February 2014

There were 27 posts published in February 2014 (this is page 2 of 3).

Einstein … on humanity?

I saw a quote on a friend’s Facebook page, allegedly from Albert Einstein. It sounded a bit more metaphysical than I would’ve expected from a scientist and, having experience tracking down questionable quotes that were attributed to Einstein and other famous people, I figured the quote was bogus.

So I looked up the quote:

A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe”, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.

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Customizing the Ubuntu install CD

Ubuntu

Ubuntu


I’ve been working over the last few days to fix up a lot of the electronics currently lying around the house for eventual sale. For a few laptops this involves wiping the OS on them and installing a new one. Since I’m targeting my fellow Linux geeks, I’ve been putting Ubuntu on them.

One of my favorite old laptops is an IBM Thinkpad X40. It was built with an older Intel CPU, one that doesn’t support the memory extensions known as PAE. Beginning with Ubuntu 12.04, the OS doesn’t normally install on these older laptops as Ubuntu expects a PAE-capable CPU. So what’s a geek to do?
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Cable TV Cord Cutters And Net Subscription Losses – Business Insider

Wow, what a shame. Couldn’t have happened to a better industry!

The cable TV business just had its worst year ever, according to Wall Street media analysts Craig Moffett and Michael Nathanson. Providers of TV, broadband and phone communications lost 687,000 subscribers during Q3, they wrote in a recent note to investors. They gained 574,000 new ones, for a net loss of 113,000, according to the LA Times:

Let that sink in:

“The cable TV business just had its worst year ever.”

Wow.

via Cable TV Cord Cutters And Net Subscription Losses – Business Insider.

The Open-Office Trap : The New Yorker

Interesting. I’m not a fan of open offices.

The open office was originally conceived by a team from Hamburg, Germany, in the nineteen-fifties, to facilitate communication and idea flow. But a growing body of evidence suggests that the open office undermines the very things that it was designed to achieve. In June, 1997, a large oil and gas company in western Canada asked a group of psychologists at the University of Calgary to monitor workers as they transitioned from a traditional office arrangement to an open one. The psychologists assessed the employees’ satisfaction with their surroundings, as well as their stress level, job performance, and interpersonal relationships before the transition, four weeks after the transition, and, finally, six months afterward. The employees suffered according to every measure: the new space was disruptive, stressful, and cumbersome, and, instead of feeling closer, coworkers felt distant, dissatisfied, and resentful. Productivity fell.

via The Open-Office Trap : The New Yorker.

Clay is for real

When I heard Clay Aiken was considering running for Congress I didn’t know what to expect. I warmed to the idea after I first saw Clay Aiken’s announcement that he is running for Congress in the 2nd District? I saw commitment and a seriousness that I didn’t expect. This is clearly no joke.

It’s obvious to me right off the bat that this is no vanity campaign. Clay is fortunate that he can live comfortably and there are plenty of other things he could be doing. I think it was a master stroke of his young campaign to remind people that – long before his American Idol fame – Clay’s heart was in the right place, and still is. He never, ever “went Hollywood” when his career took off and he certainly didn’t forget where he came from.

I admire that a lot. I think it’s a winning message, too. If Clay can keep showing people how down to earth he is and prove that he’s not another pretty face – that he grasps the challenges his prospective constituents are facing – he could make the 2nd District race a very interesting one (he does need to lose the makeup, though, if he wants to avoid the “pretty face” label).

WRAL TV’s spammy Facebook contest

WRAL TV has started a cash giveaway contest on your Facebook page. It is so spammy that I’m going to unfollow them.

I think there are ways to drive people to social media outlets and there are also ways to drive them away from social media outlets. WRAL’s approach is definitely the latter.

I hope WRAL realizes the damage they’re doing to their Facebook brand and changes course soon.

Carded

In the mail today we got a new set of credit cards. Our current ones have been working fine and are valid for another year but since the Target data breach I suppose the banks aren’t taking any chances.

A letter from the bank reads:

“Dear Customer:

Please begin to use this new credit card to protect yourself after the Target breach.

Thank you for being a loyal customer. Here’s your new credit card to help protect you after the recent data breach at Target stores.”

I noted that, like the old cards, the new cards do not include a smart chip that would go a long way towards preventing the next data breach.

Amazon.com coming to Raleigh?

AmazonI noted with interest the announcement that Amazon would begin collecting sales taxes in North Carolina. This seemed curious since the Constitution’s Commerce Clause means Congress is the only entity that can regulate interstate commerce and thus the state can’t impose taxes on Amazon. As far as I knew, Amazon doesn’t have a physical presence in North Carolina. It seemed strange to me that Amazon would willingly start paying taxes. Who does that?

Well, looks like I found the reason. This job ad from Amazon ran on Craigslist yesterday and there are plenty more on other job sites. Amazon.com is interviewing for software developers and says they’re coming to Raleigh!

Software Engineer, Digital Products (coming to Raleigh) (Seattle, WA)
We will be in the Raleigh area conducting interviews February 20th-21st!!
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Possibilities

While I’ve been feeling low for the last few weeks today I felt euphoric, excited about the possibilities before me. No, I don’t yet have a new job nor has really anything changed about my situation except for my outlook. I was turned on by one of those crazy hunches I get every now and then when I just know that something fantastic is coming my way. I don’t know what it is yet but I giddily await finding out.

It’s been a good few days with the kids, too. It’s Kelly’s week to travel and so I’ve flown solo with them the past two days. While we miss her and can’t wait for her to return to us, we’ve had a fun time together. I enjoy my time as the center of the kids’ attention, because though I like to think of myself as head of the household we all know who really rules the roost!

So, world, let’s do this. Let’s do something great together. I’m so ready for it.