born live love die

I got an Xbox for the kids because I made a promise.  I regret the promise.  I got the unit and found out after the purchase that all multiuser gaming requires a Microsoft Xbox Live subscription.  I’m not going to pay for that.  But then I tried to create the Xbox Live free account.  I had used my email address in the past with some form of Windows login.  I couldn’t resolve it on the Xbox, so I gave up and went to my Mac  and browser to figure out.

I realized that I had used the email address about 5 years ago while setting up an account so that I could apply for work at Microsoft.  I never completed the application because the web based application running on IIS kept crashing and I couldn’t complete it.  Then I couldn’t log in and recover my work, so I created another login and the same thing happened.  I gave up on the process.

I reset the password today and signed up for the free Xbox Live account.  This is the one that lets you do things like create and avatar.  You know, things that are part of the Nintendo Wii straight out of the box.  That’s right.  In order to do things on the Xbox that one can do on a Nintendo Wii, you need to sign up for an account at Microsoft and make sure you don’t take the standard options, both of which will generate more marketing emails (as if you needed more of those).

Then I got the first sign-in window and I saw this:

You can change your gamertag once (this is one that was automatically created for me, without my option of input).  And I can change it once.  After that, I will need to upgrade to the ‘Gold’ account of around $5 per month (at the annual rate).

Dealing with Microsoft is like dealing with someone I don’t trust.  Dealing with them is like living in a third world country where everyone is working to separate you from your money and once the money leaves your hand, you are on your own.

I became an atheist while sitting in Sunday School one Sunday about 40 years ago.  It was a scary thing, this step that I took.  I vowed then that I would not try to convert people to my way of thinking, unlike what I did when I was a Bible believer.  I made that decision because I realized that this was a very personal decision.  Stepping off into the unknown, I no longer had a rigid moral code backed by scripture on which to lean.  I had to decide for myself what my moral code would be and have a rational basis for my decisions.

From WaPo,

A growing body of social science research reveals that atheists, and non-religious people in general, are far from the unsavory beings many assume them to be. On basic questions of morality and human decency — issues such as governmental use of torture, the death penalty, punitive hitting of children, racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, environmental degradation or human rights — the irreligious tend to be more ethical than their religious peers, particularly compared with those who describe themselves as very religious.

It is from the opinions page of the paper, but worth of a read.

These pictures are from the National Geographic Photography Contest 2010.  A taste.

Check out all the pictures here.

There is one guy in the Senate who is willing to tell the truth.

The headline on Slashdot was that Mac users are more liberal than PC users.  The source for it was a poll conducted at Hunch.  I have been using Macs since they first came out.  While working at Telebit on Bubb Road in Cupertino, we started a development project with Apple.  We got 5 Macs in house along with a Laserwriter.  After a while, we were allowed to buy a Mac through this project and I got a Mac SE/20.  A whole 20 megabyte disk.  I am on my seventh Mac.  What I like about them is that they just work.  But before I had a Mac, I had a PC.  The first PC had 64kbytes of memory on the motherboard.  That was quickly revised to 256kbytes and I got one of those.  I have had at least 7 PCs.  I don’t use Windows that much at home any more.  Some chip design tools are available only on Windows, but I use Linux more than Windows.

Back to the poll.  Among responders, Mac users are more educated, more urban, younger, more verbal.  PC users prefer impressionist art to modern art and are better in math.  I’ve highlighted the among those options the things that relate to me.  I can live and breathe Fourier transforms, but I also like to read Montaigne.  PC people snack on sweets, Mac users on salty.  Yes, both.  PC users drink white wine and rose.  Gack.  Mac users drink reds.  Amen to that.  Give me a red wine that takes no prisoners.  Costco has some private label (Kirkland)  Côtes du Rhône at around $7 that is an absolute steal.  PC people would ride a Harley over a Vespa.  For Mac people, it is the opposite.  Okay, I’ll take the Vespa only if I can have a hot Italian chick on the back.  I would rather have a Ducati Multistrada 1200 or Moto Guzzi Griso 1100 with a hot Italian chick on the back.  Mac people prefer The Daily Show and Colbert Nation.  Amen to that.

Check out the differences.

NASA has a lovely gallery of pictures of this wonderful planet on which we live.  It is a wonderful planet on which we live and we take it for granted, I fear.  Human culture is based on extraction of natural resources.  The rate at which we extract those resources has increased since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.  Are we so blind as to think that they will last forever?

I digress.  Wonderful pictures of Earth.  See them here.

A fortuitous orbit of the International Space Station allowed the astronauts this striking view of Sarychev volcano (Russia’s Kuril Islands, northeast of Japan) in an early stage of eruption on June 12, 2009. Sarychev Peak is one of the most active volcanoes in the Kuril Island chain and is located on the northwestern end of Matua Island.

Make magazine tends to have a lot of stuff that requires knowledge of electronics.  Some things don’t.  Here’s one:

What better way to celebrate Earth Day than to get some seeds started. Frequent MAKE contributor and off-grid aficionado Abe Connally teaches us how to make cheap and simple soil blocks to avoid transplant mortality (fromMAKE Volume 24). He uses a can as the soil blocker mold, one of the can ends as the press plate, and an eye bolt, nut, and washer as the plunger. To boot, Abe uses reclaimed plastic bakery containers as the trays.

Check it out.

David From was a speechwriter for President Bush, fils, and all around well known conservative.  Here is a taste of what he has to say today.

Speaking only personally, I cannot take seriously the idea that the worst thing that has happened in the past three years is that government got bigger. Or that money was borrowed. Or that the number of people on food stamps and unemployment insurance and Medicaid increased. The worst thing was that tens of millions of Americans – and not only Americans – were plunged into unemployment, foreclosure, poverty. If food stamps and unemployment insurance, and Medicaid mitigated those disasters, then two cheers for food stamps, unemployment insurance, and Medicaid.

Read the whole thing.  This is a kind of conservatism I can embrace.

I loves me some West Wing.  C & L has a great clip up about President Bartlett and an open microphone.

Then this follows in the post:

Conservatives’ vision for this country is dark, dystopian, and deeply pessimistic.

Sounds about right.

Krugman nails it.

By the way, Heritage is always like this. Whenever there’s something the G.O.P. doesn’t like — say, environmental protection — Heritage can be counted on to produce a report, based on no economic model anyone else recognizes, claiming that this policy would cause huge job losses. Correspondingly, whenever there’s something Republicans want, like tax cuts for the wealthy or for corporations, Heritage can be counted on to claim that this policy would yield immense economic benefits.

Krugman was talking about the budget proposal of Rep. Ryan.  But Republicans can be counted on to lie through their teeth, and lie without conscience.