dannyman.toldme.com

Yahoo! Collaboration with Chinese Government

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2006/02/04/boycott-yahoo/

I wrote a letter to Yahoo! today. I am curious what answer I will get:

Hello,

I live in the Bay Area. I have friends who work At Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft. I am a big Google fan, but I am also all about Flickr!. I purchased an account even before Yahoo! bought them and have since written a Flickr plugin. I have followed the recent controversey over google.cn’s launch, and I have come to the conclusion that Google is doing the right thing:

• They will openly censor searches in accordance with Chinese law.
• They will not offer services that would put them in a position to compromise privacy: mail, blogs.

I have heard press reports that Yahoo! and MSN have cooperated with the Chinese government to reveal the identity of Chinese Bloggers, and have them arrested. This is wrong. And as a user, as someone who pays Yahoo! … I want to know, what are you guys doing about free speech in China? Wouldn’t you agree that disengagement in business activity that leaves you involved in arresting people is the way to go? What is Yahoo! going to do?

Do I need to stop using Flickr if I want to feel good about using the Internet? Do I need to encourage others to boycott Yahoo!, as consumers once boycotted companies engaged in human rights violations in South Africa?

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
-danny

Perhaps, you too, should contact Yahoo!, or perhaps Microsoft, to express your concerns. I will post any reply I receive here.

-danny

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Screw Off, Fanatics!

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2006/02/03/danish-mohammed-cartoons/

You know . . . there are a lot of ignorant religious fanatics in this world. Our country has its share, but Islam . . . well, the mullahs and their Western allies have been doing what they can to maintain power and obtain cheap oil by keeping their people ignorant.

And, in the Western cultures . . . we spend our time writing a lot of silly things, and drawing silly things, and we have a hard time getting anyone to take us seriously.

So, when some Danish paper publishes a set of dumb cartoons, and contends with death threats, and now a bunch of fools threatening to boycott Danish products, well, I feel like I want to do some small thing. (more…)

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DST Productivity Drain

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2006/01/23/daylight-saving-sucks/

I am one of those contrarian freaks who despises Daylight Saving Time, regarding it as a stupid fix to a problem that does not exist. You want more daylight after work? Set your alarm clock ahead and get to work an hour earlier! Don’t go changing my schedule . . .

Most people . . . normal people, don’t feel strongly about DST. “Yeah, it is annoying to change all my clocks twice a year, but then I don’t mind the extra daylight in the evening.” Of course, my last job I was working 7AM-3PM anyway, so I was saving Daylight . . .

So, enough bitching. Let’s talk turkey. Let’s talk Operational Qualification for third party auditing of a production database system. When I run the regression tests for PostgreSQL-7.4.8, the “horology” regression test fails. The README for this version reports that this may happen if you run on the day of DST switchover . . . or if your Operating System naively applies current DST rules retroactively. But, in my case? Huh, just don’t get it: (more…)

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The Terrorists Ate Our Balls

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2006/01/18/terrorists-ate-our-balls/

<SmooveB> <kyusaku> everson's constant: "for every subject X, there is 3
          geocities pages saying "X is Cool", 2 saying "X suX", and at least 1
          "X ate my balls."
<Tambreet> Am I reading this correctly?
<Tambreet> We are bowing to terrorist request and releasing the female Iraqi
           detainees (most of them at least)?
<recursive> are they hot?
<dman> huh?
<dman> Tam: ?
<jetfire> are the terrorists hot?
<jetfire> gee, not sure
* recursive asks the important questions
<Tambreet> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4624716.stm
<h4ck> awwh man, I might have to buy a mac just to use aperture
<[Ender]> I cannot find a "Chuck Norris Ate My Balls" page
* Tambreet can find a "Koffing Ate My Balls" page.
<TanAdept> Koffing!

So:

1. Chuck Norris ate my Balls. Not sure why, but Google needs to know!
2. Now that someone has won the War on Terrorism, I’d like to know what’s our peace dividend? National healthcare? Yeah, right.

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Happy 2006, Ukraine and Russia!

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2006/01/01/russia-ukraine-gas-war/

Map of Ukraine, from the CIA Factbook, via Wikipedia.

So, first thing I did in 2006 was sleep in late, see of Yayoi and our houseguest Miyuki, who are going to spend the day in San Francisco riding cables cars and stuff, and make some toast and coffee and check out the Internet. And what do I see? Well, I see . . . Russia accusing Ukraine of “stealing” gas. And I ask myself “ugh . . . is this saber-rattling before a war?”

My thinking goes like this:
– Ukraine is not in NATO, it is with Russia’s CIS.
– The CIS is dominated by Moscow.
– Gazprom is effectively an arm of the Russian government.
– The “Orange Revolution” is believed to be viewed as a threat by Putin.
– War over natural resources is a popular theme. Iraq accused Kuwait of stealing oil . . . (more…)

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Gilmore v. Gonzales

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/12/05/gilmore-v-gonzales/

If you are free to visit San Francisco on Thursday December 8, then this may be an interesting activity. Even if you can’t go to this thing, you may be interested in your freedom anyway:

On the 4th of July 2002, John Gilmore, American citizen, decided to take a trip from one part of the United States of America to another. He went to Oakland International Airport — ticket in hand — and was told he had to produce his ID if he wanted to travel. He asked to see the law demanding he show his ‘papers’ and was told after a time that the law was secret and no, he wouldn’t be allowed to read it.

He hasn’t flown in his own country since.

On December 8th 2005, oral arguments in Gilmore v. Gonzales will be heard before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. At stake is nothing less than the right of Americans to travel anonymously in their own country — and the exposure of ‘secret law’ for what it is: an abomination.

