Pointman’s Page

All the talk of “torture” and closing Gitmo is pointless if we don’t recall what purpose Gitmo serves. Obviously the “care” in Gitmo is so bad the risk of being sent back isn’t an effective deterent.
Sort of like the U.S. prison system.

Michael says he’d offer it if Apple were willing. The smart think to do would be to allow Dell to ship OSX when the time comes. But Apple has a history with “alternative” hardware manufacturers/vendors that would make most a bit leary of investing there. Dell has enough $$ to easily survive an Apple […]

The wonderful thing about living in the boonies is the occassionaly visitor who drops by share your evening. At some point during the rain this evening this guy decided the bugs drawn to the patio doors looked rather appetizing. That or he’s a Star Gate fan.
When I made it outside to get some pics a […]

I mean Mandriva is at it again. What’s it next, Mandricoris? Still, I’m cautiously optimistic even though Lycoris’s contributions to the Linux world seem to be that of dumbing it down.

It looks like Turbin Dick Durbin is insulting pretty much everyone in the country. He’s insulting our soldiers, Jews, Cambodians, Russian dissidents, and even rappers just for a start. What this man has said would trigger a charge of sedition if we had any real men left in this country. Alas, he’ll be hailed […]

Piracy isn’t anything to take lightly but it is also not something to take overly seriously. The BSA or Business Software Alliance likes to count all possibly pirated copies and simply multiply by sticker value. As someone who has spent many years in the business I can tell you that is not the case. […]

Seems someone liked one of my Vaquero pictures so much it they pulled it from my site 524540 times before copying to his local server.
[Update: The site is in Russian, you can use the the fish to translate but not much text. ]

It is not a surprise that Hands-free cell phones have little safety benefit. All the hands free stuff does is effect the stuff outside the ear where what causes accidents is between them.
Where the real benefit of hands-free is, arm fatigue.

Taking a picture with your digital camera and planning on having it professionally printed? Better not get too good of a shot or they’ll turn you down.

If Cubans don’t have valid immigration papers we will deport them. But then the Coast Guard actively interdicts Cuban defectors. Obviously no one is doing that on the Mexican border.

I found it intersting that the media reported that the desparity between those that make over $1.6Million a year and “the rest of us” is even larger than last year. But what they didn’t report was that the number of people to join the Millionaire club it an all time record with 600 THOUSAND […]

In his usual fashion Cringely puts the screws to Apple over the announced switch to Intel processors. He makes some well thought out points (this is Cringly, afterall).
The only place I tend to disagree is on DRM. It is pretty easy to dream up how Intel can use DRM to squish AMDs […]

There were no 90 degree days in 2004. Here it is, not even officially summer yet and the next 3 days are forecast to break 90 (90,92,91). As I told someone earlier today if this hot weather is payment for the last 6 weeks of beautifuof mild, low humidty weather then so […]

One of the biggest pains with Windows servers is the total lack of a good shell. But it looks like that may be changing over the next several years. Microsoft expects to “exceed what has been delivered in Linux and Unix for many years”. Hm.. we’ll see.

Yesterday was PHP’s 10th year anniversary. As someone who started with PHP/FI “back in the day” it is difficult to believe that many years have gone by. It is a good time to take a few moments and remember.
And don’t miss John’s reflections on where he’s gone with PHP. […]

It looks like the Germans have been taking lessons from our Hollywood and New York progandists.. er, I mean Networks…

They missed the build up? What, were they wearing blinders? Or are they covering for the Clinton Administration’s failure to take the Chinese threat seriously….
What most Americans don’t realize is that America is who is footing the bill for this military build up. Go ahead, keep buying Chinese made junk at Walmart….

Such cute kitties…

An excellent article on the Hollywood Communists over at FrontPage magazine.com :: The Hollywood Left Revealed by Art Eckstein. Yet another dispelling of the myth that the Hollywood Communists and the Communist Party USA were “just another political party”.
As I have always said, McCarthy was right.

We’re running out of oil?
“The world is more likely to run out of uses for oil than Saudi Arabia is going to run out of oil,” Adel al-Jubeir, top foreign policy adviser for Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Abdullah, said Wednesday.
The Saudi’s state they will be able to produce 15 million barrels a […]

A guy shows up to come into the United States with a “homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, brass knuckles and a chain saw stained with what appeared to be blood” and all they do is confiscate the stuff and say welcome to America! When asked why Customs said:
“Nobody asked us to detain […]

It is so terribly bas-akwards that we’ll send these guys back to Comrade Castro while we let all the Mexicans in unabated. But then though “they” like us to believe it’s all Mexicans coming in illegally it’s simply not true.

My goodness, Charlie Rangle just keeps slipping further into the abyss. It would be amusing if it weren’t so sad.

The Chinese defector the Aussies denied asylum has had his information corraborated by another Chinese defector.
“They send out businessmen and students to overseas countries as spies”
Interestingly the article claims Chen’s asylum has yet to be ruled on which is in conflict with a previous account.. The egg on their faces […]

Server upgrades are already frustrating. But more frustrating is the upgrade not fulfilling its purpose. All so that the client software will run on all Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2 workstations used by our staff and call center. After 10 hours of labor and close to $10k for new hardware and software ( 2k3 […]