Webs’ Random Ideas

Just got emailed this link and it was too good to pass up. It actually gives me some drive to get off my ass and SAVE!!!

I Married a Couponaholic: 5 Ways Life Has Changed…

Found via Pete!

No it’s a good thing. I’m not talking about Godzilla…

A series of posts are on the way introducing Clonezilla, Discussions of Pros and Cons and a comparision to Ghost, Clonezilla setup for single system cloning or small time cloning operations, and Clonezilla server setup. The last two will be more technical in nature and all will be linked together and connected to one another.

I want to present Clonezilla as a viable alternative to Ghost and present it’s shortcomings as I have been a fanboy of Ghost for a long time. But for those not able or willing to shell out the dough for Ghost, Clonezilla make be just fine. Or for those not wanting to deal with floppies (why Ghost didn’t put an end to this YEARS ago I have no idea).

But home users may come to love it, as I will once I upgrade the storage space on my file server!

The story is that Cohen is a white democrat running in the primary against two other democrats, Tinker being one, that are black. He runs into opposition because of his skin color as one person stated something to the effect of feeling they will be under-reprsented if Cohen gets in because he is white.

Yet this is directly conflicting with the teaching of Dr. King and others that have fought for civil rights is it not? Why does the color of someone’s skin dictate their ability to accurately represent constituents of a distric?

… “I understand my child may be injured or killed at this camp.”

Sign Here: _________________________________________

The Tinkering School summer camp.

I find the idea very intruiging. Not the idea of a child being injured or killed, but allowing children to build, explore, experiment, get hurt (nothing major), and learn from mistakes. What good are we doing when we tell a child they cannot do “X” cause it’s dangerous. Well, you were a child, did you still do “X”.

Maybe I need to put it into perspective? Do you support teaching children a comprehensive sex ed class? Or do you support training children on proper handling of guns (if you own them)? Why?

Probably because like me you think education in children leads to smarter choices or better decision making, and hopefully the correct choice being chosen more often than the wrong one. Why limit this?

I guess those two go hand in hand… anyways here is what I am talking bout:

So there are two issues here:

1) McCain wants to drill of the coast in part to help with energy independence, in fact he seems to be claiming that this will in fact help achieve this.

2) McCain is stating that inflating tires has no effect on how much gas Americans consume, and has no marginal gain in energy independence.

1) For this statement to be true drilling off-shore would have to have an effect on US oil supply. Well according to some people that know what they are talking about the change would be marginal. It would take 7-10 years to start getting oil from off-shore, and the amount coming in would be minimal and have no real effect. It’s simply pandering.

Even if some new technology were able to make the drilling go deeper and tap into previously unknown sources, the effect is still a marginal gain in the grand scheme of things as we are importing 10,000 more barrels a day then we are exporting. It’s going to take a lot to change this.

Unfortunately off-shore drilling has disasterous environmental effects and other solutions could have a more immediate effect. Such as using more alternative energies. Who cares how wasteful people are being their energy used comes from a renewable source? It just makes sense to me.

2) As for this point, well 1 simple link will do just fine. The funny thing is, I learned about the usefullness of inflating tires 10 years ago from drivers ed. And I heard the same thing repeated from multiple car “experts” (friends or local mechanics I trusted as a source of info). Only now has it become politicized.

Both candidates are pandering on energy that one is obvious and is why we need to question them. Don’t let your candidate get off easy, write them and prod them with questions.

Cisco Building Cisco Multilayer Switched Networks… yea, I’m such a nub at this stuff I had to cheat and look up the title for the class there

But the good thing is when you don’t know much about topic “X” and your company sends you to training on topic “X” you tend to learn a TON about topic “X”. So I’m learning a lot and happy with how much I have remembered from class 3-4 years ago. The key though to anything networking is subnetting!!! Without that I would be completely screwed.

Saw Lars and the Real Girl tonight. What a fantastic movie! I can’t say enough good things about it. Top noch directing, writing, and acting. And contrary to the crap that we see put out all the time, this is just well done.

The two points I really appreciated from it was the stress on family and community. When one person was truly down for the count, people pulled through for him tell he made it out. Not in some corny fashion or with a song a dance, but people made an attempt to help someone in a time of need.

There are still plenty of signs of this in our society but they can become easily lost with the “hustle and bustle” if you will. Anyways it’s a good theme to revisit to remind us to put others before ourselves. I especially liked the scene with the pastor, “What would Jesus do?” Well I don’t think he would think only of himself in the given situation…

I just flew to O’Hare where I was waiting a flight to Boston yesterday. Logan airport is in Boston, LaGuardia is in New York. Now I didn’t fly into New York, and won’t again for awhile, but I like the differences.

With Logan airport you leave the coast of the US, fly over the ocean from the North, and then circle around and land in what appears to be water. When looking out the window all you see is water, and then right at the last second you see the runway you land on. I always thought that was pretty cool.

LaGuardia is a small airport. It sits on a small plot of land (relatively speaking) and consequently there isn’t much room for a runway. I am used to the nice long and luxurious runways of most airports where the pilots have plenty of time to take off and land. Not at Laguardia. When you land the “brakes” are hit immediately and the plane slows down incredibly fast. Take off is done also at a very fast rate and you’re in the air in no time. It can be a little nerve racking on the first trip.

Chicago… not much to say but it’s rediculously massive. Just be glad the planners of the airport have the major airline companies at the same terminals. Because walking or running from one end to the other would take forever.

I’ll try to post more later about my trip…

Obama made the point the other day about we can do to help keep gas prices down, save oil, and help the planet. Two simple things, keep tires inflated to recommended levels and have regular tune-ups. Both are not just smart, but good for the car.

Well fanatacal Gingrich has let politics completely control his brain as he makes the following statement:

GINGRICH: He has a position that’s frankly ludicrous. We saw him yesterday. He suggested if we all inflated our tires, that we would solve the problem. Think about it. You ought to take that clip. I think that clip is far more devastating than today because it’s loony toons.

So is it Loony Toons? Let see what evidence would tell us…

The Department of Energy estimates that (based on gas costing $3.96/gallon), “you can improve your gas mileage by around 3.3 percent by keeping your tires inflated to the proper pressure” which would ultimately save “up to $0.12/gallon” or, nearly the amount of the federal gas tax ($0.18/gallon), a tax Gingrich supports repealing. Moreover, the auto industry agrees with DoE’s assessment.

It really would not have been hard at all for Gingrich to spend a few minutes to find out if what Obama said was true. In fact he prolly doesn’t have to spend any time at all, he could have an aid do the work for him.

When you read people like me stressing the importance of education so we can all be better stewards of information, this is what we are talking about. We need critical thinking so when people hear a talking head spout off the BS Gingrich just did, we can say, “Wait a minute…”

I just took the Network+ Certification yesterday and passed!! Huge sigh of relief. I have a lot going on with the new job, new friends, and one hell of a busy summer. But I needed to take this certification as it was wayyyyy passed due. I should have studied for it 5 years ago and passed it but was too lazy.

Certifications are scoffed at by some and revered by others. Myself, I just see them as a great way to show you have a base set of knowledge. Are they used in place of experience? Sure. Should they be? No. But if you are lacking experience a certification can be a great way to show knowledge.

I am not lacking experience, but would like to show I have the base knowledge needed to pass this exam. And it really is a great item to have on a resume.

Anyways posting has been very light but I have some great topics to write about that will be coming up shortly.