Kim du Toit just reminded me that we, the American people, are about to be subjected to the "no political ads within 60 days of an election" bullshit of the McCain-Feingold Act. And he has a dandy idea for any and all political persuasions who believe that the First Amendment means what it says:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

In Kim's words:

HereÂ’s my promise: If a conservative organization wants to run a political ad criticizing any Congressman up for re-election during that 60-day window, IÂ’ll let them run one on this website, for free, right up until Election Day.

And if Congress or for that matter law enforcement think that IÂ’m going to refrain from criticizing an elected or wannabe-elected official, ever, theyÂ’re sadly mistaken.

Sounds good to me. Anyone want to put a political ad on my blog free of charge? Not surprisingly, Misha is on board as well.

I just remembered something that Stephen Macklin posted in the comments to this post of mine. I'll repeat it here because it's too good not to share:

My blog will change in response to FEC rules. No more quizzes, no more book or movie memes. All political advocacy all the time.

Damn right.

Update: Dean sports the blue version of the image above, which is entirely appropriate. This is an area where the left and the right have the same goal in mind: free speech unregulated by Congress, just as the Constitution demands.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 11:42 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Would you like to move from Windows to Linux, but are afraid of losing your settings and files? Worry no more: Versora software has just released its Progression Desktop Windows to Linux tool. It can migrate the following items:

System settings: folder options, fonts, input devices, wallpaper, sounds

Application Settings: email, web browser, office productivity software, instant messaging

And here are the to/from OSs supported:

MICROSOFT WINDOWS
Windows 98
Windows ME
Windows NT
Windows 2000
Windows XP

LINUX
Fedora Core
Linspire
Mandriva
Novell Linux Desktop
Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 (SLED 10)
Red Hat Desktop and Enterprise Workstation
SimplyMEPIS 6.0
SUSE Professional
Turbolinux FUJI
Ubuntu and Kubuntu
Xandros Desktop OS 4

Nifty, huh? Check it out.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 12:43 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Found in an old email...
==================================================

Two aliens land in Metro Detroit, and they happen to land next to a gas station. So, the aliens waddle out of their ship and look around.

The first thing they see that resembles a human being is the gas pump. The two aliens approach and the first one says "Earthling, take me to your leader!" Of course he gets no response...

The first alien looks at his buddy then addresses the pump again. "Earthling, I said take me to your leader!" Of course, still no response...

The alien then turns to his buddy and says "If this Earthling doesn't show me some respect and at least acknowledge me, I'm going to blast him!"

At that the second alien replies, "OK. I'm just going to stand down on the next block."

The first Alien looks a little puzzled, but waits for the other to waddle to the next block. He then addresses the pump a third time.

"Earthling take me to your leader!" Still nothing. So the alien then pulls out his ray gun and vaporizes the pump...

The gas station goes up in a huge explosion, blowing the alien all the way down the block to his buddy. He gets up, dusts himself off, and turns to the second Alien. "If you knew that was going to happen why didn't you warn me!?"

The second replies "Well, I didn't know exactly *what* was going to happen. But there's no way I'm gonna' mess with a guy whose dick hangs to the ground, wraps around his body twice, and is still long enough to stick in his left ear.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 07:49 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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This upgrade does not replace Windows XP. Rather, it offers a way for those of you still trudging along on the now unsupported Windows 98/98SE/ME operating systems.

I know what you're thinking. Who still uses those crap systems? Well, some people are still using their old computers that run just fine using an older OS, but would completely crap itself if you attempted to install and run XP on it. I have a 1.8 Ghz machine still running ME on it because, well, it works. And I haven't had the multitude of issues that other people have had with that, let's be honest, toy operating system.

In any event, Microsoft no longer provides support for Windows 98/ME. All of you users are on your own. Or you were until now. Excerpt:

Xandros, in responding to Microsoft's July 11 announcement that it will discontinue security patches and technical support for Windows 98, 98SE, and ME, is offering a 50 percent mail-in rebate to users who "upgrade" to either the Xandros Desktop Home Edition or Home Edition Premium versions of its Linux distribution.

An estimated 50 million people around the world still use the older Windows systems, according to market analyst IDC.

The regular Home Edition sells for $39.99, and the premium edition sells for $79.99. If users upgrade their operating system from Windows 98, 98SE, or ME to Xandros 4.0, they can receive a 50 percent mail-in rebate, the New York City-based company said.

