But Will They Void My Warranty?

From here

Richard Epstein Speaks Truth to Power

An Eye Opener

This is extremely disheartening, but has the ring of truth.

From Instapundit

Give the Gift of Cigarettes this Christmas

New Vice

Marcona Almonds from Costco are insanely addictive.

Something About Writing Worth Remembering

Even Jane Austen wrote the occasional clanger.
We never return to the Abbey at Northanger.

I'm A Denier

Cold Feets

Pity you can't see the number. When we saw it on Broadway it reminded both of us of the Nicholas Brothers. There aren't a lot of numbers that have two guys tapping in tandem any more. Which is an indictment of modern dance, if you ask me. Which you didn't.

What To Take Away From This

What I hear and see isn't the content, which is very much a tempest in a teacup, it's how rude they are. This is why I loathe MSNBC and not PBS. Both are equally progressive, but people generally don't interrupt each other or belittle each other face to face on PBS. There is no information exchange or debate. It's all emotional outbursts by people with little to no self control.

My Thoughts on the Election Last Night

Is Obama A Keynesian? Rally For Sanity, 10/30/10

All Things Being Equal

Would it be better to have a bad liar as governor or a good liar as governor?

As far as I know, Rick Scott is not a liar, so all things are likely not equal in Florida. But the question is worth considering.

I think it boils down to credibility. If the candidate just can not tell lies without giving away that she's lying (i.e. facial expressions), then I would vote for her. If she can not get away with lying due to incompetence (which would be the case here), then I would not vote for her.

The difference is that incompetence is rarely confined only to one area. If she habitually shoots herself in the foot, then she shouldn't be allowed near any dangerous objects, not just firearms.

I've Worked So Hard

Dies Irae

Because Monday is Chant Day

Whining- With Computers!

My main computer is a powerful homebrew that dual boots Linux and Windows. I do most of my work in Linux, but all my games run on Windows.

Yesterday, I took a break from Dragon Age (elves rule, werewolves drool!) to try an upgrade. I've had a copy of Windows 7 for a while so I though it might be a good idea to make the move from XP. Sally was planning to go to her cult meeting (Atlanta Beading Society). The afternoon would be free for geeky goodness.

Sidenote: Initially I was go to also make the jump from Ubuntu 9.10 to Ubuntu 10.10. But I found out that the folks at Canonical had switched from the user unfriendly, but powerful xsane to the very user friendly but buggy Simple Scan. I live and die by the scanner in my job so the Ubuntu upgrade died a merciful death.

Back to the main story: I wanted to do the GRUB update before Windows so I could see and recover from any boot manager errors. That took a lot longer than expected due to user error (I goofed). That it was a common error is small consolation. Error 15 has its own entry in the FAQ!

I finally recovered from my goof and did the Windows install. What took for ever was the misnamed 'easy transfer' which generated a huge file in two parts. THe actual install went smoothly after I bought and used an external hard drive for the easy transfer.

The second part of easy transfer also took forever. Then came reloading all the games. Which actually took less time than I had expected. Re-setting up Firefox went smoothly. Re-establishing the dual boot was a nightmare.

Turns out Windows will never recognize a non-Microsoft OS (I expected that). What I didn't expect was that Grub2 couldn't do the job. I wasted hours trying to get it to jump through hoops and do party tricks. I came across a reference to a third party boot manager easyBCD. That did the trick within a minute of installation.

I love free software.

Day of rest- not this past Sunday.

See You in November

City of the Future

Musical Interlude

Public Opinion Polls

Wannabe has a great post about a recent poll.

I think this short clip summarizes my opinion on them:

Interesting

Michele Bachmann is the incumbent congresswoman for the sixth district in Minnesota. Her opponent is Tarryl Clark. The only hint as to what political party Ms. Clark belongs to is a note in her biography that she was the associate chair of the Minnesota DFL.

She is also a member of St John's Church in St. Cloud. That would be St John's Episcopal Church. She is shy about her church affiliation as well.

The race is getting vicious, but Ms. Clark is staying mum about her party affiliation.

FYI, Michele Bachmann is a Republican. She isn't shy about admitting it. I don't know what church she belongs to, if any.

I think it's interesting that a candidate feels she has to try to conceal who and what she is to run for office. I have voted for Democrats in the past. I will likely vote for them in the future. I would never vote for a candidate like Tarryl Clark. If you can not tell me up front who you are and who you are affiliated with, then how could I ever rely on you to tell me where you stand?