Advogato blog for jlbec

27 Oct 2003

Mon, 27 Oct 2003 09:48:49 GMT

Cell phones suck.

My StarTAC is dying (yes, old school) and I need to start looking at a new phone. I don't need no damned camera, no color, no fancy (and freaking annoying) ring tones. I don't want to spend $200 on some phone when I'll never care for those features.

What I need is a phone that is a flip phone the size of the StarTAC or smaller, is workable one-handed, has a passable phone book, and -- by far the most important -- has excellent reception.

I need the phone for Sprint PCS. I don't need to hear about bad experiences with Sprint, I just need a phone.

3 Apr 2003

Thu, 3 Apr 2003 01:14:07 GMT

It occurs to me that the television coverage of the war is effectively a Two Minute Hate.

31 Mar 2003

Mon, 31 Mar 2003 08:32:15 GMT

Well, Caltrans closed my freeway exit today (Fell St in San Francisco). It's going to be replaced by a boulevard. The last exit to the center of San Francisco just got a mile shorter.

I've heard many arguments on the issue, and many make sense. But some of the supporters of this plan claim that the traffic will be better. I can't decide if this is a lie for their agenda, or if they are really that naive. No matter how well the traffic lights are timed, a mile of elevated freeway is 10 minutes faster than a mile of stoplight traffic. And during rush hour, it's just more lights for 40,000 vehicles to be idling at.

23 Oct 2002

Wed, 23 Oct 2002 17:28:30 GMT

raph:

I don't know about ThinkPad 600s, but I am currently on my third battery for my Toshiba Tecra8000. Every year (just about on the dot in June) my battery dies and starts discharging extremely fast. One week it lasts two hours, the next one hour, the next 10 minutes.

I asked the support person about this, and he told me that it was a common problem. They basically expect that the battery will stop behaving after a year. Note that the battery warranty is about a year.

12 Jun 2002

Wed, 12 Jun 2002 10:09:39 GMT

I have a disease.

I have this software project. It's pretty complete. So what am I doing? Writing documentation! I have a whitepaper, a reference, and half of a tutorial.

What is wrong with me?

7 May 2002

Tue, 7 May 2002 17:46:07 GMT

DV:

Cats are essential.

5 May 2002

Sun, 5 May 2002 07:52:13 GMT

raph:

I've heard the apartheid comparison before, and it depresses me that people take it seriously. If apartheid in South Africa were repealed, the newly empowered population would take their place in society, and South African people, white and black, would do their best to improve the country for everyone. This is, in fact, largely what happened.

If the Israelis totally free these camps, the newly empowered population would respond by murdering Israelis.

It's not the same situation. Jewish settlers live in homes vacated when the residents fled to Jordan during the War of Independance. They left of their own free will, and when Jordan turned them out, they came back.

Does this mean that Israel manages the refugee camps in the best way possible? No. The Israeli government has the impetus to do something, anything to protect the populace. A governemnt that even appears to fail to do so will be voted out in favor of one that does. This is a risk of Parlimentary democracies, and is in fact the reason a hawk like Sharon is in power. The situation needs to be remedied such that a government that does not counter murder with violence can keep its power. To do the "right" thing, the Israeli government must watch its citizens be murdered and not retaliate as it has recently. It is easy for us to say that from here, but it is not when every night you find someone you knew is dead because they felt like going out to eat.

The black people of South Africa never claimed that they wanted to run the white people out of the country or kill them. They merely wanted equal standing under the law. The situation is not the same, and to compare it belies the murder that has been done in the name of the Palestinian people.

The only possible solution for the Middle East is one that creates an environment where Hamas and the like cannot exist. An environment where Israel, the Palestinian state, and the states around them all persecute such groups. that environment is far off, especially since the current Palestinian leadership supports the actions of such groups.

As long as their charter and there actions read "We will not rest until the state of Israel is destroyed and the Israelis are dead or gone", this will be an untenable situation.

13 Apr 2002

Sat, 13 Apr 2002 07:59:51 GMT

Taxes suck.

I'm bored.

12 Apr 2002

Fri, 12 Apr 2002 20:54:12 GMT

You konw what? I don't weblog. I never weblog. I think it is for the same reason I've slowed down entries in my notebook: I don't want to set down for posterity some of what I am thinking.

It might offend some people. It might reach just the wrong ear. Heck, it might just be too personal. I guess there is a problem with not venting, but quite frankly, I find the alternative even more dangerous.

21 Mar 2002

Thu, 21 Mar 2002 20:11:39 GMT

The XML-RPC interface to Advogato would be more fun if the documentation mentioned how to get a diary object :-)

later...

Ok, duh, but it wasn't clear on first pass that the diary object is server.diary. Don't mind me, just update the doc :-)