How to save all “Too big to fail” industries.
Government mandate. Why the fuck not? If health insurance and automobile insurance can be required, why stop there?
Require all Amurikans to purchase only vehicles from Amurikan companies. Require every citizen of the United States to mortgage a home. Require every Amurikan to carry life insurance.
How the hell did we get to a point in our society where our government can force us to redirect our earnings to private organizations? I'm not a historian nor do I enjoy learning more about Amurikan history because the more I discover, the less faith I have in our government to help shape a better future for its citizenry unless they're a "corporate" citizen.
The further adventures of Mr. and Mrs. Wannerbob
On December 24th, 2009, my beautiful girlfriend and I legally bound our lives to each other. It was a private ceremony and family wasn't even told until after the event. This wasn't because we wished it to remain a secret, but more a matter of convenience. Just like a good bank heist, the fewer people involved the smoother the operation works out.
While researching options for name changes, Jen came across "The Name Equality Act of 2007." It's the document that spells out your options for changing your name after being legally wed.
I discovered two things that night:
- The California Department of Health has a Genetic Disease Branch
- You can change your middle name when you're married
Neither of these are earth-shattering, but still revelations to me. Turns out you can also use a combination of both last names in whole or segmented. The act doesn't state whether you can use only a single segment or multiple, so I anagrammed our names and thus we are now Mr. and Mrs. Wannerbob.
bean likes an ad!
Mmmm...looks like something I'd want to taste twice.
This is a marketing masterpiece. I'm hoping there is a board room somewhere with a bunch of hooting monkeys jerking each other off at their brilliance.
"Taste it twice."
Ummm...maybe their ad people aren't from the U.S. because tasting a food twice is not something you want people to be associating with your food(?) product. The picture only reinforces that there is a strong chance you'll be tasting bile with a tinge of cheese and whatever else is in there.
My name is bean and I like this ad.
Best of 2009? Really?
Ok. What is up with this? 64 million? 64 MILLION sites with "Best of 2009?"
Results of 'Best of 2009' search on 12/15/2009. 64,700,00
Recently, friends have been sending me links to "Best of 2009" lists. Best of 2009? Really? I believe it's still the year 2009. How can anyone be deciding what's the best of anything for this year when it's not even done yet?
Winners aren't declared in sporting events until it's done. Movies don't start rolling credits 5 minutes before the end although some should. Your torrent is not marked as completely downloaded when you've only got 95% of the file(s).
I understand we're only a few weeks from the end of the year, but no matter what category your list covers, there is still a chance that something or someone could happen to change your feelings about any items on it. Patience, people.
The countdown is on…
January 7th is the day I will be undergoing major dental work. It's been a long time coming and I'm looking forward to ending this continual pain in my head. It's been years since I've been without it. I almost feel like I'll be losing a friend.
Wednesday’s the day.
Wednesday morning I go into approve some major dental work that has been a long time coming. I'm nervous, but excited about the work that will be done.
There will be before/after pictures when the procedure is complete. I expect the differences are going to be very dramatic.
Goodbye Gnome, hello KDE. Goodbye KDE, hello wmii
It's not unusual for me to try out different window managers for Linux. In fact, I've tried most of them: Gnome, KDE, Enlightenment (DR16 and E17), jwm, twm, XFCE, *box, LXDE and Awesome to name a few.
While I enjoy having a modern, graphical desktop, every single one of them fails to be functional for me in one way or another. Thus, I always have at least one open Terminal window. Some things are easier and faster that way.
So, recently I stopped using Gnome because I was unable to compile a new version of Gnome due to some dependencies on Mono. I'm not a Mono hater, but I'd rather use software I know will remain free forever.
Switched to KDE because I have friends who swore that 4.3 was the bees knees. If you're looking for a slick, shiny user interface, then KDE 4 is a real treat. I enjoyed it for about 3 weeks, then I became disheartened with how sluggish my computer felt. That, and I spent more time in Terminal than in any part of the GUI.
