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NEW: For a prettier blog interface, see the Wordpress version!
Headlines for Friday:
- Looking for a personal board of directors (884 words)
- Livin' la Vida Emacs (485 words)
- Planet Emacsen (25 words)
- Keeping track of the age of messages (177 words)
- Heavy stuff nearer floor = good (109 words)
- Don't sell; help people buy (151 words)
|@1215 Lunch with Marsha Chechik
|@1530-1630 at the ISC: Working in Canada seminar : E-Mail from Dermot Brennan
|@1900 Matei's school trustee campaign fundraiser : E-Mail from Karen Quinn Fung
|@2100-0100 Alternatango party?
|Catch up on IBM blogosphere
|Prepare room for new roommate
|Sort out my inbox
|Clear other bed
|Buy more stackable storage containers
|Clear desk
|FIx closet
|Clear under closet
|Move my suitcases under closet
|Write a Gnus function that keeps track of how old a message is
|Report lost card
|Meeting with Barry Wellman
|FSOSS symposium
1. Looking for a personal board of directors: 02:25
I won't be going to the Free Software and Open Source Symposium tomorrow because I'm meeting Stephen Perelgut and a possible mentor for lunch.
I'm really lucky to know people like Stephen Perelgut, who reminded me in his e-mail:
And, for the record, you are in a rush. You may not know it yet, but you're very ready for a mentor. Just accept that the inner-parent in me "knows".
I need a mentor. I need more than one mentor, actually. If I'm thinking of being in Canada for a while, I'll need a whole new personal board of directors. I miss talking to my parents, my godparents, and other people back home. It's hard to talk about everything, though, because so much context is missing. I can't blog everything, and it's hard to explain things over the Internet! I need people I can talk to here.
I'm growing rapidly, and opportunities unfold everywhere I turn. I need to make sure that I'm growing sustainably and in the right direction(s). I have a lot of hats on at the moment, and I'm having a hard time fully living up to some roles. Here's what's on my plate:
- Graduate student (MIE1402, KMD2004)
- Researcher (IBM CAS project, University of Toronto)
- IBM 2.0 evangelist - I could do a whole lot more than I am right now
- Graduate House Council member - sustainable
- VP Education, Toastmasters - I don't do enough to help out with this
- Daughter, sister - I don't keep in touch well enough
- Friend - I don't keep in touch well enough
And somewhere in there is the networking I also care about and love doing...
I have a number of goals, too, and I need help figuring out which goals really matter to me and how I can go about accomplishing them. My short-term goals are easy to figure out:
- Finish my schoolwork.
- Finish my thesis.
But I'm not spending all my waking hours doing these things because I'm also trying to build a few more things before I need them. An excellent professional and personal network. A personal brand. Useful skills.
I remember how my very first roommate finished her project with CAS, looked up, and found herself without any job offers despite having a MS from the University of Toronto. I don't think I'll be in that situation, and even if I were, I have confidence in my contingency plans. (I can do a lot of cool stuff in the Philippines!) So it's not that I'm in a rush to do all of these things, to write that bestselling book, etc. I know there's time.
I have to admit, though, that it's *very* hard to resist the urge to focus on things outside my short-term goals. I feel that I could make such a difference if I concentrate on, say, IBM 2.0 evangelism: pour myself into it, devote my energies to it, make it happen. I feel that the time would be right for such things, too. Thanks to the constant reminders of my research manager (Hi Julie!) and the occasional restraining hand placed on my head (Stephen's figured out how to get me to stop bouncing, at least temporarily), I do manage to resist it. Barely.
This is one of the reasons why I really need a board of directors whom I can tell about opportunities, ask for advice, think things out loud with, hold myself accountable to...
And I'm surrounded by wonderful, wonderful, wonderful people whom I am glad to have as part of my life and whom I would love to include in whatever successes I may have.
Quinn Fung, Dan Howard, and Jed Smith have taught me so much about love and friendship. I owe them big time.
Stephen Perelgut is practically on my board already, what with all his help and support. I'm really, really grateful for his help.
Gabriel Mansour has volunteered to be on my board. He's my crazy-idea go-to person who can enthuse about my crazy ideas and help me figure out how to make things happen.
Ian Garmaise has taught me a lot about networking and speaking, and I look forward to learning more from him.
There are others, but it's 2 in the morning and I need to sleep at some point. =) And of course, there's my extended circle of mentors, and that could include you reading my blog: thank you for putting up with my random thoughts and telling me about everything from how to prepare really good oatmeal to free software evangelism opportunities!
So yeah, I need a board of directors. They don't have to read my blog (I write way too much), but I'd like to keep in touch with them quarterly at least. Probably monthly, as I'm changing so much. I need that help as I'm growing. I also need to find role models who have succeeded at the things I want to do, so that I can learn from their insights...
I'm 23 years old. I haven't quite figured out life yet. With your help and theirs, I'm slowly getting there.
E-Mail from Stephen Perelgut
On Technorati: life, reflection, career
Random Emacs symbol: ps-mule-plot-composition - Function: Generate PostScript code for plotting composition in the region FROM and TO.
2. Livin' la Vida Emacs: 02:40
Squee! <bounce, bounce, bounce>
Last, and certainly not least was Sacha Chua. If we could harness it I'm pretty sure we could power a few small cities of the energy that's contained in this one, tiny person - especially when you get her talking about Emacs. Sacha's demo, entitled, "Livin' la vida Emacs" was hands down the most entertaining of the evening. Sacha has basically taken this simple, extendable text editor and pushed it about as far as it can go - at DemoCamp10 she pulled back the curtain and showed us all her little systems and apps she's created in it. I like my GUI/Windows so the whole text-based thing isn't for me but it certainly was interesting to see just how strung out she's got that machine.
DemoCamp 10 was held last night, and three of the five presentations were from U of T. Sana Tapal (now at Jonah Group) and Andrey Petrov led off with the Online Marking tool; Jonathan Lung (who was part of the student team that presented at DemoCamp 5) showed us all how productive PHP procrastination can be; and Sacha Chua tried to convince us that Emacs isn't actually bad for you. The other two demos were a social networking/quotes site called Quotiki.com, and Broken Tomb, which advertises itself as the world's first commercial Smalltalk host. There wasn't any new technology, but the presenters were entertaining, and it was fun to read the stuff that flashed by on the screen during their demo; the Smalltalk demo had a lot of technical and other difficulties.
Demo Camp Toronto 10 : The return to MARS
Sacha Chua showed off what can be done in the scriptable environment, in this case emacs, as she went from Text editor, to a.i. doctor, to game engine to task / email organizer and beyond. Sacha was six feet tall on that stage, even though she did not actual levitate at anytime (although she came close, as always). A Tour de force of the Emacs, a text editing tool built in a interpreted lisp language environment, bascially a personalized productivity platform which allows for massive customization. Sacha had the crowd entertained and enthralled. (Sacha blogged her own impressions and mentions that Emacs was speaking to her!)
What would you do with Sacha Chua?
Within Toronto's Web community, Sacha Chua has become one of the leading "personalities". Armed with infectious enthusiasm, charm and smarts, she would be an excellent person to hire once she graduates from UoT. The key question is how best to use her talents. It would probably be as a "super customer service rep, who can come into a bad situation and get everyone happy by the time she leaves. If I was an HR person from Microsoft, IBM,, etc. I'd be knocking on Sacha's door ASAP.
3. Planet Emacsen: 02:43
http://planet.emacsen.org/ by Edward O'Connor. 'Nuff said! =D
On Technorati: emacs, pimpmyemacs
Random Emacs symbol: ido-subdir - Face: *Font used by ido for highlighting subdirs in the alternatives.
4. Keeping track of the age of messages: 19:35
I can get pretty bad at responding to e-mail. This is an experiment to see whether the negative reinforcement of seeing just how old a message is will help me be more responsive. Either that, or I can strive for a Mean Time Between Responses of whatever... ;)
Hmm, maybe I should combine this with my blog and start distinguishing between E-mail to and Reply to...
(defadvice gnus-post-news (around sacha/gnus-track-message-age activate) "Insert a header showing how old a message is, to shame me into replying faster." ;; Before you post the news, figure out how old it is (let (days) (when article-buffer (setq days (- (time-to-days (current-time)) (time-to-days (gnus-date-get-time (mail-header-date (gnus-summary-article-header (gnus-summary-article-number)))))))) ad-do-it (when days (goto-char (point-min)) (when (re-search-forward "--text follows this line--" nil t) (forward-line 1) (insert "In reply to a message sent by " (mail-header-from message-reply-headers) " " (cond ((= days 0) "today") ((= days 1) "yesterday") (t (format "%d days ago" days))) ": \n\n"))))) (setq message-citation-line-function nil)
On Technorati: emacs, pimpmyemacs, gnus
Random Emacs symbol: tramp-perl-directory-files-and-attributes - Variable: Perl script implementing `directory-files-attributes' as Lisp `read'able
5. Heavy stuff nearer floor = good: 20:06
I can't believe I hadn't thought of this earlier. The perfect place for my heavy suitcases is, of course, *on the floor* instead of on the top shelf. Granted, the suitcases very neatly fit on the top shelf and that's the best way to keep them out of the way, but it was just such a mission (and a hazard!) getting them up there in the first place. The sweater organizers I use to keep matching clothes together easily squish up to accommodate the suitcases under them.
