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Saturday, Jul 30, 2005

D'oh

I had SBC DSL installed at D's house in Boulder Creek some time ago. Well, a month ago.

While I was struggling to sort out the right configuration of the cable modem and my router, I could only hook up one computer at a time, with the 25' ethernet cable I usually carry along with my notebook. Way low tech.

I had trouble hooking up the supplied Speedstream 5100b modem to the FWG114P firewall/router/wifi access point I had purchased previously. There are options for how to deal with this. I could leave the modem in NAT, and run NAT on the router for a double NAT situation. Or I could modify the DSL modem configuration to put it into bridge mode, and run PPPoE on the router. This would put me in "unsupported land" with my ISP.

Eventually I figured out that I was being really dumb about configuring the double NAT. I wasn't thinking clearly about the WAN side of the router and the LAN side of the router being distinct address spaces. (Hints picked up from this thread.)

The modem sets itself up with an address of 192.168.0.1, and uses DHCP to configure the connected device with an address of 192.168.1.64. And the subnet mask is 255.255.0.0. Finally I settled upon the LAN side of the router being set to 192.168.2.1 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, with DHCP to configure the attached computers.

The mistake had been setting the subnet mask on the LAN to 255.255.0.0.

- mark 7-30-2005 5:58 am [link] [1 comment]

Friday, Jul 29, 2005

Ricky Doesn't Understand Ecomonics Either

I caught a bit of Senator Manondog (R-Pennirginia) on the Laura Ingraham show last night. He blamed government taxation for the fact that women are in the workplace rather than in the home as they were in the fifties. Just off the top of my head I can think of a few other reasons why there are so many two-income households.

In the 1950's, the US was the world's dominant industrial power. We'd have to bomb Europe, Japan and China to get back to that economic Shangri-La. Since we're not ready to do that (just yet), we'll have to deal with the fact that living well is harder these days.
Outsourcing and the loss of stable, good paying union jobs makes it harder for some people to reach the middle class. One simply could not support a family of four on a minimum-wage "service" job in many parts of the country.
People's expectations for material goods have shifted radically. Houses are bigger. Cars are more sophisticated. People need a separate TV for each family member. Etc., etc. All this material crap requires more income.
Women folk have choices. They don't have to be barefoot and pregnant. They can be HR managers, investment bankers, accountants, engineers, etc.

But Ricky Manondog thinks it's all because the government favors "individuals" over "families".

Monday, Jul 25, 2005

Here, There and Everywhere

Following Tony Blair's lead, George W. Bush has announced a new shoot-to-kill policy for streets, transit systems and other public areas in the United States. Bush explained, "We're killing innocent foreign civilians who have nothing to do with terror here so that we won't have to do it there." But, he added, the shoot-to-kill policy will continue in Iraq until the Iraq security apparatus is fully capable of killing their own civilians.

- mark 7-25-2005 4:18 pm [link] [8 comments]

Monday, Jul 18, 2005

Senator Man-on-dog

Missed in all the outrage over the interview in which Senator Man-on-dog compared homosexuality with bestiality was the Senator's apologia for NAMBLA in that same interview.

I know I repeat myself, but is Santorum Latin for sick fuck?

- mark 7-18-2005 8:41 pm [link] [add a comment]

Friday, Jul 15, 2005

No, Seriously, Shut the Fuck Up

I read that piece last night as Santorum--back in 2002--not politizing the scandals but talking about real differences in cultural approaches. I don't see how he needs to be apologizing, even looking at red-blue numbers as they correspond with the scandal. I don't think he was making a pure political point so much as he was trying to convey something more big-picture about philosophical differences. Maybe he could have said it better. But I think that's a judgmental call. I really don't see how this rises to the need for an apology. K-Lo.

Senator Man-on-dog cruelly exploited the pain of abuse victims to make an irrational attack on one of the major seats of Western Civilization.

It is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm . Senator Man-on-dog

I knew an abusive priests. He was the pastor of St. Thomas More in Houston Texas, and apparently had a thing for girls. He was one of the most conservative, retrograde, authoritarian assholes I've ever known. Liberalism was not his bag.

