Seth's Blog

Goodbye Texas

Seth — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:10:56 +0000

In the middle of the night I threw what I had left in my apartment into my rental truck and took off for New Jersey. 650 miles later I’m at the Tennessee/Arkansas border lying in a kind of gross motel room bed. At least they have free wifi :).

Will I visit Texas again? Maybe. It was a fun ride but now it’s time for something new.

Bush is the John Gotti of politics

Seth — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 22:59:43 +0000

Most Americans can agree that the Bush administration has made a lot of mistakes over the past seven and a half years. The biggest blunder isn’t Iraq, the economy, Katrina, or getting caught in any number of embarrassing moments. No, the worst thing they’ve done is get the American people involved.

The best thing for a corrupt politician is for the people to be asleep at the wheel. It’s OK to do things they don’t agree with, just don’t push it too hard. Sure they’ll complain at the local watering hole or in their home but that’s generally the extent of their actions.

Only the “kooks” will write to their representatives, organize rallies, and get involved. Normal folks will let it go. Push the normal American too far, and they’ll be up in arms.

The recent email problem with Congress is a perfect example. It’s clear that they weren’t expecting this much traffic. Why? Because they probably never get email from the normal people, only the kooks and crazies.

This whole administration fucked it up for all the fat cats. They’ve pushed the American people too far and realize they will be receiving blowback for some time.

The hardest thing about being a criminal is learning to lay low. Bush is the John Gotti of politics.

Congress filters constituent email

Seth — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 22:21:16 +0000

The servers that handle email for the House of Representatives is overloaded. So much so that they’re limiting the email that gets through.

What’s not clear is on what basis are they rejecting the email? It’s very possible to setup a rule to bounce messages based on a regular expression. Anything appearing negative gets tossed, positive emails will get through. I think this is a scary thing.

What’s laughable is the amount of money that they’re throwing around at these financial companies yet they can’t spend a few grand for several more servers to handle the email traffic? Who’s running that operation anyway?

I am glad to see that people are writing to their representatives. I believe the main reason this recent bill was voted down was because of the people voicing their opinions.

Click here to read more about the email problem

European hypocrisy

Seth — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 16:36:05 +0000

A group within the European Union is having trouble with Google’s privacy issues such as keeping logs for over 6 months.

Really? Doesn’t the UK, a primary member of the EU have cameras on every corner? Aren’t there dozens of new YouTube videos every day about some British office abusing the power over there? Where’ the article about that?

Perhaps they should do more introspection.

Click here to read more

Live and learn

Seth — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 05:03:48 +0000

“Live like you were going to die tomorrow; Learn like you were going to live forever”

- Mahatma Gandhi

Link share

Seth — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 23:11:56 +0000

Here’s a site that aggregates stuff on C-SPAN and other generally boring channels. There’s usually some great nuggets hidden on these channels but you have to sit around for hours to find them. Here you can let some asshole do it for you and pick up the feed.

C-SPAN Junkie/

Another new job

Seth — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 23:05:31 +0000

Well, I’m changing jobs again. The job seems pretty interesting this time. It’s working on high performance computing clusters for the Department of Defense.

I haven’t done that type of work before but they seem to think I have enough Linux experience for the position.

I’ll get paid a small fortune so maybe if I work for a while I can quit and take a long time off to go to college or travel around a bit. I don’t love money but I love time and I think I can buy more spare time if I had more money. We’ll see.

Things are getting scary

Seth — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 02:08:14 +0000

The Army is stationing a full BCT or brigade combat team inside the United States to assist with civil unrest and crowd control within our borders.

It’s clear to me that they are expecting riots in the near future and are looking to prepare early to prevent the out of control rioting that happened in places like Detroit, Newark, and Watts years ago.

Why would Americans riot? Out of control looting of tax payer money, possibly a rigged election, and more damaging evidence about how poorly the Bush administration behaved are just some of the reasons I can see for riots.

Click here to read the full article

Simple guide to understanding the subprime mess

Seth — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 22:01:17 +0000

I found this funny comic book style slideshow explaining the subprime mortgage problem. Found here Using the full screen link (second icon in from the bottom right) is the best way to view it.

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: subprime mortgages)

Old skater dude

Seth — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 05:42:37 +0000

I went ice skating the other night and was watching this older guy skate. He was spinning and twirling like a little girl. Judging by his age and gut I wouldn’t have expected it but he was actually pretty graceful. Here’s an image I snapped from my phone.