaten Pakistan,
Won't even look at Iranian President (he actually couldn't bring himself to say President) but will possibly invade his country with a Legion of Doom, sorry League of Democracies. Reserves the right to kick the crap out of Iran, Syria, and North Korea.

There were also some economic discussions about a financial crisis, but really, yawn, who cares about that.

What amazed me was how many times Henry Kissinger was mentioned. Giving his thoughts and opinions weight on both sides. I wasn't the only one.

Mcain has experience, he has been a Senator during every military action since he belatedly got out of one. He has some wins and some losses. He has met leaders from around the globe. His only problem is his feverish desire to ensure the Iraq Veterans come home not like the Vietnam Vets. It is entirely possible in his mind that sets the bar for withdrawal so high we probably will be there for 100 years.

Obama did well, McCain, surprisingly (after the last 2 weeks) did the best he could. Almost a draw. Despite the pre-debate premonitions,I'm calling it for Obama, mostly for answers like these.

/Politics.

How Shiny is Chrome? Part 2, The Chromium Edition

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 15:54:12 PDT

Last week, I mentioned my disappointment concerning Google's Chrome beta for Windows. Mainly that it was an open source browser for Windows only.

Knowing the source is available, It was only a matter of time before we had a Linux and Mac version. Enter Crossover Chromium from Codeweavers 7 days later.

Codeweavers is a company that specializes in Wine development. Knowing Google itself admits Chromium (Chromium is the open source base for Chrome) only builds and works under windows, Codeweavers went to work on getting that build running under wine on Linux and Mac, releasing their modifications.

Kudos all around. It runs, It browses. It is free, and by free I mean free as in free.

but...

It is not really a fair representative of the browser, taking one of Chrome's features and making it a huge drawback. Unlike Chrome, Codeweaver's Chromium takes an eternity to load a page.

Gmail is all but unusable.

FlashPlayer installs and just barely runs, crashing out more often than not.
Even they describes this release as a proof of concept.

Should I run CrossOver Chromium as my main browser?
Absolutely not! This is just a proof of concept, for fun, and to showcase what Wine can do. Chromium itself is just beginning. As the Chromium project progresses, they will be providing more compelling support for Mac OS and Linux, particularly with process security and memory management. Those future versions from Chromium will be better suited for daily use than this version

Yes it can be done, but should it?

This is an all too common occurrence.

I want to run the new open-source, cross-platform, next-generation browser from Google.

I do not want to run Chromium for Windows on my Linux machine. Thanks for trying.

Richard Stallman has shared a few thoughts on Chrome.

The license for those binaries is unacceptable for several reasons.
For instance, it says you give Google the right to change your software and requires you to accept whatever changes they decide to impose. It purports to forbid reverse engineering. It also uses the confusing and biased propaganda term “intellectual property”. (See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.html for why this term should never be used.)
You should not agree to those terms.
Google is following the footsteps of Firefox. Firefox has done this since it first appeared: the source code is free, but the binaries released by the Mozilla Foundation carry an unacceptable EULA. ......I hope someone will distribute free binaries made from the Chrome sources. People have done that for Firefox for years. It doesn’t need to be the GNU Project. GuiDoc Blog
Crossover Chromium technically fits that description, and yet, I would personally prefer to see GNU pickup the development and stewardship of the GNU/Linux* port of Chromium.
*See Richard, I do care.

So here is my verdict. For now, if you need to run Chrome on your Linux box, you are probably better off running it in a Virtual Machine. I run Chrome in VirtualBox seamless mode, the performance is faster, and the browser is fully featured. All right, it is not as free, but it does actually work.

If you are technically adept (I'm lookin at you Crossover) please dig back in to it's source and contribute to get Chromium running natively.

MrCopilot

So who do ya think's gonna win?

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:14:35 PDT

So he says to me, he says, "So who do ya think's gonna win?", never having met the gentleman. Seen him around work a few times. As he put down his lunch at the table one up in front of mine, I was only slightly amazed that without any reference or implicit signals, I immediately understood the subject to which he was referring.

Not wanting to politically identify myself, I responded, "I think Obama will probably win", but not in an overly enthusiastic way. He said ,"I liked what I was hearing from Obama but, lately I'm not sure where he's coming from." I had finished my lunch and I left with "I haven't heard anything I didn't like from him, meanwhile I've heard almost nothing I like from the other side." All true and noncommital.

I found myself wondering all through the rest of the day, the purpose of the original question, as well as questioning my wariness to answer.

First, at some point in the American experience, we have switched from being interested in who you were supporting and why, to "Who you thinks gonna win?". It's fair I guess, we all want to pick a winner, and no one wants to be identified as a loser. Which leads to my second point.

