Community

Offend me! Please!

In the interest of transparency and owning up to my own idiocy, I have left this story. I came on it while looking at some of my earliest posts, laughing at the links to nowhere and the rather hasty wording of many of these posts.

This one, however, strikes a different chord for me now, in December 2020, especially in light of BLM, a racist administration, and the spread of fascism not just in the US but globally. This article was in response to the outrage over a cartoon in a Danish newspaper that depicted Mohammed. (The cartoon was incredibly insensitive, but no more than cartoons depicting the pope during the Catholic Church’s sex scandals, and myriad cartoons pointing out hypocrisy in other religious settings.)

Yes, there are things that are genuinely offensive. There are things that are (or should be) objectively offensive. There is never a right time or place for those, whether in speech or action.

Does this mean I posted things I regret? Yes. I was so focused on the things that were labeled offensive without being so that I ignored the truly offensive shit that’s been around forever. By the way, I’m sorry if you don’t like that I have a mouth like a trucker or a soldier, but I’ve been both of those things.

I should have paid attention to my own advice in this post: “The trick is to focus on making your communication clear, intelligent and well-thought-out.” Hey, I never said I don’t make bone-headed mistakes.

So, just to clarify a few things:

  • The extra-judicial killing of African-Americans is not okay. Black Lives Matter
  • Women are not less than in any way.
  • Love is love, regardless of gender (including gender expression). What consenting adults do behind closed doors is not my business or yours.
    • Personal opinion here: PDA (kissing, hugging, holding hands – not tonsil-hockey or groping in public) is sweet, regardless of the genders of those involved. If it bothers you, walk away. If you can’t, let them know, politely, that you feel uncomfortable.
  • Transgender people are who they say they are, not who you think they should be. It’s not that hard to use the proper pronoun, and if you slip up apologize and move on.
  • Public officials who refuse to denounce racism/violence/hatred should be held accountable for the actions of those they empower. Being elected should not be a “Get out of prosecution” card.
  • Businesses are not people, and as such should not be allowed to claim “religious reasons” to discriminate against women, LGBTQ+, BIPOC, or any other protected class.

With all that said, here is the original article, in which I come across as a complete and utter ass:

It seems that an inordinate amount of energy is being expended on who is offending whom with what speech . I say let it go already!

We have connected the world, and made communication between continents and countries and cultures trivial. There is no way that anyone can communicate with that broad of an audience and not offend someone, sometime. The trick is to focus on making your communication clear, intelligent and well-thought-out. Those who will take offense will be offended no matter what. Those who are more open to new ideas are going to judge your communication based on its merits. And with that in mind, I am rarely ever offended at anything intelligent. (Yes, poorly thought-out, muddy and unintelligent conversation annoys me, but it is much harder to offend me.)

Of course, I think a large number of cases of “offense” are actually annoyance. And as long as we are on the subject, why is that those who are most offended are usually trying their hardest to offend right back ? It is the inability to laugh at ourselves that leaves us fragile and easily injured. Bah! I laugh at myself all the time. That’s why the article over at comicbookresources.com made me smile a bit. The headline says it all: Israeli group announces anti-Semitic cartoons contest!

I challenge anyone who is currently taking offense at something being said to take a moment, and try to come up with your own, even more offensive remark or statement about the same subject and see if that helps you to put it into perspective. Now that I’ve got that off my chest I can get off my fat ass and get back to doing something productive!

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  • February 15, 2006
  • December 15, 2020
  • sjan
2DL

Who’s buying?

Despite the fact that our album has been available for while now, and we have had scores of people tell us that they were in a hurry to buy it, we haven’t managed to actually sell many at all.

Makes one wonder – do people say that so they don’t have to say they didn’t like it? Maybe, but I would rather hear what it is they don’t like about it – We never claimed to be perfect, just doing what we love. And if we can do something to enhance the listening experience, we will.

So who is buying? A couple co-workers, and a radio station in Brazil. After they asked our permission to play our music on the air. Well, that’s something at least.

So if you haven’t checked it out yet, do so. There are samples (low-quality) on the site. The store is linked. Buy our album!!! Please?

Firefox

Another Firefox vs IE test

Earlier today I had a very strange request come across my inbox. An employee of another organization asked me to explain to her IT department why they were wrong in their assesment of Firefox . It seems that since they can push out Internet Explorer patches via WSUS , but not Firefox patches, they made the assumption that Firefox was less secure than IE.

We’ve all heard the arguments to the contrary over and over – including this article today. But there are still organizations where the thinking is “If the patch can’t be pushed out via WSUS, it isn’t secure.”

I realized, that perhaps there are departments (like the one to which I sent the directions below) that are either unaware of how to automate Firefox patching or are too afraid to install it in the first place to have the chance to figure it out.

