Richard Speaks

Einztein - Find free online courses

2010-07-09T08:30:00.000-04:00

A while ago I talked about MIT's Open Course ware. IT seems that a bunch of universities have taken hold of the same idea. Offering education and introduction to concepts to the masses. Einztein attempts to collect all of these courses and catalog them in one easy to navigate location.

Tempohousing, building with containers

2010-05-24T15:59:00.000-04:00

Tempohousing, building with containers

In all likely hood this is one of the coolest examples of conex box living I have ever seen. This type of design is great as the units almost "snap" together(not literally). I could see many applications of this type of thing.

TEH House: CFLED Version 1

2010-05-24T14:41:00.000-04:00

TEH House: CFLED Version 1

I love this concept!! Converting AC power for use with LEDs is not a new idea to me. I'd like to try this out some time.

Also this power supply is simple and awesome. I could see expanding this concept to learn a lot more about accessing the power and creating DIY low power devices for home.

Make: Online : How-To: Program a person

2010-05-23T16:26:00.000-04:00

Make: Online : How-To: Program a person

This tutorial is about a game that, per the author, teaches kids about the fundamentals of programming. I think this is much better viewed as a communication skill exercise. Requiring the participants to make clear and concise instructions to be executed.

I also think that as listed in the "optional" part of the article that having the participants create a standard syntax is a great idea for the 3 or 4th time the game is played. It was further develop the skills by adding some limitations, and additional rules. Further creating more and more complex problems to solve will require the participants to create more and more complex "code". The increased complexity will make keeping instructions simple and clear more difficult.

I also suspect it would be possible to create objects and re-usable functions good for adding further complexity and maybe necessary for more complex tasks.

Before you buy: 12 things to know about the iPad - CNN.com

2010-04-05T08:01:00.000-04:00

Before you buy: 12 things to know about the iPad - CNN.com

I'm genuinly upset by these 12 things to know. Mostly in the way the Kindle was talked about. The monochrome display has the highest contract ratio as screen formats go, called liquid paper looking at it is literally like looking at text printed on paper.

It's actually quite incredible.

These 12 things seemed much more a thinly veiled sales pitch for the iPad then a list in unbiased and useful facts.

It's about the challenge

2010-04-01T15:35:00.001-04:00

<http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/17/arizona.sweat.lodge.deaths/index.html?hpt=Sbin>

The model in this form of self help is to sit in a sweat lodge for a length; up to two hours as told in the report. I suspect this type of therapeutic treatment; which is in no way new; is based on the idea of creating an obstacle then overcoming that obstacle. Followed by praise for the success will create a genuine since accomplishment.

This sense of accomplishment is then used to encourage the participant to work through other obstacles, these obstacles being the root of the participants "problem".

I suspect that this type of progressive therapy where controlled obstacles are created and then subsequently over come are both quick and fairly effective. So long as the participant accepts the obstacle as a challenge and not a trivial exercise. Only when it is perceived as a real obstacle can a genuine sense of accomplishment be felt.

The necessity to "buy in" or except the obstacle as genuine leads retroactively to the ritualism and dogmatic talk surrounding such treatments. This "talking up" is necessary for the simulation to be successful, similar if not identical behavior is used in military training to push recruits to, through, and beyond obstacles and challenges.

In the case of the article, sitting in the heat is a real obstacle. That requires discipline of the participants. The obstacle is truly challenging in that respect, the purpose to endure the obstacle is symbolic. Symbolizing that the participant can indeed be successful. The obstacle is stretched to encompass the participants entire life or at least the problem being faced. This then creates the confidence to admit/except the problem, determine how to correct it, and then finally execute the correction.

*For a person to be successful they must believe themselves to be genuinely successful.
*Selling belief in a simulated obstacle makes necessary the 'preachy' selling and talking up the happens before, during, and after an event.
*This type of therapy is likely very successful for issues that the participant has the ability and resources to handle.
*If the participant's problem is beyond their ability to control a different treatment will be necessary, with a focus of excepting that some events are beyond control.

~Is it fair to suggest that when used at the wrong time therapies of this nature would empower a participant to acts of vigilantism, or crime(violent crime)?
~Has/Is this method of encouragement used in religion as a means to reinforce belief in its teachings?