According to the company, the Xandros Desktop Home Edition or Home Edition Premium OSes can be installed alongside unsupported Microsoft Windows -- even on older hardware, eliminating the need for new hardware required by a Windows XP or Vista upgrade.

And here are the details on what Xandros will do for you:

Today, as three older members of the Windows family depart, Xandros is more than able to take up the needs of these, and other, Windows users. More so than almost any other Linux desktop, Xandros is designed to look and feel like Windows.

It starts with a KDE 3.42 desktop interface, with some enhancements to increase its Windows-like look and feel. In fact, you can, as I did, set it up to mirror a typical Windows environment and fool users into thinking they're actually using Windows.

This is helped, in no small measure, by the inclusion in the Home Premium Edition Xandros Desktop Linux 4.0 of CodeWeavers Inc.'s Crossover Office 5.03 Standard Edition. With CrossOver, you can run many popular Windows applications. For example, I was able to run Office 2000 and 2003, Quicken 2004, iTunes 5.01, and Macromedia Dreamweaver MX.

Can it run all Windows programs? No, it's not even close, but Crossover on Xandros can run many of the most commonly used one. It also makes it very easy to install and use Windows applications on Linux. In past combination packages of Crossover and a Linux distribution, it's been something of a chore getting the pairing to integrate.

That's not the case, here. For instance, if you want to install a Windows application, you just download or pop in its installation CD, and the system takes care of all the details. You could easily be fooled into thinking that you were installing a Windows application on a Windows system.

In addition, the Premium Edition of Xandros also comes with Versora Progression Desktop. This is a Windows to Linux migration tool.

It's a very handy tool that deserves a review in its own right. With it you can transfer such basic system settings as your wallpaper and screen saver to Linux, and, more importantly, your email and documents from, say, Outlook and Word, to Evolution or Thunderbird for email and OpenOffice.org 2 for your documents.

It's very, very handy. There are a few gotchas to keep an eye out for. For example, very complicated Office documents, such as macro-empowered Excel spreadsheets, are unlikely to make the transfer well. Still, I'd say 90 percent of users could move everything they have from Windows to Xandros and not lose anything of significance.
..
What Windows 98 and ME users may find far more interesting, though, is that I was also able to run Xandros reasonably well on a Compaq Deskpro EN Desktop with a 500MHz Pentium III, 128MB of RAM, and a 10GB hard drive.

Was it great? No, but Xandros ran as well as 98SE or ME ever ran on this six-year-old computer. XP? On this system? Forget about it!

This, more than anything else, is why I think any current 98 or ME user should look to Xandros. This Linux will just work on the system you're using today, and you won't even need to re-learn that much.

Interestingly enough, I've got a machine at home that's gathering dust right now. It's technical specifications mirror almost exactly the old machine that Vaughan-Nichols listed. I think that I might take give it an upgrade and milk some more years out of it.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 07:47 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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I've followed the buzz about Mel Gibson's DUI and subsequent anti-Semitic rants. The only thing that could even remotely be considered a positive is Gibson's apology, which included this line:

I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested and said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable.

Many people aren't in the forgiving mood, figuring that whatever Mel said when drunk reflects his actual feelings. I have to say that I agree with that sentiment. However, I believe that it's more complicated than that, as I'll attempt to illustrate using some examples that hit close to home for me.

My grandmother was born in 1904. She lived through the Depression, Two World Wars, a multitude of presidents and one presidential assassination. She outlived her husband by 25 years. During that time, she suffered through two mastectomies and two rounds of chemotherapy and radiation. Through the whole ordeal, she didn't complain once. In fact, she worked up until about a year before her death, at which time the cancer and its treatments made such a thing impossible. She helped raise me and my sister, as my mother usually worked two or more jobs to keep a roof over our heads. She was one of the strongest, best people that I've known in my entire life. She was also an inveterate racist.

I know what you're thinking: how in the world does this relate to the Mel Gibson meltdown? Allow me to explain.

