Ya know, this's pretty funny. 'Cause not too long ago using economic policy to influence public behavior was called socialism.

Maybe we need a non-economic new word for this. How about statism: the principle or policy of concentrating extensive economic, political, and related controls in the state at the cost of individual liberty. Because the underlying economic system is irrelevant in this case - the important factor is State control.

"Using economics to influence public behavior is something this country is built on — it's called capitalism." — New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is considering a mandatory fee to drive in the heart of Manhattan

Quoted in Time.

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 22:12 /Politics | 2 writebacks | permanent link

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -- Ben Franklin

Plate: Let's lay down our right to bear arms

(link) [CNN]

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 21:51 /Politics | 1 writeback | permanent link

Well, I believe that I've solved my wireless issues with my Winbox. And you ain't gonna believe this ...

I described the problem here. But I was unable, due to time constraints, to run the cable I really wanted. So I reverted back to the atrocious Netgear USB dongle, and was immediately disappointed again. That blasted thing would take hours to connect. Once it got connected, it was pretty stable, but this is a Microsoft operating system we're talking about here, and Patch Tuesday almost always means a reboot. It was gonna make me crazy - or at least crazier.

After a particularly frustrating bit of keyboard banging against it, I gave up and retired to the living room to listen to some tunes - on my old Bose system that's hooked up to an Airtunes. So down comes my beloved Little Mac G4 Powerbook, and down goes my butt into the easy chair. Up comes iTunes, and if I recall correctly I started off with the Rolling Stones playing "You Can't Always Get What You Want". It seemed appropriate.

Mick hadn't finished the quiet opening when I hear a "ding!" from the dining room - the Netgear had found the network at last, after only a couple of hours. That was a record.

But I wrote it off as coincidence until tonight. Tonight I pulled the D-Link card so I can return it to Best Buy on the morrow. This time I didn't even try to futz with the wizard to get it to connect - I went straight for Little Mac and my easy chair.

Pure Prairie League hadn't finished the guitar pickin' that opens "Aimee" when I heard the amazing "ding!". Within 5 minutes of the Windows reboot.

The short answer is that the Netgear connects normally only in the presence of network traffic. It can't be the SSID broadcast interval or signal strength - the Netgear dongle always finds the network, it just can't seem to connect. And once it gets connected it stays that way until I take the system down.

Any electrical engineer types out there care to take a stab at this one? What the Hel could Netgear be doing in that dongle? And why?

But for the time being I'm back online more or less as is my habit. And that's not a bad thing.

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 21:42 /Technology | 0 writebacks | permanent link