Lee.org

Here is how to set up an SSHD service on your Windows XP Cygwin machine. This comes from a great guide from Pigtail.net on how to turn an old PC into a Linux Router… aptly named the Linux Router Project (LRP)

Local version of how to install SSHD. And how to install SSH

And yes, this works.

Wavexpress has upped my hours. There’s a big release coming up and they want it to go well. So my life of leisure will be severely curtailed as I work full time instead of just a couple hours a day.

(from my last post ;-) I don’t know if this makes me into the slaving proletariat or the despised bourgeois.

“Come in Moonbat Alpha. Are you there Moonbat Alpha?”

“We read you loud and clear.”

The Maoist International Movement

Strap yourself in before you read any of the movie reviews. Prepare for your indoctrination now.

Some excerpts:

Men in Black - 1997
…The Men in Black consider themselves “above the system,” and indeed they are in this movie fantasy of the aspiring intergalactic bourgeoisie which long ago went beyond petty national conflicts like that seen at the Mexican border. The Men in Black want their rule to appear “neutral” and beneficial to humyn-kind, as if it were possible for a state to be class-neutral…

The Matrix - 1999

A Hollywood film of tremendous value — a great gift to the revolutionary movement on par with that of Reds politically and done artistically as well as can be with special effects. Humyn-beings both dead and alive are tended by machines in gigantic mechanical farms where they are used as batteries for the various kinds of heat and electricity that they produce. Not only does the script-writer uphold materialism as the existence of an external world independent of the subject (humyn mind), but also the script-writer shows us how science will conquer and make everything knowable including dreams. There are a few drawbacks to this film, but on the whole, MIM could not have asked for more in a two and a half hour Hollywood movie. We can use the movie to educate people about dialectics, modes of production, Lenin’s book “Materialism and Empirio-Criticism” and the drawbacks of anarchism and individualism.

Yes, you read that right. The machines are the good guys. That’s kind of a different take than you had originally thought, isn’t it?

Now, when you do a search and pause for a second, the search bar will drop down some suggestions of what you might be looking for… things that are in my blog. This is derivative of Google’s (eerie but cool) Suggest site. This plugin comes from David Linsin. WP-Plugins.org

Phoey. I can’t get a free discount on my car insurance in California. That said, taking this driving class saved me a lot of money in New Jersey in 2002-2005. Some car insurance companies honor programs like this, some don’t. Read on.

I took an online driving safety course, sent the certificate of completion to my car insurance company and now my car insurance went down by $150 a year for 3 years! That’s $450 free money!

Here’s what to do:

- Call your car insurance company and ask what kind of discount they’ll give if you take an online drivers safety course that’s sponsored by the National Safety Council. My insurance, GE gave me $150 each year for 3 years. Some companies don’t offer any discount… Sorry.

- Take the course at http://www.nscddconline.com/ It’s also offered at

http://www.tutorials.com/catalog/catalog_item_n.asp?pid=2037 but they charge a bit more.

- Send your insurance company the certificate of completion that you’ll receive a week later.

The course costs $42… IE it instantly pays for itself. The course is mind-numbingly easy. It asks questions like: If you come to a Stop sign on a busy street and an old lady is crossing, should you A) Stop, look and listen B) Accelerate to clear the intersection quickly C) Swerve and continue down the road D) Turn on your hazard lights.

The course took about 3 hours for me to complete. It should take you less given this bit of advice: there is no final test and just about everything they try to teach you is about common sense.. They won’t ask you stuff like “How many feet do you have to park away from a fire hydrant? 5, 15, or 20. (No, I don’t know the answer)

I took the test in August 2002 and I’ve saved about $300 in insurance since.

Yes, this is legit, go to www.nsc.org. Click on “Driving” then click on “DDC-PC Online” and read up on it.

If it works out for you, I’d love to hear back.

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As we were passing by a bar near where I live in the Mission district, Holly asked me which was (with quotations) “your local bar”. In a flash, I thought back about all the bars I had been in that I liked… bars in NYC, Hackettstown, Boston… all the interesting eateries, brew-pubs and homey coffee shops. I couldn’t think of a single place that was “my” place.

We walked along, looking for something to do on Saturday night in the Mission. Or if we only found some cool night air, we’d be happy too. There was a little artist gallery/nightlife spot I had randomly found a couple weeks ago while coming back from the post office so we were walking in that direction. We found the place.

As we approached, we worried that the place wasn’t open; the lights were out… or at least they were really dim. A sign at the front door directed us around to the side.

As we stepped inside, I had this comfortable feeling… the patrons looked at ease and happy, the ambient sounds were soothing, there was a pitcher of mohito on the bar and the band was gearing up for their second set. I knew immediately that -this- was -my- local bar.

www.redpoppyarthouse.org

Hip, hip, don’t break!

The blog has been running a little slow so I…. what should I do? Let’s see….