My grandmother's prejudice against blacks was deep, firmyl embedded in her psyche. I'm certain that she didn't see it that way, of course. To her mind, that's just the way things were. Let me offer an example:

As I mentioned, my mother worked a lot to keep a roof over our heads. There were times when her job would keep her late, preventing my mother from being able to pick us up. Since my grandmother worked during most of that time, she couldn't pick us up either. However, she'd known this particular cabbie, Thomas, for decades. Whenever my grandmother would call the cab company and request his services to bring me or my sister home, Thomas would drop whatever he was doing and come to ferry us home. It didn't matter where he was in the city, it didn't matter what he was doing, he always helped my grandmother when she called. Thomas had enormous respect and affection for my grandmother. And my grandmother? Well, she liked Thomas in her own way, but her way of expressing it was none too pleasant: "He's one of the good darkies."

My grandfather was a different sort of bigot. While my grandmother tended towards the they're-not-as-good-as-us-but-they're-okay-as-long-as-they-know-their-place sort of racism, my grandfather was more blunt: "God, I hate n*ggers." Pleasant, I know.

Imagine that you were born and raised while racial segregation still existed. Now imagine that your parents were openly scornful and condescending towards blacks. Now try and imagine that you'd grow up with absolutely no ingrained racial prejudice. I'm going to bet that it wouldn't be easy.

That was my mother's environment. She grew up in a household where bigotry wasn't treated as such, but rather regarded as a fact of life. To her credit, she's done yeoman's work trying to not be her parents, at least in this one regard. But there have been one or two occassions when my mother would drink and her inner demons would come out and she would say some things about blacks that, were she sober, she would never say.

Maybe there is truth in wine. Maybe this is who, in her heart of hearts, my mother really is. But I will tell you right now that it isn't who she wants to be. It's not even who she thinks she is, at least on a concious level. And so the struggle continues.

Anyway, I've been thinking about this ever since Mel Gibson started blaming the Jews for all wars and whatever else sprang to mind. Anyone who has been paying attention knows that Mel's dad is, to be blunt, a raving anti-Semitic Holocaust denying loon. Let that be the major influence in Gibson's life growing up.

Now imagine that you've worked in Hollywood for about 30 years. Despite working in an industry with a large jewish population, you haven't offered public evidence of anti-Semitism(no Passion comments, please, because I don't believe that the film was anti-Semitic). And then one night you get a bit tipsy and the mask slips, revealing the ugly beast within. Is that who you really are? Probably so. But is it who you want to be?

Gibson's comments give a fair indication that he has some serious issues with Jews. There's really no other way to interpret his words. But he's somehow managed to work for more than two decades surrounded by the people that he dislikes deep down without somehow getting quoted, recorded or reported for anti-Semitic remarks until recently. So is it likely that Mel wants to be an anti-Semite? There's no question that he is, but is it who he wants to be? Or has Mel been, apparently unsuccessfully, trying to escape his past?

People are rightfully beating up Mel for what he said. Some of Gibson's critics, though, have apparently fallen on their heads. I offer Ann Althouse, an otherwise sensible person, as a prime example:

What artist has ever crashed like this? Not Michael Jackson. Not Woody Allen. Not O.J. Simpson. YouÂ’ve shown an evil heart and it changes the meaning of all of your artistic work. How horrible! How painful!

Uh huh. Gibson drove while intoxicated and spouted some anti-Semitic garbage. Stating that that is a worse offense than either a double-homicide or pedophilia pretty makes me think that you should switch to decaff.

Update: James Joyner weighs in with similar thoughts:

While the nature of his remarks, combined with the radical notions of the sect to which he adheres, makes it impossible for me to believe that he is not anti-Semitic, it’s not implausible to me that Gibson–who, after all, has made his living for the past thirty-odd years in an industry where Jews are not strangers–honestly believes otherwise.

Update: Entered into the Beltway Traffic Jam here. Go for more interesting links.

Update: Here I was set to make a snarky post about Abraham Foxman and he comes out and says this. Kudos Mr. Foxman.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 09:24 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Yeah, it's a repost, but what can you do?
===============================

Yes, this post is likely to get me whacked by some humorless people out there.
---------------------------------

Stuck for the perfect gift for your female friends?

Then try the new and improved ‘Mouse for Women’.

Given the difficulties with the utilisation of the standard mouse experienced by women, the leading computer companies IBM and Microsoft have joined forces to try to find a solution to the problem.

Both companies, after many years of research and experimentation into the needs of women of all ages, have created a new mouse (ergonomically designed for female hands) and it has already had a great impact among the female population of computer users, finally ending years of problems caused by previous designs.

