February 2006 Archive
There were some posts that came across the PLUG (http://plug.org) list the other day about a presentation given by Pete Ashdown (http://peteashdown.org) who is running for US Senate this year, against the long standing Orin Hatch(who I really despise). Anyway the discussion started up because a few (or maybe many?) of the plug members (most are LDS) disagree'd with his views on pornography. And were even going as far as to say that it should be treated as a drug?!? Don't get me wrong, I don't participate, nor contribute any money to the industry as I don't like it. However, going so far as to make it against the law or saying the government should step in to control it? That's going overboard, and it really upsets me. Utah is a very conservative state, thus it is also a very republican state (hence why Mr. Hatch has been in office so long...). The one thing I don't understand as its very contradictory, is Republicans always seem to want and give tax cuts, but they also want the government to step in and start controlling things that they feel are more and more offensive? This *requires* money people! You can't have your tax cuts and the government doing more "filtering for the bettering of our morals". Its one or the other... then they will also complain about the lack of budgets for education and want MORE tax credits given so they can send their kids to private schools... All of this makes me wonder... is it because most republicans, which I believe are usually religious people, know the moral standards they are supposed to have, but have a hard time keeping them selves on track? So their solution is it to make things against the law or harder to access because of laws, thus removing most of the blame on their own lack of will power?
I don't understand it... I've grown up here in "Happy Valley" and of the LDS faith, and for as long as I remember all the lessons I had while growing up were about acceptance of other faiths and beliefs. Sure we believe we are "correct" but... so do terrorists fighting for Allah? My point being that who are we to judge what is right for the rest of the world. If someone wants to listen you your message, that is their right. If they don't, that is also their right. The same goes with morals... If they want to abide by your morals... that is their right and they probably will. If they don't want to, that is also their right, so why do most (at least those that I've read and associated with) believe that it is their moral and ethical responsibility to make the rest of the world abide by their moral and ethical standings. As I said before I'm not a patron of porn myself. I find it repulsive. I disagree very much the thought of government regulation however. Because it'll be a lot of wasted money without much benefit. The solution is simple people... If you don't like it, *DON'T BUY IT*. I know, it means you'll have to practice some will power, and yes it also means your going to have to *TALK TO YOUR CHILDREN* about such things. You can't rely on this nice community to do it for you. You should be doing this anyway! The world can be a big bad place, if you let it. Ignoring that fact does not make it go away, creating laws for it won't stop it either. Keeping things out in the open is always the best way to handle things, because as soon as it goes underground you'll loose all control.
I get so aggravated over this... If you couldn't tell...
February 22, 2006 Posted by mitch |
accord |
What a week... Elissa's parents arrived from New York monday for a visit, and all the issues involving planes aside (its an even longer story and very painful). Because of these various flight issues, we had to pick them up from the Las Vegas airport. Elissa's Accord has been making a weird sound for the last couple months, but because its been doing it for a couple months, I haven't taken the time to get it fixed. Which is a hard thing to do most of the time for us, we depend on our cars to get us everywhere we need to... Anyway, on the way down to Vegas, the noice got progressively worse... I was just hoping it would make it untill we got home and since Elissa has the week off we could take it in to be looked at. Well... It didn't make it.. we found out that it was the tensioner pulley (which was what I was thinking... didn't know you could just replace the pully wheel tho... and not the whole assembly I was dreading that thought...). Anyway the pulley siezed 20 miles south or so of Cedar City. We made it there, but it was 4am.  No parts store was open, nor would one open untill 7am. We waited around in the car and talked for 2 hours untill 6am when we went to get breakfast and warm up. (My brother said he saw on the news that it had dropped to 7 degrees that night in Cedar City...) We were frozen. After breakfast, we walked back to the car which was in the parking lot of the Napa parts store. Luckily my father-in-law is a mechanic and knew how to get it changed. Hes never worked on Honda's before so it was still a learning experience tho :) It took us about an hour and a half to get the pulley and belt replaced(probably would have taken me atleast 3 hours to do the same thing without his help), and we were then back on the road. Fun fun. Great way for them to finish off their trip to Utah... :)
February 17, 2006 Posted by mitch |
school |
Why do I have to subject myself to this torture called school? I totally get the idea of school, but is it me, or is it possible that the decline in the public school system isn't entirely their fault? I guess you could argue that if they took a page out of India's schooling systems book and quit babying people, and making students keep up, or get transfered to a "lower" school system. I don't know what the answer is for the school system, as I'm sure if I say anything I'll overlook some circumstance thus being unfair to a few. Also knowing my position on my High School experience, I don't know how or if my proposals would negatively affect me or if it would have been the insparation I needed to care about school. I didn't do badly in school, just wasn't ever trying to be an "over achiever". I was perfectly happy with B's and C's in my classes. I hated busy work, and alot of times, I completly refused to do it.