So K-Lo, please shut your pie hole. You have no fucking idea what you're talking about. And Senator Man-on-dog is a sick fuck with whom no right thinking person should associate.

Thursday, Jul 14, 2005

Saving Senator Man-on-Dog

If you read liberalism as relativism, as Santorum clearly means it in the piece, what he says makes some sense. ... a culture that isn’t too keen on traditional moral values, right vs. wrong, and discipline, might play some kind of contributing role in what should be a stalwart in these realms (the Catholic Church) not teaching, cultivating, and enforcing what it should be. That, it seems, is what he was saying. He wasn’t the only one saying that kinda thing. And folks would have been remiss not to ask such questions. K-Lo

Shut your pie hole K-Lo. Liberalism had nothing to do with this. The sexual abuse committed by the Archdiocese of Boston has it's roots in a CONSERVATIVE, REPRESSED organization that was more interested in self-perpetuation that the safety of children.

The cleansing power of truth, transparency, and egalitarianism is a LIBERAL value of which the criminal at the core of this horror, Bernard Law, knows nothing.

Reality-based Radio

My news/talk radio diet includes Pacifica, KSFO and NPR to cover left, right and center. I heard an interesting contrast in coverage of the Rove story this evening.

Unfortunately it has morphed into a "Joe Wilson" story, but at least the story is still alive. Media elitist Sean Hannity spoke with Gingrich the Newt about Rove-gate in his typical fair and balanced manner. If this was your only source of information, and if you trusted these guys, you would come away with the impression that Wilson was a liar, a manipulator, a smear artist and a partisan, while Rove was a patriot just trying to get the truth to the American people.

Daniel Schorr, who knows a little about how a vindictive White House operates, provided the contrast in a piece on NPR. While Gingrich and Hannity offered lots of unsubstatiated assertions, Schorr offerred, how you say, facts. Schorr spoke in detail about names, dates, the background of the trip to Niger, the results of the trip to Niger, etc. Schorr defended the actions of Wilson, not with fatuous declarations, but with a detailed factual account of real events.

Schorr will never have a place in faith-based "news".

- mark 7-14-2005 12:26 am [link] [2 comments]

Wednesday, Jul 13, 2005

The Other Holy Joe

Introducing the all new 2008 model of John Kerry.

- mark 7-13-2005 10:10 pm [link] [add a comment]

Velvet Rope Tour

This evening the Brian Sussman show featured a call from the Green Zone by Melanie Morgan She's co-chair of the Truth Tour, organized by Move America Forward, RighTalk Radio Network, and CENTCOM.

Melanie took great pains to point out that the insurgency is well-established in Baghdad. It took ten hours for the radio personalities to make the short trip from the airport (Camp Victory) to the Green Zone, because a convoy had to be organized. In highlighting the bravery and maturity of the American soldiers who sheparded these media elites through danger, Melanie seemed oblivious to the sad fact that a failure by their civilian leaders to secure Baghdad two years ago lies at the root of this situation.

baghdad map

I suppose that Melanie and crew wrote a check to cover the cost of of the convoy, because they would never want to stick ot to the American taxpayer for their junket.

“There are some people who aren’t necessarily the biggest fans of the U.S. military who are trying to undercut this effort by suggesting it is somehow paid for by the U.S. Government or taxpayers – and that is completely untrue,” said Lt. Col. Buzz Patterson, a host with the RighTalk Radio Network and board member of Move America Forward.

Melanie lashed out at critics who call this the "Velvet Rope Tour", given that they will be entirely under the protection of the ocuppying forces at all times.

The group will be based at Camp Victory and will also travel to the Green Zone in downtown Baghdad to report on conditions as they see them.

Melanie pointed out that during the tours of the Green Zone, they would briefly poke their heads out of the Green Zone and into the "Red Zone" where the terrorists are. There may be innocent Iraqis in the Red Zone, but Melanie doesn't know about that sort of thing.