Second. The question may have been asked for pure speculation, of no consequence whatsoever.

Or

The Question could have been asked as an attempt to categorize/label/assess, which led to my general uneasiness to even answer. OK, so I'm a little paranoid. But it happens right. Like one of those questions, Like, "Don't ya just love Madonna* ? Right. Later.", But what the hell, What do I care if some Republican looks down or feels incompatible with me merely because I am sickened by what I see from what I believed was an Honorable man.
*or insert musician you personally can't stand, if you do happen to enjoy Madonna

Remember way back during the 2000 primary season? I do, at that time I declared, If John McCain were the nominee, I would vote for him over Kerry, maybe even Gore. People who knew me were shocked.

I realize now, just how much he really wants to be president. He wants it bad enough to find a anti-Hilary running mate. He wants it bad enough to change life long fundamental beliefs. He wants it bad enough to blatantly lie, and thats the one that gets me. McCain sold himself as the ultimate truth teller. The polar opposite of Bush.

If I remember correctly way back in 2000, lemme see, McCain lost. Beaten by a liar, someone who blatantly made stuff up, slapped it on the TV and generally ruined reputations. In the intervening 8 years, you can watch a little more of what made John McCain "the right guy for the job" fall away. With each visit to the White House, with each hug photo op with his new best friend his ideals were eroded a little more.

I suppose we should all understand why he feels he has no choice. We the people, taught him this lesson. This is the road that leads to the White House. He watched another guy go right by him at the exit of the Straight Talk Express.

So now he has free reign, can say whatever he wants. Given this new freedom of not being bound by truth, the un-truths carefully chosen to be broadcast to the masses in the name of Senator John McCain, further erode any confidence you may have held on to in the honorable gentleman representing Arizona. He makes it very difficult to make a thinking person believe John McCain shares my views, will uphold my values.

Of particular annoyance, his choice of running mate. Make no mistake, I want a woman to be president. I wanted it to be Hillary. I voted for her. Mostly because I think Bill should be the First Man. But, She lost, no dice.

Grabbing the nearest conservative female in an attempt to appeal to the Hillary Vote was a stroke of political genius ... executed by morons. There must be 3 to 4 thousand female conservative lawmakers, leaders, judges, etc that would have been a perfect vice presidential candidate. Instead he chose Miss Alaska.

Everyone keeps asking what her experience is. I think John McCain had a very clear understanding of the qualifications he was seeking. I'm pretty sure they weren't policy related. I'm pretty sure they had nothing to do with foreign relations, economics, or ideology of any kind. She Wins. She has won Beauty Contests, Mayoral and Gubernatorial Races. The fact that she is a she, practically wraps up the vetting process. She's a winner.

Man, ain't she though.

MrsCopilot asked me if everyone can see the total transparency in the attempts of deception. I'm not sure everyone can. But I'm sure a lot of intelligent, good hearted Republicans can, and I feel for them. They deserve a better representative after the last 8 years.

But I digress, the point of this post is the question.

To the nameless co-worker and anyone else who is interested:

I think Barrack gonna win.

What y'all think?

ScareFest 2008 Lexington

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 21:39:47 PDT

This tiny news advert caught my eye last week.

MrsCopilot is quite the Horror buff, with bookshelves stuffed and straining under the weight and bulk of the almighty Steven King and a DVD collection of blood, murder, mayhem and pychotics. ScareFest 2008, Seemed like just to thing to spring on her as a surprise. Stars of Rob Zombie's "The Devil's Rejects" (one of her favorite feel good flicks.) Sid Haig and Bill Mosely are scheduled to appear.

Off we go for a spooktacular Saturday afternoon. Lexington Convention center. Check.
Yep that's a Good sign,
this appears to be the place.

Inside was as advertised.

Creepy Artists and Collectible merchants crammed side by side with psychics and mystical crystal salesman,
With back area lined with genre celebrities available for autographs and pictures.

What better way to spend an afternoon than celebrity gawking and rampant discretionary spending. Admission, Tarot Reading, T Shirt, Autographed Photo, a few nick nacks, etc. There were also Panel Discussions and film Screenings in two other halls we did not attend.

Haunting the floor were the assorted monsters and ghouls only too happy to mug for the camera.

The weekend events included a costume contest and a Friday the 13th cast reunion and Screening.

Upon entry, a small reminder is posted informing you that entering the premises gives Paramount permission to use your likeness in an upcoming Anniversary DVD re-release of the classic.

