POLITICAL: Internet Freedom; isn’t that always good?

Monday, July 16, 2012

http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/06/ron-pauls-anti-net-neutrality-internet-freedom-campaign-distorts-liberty/?
utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29

Ron Paul’s Anti-Net Neutrality ‘Internet Freedom’ Campaign Distorts Liberty
Gregory Ferenstein
Friday, July 6th, 2012

*** begin quote ***

The libertarian super-duo, Congressman Ron Paul and his son, U.S. Senator Rand Paul, launched an “Internet Freedom” campaign this week that has come out swinging against net neutrality, branding it as a clever attempt at more government intervention. “The Technology Revolution” manifesto decries any attempt to regulate private Internet service providers as an affront to liberty, yet seems to ignore that powerful telecommunications monopolies can wield as much coercion over the future of the Internet as the government. A world without a level playing field of Internet bandwidth allows powerful companies to favor their well-endowed corporate friends over the scrappy startups that power the most vibrant innovation on the web.

*** end quote ***

After awhile, it’s hard to know what’s good and bad.

Argh!

We can only say that ANYTHING that opposes the Gooferment is good.

If “the Gooferment” tells us that sky is blue, we should ask for evidence. 

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POLITICAL: Closing butt holes

Sunday, July 15, 2012

http://www.suntimes.com/business/13589276-420/roll-your-own-cigarette-stores-going-up-in-smoke.html

Roll-your-own cigarette stores going up in smoke
BY EMILY MORRIS Staff Reporter July 4, 2012 4:38PM
Updated: July 5, 2012 10:06AM

*** begin quote ***

For smokers who bargained on roll-your-own cigarette stores for cheap smokes, it looks like those days are numbered.

*** and ***

The GAO found that a carton of RYO cigarettes cost half as much, or even less, than a carton of discount cigarettes at a store because of the lower taxes.

State and local governments have been trying to close the loophole as well, with Cook County raising taxes on RYO cigs in March and Illinois increasing the taxes on them last month, when the state sharply raised taxes on all tobacco products to help fund Medicaid. Starting Aug. 1, cigarettes made by RYO machines in Illinois stores will be taxed the same amount as company-manufactured cigarettes, and retail owners of the machines have to get a machine-operator license.

“It doesn’t matter where the cigarettes were rolled,” said Susan Hofer, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Revenue. “It matters that you walk out of the store with a pack of cigarettes.”

*** end quote ***

All that matters is that the Leviathan State will protect it’s seizures of wealth by any means possible. And, find new and different ways of extracting wealth from the serfs in any way imaginable. If it “thinks” it can get away without arousing “We, The Sheeple”, then “they” will steal it from the people. Rich, poor, young, old. Matters not. Just keep the Blob growing.

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FUN: Watching the pilot of Big Bang Theory

Saturday, July 14, 2012

“What’s the difference?”

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SOFTWARE: Open source isn’t a bad deal versus “Pay for”

Saturday, July 14, 2012

*** begin quote ***

That said, if you lean towards economics and like to think about the long-term costs of open source software, you may have brought to mind the old adage “There’s no such thing as a free lunch”. (Or, as it is commonly used to compare with open source, a Free Beer.) Open source software rarely comes with the technical support and warranty services that proprietary software provides. So while you may not pay upfront now, the expenses for the software maintenance and upkeep may accumulate and charge you in the future.

*** end quote ***

Anyone get any support from the commercial firms like microsloth?

Even in large organizations it’s a joke.

Unless your contract is up for renewal. The you are up to your in SEs, AEs, VPs, and unnamed executives.

Open Source usually has an interested community who is actually interested in your issues.

Some of my BEST support experiences have been from “Open Source”, “Free Software” communities.

I’m not sure how to harness it. But if I ever do, Bill Gates move over. The neighborhood’s getting a double wide.

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TINFOILHAT: Obama’s Social Security Number challenged

Friday, July 13, 2012

http://www.wnd.com/2012/07/obamas-social-security-number-challenged/

FORGERY-GATE
Obama’s Social Security Number challenged
Exclusive: Jack Cashill reports on woman’s court filing based on myriad anomalies
Jack Cashill is an Emmy-award winning independent writer and producer with a Ph.D. in American Studies from Purdue.

*** begin quote ***

If Barack Obama has an immediate eligibility problem, it is more likely to derive from the Social Security Number he has been using for the last 35 years than from his birth certificate.

Ohio private investigator Susan Daniels has seen to that. On Monday, July 2, she filed suit in Geauga County (Ohio) Common Pleas Court demanding that Jon Husted, Ohio secretary of state, remove Obama’s name from the ballot until Obama can prove the validity of his Social Security Number.

