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Domain: mrbill.net

Stories and comments across the archive that link to mrbill.net.

Comments · 7

  1. Obligatory Trackman Marble FX... by andhar · · Score: 1 · on Microsoft Research Shows Off Multi-Touch Mouse Prototypes

    This baby, the Trackman Marble FX, is the gold standard for pointing devices. Four programmable buttons and mousing position that doesn't require you to twist your arm and put your palm on the table. I would gladly use it today, except that if you use a PS2 to USB adapter, the buttons are no longer programmable. Major, major sadness!

    On the other hand (no pun intended), I now make good use of a tablet with stylus -- another pointing device that doesn't require the arm-twisting. It takes getting used to, but it's sooo much easier on your arm. Take care of your arms -- don't just start using a mouse with your left hand.

  2. Here's the difference... by ninejaguar · · Score: 1 · on Kerry Concedes Election To Bush
    The fact is that the people who gave shrub another 4 years are more religious. His base of religious zealots were clearly more effective in convincing their neighbors that shrub was one of the faithful, than liberal moderates were at convincing strangers that Kerry was actually a war hero. There's no arguing with fundamentalism, and the only cure I know of is a liberal education. Anything less, and you get years of wars, rights violations, and the walls separating church and state crumbling. Note, a liberal education isn't devoid of studying religion, but finds it a necessary part in making a well rounded person who is able to appreciate and defend his liberties.

    This election was more of an indicator of the sad state of liberal programs currently in schools and inability of the poor to access such an education than anything else. The poor in the South learn their lessons in churches, just as the poor in the Middle-East do. The language they hear it in is different, but the message is startlingly similar. God rules the country, not any Constitution or government.

    I won't defend stupid decisions, but I will note that when people are hurting they turn towards religion. Shrub has sold himself as a religious man, and Kerry didn't. A defining and admirable aspect of born again Christianity is that the "sinner" can repent and absolve himself of all past sins by accepting Christ (however defined by the various sects and denominations). The Red states bought that Shrub is reborn. We know better.

    I say that the Democratic party's best defense against religious fundamentalism is education. They need to start rebuilding the walls between church and state by winning current court cases and more of them. They need to start attacking at every possible opportunity rather than roll over and take it up the rectum like they have been from groups like Bush's "Swift Boat" Republicans. More importantly, they need to stop alienating the liberals who actually are fighting. The Democrats need to bring themselves back into the Liberal fold where Nader, Moore, and the Green party are waiting for them. They need to start backing up these fighters, instead of distancing themselves from them. The Democrats have forgotten how to fight, and need to start by liberating the minds of the young while the right-wing is busy liberating oil wells from their owners. They've got 2 years before the next elections, and they better have a "moral" center like the Red states do, but in defense of liberty, and not one particular religion.

    "A liberal education ... frees a person from the prison-house of his class, race, time, place, background, family, and even his nation." -- Robert Maynard Hutchins, The Political Animal

    "Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day." - Thomas Jefferson

    "I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power." --Thomas Jefferson to William C. Jarvis, 1820.

    "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be... " - Thomas Jefferson, from a letter to Colonel Charles Yancey, Jan 6th, 1816

    = 9J =

  3. You're absolutely right...you should stay home by ninejaguar · · Score: 1 · on Election Day Discussion
    And for your efforts, dubya salutes you!

    = 9J =

  4. A funny thing happened on the way to brain surgery by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Pre-Election Discussion
    That right there is my reason to vote for another 4 years.

    Bush salutes you.

  5. Victory Sign or IQ quotient? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Pre-Election Discussion
    I've never seen a fruitful discussion on the politics section either.

    Here's something fruitful.

  6. Curious what shrub would share with us if he won? by ninejaguar · · Score: 1 · on Does Redskins Loss Presage A Kerry Win?
    A victory salute. He's so funny. I remember a clown like him in at least one junior high class every semester. Always the joker, never the graduate.

    = 9J =

  7. Netapp and home/hobbyist users. by mrbill · · Score: 1 · on Hardware Manufacturers Gouging Customers
    Netapp's not *that* bad - its fairly easy to get "under the table" license codes for NFS and CIFS for "bought off ebay" home hobbyist/non-profit filer hardware. I've got a FA520 sitting in my living room.

    There's a small effort underway by a couple of their upper-level tech staff to have an official low cost or free "home license" program, but it hasn't made much headway yet. Right now it's pretty much "here's a working license code, don't share it, don't use it for production/profit purposes, and don't call us for support".

    The guy in the article should be able to *use* his filers just fine with the old license codes; he'll only have to pay NetApp if he wants ONTAP (the filer OS) upgrades or hardware support (replacement drives or other parts).

    I host the Filers-At-Home mailing list.