Local time where you're at. ("Where you're at"?)

Unfortunately, Denizens, I don’t have any stories to tell about having kicked an Occupussy’s ass during my Black Friday shopping experience (yes, I went – scored myself a damn good monitor, too), so here’s something gleaned from the Backyard&#153, courtesy of my sister-in-law:

Note, if you will, that this particular laptop is running…Ubuntu.

Cool, huh?&#160

Drudge has reported (and Fox News has confirmed) that Steve Jobs, one of the founders of Apple Computer, Inc, is dead of an unspecified cause at the age of 56.

His family, in a statement released by Apple, said Mr. Jobs “died peacefully today surrounded by his family…We know many of you will mourn with us, and we ask that you respect our privacy during our time of grief.”

The company didn’t specify the cause of his death. Mr. Jobs had battled pancreatic cancer and several years ago received a liver transplant. In August, Mr. Jobs stepped down as CEO, handing the reins to Tim Cook.

“Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being,” Mr. Cook said in a letter to employees. “We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much.”

My first ever computer was an Apple IIc.&#160 Had a lot of fun on that thing – there was a football game on it that I loved.&#160 Aggravated me no end when Jobs ditched the II series for what was then something called the Lisa&#153 – later to become the Macintosh.&#160 Then the iMac, then the iPod, iTunes, then the iPad, and all the innovations that arose therefrom.

Yeah, he probably was right about leaving me high & dry on that. (rueful grin)&#160 PC-dom would not be where it is now without Steve Jobs.

The Realm&#153 mourns Steve’s death, and sends its sincerest condolences & well wishes to his family.&#160 We are very, very&#160 sorry he’s gone, and will remember him most fondly.

[SCENE:&#160 Realm&#153 spacedock.&#160 In the abscence of Lord Darth Venomous (whom, you will recall, is currently languishing in Facebook Hell&#153), Supreme General Rayegun has arrived from the Southern Command&#153 to oversee things.&#160 His first order of business was to organize a search for the Admiral.

He is conferring now with Captain Korrioth, Realm&#153 shipmaster Commander K’tinghe and the rest of the senior staff.]

RAYEGUN:&#160 So where is this ribbon now?

KORRIOTH:&#160 Badlands, General.&#160 Specifically, Sector 11287, in the Hogan system.&#160 Estimated 3.1 days until it hits the Umagakhali Nebula.

RAYEGUN:&#160 And you still believe His Snarkiness is in there.

OZY MCCOOL:&#160 His last known position, yes, General.

RAYEGUN:&#160 Very well. What do we have in the way of ships around here?

K’TINGHE:&#160 We’ve come up with this prototype—

RAYEGUN:&#160 You are not&#160 sending the prototype in there after my friend, Commander, is that clear???

K’TINGHE:&#160 Uh, not that&#160 prototype, General.

[K’tinghe moves to the wall display on the far wall and touches a control.&#160 A nasty, sleek-looking, dark-charcoal gray battlecruiser appears on the display.]

K’TINGHE:&#160 General, this is the fleet’s newest vessel – Pegasus II.&#160 We have built it with the strongest titanium alloy available, and coated it with a neutronium armor.&#160 It is currently rated to withstand 2.5 times the amount of gravometric turbulence that our previous ships could tolerate.&#160 It is ideal for going into areas that would tear apart other, lesser ships.

RAYEGUN:&#160 Such as the perimeter of this ribbon.

K’TINGHE:&#160 Aye, sir.&#160 But that’s not the best part.&#160 (K’tinghe touches another control.)&#160 Look what we’re powering it with.

[Rayegun’s mouth virtually hits the floor.]

RAYEGUN:&#160 I don’t believe it.&#160 He finally took my suggestion and put—

MERLIN:&#160 Well, it wasn’t exactly&#160 his idea.&#160 Amazing what you can accomplish when a technical Luddite isn’t around to put the kibosh on things.

ALL:&#160

RAYEGUN:&#160 Very well, then.&#160 Get this ship prepped and on its way.&#160 I can’t imagine we have all that&#160 much time.

KORRIOTH:&#160 Aye, General. (to K’tinghe) Move.

K’TINGHE (with a suddenly tight look on his face):&#160 Captain—

KORRIOTH:&#160 Is there a problem, Commander?

K’TINGHE(gulping almost audibly):&#160 No, m’lord.&#160 On my way.

[He turns to go, a sullen look on his face.&#160 Korrioth ponders this for a moment, then turns his attention away, filing the sequence for later.]

—

Changes are coming.

Not anything that’ll affect you guys, but they’ll be fun to talk about, once in place.&#160 (Well, they will be for the geeks among us, anyway.)

Watch this space.

The General – along with the rest of you anti-Microsoft bigots (grin) – will be pleased to learn that Yours Truly&#153 has started down the path of one particular Dark Side&#153.