Jott.com

2007-12-05T22:43:00.000-05:00

I had discovered jott.com some several weeks ago. Jott.com provides a free service designed to help you stay organized. I first had to build a free account, then register my phone number with them. After I did that I was able to call Jott.com's 800 number and leave a message to myself, or even send e-mails. I only ever messaged my self and found it to be a handy little task list.

After reviewing their services today I discovered a couple of things. The first thing was Jott.com has integrated with Google calendar. So now I can had events to my callender with a simple phone call. Additionally I learned about "remember the milk" This again is a free service that is used to task task lists. It also has been integrated into google calendar. Now I can add tasks to my google calendar.

I do have one complaint however. My remember the milk tasks will not show on my google calendar agenda. I am hopeful that this will be fixed in the future. But it's stil a very effective tool .

~Richard

del.icio.us

2007-10-03T15:42:00.000-04:00

I have known about this for some time now but I just recently got into it. Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site. Sounds odd, I know but that is what it's called. The reason I find this to be a neat thing is because I allows me to bookmark various websites with out killing my browser bookmarks.

But what's more is I can tag every bookmark I make. So that I can quickly and easily search for that one site no matter how many I've collected.

Additionally, there is the whole sharing ability. For example were you to click on the title to this blog post you would be taken to my del.icio.us bookmarks. And that's why it's "social".

I know it's a little cheesy but still, I think it's cool. I'll be playing with it more in the future to really decide how well it's working out.

~Richard

Iran's "nuke" situation

2007-05-29T17:07:00.000-04:00

Here's the thing that i see, with all this worry about Iran and it's nuclear program. It says it is trying to build a peacefull, nuclear program for use in poer plants. Many argue that they must be up to no good.

I say perhaps, just perhaps, Iran is simply building a powerplant program. This may be even to help slow the country's use of oil, Iran has introduced oil rationing. Maybe they want to use less oil. My point is this, lets see what they plan to do with technology.

I think we should put a little more of a effort into builting international friendships with countries in this region as opposed to being scared of them. We should offer them a trade, we will send them a leading scientist in the field in exchange for UN inspectors on site... simple.

But who know's it's very possible I'm missing some very important information about this whole deal. Even still I could easily be wrong. So treading carefully may be a good idea. But never forget we have en entire globe to watch out for, I think others are slowly figuring that out.

Richard

Myspace a.k.a MySexOffender

2007-05-23T10:30:00.000-04:00

MySpace has been issued a subpoena to collect and report possible sex offenders using the popular although (perhaps)the worst social networking site. In Illinois alone Myspace was able to identify a posible 584 sex offenders... about 7,000 were identified on a national search however this information was held confidential by myspace until the subpoena has been issued.

I am reminded of when this whole issue first came to light. MySpace's position was that it had no way of tracking its huge user base in such a way that useful information could be extracted. Then came along some guy who wrote a python script from what I can remember, searched myspace and generated a list of profiles matching names of convicted sex offenders. I cannot remember many details about that story seems like its more then a year old now... maybe someone who has a better memory then I will know more of what I'm talking about.

Anyhow my point is this... it took 'em long enough.

~Richard

Disturbing... isn't it!

2007-04-02T21:12:00.000-04:00

The news in todays world seems to be flooded with stories of some of the worst kind of news: child sex abuse... This topic angers, and sickens me. It's the kind of thing I'm sure is not new, but has recently been brought to the 'lime light'; if one should call it that.

I want to briefly talk about a couple of the more dehumanizing stories I've found on CNN while researching for this blog..

First is the story of the father, mother, and grand father all joining together in the molestation, sodomizing, and murder of their six year old son. The police have told that the father was a convicted child molester, and the grand father had been convicted of incest years ago. The police went on to explain that the mother and father were slow but "not retarded", they knew/know the difference of right and wrong. More information of this can be found here.

Another story is of the 33 year old mother of 5 who attempted to sell her seven year old daughter for sex. The girl as well as her siblings have been taken into protective custody, and the mother is held on one million dollars bond. She discovered during a sting operation. Sheriff Warren Evans who was involved in the operation said "To think that a woman would offer up her own daughter in this way impossible to comprehend." You can read more about this here.

I have little else to say about this... simply be aware of the issue. Many people take their liberty to think for them selfs and abuse the hell out of it. It's these people that clearly need not be allowed the privilege.

~Richard

Here we go again....

