PRODUCTIVITY: Have you “sung” your song?

Saturday, October 27, 2007

FROM A NOTE I WROTE

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I think that sadly all too many people go to their grave and take their DIKW — data, information, knowledge, and wisdom — with them. Like the man, who dies, leaving his family without life insurance, is said to “abscond”. So to, those, who leave, taking their thoughts to the grave, have stolen from all of us. It our duty to humanity to point the way. Probably our mistakes are more insightful. Those tell people what didn’t work for us. Remember Edison’s “now I know 10,000 ways how NOT to make a light bulb”. Powerful advice.

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Steven Covey says the word ‘universe” means one song. I hope everyone “sings” their song on the inet where it will be captured hopefully forever.

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MONEY: Tax bite at poker

Friday, October 26, 2007

http://www.impactlab.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=13497

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Casinos and other sponsors of poker tournaments will be required to report winnings of more than $5,000 to the Internal Revenue Service beginning March 4, 2008, the tax agency said Friday.

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Sigh!

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PRODUCTIVITY: When is Someday?

Friday, October 26, 2007

http://lifecoachesblog.com/2007/10/19/when-is-someday

When is Someday?

Rick Cook, October 19th 2007

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Let’s see, there’s Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday… but when is Someday?

Show me Someday on the calendar. Point it out to me in your daytimer. How long is a month of Somedays? Even blue moons happen once in a while (second full moon in a month), but Someday? The closest day to Someday is Never.

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Excellent question!

Now?

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TECHNOLOGY: kvetch about the firefighting technology

Friday, October 26, 2007

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/land-socialism.html

Land Socialism: Playing With Fire
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

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Next we turn to the government’s glorious fire fighting units. As with all government bureaucracies, they resist new technology. They don’t plan for and assess risks. They run around spraying water and chemicals on everything regardless of effectiveness or cost. But meanwhile, they crowd out private fire control efforts. They tell us to flee and then put an antique government bureaucracy in charge and expect us to be happy about it. Finally, when the disaster ends, the federal government dumps billions in aid as a way of placating us. This is an insane approach, or, rather, it is only a sane approach if the goal is to see civilization wiped out and meanwhile expand the state.

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Over, and above, the arguments about “liberty”, I do find some credence in the author’s kvetch about the fire fighting technology.

One would think that that there would be some significant progress in that area.

We know that the gooferment can’t do anything right and that if you throw enough money at something, something will happen.

So cost-effectiveness and technology advances require privitization.

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GUNS: Disguise yourself as a vending machine

Friday, October 26, 2007

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/21/news/japan.php

In Japan, refreshing ideas for the fearful
By Martin Fackler
Published: October 21, 2007

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TOKYO: On a narrow Tokyo street, near a beef bowl restaurant and a pachinko parlor, Aya Tsukioka demonstrated new clothing designs that she hoped would ease Japan’s growing fears of crime.

With a deft motion, Tsukioka, a 29-year-old fashion designer, lifted a flap on the front of her skirt to reveal a large sheet of cloth printed in bright red with a soft drink logo partly visible. By holding the sheet fully open and stepping to the side of the road, she showed how a woman walking alone could elude pursuers – by disguising herself as a vending machine.

The wearer hides behind the sheet, which is printed with a life-size photo of a vending machine. Tsukioka’s clothing is still in the developmental stage, but she has already created several versions, including one that unfolds from a kimono, and a deluxe model with four sides for more complete camouflaging.

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Neat idea.

Lousy solution.

Sam Colt gave women equality decades ago. The smallest frailest woman is more than a match for the biggest brutish predator. The hand gun.

Yup, easy to conceal, easy to operate, easy to be part of that “well regulated” militia the Constitution talks about.

(For the uneducated, by “well regulated”, the dead old white guys meant being able to hit what you aim at.)

So, instead of disguising yourself as Coke machine and hope the thug is NOT thirsty, our threaten female puts her back to the wall, gets into a Cooper stance, puts her finger on the trigger, and announces tot he world in her best imitation of Clint Eastwood “Well punk are you feeling lucky?”.

I don’t know about you but I would be back peddling as fast as I can and wondering where am I going to find clean shorts.

See, our founding fathers understood that the world is a dangerous place. And, we were responsible for our own protection. And, we could do it quite well.

Crime is a direct result of the gooferment’s war on drugs. No war on drugs would mean low cost drugs that meant addict would not have to steal to support a habit. Also, no turf wars.

So, the amount of crime related violence would be reduced.

Allowing those that want to, to pack heat, would take care of the residual. Sprinkle the population with a few “sheepdogs” and the rest of the sheep can go about their business undisturbed.

So dress like a vending machine or stand up like a free person?

“I know not course others will take, but for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

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FUN: truck driver and priest

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 10:41:09 -0500
From: Cereal Killer
Subject: truck driver and priest <off to layers>

A truck driver used to amuse himself by running over lawyers he would see walking down the side of the road. Every time he would see a lawyer walking along the road, he would swerve to hit him, and there would be a loud “THUMP” and then he would swerve back onto the road.

