Various other sources such as Iraq Body Count place the documented civilian casualty at about 100,000.

The US and British mainstream media has been careful to not blatantly discuss the Iraqi civilian casualty for obvious reasons. But there are many lessons to be learned by Bush’s Iraq War.

Whatever Saddam may have been, Iraq under Saddam was a safe country for most Iraqis, and Islamic fundamentalists and terrorist groups had no place in the country.

I think the American people were fooled by the Right Wing Conservatives under Bush, and America made a great and very embarrassing blunder that cannot be erased from the history of the USA.

These conservatives are the same people who claim to follow the word of God. I do not see anything remotely godlike in the behavior of the right wing. If you speak with some of them today, they will talk about how bad Saddam was and how justified the war was for helping the Iraqis. These are the same people who hate generally anyone else not on board with their agenda.

Its supremely important for the USA to realize that war is not a solution for anything and the misery wrongly inflicted on the Iraqis over 9/11 is an indirect equivalent to genocide.

Now that US troops are finally coming home, we should all ask ourselves whether the Iraqi deaths, US troop deaths, coalition troop deaths, economic waste and destruction of a country – was it all worth it?

Is the behavior displayed by the US what the founding fathers intended for the country?

Does the average Iraqi like the USA? I doubt it. I think every home in Iraq probably knows someone who died due to the war and they all now collectively suffer due to an ill advised war. I think while leaving Iraq at this time is not a decent thing to do, it is however a logical move by President Obama as there is no short term solution for Iraq’s stability and there is also no more money to fight anymore wars.  Iraq will be a mess for a long time to come.

Iraqi Civilian Toll Rising:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-10-10-iraq-dead_x.htm

Iraq Body Count:
http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

So between Continental and Emirates, I had to pick an airline.

Now, Emirates has an exceptional cabin crew who seem to come from all parts of the world and seem very nice. Their on-demand in-flight entertainment system is second to none.

Their aircraft look new. Upgrading to business class is easy if you have the points. Unlike other airlines who make a stop at some outdated airport, Dubai International is among the top airports with everything from free WiFi to great coffee conveniently located all over the airport. No wonder I flew with Emirates, and will continue to consider them where possible.

At Dubai, I was able to send a proposal out to a client from the airport while enjoying a Costa coffee (Everything from Starbucks to Panera is also available at the airport). After speaking to a few people on their way to South Africa for the Soccer World Cup, I realized that many people did not fly British Airways due to strike concerns and picked Emirates due to their reputation for punctuality.

I hope that for their own good, airlines crews around the world should realize that operators like Emirates will eat their lunch and dinner in a few years (right now it may just be lunch). But all striking unions seem to do is encourage the demise of organizations who already are unable to globally compete.

In situations where a company has to compete globally, unions have no place and serve no purpose because costs and in turn remuneration will be driven by market forces and not collective negotiation.

Emirates uses a global pool of people for its cabin crew and pilots. Its airport is maintained by Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Filipino labor (cheaper I assume). I doubt strikes are much of an issue for them.

Some more food for thought:
$1 US = $3.67 UAE Dirhams
$1 US at JFK International Airport will NOT get you a bottle of water ($1 will not get you a bottle of water outside the airport easily either, unless you find a vending machine).
At Dubai International Airport, you can get 3 bottles of water and .67 Dirhams in change is yours to keep.

Dubai is in a desert?

While anger towards BP is a localized and short term emotion and likely to dissipate in a few years just like anger towards Exxon, America should be angry at the government who collectively has done very little towards really creating a blueprint for the future of energy and transportation. Americans should also blame themselves as most people seem to think that everyone is entitled to cheap gas. With cheap gas comes a huge demand for it and along with that comes powerful lobbies who make sure that restrictions on oil companies are as weak as they can possibly get.

The latest Time magazine says, that Dick Cheney was responsible for diluting some regulations against the oil industry. With Dick’s record I tend to believe this statement. But let me not pick on Dick, if ultra stringent regulations on the oil industry are not in place today, then the entire political system is to blame. A few months ago President Obama did approve offshore drilling (this decision may already have been reversed). It’s kind of sad to see that politicians really do not have a track record of looking after people that inspires confidence in democracy.

It’s ridiculous to see the number of people who get onto US highways each day. It’s inefficient, costly, environmentally unfriendly and just plain stupid to not have a good nationwide mass travel system in place. How about getting the best of intercity travel technology from Europe or Japan into the US? I would love to see two or three competitors to Amtrak in the country with TGV or Shinkansen type high speed trains.

I once used the TGV from Paris to Brussels and the trip was superb. I got some reading done and I doubt I could have made the trip faster if I drove all the way. The price obviously can’t be beat. But I realize that moving away from highways that now feed a whole industry of automobiles, fast food, gas, toll collectors etc. is not going to happen in one decade or maybe even two. But it needs to start now. So slowly, people can get off the road and into nice clean trains whenever possible.

So let us take this disaster to think about:

• Whether we really need to put the environment or cheap gas ahead in our list of priorities.
• Whether offshore drilling is a bad idea overall
• Whether god intended for oil to remain where he/she put it (i.e. underground)
• Whether all offshore drilling facilities should be scrapped overall
• Can I be happy driving a 4 cylinder automobile instead of a 6 cylinder automobile? Do I need an automobile at all?