Slowly figuring out how to organize my stuff.
Random Emacs symbol: eval-expression-print-length - Variable: Value for `print-length' while printing value in `eval-expression'.
6. Don't sell; help people buy: 20:33
A book I'm reading right now (151 Quick Ideas to Get New Customers, by Jerry R. Wilson) notes that people hate it when you sell to them, but love it when you help them buy. That could be why Microsoft's evangelists are now called advisors, which makes sense in the more-about-helping-you kind of way.
I've gotten many positive comments about the unofficial title of "evangelist" that's in my ~/.signature and my business card. I'm thinking of changing that, though, to reflect market trends. ;)
I'm not too keen on "advisor" because I'm younger than most people, but "advocate" might be a fun word to try. There seems to be an interesting distinction between a technical advocate and a technology advocate. I feel that a technical advocate is someone who's on your side, and a technology advocate is on the technology's side. Hmm...
Something to think about and test on other people.
E-mail sent
- E-mail to Marsha Chechik
- Reply to Stephen Perelgut - sent today
- E-mail to Mark Greenspan
- E-mail to Joy Van Baren
- E-mail to Dennis Sy
- Reply to Stephen Perelgut - sent today
- Reply to Johann Oskarsson - sent yesterday
- Reply to Rodney Buike - sent yesterday
- Reply to Paul Lussier - sent today
- Reply to Paul Lussier - sent today
- Reply to john.sturdy - sent today
- Reply to Helen Overland - sent today
- Reply to Carlos Sia - sent today
- E-mail to Xuan-Yen Van-Cao
- E-mail to Stephen Perelgut
- E-mail to Sacha Chua
- E-mail to Karen Fung
- E-mail to planner-el-discuss
- E-mail to Chin Wong
- E-mail to Romain Francoise, Edward O'Connor
- E-mail to Stephen Perelgut
- E-mail to Geebee Bulanon
- E-mail to ILONA POSNER, Karen Quinn Fung, Gabriel Mansour
- E-mail to Mira Jelic
- E-mail to Andy Lester, Eric Bower, Richard Dice, Dan Friedman, Michael Graham
I'd love to hear about any questions, comments, suggestions or links that you might have. Your comments will not be posted on this website immediately, but will be e-mailed to me first. You can use this form to get in touch with me, or e-mail me at [email protected] .


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I was browsing around my local Carphone Warehouse shop last week. Unlike the last time I crossed their threshold (November) I noticed that their Ubuntu netbook display had vanished. There was only one netbook on display and it was advertised as running Windows XP. Their website also advertised the Asus EeePC with Windows XP too. I approached a sales person to ask about a GNU/Linux option on the Elonex and was informed that they no longer stocked them. What when wrong? I decided to investigate.
What went wrong?
This problem goes back to November when conflicting reports emerged that customers who purchased their WebBook as they called it, hosting Ubuntu on an Elonex white machine, were reported as returning them in numbers up to 20%. There were further reports that not only had the machines been returned by disgruntled customers but that Carphone Warehouse had actually recalled all machines running Ubuntu. Carphone Warehouse have denied this but the rumours persisted and at any rate I only saw Windows netbooks (and if you visit to their UK website you will search in vain for anything with GNU/Linux installed on it).
The main problem as reported seems to be that once purchasers got their netbooks home and started exploring the pre-installed GNU/Linux they couldn't cope with it. "Unfamiliar" and "confusing" were two of the words used and "an issue of consumer understanding". It wasn't what they were used to, apparently. A number of questions immediately spring to mind: first, these machines came with Ubuntu, a version of GNU/Linux that, whatever else you say about it, couldn't be more user friendly to free software novices. Mark Shuttleworth and Canonical have bent over backwards to make it easy to use. Many geeks/power users think it has gone too far in making concessions to first time users of GNU/Linux in terms of emphasizing the GUI and burying the command line but they know that if Windows users are ever to jump ship the plunge has to be as easy and painless as possible.
It can't be beyond Windows users to find their way around without the equivalent of Sat Nav
No novice is going to dip their toes in the water with distros like pure Debian or Gentoo. So, why are unhappy buyers returning their purchases? Did the sales people at Carphone Warehouse not explain to prospective buyers that they would be using Ubuntu and give a quick demo? I understand that there was no official link up with Canonical on promoting Ubuntu and that may have been detrimental to promoting it in terms of educating users. Any Windows user would at home with the Gnome or Kubuntu interface in terms of the start menu and the programmes listed therein, so it can't be beyond them to find their way around without the equivalent of Sat Nav. That raises the second question: since Carphone Warehouse were selling these netbooks as part of their mobile internet package (sign up for a mobile contract and get the computer free or just buy it stand alone), did they ensure that Ubuntu came with out of the box functionality? In other words, did the wireless card and the mobile internet just work without the user requiring specialist GNU/Linux skills?
If this answer is yes then I cannot see what the problem was for the average Windows user. However, some users have reported problems in that area. Hardy Heron was the Ubuntu version on their netbook; although my mobile internet (3G) worked more or less out of the box with Intrepid Ibex (four mouse clicks to get online) it seems it may not have with the earlier version of Ubuntu. Surely Carphone Warehouse would not have started selling this machine without ensuring out of the box compatibility with wireless and mobile internet working? Did Carphone Warehouse get their marketing right, or was there just no proper marketing, full stop?
If the product fails, change the consumer?
The only problem that might have flummoxed the average Windows refugee would have been installing software on the command line or via Synaptic. I'll give you that. The sad truth is that there is a limit to how transparent you can make a distribution for new users. That is perhaps why Carphone Warehouse should have linked up with Canonical to ensure that users had a relatively painless introduction to software management on their netbooks. Of all the things that confuse Windows users most it seems to be installing software.
80% did not return their WebBooks. For a distro that many haven't heard of that's really not so bad after all
If there had been a Canonical link up, it would not have been beyond the wit of man to install a default help page after booting up their desktop to explain to users that Ubuntu used something called repositories (pre-installed) as a source of free software which can be installed via a simple GUI called Synaptic and perhaps include a video tutorial to show users how to do it through the GUI or even on the command line (and above all explain about
su, depending on the distro). Thus, if the wireless/mobile has been pre-configured at point of sale and software installation has been explained, then even the most technologically-challenged Windows users should not be returning their shiny new netbook to the store. As it is, before we are crushed by that 20% return rate we should remember that this means that 80% did not return their purchases. For a distro that many haven't heard of that's really not so bad after all.
This brings me to the third point: I did not actually see Ubuntu Hardy Heron running on that Elonex Whitebook so I don't know if it was the normal Gnome desktop or, like the Asus EeePC Xandros distro or the Acer Inspire One, running a highly customised version of Debian and Fedora respectively. It seems to me that the hardware vendors shipping these machines take a rather patronising view of their prospective customers along the lines that they are too stupid to cope with a conventional GNU/Linux interface. So, they hide it all behind a Fisher Price, tabbed interface which not only looks childish but actually may make understanding more difficult. This "dumbing down" may be predicated on the assumption that netbooks are for viewing whilst laptops are for doing. There is probably some truth in that, though it will not deter free software veterans from tinkering with their machines to do things never intended by the vendors. Nevertheless, even these simple tabbed interfaces may be too much for some users.
Perhaps it is time for the vendors to stop hiding the operating system behind these interfaces. They don't do it for Windows on netbooks. Why not? The obvious reason is that Windows have the overwhelming share of the market in the home and, more importantly,in the office so familiarity is guaranteed--especially with in-house training. So, vendors seem to think that users need to be treated like blind, new-born kittens who have to be taken by the scruff of the neck and have their faces shoved into a bowl of milk for their own good. The only consolation is that if GNU/Linux remains a niche operating system on all hardware platforms, there will at least be relative safety in small numbers. I sometimes shudder to think what would happen if free software achieved critical mass density and Windows users adopted it en masse.
Give me idiot-proof computing or give me death
Despite what my colleague Ryan Cartwright has said about the opportunities for GNU/Linux in an economic downturn (and I think his article certainly has validity) there is no gain saying the determination of Windows users to demand idiot-proof computing on a level that might put idiots to shame and you can't stop them for paying a premium for the privilege. Economic circumstances may be propitious but, given user resistance, these are not the conditions for the perfect Linux storm; although if hardware vendors are trying to cut costs, throwing Microsoft licencing costs overboard would make for significant saving to be passed onto the customer. Ironically, GNU/Linux has done Windows user a big favour as Microsoft had to extend the shelf life of XP to accommodate netbooks and also reduce the cost to OEMs for its licence but this, combined with user resistance may not be the GNU/Linux Trojan horse that some envisage. It could backfire.
We need critical users, not passive consumers, like tethered Beagles in a tobacco laboratory
I hope I am wrong. Netbooks and the current global economy may be the binary combination that changes the rules of the game once and for all but unless and until someone waves a magic wand and transforms Windows users into active, critical users instead of passive consumers like tethered Beagles in a tobacco laboratory GNU/Linux adoption may always be driven by vendor and retail priorities. Meanwhile, for GNU/Linux users netbooks are a gift from the Gods. Let's make the most of them before we all have to buy them with Windows pre-installed, pay for a licence we don't want and install free operating system instead.
making the transition easier
I've been doing Linux installs for friends, family and different non-profits for a few years and whenever I've give Live CDs to people who are new to Gnu-Linux over 3/4 choose KDE.
