Daily Archives: June 3, 2012

Firefox menu, FreeDOS, bash, Mint, question

The big new of the day in the OpenSource world is that FreeDOS’s web site, revised and updated, is out of Beta and fully up and running, here. If you click through you’ll find an update on a number of recent changes and updates to the operating system.

Just in case you need to know how to figure out what day of the week it is using only bash scripting (including some awk) click here.

Apparently Windows users have something Linux users don’t. But there’s a fix, so it no longer matters:

It is done. Almost. As predicted here on this blog but denied by many, it is probably true that with Windows 8, new hardware will be required by Microsoft to refuse to run Linux unless you mess with it a lot. This will make the act of simply installing Linux on that hardware hard enough that a lot of potential newbies will not bother. Also, it may make dual booting difficult (I’m just guessing at that).

Mint 13 is out.

Anybody know how to make a G5 boot to an install CD? A way that works?

The Sun is Exploding!

Well, it is always exploding. But I just heard that “A big coronal hole is turning directly towards the Earth. Solar wind flowing from the opening should reach our planet on June 5-7, possibly sparking geomagnetic storms” and maybe the aurora will be visible over a larger area.

I heard that from the iPad app “3D Sun.” This is an app that informs me whenever the sun is up to anything interesting, and also provides images of current and older solar events, a handy glossary of terms, and an excellent 3D sun “globe” (as it were) which can be used to find landmarks and stuff:

Pinch-able moveable 3D sun graphic from the iPad 3d Sun app.

With 3D Sun, which can be set to supply push notifications, I’ll always know when to don the tin foil hat.

Data used in the 3D sun view come from NASA’s STEREO mission and the app is said to have been developed in cooperation with NASA scientists. It is free, but I’d pay $0.99 for it for sure. This app could be great for physics classes. Installed it uses a mere 12.5 megabytes.

How many countries have ever had a woman leader?

First, a little Benazir Bhutto story, since we are on the subject of women leaders.

A friend of mine was to be on the podium of Harvard’s graduation the year Benazir Bhutto was to give the keynote, and heard this conversation. John Galbraith, the economists who was also a professor at Harvard, Bhutto’s former undergraduate advisor, and her friend, was also to be on the stage, and all the famous people who were to be on that stage were to walk out in procession. The Secret Service, who were protecting Bhutto who at the time was Head of State, arranged the people so that two or three guys, including Galbraith, were to walk out first, Bhutto in the middle, then a string of people afterwards. The idea was to put the person they were protecting in the middle.

Bhutto was fairly diminutive of stature, so she would have been hard to see and while this would enhance her safety, it would also have lessened the impact of hear appearance at this event, a former undergrad returning as a Prime Minister of a whole country. Galbraith, her friend and mentor, would have nothing of it. He insisted that he be in the front of the line. When the Secret Service agents, tough, numerous, steely eyed and, well, convincing as they tend to be, told him that this would be impossible, and that security concerns trumped appearances and that she would be walking out onto the stage in the middle of the procession, Galbraith, whom you may remember as having been a very tall and imposing figure with deep booming voice, turned to the head of the security detail and simply said, “Sir, I overrule you,” at which time the detail backed off, Bhutto, grinning, walked to the front of the line, and the procession began.

Apropos the question that has come up in recent years as to the meaning of, say, a “black” or a female president of the United States … as to whether we are “ready” or whether such a thing would advance civil rights in the US or whether such a thing would lead to polarizing opposition from racists or misogynous, we can look at what has happened with the presidency of Barack Obama (and see that all of the above are true) and also look at the place in the world of the United States. Many other nations have had women prime ministers, presidents, queens, or whatever. Is the United States in the majority yet, are we one of the few countries (or one of the few “Western” countries, or one of the few “democracies” or whatever) who has not had a female in charge?

Pursuant to this question I made a list (made = copied from the internet) of countries and put a star next to those which I think have had a woman leader. I’m sure I missed some. Have a look. Tell me which countries I should move from one list to another (or if I’ve left out some countries). There are complexities. Continue reading How many countries have ever had a woman leader?