About a week ago, I switched to wmii. Minimalist interface, manages windows (a good goal for a window manager), and stays the hell out of my way. While there's a bit of a learning curve, it's not so steep that I had to spend hours tweaking it before I began using it.
One of my favorite features is the "tagging." Similar to having multiple desktops in another WM, tags create separate screens for applications. So, tag 1 has a terminal maximized, tag 2 has my browser window and tag 3 has IM, irc, or whatever. Any WM does this, but what wmii does better is that when there are no more apps on that tagged screen, it disappears. This means I never have an empty workspace unless there's only the one.
Another is a feature that's implemented in similar window managers: tiled windows with layouts. I can have all my windows line up like little tiles in the one screen, have them overlap each other with only their title bars showing or even have some windows float while others remain attached to the background. Handy.
Most interesting for me is the way that I can interact with wmii. wmii implements a Plan 9 interface to itself. That means every piece of the wm can be accessed as a file. No more wondering where the configuration is hiding (Gnome and KDE could take a lesson from this.)
It’s after midnight. Do you know where my mind is?
It's thinking it's daytime. That's right. My brain seems to kick into overdrive just around this time. With that in mind, I sought one answer from the almighty Google: "Where in the world is it 9 am right now?" Sadly, the search engine knew not how to parse my query and instead directed me to another oracle. Once there, however, I found the answer I had been seeking.
Here are the places I wish I was right now (based solely on the fact that it's morning there and NOT one other reason why):
- Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
- Palma, Majorca, Spain
- Paris, France
- Algiers, Algeria
- Alicante, Spain
- Podgorica, Montenegro
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Andorra La Vella, Andorra
- Poznan, Poland
- Prague, Czech Republic
- Pristina, Kosovo
- Basel, Switzerland
- Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Bastia, Corsica, France
- Rome, Italy
- Rotterdam, Netherlands
- Kraków, Poland
- Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Bern, Switzerland
- La Coruña, Spain
- Salzburg, Austria
- San Marino, San Marino
- Lausanne, Switzerland
- Libreville, Gabon
- Bratislava, Slovak Republic
- Brussels, Belgium
- Lódz, Poland
- Luxembourg, Luxembourg
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Madrid, Spain
- Szczecin, Poland
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Córdoba, Spain
- Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
- Munich, Bavaria, Germany
- Vienna, Austria
- Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany
- Nice, France
- Warsaw, Poland
- Geneva, Switzerland
- Oslo, Norway
- Zürich, Switzerland
I think it's time to try and learn a foreign language. I've already set the language on my Nokia Internet Tablet to German. Maybe I'll keep it there for a while.
So ends Bean’s Free Music Month
Last month I ran an experiment, of sorts. I listened to nothing but "Free" music. I dubbed it Bean's Free Music Month and removed from my playlists any music that was married to a restrictive license. For all of October, I listened to artists and tracks that I was able to download and distribute.
Jamendo was a predictable starting point for this adventure through the world of liberally-licensed music. I had already thrown a few of the more popular artists into regular rotation: Tryad, [add info about the band], [list 2 others w/info].
I've already been listening to some of the top artists there but decided to branch in to genres that didn't lean toward the electronic. I am a fan of electronic music (some of my favorite artists being The Crystal Method and BT), but I wanted to hear something that would be similar to the rock I love to listen to most. Artists like Disturbed, Staind, dredg and the many others that produce commercially available music.
So, I began looking around on Jamendo for rock acts or at least bands that didn't describe their music using an electronica genre. One band I found, TenPenny Joke, was a welcome discovery. At times sounding like Silverchair, this aussie band knows how to play rock. Their melodies remind me of 80s post-metal alternative with an updated style.
One thing I can say now that October is over and I've re-added some commercial artists into the mix is this: Much like open-source software, free music suffers from a glut of glorious garbage. However, if you weed through it, there are some real treasures to be found.