Introducing the new ‘Mouse for Women’…..

Posted by: Physics Geek at 09:59 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Feel like celebrating a birthday? The Great American Beer Festival turns 25 this year, September 28-30 at the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver. This will mark my 8th pilgrimage to the holy festival during the last 9 years. I missed one year because my daughter was born that weekend which, I felt, was a pretty good reason to stay home. I didn't miss it 10 days after returning from my honeymoon, though, because my wife was fine with me going.

Am I a lucky man or what?

Anyway, if anyone's heading to Denver that weekend, I'd be glad to meet up for, umm, some beer drinking.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 07:57 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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At least, for those of us who like alcohol. I give you Mead Day, courtesy of the American Homebrewers Association. Excerpt:

How to Celebrate

Before the event
• Invite non-brewing and brewing/meadmaking friends to help make mead.
• Hold a special pre-event mead dinner for Mead Day friends or family.

During the event
• Brew the Official Mead Day Recipe
• Tell friends and family about other American Homebrewers Association fun events – Big Brew, National Homebrewers Conference, Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day
• Bring out meadmaking literature for your friends to read– Compleat Meadmaker other meadmaking books
• Drink mead, pair your mead with food and HAVE FUN
• Bottle the mead you made together
• Buy an American Homebrewers Association membership as a gift for new homebrewers or meadmakers
• Have new homebrewers or meadmakers check out www.beertown.org for up-to-date brewing informatio

I have some bottles of mead that are about 14 years old now, so they're just rounding into shape. For the record, smoked tea(lapsang) is a poor mead additive. Bleah.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 07:46 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Or is it 2007 already? The only reason I think so is that Bill Whittle has posted again.

So I wonder when this book goes on the market. It'd make a dandy Christmas present.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 03:07 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Well, it looks like two the blogs that I read regularly are engaged in a flamewar. The comments here at Q&O contain some truly priceless excerpts, including this one from Mean Mr. Mustard 2.0:

IÂ’m embarrassed for you, Dale. This is like 3:00 a.m. USENET masturbatory obsessiveness.

Really, IÂ’d suggest you get a life, but there doesnÂ’t look like thereÂ’s much hope for you.

Patterico and Jon Henke have tried to play peacemaker. Alas, it appears not to be. Anyway, more here from Ace, if you're so inclined.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 09:09 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Found the following buried in an email from about 10 years ago. The author is purportedly John Scalzi, author of Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades, both of which I highly recommend. In any event, here goes:

With the possible exception of Santa Claus himself, there is not a busier mammal on the face of the earth than the Easter Bunny. Once a year, the Easter Bunny hops into the home of hundreds of millions of boys and girls all over the globe, dropping off chocolates, candy and eggs as part of the celebration of Easter. America Online spent a few minutes with the Easter Bunny as he was preparing for this year's task, for a tell-all, no-holds-barred interview. If you thought you knew the Easter Bunny, you just may be surprised.

America Online: Thanks for talking to us.

Easter Bunny: No problem. Do you mind if I eat while we talk? (takes out a packet of small green pellets) I've been in a rush recently.

AOL: Go right ahead. We've got a list of questions here, compiled from our members, and I'll just go down the list if you don't mind.

EB: Ready when you are.

AOL: The first question comes from Ted, in Dayton, Ohio. He writes: "We all now that Santa's Workshop is located at the North Pole. Does the Easter Bunny have a workshop, and if so, where is it located?"

EB: Well, Ted, the answer is yes, I do have a workshop. It's located in San Bernardino, California.

AOL: San Bernardino?

EB: That's right.

AOL: You have to understand that most people would have figured some place like Easter Island.

EB: Have you *been* to Easter Island? What a rock! It's the single most isolated piece of land on the planet. By the time we shipped fresheggs there, we'd have chickens. Besides, San Bernardino has the sort of motivated labor pool we need.

AOL: Elves?

EB: Laid-off aerospace workers.

AOL: They would seem to be a little overqualified.

EB: Maybe. But now we have some lovely chocolate stealth bombers.

AOL: Our next question comes from Cindy, in Tempe. She writes: "Why is the Easter Bunny a bunny? Why couldn't it have been the Easter Kitty,or the Easter Puppy?"