One day, as the truck driver was driving along he saw a priest hitchhiking. He thought he would do a good turn and pulled the truck over. He asked the priest, “Where are you going, Father?”. “I’m going to the church 5 miles down the road!”, replied the priest. “No problem, Father! I’ll give you a lift. Climb in the truck”. The happy priest climbed into the passenger seat and the truck driver continued down the road.

Suddenly the truck driver saw a lawyer walking down the road and instinctively he swerved to hit him. But then he remembered there was a priest in the truck with him, so at the last minute he swerved back away, narrowly missing the lawyer. However even though he was certain he missed the lawyer, he still heard a loud “THUD”.

Not understanding where the noise came from he glanced in his mirrors and when he didn’t see anything, he turned to the priest and said, “I’m sorry Father. I almost hit that lawyer”.

“That’s okay”, replied the priest. “I got him with the door!

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Obviously an urban legend. A priest might be out walking, but a lawyer?!?

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TECHNOLOGY: Should ISPs Forward E-mail When You Move?

Thursday, October 25, 2007

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Should-ISPs-Forward-Email-When-You-Move-88755

Should ISPs Forward E-mail When You Move?
Miffed AOL user urges FCC to regulate e-mail…
02:21PM Wednesday Oct 24 2007 by Karl

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The post office will forward your mail to your new address when you move, and wireless phone carriers are required to port your number to your next provider. So should ISPs be forced to forward your mail to your new ISP? The FCC is exploring the requirement after an AOL customer claims she lost important business revenue when AOL canceled her account due to miscommunication.

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[Disclaimer: I work for an ISP, but not in any capacity other than a technology worker!]

In a word, NO!

I have been on record for a while that you, as an individual, should never be dependent upon anyone’s email address. Not your ISP. Not your boss. Not AOL! Not Yahoo!

Here’s the URL of one of my many pontifications on the subject: http://tinyurl.com/yq5kto

Now, for example, my Web Service Provider 1and1 http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=9113251 offers a package for $48/year that give you NOT ONLY your own domain with lots of web space, but a slew of email addresses.

The forwarding complaint is groundless. It’s completely unnecessary imho.

Even if you want to change your own domain between service providers, then you can just move where YOUR domain name points. There never should be an email interruption.

The belt ‘n’ suspenders crowd can combine that with many of the free redirectors. If you are really paranoid, you’ll never be out due to a name problem, you can redirect thru gmail (i.e., redirector to a gmail account to your domain) and you can be super assured. Then you can worry about a DNS or a GMail failure.

So, getting the gooferment to levy an obsolete requirement on all ISPs is surely a waste of everyone’s time, money, and attention.

That leaves aside the question of why she was running a business on a retail email account. I’m sure AOL’s TOS covered themselves.

Leave the gooferment to mess up the postal mail. It’s such an exemplar of effectiveness and efficiency!

[Disclaimer: Comcast probably has other opinions and certainly doesn’t need my help on this topic!]

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GUNS: They would still be sheep, but they would not be food!

Thursday, October 25, 2007

http://www.catb.org/~esr/guns/sheep.html

The Parable of the Sheep

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The bold sheep knew that the fangs and claws they possessed had not changed them. They still grazed like other sheep, and raised their lambs in the spring, and greeted their friend the dog as he walked among them. But they could not quell the terror of the flock, which rose in them like some ancient dark smoky spirit and could not be damped by reason, nor dispelled by the light of day.

So they resolved to retain their weapons, but to conceal them from the flock; to endure their fear and loathing, and even to protect their brethren if the need arose, until the day the flock learned to understand that as long as there were wolves in the night, sheep would need teeth to repel them.

They would still be sheep, but they would not be food!

***End Quote***

r u a sheeple or a sheepdog?

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MONEY: Starve the beast through tax cuts

Thursday, October 25, 2007

http://www.lewrockwell.com/greenhut/greenhut47.html

The Republican Crackup
The libertarian and conservative factions of the old Reagan coalition are marching to different drummers
by Steven Greenhut

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Grover Norquist, a prominent conservative activist from Americans for Tax Reform, called on the reconstitution of Reagan’s “leave us alone” coalition. The members of that group – gun lovers, home-schoolers, small-business owners, taxpayer advocates – didn’t necessarily like each other, he said, but they united in their desire to pursue their lives without excessive meddling from the government. “We don’t have to agree on secondary and tertiary issues,” he said. “Ours is a low-maintenance coalition that wants to be left alone in the zone that matters to them, and that’s what matters.” By contrast, the Democratic coalition is what he calls the “takings coalition – the unions, trial lawyers, the dependency movement, coercive utopians and radical environmentalists” who are promoting “a list of rules slightly longer and less tedious than Leviticus.” These groups can work together as long “as more money is coming into the center of the table.” His solution: Starve the beast through tax cuts and expand the coalition of Americans whose primary goal is to be left alone.

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Sounds like plan. Oppose every tax. Demand reductions. Oppose every debt issue. We can’t even conceive about all the taxes we are paying.

And, that makes us slaves.

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FUN: Gnomic whizdumb

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Gnomic whizdumb

“do, or do not. there is NO try!”

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