For this post…is being written on a Linux box.

More later.&#160 Gotta go pick up Mrs. Venomous’ car and cough up $500 to turn off a “check engine” light.&#160

Browsing through my collection of Intertubes favorites, I came across this article on Engadget.

Here’s just the splashy numbers:

There are SSDs and then there are SSDs — the Texas Memory Systems (TMS) RamSan-70 is definitely the latter, packing 900GB of high-speed SLC NAND flash onto a single half-length PCIe card. Boasting an incredible 2GB-per-second sustained external throughput, this near-terabyte solid state drive is clearly overkill for most of us, considering that it’s guaranteed to have a sky-high price (once details are released). Instead, the “900GB Gorilla,” as it’s come to be known around TMS HQ, is destined for high-end servers — though we certainly wouldn’t object to clearing out a slot in our desktop, if by some miracle we can afford this monster when it starts shipping in four to eight weeks.

Oh. Emm. Gee!!!!

The manufacturer lovingly calls it the “900GB Gorilla”. Although pricing will clearly put it out of the range of basically everything except the high-end server market….it would be seriously SUH-WEEET in a desktop case near the Command Bunker. Guess the General is going to need to put in the Purchase Order Request later this summer when this gem is available on the market.

ThatIsAll&#153

(Hat tip to a friend of mine at work.)

Well, you can’t run Windoze on this baby – but then again, maybe that isn’t such a bad thing.

KPexEA writes with this excerpt from geek.com:

“[Game developer David] Braben has developed a tiny USB stick PC that has an HDMI port on one end and a USB port on the other. You plug it into an HDMI socket and then connect a keyboard via the USB port, giving you a fully functioning machine running a version of Linux.

The cost? $25.

The hardware being offered is no slouch either. It uses a 700MHz ARM11 processor coupled with 128MB of RAM and runs OpenGL ES 2.0, allowing for decent graphics performance with 1080p output confirmed. … We can expect it to run a range of Linux distributions, but it looks like Ubuntu may be the distro it ships with. That means it will handle web browsing, run office applications, and give the user a fully functional computer to play with as soon as it’s plugged in.

All that and it can be carried in your pocket or on a key chain.”

What gets me is that this thing still has more processing power & disk capacity than the box that ran Realm&#153 v1.0 all those years ago.

Damn.&#160 Just, damn.

Okay, so I’m reading about one of the Blue Angels&#153 at this air show in San Transexual (yeah, I don’t know how they managed that, either), and this neat visual effect they did…

Cool, huh?

Anyway, one of these nose-up-in-the-air snotty Brits had to chime in…

Nothing quite like the Stargighter the German Air Force nick named it the flying coffin others the widow maker. It had disconcerting habit of killing pilots and they really forgot to fit wings just a couple of stubs. It wasn’t all that really. I know you Americans think everything you do is the best but some things just don’t work out…

Last NATO flight competition I had with you guys we beat you. You had better technology pity about the lesser ability. Don’t knock we Brits especially today of all days. Late for every war and full of it.

Well, I tend to think we were sure the fuck on time in 1776 & 1812, but that’s another Brit beatdown for another day.

But then a fellow American chimed in…

Last NATO flight competition I was in you Brits had all kinds of “rules” that you wanted us to follow to ensure we didn’t wipe you off the map. Couldn’t fly half the planes off the deck of our carrier, couldn’t use our E2 Hawkeyes at all, couldn’t use our satellite links, couldn’t use our subs offensively, couldn’t use drones, and we were only allowed to fly ONE EA-6B for the whole carrier group. Couldn’t fly below 2,000 feet, nor above 50,000 feet.

You “win” these competitions because you simply will not take us on head to head.

We laugh it off as your commanders stroking your egos, making you think you’re better than you really are.

Mheh.&#160 PJ O’Rourke rides again.&#160

(Hat tip:&#160 Major Geeks.)

The 7Gadgets site is trying to say that this is the ultimate geek chair.

I beg to differ.

For this to be the Ultimate Geek Chair – it would have to be an oversized chaise recliner that swivels.&#160

Can any of you digital geniuses tell me how to post our calender to my church blog? We use WordPress, and the best I have been able to do is to link to a PDF copy. Help from the pros would be greatly appreciated.

Denizens, consider this T-Mobile commercial:

For the Uninitiated&#153, this is a blatant rip-off of the old “Hi, I’m a Mac/(sigh) And I’m a PC” commercials that Stevie Jobs apparently – and erroneously – thought were hilarious.

Ever since T-Mobile came out with these BS spots, I’d tell anyone who’d listen – which usually amounted to Mrs. Venomous – “Dammit, it didn’t work for Apple, and it’s bloody well not gonna work for T-Mobile”.