EB: That's a very good question. In fact, in the late 70s, we as an organization decided to play around with the whole "bunny" thing by recruiting prominent local animals to deliver Easter baskets. In 1978, when the experiment was at its height, we had an Easter Bunny, an Easter Coyote, an Easter Manatee and an Easter Komodo Dragon.

AOL: What happened?

EB: It just didn't work out. The komodo dragon ate the eggs, the coyote just flaked out, and the manatee, if I may say so, was just about as dumb as a stick. There were some other problems with the program, too. The less we talk about the whole Easter Man-Eating Bengali Swamp Tiger episode, the better. Now we stick with bunnies. We know bunnies. We can work with bunnies. Bunnies don't eat anyone.

AOL: Bob in Honolulu asks: "Is there is just one Easter Bunny? Moreover, has the same Easter Bunny been the Easter Bunny for the last couple of millenia?"

EB: The fact of the matter is that there are quite a few Easter Bunnies, and we've never made a secret about that. Unlike the Santa Claus operation, which works under the improbable assumption that one guy delivers all those presents -

AOL: Are you saying that Santa is a sham?

EB: I didn't say that. I never said that. What I am saying is that *we* don't work under the same sort of constraints. I mean, think about it. One bunny delivering baskets to several hundred million homes across the planet? The friction from the atmosphere alone would turn the poor guy into a bunny briquette. There'd be hideous charcoal smudges all over the baskets. "Easter Bunny" is a job description, not a proper name. It's like "Postal Carrier," except our employees very rarely become disgruntled.

AOL: So why are you THE Easter Bunny?

EB: Because I'm boss. You're not an Easter Bunny until I say you are.

AOL: How does one become an Easter Bunny?

EB: Well, it's not just hopping down the bunny trail, I'll tell you. First, for reasons already explained, you have to be a bunny. After that, we have a psychological evaluation and a battery of physical tests you have to pass. We can't afford to have an Easter Bunny cramp up at the beginning of his run.

AOL: Any famous rabbits turned down for the job?

EB: I don't want to name names. But one bunny who's making a living in the breakfast cereal industry, we had to let go. Any time a child would try to get an Easter basket from him, he'd back away and start snarling. He was a silly rabbit. Easter baskets are for kids.

AOL: He seems to have gotten better since then.

EB: Prozac helps.

AOL: Albert from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, wants to know what are the occupational hazards of being the Easter Bunny.

EB: There are several. Large dogs are always a problem, of course: one moment you're delivering a basket of goodies, the next, a rottweiler named Pinochet is on you like a meat-filled sock. Nervous homeowners with guns wing a couple of bunnies a year, as do edgy cops and private security guards. We don't even bother trying to deliver to the children of militia members anymore; first they'll plug you for being on their land, then they'll make you into jerky and a pair of gloves. But you know what our number one problem is?

AOL: What?

EB: Sliding glass doors. Sometimes we'll just forget they're there. Man, that's embarrassing.

AOL: Here's an interesting question, from Amy, in New York City. She writes:
"How does the Easter Bunny get along with Santa Claus? It seems like Santa gets all the attention."
And I have to say, I did notice some tension earlier, when you brought him up.

EB (Looking uncomfortable): Well, you know, look. I don't want to say anything bad about the guy. He does what he does, and I do what I do. Professionally, we get along fine.

AOL: But privately?

EB: Is that tape recorder turned off?

AOL: Uh.....sure.

EB: He's a big ol' pain in this bunny's bottom. For one thing, he's a prima donna: always me, me, me, where's my highball, where's my corned beef sandwich, tell this dumb bunny to get his own dressing room. I'd rather be trapped in a sack with Joan Crawford. For another, he's totally paranoid of other large men. He thinks that Luciano Pavarotti is trying to move into his territory. Last year it was John Goodman. He actually danced when Orson Welles kicked, waving his pistol and bellowing "Rosebud!" from the top of his lungs.

AOL: Wow. He seems a little scary.

EB: You think? And yet he gets all the publicity. Why? We do the same job. Mine's actually tougher, since I'm moving perishable stuff. You can't have bad eggs or stale chocolate, you know. Folks wouldn't stand for it. I have to maintain strict quality control. The only food product he has to worry about is fruitcake. You could tile the Space Shuttle with fruitcake.

AOL: We're sure you have your own fans.

EB: It's like opening for the Beatles, is all. And he *is* the walrus, if you know what I mean.