However, I'm talking college here. I don't believe they should be bending over to help people get through their courses... If they fail, they fail. Having courses that are designed to help the slower kids get up to speed, or having tutors, individual study courses, ect. Or going to the opposite, having Advanced courses for those that can be taken IN PLACE of the normal course, or even doing the self study courses that help the students that know the basics to really challenge themselves and learn. Of coarse I think a student that does these advanced courses should be able to get something on their degree that says they did take this advanced course as something to show to employers above the regular "degree". But then that also brings into question... is a degree really worth anything? Is it just becoming "normal" and we are now starting to require more than a degree because the education system is really failing... its a vicious cycle. You don't want to completly write people off, but is it right to punish the other 25%?
I don't believe its right to punish either side... but something needs to be done about it.
February 13, 2006 Posted by mitch |
technology |
I didn't write over the weekeng like I would have liked (my wireless doesn't seem to like the centrino/linux/linksys combo... for some reason..), but I did feel prompted to write some more. I've recently descided to give up on Intel(kinda ironic eh, but I have a Dell Laptop from work and I'm not liking it, I will be buying an AMD based laptop soon enough), and here's some more fuel for the fire. Intel as struck a deal with Skype allowing Intel based PC's(and probably devices) a 10 way conference call, whereas any other chip will only be able to do a 5 way. Seems Intel is defaulting back to its WinTel counterparts tacticks where, if you can't beat them technologically, make deals with other software vendors to keep them out of the picture. To bad, as it seems Intel is missing the larger picture in this new era. SIP is the protocol of choice for most VoIP providers(because its a standard), and Skype's proprietary protocol will be null and void within 5 years. Not only that, but this further subjects themselves to giving AMD more ammo in their current anti-trust procedings against Intel in a couple different countries. Anyway, I am swearing off Intel for any sytems I recommend, and I definately will not buy one myself for the forseable future. (Things would have to drastically change before I will even consider them for home use.)
I don't profess to be any kind of network design guru or anything, but I do consider myself very familiar with routing and protocol concepts. I am just wondering why is it that I feel like most people are inept when its their job to do such things? I read alot, and I understand what I read, to the point I could regurgitate what I've read, and even apply it to other situations I have encountered. Am I asking to much to expect other people to understand network concepts better than I do when its their chosen profession? I've never been in the position to actually design a network, and I'm wondering if budget really forces these (bad) dicisions... which I don't quite understand either... because if the said engineer knew how networks were supposed to be designed... I don't think they would accept much less... they might go buy cheaper (used?) hardware if it came down to money. I just don't see a network engineer building a network in an adhoc fashion soley becasue of lack of funds.
I could be completely wrong in these assumptions, as these are just thoughts I've been contemplating lately(and even over the last couple years)... I am taking a Cisco class at school, and I've just had network design on my mind. The class is supposed to be for the CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Administrator, or is it Associate?), but I'm more inclined to want to study for a CCDA (Cisco Certified Design Associate?) as administering network hardware really isn't something I want to do, but knowing how critical the position is, I feel I really should know alot of what is going on in that area(atleast in a higher view). Especially since architecture is my overall carreer goal. I love designing, and not to be cocky, or self promoting, but I feel I really have a nack for seeing the bigger picture, forward thinking that allows me to think through a situation and picture all these logical concepts that pertain to network and systems design, making sure its scalible and practical for future maintanance. I guess the real key now is to get other people to see that I am capable of architecture and design of systems and networks... Yet I find some people get threatened by me if I start getting to close to their "baby" and challenging their decisions about it. I must say I loved how my old boss handled this... he saw (or atleast started to) my potential, that I do have a nack for it, and even asked for my opinion on how I would redesign a web based photo editing product they were marketing(it is based on PHP)... I explained what I would do, he understood and liked it... then it seemed he did some research on his own and liked it even more after he understoop PHP better.
Anyway, I was just making some observations and expressing some thoughts I've been having lately... I should have more to write by the weekend to...
February 2, 2006 Posted by mitch |
website |
Well, we here at metauser.net have finally experienced downtime because of my own doing... For whatever reason, I was told that my web hosts DNS servers were going to be changing and I didn't see the email.... so metauser.net became unreachable for a while last week... I have since fixed the DNS problems however, I'm also in the process of preparing a new server to move to. More details will follow, however, Its going to be a virtual machine (using Xen), so hopefully that will allow me to provide a lot more cool features down the road.
And I did get a chance to upgrade to Wordpress 2.0! So far its still an amazing product, I love it. Props to those that put their time and dedication to it.
