Voder-Vocoder

I just audited my system at home for installed non-free software. Here’s the list:

• IBM JDK 1.3.0
• Sun JDK 1.4.2
• Maple 9
• Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0
• RealPlayer 10 v0.3.0.120
• mp3 plugins for xmms, rhythembox; as well as mpg123
  (In the sense that these are encumbered by patents)
• Evil codecs for mplayer/xine.
• Quake III

Odd issue in linux/x11. I used to have the evil proprietary Nvidia drivers loaded. I gave up on them recently, but once I installed a new kernel without them, glx (openGL for x) stopped working. I got the error:

Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0"

It should have worked, as the file /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libglx.a should have provided this funtionality.

But alas, Xorg X11 was using the file /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libglx.so.1.0.5336, left over from the proprietary driver. I deleted this file, restarted X11, and it all workes correctly! I have a fast enough processor that most small openGL apps work fine without hardware acceleration.

http://mirrors.usc.edu/pub/linux/fedora/fedora/fedora/2/

http://mirrors.usc.edu/pub/linux/distributions/redhat/redhat/linux/

UPDATE 2004-12-02: It should be something like
http://$SERVER/pub/linux/fedora/core/$VERSION/
http://$SERVER/pub/linux/fedora/extras/$VERSION/

Spent a week in California. Was fun.
Here are photos.

Here is what a time traveler thinks of us:

Perhaps I should let you all in on a little secret. No one likes you in the future. This time period is looked at as being full of lazy, self-centered, civically ignorant sheep. Perhaps you should be less concerned about me and more concerned about that.

(link, via here)

#!/bin/sh
## ~/bin/tlock ##
PASS='12345'
trap '' TERM INT
BAD="true"
clear
while [ "$BAD" == "true" ] ; do
    echo -en "\ntlock password: "
    stty -echo;
    read x
    stty echo;
    [ "$x" == "$PASS" ] && BAD="false"
done
echo "";

UPDATE 2004-12-02: Add “trap '' TERM SIGTSTP” for additional security.

;; from ~/.emacs
(add-hook 'php-mode-hook 'html-mode)

Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for the Bush campaign, accused Kerry of a “consistent pattern of inserting politics and playing politics with the war on terror and serious national security issues.”

(link)

What the hell is he saying? Is he implying that all politicans should avoid “serious national security issues” Does this include the president himself? is GWB above politics? When he’s fundraising or giving stump speeches, does GWB avoid these issues?

I really don’t know what to make of this.

You can argue with his position, but how can you argue with the fact that he has as position?

Some spammer is spoofing my email address into their “From: ” address. Evil bastards. This seems like libel of some kind.
(more…)

In March 2003, the United States entered into a state of war with Iraq. In May 2003, that war ended, by declaration of the president. At that point, the US was occupying Iraq.

Under International Law, all prisoners fall into either “prisoner or war” or “suspected criminal” or “material witness” categories. Enemy combatant is bullshit. If terrorism is not state-sponsored, it is simply a crime.

Since we were at war from March to May 2003, prisoners captured during that time were POWs, up until the war was over. At that point, it is normal to negotiate the handover of POWs. Since the US became the occupying power, that would not happen. Instead, the US should have released all POWs that do not also fall into the “suspected criminal” or “material witness” categories. At that point, all remaining prisoners should have had their corpuses dragged in front of a court or tribunal to verify their status.

None of this happened.

After May 2003, Iraq has been part of the territory of the Empire of the United States of America, under martial law. Therefore, any prisoners captured by the army since then should be treated as “suspected criminals” or “material witnesses”, and have that status verified by a competent tribunal. Whatever the military-justice version of habeas corpus is. The supreme court has ruled that under martial law, habeas corpus can be suspended for a short time, but not for long periods of time.

As far as I know, none of this has happened.

The president has taken a US citizen on US soil and detained him indefinitely, without habeas corpus. It was justified because that citizen is a Muslim. Given this, is it a surprise that subjects of the EUSA are not granted civil rights by the administration?

“One who chooses war as a tool for building a decent society cannot act surprised at its cruelty.”
— Michael Curry
(source)

Nobody’s saying it, so I will. We should walk away from Iraq. Spend one month organizing elections (if we can conquer a nation in that amount of time, surely we can buy ballot boxes and 25 million little slips of paper?), hold an election, and walk away.

IF we were ever justified in starting this war to begin with, it was to remove WMD. Well, there’s nothing left to be done on that task, so let’s go. Our occupation has no further justification. Let’s just leave. We can’t take responsibility for governing the world. Let it go. Count to ten and walk away.

now i walk and skulk and fret, wondering what we’ve become
colden madly monsters in the heat of our revenge

UPDATE 2004-08-11: I still feel this way, although it does seem like a pessimistic position
to take. Would we be better off if we had pulled out of Vietnam in 1965? I say yes.