Install a plugin!

WP-Cache-2 stores blog pages for quick retrieval. It theoretically only takes 0.5 seconds or so off the creation time of the pages but (if my estimations are correct) it’s actually bringing load times from 5 seconds down to 2. Images take just as long to load but the text appears quicker. I’ll work on that.

update 9-28-05 This plugin isn’t compatible with my Theme Switcher. I’ll leave the Cache and dump the theme switcher.

I know that the problems surrounding hurricane Katrina were not just on the national level. State, county and local governments are corrupt to the point to manslaughter.

I’m still going to take this beautiful pot-shot.

From Brokentoys.org

And just to confirm…. the weather report was issued by the National Weather Service at 10:11am CST, August 28th. Bush said his piece on the morning of September 1st, on Good Morning America.

When you get a weather report like this, it’s time to leave.

WWUS74 KLIX 281550NPWLIXURGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA

1011 AM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005

DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED

HURRICANE KATRINAA MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED STRENGTH…RIVALING THE INTENSITY OF HURRICANE CAMILLE OF 1969. MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS…PERHAPS LONGER. ATLEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL…LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL.PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED.

CONCRETE BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE…INCLUDING SOME WALL AND ROOF FAILURE. HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY…A FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT. AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD…AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATEADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS…PETS…

AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK. POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS…AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING…

BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEWCROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BEKILLED.AN INLAND HURRICANE WIND WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN SUSTAINED WINDS NEARHURRICANE FORCE…OR FREQUENT GUSTS AT OR ABOVE HURRICANE FORCE..

.ARECERTAIN WITHIN THE NEXT 12 TO 24 HOURS.ONCE TROPICAL STORM AND HURRICANE FORCE WINDS ONSET…DO NOT VENTUREOUTSIDE!LAZ038-040-050-056>070-282100-ASSUMPTION-LIVINGSTON-LOWER JEFFERSON-LOWER LAFOURCHE-LOWER PLAQUEMINES-LOWER ST. BERNARD-LOWER TERREBONNE-ORLEANS-ST. CHARLES-ST. JAMES-ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST-ST. TAMMANY-TANGIPAHOA-UPPER JEFFERSON-UPPER LAFOURCHE-UPPER PLAQUEMINES-UPPER ST. BERNARD-UPPER TERREBONNE-1011 AM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005

To that, our president responded four days later with:

I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did anticipate a serious storm. But these levees got breached. And as a result, much of New Orleans is flooded. And now we are having to deal with it and will.

added 9-21-05:

From the Wikipedia article on New Orleans

Much of the city is located below sea level between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, so the city is surrounded by levees. Until the early 20th century, construction was largely limited to the slightly higher ground along old natural river levees and bayous, since much of the rest of the land was swampy and subject to frequent flooding. This gave the 19th century city the shape of a crescent along a bend of the Mississippi, the origin of the nickname The Crescent City. In the 1910s engineer and inventor A. Baldwin Wood enacted his ambitious plan to drain the city, including large pumps of his own design which are still used. All rain water must be pumped up to the canals which drain into Lake Pontchartrain. Wood’s pumps and drainage allowed the city to expand greatly in area. However, pumping of groundwater from underneath the city has resulted in subsidence. The subsidence greatly increased the flood risk, should the levees be breached or precipitation be in excess of pumping capacity (as was the case in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina). There were many warnings in the late 20th century that a major hurricane or a Mississippi flood could create a lake in the central city as much as 9 m (30 ft) deep, which could take months to pump dry….

From the Wikipedia article on Hurricane Katrina

…It later reached a minimum pressure of 26.64 inches (902 mbar), making it the fourth most intense Atlantic Basin hurricane on record…

Katrina was a powerful storm but there have been in recorded history (the last 200 years or so) at least 3 storms that would have done the same thing to New Orleans if they hit their mark. So… there is a levee-breaking storm every 50 years…. and such a storm might hit it’s mark right over New Orleans 1 in … I don’t know … 1 in 10 times.

I’ve heard it said that it was known that the levees were rated to protect against a class 3 hurricane (I googled around a little for a definitive text on this but couldn’t find one [reference found, see below - Lee]). That simply isn’t adequate protection for an area that routinely (every 10-100 years) gets hit by larger storms.

To counter one friend’s ridiculous accusation that this catastrophe happened because of global warming, I must insist that it was just simple probability. Anyone who knew anything about the levees knew that every hurricane coming in from the gulf was a roll of the dice.

update 9-24-05 From a Washington Post article pointed out to me by The Quantum Mechanic

The Army Corps of Engineers has said that Katrina was just too massive for a system that was not intended to protect the city from a storm greater than a Category 3 hurricane… The event exceeded the design…

The article goes on to to talk at length about how the design of the floodwalls may have been faulty but at the same time, they reiterate that it wasn’t designed to handle a storm as large as Katrina.