I try to make it as recognizable as possible to them and that means making it look like Windows. Heck, I even give them the XP tacky blue if they so desire.
Its about making it easier for the user.
As someone who uses KDE, E17, XCFE, Gnome, XP, Vista and OS10 during the day, GUIs means little to me. Most of my desktops consists of the same wallpaper of my kids, have 6 icons and a disappearing taskbar so they often look identical but I work with enough Gnu-Linux newbies that I have gotten to know what makes the feel more confortable and what stumps them.
Gnu-Linux desktops are not harder to use that Mac. Different is just different and that enough is barrier to switching over and I think that KDE would make it easier for transitioning people over.
This isnt about which desktop is 'better', this is about which desktop can make the switch easier, which desktop can look like the Windows they are used to. Yes, even Vista.
What I would like to see from distros and even software is easy modes like the netbooks have.
Give the full monty OS but also have an easy mode for newbies to transition them easily to Gnu-Linux (I know a lot of Acer and Dell users who just use the easy mode. its enough for them). They can then stay with it or eventually see what the whole OS has to offer.
Imagine the same for software where a program like Audacity and KDEnlive has an easy mode for people who just want to do the basic 5 most used features like the fruit company does but one click allows those who want more to use the full program.
Do we disagree then?
Despite what my colleague Ryan Cartwright has said ... Economic circumstances may be propitious but, given user resistance, these are not the conditions for the perfect Linux storm
Hmm I'm not so sure we disagree here. I didn't say that the economic downturn would provide conditions for any kind of "Linux storm". I actually said ..
I also suspect that desktops (and laptops, net-books etc.) running a free operating systems would have increased this year anyway. It seems to have been heading that way despite any economic downturn. ... I see no reason why a change in economic circumstances would alter that trend.
My argument was actually that take-up of free software is on the increase year-on-year and an economic downturn would not prove a catalyst to speed that up.
As for vendors treating users like new-born kittens : yes they do and will continue to do so until (unless?) those customers vote with their feet. There has always been a section of the IT sales industry which wants to commodotise the computer. Those who want to turn it into a turnkey device akin to a TV (which is ironic seeing as most TVs these days have a confusing array of options which are mostly left untouched). As long as the consumer is prepared to be thus treated the vendor will be happy to oblige. But none of that means that Windows is the answer. Microsoft is doing itself no favours with regards ease-of-use. UAC, DRM and indeed the entire mess that is Vista has been a real shot in the foot for those in Redmond. For the first time significant numbers of Windows users are beginning to question the wisdom of using that particular OS. And that's not just the tech-literate ones but the ones who bought their first ever PC from PC-World and didn't even realise it came with Windows (or that there was an alternative).
I've said this before but the days of paid-for, restrictive software licencing are numbered. How long will it take before we see a real change? I don't know. It won't be very soon but the slip has started. If vendors choose to continue to patronise their customers and waste their resources on archaic licencing that will eventually be their downfall as their competitors start to make real savings and real effect by treating their customers as people.
Equitas IT Solutions - fairness, quality, freedom http://www.equitasit.co.uk
"Fisher Price" tabbed interface
The tabbed interface on the Xandros-based Eee PC makes it practically unusable, IMHO. (Really, Fisher Price should feel insulted by the comparison).
I think sometimes that developers go too far in trying to "dumb down" the interface. After all, the dumbest, easiest-to-use interface is that of a brick. It's also the most pointless!
The value of a UI is not just that it's easy, but that it's easy to do what you want to do.
I can do with my Eee PC exactly what the manufacturer wanted me to be able to do with it, but that isn't much. Nor is it what I want the machine for (it's not even close).
For example, I can't even run gvim on it as it stands now.
My solution of course, will be to reinstall the O/S and put something with a (fairly) conventional KDE front end on it. But this will take some time.
Just getting a terminal emulator is a major pain in the tabbed interface. I go to the "work" tab, click on "File Manager", select "View->Show All Files Systems" (Duh), Browse "up", click on "All File Systems", then browse down to /usr/bin, find "xterm" and double-click! "Piece of cake". Seriously, it's that annoying.
Horses for courses
I used to agree with you but recently I've given EeePC to colleagues who praised the "simplicity" of the interface. The EeePC is not their main computer and their usage of it is generally as a kind of super-PDA.
For some the UI is exactly what they needed and having just those few icons -- reasonably well organised -- makes sense. It drives me nuts but that's because I have an aversion to systems which hide things they think I don't need to see.
As we say over here : horses for courses.
PS: In the standard interface Ctrl+Shift+T gives you a terminal and for the people I give EeePC's to, a terminal would scare the pants off them. That's why I started using zenity.
- -
Equitas IT Solutions - fairness, quality, freedom http://www.equitasit.co.uk
Joe Doe is too lazy to learn something new
Linux had a great opportunity with Netbooks, Asus started its netbook with Linux only! And now not only we have Asus netbooks with Windows XP, but this is by far the most sold version of their netbooks.
Linux has failed to capture the netbook market, sad but truth, Joe Doe used Windows at school, at work and at the library, why learn a new OS? Why cant he have his favourite Windows only game/application?
Oh yes, Linux has better alternatives for those applications, but Joe Doe does not have the time neither the interest in learning something new.
Who is "Linux"?
You write a lot about the opportunities and chances that "Linux" has/had but to whom are you referring? There is no central body that markets GNU/Linux so who exactly has missed these opportunities?
The distributions ? -- They don't make the hardware and the people that do have grown up on a diet of Microsoft OEM discounts, it will take them a while to take huge risks. Make no mistake Asus' aim with the EeePC was to raise the profile of Asus -- nobody else. Microsoft saw what was happening and stepped in to woo Asus: Asus have revealed their nature but you know what? That's fine. Canonical have launched the netbook version of Ubuntu and -- from what I can tell -- are keen to work with companies like Asus & Dell.
The community ? -- We can't agree on what browser we should specify as default -- let alone how to market a distribution. And you know what: we shouldn't have to -- that's the point. Free software works best when it's not embroiled in a beauty contest.
So let's stop referring to "Linux" as an entity/body/company that can make such decisions and can relate to outdated concepts like marketing and OEM licencing. If "Joe Doe" doesn't care about what OS he uses that's up to him -- and it always should be. Free software is not about money, it's not about making money from "products", it's not about selling, it's not about reacting to "market" forces and it's not about telling customers what they should be thinking. It's about giving Joe an option, it's about giving him real choices and power over his computer and it doesn't fit into a 20th century model of software.
Those Asus netbooks running an 8 year old operating system can be upgraded quite simply to a more modern one you know -- and at zero cost. Also have you noticed that as soon as Windows got involved the "lightweight" and "handy" netbooks started getting faster CPUs, more RAM, increased storage space and a higher price tag. Why would Joe Doe spend £300 on a netbook when he can buy a £360 notebook? He may be too lazy to learn a new OS but I'll bet the salesperson will still be able to direct him towards a Vista laptop for an extra £60. Asus hit on a niche in the market and then moved the EeePC out of it. It is -- to my mind -- much more useful as a 1kg super-PDA than as a 2kg mini-notebook.
- -
Equitas IT Solutions - fairness, quality, freedom http://www.equitasit.co.uk
I have to agree on the significance of the market niche that the early "netbook" computers struck. As a matter of fact, I do not and will not carry a "conventional" PDA, and I don't like "smart phones". The reason is simple: I can't stand the crippled interface. I want something with a keyboard.
I also want something fully programmable, and that's where GNU/Linux takes the cake.
The point is, as I said in my previous post: no manufacturer out there really understands what I need from my "PDA". I don't really even want them to. I want to have the freedom to make it do what I want.
I might use a laptop, but it would be overkill for my needs: too heavy, too fragile, and too expensive. I don't want to be burdened by one (neither physically due to the weight or psychologically due to the expense and fragility).
Where the netbooks need to go is downscale integration with PDA-like devices: inclusion of camera and phone features, and increased battery life to facilitate daily and travel use without relying so heavily on charging. This way you could opt to carry a netbook instead of carrying several separate devices.
You know what we're looking for here is a tricorder. I don't know why the manufacturers can't see that -- did they not watch Star Trek when they were kids or what? I'm pretty happy with my communicator. Phasers will have to wait, I suppose. :-) (Oh wait, I have got that laser pointer keychain...).
few buttons
Well, I won't argue... having only a few buttons to worry about is good. Especially when the screen and keyboard are small. A "super PDA" is exactly how I see the Eee. It's just that for my needs, the buttons provided are the wrong buttons.
And of course, with desktop icons and launcher bar, KDE can give you very nearly the same level of simplicity as the Eee's tabbed interface, but with the flexibility to pick which buttons you want (and even change them from time to time as needed).
In fact, I really think the tabs would be fine, if I could just figure out how to add new application buttons and/or tabs to them. It's not being able to edit them that is frustrating. I suppose there's probably a configuration file in
/etc somewhere, though I haven't gone looking for it.