No, Firefox patching doesn’t happen through WSUS (at least to my knowledge), but it can be fully automated by:

  1. Go to “Tools” -> “Options” -> “Advanced”
  2. Click on the “Update” tab
  3. Check the boxes labled “Firefox”, “Installed Extensions and Themes”, “Search Engines”, “Automatically download ….” and “Warn me if …”

Click “OK” and you’re done. Automatic updating in Firefox. Who knows, once the market share grows enough, you may be able to push Firefox patches through WSUS. Until then, however, the builtin function works great.

Python

Another real-world turbogears example

Another real-world example of turbogears was pointed out by one my coworkers (thanks Brad!) and I had to check it out.

The Python devcenter blog on O’Reilly has an article on replacing Meetup.com with a turbogears app .

While I haven’t done any more at this point than quickly browse the source files and check it out in action, it seems like it is a good example piece. (I tend to better understand how things work by examining a few different examples.)

The app was developed by Rick Copeland of the The Python Atlanta “Meetup” group where you can see it in action.

Security

Talisker/DShield used by the NSA

This morning I came across an article at the Internet Storm Center about Bush’s visit to the NSA that showed their internet monitoring setup in the background.

From the article:

A little over a week ago the President of the United States visited the National Security Agency in Ft. Meade, Maryland. The visit came on the heels of allegations that domestic eavesdropping laws were broken, and that the administration had exceeded its authorized powers. We aren’t going to pick sides on that one but there was a really nice photo that showed up in the Washington Post as part of the story that we should all be proud of. When I first saw it, I thought:

Super-secret spy agency sensor grid – $Billions

Security for a visit from the President of the United States – $Millions

Showing the President that your prime source of information is a bunch of volunteers – PRICELESS!

See the photo or read the article. The image you see behind the NSA Director is the Talisker Security Wizardry Portal, which includes the DShield world map along with other security information.

That just tells me that there is intelligence in the NSA!

Python

Minor revision to breadcrumbs.py

I made a slight change to the I wrote as a plugin for . I changed the way the links are displayed, so that the directory seperators (/) are not included in the actual link, and added a rel=”tag” to the links to allow style aggregators understand them better.

As always, you are free to download it from this site and I am open to any hints, suggestions, fixes, updates, or constructive criticism of any sort.

Alaska

Fickle weather

Over the past couple of days the temperature has shifted from hovering around 5°F (-15°C) for the high and -15°F (-26°C) for the low, to suddenly being in the high 30’s (2 to 3°C) with a very light drizzle. What that does to all the snowpack on the roadways is in no way pretty. (Think of how a zamboni prepares the ice for a skating rink.)

Anyhow, all the local schools are closed due to the icy road conditions. I wasn’t aware that the University would be closed, however, until after I got here, and got settled into my desk and ready to crack at another week. But, since I have just gotten the call from higher up I guess I can call it a day. Whew! I never thought I’d have to work a whole day in 12 minutes! And to think – I left early because I knew the roads were bad and spent almost 40 minutes getting here!

I think I may just stay for an hour or three and get some things done. At least the phone won’t be ringing off the hook today!

Apache

Apache 2.2 is out

I realize I am a little late in posting this, but Apache have announced the release of Apache 2.2. From a quick look at the release notes it looks like they have gotten the cache handlers working and stable, including a cache cleaning portion.

Now the question is, do I stick with 2.0.5x or I do I jump on the 2.2 train?

Writings

I miss the oldies . . ..

I find that when it comes to multiplayer online games that I miss the oldies. Remember the heady days of the BBS when you dialed in to a local server and played games like TradeWars?

Sure, there are a lot of MUDs and MMORPGs out there, but I find that they just aren’t the same. It makes me think that maybe I should work on a TradeWar-ish game – maybe do it in turbogears. It would be good practice.

Something I always felt was lacking in TradeWars, however, was the limited “classes” (to use the RPG terminology) available. You were either a trading ship captain or a Pirate captain or a little of each. What about letting players take other roles: Police, Military, Mercenary and so on. I’m sure I could come up with more. And what about instead of just controlling one ship (and getting larger and larger ships and eventually bases and then worlds) you could go from one ship to controlling a battallion, a fleet, an armada, your own space navy? Hmm, maybe need to throw in a little Risk into the mix as well to allow large-scale actions.

Now I just need to determine the structure, and the rules, and then I can start on the development requirements. Coming soon in 2010! (Or something like that.)

Alaska

I think I’ll take the cold. . .

With Augustine currently in a state of near constant ash eruption I think I am willing to live the cold from the high pressure system pushing out of Siberia. It is keeping the high wind pattern moving to the South-East, which means that, for now, we are spared any ashfall here in Anchorage.

Of course, just like any other weather pattern here, this is subject to change without notice. I just hope that if the low trying to move in from the South-West actually manages to push its way into South-Central that it brings enough moisture that the ashfall is contained in snow.

Black snow may be ugly, and heavy, but it doesn’t drift through all the cracks in the windows and doors and settle in your machinery.