2007-03-30T16:44:00.000-04:00

I'm trying to get back into this again... I've been incredibly busy but now I think I can get on it again... wish me luck.

~Richard

The digital red light

2007-03-30T15:41:00.000-04:00

I've seen this all over the internet today. ICANN has refused to create .xxx as a top level domain. This story is apparently huge... I'm not sure why. Apparently advocates of the .xxx top level domain argue that the extension would separate porn sites from the remainder of the internet, there for making it easier to keep porn off the computers that don't want it. The people against it say it'll make porn easier to find. In the end however ICANN said NO! but for completely different reasons.

I must admit I agree with the advocates... kind of. I think that if all I had to do was block the top level domain ".xxx" and I would never hit a porn site, and my children would never hit a porn site; that would be great. However for that to work. Each and every website with "adult content" would need to move over to the new .xxx extension. Some how I doubt that would ever actually happen.

As far as the guys auguring against it that it would make porn easier to find. I don't know that porn could be easier to find. Personally I find that argument to avoid the reality of the situation. Beyond this I have little to say about the argument... it is simply void of a realistic view of internet porn.

Finally, I talk about ICANN. They denied the idea of a .xxx because they feel that doing so would be a kind of over regulating the internet. They decided that doing this would control the information on the internet in a way that they thought was against the spirit of the internet. Frankly I agree with them. I think; considering their argument; that they made the right decision.

~Richard

Sorry for the delay

2007-01-22T23:45:00.000-05:00

I got off drill late Sunday. and I've been running around like crazy between this tech contract I got, and school. I should able to post come Wednesday... but I'll try for tomorrow. No promises however. Saturday I ought to be able to get a new video out.

~Richard

The tortoise and the hare

2007-01-19T18:25:00.000-05:00

When you stop to think about it. You can kind of think of Apple Inc. as a hare, they've taken over the portable music market and are speeding their way along to hit the cell phone/PDA market. But, they're little "uber-phone" will not be in stores for another 5 months.

Now to follow along with what analogy I think we can call LG something of a tortoise. They make nice phones, nothing really amazing. But then when Apple Inc. is taking it's nap, LG breaks to the front with the LG Prada.

Now the LG PRADA seen to the right. Is a nice looking phone. Like the Apple's iPod Phone it has no key pad. It runs entirely off the touch screen and what I believe to be three buttons at the respective bottom of the device. If you ask me it seems to be a nice device. It can play music, video; you can view many documents, and it has a flash based UI(User Interface). That cool if for nothing more then developers.

If you are so inclined, you might also want to take a look at www.lgpradaphone.com, there you may notice yet another slight contrast to Apple Inc. The site is all black, with white lettering, and shows only a white silhouette of the new phone.

All this said, I with LG the best of luck. They are up against some stark competition. But If it a good device; and the can drop the price soon(i.e. prior to the release of the iPod phone) they could gobble up a good part of the market.

As one last note. If anyone from LG sees this.. I would would be more then happy to write a review of this phone, all you need to do is send me the phone I will take care of the rest.

~Richard

Ice, ice, and a little more ice

2007-01-18T00:25:00.000-05:00

With this cold weather running across the nation I got thinking about people driving through this stuff(provided they find open roads to drive on). Then I got thinking about the things that a lot of people I know don't think do.. or maybe don't think of. So I've decided to post about my suggestions on things to have with you in the event you find yourself driving through this bad icy and cold weather. I realize that most people consider them selfs to be good drivers and figure they are safe no matter what, but shit happens. So please, if you've found this blog read on, it's possible it could help you some day.

The day pack and canteen you see to the left contains everything I'm going to talk about. I wanted to show that you do not need all that much stuff to make a big difference in the event something goes wrong on bad roads.

You might want to reference wilderness-survival.net and/or discovery channel survival website for additional info. This article is very brief and is in no way comprehensive, read more knowledge is power, and may mean life or death.

In that pack I've included:

A blanket
cold weather undergarments
2 pairs of socks
2 t-shirts
1 pair of jeans
1 towel
string(5-50 cord)
a pocket knife
a reflective vest
a poncho
1 pair of gloves
a folding shovel
a canteen(watter bottle works too)
2 energy bars(or ration bars)
a lighter
a whistle

This is in no way a complete list of everything you should bring with you. I'm sure many other people will think of all kinds of things that are useful. But I will spend some time to explain why I've added each of these items to my list.