The event was sponsored by Ghost Chasers International, but they were kind enough to invite the competition, Ghost Hunters International investigator an TV star Shannon Slyvia. Nice lady, sold me a shirt.

The guy who drew the longest line though was definitely Sid Haig. Small Children (under 6 admitted free) were in line to have their picture taken with him. Just down the Aisle his cast mate from Devils Rejects and House of 1000 corpses were also popular. CandyMan, One of the guys who wore the Jason mask, Tom Savini and Pluto from The Hills Have Eyes (Micheal Berryman) were talking with fans and signing autographs, showing little wear from the VIP party at the hotel the night before.

What frightened me more than the Zombies, Spirit Photographers or Mystical Crystal Vendors (I just love saying Mystical Crystals) was the line that did not exist in front of David Naugton. This guy transforms "in camera" into the baddest werewolf captured on film, while at the same time manging to make us laugh all through the movie. Here, see for yourself.

That deserves at least a 2 person deep que. All of the emo, goth and teens of the damned seemed more interested in mindless serial killers than one of the greatest wolfman thespians of all time. I would have asked him too, how he feels sitting across the room from the line formed in front of Captain Spaulding,
but I was too busy standing in that line to get Sid Haig's autograph.

I've been to my fair share of conventions, Comics, Star Trek, Sci-Fi, Electronics, Embedded, Microsoft, AMD, Linux etc.. but somehow I had never made one of these. I had no idea what to expect, but was eerily unsurprised by what I saw.

We skipped on a lot of what ScareFest had to offer, I hear there was even a UFO panel. Next time it comes around, maybe we'll attend the whole weekend, and catch a few panels.

All in all, a fun day, and it certainly surprised MrsCopilot, and in a good way.

MrCopilot

How Shiny is Chrome?

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 07:02:20 PDT

Like everybody else, I was intrigued by Google's latest venture.

A new browser, promising to redesign the browsing experience. Introduced by the company who redesigned all of our browsing habits.

Sarah Palin Video Collection and SNL

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:52:42 PDT

For 30 more days the American Public can ponder their choice for President.
John McCain chose the Governor of Alaska as his Vice Presidential Nominee

If like me, you need to study Sarah Palin interviews and debate video, I am collecting them here.

Thursday October 2nd 2008 Vice Presidential Debate Video
Economic Bailout, Best or Worst of Congress.

Whose fault is the Financial Market Crisis?

David Letterman Top 10 things heard at Sarah Palin's Debate Camp

Katie Couric Sarah Palin Sept 30th - Where do you get your news?

Saturday Night Live Sept 26th Sarah Palin (Tina Fey) Hillary Clinton (Amy Poehler)

Palin's Response

Saturday Night Live Sept Sarah Palin (Tina Fey) Katie Couric (Amy Poehler)

Katie Couric Sarah Palin One on One

Sarah Palin, Joe Biden Roe V Wade CBS News

Sarah Palin, Joe Biden Seperation of Church and State. CBS News

Sarah Palin First Interview ABCNews Charlie Gibson

Sarah Palin America's Top Energy Expert?

Sarah Palin explains her Foriegn Policy Experience

More to come.

MrCopilot

Turns out Resistance isn't futile

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Sun, 04 May 2008 01:38:58 PDT

Yahoo!

Microsoft has officially withdrawn the unsolicited buyout of Yahoo!

quoth the Ballmer:

"...I hereby formally withdraw Microsoft’s proposal to acquire Yahoo!."

and my favorite bit...

Also, after giving this week’s conversations further thought, it is clear to me that it is not sensible for Microsoft to take our offer directly to your shareholders. This approach would necessarily involve a protracted proxy contest and eventually an exchange offer. Our discussions with you have led us to conclude that, in the interim, you would take steps that would make Yahoo! undesirable as an acquisition for Microsoft.

What kind of steps? I just don't know what you are implying.

Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang responded with his own brand of Job'sian Optimism.

Yahoo! is profitable, growing, and executing well on its strategic plan to capture the large opportunities in the relatively young online advertising market. Our solid results for the first quarter of 2008 and increased full year 2008 operating cash flow outlook reflect the progress the company is making....

..."I am incredibly proud of the way our team has come together over the last three months. This process has underscored our unique and valuable strategic position. With the distraction of Microsoft's unsolicited proposal now behind us, we will be able to focus all of our energies on executing the most important transition in our history so that we can maximize our potential to the benefit of our shareholders, employees, partners and users."

I'm proud of you to Jerry. It cannot be easy turning down giant bucket loads of cash. But I'm glad you did.

MrCopilot

Program Note: Everything has changed

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Sat, 03 May 2008 17:16:06 PDT

I'm Sorry,

No really, I apologize.

