Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/11/16/hello-world/
Back … online … at least at work.
The new company is a bit thrifty, and I have had much to learn, so it is only in the past few hours that I have a graphical web browser at my disposal. On a nice nice laptop. DSL arrives at home in the next two weeks. I’ll have 6Mb down! Dang!
But now it is time to head home and see if I can get online via modem there. Darned apartment doesn’t have any jacks wired up to SBC.
For the most part though, these past several days have been wonderful!
-danny
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/11/03/last-election-thread/
As posted by me an a mailing list:
I really liked Kerry. I think he is a great leader, but he failed to
pick a message and stick to it, which is what Bush did. Bush also tried
to paint Kerry as an unprincipled flip-flopper, and because Kerry kept
changing his motto, it kind of worked.
I like Kerry because I read a lot about him, most notably a long article
in the New Yorker. But then, when you’re trying for mass appeal, that’s
not the way to get it.
People like Bush becuase if nothing else, he is a known quantity who
doesn’t seem to waste his time trying to be agreeable. That’s why
Howard Dean was so sexy. But the candidate was picked by mild-mannered
midwestern folk scared of offending rednecks with the hint of a
possibility of civil unions, which Americans don’t really object to.*
And for a while, as it came down to the wire, back in Iowa again, of all
places, Kerry’s careful strategy of inoffensive inclusiveness seemed
like it would work. Except that there is a lot of uncertainty these
days, and Americans admire some certainty, even if it is a touch
dishonest and dumb.
And its not a post-9/11 mentality. Bob Dole ran the same way against
playboy Bill Clinton. It might have worked but Dole was so careful not
to show too much enthusiasm that Americans stuck with their dishonest
sex fiend of a Commander in Chief. John Kerry is George Bush’s Bob
Dole. It makes me sad.
-danny
* Polls would seem to indicate that Americans don’t want gays getting “married” but that they should have the rights that married people have. Taking a principled stand against defining marriage as anything, even arguing that it is best left to people’s churchs, and the states can move more toward legal licensing . . . I think that is the right solution. But Democrats, unlike Republicans, are too cowardly to challenge popular opinion.
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/11/03/four-more-years/
As seen on IRC, Kerry Calls Bush To Concede.
Personally, I would wait until all those provisional ballots in Ohio were counted . . . I have been trying to get to grips with this. I was really upset at first, but the United States has a long history of being slow to get its shit together in times of change. Our challenge now will be to figure out how to engineer a better Democratic Party.
But my challenges right now have to do with backing up data and altering messed up tables in our ticketing system.
There goes safe, legal abortions, the environment, any hopes of health care. The national debt will balloon, and taxation will be shifted even more on to poor people. We will probably be hit by Terrorists again, because we are neglecting our National Security in the interests of looking tough and taking the easy reactionary path . . .
But like I said, my more pressing problems today are more virtual that all of that.
Feedback Welcome
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/11/02/early-election-night/
It is so exciting to watch the votes roll in. I actually had a hard time working today because, frankly, I am just really really excited.
Good web sites for watching results:
- CNN — Quickest results.
- Yahoo — Nearly as quick as CNN, more links.
- BBC — Very pretty, but slowest.
Yayoi’s off with the Christians. We had pita for dinner and I’m stuffed now after corn on a stick, with hot hot chili powder! Ouch!
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/11/02/voting-illinois/
I couldn’t sleep this morning, but I still managed to stay in bed. I thought the polls opened at 7, but they actually open at 6, so I should have gotten up, but hey.
Yayoi walked me to the polls. She wishes she could vote too, but we’ll be happy enough when she gets her Green Card. We do punch cards here, which is fine with me. At the end you put your punch card in a computer which checks that you voted the right number of times for each office. Last time I skipped all the “vote yes or no on judges” and other elections I know nothing about, and had to reassure the guy that I intentionally voted as an “undercount.” This time, just to reassure us all, I voted Democrat on everything, and said “yes” retain all the judges. For such an important election, it is nice to please the computer. All the same, I verified nice clean holes on 4 and 16, Kerry and Obama, respectively.
Down in Urbana, Tim, like me, had merely to sign his name and be handed a ballot. But he also had to help his first-time voter friend past some election judge shenanigans at Daniels Hall.
“She’s a student voter; for various reasons, students are held to a higher standard to prove that they’re eligible to vote. Bringing a photo ID and proof of address is the rule of the day; this is supposed to discourage voter fraud, in some nebulous way that only applies to student (read: Democrat) voters.”
Long story short, Tim had to call someone who called a lawyer who verified that yes, a credit card bill works as a utility bill. Tim is far more stubborn than most folks. I’m glad he fought and won, but I’d be more glad if he didn’t have to fight.
1 Comment
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/10/29/four-more-days/
It just occurred to me . . .
FOUR MORE DAYS!
FOUR MORE DAYS!!
FOUR MORE DAYS!!!
. . . and if that dork does get re-elected, I can flee to Japan now. :)
And, per an e-mail from John Kerry, I send him some dough.