Monday, Jul 11, 2005

Letter

- mark 7-11-2005 8:44 pm [link] [1 comment]

American Taliban

This morning NPR had coverage of an Iranian-American film maker who was nabbed at a checkpoint north of Baghdad, and imprisoned for two months. His camera and passport were destroyed by American troops. He's out of prison, but can't leave until he gets a new passport. Tbogg has more.

Meanwhile, El Gasbo opened his show with a 15 minute riff on "Club Gitmo". What an obscence fuckhead Rush is.

- mark 7-11-2005 5:10 pm [link] [add a comment]

Town Mouse vs. Country Mouse

The 2004 election was pretty much high density counties vs. low density counties. Even in the state of Texas, Bush was weakest in Dallas, Houston and Austin.

I believe what the city folks were saying was, "this is a serious problem, let's not be fucking idiots about it."

While the country folks were saying something like this ...

Bring it on motherfucker! (As long as I don't have to personally go, because I've got other priorities.) I want to see burnt, dead imams! (Well, figuratively. I like reality TV and all, but not that real.) I want the Koran between my teeth! (As long as I don't have to pay higher taxes. Don't we have a national credit card with the Bank of China to cover this? )

The bombings in London reveal the vulnerability that city folks implicitly understand, and why the majority of them reject the stupidity-based approach used by President Cheney, his ward Dubya, and Rumsfeld the Insane. I wish I better grasped the mind set that supports these morons. If we can't convert them, it's going to be a long century.

Friday, Jul 01, 2005

In Which I Demonstrate How Lame My Paint Skills Are

steam boat dubya

- mark 7-01-2005 5:57 am [link] [5 comments]

Fox Sux Their own Teeny Cox

While flipping through the channels the other day I passed through Fox. I wish I could give more details, but brain infection induced haze and all.

The host boy was yammering about how the Democrats had nothing to offer for improving the situation in Iraq, absofuckinglutely nothing, except, you know, concrete proposals like figuring out how to make training work, actually rebuilding infrastructure, yadda, yadda. In the meantime, the Republicans had some honest to god I-D-E-A-S. Cut to sound bite from Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska)

The only way we can lose in Iraq is if we defeat ourselves – if we fail to stay the course. The American people – and those of us who have been chosen to represent them – cannot let that happen.

Shit yeah. The power of positive thinking will carry us through! Damn the rational thought, full speed ahead!

Fastest.Post.Ever.

I have DSL going at D's house now. It's 1.5 to 3.0 Mbps down and 384 to 512 kbps up for 24 bucks a month. Right now I'm getting about 2 M down, and 512k up. The download rate might get better as the modem trains.

The SBC install SW is fucking stupid. It's got all sorts of fancy flash crap for meaningless animation. (But isn't that what flash is used for 99% of the time -- useless eye candy that adds nothing of real value?) Simultaneously, the software has no logic to deal with problems. Multiple times it hung for no apparent reason, with no diagnostic messages of any kind. Eventually it worked, but it was a real mystery why it failed.

The next step is to figure out how to connect it to my wifi router. The DSL modem has some funky looking IP settings, but I should be able to sort it out. There's some online FAQs (not provided by SBC) that should help me past any hiccups. And D's neighbor up the hill is a techno dude who has been through the DSL install already, so he may have some pointers.

The whole deal is just weird. The software is smart enough to hide all the "complexity", but too stupid to do anything in the face of failure but hang. And they don't seem to have any resources for power users. Maybe they'll figure out this 21st century telecom thing. Eventually.

- mark 7-01-2005 2:31 am [link] [add a comment]

Thursday, Jun 30, 2005

Box Score

Qiddity has a nice section-by-section analysis of the recent terrorism pep rally given by the preznit.

I'll supplement that with some buzzword scores.

terror/terrorist(s) 34

insurgents 6

September 11 5

bin Laden/Zarqawi/al Qaeda 4

Saddam Hussien 1

WMDs (in Iraq) 0

For those of you playing buzzword bingo, "terror" was the ticket.

Update: Ezra Klein also scores the speech.

- mark 6-30-2005 9:04 pm [link] [add a comment]

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