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In case you haven’t heard, yesterday there was some good, old fashioned civil unrest in New Orleans. The City Council was slated to approve a measure that would authorize a HUD plan for the city. The plan would cause the demolition of many perfectly fine low income housing buildings and the replacement thereof by wood frame mid-income buildings. The low income housing buildings were not damaged beyond repair by Katrina, and it is speculated that the plan is really aimed at allowing as few low income past residents from returning to the city as possible.
I really want to commend the people of New Orleans, though. When the gates to City Hall were closed and locked and the protesters were not allowed into what was legally supposed to be a public meeting, a bit of a riot broke out.
The spin that was put on this incident by the news reporters was pathetic. Never did the reporters mention that the protesters are legally allowed to enter a City Council meeting. They just made them out to be wild hounds that broke through a gate they had no business being behind.
I have a strong feeling that our New Revolution will begin in New Orleans. With the way the residents have been shit on, slandered and abused in the time since Katrina, they have really been left with nothing to lose. And when people are left with nothing to lose, it makes it a shitload easier to rise up.
I have the utmost respect for the people of New Orleans who are still fighting for what they believe is right. Even though they have endured more abuse by the government than anyone in an allegedly free nation should endure, they continue to fight for their city. My hope is that the People of the United States will take a cue from the People of New Orleans, and rise up to save our country from certain doom.
I have been a Mac lover ever since my dad bought me my Mac Plus back in the mid-80’s. I have watched the company wax and wane, and really admire what you personally have accomplished in returning to Apple. I love my iPhone, my MacBook Pro, and have successfully convinced a number of my friends, family, and faculty members at the university where I work to switch to Mac. Needless to say, they are all ecstatic, and every single switch went very well.
I’m writing, though, to call you out on shutting down Think Secret (www.thinksecret.com). As I’m sure you know, Think Secret is a Mac rumors site that spilled some official Apple announcement (I can’t even remember what it was specifically) before it was time, and Apple filed a lawsuit. According to Think Secret, a settlement has been reached, and Think Secret will be shut down.
I understand the importance of Apple’s announcements being delivered on schedule when planned and only when planned. I remember an ordeal with ATI a few years back where they spilled a secret the night before your MacWorld keynote (I believe). I know it is essential for the company to operate this way.
But Think Secret is an independent media company run by Nick dePlume, a college student. I’m sure you would agree that a big corporation shutting down a small time independent media company is at least a little bit wrong.
Not that it makes a difference now, but I wanted to let you know that I am disappointed in Apple’s behavior on this one.
I had no idea about this, but “Sudden Cardiac Arrest” or SCA, can occur in people who don’t necessarily have any risk factors. There are risk factors that can be managed though, and can help decrease your chances of suffering sudden cardiac arrest. Making healthier lifestyle choices definitely helps decrease your risk of suffering Congestive Heart Failure.
Take a look at insidecardiacarrest.com for more information on keeping you, your friends, and your family safe and healthy.
I realize that I’m a few days behind, but just in case you missed it, the Ron Paul blimp did indeed fly last week. Enough funds were raised that the thing actually took off to spread the word from the air. What an awesome marketing campaign.
Even though Ron Paul is being neglected in the mainstream media, and billed as a “longshot,” is anyone actually taking into account the fact that the people who are behind Ron Paul are the people that actually show up on election day? I would be willing to bet that most people who are polled don’t even vote. And just from seeing the financial support that Ron Paul has received, it’s obvious that his supporters actually give a shit.
Check out the video of the Ron Paul Blimp taking off on its maiden voyage:
I have gone from skeptic to supporter in this whole Ron Paul thing. I have talked in the past about how I was concerned about his religious and political affiliations, but I’m over that. At this point, I’m almost thinking of registering as a Republican so that I can vote for Dr. Paul in the primaries. The more votes he gets the better. We need to show the world that it is possible to win an election without the mainstream media.
On a similar note, here’s some discussion of Ron Paul’s Tea Party on the Cafferty File:
Have you noticed that frequently, eBooks are more expensive than their tree-killing counterparts? Yeah, me too. It seems crazy that eBooks are so expensive, but there is a solution. It’s called BooksOnBoard.com. If you’re looking for your favorite Romance Authors novels to take with you electronically, BooksOnBoard.com is the place for you. Check them out today, and get ready for that long wintertime flight to visit family.
Today, Independent Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman announced his endorsement of Presidential hopeful John McCain. And as lame as I think it is that a previous Democratic vice presidential hopeful is endorsing a Republican nominee, these two belong together.
If ever there were a more “flip floppy” (to borrow a catch phrase normally used by the media to describe Democrats) pair of politicians, McCain and Lieberman are definitely it. After shunning his party by strongly supporting the Iraq war, Lieberman failed to win the Democratic primary for his reelection, but won as an Independent and immediately began strongly aligning himself with the Republicans. McCain flip flopped the same way, and after an apparently false bout of rational ideas, McCain turned in to quite the war hawk as well.
I think the best irony would be if McCain decided to run with Lieberman. I think I really want to see that (in a funny way).
Anyway, to get to the point… On Saturday my FC-4 package arrived. As always, shipping by EFX-TEK was amazingly fast. Although I didn’t have time to play with my FC-4 boards on Saturday, I did break one out and set it up yesterday to control my Christmas lights. I am happy to report that set up and programming is simple beyond words. (For those of you unfamiliar, the FC-4 is a control board that allows you to control incandescent light levels through a Prop-1, 2, SX, or PC using Vixen).
I probably went a bit unconventional, and used indoor two-prong extension cords from Target to connect to the AC terminals. It seems to work fine, plus now I can easily attach three lighting instruments per channel (up to the wattage limit, of course).
Once I had my FC-4, Prop-1, and requisite cabling secured to a scrap piece of 1″x4″ lumber, I was good to go. I downloaded the FC-4 test code from EFX-TEK and uploaded it to the Prop-1. Things worked perfectly, so I got to work programming my sequence.
Fortunately the FC-4 test code comes with a bunch of subroutines. All you need to do is copy and paste them from the program section to the subroutine section, add a “RETURN” to the end of them, and call them up as necessary. I tweaked some of them to suit my needs, just changing the timing and such.
Anyway, if you haven’t yet gotten into prop control using Jon and John’s products, you are missing out on a lot. I know the whole “programming” thing is intimidating, but it really couldn’t be easier. And for those of you who are already EFX-TEK fans, take advantage of the FC-4 holiday sale. You’ll absolutely love it.
I should also mention that Jon wrote me a program (actually three) last night for a random flicker. I’m hoping to simulate the Indiana Jones Adventure flickering light effect in the queue for next Halloween’s project. I’ll try out the programs tonight. Being able to fade incandescent bulbs is HUGE.
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