general | matching tracksuits

general

M$ “Security”

Thursday 05 October 2006 | 0 Comments

The latest news about Micro$oft’s new “security” for their Vista operating system is its apparent ability virtually to shut down computers using pirated versions of the operating system.

According to the Bangkok Post (chosen from Google News at random):

If Microsoft thinks you are running a pirated version of its next-generation Windows Vista, it will shut down your access to the operating system and, within a month, to most everything on your computer.

Microsoft is adamant that these technologies “cannot and will not turn off your computer.” But the measures raise the question of: What’s the difference?

According to a White Paper issued by the company yesterday, Microsoft will severely limit what the operating system does when the product hasn’t been properly activated, using a product key, after 30 days.

Like a frog in a slowly heating pot of water, the PC of a user using an allegedly unlicensed copy of Windows Vista will gradually lose functionality, until he or she can do nothing but surf the web one hour at a time, then be logged off by Windows. (Source)

MS still does not take into account why much of the world uses pirated software: cost. Microsoft does not offer tiered pricing in countries where the average earnings are much lower than in the States, and so many users resort to piracy. In Poland, for example, a legit copy of Windows XP would have cost me at least half my monthly earnings.

akacoolpeople.com

Wednesday 04 October 2006 | 1 Comment

I work at a day treatment facility for troubled youth. They wind up in our program either through long-term suspension or via adjudication.

It can be a tough bunch of kids.

Recently, I set up a blog for the whole program with the aim of using it as a way for students to write for an actual audience, instead of just writing for the teacher, as is often the case.

But for that, we need an audience.

That’s obvious enough.

Since I’m just trying to get the kids excited about the idea of writing on a regular basis, I’m not having them do much of any correction. Small steps”

Read it with a smile. So I’m asking any willing readers to pop over to akacoolpeople.com and read what the kids have written so far, make a few comments (even if it’s “Hey, that sounds really great!”) and – most importantly – to keep checking back from time to time to make comments. It’ll be slow for a while (right now, there are only a few posts – two of them mine), but I’m hoping that as kids get comments, it will encourage them to write more. (And obviously enough, I’m looking for comments to the kids’ posts, not my own!)

Additionally, if you yourself have a blog or web site and would be willing, give “aka cool people” a mention and see if you can steer some more traffic our way.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Fountain

Tuesday 03 October 2006 | 0 Comments

Tragedy’s Soundtrack

Tuesday 03 October 2006 | 0 Comments

One of we regular listeners' favorite aspects of NPR's "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered" (other than the bookend effect it gives work day) is the musical interludes between segments.

Enough listeners apparently wrote in, asking for details, that NPR posts this information on their website.

It even spawned a new show: All Songs Considered.

Looking through ASC's archives, I stumbled upon a link to the music NPR played on September 11, 2001.

As NPR covered the events of September 11th, it was music that gave listeners time to reflect, to digest the images and the impact. So many letters came to NPR telling us how comforted they were by the music. We've put together some of those songs here, in part to answer some of those letters wondering what we played (precise record keeping was impossible), and also to create an aural snapshot that in some small way tries to capture the tone of a nation shaken and changed.

It includes Philip Glass, John Williams, Pierre Bensusan, Ben Harper, Michael Hedges, Mark Isham, and Bach's Suite No. 1 in G Major (played on a double bass). Many of the selections are from film soundtracks, and that makes sense. The music has been composed with the visual element imagined, or even projected on a large screen. It's naturally conducive to subtly underlining the visual.

I'm not one usually to get sentimental about such things, but listening to the music, I couldn't help but recall the footage we were shown over and over and over. At the time, it was tragedy only -- no one had started using it for political gain. We didn't know what lay in store.

The music brings back the overwhelming emptiness we all felt that day and puts some things back into perspective. It's available at NPR.

Resistance

Monday 02 October 2006 | 0 Comments

Some days, working with troubled youth means everything is an encounter. Everything is an issue. Everything offends. Everything upsets. Hairs are split, then split again, and yet again.

Morning Walk II

Sunday 01 October 2006 | 0 Comments

We tried again this morning.

The light was not as great as it certainly will be tomorrow morning, driving to work. But still, better than yesterday.

Morning Walk

Saturday 30 September 2006 | 0 Comments

Every cloudless morning as I drive to work, I'm treated to a most spectacular view of the early morning sun. Just as I turn a bend, it always hits me square in the eyes, making me hope there's not a car coming the other direction.

More than once, I wished I had a camera with me.

Last autumn, K and I drove out to the Blue Ridge Parkway to watch the sun rise one Sunday morning.

Last night I hit on the brilliant and more convenient idea of K and I going on an early-morning walk here.

The sun, however, did not exactly cooperate. Nice colors, but nothing truly brilliant.

Washboard Babies

Friday 29 September 2006 | 0 Comments

There were about thirty couples altogether. A good general mix, but a surprising amount of young people.

"I'm starting a family about ten years later than most people here," I thought as we walked in, looking at the young faces.

Tonight, we went for our first of eight two-hour birthing classes.

What an odd thing -- classes on how to give birth. Our great-grandparents would have laughed at us. "You might as well be going to a class on how to peel potatoes," they might say.

Still, there we sat, listening to the symptoms of premature labor and discussing what to do about it should it happen to us.

"The rate of premature births in less industrialized nations is much lower," our instructor pointed out. "We have amazing technology, and we do a great job of keeping premature babies alive," she continued, "But we're relatively lousy at preventing them."

Push-button ease has put our babies at some degree of risk. We don't move as much as people in the non-industrialized world. We wash our clothes by pushing a button and take our trash by car two hundred meters to the apartment-complex dumpster.

Ironic: technology has both helped cause the problem and effectively dealt with the result.

Third Rail

Thursday 28 September 2006 | 0 Comments

There is no middle ground in United States politics because there is no viable third party. America's black-and-white thinking is reflected in our political system. "You are either with us, or you are against us."

The void created by having a two-party system has hurt both the Democrats and the Republicans -- not to mention the general population. Joe Lieberman is a good example of a politician who could use a viable third part; I'm a private citizen who could use a viable third party.

I think we call could.

Bush stayed in power with a combination of support from hard-line Republicans and individuals who might not agree with Bush's stance on everything, but voted for him because of the perceived continued threat of terrorism. A viable third party would have helped.

Ross Perot was a one-man third party, until he stuck his gilded foot in his mouth at the NAACP.

Tuesday

Tuesday 26 September 2006 | 0 Comments

Tuesday is a harsh and heartless taskmaster. It is the only day of the week that has nothing going for it. Nothing about a Tuesday eases getting out of bed. Nothing about a Tuesday gives me any hope that I can survive the week.

Monday is a matter of brute force. I get out of bed because I have to. It’s a matter of mind over drowsiness — something that has to be done, and so I do it.

Wednesday is the halfway mark. Sisyphus finally gets the boulder to the top and, by the grace or inattention of the gods, gives it the final push to get the boulder rolling down the other side.

The only thing Thursday has to recommend it is its proximity to Friday. I can make it though a bad Thursday solely by thinking, “Tomorrow’s Friday. Tomorrow’s Friday.”

Friday, of course, is Friday: it has everything going for it.

But Tuesday? Other than time with Morrie, whom I don’t even know, I can’t think of a single good thing about Tuesday.

I don’t recommend it.