Windows Vista : Part Deux - The Second Failure

Implementing UEFI Secure Boot in Fedora - BY PAYING MICROSOFT?!

Buried in a wall of text is the interesting part.

..., and as previously discussed all Windows 8 hardware will be shipping with secure boot enabled by default.

So. What does this mean ?

Secure boot means the machine in question will only run windows, and nothing else. Since there are any number of hobbiests out there who throw Linux of some kind on their old machine , you are effectively denying them that option. You are strangling the competition , Linux.

Of course, all the virii in the world attack windows machines only. So now every machine in the world will be prone to virii. Yes, Microsoft Fudders (fud = fear , uncertainty , distrust) will tell you there are virii out there for Linux too. But those virii only work if you have the technical knowledge to turn off most of Linux's secure features. A system that can't catch a virus unless you're drunk , technically competent , and looking for trouble is just about as secure as it gets , people.

And what is the prize you gain for having secure boot ? It'll tell you. You get to use the most virus prone clap trap of an Operating system in the world, and you're locked into it. And if you change your mind later on , because you're tired of the computer constantly catching virii, you are Fudding out of luck. You have been scammed by microsoft. Your computer will likely be part of a bot net selling porn to the whole world, and as soon as you get caught your ISP (internet service provider) will shut you down and tell you to clean it.

And cleaning a system that requires boot keys is going to be endlessly entertaining. Seeing as how it requires you to wipe it down and reinstall the operating system from scratch. Oh , you don't have an operating system disk the manufacturer charges you 100$ extra for that and you decided you didn't need it ?

Oopsie. Hope you didn't pay too much for that computer. Toss it in the trash now.

I have a cheap lap top. It has no graphics card. It can't play games. It came with windows 7. It came with huge massive Windows Seven on a tiny little lap top with a slow processor and 2 gigs of ram, making it the slowest lap top in the universe.

I erased windows 7 and put Linux on it immediately (Ubuntu , an easy user friendly version) and I never looked back. The only think Windows does for me is play my games. Give me a machine that can't play games , and Windows is of no use at all to me. Out it goes.

If you're guessing I will never own a secure boot (read that "vender locked : Windows Only , all prices just tripled oh you paid ? We're tripling them again") Windows 8 machine. I'll wait until either they remove the secure boot from it, or the operating system fails. and failure, is my bet.

Windows Vista Part Two : Another piece of trash hyped to death and allowed to die quietly when it is discovered no one likes Vender Locking. (That's where you deny the customer the right to shop elsewhere, so that you can increase the prices drastically)

"It's Just Not Right": The Failures of Alabama's Self-Deportation Experiment

"It's Just Not Right": The Failures of Alabama's Self-Deportation Experiment

Somethings about america never cease to amaze me. Like how an obviously bad thing coming to an end is portrayed as a disaster instead of a blessing. They're very good at that.

Most are paid as piecework—75 cents a bucket of potatoes, say, or a couple bucks per thousand chickens—and most of that piecework is mercilessly physical. Poultry catchers are expected to gather some 2,000 birds in an hour, while for pickers it's a matter of packing, say, 300 25-pound crates between sunrise and sunset. For the farmer, it's a necessity to keep skilled, reliable workers close at hand when profits are made or lost in the brief window of the harvest. This pressure bears down on the men and women willing to stoop and kneel and pick and haul and bleed in order to perform grueling tasks with awesome efficiency—and then, for many, to move on to where the seasons lead them next. And while anti-immigration arguments hang on the idea that if illegal workers were barred from these jobs Americans would eagerly fill them, Smith and other farmers say this doesn't square with reality. Cullman County is 93 percent white. Of the locals Smith has hired to replace the workers who fled, most lasted only a couple of hours he says, before they quit.

The jobs listed above are horrible jobs. For which the immigrants who do them get paid far, far less than anything resembling a minimum wage, assuming the USA actually has such a thing.

so first off , you're not paying a fair wage to these people.

Second off , you can't find replacements who arn't immigrants that can be abused into working for almost nothing.

and third off , you will now claim it is a disaster to your industry that you can't find people to work for literal , classical slave wages. Therefore bad things will happen.

You should never have been allowed to have a business that pays fifty cents a day (or whatever it is) to compete with everyone else in the first place. It's about time it was shut down. Consequences ? what consequences ? People can pay a real amount for their peanuts or do without , it's just that simple.