In the standard interface Ctrl+Shift+T gives you a terminal
Now I find out. Thanks for the tip!
What I can't figure out now is what hotkey I keep hitting that throws the keyboard into kinput/Kanji mode. Whatever it is, it doesn't work the way my desktop system does (on which I use canna and kinput2-canna for Japanese text). I mean it's nice that I can type kanji, but most of the time, I still want "romaji" (Western characters). It's so frustrating, because the only way I know to stop it is to launch a new terminal.
I'm figuring it'll all change when I reinstall the O/S, though.
My experience has been that
My experience has been that the biggest challenge that great ideas have is nobody seems to have enough free time to head them up and develop them. Not complaining just observing.
caderea parului


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Berlin's Coolness Versus Stockholm's Experience
A recent report that sought to rank the world's tech centers put Silicon Valley top and Tel Aviv second. What was more surprising was that Berlin came only 15th behind London—and what was perhaps stranger still was that Stockholm was not even on the list.
Given the success of Sweden's technology sector, Stockholm's absence from the Startup Ecosystem Index—which was pulled together by Startup Genome in association with Telefonica—may prompt some head scratching. You can rattle off a list of truly leading Swedish companies: music streaming service Spotify (now based in London), which is valued at around $3 billion; Klarna, valued at close to $1 billion; and of course Skype (which Estonia also has a claim to), which was sold to Microsoft for $8.5 billion.
Then there is a whole raft of companies bubbling just below the surface, such as social-gifting company Wrapp, voice-over IP provider Rebtel, card-payment service iZettle, content management system maker Episerver, Mojang makers of Minecraft, mobile-casino company LeoVegas, and many more.
Scandinavian venture-capital firm Creandum reported last year that between 1992-2010 of the €24.3 billion ($31.82 billion) created in exits—the valuations achieved when companies are sold or floated—€10.5 billion ($13.7 billion) came from Sweden.
Another natural advantage that Stockholm appears to hold over Berlin is the size of its relative market, according to Sonali De Rycker based in the London office of Accel Partners.
"Swedish companies benefit from having a nice local test market where they can dominate and perfect their service early on, while needing to cater to an international market to get to any scale. QlikTech and Spotify are great examples of this. By comparison, German companies face a bigger fight at home and historically could afford to focus solely on the local market." A point echoed by Turkish VC Ali Karabey: "Being in a small market pushes one to have a global mindset, hence to be more creative and take more risk. Just like Israel."
So what is it about Stockholm that allows it to be cast in a gloomy Scandinavian shadow while Berlin—which has yet to prove itself—steals the limelight?
There is a cultural issue. When you visit the region there is a concept that you encounter not just in Sweden, but other Scandinavian countries, called Jantelagen. While hard to translate directly, it essentially tells Swedes "don't think you are so special." It tells them not to get above themselves, not to believe their ideas are any better than anyone else's.
It could be that Swedes are just not very good at telling the rest of the world how good they are. Or could it be something even more simple? Swede Jacob de Geer, CEO of iZettle, says that when it comes to sheer coolness, Berlin triumphs. "Berlin to me is such a vibrant and cool city. Stockholm couldn't really bring that degree of coolness to the table."
But doesn't experience trump youth? According to Stockholm-based banker Per Roman of GP Bullhound, "Stockholm today has a mature and vibrant startup and growth community fueled by successful entrepreneurs with significant experience in their past. This experience pool gives the scene a real ability to grow not only cool concept companies but sustainable businesses.
"Berlin on the other hand—and I say this with a big love for Berlin—is much more of a young scene. There are loads of ideas and plenty of capital but much of it is managed by first-time entrepreneurs. A few will succeed but many will fail as is appropriate when you test your entrepreneurial wings for the first time."
This difference in experience is one to which many refer. Davor Hebel a partner at London-based VC Fidelity Growth Partners said, "I think Stockholm is an important innovation center and definitely does not receive as much praise as it should.
"Berlin is more of a recent phenomenon, akin to a hyped startup with little revenue. You have to look into the future to justify the hype but it might be a real game changer if it happens."
Those who are in the German capital are in no doubt. "Cast your mind back 10 years ago and there was very little in terms of industry here, but now there's this trend of rejuvenation that extends beyond the start-up scene to the city itself and that is fascinating," says Jens Begemann of games maker Wooga. "Berlin has much to prove in the next 10 years, but I believe it has a very good chance of exceeding those expectations."
This eye on the future, not the past, is a point echoed by one of the leading lights of the Berlin tech scene, although he himself is a Swede, Alexander Ljung of Soundcloud. "Berlin is building a foundation for a lot of companies. Stockholm is done. There is no change. Berlin is where the change is happening."
Berlin trades on its Bohemian past, on its counter-cultural present and on its high-tech future. "Berlin ist arm, aber sexy," the "poor but sexy" tag from Berlin's mayor Klaus Wowereit has helped define the city, and certainly anyone who spends anytime there is quickly seduced by its vibrant atmosphere and, yes, coolness.
But it has to be that investment decisions involving millions of dollars are made on more than which city is more cool and sexy—surely?
This is a cross post of my weekly column


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Breast cancer high risk programTuesday, April 1st, 2014
Jayne Charlamb, MD, medical director of prevention and survivorship at Upstate, talks about a program designed for women who are at an increased risk of breast cancer. Charlamb is the director of Upstate's breast cancer high risk program, which offers special surveillance options as well as "chemoprevention" – taking medication to reduce their risk of developing breast cancer. For more information, call (315) 464-8224, ask for Linda.
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DOVER — Loraine and Richard Pettigrew of Dover are pleased to announce the engagement of their daughter, Jill K Pettigrew, to Cory M Stevens, son of Sandy and Michael Stevens of Newport.
Miss Pettigrew graduated from Keene State College. She is currently employed in casting and talent management in New York City.
Mr. Stevens graduated Keene State College. He is currently employed in post production editing for film and TV in New York City.
A wedding is planned for October 2014.
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We were wondering … and if you did, do you know what was in it?
It's an unmistakable concoction. The Shamrock Shake is bright green (a little too bright for our taste here at FoodFacts.com). One look and you know for certain that this is a St. Patrick's Day specialty, of the same order of the green beer and green eggs and ham sold at local pubs all around the country to celebrate this particularly festive holiday when everyone experiences some good Irish cheer.
So in case you did run into your local McDonald's and grab one, we thought we'd take some time to tell you exactly what you consumed. It isn't pretty (even if you really like the shade of green featured in your cup).
We'll begin with the ingredient list:
Ice Cream Reduced Fat (Milk, Sugar, Cream, Milk Nonfat Solids, Corn Syrup Solids, Mono and Diglycerides, Guar Gum, Dextrose, Sodium Citrate, Flavors Artificial Vanilla, Sodium Phosphate, Carrageenan, Disodium Phosphate, Cellulose Gum, Vitamin A Palmitate) ,Syrup (Corn Syrup High Fructose, Corn Syrup, Water, Sugar, Flavors Natural, Xanthan Gum, Citric Acid, Sodium Benzoate, Yellow 5, Blue 1) , Cream Whipped (Cream, Milk Nonfat, Corn Syrup, Sugar, Corn Syrup High Fructose, Contains 1% or less of the following: [Mono and Diglycerides, Carrageenan, Polysorbate 80, Beta Carotene,Flavoring Artificial and Natural, Tocopherols Mixed Vitamin E] ) , Cherries Maraschino(Cherries, Water, Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup High Fructose, Sugar, Malic Acid, Citric Acid,Flavoring Artificial and Natural, Sodium Benzoate, Potassium Sorbate, Red 40,Sulphur Sulfur Dioxide [Contains Sulfite] )
To save you from actually having to count the ingredients, there are 54 of them. Seems a bit heavy handed to us for one shake. To make matters even worse, 20 of those ingredients are controversial. And that bright green color that qualifies it as a "Shamrock Shake," that's Yellow 5 and Blue 1. We'd like to point out that while the shake is green, there's no such thing as Shamrock flavor, so we're not exactly sure what McDonald's was going for here. At least the Irish Creme coffees from Dunkin Donuts are trying to simulate Irish Creme flavor. This is just a green shake with bad ingredients.
The nutrition facts for the Shamrock Shake are no better. Let's take a look at the 16 oz. medium size shake:
Calories: 660
Fat: 19 g
Saturated Fat: 12 g
Cholesterol: 75 mg
Sugar: 93 g
Yes, you read that right. There are 93 g of sugar in a medium Shamrock Shake. That's 23.5 TEASPOONS OF SUGAR. Wow! The World Health Organization wants us to limit sugar intake to 6 teaspoons a day. So one medium Shamrock Shake is almost 4 DAYS worth of sugar intake.
If you treated yourself to a Shamrock Shake this St. Patrick's Day, you might want to count your sugar grams carefully for the remainder of the week. If you didn't have one, don't feel badly about missing out on McDonald's once a year green "treat." Oh, and either way, next year, you can find plenty of other, far better treats to indulge in for a little Erin Go Bragh. Sometimes we can take a sweet treat much too far!


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Alec Baldwin and his wife are going to have a baby.
The "30 Rock" actor's wife Hilaria Baldwin (formerly Hilaria Thomas) is pregnant, she told Extra on Tuesday.
