On Megaupload

Bill Maher once joked about how churches don't pay taxes, yet they reap the benefits provided by tax-paying citizens. The example that he used was a fire, and his solution was for the church to pray for rain.

While incredibly funny, in light of the recent arrest of the people who run Megaupload, this is actually life that should be imitating art. The FBI flew to New Zealand, at the tax-payers expense. They flew back, with their prisoners, at the tax-payers expense. I'm pretty sure that all of the surveillance and investigatory work that they did that lead them to New Zealand was also paid for by tax-payers (in fact, I'm certain of it). Now that they are in custody, tax-payers are going to have to pay for the courts to unjustly try and convict them (did I mention that they were arrested in New Zealand for breaking a US law, which they may or may not have broken, but definitely did not do in the US of BS, which makes this a global case of harassment, but I'm getting ahead of myself). After convicting them, guess who has to pay for their imprisonment? You got it, tax-payers.

I know that this arrest is a direct result of the song that Megaupload released, that had Universal Music Group's artists endorsing Megaupload. I also know that UMG violated their agreement with Youtube when the pulled the song down (if they used the DCMA, they would have broken the law, because they don't hold the copyright, but I hope that twit.tv follows through because of the takedown of their news commentary about it). What I want to know is how much did UMG pay in taxes? I know that General Electric managed to make more in one year than I will make in my lifetime and get a tax rebate, while I had my bank account raided by New York State (thank you Emigrant, did I say thank you, I mean Fuck you!).

If the viewers of Fox News can ever manage to pull their heads our of their asses, I hope this is the first thing that they realize. They have enable a system that forces them to pay the salaries of law enforcement, who then go and enforce laws that benefit people that don't pay taxes. What the fuck? Why are they so opposed to feeding the hungry and providing housing to the homeless? GE and UMG can pay for their own best interests, so why don't we make them?

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Sam Adams Alpine Spring

It wasn't bad, but if I never have another one, I won't shed a tear.

Samuel Adams is known for having to truly horrible beers (Cranberry Lambic & Old Fezziwig) and the rest of their beers ranging from really good to fucking phenomenal. This one, however, is mediocre. It is described as "A Bright Citrusy Unfiltered Lager". Maybe it will taste better on a warm summer day, instead of on a snowy winter one, as that description seems to put it more in line with the Summer Ale and the Hefevizen (both of which get better as the temperature rises).

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Happy MLK Day!

In the true spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I was going to get attacked by police dogs and sprayed with firehoses, but given the sub-freezing temperatures, I will celebrate MLK day by being economically oppressed.

Thanks, New York State! I hope you needed the $964 more than I did. I could have paid a month's rent with it. What did you do with it?

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Brady 1 - God 0

I cannot believe that I was rooting for the Patriots in last night's game, but given Tim Tebow's flaunting of his religious beliefs and my disdain for them, Go Patriots!

Come next week, the Jets fan in me will be rooting for Baltimore (that's right, Baltimore is going to beat Houston).

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How much is this gonna cost?

So, the NYPD has shot yet another unarmed black man. What a surprise! I am going to buy a gun. Why? The reason is very simple, being unarmed around a cop is just too dangerous, especially if you are black.

I think I made my point, but please allow me to take this one off the rails, by applaudingthe PBA, who will inevitably come to the defense of another cop, while another black man gets buried for the crime of BBINYC (Being Black in New York City).

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Setting up a laptop for a child, Part 2

So, here is what I did:

I installed Qimo 4 Kids (based on Xubuntu's last LTS release), added some of the Debian Jr. packages, installed Dansguardian (web filtering), and removed PulseAudio (WTF, how does that crap end up in an LTS release). What Qimo 4 Kids comes with out of the box is exactly what I was looking for. I was, however, a bit surprised that Dansgaurdian wasn't included (I sent the developers an email explaining how simple it was for me to configure it, after about an hour of research). I ran into audio issues with Exaile (the included audio player), so I installed Clementine. The problem I had with Clementine was worse, so I sudo apt-get purged PulseAudio and both worked fine. Since I now had two audio players, I kept the one that I prefer, Clementine.

I also installed Windows Millenium Edition with a couple of games and programs in the same vein as Qimo 4 Kids (educational and entertaining), but in order to protect the child, I disabled the network card, thus rendering the Internet inaccessible. There Microsoft, I made your piece of crap operating system safe.