AOL: One final question, from Pat, in Rockford, Illinois; "Does the Easter Bunny actually lay eggs? How does that happen, since the Easter Bunny is both male and a mammal?"

EB: Well, platypuses are mammals, and they lay eggs. So it's not impossible.

AOL: That still leaves the male part.

EB: We're quibbling on details, here.

AOL: Maybe there should be an Easter Platypus.

EB: Sorry. We tried that in '78.

Update: John Scalzi dropped by the comments and verified that he is indeed the author of the piece above. I'm going to send him an email asking if it's okay for me to leave the piece posted here, as long as I give him the appropriate credit.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 07:57 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 1382 words, total size 8 kb.

18. By the end of the party, he's got every damn kid doing the "pull my
finger" trick.

17. Clown car must be started with breathalizer device.

16. Keeps screaming, "My name's not BO-zo, it's bo-ZO!"

15. References to Kierkegaard and Nietzsche are lost on most 5 year olds.

14. Props for his "disappearing" trick: a moving van and your wide-screen
TV.

13. Scares the holy hell outta the kids during the "Severed Limb" trick.

12. Tells the kids he killed Barney in a blood match in Newark

11. Didn't bring balloons but managed to twist your dachshund into other
animal shapes.

10. Prefaces each trick with, "Here's a little number I learned in the
joint."

9. NOt exactly the Peewee Herman impression you were expecting.

8. Wears a t-shirt that says, "Drug-free since March!"

7. More interested in squirting seltzer into his Scotch than in his pants.

6. Those huge ears look too darn life-like, and the entire act consists of
showing charts and
complaining about the deficit.

5. A sad clown is one thing - a clown who spends the entire party with a
gun to his temple is another
thing entirely.

4. Only balloon animals he can make are a snake and a "snake on acid."

3. Business cards include the phrase, "From the mind of Stephen King."

2. Price list includes "lap dance" and "around the world."
and the number 1 sign you've hired the wrong clown for your child's party
. .
1. All the balloon animals are ribbed and lubricated.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 07:46 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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This article describes everything that you should do before installing a new OS. Of course, I think that it's great advice, period. Excerpt:

So, you want to try out a new operating system. Good for you! But, before you pop in that CD or DVD, there are a couple of things you need to know. Some of these may sound like an unnecessary pain. Trust me.

There may be some people out there who've installed more different kinds of operating systems on most computers than yours truly, but I haven't met them.

First, back up your data. OK, everyone tells you that. Let me take it one step further: Make certain you can restore your data.

While it's not as big a problem as it used to be for PCs, when backups usually meant tape rather than CDs or DVDs, it's still a heck of a mess when you try to restore your system and you find that your backup disk contains unreadable garbage.

If you're making a big change, say Windows to Linux, and you think you may want to go back again, you should move up from a simple backup program to a system restore program.

These programs essentially take a photograph, an image, of your hard drive. With them, you can restore your entire system even if the new operating system doesn't leave a trace of your old system. For Windows users, the programs I recommend are Acronis True Image 9.0 Home and Norton Ghost 10. For Linux, I like Ghost for Linux.

The Linux option isn't as easy to use as the Windows-based tools, but Sanjay Majumder has written a handy guide to using Ghost for Linux. With it at hand, you shouldn't have any problem mirroring your system.

I spent the better part of a Saturday helping a friend recover data from a crashed/corrupted Windows XP hard drive. He actually backs up his data on a regular basis, but this time, he'd neglected the task for about a month. No biggie, of course, since we were able to recover the data, which is a story that I plan to tell soon, as it proved quite instructive to me. Short version: I used a Knoppix Livd-CD to recover the data because every Windows based OS failed to recognize the drive.

I know that I belabor the benefits of Linux around here, but I don't actually care which operating system you use. What I do care about, and beat my students over the head about, is backing up your frigging data. DVD burners cost less than $50-if you look hard enough- and external 160 Gb USB 2.0 hard drives can be had for around $105. You have no excuse for not backing up your data.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 04:05 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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Looks like the Alliance Fitness Instructor has a new workout buddy.

Stop by and congratulate Heather and Brian.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 02:27 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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If you've left me a comment, or tried to send me an email, I'm not ignoring you. My account went kaboom and I'm trying to get it resolved. I just changed jobs and didn't notice until tonight. Whoops. Anyway, I'll have the issue resolved as soon as possible.