Daniels, who has vetted thousands of Social Security Numbers for numerous other clients, has done her homework. In her filing, she thoroughly documents her contention “that Barack Obama has repeatedly, consistently, and with intent misrepresented himself by using a fraudulently obtained Social Security Number.”

To acquire appropriate standing in court, Daniels has gone to the trouble of establishing herself as a valid write-in candidate for president. Before she is through, this 70-something mother of seven, who has been a licensed Ohio PI since 1995, may cause Obama more trouble than the Romney campaign.

*** and ***

Daniels checked other databases as well to validate her findings, including the Massachusetts Department of Motor Vehicles and the IRS. Yes, Obama used the 042 number to get a driver’s license when at Harvard and as recently as on his 2009 income tax return.

In her research, Daniels kept coming across what she calls a “marked anomaly,” one she had never seen before – multiple birthdates listed for the same person. The 08/04/1961 and 04/08/1961 variation made sense, but the frequent appearance of the year “1890″ did not.

The ample evidence Daniels gathered led her to believe that the 042 number Obama has been using “had previously been issued to another person,” one who lived in Connecticut between 1977 and 1979 and who was born in 1890.

This assertion can be verified. By law, the Social Security Administration will have kept on microfilm a copy of the original SS-5 application attached to a particular Social Security Number. Daniels, however, does not have access to that microfilm.

*** and ***

What Daniels has done, however, is establish a paper trail so indisputably legitimate that even the most squeamish of conservative media will have a hard time finding fault.

The major media, of course, will not bother to look. It is up to our Beltway brethren to step up and ask some very basic questions of the president that they, through their timidity in 2008, helped elect. The Romney campaign cannot talk about this issue without their support.

*** end quote ***

We have ample evidence that BHO44 is not what he claims to be. 

At the very least, he’s a “paper construct”.

One can sneer at the Tin Foil Hat brigade, of which I count myself as one, at “conspiracy nuts”. But, what one can NOT dispute is “evidence”.

Let one of those who sneer step up to the defense bar and take a stab at an argument that this is NOT at least Felony Fraud. 

If you or I did it, we’d be on our way to be Bubba’s girlfriend at the Big House. Not the White House.

The silence is deafening.

“We, The Sheeple” have been defrauded by the political class. And, let down by the Fourth Estate, the Press. They have the First Amendment and the Republic’s trust to do their job of investigative journalism. What do they teach in Journalism school? If they did that in engineering skrule buildings would be falling over left and right. (“We just ignored calculating the load!”)

Argh!

The Republic is doomed in more was than one.

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SERVICE: Google Apps v. Office 365

Thursday, July 12, 2012

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/datacenter/google-apps-v-office-365-summary-which-is-better/5637?tag=nl.e019

The Enterprise Cloud
Google Apps v. Office 365 summary: Which is better?
By Ian Hardenburgh
July 5, 2012, 12:20 PM PDT

*** begin quote ***

Takeaway: Ian Hardenburgh sums up his research on the Google Apps and Office 365 suites. He has a preference, but it still comes down to individual needs and your number of users.

*** and ***

So, which is better?

So at this point, you’re probably saying, that’s all fine and dandy, but which service is truly the better of the two? Well, I’d have to say Office 365, but only if your organization is prepared to (1) pay a premium (for a truly premium service), (2) take advantage of the advanced set of features noticed with auxiliary services like SharePoint Online, and (3) have the resources to thoroughly train your staff on the on-demand technology (You will have users saying, “Can’t I just have Office on my PC like I used to?). Otherwise, the scalability of Google Apps, combined with the applications and professional services that can be gained from its Google Apps Marketplace is a very close second.

Therefore, in my humble opinion, I’d say most enterprises, with the exception of extremely large ones, can be well-served by Google Apps. In increased summation, go with Google Apps if you’re a small enterprise and Office 365 if you’re a large one. It really is a crapshoot if you have somewhere between several hundred and ten-thousand users (what I consider a medium sized enterprise). Hey wait, I guess comparing Google Apps and Office 365 was simply a matter of enterprise size after all!

*** end quote ***

The choice is much harder for the “amateur” trying to get work done in the most flexible cheapest fashion.

Cloud is great if the inet is always there for you. (Only a Fortune 500 CEO or Gooferment bureaucrat has that.)

There are still format and User interface issues.

True Client – Server cooperative productivity apps are few and far between. 

Stuff changes in the wink of an eye.

Microsoft and Apple and Google all have their flaws.

Seriously, I don’t know. A plague on ALL their houses.

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JOBSEARCH: Unionized IT or something else?

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/career/should-it-be-unionized/4348?tag=nl.e101

Home / Blogs / Career Management
Career Management

Should IT be unionized?
By Patrick Gray
May 30, 2012, 4:48 AM PDT

Takeaway: Patrick Gray thinks unionization is exactly the wrong answer for IT, and the dynamic career IT he has been given would not be possible in a unionized environment.

