The Wrath of Khan....or just poor parenting

I just was browsing around, when I came upon this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/sports/30genetics.html?no_interstitial

Parents now have the ability to go get a DNA test for their children to determine what is the best sport their kid can play?

Bad idea, Bad idea.....

Hmmmmm......

Why not instead have a DNA test to determine if people have the capability of being a parent in the first place?

The idea that we would do DNA testing in the first place to determine the outcome of what is best for someone reeks of what I would like to call the Eugenics Wars.

That was a fictional war set in the Star Trek storyline, where modified genetic "supermen" tried to take over the world in the late 20th century.

Why cant we just allow the kids to play and succeed and fail?

Because we have a serious problem dealing with the simple fact that in life there are times you will lose.

Losing is not necessarily always going to be a bad thing, losing is not in a sense always going to have a negative effect.

How often does a major sports team get to a championship game without during the season take a few losses? (It rarely happens, take the Patriots last year for example)

Parents dont need to worry about the win/loss ratio, let the child succeed in the way he was meant to be.......

Why I wont vote......

I've been really thinking about sitting this election this year, for a lot of reasons.

Politically, I've just about had enough of both the Democrats and Republicans (this has been from someone who has voted Republican the last few elections)

Obama?

McCain?

Please.....

Is this the best the political parties can offer?

One seems to offer socialism which does not fly with me, while the other offers to keep up the war on terror that should of ended a while back.

Neither has an economical plan that will restore this land, it will continue to go on its downhill road.......

Both these parties care very little about my personal freedom, it is more about their manipulation of what they determine freedom to be. (whether it is the Patriot Act, or a "Fairness Doctrine".......)

The problems of "race" continue to rear their ugly head, no matter what has been said or done in the past. Whites hating Blacks, Blacks hating Whites, Hispanics hating Whites, Blacks hating Hispanics, etc etc etc.....

We can thank both these parties for not taking the road, and allowing the media to continue their manipulation of the masses.....

Dont even get me started on the media, as well, they too, are the biggest joke of the land.....

There reporting skills are no better than what is in the bottom of an outhouse...:) Enough said.

The only interest is power anymore, and I will not play that game......

remember...remember.... the 5th of November......

The day this nonsense ends.........

Ipod, Itouch, IPhone......IHate........

Yes it is time for the rant to start on Apple today about their wonderful products that have just changed the world......

I do have 3 of them things, (an older Ipod shuffle, and my 2 of my facehuggers have newer Ipods)

I never paid for any of them, got the shuffle for free from work and my sis gave the other 2 to her nephews.

How much do we use them? Honestly very little, not that we don't like music, we do, but here is what I think the difference is.

Music was meant to open, so all could hear and enjoy and experience. (Now some my dispute that, especially when we hear the boom boom boom going on when driving down the street)

That's why you hear the stereo, or the computer playing music, or the car stereo going here in the hivehousehold (there however is no "boom boom" coming from my car.)

Is the Ipod in a sense a more "selfish" device?

Another reason for the dislike of the Ipod is the fact you have to use software to initialize it, why cant you just plug it in and off and running you go, regardless of the computer platform? (Yes I am a Linux user, I had to set them up first in Windows before I was able to use them with gtkpod in Ubuntu.)

Another reason I don't like them, like all Mp3 players, they can not just store music, but other things as well, such as files, photos, etc etc....I wish they were only designed to work with music only, it would make my life a lot easier as a security analyst.

I guess I'm asking too much....

I don't have an Itouch, for all in a sense all it does the little bit more than the Ipod, but play movies and games...

The Iphone?

Don't get me started......

Why only one phone carrier? Sure you can modify the phone to run another network, but then Apple goes and makes a mess of things if you do.

Software development for the AppStore? What a joke.....

The licensing requirements for software developers to write software to put in the AppStore are so restrictive(Yes Apple did recently remove in the licensing agreement that if you are denied your app, you can now bad mouth Apple for denying your app)

Security:

Its also a joke......