MRS. VENOMOUS:&#160 Yes, dear.

(sigh)

Well, AT&T, having probably gotten a little tired of the mosquito biting it, did the appropriate thing – they smacked the mosquito into oblivion:

AT&T is planning on buying T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion in cash and stock. The deal must be approved by both the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission first.

“This transaction represents a major commitment to strengthen and expand critical infrastructure for our nation’s future,” said AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson. “It will improve network quality, and it will bring advanced LTE capabilities to more than 294 million people.”

Guess we can see that little cutie in blue & orange now instead of pink polka-dots.

Score another WITY&#153 for His Rudeness.&#160

And no sooner&#160 do I get the site running on WP 3.0.5 than WordPress comes out with version 3.1.

General?&#160 This&#160 is why I don’t like updating.&#160

Darth, you’ll want to pay attention to this cause I know the Titanic has a few of these.

For all you solid-state drive users out there, pay attention to this article from Lifehacker.com.

Researchers at UC San Diego found that the normal methods we use to securely wipe magnetic drives aren’t as useful on solid-state drives. After testing twelve SSDs, they found that only four were securely erased with whole-drive erasure methods. Trying to securely wipe a single file was even less successful, and more often than not a good portion of the file was recoverable.

Hmmm, better make sure the Department of Archives adds this information to their SOPs. Wouldn’t want the dumpster divers to get any critical information from our used SSDs.

And while you’re perusing the site, you’ll also find this article that confirms that Microsoft has released Service Pack 1 for Windows 7. Guess the intertubes are going to be running a littler slower today.

ThatIsAll&#153

(Hat tip to News Busters – and I know it sounds like their post, but I’m going to plead a Great Minds Think Alike&#153 moment here, mkay?)

Denizens, remember a Long Time Ago&#153 when the Demoscum and the Lame Stream Media&#153 (but I repeat myself) ripped into GHW Bush’s supposed unfamiliarity with grocery scanners?&#160 And the not-too-terribly-unexpected corollary that “He’s!&#160 Out!&#160 Of!&#160 Touch!&#160 He!&#160 Doesn’t!&#160 Even!&#160 Know!&#160 The!&#160 Cost!&#160 Of!&#160 A!&#160 Gallon!&#160 Of!&#160 Milk!!!!!”?

Fast foward twenty years:&#160 The Ayatollah doesn’t even know how to work a fucking IPod.

“You’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t always rank all that high on the truth meter,” Obama said at Hampton University, Virginia.

You mean like all the bullshit you’re spewing at BarackObama.com?&#160 Or, perhaps, at OrganizingForAmerica.com?&#160 That&#160 sort of stuff?

“With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation,” Obama said.

Five’ll get you five hundred that you never hear about Bambi’s IPod Impotence&#153 amongst the Leering Leftard Lapdogs&#153 of the media.&#160 They’ll sooner be covering the story about how Simon Cowell still wuvs his mummy.

He bemoaned the fact that “some of the craziest claims can quickly claim traction,” in the clamor of certain blogs and talk radio outlets.

Translation:&#160 Damn&#160 those Right-o-sphere bloggers for catching me with my pants down on the BP oil spill!!1!!ONE!!1!1ELEVENTY!!!

Somebody call ol’ Jugears a waaaaaaaahmbulance, hmmmers?&#160

To amplify on what my esteemed colleague General Rayegun said yesterday, Chris Muir, not to put too&#160 fine a point on it, says it thusly:

A commenter over at Dr. Rusty’s site said yesterday:

…Shutting down the Internet is one of the things that WOULD start the rebellion/revolution that would bring the reforms which would sweep Obama and other freedom/liberty stealers from existance

…and I can’t help but agree.

If the Al-Obambi minions & sycophants thought we were “unruly mobs” before, watch what happens when you take away what has become one of our tools of Article I of the Bill of Rights.&#160 What came before will seem like a picnic in comparison.

You are One Step Closer&#153 to the Line That You Dare Not Cross&#153, leftards – and you don’t have many steps left.&#160 You cannot possibly&#160 comprehend the backlash that awaits you, douchebags, should you cross that line – so, for your own sakes, I tell you here and now that you’d best not cross it.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Had to lighten things up a little for Friday. Between triple-digit temps here and the humidity creeping upwards, it’s been a draining week. So here’s something from the lighter side of life.

Check out after the fold.

Look closely at the pictures below. Then continue reading after.

Yes, this is real

No really, this is an actual image

We are not joking here!

These images were captured from a city located in India. Yes India, that country where a lot of our American companies outsource their Help Desks to. Answers that annoying question of why your call got disconnected or why the call sounds like your talking into a tin can now doesn’t it.

Try not to laugh too hard….

ThatIsAll&#153