The blanket, cold weather undergarments, pocket knife, spare cloths, gloves, poncho, canteen are all pretty self descriptive. I do want to make one special note on the poncho, it can keep you dry and help peed you warm, it can also be used to make a shelter if needed. The lighter is not good for heat, but could be used for light for a short time if necessary. It can also be used to start a fire.

A fire will probably be hard to build and really only necessary if for some reason you get separated from your vehicle or run out of fuel. To do this in a wet climate you'll need to find wood and cut off the out side, the inside of a dry branch tends to stay that way. The shovel can be used to dig to the ground and make a clearing for your fire. If necessary you can use the shovel to dig a snow cave...but I figure that is VERY unlikely.

The reflective vest can be tied to a something to help attract help your direction, or be worn if you end up walking. Again this is to help help see you. The whistle can be used to try and get the attention of someone. It's possible that some one could be near by and a good whistle(I recommend a fox 40) can be heard a long way away.

Well this is getting really long. Please post item suggestions or even uses for items. Every little bit helps.

~Richard

I want some juice!!

2007-01-16T18:49:00.000-05:00

Actually that should be spelled "Joost" pronounced "juiced". This is a project from the people who brought us skype.

Joost is meant to be an Internet based television service. Information is very limited right now, but with the spirit of skype I'm going to assume it will be free to users. To be really honest that's just about all I know about the program. I have applied to be a beta tester, so with any luck I'll get some real fresh info just for you.

But that, being as limited as it is brings me to another topic: internet-based TV. Personally, I really like the idea of Internet-based TV. My computer all ready provides me nearly all of my entertainment. It has taken the place of my radio, I get most of my news from CNN.com and google news, I watch or listen to a series of podcasts(I'm sorry netcasts) every week. It really is my source for nearly everything. Adding something more like what we would call TV to it just makes sense. Yes I know that television carriers are going to get up set because this means they stand to loose their market share. But they will still have my business as an ISP. It's not hard at all to ad a remote to a computer and running linux it's not even that hard to reduce the OS to serve just as a console for your TV, infact it's been done(almost). Take a quick look at geexbox.org, they have built a Linux distro that aims to turn a PC into Media Center. I could see something like Joost being added to the distro in the blink of an eye(and yes they are developing a Linux version). A small, quiet, stand alone PC connected to your TV, and connected to the Internet and that's all she wrote.

I must admit, I have several spare computers sitting around so for me adding a computer like that would be easy. If anyone is concerned about having a computer case sitting beside your computer don't worry. The ITX form factor(really small) has a series of cases designed for the purpose of looking nice beside a TV.

~Richard

A kidnapping in Missouri

2007-01-15T21:08:00.000-05:00

Four years ago, a Missouri man, allegedly kidnapped an 11 year old boy(Shawn Hornbeck). Four years later another child(William Ownby), this time 13 was kidnapped. On a tip from the second kidnapping the police found both boys. Their alleged captor, Michael Devlin is currently being held on $1,000,000 bail.

As fascinating as this case is with just the information that Shawn Hornbeck was held for four years; it is even more so(to many) because report indicate that he wasn't so much held. People then ask the question of why with his apparent ability to move around the neighborhood, interact with people, and possible Internet access: why didn't he try to get help, or at least run away. As horrible as the answer may be I think; given what I know; that it's fairly simple.

I see it like this. Upon Shawn Hornbeck's initial capture he was very likely 'held' along with keeping tight control over the child was something akin to a misinformation campaign. Michael, likely told the boy that his parents didn't want him; or that they were planning to hurt him. I think it's very likely he pitched himself as a hero, or savior for young Shawn. After time, Shawn developed Stockholm Syndrome. There is also a good possibility, that Michael threatened to hurt Shawn or his family if he left. But I consider the later to be somewhat unlikely as fear has a limited effect. But that fear with some sort of false cause may still have been able to induce a Stockholm Syndrome like effect.

Now, that is a strong speculation. I am very interested to see how this actually plays out. I am sure that brain washing, Stockholm Syndrome, and likely other various psychological conditions were put to work by the capture, I cannot be sure if this was his plan or if he just dumbly stumbled upon these adverse effects.

You can find more information about Stockholm Syndrome at here. Please take some time to read it, it's an excellent post.