"We're having a baby!" the New York yoga instructor, 28, exclaimed.
Due this summer, it's the first child for Hilaria, who married 54-year-old Baldwin in June 2012. Baldwin is already a father, to 17-year-old Ireland, his daughter with ex-wife Kim Basinger.
The pregnancy was "a surprise, a wonderful surprise," Hilaria told Extra, saying she took a test without telling her husband.
"There's a scream I heard, which is a scream normally reserved (for) if there's a spider in the house," Baldwin said.
That's cute. Maybe they should name the baby Spider.
"He runs up the stairs and I'm holding (the pregnancy test) and showing it to him," Hilaria said.
"It really is the most amazing thing. I'm lucky," Baldwin said.
OK, you two. Take it easy.
"I'm showing," Hilaria said. "This is actually gonna happen, now we can start the nursery, the everything, the dreaming!"
Apparently she never heard how her husband yells at his kids when they don't pick up phone calls. Oh well ... la la la.
COP WHO SIGNED OFF ON CHRIS BROWN RESIGNS: The Virginia police chief who certified Chris Brown's controversial community service hours has resigned, according to the New York Daily News.
So ... the plot thickens.
The mayor of Richmond thanked Chief Bryan Norwood after the bombshell announcement Tuesday morning, sidestepping any mention of Brown and the 180 days of community labor he was ordered to finish in Virginia as punishment for beating Rihanna.
Right ... that Rihanna. The one who was pretty much sitting in his lap Sunday at the Grammys.
Norwood was under scrutiny since Los Angeles prosecutors named him in a court motion last week that was highly critical of his department.
He and officers in his department allegedly failed to properly supervise Brown and later provided records with "significant discrepancies indicating at best sloppy documentation and at worst fraudulent reporting," Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Mary Murray wrote in the filing.
Murray wrote that a November 2011 report from Norwood said Brown completed 103 days of service. Three months later, a Virginia probation report gave Brown credit for just 88 days, Murray said.
Can we just say that, had Chris Brown not beat up his girlfriend, none of us would be confused by all this right now?
Murray also questioned an August 2012 letter from Norwood saying Brown not only fulfilled his full 180-day sentence, but did an extra 22 days of labor, for a grand total of 202 days, according to the Daily News.
Of course, many of those hours were served outside Norwood's jurisdiction at a children's center where Brown's mother held a position of authority, she wrote.
Norwood largely relied upon the singer's mom to supervise and report the hours, Murray said. Which, you know, makes perfect sense.
Mayor Dwight Jones said his office "reached a mutual agreement" with Norwood regarding his resignation. A spokeswoman for Norwood referred a call from the Daily News to the mayor's office.
"The announcement came from the mayor's office," the spokeswoman said Tuesday. "We would defer to them."
I imagine a lot of people will be wanting to defer statements about this story.
ROYALS ANGRY AT KATE MIDDLETON BIKINI PHOTOS: Why can't the Queen start executing people she doesn't want taking pictures of her family?
Oh ... right. It's not the 17th century anymore.
Well, anyway, the British royals are again upset over someone taking pictures of them. This time, some snapped photos of a pregnant Kate Middleton, also known as the Duchess of Cambridge, in a bikini. Reports say the pics are about to be published.
The Duchess was vacationing on the beach with husband Prince William on the private island of Mustique last week when the long-lens shots were taken.
Pretty soon one of these tabloids is going to buy its own satellite, then everyone is in trouble.
"We are disappointed that photographs of the Duke and Duchess on a private holiday look likely to be published overseas," a spokesman for the couple at St. James's Palace told People.com. "This is a clear breach of the couple's right to privacy."
The photos are expected to be published in Chi magazine this week -- six months after the publication printed photos of Middleton, 31, sunbathing topless while the couple was on its tour of South East Asia.
DAVID LEE ROTH FRUSTRATED WITH EDWARD VAN HALEN: David Lee Roth is expressing frustration with the lack of movement as far as new material in Van Halen.
He has also broken what has seemed to be a firm rule in Van Halen since he rejoined six years ago: He's talking publicly about former bassist Michael Anthony.
In an interview in Rolling Stone from his new home in Japan -- where Van Halen is scheduled to play this year -- Roth says he's waiting on guitarist Edward Van Halen.
"I'm not sure what's in Ed's mind at this point," Roth said. "Truth be told, Edward and I haven't written a new song in 20 years. I would certainly look forward to working with Ed on some new material, but we have yet to do that. Almost all of the music that you hear on our most recent album was written and demo-ed before the first album. And I would certainly look forward to writing a whole list of songs with Ed, but we haven't found the time to do that (laughs). You hear the tone. I'm not sure what's in Ed's mind at this point. I'm gonna guess that his plans are to write with his son, and I'm not sure where that actually leads."
Roth also expressed interest in taking Van Halen to festivals like Coachella and Lollapalooza, something he said he's discussed with drummer Alex Van Halen. "There's nothing on the ticket as far as (touring past this summer), and that's a disappointment, frankly. How long have I been back with the gang? Maybe six years, we'll say and we have yet to travel to Europe, South America, Japan, anywhere outside of those basic 50 cities in the United States. And again that's been a disappointment. We have an audience and we have a potential future in many, many places, but our story is one of a whole lotta Shakespeare going on.
Roth also used the dreaded "M" word. As in, former bassist and backup singer supreme Michael Anthony, who was exiled from Van Halen years ago for keeping alive both a musical and personal relationship with former singer Sammy Hagar.
"We haven't really been able to speak about it and it's a disappointment, just as not having a chance for a reunion of the original band," Roth said. "Clearly, vocals are every bit as much a component of success as a rhythm section or a guitar solo, and there's an old expression saying, 'They don't go home singing the lighting show, they don't go home singing the production.' You're right, they sing my words and my melodies. And what we have at our fingertips is arguably one of the greatest high tenor voices ever — that was in Michael Anthony. In our tiny little corner of the universe, that voice is as identifiable as the high voice in Earth, Wind & Fire, as identifiable as the high voice in the Beach Boys. Van Halen is an indelicate house blend of both — that's intentionally. So I would always look forward to that reunion, and I would always look forward to writing a whole variety of material.
Roth said he's invited his bandmates to come work with him, though it's unclear whether that would include Anthony, who was replace as Van Halen bassist by Edward's son Wolfgang.
"I've offered the fellows, come on out here to the land of the gods," he said. "And if you don't want to make it that far we'll make it halfway — Konishiki (his friend and former champion sumo wrestler) has said he'll lend me his house in Hawaii, Let's go woodshed. But so far there hasn't been any response, so hope and faith are not actual tactics and strategies — they're strippers from Albuquerque."
ONE BIG TOUR: Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z are planning to tour together.
Somewhere, Kanye West sighs deeply.
The tour is happening, according to the New York Post, although no concert dates have been unveiled yet. The duo linked up on Timberlake's comeback single "Suit & Tie," which they performed at Sunday's Grammy Awards.
Timberlake and Jay-Z sat next to each other (accompanied by their wives, Jessica Biel and Beyonce) at the Grammys and Jay even joined Timberlake at the latter's somewhat intimate post-Grammys show at the Hollywood Palladium. They've also filmed a music video for "Suit & Tie" and were snapped laughing with each other in the rain during the shoot.
Somewhere, Kanye West angrily throws his iPhone.
Of course, Jay-Z knows big tours, He and West completed their "Watch the Throne" tour in support of the 2011 album of the same name. Of course, in 2004, he also embarked on the "Best of Both World's Tour," with R. Kelly, which went bad during its Madison Square Garden stop when Kelly suffered some sort of paranoid breakdown and left the stage convinced he was going to be shot or otherwise harmed.
Contact Tony Hicks at email@example.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BayAreaNewsGroup.TonyHicks, or on Twitter at twitter.com/insertfoot.
Wednesday is Feb. 13, the 44th day of 2013. There are 321 days left in the year.
1542: The fifth wife of England's King Henry VIII, Catherine Howard, was executed for adultery.
1741: Andrew Bradford of Pennsylvania published the first American magazine. "The American Magazine, or A Monthly View of the Political State of the British Colonies" lasted three issues.
1861: Abraham Lincoln was officially declared winner of the 1860 presidential election as electors cast their ballots.
1920: The League of Nations recognized the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland.
1933: The Warsaw Convention, governing airlines' liability for international carriage of persons, luggage and goods, went into effect.
1935: A jury in Flemington, N.J. found Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of first-degree murder in the kidnap-slaying of the son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. (Hauptmann was later executed.)
1943: During World War II, the U.S. Marine Corps Women's Reserve was officially established.
1945: During World War II, Allied planes began bombing the German city of Dresden. The Soviets captured Budapest, Hungary, from the Germans.
1960: France exploded its first atomic bomb in the Sahara Desert.
1972: The 11th Winter Olympics ended in Sapporo, Japan.
1980: The 13th Winter Olympics opened in Lake Placid, N.Y.
1988: The 15th winter Olympics opened in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
1991: During Operation Desert Storm, allied warplanes destroyed an underground shelter in Baghdad that had been identified as a military command center; Iraqi officials said 500 civilians were killed.