If records are kept , they will use it

Tori Stafford's dad disappointed at what jury didn't hear

The father of Victoria (Tori) Stafford is disappointed the jury hearing the case against the man charged with killing his eight-year-old daughter did not get the whole story about the accused.

Jury members who are now in deliberations over the fate of Michael Rafferty, 31, did not hear that the man who spent a lot of time surfing online dating sites was also searching for something much darker on the internet — child pornography. Some of the search terms he typed into his laptop computer were "underage rape," "real underage rape pictures" and "nude preteen."

Rodney Stafford said outside the London, Ont., courthouse on Friday that he disagrees with the judge's decision to exclude evidence that showed Rafferty's laptop computer was used to search and view child porn, troubling details that only came out after the jury was sequestered Thursday night.

On the one hand , applaud the police for catching this "sick puppy".

On the other hand... "Some of the search terms he typed into his lap top computer ..." Thats being tracked ? Yes. Tracked and apparently the prosecution tried to use it against him too. It's obvious why the evidence was dismissed (google at least tries to guess what you're typing and fills it in for you ... one wrong stroke of the enter key could take you anywhere) but still , it is fascnating that if you search for anything on the internet , records are kept. Indefinately , it seems. And the cops will supena those records if they think there's even a tiny chance they can be used against you.

As an aspiring writer, I'm pretty sure that anyone who goes through my searchs will be absolutely convinced I'm trying to build a nuclear bomb :) , so yes. I think there are serious problems with this sort of thing, and the judge acted correctly to toss the searches out.

Much as I feel for the parents of Victoria Stafford, you really want to throw the right guy in jail. Throwing some patsy framed because he did a few searches may make you feel good , but it doesn't really persuade the perpetrator to cease operations. In fact it generally emboldens him to try again.

Canada’s pro-life movement gets a slick, youthful rebranding

Canada’s pro-life movement gets a slick, youthful rebranding

They will fight to protect the unborn, raise their voices against abortion in Canada — and maybe win an iPod.

Pro-lifers will rally on Parliament Hill by the thousands Thursday for the March for Life, an ever-growing annual rally attended by, yes, older activists, but also increasingly by hordes of fresh-faced young people snapping photos, shooting videos and live-tweeting while hoisting signs saying “Justice for the Unborn.”

Let me paraphrase for these people , since they seem to have trouble expressing themselves in a clear and precise mannor.

I have a religious belief that not only I think you should follow , but I think you should follow it at your own expense. Otherwise, my religion says really really bad things will happen to you. And by the way my religion is right and every other religion is wrong and if you don't believe me then really really bad things are going to happen to you ... PS:Don't expect me to pick up the bill incurred by you following my beliefs.

There. That about sums it up.

Oh ... right to life ? Justice for the unborn ?

You realize that when a female child is born she has about six million eggs that could potentially become a child , but pretty much no one has ever had more than 20 in their life span ? And 2-3 is more average ? What about their rights ? Going to punish a woman for daring to spend time not being pregnant and thus killing off all those potential humans ?

Oh , the let nature take it's course argument. It already did. In places like the middle east if you're looking for a modern example, but looking at europe before the advent of birth control and the endless "summer wars" that were designed souly to get the soldiers killed off because there were just too many people in europe and you had to get rid of them some how ...

Ta Leme , Greece

In Greece

Unemployment in july 2010 was 11.8%

Unemployment in Jan 2012 was 20.7% (and it's still climbing)

It doesn't take much to see that raising taxes while unemployment is heading for the roof is a losing game.

It doesn't take much to see that freezing wages when unemployment is heading for the roof is a losing game.

It doesn't take much to see that as the value of your currency drops the profit margin for exporting junk vanishes and businesses go out of business. (You have to buy resources at an ever increasing cost)

It doesn't take much to see the game is over.

It is time for Greece to leave the European Union and go it's own way. Kicked out you say ? Or fleeing a sinking ship. The European Union isn't doing so hot either, and Greece will only be the first to abandon it.

Ta Leme (Good Bye) Greece. Though not really. Bet you fair better outside the european union than in.

EDIT : may 9th , Germany and France are offering to lend Greece more money anyways, so they can "service their debt" , while the election turmoil calms down. Huh ? So what you're saying is , you're lending them some cash so they can immediately give it back to you ? Ok then ... lets look at the definition of Bankruptcy ....