~Richard

Apple iPhone skins... a no-no?

2007-01-15T01:23:00.000-05:00

Apple, who still cannot call it's device an iPhone is already suing people. As it turns out some trendy coders have developed iPhone skins that can run on existing pocketPCs. Not only is Apple attacking the people producing these clones of their copyrighted icons it seems they are attacking bloggers who report about and link to the sites doing such things.

Attacking the producers I can understand, it might even be fair. Although, given legal happenings with cisco I think Apple Inc. may stretch it's budget a little thin. Further, I don't know if it's necessary. I would think skin clones like these would be excellent viral marketing for the new product. Apparently Apple disagrees.

The thing really upsetting people is that Apple is telling bloggers to remove links to the sites that host the cloned iPhone skins. That is just crazy. As bloggers we write, talk, discuss anything; that is just what we do. Doing what they are doing will mean that instead of bloggers talking about a clone the iPhone skin we are going to talk about Apple attacking us for talking about the clone iPhone skins. Are they asking for bad publicity? I just can't understand this... I am beginning to fear that Steve Jobs is going crazy or has developed megalomania over the recent boom in his company.

~Richard

Richard-Speaks Video: Jan 13 2007

2007-01-14T00:46:00.000-05:00

I had to shorten this alot so it's a little(a lot) choppy. Next week I'll plan it better. Please let me know what you think of the new format. And please tell your friends about me.

Please check out the following links, as they were kind enough to stop by and let me know what they think.

~Richard

Lance Armstong, is he confused or something?

2007-01-13T00:04:00.000-05:00

Lance Armstrong is fighting for more cancer funding from the federal government. Why, because it's a leading cause of death and needs to be stopped. But, lets spend a moment to think about this. The federal Government provides more then 5 billion dollars to cancer research every year, it also provides more then 2 billion to cardiovascular disease. Another point to consider is that cardiovascular disease has nearly twice the mortality rate as does cancer.

Now when I stop and think about this, his approach seems slightly self-centered. If more funding should be going anywhere it should be going to cardiovascular disease. Cancer has half the mortality rate and twice the funding.. that seems slightly unbalanced to say the least. And please don't get me wrong I understand that living with cancer sucks. But, save me emotional appeals, and spare me the sob stories. The fact is that cardiovascular disease is a far worse killer then is cancer. I know I sound cold, and callous but, understand I try to be a rational and logical person. The facts as I've seen them support the conclusion that cardiovascular disease needs attention if any medical condition does.

I feel that Lance Armstrong's actions here are pompous and self centered. He really needs to take a step back and look past himself and see the rest of the world. In any debate or plea it is very important to remain objective and to keep your emotions out of the equation(and yes I understand that that can be hard). So please if ever you(Lance) read this consider the facts, not your desires.

~Richard

The Duke "rape" case: My views

2007-01-12T21:54:00.000-05:00

I first want to say, that my opinions of this are perhaps upsetting to some. For that I am sorry. If you feel I am being harsh or heartless I am sorry. In the previously mentioned case feel free to not read Richard-Speaks.

I was in South Korea when this story broke, so I was a little slow getting in on it. As I recall the first thing I heard of this was after no DNA matches to the Duke players were found on this victim. Further I recall a time when four lacrosse players had raped her, then it turned to three, now non of them raped her, and they are apparently being charged with sexual assault. I'm sorry allow me clarify, the three that had previously raped her as I understand it that fourth guy is still innocent. If I got part of this wrong please let me know, I'd hate to speak(or type) in error.

Now when I first saw this I called bullshit. I think that may be due to lack of physical evidence, most notably DNA. With the turn around today, the DA requesting to leave the case. I would say that this little fallacy that has gone on for so long is nearing it's end. I see no substantial evidence demonstrating the guilt of these boys. In truth I cannot even think of superficial evidence short of her ever changing testimony. I fell that this whole story was fabricated, or at least exaggerated.