Update: In answer to Frank's polite question in the comments, I will state that I'm finally putting my graduate degree to use. More than 12 years after graduation, I've finally become a nuclear engineer. What this means is that I've dropped to the bottom of the totem pole and have tons of training to attend and lots of catching up to do. But I'm pleased at the turn of events. I'd pretty much given up on every doing this.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 07:36 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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And open source is still the solution

Interesting article that discusses-and links to- some tools that will help you debug some common hardware problems. Excerpt:

Like all pieces of electronic equipment, computers have a tendency to malfunction and break; if you have never experienced kernel core dumps or unexpected crashes, consider yourself lucky. Many common hardware problems are caused by bad RAM modules, overheated or broken CPUs, or bad sectors or clusters on hard disks. In this article we will introduce you to some open source tools you can use to trace these problems, and thus save time, money, and headaches.

A GNU/Linux live CD distribution can come handy for hardware diagnostics. For this purpose, my favorite live CD distribution is GRML, which bundles the tools we're about to discuss, along with some other useful programs for both home users and veteran system administrators. Other distributions also include some or all of these tools.
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Who's afraid of the big bad memory?

Bad memory can cause crashes that lead to system hard locks or even data corruption. Next time you try to compile a program and the compilation fails, check your memory before sending any bug reports to the program's authors. Memtest86+ is an excellent utility for testing RAM. It is based on memtest86, but supports most modern hardware, including the AMD64 architecture, whereas memtest86 is strictly x86-based. Memtest86+ is a boot image and thus is independent of an operating system.

To run the program, boot your system with the GRML CD and enter memtest on the boot prompt. The program is simple to use, since it starts testing memory by itself immediately. Pressing c shows the configuration menu, which you can use to select the test method, enter ECC mode (if your system uses that kind of RAM), restart the test, or refresh the screen; however, most people should be fine with the defaults.

Memory problems are usually tough to spot, so in order to be sure it's better to leave memtest86+ running for a long period of time and complete at least 10 passes of the test. If you want to quit memtest86+ and restart your computer, just press Esc.

And here's a link to the distro, should you desire to make a live CD for yourself.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 10:38 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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It's right behind mocking the French as America's favorite pasttime. Anyway, this guy has decided to post one IE flaw per day which, by my reckoning, should give him material for the next decade or so. Here's the initial post:

This blog will serve as a dumping ground for browser-based security research and vulnerability disclosure. To kick off this blog, we are announcing the Month of Browser Bugs (MoBB), where we will publish a new browser hack, every day, for the entire month of July. The hacks we publish are carefully chosen to demonstrate a concept without disclosing a direct path to remote code execution. Enjoy!

Update: Apparently it's not all Microsoft, all the time. Safari and Firefox have both been salmon-slapped.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 08:38 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Do you miss your dearly departed loved ones? Don't you wish that you could give them just one more hug, but find grappling with the unearthed grisly remains a touch disturbing? Well now you're in luck, because we've got a product that grants you the ability to hold your dead ones until you too pass: Huggable Urns. God knows that everyone wants grandpa's ashes stuffed in a teddy bear and then given to the baby.

"Isn't that sweet?! She's playing with grandma."

Posted by: Physics Geek at 08:31 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I'd like to thank Jonah for persuing the Democratic Underground for me; I value my sanity far too much to wade into the fever swamps. Anyway, the post in question proves that burning jet fuel could not have possible caused the Twin Towers to collapse.

I leave it as an exercise to the reader to point out the numerous holes in this dipshit's methodology.

Update: Of course I would mis-type a word in the title of post in which I mock the idiocy of others. Of course I would.

Update: Mike poses what is, I believe, the appropriate question:

Sweet leapinÂ’ Jesus, can they really be this stupid? I mean, really?

It was, of course, a rhetorical question.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 02:58 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Two elderly gentlemen from a retirement center were sitting on a bench under a tree when one turns to the other and says:

"Slim, I'm 83 years old now and I'm just full of aches and pains. I know you're about my age. How do you feel?"

Slim says, "I feel just like a newborn baby."

"Really!? Like a newborn baby!?"

"Yep. No hair, no teeth, and I think I just wet my pants. "

Posted by: Physics Geek at 01:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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