I recently succumbed to the call of corporate America. I am now employed by an enormous company in a position that was tailor made for my talents, so much so that I had no choice but to accept their more than reasonable offer of employment.

There are benefits to being no longer only self employed. Chief among them is a regular bankable paycheck. Add to that a nice benefit package and a sane work environment and management style. It also doesn't hurt that I love the work and have an opportunity to shape the direction of new Linux products.

But there are also some disadvantages.

First off, my new employer is located in Lexington a good 3hrs and a time zone away from what I have affectionately started to call home. My residence is dead smack in the middle of nowhere. Way out in the country with horses, cows, trees, grass and cropland as far as the eye can see and beyond. It is quiet and friendly. My daughter attends a lovely little school with hometown pride and personal attention. She is just about to finish her first year there, meeting new friends, joining the band, academic and archery teams along the way. She is none too thrilled about moving again so soon. So we (Mom and I) have decided it would be best if we waited at least until the school year was over before undertaking the move.

This leaves me holed up in a, shall we say, less than reputable one room hotel in a questionable area of town during the week.

Secondly, Did I mention there is NO INTERNET. I mean none. Being away from the wife and kid is one thing but the Internet too, this cannot stand.

I have been on a personal boycott of the cell phone industry since its inception because I refuse to be charged by the minute. The cost of maintaining the wireless network is exactly the same whether I am on the phone or not and I see no reason why I should pay for the privilege of using my phone on a metered basis. So for that reason I have been unreachable away from my desk for the last 10 years. Kind of nice, never being interrupted at the grocery store or while driving. Of course it was less than convenient when the car broke down or while traveling. Alright, alright, I bought a prepaid cell phone for a trip to Florida once, but that was it, I swear.

After being in this self imposed disconnected exile for 3 weeks, I could stand it no more. Walking in and around town I come across more than one billboard for an UNLIMITED cell phone plan. I make a note to check it out. During lunch at work I pop on over to their website. Hmmm, no contracts, Unlimited Voice, Text, Picture, Data and Web for $50/month. There must be a catch, right.

Yes, the catch is a limited selection of phones and a limited non-roaming coverage area. Roaming is not included in the Unlimited Minutes. However I only need the phone here and I have no immediate travel plans. So I stopped in one of their offices and picked up the cheapest phone and viola I'm reconnected. Web access (slightly painful, but considerably better than nothing) and more importantly access to my family as needed.

I had considered a mobile broadband solution from Sprint or Verizon but the costs including a ridiculous deposit seemed too high. $250 deposit + $60 a month and a 2 yr contract + the cost of the modem. Then of course I had to ensure it would be Linux compatible (Some are, some aren't.) Versus $115 for my shiny new phone and first months service. Only 50 bucks a month with no contract. No brainer.

Here endeth the Cricket wireless commercial.

So why am I apologizing?

For being a corporate whore?

Nah, lots of us are that and there is no reason to apologize. We all have to eat right.

For giving in to the wireless industry?

I have no regrets, I feel like I haven't compromised my ideals and in fact I am supporting a small newcomer who is actively promoting them. I wish them much success, and if you are in their coverage area check them out, tell em MrCopilot sent you. This will mean nothing to them, but it strokes my ego.

No, the real reason I am apologizing is that I have neglected you, dear readers. Not that I haven't had anything to say these last three weeks. I just feel strongly that my work should be completely separate from this particular web presence. Therefore using their resources to post here feels icky. Even if it is just an email. Plus I really have been very busy both getting up to speed on the various technology I'm now working with and arranging a new life here in the big city.

So you will find nothing here going forward regarding my new employer, it's products or practices.

However, through my job I will be exposed to new things relevant to this blog that I will time to time write about. I would like to point out the obligatory statement, that the opinions expressed here are my own and are in no way to be associated or affiliated with my employer.

MrCopilot

See ya Chuck, Moses dead at 83

noreply@blogger.com (MrCopilot) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 01:47:46 PDT

Moses dead at 83, seems like only 40 years ago Charlton Heston was freeing his people from pharoah and laying down the law.

Sure he was Ben Hur, John the Baptist and Moses (IMDB) but Heston is most memorable to us geeks for his portrayal in 1968's Planet of the Apes.

Spoiler: This is the Ending.

A few words from an admirer of Chuck's

And finally you can watch for his appearance in Tim Burton's remake. The full movie is here, and I promise Chuck is in it ;)

How'd you like to be the coroner's assistant?

Bill, go in there and pry that gun out of his hands will you?

Too Soon?

MrCopilot