Today we have a guest post from TechRepublic contributing writer Patrick Gray.

*** begin quote ***

Despite all this high-minded talk of knowledge and merit-driven success, are IT workers “exploited”? That might be a loaded and overly dramatic word when considering the plight of far more difficult circumstances, but there are certainly people in IT who put in more effort than the corresponding reward they receive.

While a union might offer some protection, an alternative solution is to manage your career as if you were a tiny corporation. Many workers complain about a lack of employer loyalty, but this is a two-way street. You’re always free to say “no” to yet another working weekend, turn off the mobile device during dinner, or ultimately take your skills elsewhere. It may strike some as selfish and perhaps conniving, but your employer will likely consider replacing you when the need arises, so there’s no harm in considering replacing them on similar terms.

After long hours and over a frosty beverage, a worker’s revolt of sorts in the IT industry may sound like a good idea. Defined hours and benefits, and an overarching organization designed to keep your employer in line, certainly has its positive aspects. However, that stability comes with a trade-off, one that I find too heavy a price to bear. At its best, IT offers young and old a dynamic career where merit and skill trump seniority, pricey academic credentials, and even deep pockets.

*** end quote ***

Perhaps there is a middle ground?

Contracts?

Employment at will worked in the IT workers’ favor in the old days.

Not so much any more.

H1B, off-shoring, out-sourcing, downsizing, rightsizing, layoffs, firings, nit picking, bankruptcy, political shenanigans (i.e., GM union got paid off; GM’s non-union workers, suppliers, bondholder, and stockholders got the shaft), “crazy” management, “do more with less”, fad de jour, “human resource management”, … just to name a few.

 

 

 

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HARDWARE: Retina MacBook Pro demonstrates Apple wants to be an “appliance company”

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/cracking-open/teardown-shows-retina-macbook-pro-is-nearly-impossible-
to-upgrade-difficult-to-work-on/696?tag=nl.e101

Home / Blogs / Cracking Open
Teardown shows Retina MacBook Pro is nearly impossible to upgrade, difficult to work on
By Bill Detwiler
July 5, 2012, 10:08 PM PDT

*** begin quote ***

Missing “Pro” features

And if all this wasn’t enough, Apple also dropped two features that set the MacBook Pro apart the thinner, but less “professional” MacBook Air–an Ethernet port and optical drive.

*** end quote ***

For awhile I was an Apple fan boy. For a very very short time before that I was a Wintel fan boy. Both times I’ve quickly soured over “offerings”. 

For Wintel, it was bloatware, crapware, feature creep, automatic updates, DRM, activation. But what really put the ultimate knot in my shorts was win rot. That almost mandatory bare metal restore every six to nine months was unacceptable. 

A brief love affair with Linux, it was just too hard to install. Too many distributions to choose from. And, they really wanted you to be a hardware geek. Personally, I’m astonished that large organizations with dedicated IT staffs haven’t jumped on this as opposed to Microsoft and it’s upgrade treadmill.

That all led me to Apple. I jumped in with Mac Book Air. And, for the most part it’s served me well. Except, like Wintel, it has Mac Rot. I’ve got several problems that the Geniuses haven’t solved and requires fairly frequent reboot. A bare metal install without a Lion distribution disk scares me silly.

I don’t like the whole app store concept. 

Personal computing has morphed into being a pawn or cash cow for the big guys.

Maybe it’s time to revisit Linux.

But, I’m going to try a Chromebox first.

Maybe I’ll be a Google fan boy next. I doubt. I always seem to find the man behind the curtain.

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MONEY: French tax grab on holiday homes

Monday, July 9, 2012

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/offshorefinance/9377307/Francois-Hollande-announces-French-tax-grab-on-holiday-homes.html

Home»Finance»Personal Finance»Offshore Finance
Francois Hollande announces French tax grab on holiday homes
British owners of holiday homes in France are to be hit with punitive tax rises under plans announced by the new Socialist government.
By Henry Samuel, Paris
9:49PM BST 04 Jul 2012

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Approximately 200,000 Britons own second homes in areas such as the Dordogne and other parts of France, particularly those serviced by budget airlines.

Now, however, holiday home owners find themselves in the sights of President François Hollande as he seeks to tax the better-off to reduce France’s large budget deficit.

On Wednesday (July 4th), the French government announced it was to increase taxes on foreign-owned second homes. Tax on rental income would rise from 20 per cent to 35.5 per cent, and capital gains tax on property sales would rise from 19 per cent to 34.5 per cent. The extra in each case is being labelled a “social charge”.

A Treasury source said on Wednesday night: “We will need to study the details. But we will of course challenge any proposal which breaches European single market laws and anti-discrimination rules.”

