I've finally taken the plunge and decided to upgrade from WinXP Pro to Windows Vista. Yesterday, I went down to the university bookstore and grabbed a student copy in the Home Premium flavor.
I have built my own boxes since the early days of the Pentium. In fact, my first hand-built box was a 100mhz Pentium 1 with a whopping 32MB of ram and a (gasp) 1GB hard drive. Over this time, I've installed every OS one can think of from OS2 to DOS to every windows OS under the sun.
My migration to windows Vista was the easiest OS install I've ever done. My raid drives, Inet sharing server, dual video, motherboard devices, everything had the latest drivers automatically installed and worked! I'm impressed! The eye candy is kind of nice too, even though I will probably turn most of it off eventually to squeeze out a few more cpu cycles. I'm really digging the widget panel and love the desktop RSS feeds.
I'll keep you posted on more developments.
-- Dave
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
Enemy on US Soil
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran is going to be giving a talk and taking questions from students and media at Columbia University in a short while. The President has also made a request to place a wreath at ground zero, a request that has been denied.
There are many critics that don't want President Ahmadinejad to set foot on US soil. The detractors claim that its disrespectful to all the people who died on 9/11 to provide a forum to a state sponsor of terrorist activity.
I understand the feelings. Clearly, the Iranian president is playing a shrewd political game. At the same time, I think it's important that we not allow Iran to vilify the US by making us look hateful. The wise man said, "keep your friends close and your enemies closer." There is no harm in allowing President Ahmadinejad the opportunity to speak. In fact, it gives us the opportunity to put difficult questions to the Iranian president in a free-speech forum.
As far as allowing President Ahmadinejad to place a wreath at ground zero, I think we should have let him do so. He will, of course, use the gesture to claim that he is not a terrorist sponsor while giving comfort and aid to those he condemns, but it shows that we are not going to be spiteful about the whole matter. Politically, our response should be of reasoned retribution, both to deter future attacks and to deal "justice to the lawless." By getting all uptight about letting President Ahmadinejad see ground zero, we are playing into his propaganda machine. He will say we are waging a war of vengeance based on hate.
In situations such as this, where the game is about perceptions, I feel its best to figure out the course that minimizes your opponent's ability to grandstand while claming the higher moral ground. This is especially true when the opponent is a mortal enemy you are bent on destroying.
David
There are many critics that don't want President Ahmadinejad to set foot on US soil. The detractors claim that its disrespectful to all the people who died on 9/11 to provide a forum to a state sponsor of terrorist activity.
I understand the feelings. Clearly, the Iranian president is playing a shrewd political game. At the same time, I think it's important that we not allow Iran to vilify the US by making us look hateful. The wise man said, "keep your friends close and your enemies closer." There is no harm in allowing President Ahmadinejad the opportunity to speak. In fact, it gives us the opportunity to put difficult questions to the Iranian president in a free-speech forum.
As far as allowing President Ahmadinejad to place a wreath at ground zero, I think we should have let him do so. He will, of course, use the gesture to claim that he is not a terrorist sponsor while giving comfort and aid to those he condemns, but it shows that we are not going to be spiteful about the whole matter. Politically, our response should be of reasoned retribution, both to deter future attacks and to deal "justice to the lawless." By getting all uptight about letting President Ahmadinejad see ground zero, we are playing into his propaganda machine. He will say we are waging a war of vengeance based on hate.
In situations such as this, where the game is about perceptions, I feel its best to figure out the course that minimizes your opponent's ability to grandstand while claming the higher moral ground. This is especially true when the opponent is a mortal enemy you are bent on destroying.
David
Saturday, September 22, 2007
First Post
Well, this is my first post. I'm thinking that this blog will be a nice place to organize my thoughts and ideas regarding various geopolitical issue, a record of various happenings in my life, and a place to rant.
Stay tuned for more!
Dave
Stay tuned for more!
Dave
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)