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/10/27/george-bushs-next-job/
<junta> Baer has come up with the perfect answer: “like all confused job
seekers, Bush should follow his passion, which is clearly bringing
freedom and democracy to Iraq. That is why if John Kerry is elected
president, he should appoint Bush to be his ambassador to Iraq.”
Well, I got a chuckle out of that.
3 Comments
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/10/27/unix-viz-good/
Unix people tend to be comfortable in their non-visual command-line world. But sometimes a picture says an awful lot:

Read that as “around 11:40, someone sent a mass e-mail through the server. It took twenty minutes to process, peaking at 916 deliveries per minute.”
What’s more, the vast majority of the deliveries were successful, and some failed. That looks like a legitimate bulk mailing to a fairly well-maintained list, and not some random virus or brute-force spam attempt. Server resources are not being wasted on nonsense.
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/10/18/yuppies-versus-hooligans/
I was brought up to believe that gentrification is kind of a sad thing. The old-time working class families are pushed out by young, clean-cut, materialistic people who don’t know how to keep it real.
Brian told me there was another car fire this Saturday by Ekhart Park. I made a Republican face and said “Mark my words — we will gentrify you out of this neighborhood! You can run, but you can’t hide. Your people will be moved out beyond Aurora!” (more…)
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/10/15/au-revoir-dannylandorg/
[English version available further below]
Cher client,
Vous recevez ce message car vous êtes contact des domaines listés
ci-dessous (voir tout en bas de ce message).
Ces domaines sont arrivés à échéance il y a 30 jours et aucun payement
n'a eu lieu pour leur renouvellement.
Aussi, ces domaines viennent d'être définitivement détruits, et sont
donc maintenant disponibles à l'enregistrement au public.
Merci d'avoir utilisé nos services.
========================================================================
Dear client,
You are receiving this email because you are contact of the
domains listed below.
Your domains have expired 30 days ago and no payment has been received
for their renewal.
Thus these domains have been definitively destroyed and are now
available again for anyone to register.
Thank you for using our services.
=================================================================
Liste de vos domaines / List of your domains:
Expiration Creation Domain(e)
2004-09-15 04:00:00 1996-09-16 00:00:00 DANNYLAND.ORG
--
Gandi
http://www.gandi.net/
My incoming spam has been reduced considerably in the past month.
But 1996 is pretty respectable for a domain name. :)
1 Comment
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/10/12/dumbest-update-ever/
Dumbest Update Ever, brought to you by Microsoft.
Apparently, NT will have trouble if it is installed on a disk that is too large, or, it’ll just completely lose its nut at a date in the future, when a Microsoft update will destroy the ability of the system to function, without wiping and reinstalling it. (more…)
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/09/30/35-children/
From Yahoo, Baghdad Bombings Kill 35 Children.
Thirty five children and seven adults were killed by a car bomber as American soldiers passed out candy to kids during the unveiling ceremony of a sewage treatment plant.
“We hate Americans! We hate candy! We hate sewage treatment! We hate children!”
You know, I never thought I’d say this, but “Dammit, that bullshit better be all over Al Jazeera.” If they’re going to cover American atrocities from stray smart bombs, they sure as hell better carry insurgent atrocities from stray dumb bombers.
The explosions killed 42 people and wounded 141, including 10 U.S. soldiers. The wounded included 72 children under the age of 14, said Dr. Mohammed Salaheddin.
Taking pot shots at American soldiers and beheading contractors, that can all sort of be rationalized, but driving a car bomb in to a crowd of your own children!
The only way that kind of loss can make any sense is if the disgust that people feels somehow helps slow down the violence so the Iraqis can get on their way through the elections, and come up with some sort of decent government that can get the Americans to go home.
This is just disgusting. This is 9/11 style terrorism that reminds us all why we are all opposed to murdering religious fanatics. Just as 9/11 spelled the end of the Taliban, I hope this spells then end of some of the bullshit being perpetrated in the name of Islam.
We may think Bush is inept, but he picks enemies with even less finesse.
1 Comment
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/09/29/daily-show-uber-alles/
If you are a fan of Jon Stewart, then this is the best article ever. It turns out, according to an Annenberg survey, that viewers of the “Daily Show” are better-informed on election issues than people who read newspapers four days a week.
60 percent of “Daily Show” viewers answered all six questions correctly. Just 42 percent of those who read a newspaper four days a week aced the test. Only 40 percent of those who watch network news four days a week got every answer right.
(more…)
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/09/28/bush-as-dean/
You know everybody is sort of slowly accepting that maybe George Bush will get re-elected after all, and they might as well plan for another four years of darkness and incompetence. I don’t feel that way.
A month before the Iowa primaries Kerry looked like a pathetic loser unable to compete with the tough, say-it-like-it-is Howard Dean. Dean looked unstoppable, and inevitable, while Kerry looked doomed to a normal life. Dean is now a footnote. (more…)
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Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2004/09/21/soldiers-prefer-john-kerry/
A good read from The Christian Science Monitor:
“9 out of 10 of the people I talk to, it wouldn’t matter who ran against Bush – they’d vote for them,” said a US soldier in the southern city of Najaf, “people are so fed up with Iraq, and fed up with Bush.”
(more…)
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