As one security researcher put it in a recent article of Haking magazine:

"The Iphone certainly screams: KICK ME!
I couldn't decide to laugh or cry when I heard that it is running a UNIX-like operating system with all its services configured to run as root. (for those of you not aware, root is the equivalent of an administrator account, making it easier that if a hacker does penetrate the phone, it wont be very difficult to run malware or take over the phone directly.) Apparently someone at Apple decided that they could actually be stupider than Microsoft if they tried (Microsoft for a very long time before Vista encouraged the running of administrator access in their operating systems, leaving them extremely vulnerable for takeover by hackers, botnets, trojans, viruses, etc etc etc)
Well mission accomplished , Apple is going to be fixing and paying for that mistake for a long time."

What else?

The one thing that annoys me about all this is this imaginary level of status that one seems to have if you own any Apple product.

Am I wrong it that in line of thought? Is their something different about people who own Apple products? Are they really that much better than anything else that is out their or in the process of coming out? Is it all just marketing hype?

Just something to think about.....

Remember, remember the 5th of November.....

That wonderful day......when all this election nonsense will come to an end......:)

Sorry I've been a little lame and not keeping up with anything, Im off all next week and will become a blogging fool.......

What are Words For?

After the comments I received from a certain former CEO of a linux based company on my last blog posting, I was quite interested in writing on my next post about the influence of words on people.

"Pesky" seemed to be one he liked to use a lot when addressing so called "facts" of the matter at hand.

Last night I just happened to be watching the news about a case in Dallas at a county commissioner's meeting over an issue of traffic tickets and the Dallas County Collection Office.

"It sounds like Central Collections has become a black hole," said Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield.

Now I assume that at least some of you out their know what a Black Hole is.

If you dont here's a Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackhole

Now after reading that definition, at would appear to seem that what the county commissioner was referring to was that their was a problem with how the process of collection of traffic tickets was occuring into this department. Basically put, it sucked.

But obviously another county commissioner, John Wiley Price, took serious offense to the comment and demanded an apology.

Why might you asked? He considered the comment of a black hole to be "racist", since he was an African American (black) The man who made the comment was Caucasian (white)

He later when on to complain during an interview on the news after the incident about Angel's Food cake being "white" and Devil's Food cake being "black". If your "black sheep" of the family your bad, if your the "white sheep" your good.

All I can say is, what the hell does this have to do with the collection of traffic ticket fines? Could someone in government just start doing their job, first to correct the problems for the benefit of the citizens?

But no.....we have to divert attention and start playing these silly word games fo r the media to pick up.

Mr. Price, what does it mean anymore to you to be human? Is this department your responsibility? If it is, maybe you need to get off your butt and fix it, not get your face splashed all over the media and making a scene.

I dont know if you'll read this, or anyone else who may support you, but I recommend you read the black hole wiki (you might learn something facinating) and have some cake (either is fine, Angel or Devil, their both yummy). Then go to bed and count sheep so you can have a peaceful night sleep.

Pesky I'd say.....

I leave you tonight with lyrics to an old Missing Persons song:

Do you hear me?
Do you care?
Do you hear me?
Do you care?
My lips are moving and the sound's coming out
The words are audible but I have my doubts
That you realise what has been said
You look at me as if you're in a daze
It's like the feeling at the end of the page when you realise
You don't know what you just read.
What are words for
When noone listens anymore
What are words for
When noone listens what are words for
When noone listens
There's no use talking at all.
I might as well go up and talk to a wall
Coz all the words are having no effect at all
It's a funny thing.. am I all alone?
Something has to happen to change the direction
What little filters though is giving you the wrong impression
"it's a sorry state" I say to myself
What are words for
When noone listens anymore
What are words for
When noone listens what are words for
When noone listens
There's no use talking at all.
Do you hear me?
Do you care?
Do you hear me?
Do you care?
Let me get by over your dead body
Hope to see you soon
When will I know?
Doors three feet wide with no locks open
Walking always backwards in faces of strangers
Time could be my friend
But it's less then nowhere now....
Pursue it any further and another thing you'll find
Not only are they deaf and dumb they could be going blind
noone notices
I think I'll dye my hair blue.
Media overload bombarding you with action
It's getting near impossible to cause distraction
someone answer me.. before I pull the plug.
What are words for
When noone listens anymore
What are words for
When noone listens......