I also think that for any broadcast medium to become some sort of a political mouthpiece (in this case the Republican party), leads to a general lack of credibility.

But, there is a wonderful Sci-Fi show called “Fringe” on Fox, that I think is absolutely fantastic and I am somewhat intrigued as to why a TV network embedded with Republican conservative ideology, would air a show that appeals to Sci-Fi enthusiasts who would question even the most basic tenets of the conservative base of the Republican party (Mixing human and animal DNA, Infinite Universes with differences being examples of  such ideas) .

Well, I think the makers of Fringe did realize that, and sprinkled some references to “God” in Walter Bishop’s explanation of what happened to him after he brought back a living version of his dead son from an alternate universe.

My conclusion is that the makers of Fringe wanted an additional season of Fringe on Fox and made a few strategic adjustments. Whether this idea is true or not, Fringe is a welcome addition to Fox.

Softwares tend to leave records within the operating system registry that tells the operating system how and when to access certain files. Unfortunately many of the entries are not removed upon software removal or are just orphaned by the operating system.

The bottom line is that, the larger your registry is, the slower your system is going to get because the registry is accessed frequently by the operating system.  Therefore its a great idea to keep your Windows registry clean and de-fragmented

There are many registry cleaners available. I have used only one paid product and I think its a good one.

The first time I used Uniblue’s RegistryBooster I found a notable decrease in my system’s booting up time. You may also like to look for free registry cleaners. There is a good free registry cleaner available at Eusing.com. Its not in the same league as the Uniblue product but if you are not in the practice of cleaning your registry, this is sure to be worth your while.

The Uniblue RegistryBooster Dialog

Much of it was picked up while browsing dubious file-sharing sites. Some of these fake ad generators are so insidious that a person using an infected computer can do nothing more than buy the fake virus/trojan removal product that is being advertised by the malware.

What I did realize is that only Internet Explorer and Firefox users were typically the victims of these infections. I did not try Safari but Chrome seems impervious to malware such as  “Antivirus XP 2010″ which tries to trick you into buying a fake anti-virus product.

Some research revealed that Chrome’s got a sandbox mode of controlling content within each tab where malicious code on one tab cannot do anything outside that tab.

So, while you may like any particular browser, if you are browsing some strange websites, do use Chrome – even temporarily.  Personally, I like the Firefox interface best.

Peter Schilling’s English Version of Major Tom (The original was in Deutsch)

The Shiny Toy Guns version which is quite awesome

I needed an internet access point for a VoIP phone and I have a wireless network setup. At about $35 or so, the ZyXEL WAP3205 seemed to be the cheapest wireless router with abilities as a Repeater and Bridge router also.

With a little bit of tinkering, I was able to get the desired function as a bridge router/local access point working correctly out of this router. However the unit is poorly documented and the Quick Start guide is practically useless. I found a more extensive manual for the unit on the ZyXEL site. As a primary wireless router, avoid this unit. There is no DHCP.

But as a repeater or as a bridge router, this product shines. Just do the following below:

• Get into “Expert Mode”
• Go to Maintenance
• Click on SysOp Mode and change to “Client” or “Universal Repeater”.
• Now go to “Configuration” and click on “LAN”.
• Set an IP address that is not in use within your network for the router. For example 192.168.1.6. The manual will tell you to use 192.168.1.2 which probably is already being used by another device on your network.
• Now click on Wireless LAN and select the wireless network you wish to connect to.
  The rest is easy.

If you need to reset the router, just press the “Reset switch” with a sharp implement for more than 5 seconds and the factory defaults will be loaded up. For just a reboot of the device press the reset switch for about 1 second.

Just to make things clear:
When would you use a Wireless Repeater?
If you have a large house or office and you wished to extend the reach of your wireless internet signal you would use a Wireless repeater. It would be best if you used a wireless repeater from the same company that manufactured your primary wireless router. A lot of Netgear routers have a “Repeating Function” built in. Check if this is the case with either your current router or a spare router if you have one lying around before buying the ZyXEL or any other router.

When would you use a Wireless Bridge Router?
If you have a desktop PC or any gadget with no wireless internet capabilities that you wish to connect to a router using an Ethernet cable, you should get a wireless bridge router. The device would connect to a pre-existing wireless network and give you local access points to connect to using an Ethernet cable.

Anything better than the ZyXEL?
Of course. On eBay I saw some RangeMax series Netgear routers for under $20.

The Coby DVD-233 is a cheaply made DVD player and currently available from Buy.com and several other places for about $30. This DVD player can be set to play DVDs with any region code by turning it into a region free DVD player with a simple hack/procedure.  I have several DVDs   I’d purchased from visits abroad that I’d never watched in years and the Coby DVD-233 is the perfect solution.

Here’s the hack: (All of the following are to be done using only your remote)

1. Turn on the player and eject the tray using your remote.

2. Press “MENU”, 8, 8, 8, 8 on the remote. You should see 5 asterisks near the top left of your screen.

3. Press DISPLAY. A dialog box will show the current region code.

4. Press 0. A new dialog box shows 0 (region free) and a warning. Ignore the warning and don’t press any keys on the remote.

5. Close tray using the remote control. Turn the device off and on again and the DVD player is now region free.