There is also another part of this case that is bothering me. The claim is four; I'm sorry three, males raped one female. That is the claim, the entire clam. We cannot say anything was racially motivated until we prove that something has taken place. ONE STEP AT A TIME! All of these people who may be making claims that this was a racially motivated rape, are clearly incorrect, because their was; given the current evidence; no rape to be racially motivated. I am sick and tired of seeing clear and blatant appeals to emotion broadcast across the nation, as though that is a correct way to approach a legal case. In logic we refer to an appeal to emotion as a fallacy, why? Simple, because it leads people to create false truths... One more thing on appeal to emotion, I dislike seeing or hearing about lawyers and attorneys using appeals to emotion to "re-enforce" their case. I know these people have studied logic, and more of it then I have. And personally I find it despicable they are willing to break into emotional rants, with they KNOW to be fallacious in order to influence a jury. A jury that very likely has not been exposed to such things as formal logic.

~Richard

Battle of the iPhones

2007-01-11T19:55:00.000-05:00

I first off would like to point out I was right. This did in fact break into a huge mess.

Right now have no idea what Apple is planning to do, I do not understand under what pretense they are attempting to argue their rights to the name "iPhone" and I sure have no idea why they think this course of action would be a good idea. As I understand, Cisco has had the trademark since 2000, Apple asked to use it; Cisco said that so long as the devices are designed to communicate with each other they are fine with that. It seems Apple did not like this idea. Then decided to slap Cisco in the face and use the name anyway.

I realize that it takes a lot of balls to slap the highest valued company in Silicon Valley (Cisco; $174billion AP) in the face. But it doesn't make you cool, and when you are clearly wrong it only makes you stupid! Apple, you need to stop!

I must admit that I liked Apple, I thought they were a decent company and decent products. Over priced but decent. Apple was that benevolent business that left others alone, while it enjoyed it's little corner of the market. Now, on the other hand. They seem to have gotten a big head. And as big as their head my have gotten I really don't think that even that mouth can chew what they just bit off.

I think this one will be fun to follow....

~Richard

Scandisk had a thought.

2007-01-11T01:26:00.000-05:00

Scandisk, a very popular maker of USB thumb drives, and other flash memory devices; had a great idea about home entertainment integration, Bits called this idea "Sneakernet TV". They are very correct from what I've read this a large flash disk(2 to 8 GB)and a special cradle that connects to your TV. you simply download a video/movie file to the flash disk, drop it in the cradle and that's it your movie plays. I guess it's a neat idea, but I can easily do that same thing by just connecting my laptop to my TV. If I didn't have a laptop I could see this being useful.

But then there is the question of DRM support. I think it's nice that the cradle apparently plays what ever video file is on the disk, but will it have DRM support. I'd hate to but an iTunes movie, or a Zune movie and be unable to play it.

But that's just a thought.

~Richard

War Machine mark 2

2007-01-10T16:03:00.000-05:00

From what I can tell at 8pm tonight Pres. Bush will address the nation about his new plan for Iraq and explain the increase of troop numbers, and of course the change in roles of U.S. forces.

We will be creating a Iraqi lead attack plan as we fill a 'support role'; does this sound familiar to you? It does me. As part of taking more of a support role we apparently need more troops; 21,000 to 22,000. From what I'm told that makes sense; but that's just what I'm told. I think that all of this avoids one very real, and very serious problem: sectarian violence.

The Sunni and Sheite populations within Iraq refuse to not fight each other. Why? I have no idea. The core dispute between Sunnis and Sheites is the question of who exactly was Muhammad's successors. I think that is pathetic, now not to be misunderstood I think that any dispute based on religion is fucking retarded!(yes friends that includes EVERY religious conflict) So the problem is that, these Iraqis do not think in terms of their nation, they think in terms of a religion. A religion that, as they use it, will never allow for peace. But I digress, my point is this: no matter how much money we throw at Iraq, or how many American lives we let it take; we cannot stop the violence until they choose to stop the violence.

~Richard

Keith Ellison and Virgil Goode

2007-01-10T00:17:00.000-05:00

I know this has been hacked to death but I must voice my opinion.

Keith Ellison swore into his office on the Koran; the text that forms his religion. Virgil Goode, I assume, used the bible; the text that forms his religion. To me this all is fine.. in fact not even worth a mention. Until I discovered that Virgil Goode is a jackass. Virgil Goode has swore to uphold our constitution, and I as a citizen expect him to do that. If he makes a decision to not uphold the constitution I expect him to be removed from office... positions of this caliber should not get second chances!! They know the doctrine we live by.. they make it!

