rantlust

Posted by papi on June 29th 2007 in Computers, Rants, Technology
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Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, let me begin by stating that I have never been one for operating system holy wars. I have no particular affection for Windows, Linux, Unix, or MacOS, nor do I bear any excessive rancor towards any of them. I’ve worked on and used a number of different flavors of Unix over the years, currently am working on an open source project that spans several Linux distributions, and have used Windows on my laptop for many years. I think that operating system is best which intrudes the least, both in terms of not using up resources on the machine, and in not requiring the user to endlessly tinker with it or to spend time figuring out how to get it to work. Of course, all operating systems fall short on one or other of these points, but occasionally one is spawned that’s such a colossal mistake, such a gigantic steaming pile of fecal matter, that one is forced to take one’s case to the only court of public opinion that matters, the blog. Which finally brings me to Windows Vista, and the reason for this post.

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Posted by anupcs on June 29th 2007 in Movies
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See this movie. See it! Probably the best movie I have seen this year. Made by one of the troika of superstar Mexican directors, Guillermo del Toro (the othes being Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Iñárritu), this is a fantastical journey into the mind of a 12 year old girl (Ivana Baquero) growing up in fascist Spain under a cruel stepfather (Sergi López). Both Baquero and López give great performances. While the movie trailers might lead you to believe that this is a children’s fairy tale, it’s far from that and I would not recommend this to any child. Check out all the reviews you want over at Rotten Tomatoes. It’s brutal, violent, tragic, and brilliant!

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Posted by riyer on June 27th 2007 in Design, Engineering, Nature, Society, Technology
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Turns out you can use spinach to derive the energy to run your house as well
See here
All they need to do is grow olives and press some olive oyl from it.

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Posted by wolfgang amadeus on June 26th 2007 in Celebrity, Comics, Humor
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Wolfman believes Paris Hilton was born to be wild. And free.

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Posted by anupcs on June 21st 2007 in USA
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The Council of Economic Advisers have just released a white paper on immigration’s economic impact. This makes interesting reading in light of the recent hot debate on the topic. Some key findings:

1. On average, US natives benefit from immigration. Immigrants tend to complement (not substitute for) natives, raising natives’ productivity and income.
2. Careful studies of the long-run fiscal effects of immigration conclude that it is likely to have a modest, positive influence.
3. Skilled immigrants are likely to be especially beneficial to natives. In addition to contributions to innovation, they have a significant positive fiscal impact.

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Posted by anupcs on June 21st 2007 in Technology
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June 29 is destined to become the most over-hyped day in techdom since the launch of Windows 95 way back when. On that day, thousands of people with nothing better to do will descend in throngs to urban centers to get their hands on an Apple iPhone. For those in the SF Bay Area, here’s a handy campout guide including free restrooms and wifi info.

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Posted by anupcs on June 20th 2007 in Europe, Music
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I love to hear rock music (especially the hard variety) sung in languages I don’t really understand. I never understood what Ozzy, Dickinson, or Hetfield were gabbing about anyway. So why not enjoy the feeling of exotica listening to hard shit sung in languages all over the tower?

A relatively recent favorite such find is Noir Désir, a French rock band that’s been around for a while. I love their electronica/punk tinged hard rock sung in the loveliest of languages with hard guitar riffs. I have a couple of their albums and am trying to find more though Amazon carries only imports. I guess I’ll have to convince the wife why I have a sudden need to go to Bordeaux. Random iPod plays of their music recently have brought out interested eyebrow raising reactions from some fellow bloggers. Unfortunately, they may not be making more music for a while as their lead singer, Bertrand Cantat beat his girlfriend Marie Trintignant unconscious during an argument in a hotel room in Lithuania. She died a few days later. A Lithuanian judge sentenced Cantat to eight years in prison after he was found guilty of manslaughter. A true rock star!

I have tried to educate y’all about Mallu rock before but I should also mention some other international superstars in the genre of rock music that I really dig (all music links below courtesy of youtube.com):

• Ciu Jian from China whom I was fortunate enough to see live (opening for Deep Purple no less!)
• Pappo - the blues rock legend from Argentina
• Manu Chao - the former frontman of Mano Negra and bi-lingual superstar from France and Spain
• Charly Garcia - the Argentinian icon famous all over South America
• Rodrigo y Gabriela - the Mexican up-and-comers who have an acoustic bend for metal
• Beyond from Hong Kong who also have a tragic end

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Posted by renéejo on June 18th 2007 in Europe, French-Surrender
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Vive le Gaul. The latest incumbent of the Elysée palace has been caught drunk at the G8 summit. French surrender or not, I say we should give the man a break. He might have had a few too many of his country’s fine wine. Who can blame him for that? Or did he really have some Vodka with RasPutin?

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