Since this is a dual-boot system, I had to configure Qimo 4 Kids to have all of the Pictures, Music, and Videos accessible in both OS's and in a familiar place, without using twice as much space, so I symlinked from the home folder to the Windows 'My Documents' folder.

All that is left is getting a small mouse, a simple 2 or 4 button gamepad, and some pretty covering (a black Thinkpad won't appeal to a 5 year old girl like a Butterfly-covered Thinkpad will).

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Fuck Cablevision!

My stepfather is upset. You see, he is a NY Rangers fan. Normally, when I see a Rangers fan in misery, I'm a happy guy (It's part of being an Islanders fan), but this time around, I am pissed. Why? Because the people that are making him miserable are the owners of the NY Rangers, Cablevision, and specifically the Dolan family.

Here is some backstory. The Dolan family owns both the New York Rangers and Cablevision (they may also own the Knicks, but basketball isn't a sport, and the Knicks aren't really a team). Cablevision is one of two cable provider in New York City; however, they do not compete with each other, as the city got divided up between the two, in pretty much the same way the five mafia families divided the city. Cablevision got the Bronx, much of, if not all of, Manhattan, and most of Brooklyn. Time Warner got Staten Island and Bay Ridge (a small part of Brooklyn, the pathetic part where we keep all of the cops that still actually live in the city that pays them - don't get me started). I don't know who got Queens, but then again I don't really care about Queens (Queens is what I go through in order to get somewhere worth while).

After having to deal with Cablevision whine and complain (on over the air broadcasts, no less) that because of greedy content providers (News Corp, Disney, Viacom, & GE, each at various times), we, their valued customers, would lose access to their content, including local broadcast content, what has Cablevision done? They pulled the MSG network (oh, did I forget to mention that the Dolans also own Madison Square Garden?) from Time Warner Cable subscribers in New York City! There is a word for this. Hypocrite, though accurate, is not strong enough, but DOUCHEBAG is.

First, how the City of New York allows a monopoly that they granted to own a channel that they can then leverage against the residents who are subscribed to a competitor whom they had no choosing of (in NYC, your choice is between Verizon - a telco that is just as bad, if not worse, as Cablevision - and a cable company, which ever one services the area that you live in) is beyond me.

Second, does the FCC get paid? If so, why? If this situation is not reason enough to go back to the media ownership regulations that were previously in place, I don't know what is. I don't need the FCC to protect me from Howard Stern. I need the FCC to protect me from Cablevision.

Third, to all of my stepfather's friends and co-workers who say, "Just go to Verizon FIOS," what the fuck is wrong with you? Why should the decision as to who my mother's cable and internet provider is be made by Cablevision? Maybe my mother and stepfather don't want to switch to Verizon FIOS. The level of idiocy that a person needs to possess in order to make that statement makes me wonder why New York State allows them to carry a gun. It is these morons that allow corporate amerikkka to continue to buy greater rights for themselves at the expense of those for whom rights were intended. Let's just hope I don't end up in a state court.

Normally, I would end with three points, but I actually have a fourth point. Where the fuck is the NHL on this? The NHL has a rule that forbids the ownership of an NHL team in one market and a team in another professional league in another market if an NHL team exists in that market, which is the reason why Howard Milstein sold his stake in the NY Islanders to buy a stake on the Washington Redskins (damn Capitals). How is it that the NHL can allow Cablevision to blackout, within New York City, Rangers games. If Time Warner is in Nassau and Suffolk counties, Cablevision is also blacking out Islanders games. But that is not all. As the New Jersey Devils are also broadcast on the MSG network, Time Warner customers that are fans of any of these teams are fucked, thanks to Cablevision. Hey commissioner Bettman, do you have any comment on this? I sat through a season of Islanders games not being broadcast live, because Cablevision got to choose which games it would broadcast, and it always seemed to be the Islanders who were the odd man out, yet the Rangers games always got aired. How about some ownership regulation, when media ownership or delivery is involved?

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Setting up a laptop for a child

I came across an old 850 MHz P3 laptop, that I would like to give to a 5 year old. Any suggestions as to what I could/should install on it?

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New Year's Resolution

No more blog fade.

I will make at least 3 blog posts per week.

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