2003: Clara Harris, who'd run down her husband, David, with her Mercedes after catching him with his mistress, was convicted by a Houston jury of murder despite her claim that she'd hit him accidentally while in a heartsick daze. (Harris was sentenced to 20 years in prison.) A U.S. government plane carrying four Americans and a Colombian went down in rebel territory in southern Colombia; the executed bodies of an American and the Colombian were found in the wreckage (the other three Americans were held by rebels until they were rescued in July 2008).
2008: Under oath and sometimes blistering questioning, seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens told Congress: "I have never taken steroids or HGH." Hollywood writers ended their 100-day strike that had disrupted the TV season and canceled awards shows.
2012: One year ago: President Barack Obama unveiled a record $3.8 trillion election-year budget plan, calling for stimulus-style spending on roads and schools and tax hikes on the wealthy to help pay the costs. Gov. Chris Gregoire signed into law a measure making Washington state the seventh to legalize same-sex marriage.
U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager (ret.) (90), actress Kim Novak (80), actor George Segal (79), musician Peter Tork (The Monkees) (71), actress Stockard Channing (69), talk show host Jerry Springer (69), singer Peter Gabriel (63), singer Henry Rollins (52), singer Robbie Williams (39), actress Mena Suvari (34).
Associated Press


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What do you think about the administration's plan to cut defense spending?
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On many issues, I'm conservative. But I am not a Republican - those two terms have taken completely different paths. On other more social issues, I suppose I'm pretty liberal - but again, wouldn't consider myself a Dem, for similar reasons. Both parties have managed to divide the citizens of this country by keeping us distracted by their b.s. rhetoric, while at the same time working directly for their corporate bosses - legislation proves this. Our current President is not liable for the current ills perpetrated by the decades of corruption of both parties; nor is any president (by himself) able to "bring down our Constitution" or cure everything that's wrong. However, President Obama sure inherited (as boner-a major corporate lackey- likes to say) a "crap sandwich". At inauguration: 750,000 per month job loss rate. Obama didn't start 2 recreational wars that have almost completely decimated our economy. He has ended one and will have ended the other before the end of his second term - yes, there will be a second. He also didn't start "foreign aid" to any middle east country, those programs have been in place for decades. The Republican choices are sad jokes, bought and paid for. Yes - I would like to see corporations and superrich pay more taxes; after all, it's our military that are being used to cover their interests. (if you think these wars are about terrorism and not over oil/strategic bases/etc, you're naive or dumb or both) And if you believe the "Patriot Act" is Constitutional- you've never read it. It really is past due for a clean sweep of most, if not all, of Congress.
If we let the generals have everything they want, we'll end up with leaders like the one played by George C. Scott in "Dr. Strangelove". When the Soviet Ambassador had finished explaining the workings of their "doomsday device"; a series of nuclear explosives which would detonate and destroy the world if the USSR were ever attacked, the general said "Geez, I wish we had one of those doomsday machines." This kind of thinking is counter-productive but is more prevalent than one might think. The DOD can find 8% or more to cut, if they want to. Of course, the key is "want to".
Agreed... W Bush's war only started as an attempt to show how he could make daddy proud of his son, backfiring into lives lost and billions of $$$ spent... and now taking it out on the military to cut the budget. WTF?
To weaken our military is to weaken our nation. With so much of the world wanting to destroy us we need to be able to defend our country. This President wants us to fall to third world status so he can rise up to be the leader of the whole world. He is NOT an AMERICAN.
He cuts the military and keeps military aid in for Edypt even when the Brother of Islamists are running the govt. Also he keeps $800 Billion in the budget for "new" Arab Springs! What country is he president of?
Bingo, this is a Spot6 On assessment of where Obama's loyalties are. He attempts to move heaven and earth to aid our enemies. He should be ashamed of himself and would be if his loyalties were really with this country instead of with those dedicated to our destruction.
The American Legion is supposed to be a lobby for veterans. Instead its an arm of the Republican Party; old men fooled into supporting more wars. It gathers in small towns and promotes alcoholism learned at the noncom and o clubs. When I was an homor guard in the Army they came to military funerals with their goofy cunt caps and people laughed at them. Wake up old men, get educated, and stop promoting war. It kills your children and fills VA hospitals with maimed boys who will be there for life. Any sane person will do everything to reduce military spending.
President Obama said it right when he said, You can do just as much damage with a small well equiped, well trained force, as with a large force. America has the best trained and equiped force in the world. As far as the decimation of the atomic arsenal, who needs enough weapons to wipe out the world 13 times when 1 is enough.
Junk the OFFSPRAY its apiece of not needed junk that will save millions.
Stop all these really stupid undeclared wars and our military will still be the strongest in the world at half the costs....start with our problems here ....like finish the fence in Mexico!!
If you want to cut military spending then bring troops home, don't drop so many bombs and reduce ops tempo. Don't renege on promises made to veterans and retirees. I don't care how you spin it but if you reduce benefits, you are not "supporting our troops".
Seriously folks, almost half of you think we can ONLY cut DOD spending when there is world peace? I mean when is there ever going to be "stability" and no "hostilities" in the world? Gee, I wonder why we have budget problems. Politicians read these sort of stats and tell you voters whatever you want to hear, including "Let's bomb Iran" like it's some sort of hobby to Americans. And most of you have it wrong about the American Presidents over the last 2 decades. It wasn't President Bush or Obama who caused most of the Pentagon budget problems. They are puppets to the Generals who are really controlling and driving the militarism spending across the globe. Do your research people!
I am as a past commander of the american Legion I am a big supporter of the military. However, I do not believe we should be the worlds police force. We do not need a military base all over the world.2szkx
There is a lot of political pork in the defense budget. Democrat and republican.
Waste and abuse is rife within the DOD. At Ft. Benning they now build a Warehouse at approximately $197 per Sq. Ft. for bldg. only to in process new soldiers. That is more than the cost of a luxury home with land. Cust CAN be made, but not where these fools propose. This president and his lackies are imposters, cowards and traitors of the most insidious sort, hell bent toward the total destruction of these United States from within.
We borrow billions from China to give to Egypt and other unfriendly countries but we can't support our own Military! Your President is a Fool!
The Legion was founded to support veterans programs. The legion has become too politically involved in the Defense budget which is none of the Legions business. I realize the majority of Legion members are extreme right wing conservatives. The Legion maintains an office in D.C. to supposedly maintain a laison with Congress to support veterans affairs. While this group of Legion lobbyist was boozing it up, the facilities at Walter Reed were crumbling. Why do I pay dues, when our local Post operates as an open to the public bar and grill for every dead beat drunk in town? If I had my way I would mothball half the Aircraft carriers and fighter aircraft and reduce troop strength by 50%; fire half the civil servants in DOD and replace them with military.
Hopefully President Obama can keep the war mongers under control during his next term. Obama is the greatest President since Eisenhower. No more wars unless they are paid for with tax increases.
No we are not Right wing extremists, we believe the best National Defense is a strong National Defense. We don't believe in kowtowing to petty dictators like the present occupant of the White House. The present occupant of the White House has dome more to ruin this nation's defense than any presiodent since Jimmy Carter and it is past time the citizens called a halt to this destruction.
Sorry, the above should have read:
The present occupant of the White House has done more to ruin this nation's defense than any president since Jimmy Carter and it is past time the citizens called a halt to this destruction.
"If I had my way I would mothball half the Aircraft carriers and fighter aircraft and reduce troop strength by 50%; fire half the civil servants in DOD and replace them with military."
This sounds like "Ron Paul" Isolationist-izm. Sure, dump all those GOV employees on an Unemployment line. Not to mention all the 'Support' business lose their jobs too.{stores, food, clothing,schools,housing}.
Are you stocked up with candles, horses, and buggies/wagons.
We have the largest military in the world. As big as all the rest of the world put together. It's no wonder our whole country and infrastructure is crumbling before our eyes. We all saw what happened to the USSR. Wake up guys.
Reading many of the above comments makes me realize more than ever just why I am not an active member of the Legion. I joined as I felt I should because I am a vet and have a son currently on active duty. I am sorry but the ignorance of the members shown above and the blind allegiance to the military is beyond belief. To me the American Legion was a dismal failure to our troops with their support of President Bush and his purely political Iraq war. Now that is treason. With the current cuts we will still have a larger Army and Marines than prior to 9/11.
This is a typical Democratic action after hostilities lessen , WW1 Scuttle hakf the navy. Reduce the army. WW2 Truman cut the defense department drastically. After Korea same thing. FDR was forced into rearming by the attack on pearl harbor. They will never change . We need to remember The other Rosevelt, Teddy. "Speak softly, but carry a big stick." His "Big stick is on display at the little White House in Hot Springs GA.
Every time the country gets in a pickle the military steps up and unselfishly stands tall to protect our blessed way of life. But when the government lies and uses our men and women to do its bidding, well, that is deplorable.
Why in God's name should this same government expet to o reduce the deficit on the backs of our men and women in uniform? If not for two unjust wars and the associated costs bourne by the government's actions we wouldn't be in such dire financial straits (at least the wars produced a large part of the debt.)
Our military members have given much already in terms of life and blood. Enough is enough. Mr. President, look elsewhere for your spending cuts and leave veterans alone.
