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One of the best things about having wireless internet in the condo is that I can blog about the best drama on television while watching it.
The questions just keep coming too. Why is Jimmy Hoffa hanging around in a hatch on an island in the Pacific? Why does he have a monochrome DOS terminal? Is he conspiring with Kate? Is Kate an old mobster? Where on Earth is Kate?
And what’s with the two miracle cures of paralysis now? Are there stem cells in the hatch? I’m… I’m… Well, I’m Lost.
By the way, I’ve blogged about this before. It seems to be an ongoing condition for me.
That’s right, a Korean Mozilla distributor released binaries containing a three year old virus for Linux.
What you say? A virus for Linux?
That’s right, they do exist. However, in my time using Linux (4 years) I’ve been hit only once by the cinik worm on a webserver of mine and it was quickly dealt with.
According to Symantec, the worm has infected between 0 and 49 systems total in the three years it’s been around. This out of an estimated 29 million Linux machines in operation worldwide.
In a gross example of sensationalism, viruslist.com reported that mozilla thunderbird and others were infected, with the implication that Mozilla shipped this somehow. If you use Thunderbird or another Mozilla product, no need to worry. An unofficial mirror was the target, and the problem was corrected almost immediately after discovery.
Don’t know how this one slipped by me. Development of the new Ubuntu Linux entitled “Breezy Badger” is near completion. Feature highlights include the freshly released Gnome Desktop version 2.12, OpenOffice.org 2.0 beta, X.org 6.8.2, an enhanced installer, integrated support for audio CD burning, and a fully graphical boot process.
Check out the preview release notes or download one of their preview discs. If you’re interested in trying out Linux, it’s a great place to get started.
“I do.”
Followed shortly by:
“Liberty is not limited to freedom from physical restraint”
Allow me to breathe a sigh of relief for all of us who were worried about John’s respect for a constitutional right to privacy. Perhaps John Roberts is the right man for the job?
Microsoft tried to recruit Eric Raymond, founder of the Open Source Initiative for a job. As usual, his response was both brutal and humorous. Eric blogged it verbatim.
Gnome 2.12 is out and in production. A number of features that I’ve previously mentioned are included. It hasn’t been officially included in any stable distro I know of yet, but you can be sure that the next Ubuntu release as well as Gentoo will soon support this new feature set.
If you’ve never used Gnome or Linux before, the developers have included a LiveCD version of the newest Gnome. You can download it in multiple languages at the Gnome torrent site. The LiveCD won’t install anything or touch any existing data, but it will give you a fully functional demo of the Gnome desktop and all of the new features that come with it.
Also upcoming is the release of the next-gen Linux desktop environment, Enlightenment. I’ll be trying it out over its beta period and will provide a shakedown of Gnome vs. Enlightenment over the coming months.
Thinking about the corruption I mentioned yesterday in regard to the UN contract with Cotecna and the now infamous oil-for-food program, I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s one man who could clean this whole place up, and it’s not John Bolton.
Send Eliot Spitzer.
Okay. He’s not a diplomat or a public administrator, but he’s experienced dealing with political figures and beating back graft and corruption. Wall Street is a safer place for this man’s lawsuits. So how about it Eliot? You already have a campaign website that appeals to all the right concepts. Forget governor, take on the UN.
Looks as if Kojo and Kofi are in for a rough ride. I admit that Kofi is among my favorite speakers, if not one of my favorite public figures, so take the following with several grains of salt.
It’s a familiar story at the highest levels: Kofi Annan’s son Kojo works for a company that happens to get a substantial contract under the oil-for-food program. Kofi has testified that Kojo told him he had left aforementioned company prior to the contract being awarded. This was true except the minor detail that Kojo was still on the payroll. Was Kofi mislead by his son, or is this a case of the lowest ranking culpable person taking the heat for corruption at higher levels?
You can read the report; a 144 page snoozer that outlines the background better than I do. It should be pointed out that the only criticism currently is misadministration; the report stops short of accusing the Secretary General of maladministration, a far more serious criticism. Note also that under the procurement rules of the UN, Kofi has no say in the awarding of contracts. While the whole thing is pungent with the potential for corruption, we can still be sure that there is some competition for contracts. This is still more than we can say for some similar situations of our own.
This Saturday was Day One of the three day long Tour of Sebring, an annual event put on by the Historic Kenilworth Lodge. I had the opportunity to ride in the first day of said event. This marks the first tour on the new Trek, and approximately 200 road miles since I bought it last month.
It’s amazing the difference the right equipment makes. Thirty miles simply melt away on a feather-light road bike with skinny, high-pressure tires. In fact, Action Stance and I were among the first finishers, and led the Peloton for most of the ride.
Not to brag, but one of us (not me) pulled into the 22 mile rest stop before anyone else, where the remaining leaders soon arrived, and even the die-hard stopped for snacks.
Next on the schedule, the Gainesville Cycing Festival. Hope to see the same familiar faces again.
In case you haven’t heard the news, thanks to the fabulous and speedy work of Eric Pierce, my Bloxsom site is back up.
I think I’m going to stick with this though, so I don’t have to spend all my time crafting my entries with a bunch of HTML formatting.
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