How Microsoft destroys your company and doesnt have to try hard to do it.

While I was on vacation this past week I learned that Linspire had been sold to one if its Linux desktop competitors, Xandros

For you who are unaware of Linux, Linspire was previously know as Lindows and came out with a Linux operating system for the desktop that was quite controversial among Linux enthusiasts back in 2001.

After it came out Microsoft sued Lindows over its name, which was eventually settled in 2004 in an out of court settlement when Microsoft realized that there was a probable chance they could lose their own name Windows in a counter suit filed by Lindows. (Lindows became Linspire and received 20 million dollars for it.)

Micheal Robertson was the the original CEO and Chairman and Founder of Lindows\Linspire before passing the reins to Kevin Carmony in 2005.

Linspire was the commercial paid for OS that used CNR, a easy application (and later web based) that allowed you to install Linux applications with one click.

They also released a free version of their operating system called Freespire, that did just about everything Linspire did.

Now this is all more than likely down the drain for the users of Linspire and Freespire and the blame is upon both Robertson and Carmony.

There has been quite a lot back and forth on the web about this, (Carmony going nuts on his website www.kevincarmony.com and Robertson on his; www.michealrobertson.com)

Both have accused the other of impropriety, but I really need to boil down who is at fault here:

Micheal Robertson made a critical error in allowing Kevin Carmony the reins at Linspire. Kevin was never the correct individual to lead a Linux based company.

Kevin Carmony biggest error was getting back into the hands of Microsoft while signing an agreement with Microsoft over patent indemnity (Back in 2007 Microsoft was saying Linux violated over 200 of its patents, what they are are still unknown to this day, but Novell, Linspire, Xandros and TurboLinux believed this garbage and signed on, thinking that if they did Microsoft would not sue any of their customers for using their version of Linux)

Quite the backfire, Microsoft knows that quite well that it is not well liked among Linux users, and Linspire users are in some ways the most vocal.

Quite a large number of them turned their backs on Linspire (myself included) and later in in June 2007 Kevin Carmony resigned from Linspire (He's now doing the screaming about being a shareholder, and now thats down the tubes.)

Micheal Robertson did next to nothing afterwards and let Linspire go down the wayside, more than likely due to the MS agreement. (Kevin claims Micheal gave his full approval of the deal, but I have my doubts, considering the previous suit and various other things. (such as the cash reward for hacking the original XBox and other anti-Microsoft ploys MR did.)

Both these men are equally responsible this Linux desktop disaster, it is unlikely that Xandros will continue with either Linspire or Freespire, CNR will likely become assimilated into the Xandros desktop system.

Not that most Linux users will have anything to do with Xandros, since they too have gone over to the dark side with Microsoft. (Not sure how much time they have either, in a few more years they will also likely be gone)

Congrats to Microsoft on destroying one, if not two other Linux companies. My hats off to you. You did it with the effort of opening Notepad and typing the following:

Suckers!

Biometrics.......a benefit or a threat?

I knew at some point this would have to come up, there are times I am facinated with the technology, and other times just terrified by it.

I like the idea on my ability to privately defend my own property of business with the technology, but not so keen on the idea of having it adopted to be a standard for the general public.

For example, I have a work laptop that I use with a biometric reader. If I swipe my finger there it will allow me access to the laptop and the network. In cases like this, I like the idea of protecting the interests

What I dont want to do is have to go to a merchant, bank, government office and have to swipe my finger as to identify who I am.

Some might say Im making life easier, this better identifies who I am.

If I go and purchase a pair of shoes, what does it matter that I have to go an identify who I am before a purchase? I mean I do that already when I use a credit/debit card anyway.

In some ways I believe the total degradation of human society as a whole has brought us to this level where biometrics will become more and more the norm.

It's funny how people I know will rave about them, they tend to get real quiet if I ever mention Revelation 13 from the Bible.

The first mention I find of the principal of biometrics.....

From nearly two millenia ago......