It's unfortunate but the administration, meaning the president and his cronies, have two objectives in mind. Make many as possible economically beholding to his party and make this nation on a political par with the European Union. He will bankrupt the country to do it. It is in the papers he wrote while in school. He thinks, thanks to his upbringing that it is the moral thing to do, a sort of "Custer died for your sins" mentality. I am scared.
Every member of the Legion should recognize this president has no budget even the Democratic Senate will pass, no plan for the future other than socialism, and thinks he will win diplomatically by showing weakness rather than strenth. He should be a one-termer.
Maybe the veteran community and it's allies will finally come together upon the realization that the Democrat party cannot be entrusted with any realm of security concern. They are irresponsible in such matters. They do not want to safeguard the borders but rather create a pathway to citizenship for border violators. They want to---and do---cancel essential and proven weapon systems like the F-22, for just one example. They propose to cut our nuclear arsenal by 80% and give the Russians classified data on the speed of our anti-missile missile defense systems and shrink our military in critical ways even as our chief enemies---China, Iran, Russia and Venezuela---are expanding and arming in new and dangerous ways. The Democrat party is the home of the Neville Chamberlains of our time. While making any concession sought by opponents to achieve "peace in our time" they are preparing the way for catastrophic losses, expense and pain that will surely come. But they do not exercise such foolishness only in the realms of security. They also wish to embrace such dangerous and destructive views and behavior in the realm of economics where they impose foolish spending and tax policies that disable or dissuade the capitalistic system that enables wealth and prosperity to occur. Instead, they offer the seductive song of wealth transfer from "The Rich" to the undeserving poor, who are encouraged to wait for pennies to fall from the heavens. When The Robin Hood of Government seeks to take from "The Rich" you can count on "The Poor" to egg them on. But when "The Rich" have been stripped of their wealth and beaten into submission, where then will new reserves of wealth be found to sustain governmental greed and abuse? Or protect and nurture the society our Founding Fathers entrusted to us as responsible caretakers? The Democrat Party coddles and encourages The Takers at the expense of The Makers.
We live in perhaps the most dangerous period in our history. The Iranian gov't has declared many times its firm intention to eradicate Israel and the U.S., along with much of Europe. It continues development of missiles and nuclear devices. It continues its relationship with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Syria and Lebanon and other terrorist organizations. Our President bombed Libya without authorization from Congress, but can't find a way to stop that piss-ant in Syria from slaughtering his own people. He wants, instead, to unilaterally disarm, both by drastic reductions in force and by destroying our own nuclear weapons. Presumably this will set a good example to the world, and our "enemies" will then swoon and follow him down the path to enlightenment and peace forever, amen. This President is utterly filled with his own ego. He got too many blue ribbons for 'trying' when he was a kid, and never learned to recognize the finality of mistakes for a man in his current job. Congress needs to take him in hand, now, while the country can still be saved.
"Congress needs to take him in hand, now". Are you saying that "Congress", meaning Boner and turtle face, should take over the government and throw the Constitution out?
I think Veteran's Organizations need to stop acting like unions. Stopy trying to bring down the organization to prevent any increased cost for things like TriCare.
Sure, we didn't have a lot of choice where we were assigned, we were subject to being placed in harm's way.
Getting good medical care doesn't mean that we don't have to pay for it. If veteran's organizations keep refusing any increases we'll get very drastic ones, whether we want it or now.
How about a more reasonable approach, all of which include cost of living adjustments each year. Recently, that equates to nothing.
To wit (per year payments):
Retired Enlisted: Maybe $520/family + cola
Retired Officers: Maybe $800/family + cola
Retired Generals: Maybe $1200/family + cola
It's going to come out someplace. Do you want to pay it up front in higher premiums, or do you want higher copays and for office vists and prescriptions?
I've seen amounts tossed about as high as $2000. That would be much more devastating that offering an alternative to Congress. We have to offer something, or we'll end up getting what they give us.
Make it tiered to the rank at retirement, and include COLAs. If you don't want my support, just keep on going they way you are now.
I am not career military; I did my 2 years and then 6 or 7 in the reserve and then goodbye. But Uncle Sam has no business lying to its soldiers. The money that could fund the government's moral obligation to its vets is being expended for many so-called social programs. Often these are merely blatant attempts to buy votes. Almost always, the services and functions ought to be the responsibility of states and not the fed.
Even if everybody has to pay more taxes, the government's first responsibility is national defense, and included in that is the obligation it put upon itself to manage the vets decently.
This budget crisis would not have happened if prior administration had taxed to pay for the wars they led us into. In my life time we have fought two provoked wars WW II and Afghanistan. The others were undeclaird and rushed into without exhusting deplomatic process. These undeclared wars have robbed this nation of much wealth and many lives with out achiving the intended goals. The last war we can claim victor was WW II.
No, what has robbed us of our wealth was the democratic party, most recently the duality of Woodrow Wilson and FDR, there is a special place in hades for those men... Their policies cemented government control beyond reason, They were the enablers to the new mercantilists, Statist, corporatist takeover of citizens lives. They and their cronies took advantage of American naiveté and sold us into bondage worse than mechanical shackles would have been, we now work 62% of the year to feed the government. To put that into perspective Kim Il Sung in order to keep his people subjugated, instituted a confiscatory 66% tax rate when he brought communism to North Korea.
Defense spending is more than 50% of the US budget when including VA and insurance. What is obvious is that 11 Bravo types need to be minimized as we need to fight smarter using technology. Look how much damage has been done to Al Quaeda by drones! This is what should have happened in Iraq and Afghanastan instead of boots on the ground. There is no doubt that W Bush will go down as the worst President in history after invading two countries based on false pretences of WMD and yellow cake. He is also the President of the worst recession since 1929 and had the worst deficit of any President. President Obama has ended one war and got most of the Al Quaeda leaders when Bush could not find one! (Notice that Cheney has shut up since Bin Laden was killed?) President Obama has done more for our Vets than any other President, has brought us out of Bush's recession, saved the auto industry and therefore over a million jobs. Obama has returned our international status of THE leading country after Bush made US an outlaw country in the minds of our allies. This is why Obama was given the Noble Peace Prize just for getting elected! Obama will go down in history as one of the greatest presidents, a truly great commander in chief!
I normally just read these comments and not bother to reply, even though there is often so much nonsense. However, THIS comment is beyond the pale!
First, the small nit-picks. LEARN SOME HISTORY!! The worst president in history? We could debate that all day, but then you had better be conversant with the history of presidents like James Buchannan, Warren Harding, James Polk, Millard Fillmore, etc.
Bush's war on false pretenses? Quit parroting the bald-fce lies of the Left! First, WMD was only number four in the list of 23 reasons for action that Powell put before the U.N. Security Council. Furthermore, WMD WERE found! Have you forgotten those 500 artillery shells filled with chemical agents? Furthermore, Wilson was lying to the press about the yellow cake issue, which both British and French intelligence agencies verified.
George Bush was hardly the best president we've had, but he didn't do THAT bad. Obama, on the other hand, is a complete failure. (However, I still wouldn't rate him as lower than, say, Warren Harding, an outright crook.) Obama has little concept of world politics. ("Arab Spring" my butt! What has REALLY happened is that Libya, which is more Berber, Tuareg, Riff, etc. than Arab has now been delivered firmly into the hands of the Arab dominated Muslim Brotherhood, as has Egypt. Now Syria is in the crosshairs, and Jordan will be next. We are now a whole lot closer to an actual nuclear war in the Middle East!)
Obama also has no rational understanding of economics, and that is the real problem. Stay tuned, folks, for some disturbing facts.
Obama's solution to the recession, like that of Bush at the end of his term, was bailouts with BORROWED dollars! THAT is the problem.
We do NOT spend over half of our budget on the military. That "honor" goes to transfer payments. Now, the Lefties will complain that Social Security, Medicare, etc. have their own "trust funds" and are "off-budget". However, those "trust funds" are Treasury securities, which means they are actually part of our debt! Here are the facts. Every year, the government collects about $2.3 trillion in payroll, income, and corporate taxes. It pays out about $2.4 trillion just for direct transfer payments and interest on the national debt. In other words, even if we shut down ALL functions of the federal government, including the courts and the ENTIRE military budget, we would still be going deeper in the hole by $100 billion EVERY YEAR.
Hey! Let's tax the rich! Folks, we could completely CONFISCATE the entire fortunes of the Wall family (Walmart), Bill Gates and the rest of the Microsoft kids, Bloomberg, and a few hundered others, and it wouldn't add up to the total budget for even one year!
We are in DEEP trouble, and I see no signs that most politicians even begin to understand that. What will probably happen is that the Fed (Federal Reserve) will keep creating money out of thin air, which in the long run will lead to massive inflation and the collapse of the dollar.
I agree that the federal government should keep its promises to retirees and veterans, and that we should always have a strong military. Unfortunately, that can not and will not happen.
Less caffeine man...
Oh and take a history lesson, Hillsdale college is offering a free online course on the constitution, you should take it... Then let's have a talk about who the worst president is..
One of the few functions of the fed is to provide for the common defense.
It's obvious that with the ways of fighting a war these day vs.say vietnam that enhanced technology should be a factor reducing manpower in the armed forces. Can we not do more today with less manpower because of technology? Just that alone could cut dollars out of the budget. Cut manpower/not programs.
do you remember when Clinton was in office? do you also remember that certain missile guidance technology exchanged hands between us and China??? Those codes on the unmanned drones are already being reverse engineered from the drone that was captured in Iran. you can't replace a thinking seeing, trained soldier on the ground with a drone.