I am glad Keith Ellison is handling this the way he is, I commend him for it. Virgil Goode on the other hand, has conscientiously chosen to not support the doctrine he swore to up hold; I think something must be done. No one can pick and choose the laws they live by, but he did choose to up hold a constitution allowing freedom of religion, affording all religions equal recognition. He chose too, then, apparently changed his mind. To me that says he chooses to not hold his office any longer!

~Richard

iPhone... iPhones?

2007-01-09T17:50:00.000-05:00

Apparently their is a problem with the iPhone. In that I thought it was an Apple product, however, it seems to be a Linksys product. A Linksys product to which they have held the trademark on it's branding(iPhone) for some time(since 1996). So as it turns out Apple's iPhone is not an iPhone. I have heard it referred to it as an 'iPod Phone' so perhaps they will re-brand it as such. Perhaps a horrible series of trite legal actions will follow.. Who am I to know(I just read about this stuff).

But I will say this, Cisco(parent company of linksys) has held that trademark for several years. I say Apple has no way of arguing that they should be granted use of that trademark... Therefore Apple will(or at least should) re-brand the product. I understand they are on this huge i-'everything-in-the-kitchen' kick but I'm sorry I can see no compelling argument from Apple. I wish I had more to say on this because I feel this is going to blowup; but to me it seems pretty open-and-shut.

~Richard

Zenwalk 4.2, another step

2007-01-08T00:34:00.000-05:00

On Jan 6th(I'm pretty sure) Zenwalk 4.2 was released. For anybody who missed the other post, Zenwalk is a Linux distribution and at present my running favorite.

Any how. I've just finished upgrading my desktop and getting my laptop running Zenwalk 4.2. The new release is great, it's updated most of the system, a new x server is running, some updates to XFCE, and a plethora of other really cool things have been done. My only serious complaint is that Open Office is not installed by default, that's not a huge problem as they carry it in their package repos. It's just a pet peeve(is that the correct spelling?) of mine. Also it cannot recognize the WiFi card on my compaq laptop, but then I haven't seen a distro yet that can handle that damn card.

So I want to say this: Zenwalk runs fast and light, it's easy to install and configure, and just about every software package you might want is included or in their repos. So if you are in the market for a new OS, or just feel like trying something new run over to www.zenwalk.org and see what they can offer you.

~Richard

VLOG-06: Speakers and Power

2006-12-16T18:00:00.000-05:00

This is my first video since my return to the good ol' USA. The production is slightly different, post-production took longer then I thought it would so I had to cut it short. I talk about converting my 220v speaker I bought in South Korea to 120v speakers for use at home. Also I finally get a bench power supply constructed and working. I'm sure it will spawn more videos all by its self.

~Richard

I have achieved Zen...

2006-12-05T23:32:00.000-05:00

Well maybe not so much achieved Zen as I installed Zenwalk Linux on my computer. The distro installed wonderfully and runs very smoothly. But the distro is Slackware based, so getting everything I wanted installed was a little harder then it needed to be. Eventually I tracked down Slackmatic and slackbuilds.org and everything went fine from there. One note however on slackbuilds.org I did need to get rpm2cpio. Which is not hard to find just google it if you need it.

All in all I really like this distro. It runs the very light XFCE window manager, the GRUB boot loader is working perfectly(I dual boot WinXP), and all my hardware has installed fine(well except a legacy real magic mpeg2 decoder card I have, but nothing has ran that yet). I would not suggest this for those new to linux. I did need to spend some time in bash to get it all just the way I wanted it. But if you've been using linux for a while and feel fine with bash I'd suggest it for a test drive.

~Richard

The Delay...

2006-11-29T00:58:00.000-05:00

I know it's been a while but I'm just moved back from Korea just a few weeks ago and all of my stuff is still is transit to me. The day I get my stuff I will be sure to get you all a new video, and at the same time if all goes well I plan to start a new campaign to get more viewers and readers.

~Richard

VLog_Update

2006-10-21T03:21:00.000-04:00

In this, episode 5 of Richard Speaks I talk about podcasts and how they help me out as well some mention some of my favorites. I also briefly explain the changes to my "VLOGing rig".

~Richard

Denzel Washington...update

2006-09-20T05:41:00.000-04:00

Well as it turns out the events described in the e-mail did not happen. It is true however that he did tour the houses and months later he made a donation, however the amount was never released.