You may think he’s crazy, but it is good when people challenge the government–read more at http://papersplease.org/gilmore/facts.html.

Thanks, Jeff!

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“History aint Changed”

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/11/15/history-aint-changed/

The change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fold, that’s all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain’t changed

Remember how Iraq used to be run by a brutal tyrant who did nasty things to minority elements? Until American troops came in and liberated the place, and ran the jails, except after awhile the American troops got crazy again? (more…)

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Pro-Life?

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/11/14/pro-life/

“Ramatou Issoufou is lucky to be alive,” said Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times. I recently witnessed the 37-year-old Nigerian woman and her baby son survive a treacherous childbirth, after Issoufou nearly slipped into a coma from eclampsia, a complication of pregnancy that kills 50,000 women a year in the developing world. The maternity hospital where the birth took place was filthy, bug-ridden, and poorly equipped, and her husband had to pay $42 for an emergency surgical kit supplied by the U.N. Population Fund. Thanks to that effort, “two more lives” were saved. But last month, President Bush cut off U.S. contributions to the fund, due to pressure from Christian conservatives. They don’t like the U.N. agency because it promotes contraception. They also object to the fact that the Population Fund operates in China, which has an appalling policy of forced sterilizations and abortions. But the Population Fund has been pressuring China to end the coercion, and besides, “the solution isn’t to let African women die.”

Every year, more than 500,000 women die worldwide during pregnancy and childbirth. Through both contraception and medical supplies, the Population Fund is making a dent in that appalling statistic, but each day, hundreds of women perish because it can’t do more. “Call me naive, but I think if Mr. Bush came here and saw women dying as a consequence of his confused policy, he would relent.” Surely, letting women die isn’t what America stands for.

Nicholas Kristof
The New York Times
The Week, November 4, 2005

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Comptroller?

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/11/02/comptroller/

So, I’m not looking at the blogs so much lately, but sometimes after I sublimate the animosity I’m feeling at a vendor into a very polite “but I need you guys to stop screwing me or else” missive I need a little chill.

The Banterist delivered giggles. You don’t have to live in New York City, I certainly don’t, to deeply appreciate and giggle heartily at this:

Superficial Voter’s Guide – NYC 2005

It’s fricking hilarious because . . . well, at least my mind works that way, especially when you ask yourself “Comptroller? What’s that? I have to pick one?”

Frazz induced a grin a well.

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Martin Luther King Quotes

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/10/19/martin-luther-king-quotes/

We happened by the Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco this weekend, visited the Zeum, which was cool, and caught the Wallace and Gromit movie, which rocked, and also checked out this cool monument to Martin Luther King, and brought back some good words that seem to apply to the present day: (more…)

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Buncha Squares

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/09/26/buncha-squares/

Man, it is one thing when the media flame the powers that be, but I think it is a bit more tasty when people flame those of us who may well be reading. My first taste is from David Denby, in the September 26 New Yorker magazine:

Movie taste has turned very square in this country, and I don’t know if audiences are prepared to accept a shitheel as a hero. “Lord of War” tells you why intelligent people may enjoy doing evil things, and it lets you in on the fun. It has been made without hypocrisy . . .

My, such potty-mouthed writing in The New Yorker! But for the proper lashing we turn to a local independent, The Wave magazine, which feature’s Seanbaby’s “The Final Last Word” in the September 21 issue: (more…)

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Jesus McChrist Writes Back

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/09/16/pledge-of-allegiance-under-god/

Well, they haven’t updated their website yet but the AFA are advocating that Congress pass a bill that reads:

S.1046 – The Pledge Protection Act of 2005 – reads as follows: ‘No court created by Act of Congress shall have any jurisdiction, and the Supreme Court shall have no appellate jurisdiction, to hear or decide any question pertaining to the interpretation of, or the validity under the Constitution of, the Pledge of Allegiance, as defined in section 4 of title 4, or its recitation.’

Now, while I can appreciate concern that some might have about “activist judges” this “activist legislative pre-judgement” or whatever you’d call it, uhmmm. Well, Jesus McChrist wrote them back: (more…)

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Not Voting Republican

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/09/08/not-voting-republican/

Well, just spent the better part of an hour bitching about skyrocketing health care costs, pitiful emergency response, and the over-extension of our military and falling recruitment with the boss and a coworker.

“Well, I guess I’m not voting Republican.”

We’re all non-Republicans to begin with, but I like to think some similar discussions are taking place around water coolers in Redder companies.

If nothing else, maybe the Democrats have something to work with?

God Bless America, we need it. At least we’re now getting assistance from Mexico.

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A Tale of Two Pictures

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/09/06/tale-two-pictures/

So, I got linked to Ray in Austin by Brett and Hiromi (NSFW). Ray is closer to the scene in New Orleans than we are, and I enjoyed scanning over his blog.

Two pictures that made an impact: (more…)

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“Global Warming” Elevator Pitch?

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/09/06/global-warming-elevator-pitch/

I keep getting this spam from relatives about how The Man is charging us too much for gas. Why, even $1.50/gallon is being overcharged! We should stop buying gas! Except, we can’t stop buying gas or how would we drive around? So, we’ll boycott different stations in turn . . . on every third Thursday, don’t buy gas from Chevron, etc.

And I wonder, please, let this be a tongue-in-cheek parody thing! Except, ah, we are Americans, and the people who send me this crap are well-intentioned consumer-advocatin’ types!

So, I wrote back, sort of a shorter version of my previous “America Hating” rant … keep it short, sell the point: Global Warming is Bad, Please Act Now. I wanted to convey that gas actually isn’t all that cheap, but not run it into a crazy-person rant. Here’s what I got: (more…)

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