Yeah but this high tech stuff is really not teachable in a reasonable time to a force we might have to build up in the face of a threat. And no enemy will give us time to both raise and train an adequate force. In any future conflict of any magnitude, we go with what we got.
What helped see us through in WWI and WWII (besides our spirit) was time to create, arm and train a large force together with distance from the actual battlefields. Other factors that time seems to erode more and more is unity of purpose and willingness to sacrifice.
Our military should always be better equipped, better trained, and better suppported than any potential enemy. It is never in our best interest to fetter our military with undue budget constraints. By the same token, our military leadership ALWAYS needs to deliver to us the most bang for our buck.
I believe the Congress and Senate make the laws which we have to abide by. The President only signs or vetoes. I don't care for the current Presidents policies, but our Congressmen and Senators are the ones who will be making the laws that will drag us down or pull us up. It's always the military retiree who pays for the nations budget problems. We did our part, but we are no longer an asset as they see it. I agree, they shoud cut their salaries as good faith in cutting the deficit.
I respectfully disagree. Obama sent planes and pilots to libya without consulting congress at all. He has used presidential decree already a couple of times as well. He has already stated that if congress doesn't get moving HE will take action under HIS athority. This is not constitutional.
Here's what I think. Vote this guy out of office!
Before cutting any programs those drones in congress should cut their salaries!!FRF13tyz
This is sad to say, but we have a president which borders on the edge of being a traitor to his country. He has done everything he can to weaken this nation. And his leftist buddies are shielding him, or are totally blind to what he is trying to achieve.
Obama doesn't care who he hurts by his actions. He sounds good with his double-talk, but he's a total failure on a his promises and accomplishments as the leader of this nation.
Obama's election is the most destructive thing that has happened to the USA since WW 2. Vote him out or America as we know it is doomed.
If this President is allowed to continue it will weaken our military to the point that any country intent on doing us harm will. He is intent on destroying our freedoms and way of life that so many men and women have lost their lives protecting. Another 4 years of this man and it'll take 20 years to buld our country back to where it was before he took over.
This is not surprising from the worst President in history. He will destroy the military, our nuclear capability and our world status, just to create more social giveaway programs. This is all part of his bigger plan.
We can go back and forth about who's been,or is the worst President.I don't see how you can justify keeping our present military budget at the rate it is .The US spends more then the next 8 countries combined on its military budget.Our military industrial complex has gotten out of hand. Eisenhower was right.Why don't we raise taxes on the rich to help pay for retirees .Because without them the rich would have never had a chance to be in the position they are now. There would be no America without the sacrifice of past generations.
Constatine66, I respectfully disagree with some of the points that you raise, 1st no country ever lost a war because they were too powerful, I don't mind the level of spending, in fact when you look at the aggressors around the world and their capability of doing mass damage, I am not sure we are spending enough. Eisenhower was wrong on his warning, it isn't a military industrial complex that worries me, it is bureaucracies of any size, they all need to be tamed, and wasteful spending needs to be eliminated as much as possible. As far as taxing the rich goes, I assumed you served as well? Why are you so for destroying the very thing that you pledged your life for? In America rich, smich, we all move fluidly from poor to middle and rich and back again, Heck I have made and lost small fortunes and am working back to make another, our founders fought the equality of living and safety net that so many people seem so willing to trade for a little temporal security. That security is an illusion, it never existed other than in the minds of the useful idiots squad of Marxist regimes. I respectfully ask you to reconsider your position, we do not need to tax the rich, we need to stop stealing from the producers of our country and giving it to the free loaders, that is where 70% of all our money goes.
I agree with you about 98%. Ike got one thing right. When he deported almost one million illegals to open up jobs for the returning vets. to those who say they are only taking jobs nobody wants, I suggest they go to Texas, Arizona, New orleans and try to get into carpentry, roofing, construction and a lot of other trades that MANY US citizens would jump at.
What I don't understand is if the war cost us billions of dollars, when we bring our soldiers home we should be saving billions of dollars so we should not have to reduce our forces.
While I do not support our president, it is the congress that we have to keep our eyes on.
The American Legion editors should not shelter the actions and so-called "budgets" of Barack Hussein Obama any longer. He is acting in an UnConstitutional manner nearly every day. We are a Republic based on a written Constitution outlining a separation of powers and limitations on the responsibilities and powers of the Executive Branch. We are now under the rule of a petty dictator, not a real President. And it has NOTHING to do with his RACE, but EVERYTHING to do with his Marxist policies.


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Irving v. Lipstadt
Holocaust Denial on Trial, Skeleton Argument of the Claimant (long): Electronic Edition, by Adrian DaviesTable of Contents
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|< Skeleton
|The Berlin crime statisti... >
|Racism and Anti-Semitism >>
Hitler's Trial in 1924
179.Re 5.18: Irving was writing a book on Hitler's War, not the so-called struggle period of the Nazi party before 1933. In a book on Hitler's War one does not expect a more than passing reference to an unimportant episode that occurred in 1923.
180.Re 5.22: Mr. Justice Gray makes no reference to Irving's position on this issue, as stated in Irving's written submission of 21 March, namely that, while Hitler was at that time an obscure agitator on his way to prison, "Hoffmann was a police sergeant, testifying on oath and therefore seemed credible to me."
181.Re: 5.24, "requisitioning of funds". In Irving's written, submission of 21 March he pointed out that:--
"In writing books for the general reader and a wider public than is attained by e.g. the expert witnesses in this case, I agree that I used vocabulary like 'requisitioning' in the way that GIs would talk about 'liberating' wristwatches from Nazi prisoners of war. My readers will have got the point."
|<< Reichskristallnacht
|< Skeleton
|The Berlin crime statisti... >
|Racism and Anti-Semitism >>


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How to Win a House Seat With Just 10,000 Votes
For only 10,000 votes, you too could be a member of Congress.
The catch is you'd have to move to West Virginia's Second Congressional District, a chunky snake across the state's midsection from Charleston to the eastern panhandle. But chances are good that the victor of Tuesday's Republican primary to replace Rep. Shelley Moore Capito will do so with a four-figure vote total.
"In a seven-way primary with three folks spending significant resources, the winner I think will not have more than 10,000 votes," West Virginia Republican Party Chairman Conrad Lucas said.
More In West Virginia
- Chart: Donald Trump Still Faces Voter Holdouts
- What to Expect in Tuesday's West Virginia, Nebraska Primaries
- Trump Calls Clinton Foundation 'a Scam'
- Laid-Off Coal Worker Wants Explanation From Hillary Clinton
- Joe Manchin Faces Tough Choice: Trump or Carbon Tax?
- West Virginia's Joe Manchin Shaken by Hillary Clinton's 'Horrific' Coal Comment
With West Virginia trending conservative in federal elections – President Barack Obama won just 35% of the vote in 2012 – Republican candidates are certain to win the general election in November. Registered Democrats still dominate the state's voter rolls – account for more than half of all voters, as opposed to just 29% who are registered Republicans. Democrats can't vote in the state's GOP primaries, which are open to independents and Republicans.
For some context, Arlington County, Va., held a special election for a county board seat last month. The winning candidate had 12,667 votes. When Republicans held a primary in the state's Third Congressional District in 2012 to face Rep. Nick Rahall (D., W.Va.), state legislator Rick Snuffer won a three-way race with 12,359 votes. He lost to Mr. Rahall in November.
More In 2014
- Most Memorable Moment: Obama Reminds GOP of His Election Wins
- 5 National Security Issues to Watch in 2015
- 10 Moments From 2014 Likely to Influence 2016 Presidential Campaign
- Final 2014 House Race Settled After Recount
- Conservative Club for Growth Names New Chief After 2014 Setbacks
- Hedge Fund Founder Steve Cohen Gave Big to Boost Republican Governors
The three leaders in the race to succeed Rep. Capito, who is giving up her seat to run for the Senate, are Charleston attorney Charlotte Lane, former Maryland GOP chairman Alex Mooney and Ken Reed, a self-funding pharmacist from Berkeley Springs.
Whoever wins the primary is certain to go to Congress. Mrs. Capito took 70% of the vote in 2012 and Democrats aren't seriously contesting the seat in the general election.
Mr. Lucas predicted total turnout for the primary will be less than 30,000 votes in a district of about 130,000 registered Republicans. Primary turnout, he said, is largely driven by local elections, where most elected officials are still Democrats.
"We're going through the same transition that other states in deep South did years ago," Mr. Lucas said. "We started voting GOP first for president and then for the federal offices. There's not a lot of competitive primaries in county-level races yet."
Get more on the 2014 midterms and 2016 outlook, first thing in the morning, by signing up for the Capital Journal Daybreak newsletter: on.wsj.com/CapitalJournalSignup


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Directions -
From I-90 East or West:
Take Exit 51 (Airport) to Route 33 West into the Downtown Buffalo area. Exit at Goodell Street. On Goodell follow overhead signs directing you to Delaware Avenue. Turn right at Delaware. The hotel is three blocks down on the left.
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