*** end quote ***

I can’t imagine a dumber attack on property rights.

Why should “We, The Sheeple” care?

Because one Gooferment’s bad idea quickly migrates around the world. Gooferment, like vampires for blood, have an insatiable desire for wealth to spend on this program or that. Without concern for morality, effectiveness, or efficiency. 

Every unit of wealth extracted from the serfs has a “broken glass” effect. It can’t be used by the serf how they’d like to use it. It can’t sate a personal need, saved, or invested. 

We, here in Pepuls Republik of Nu Jerzee, are a classic example of Gooferment creep. Property taxes drive old people from their homes. Income taxes were imposed to provide “property tax relief”. What joke! All the taxes are higher. 

No, the only answer is to resist any and all taxes. No matter how reasonable the excuse, the answer must always be the same: “No!”

And one should insert some salty language to assure that everyone understand just how serious you are.

Then, the follow up should be: “And, while we are on the subject, how can we lower all taxes 10%?” If they politicians and bureaucrats begin to sputter and turn red or blue, then raise the ante. “OK, if you can’t do 10, how bout 20%?” When they turn white, then you’ve got them. They’re dead!

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POLITICAL: Too late for me to save Amerika

Sunday, July 8, 2012

FROM MY FAVORITE GOOFERMENT WORKER

On Sat, Jun 30, 2012 at 10:16 PM, Favorite Gooferment Worker wrote:
 
I assume you’ve rsvp’d to this?

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: Matt Hawes 
Date: June 30, 2012 15:09:38 CDT
To: Favorite Gooferment Worker 
Subject: Ron Paul to Speak at LPAC
Reply-To:

 

Dear Favorite Gooferment Worker,

It seems each summer flies by faster than the last.

So the 2012 Liberty Political Action Conference (LPAC), which takes place September 13-15 in Chantilly, Virginia, is quickly approaching!

I wanted to make you aware of two important updates regarding our Conference.

1.) I’m proud to announce that Congressman Ron Paul is confirmed to speak!

For over 30 years, Congressman Paul has stood up in defense of the Constitution and individual freedom, and his founding of C4L in 2008 ensured a continuing grassroots impact on the political landscape by liberty-minded activists.

Congressman Paul joins Senator Rand Paul, Senator Mike Lee, Joel Salatin, Jack Hunter, Mike Church, and many more as an LPAC 2012 speaker.  

2.) Our Early Bird rate, which discounts tickets to all three days of main stage activities to only $85 (and includes our grassroots training), was scheduled to expire July 1. 

But to help as many people as possible attend LPAC 2012, we’re extending the time to take advantage of this rate.

The Early Bird discount will now be available through July 8!

We won’t be able to stretch our deadline again.  So once this deal is gone, it’s gone!

Although we’ve extended our Early Bird rate, don’t wait until the last minute to save your spot.

LPAC 2012 is guaranteed to be an exciting, motivating, and encouraging weekend for all those desiring to reclaim the Republic and restore the Constitution.

And our grassroots training will equip you with the tools you need to turn your passion into effective action.

Visit www.LPAC.com to learn more about our Conference activities and reserve your ticket(s) today.

If you have any questions, be sure to contact us at lpac@campaignforliberty.com.

In Liberty,

Matt Hawes
Vice President

P.S.  I’m excited to announce that Congressman Ron Paul is confirmed to speak at LPAC 2012!

And I also wanted to let you know that our Early Bird rate on LPAC 2012 tickets, which includes access to all three days of main Conference activities and our grassroots training for just $85, has been extended until July 8.

 

Even though our deadline to obtain our Early Bird discount has been extended, don’t wait until the last minute to save your spot.

Visit www.LPAC.com to learn more about our Conference activities and reserve your ticket(s) today!

And be sure to contact us at lpac@campaignforliberty.com with any questions.

This message was intended for: Favorite Gooferment Worker
You were added to the system September 15, 2011. For more information

 

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Dear Favorite Gooferment Worker:

No. I was planning to take a week down at Casa Reinke and just “try to remember”.

(Yes, my life is governed by old songs, TV shows, and great quotes.)

Although it’s right nearby. It’ll just make me want to move to NH. Besides, I’m at the end of my journey. It’s too late for me to make or effect any meaningful change.

For better or worse, it’s up to you young people and the rest of “We, The Sheeple” to correct the mistakes of my and previous generations.

Sadly, “we” were not as smart as the Dead Old White Guys.

More sadly, neither is your generation.

I won’t be around to see the demise of the American Experiment (in self governance). But, maybe I have. It’ll goes back to Wilson creating the Federal Reserve System. The Republic was “Dead Man Walking” from that point on.

Sadly.
“to late, we get smart” Ferd 

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