One of our housecats, Zhivago, hopped up on my desk a few minutes ago, turned in circles a few times, and plopped down on the keyboard to ‘endor’, the machine I’m building for CONGO work. The screen beeped a few times, fine, no harm there. Then I heard the unmistakable ‘clunk’ of a monitor changing sync rates.
Twice.
Zhivago, while makin muffins on the keyboard, managed to key the sequence that causes X-windows to change resolution… Control-Alt-+.
I removed the keyboard from under the cat, only causing a slight pause in the purring, and put it aside. Zhivago remains, at this moment, in the middle of my desk.
Month: September 2004
The Man who Saved the World
There’s so many ‘interesting’ articles on the net, and rarely do I forward along articles that don’t have a lot of bearing on things I’m normally going on about. But over at the BKO Lounge, Brian posts a link to a Wikipedia article about Stanislav Petrov, a Russian Colonel who, in September 1983, was on missile duty in the Soviet Union when he received a series of alerts showing that US missiles had been launched against his country. All the available systems showed that indeed, multiple ICBM’s were en route, and his orders and procedure state uncategorically that the proper response is to launch the Soviet missiles in retaliation.
He didn’t. He reasoned there was no reason for this type of launch, and make the decision not to launch, reasoning this was a computer error in the notoriously unreliable Soviet monitoring system.
He was right. There was no missile launch from the US, and his single decision in that bunker in the middle of the night in September, 1983, most likely stopped a nuclear exchange that could have immediately resulted in World War III.
We were -that- close.
Things you have to be a republican to believe.
Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush’s daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him, and a bad guy when Bush needed a “we can’t find Bin Laden” diversion.
Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is Communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to the spirit of international harmony.
A woman can’t be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.
Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.
The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches while slashing veterans’ benefits and combat pay.
If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won’t have sex.
Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.
HMOs and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.
Global warming and tobacco’s link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.
A president lying about a blowjob is an impeachable offense. A president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.
Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.
The public has a right to know about Hillary’s cattle trades, but George Bush’s cocaine conviction is none of our business.
Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you’re a conservative radio host. Then it’s an illness, and you need our prayers for your recovery.
You support states’ rights, which means Attorney General John Ashcroft can tell states what local voter initiatives they are allowed to adopt.
What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the ’80s is irrelevant.
Via MadScience who got it via born_stubborn
Palm toy recommendations?
So I’ve had my Kyocera 7135 palm phone for a month or so now, and I’m pretty well settled into it. Syncing with Evolution on my desktop is working perfectly, installing apps via Gpilot-Install-File (okay, not hte most intuitive or gui-yummy way to do it, but it works), and backing up via the Evolution conduits is all working grand.
I’ve installed my basic handful of apps, headed up by CodeJedi’s ShadowPlan (an application I an’t recommend highly enough. If you like to do project/task tracking via a hierarchial ‘todo’ list, with expand/collapse and organizational tools, this puppy is for your). Other important things are, of course, Bejeweled and the ever-addictive PictureLogic (a Nonogram game).
But what else should I be looking at? I haven’t been heavily immersed in the Palm world for a couple years, so what goodies have come along that I should take a look at? I’ll probably get a new Launcher at some point (though it appears there’s no longer a good free one).
(and has ANYONE gotten Kppp or pppd configured to work through the Kyocera to the 1xrtt network I’m connected to via Verizon? Can’t quite get the swing of it.)