So it was a lie; but the point of the previous post remains. If we can focus on the good things happening perhaps people will be able to see past all the bad stuff that's happening. But that's just a thought.

~Richard

What's in the news....

2006-09-20T05:22:00.000-04:00

Today I've received an e-mail from a friend who is deployed to Iraq. The e-mail explained that Denzel Washington had visited the Brooks Army Medical Center in San Antonio TX. While there he was taken on a tour and in said tour was shown one of the fisher houses. The fisher houses serve as low cost hotels for military families with loved ones in the medical center. There are several of the fisher houses however are filled up rather often. The story went on to say(though I have yet to confirm this) that Denzel Washington; after seeing the houses; paid in full on the spot to build another one.

I hope this story is true, and I hope someone can site a reliable source for it so I can post it here. In a world where war protesters, and activists clog every facet of the public media something like this has been(if true) completely passed over. That quite simply should not happen. People are trying to help people, if you like the way it's done or not that's what is happening. All those people having protests, and activities bitching and whining are not helping anyone. For example, that crazy bitch(I wish I had a more insulting term there) from Iowa that took her "church" to protest the funerals of soldiers... she was hurting people. And personally I feel should be arrested, or slapped, or [insert insulting or mean thing here].

We should focus on the good, talk about the good; because the way you talk changes the way you think. And maybe, just maybe if the good things were seen some of these ignorant protests would stop and my fallen comrades in arms can rest in peace.

~Richard

9/11

2006-09-11T03:09:00.000-04:00

In this episode of Richard Speaks I talk about 9/11 and the politics that surround it. As I firmly feel that politics should not be using 9/11 in the ways that they seem to be.

~Richard

Camera Problems Update...

2006-09-07T09:27:00.001-04:00

Just a quick update. I've established that my new vlogging software and my camera don't get along all that well. I'll be trying some tricks over the next few days and searching various websites in hopes I'll be able to find a solution.

~Richard

Camera Problems

2006-09-07T06:58:00.000-04:00

I'm currently having some complications with my Web Cam. I'm searching the logitech site for a solution to the problem. Once I get the camera back up I'll have a new vlog out with a brand new look. Hopefully I can get this problem corrected quickly. Until then however feel free to check out my other blog at richard-thinks.blogspot.com there I'll be posting about philosophy and my views on how the world might work. Let me know what you think.

Again I'll try to get my camera working as soon as I can, I have a great vlog with a new layout I can't wait to show off.

~Richard

Do-It-Yourself

2006-08-27T10:26:00.000-04:00

I realize I said that this would be for my VLOGs. But I did mention that I may throw in a text log everyonce in while.. so you can't yell too much. Any how on to what I was writing about.

The DIY or do-it-yourself movement. It's not really a movement as people have always done things them selfs but, there is growing support for the "amature" do-it-yourself-ers out there. Websites like inventgeek.com, hack-a-day.com, and instructables.com are just a few examples of the web sites out there dediated to showing others how to do things them selfs with a plethora of tutorials and step-by-step instructions on everything from cooking, to building beds, modding computers, and the list goes on forever.

But what caught my attention was a tutorial I came accross for building a submersible case for a video camera. The project as a whole ended up costing something like $80-100 but really that's not much. Another tutorial I found rather intresting was for making or own video projector for a home theater(a long held dream of mine) for just about $200. Now I realize that come November when I finally make it home that I'm going to be rather busy BUT after life calms down and I get setteled, these things might be fun to do. I mean spending my money to build things I can use seems far better then spending my money on beer.

~Richard

Illegal Immigration

2006-08-22T10:33:00.000-04:00


I talk about illegal Immigration and why it is infact called illegal immigration.

FX Show

2006-08-21T23:58:00.000-04:00


My first attempts with video effects. I rotoscoped these with GIMP-GAP, the stuff is not all that great but it was a good learning expirence.

Freecycle

2006-08-21T23:57:00.000-04:00


The second instalment of "Richard Speaks". Here I talk about Freecycle and why I like.

A VLOG about VLOGs

2006-08-21T23:41:00.000-04:00


Here I talk about why I've started vlogging, and how I do it... although my equipment has already improved.

2006-08-21T11:50:00.000-04:00

Well, I've just got this up and running. I plan on using this to keep all my VLOGS and perhaps a text log every once in a while. If you've found this I hope you enjoy.

~Richard