Bruce Schneier Interview Live Tonight

Liars and Outliers

Tonight, on Skeptically Speaking, Desiree Schell will interview Bruce Schneier, author of Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive. From the Amazon page, the author notes: “This book represents my attempt to develop a full-fledged theory of coercion and how it enables compliance and trust within groups. My goal is to rephrase some of those questions and provide a new framework for analysis. I offer new perspectives, and a broader spectrum of what’s possible. Perspectives frame thinking, and sometimes asking new questions is the catalyst to greater understanding. It’s my hope that this book can give people an illuminating new framework with which to help understand the world.”

You may remember the Marshal McLuhan Incident that recently happened on Sam Harris’s nonBlog. Harris had been pushing blatant racial profiling and was heavily criticized for this. So, he went to the expert, Bruce Schneier and asked for a guest blog post to evaluate Harris’s ideas. To his credit, Harris ended up Marshal McLuhaning himself when Schneier essentially backed up the ongoing critiques of his, Harris’s, arguments.

As usual, Desiree will conduct the interview before a live radio audience on line. The edited interview will be provided at the end of the week, along with a special guest appearance by me, in which I will talk about an issue related to Schneier’s book.

This week, we’re talking about trust and cooperation, and the implications these social values have for security in the era of global networking. We’re joined by security technologist and author Bruce Schneier, to talk about his book Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust Society Needs to Survive. And on the podcast anthropologist/blogger Greg Laden returns to discuss speculation about cognitive limits on the use of social networks.

We record live with Bruch Schneier on Sunday, June 3 at 6 pm MT. The podcast will be available to download at 9 pm MT on Friday, June 8.

Details and links, including a link to the live show, are HERE.

Liars and Outliers

Tonight, on Skeptically Speaking, Desiree Schell will interview Bruce Schneier, author of Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive. From the Amazon page, the author notes: “This book represents my attempt to develop a full-fledged theory of coercion and how it enables compliance and trust within groups. My goal is to rephrase some of those questions and provide a new framework for analysis. I offer new perspectives, and a broader spectrum of what’s possible. Perspectives frame thinking, and sometimes asking new questions is the catalyst to greater understanding. It’s my hope that this book can give people an illuminating new framework with which to help understand the world.”

The Book, Liars and Outliers.
You may remember the Marshal McLuhan Incident that recently happened on Sam Harris’s nonBlog. Harris had been pushing blatant racial profiling and was heavily criticized for this. So, he went to the expert, Bruce Schneier and asked for a guest blog post to evaluate Harris’s ideas. To his credit, Harris ended up Marshal McLuhaning himself when Schneier essentially backed up the ongoing critiques of his, Harris’s, arguments.

As usual, Desiree will conduct the interview before a live radio audience on line. The edited interview will be provided at the end of the week, along with a special guest appearance by me, in which I will talk about an issue related to Schneier’s book.

This week, we’re talking about trust and cooperation, and the implications these social values have for security in the era of global networking. We’re joined by security technologist and author Bruce Schneier, to talk about his book Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust Society Needs to Survive. And on the podcast anthropologist/blogger Greg Laden returns to discuss speculation about cognitive limits on the use of social networks.

We record live with Bruch Schneier on Sunday, June 3 at 6 pm MT. The podcast will be available to download at 9 pm MT on Friday, June 8.

Details and links, including a link to the live show, are HERE.

GOP Talk of Racial Violence Ramping UP for 2012 Election

As expected, GOP leaders are staring to incite (mainly racial) violence in relation to President Obama’s re-election bid:

A monthly newsletter published by the Greene County Republican Committee in Virginia is raising eyebrows for including a column in its March edition that calls for an “armed revolution” if President Barack Obama is elected to a second term …

[Editor McPHee warns]… that the consequences of not defeating Obama, a so-called “ideologue unlike anything world history has ever witnessed or recognized,” would be dire.

“[W]e shall not have any coarse [sic] but armed revolution should we fail with the power of the vote in November,” McPhee writes. “This Republic cannot survive for 4 more years underneath this political socialist ideologue.”

Here’s a PDF copy of the newsletter by the GreenCountyGOP.