found_drama

Updated to Panther this past week and after a few days of use, ready for to hash it out… First the goods: Despite warnings to the contrary, I’ve not experienced any data corruption as a result of FileVault yet. And maybe it’s just placebo but I feel a lot better now that my personal files are nested in the directory w/ the combination lock on it. On that note, secure trash is nice as well. The OS’ overall performance seems a bit faster, too. Overall responsiveness of folders opening and files moving. Differences may only be noticeable because it’s a G3 iBook, but hey… The new cmd-tab visualization is nice … I know it always just magnified what was in the dock before but it’s much better to not have to shift my vision all the way down. The enhancements to Finder’s toolbar are pretty awesome too — and I must say I’m going to get some serious mileage out of that feature. Expose is actually coming in handy as well — though I must admit I haven’t been able to take as full advantage of it as I would like … maybe if I can get them to hook me up w/ a Mac as my full-time computer at work, then it’d REALLY get a work-out… But the enhancements that have come in the most handy so far have definitely been the improvements to networking. Panther sees my home network w/ complete ease … I don’t need to memorize a single LAN address or the semi-obscure name I might have given to any of the shared folders. And halle-fucking-luja! is the printing application massively improved vis-a-vis shared Windows printers. My ages-old Canon is now totally visible on the network and added in a flash. No problems so far. Oh — and it’s nice having labels back…

Bad/mediocre/weird things… First of all, all the warnings I got didn’t seem to apply. I backed up my data (well, I back-up anyway) but it didn’t seem necessary. Of course, the one thing I didn’t back up was my host files and Apache’s httpd.conf… So my local server environment still isn’t what it was. I got PHP and Perl back up and running but my “[named].localhost” sites are still mis-behaving. (And given my root-relative conventions for file references, you can imagine how this funks a lot of things up…) Java req’d an almost immediate update, for sure. The X.3 JVM is buggy, no doubt. Most of the errs were fixed w/ the 1st patch but I still get the occassional wonky misbehaviour fr/ s/ of my Java-based applications. (mostly jEdit…) My Applescripts menu was gone … I’m sure I can just put it back, but I’m lazy… And it shouldn’t have eaten that in the first place… Fast User Switching is cool but I could do w/o having it put my name up in the Finder bar. (Just seems excessive…) Those seem to be my only real beefs though… Once I get my hosts working again, I’ll be happy as Happy the Clam… (…and if you got that one, you need more help than I…)

More later kids…

“It[']s not in the history of civilization for peace ever to reign. Never has in the history of man. … I doubt that we[']ll ever have a time when the world will actually be at peace.” Frightening article/redux of Gen. Franks’ opinions on war/peace and how the Constitution will be the first casualty of a WMD strike on the US. Why do I feel like the only person convinced that there won’t be this “strike”?

It’s almost painful how backwards and totally illogical some scientists can be. “These findings may help us understand the sites of action of the medications used to treat ADHD, particularly stimulant medications[...]“ sites of action of the medications … ?? How is that helping you to understand the “illness” or what’s behind the so-called illness in the first place? At this point, you’re not looking at the “disease” you’re looking at the effects of the medication. Who the fuck cares? This is high science at it’s finest, no? A nice little defensive maneuver w/ “[t]he ADHD children had changes in brain structure in certain areas of the brain” … but let’s get real. There is such variablility in the human brain during adolescence that you’d need a lot more than 27+46 subjects. Nice try though. Let’s come up with a clear definition of ADHD first, shall we?

Back in high school, I thought this box set existed. Actually, the box set I thought existed involved a graphic novel, the double CD, the video, and some errata. I don’t know where I got that crazy notion but I clung pretty steadfastly to it for a couple years. *sigh* At least I was able to track down a copy on vinyl.

Absolutely fantastic Wired interview with Bill Joy where we get into some of the gritty about open source, democracy, and gentle reminders that freedom really isn’t free. Sure… There’s the obligatory babble about Java but when all is said and done, it isn’t about “write once, run anywhere” it’s about “…individuals giving up the ability to do whatever they want so that everybody can have some rights. We may have to give up some of the power of high technology if we want to keep our civil liberties. And that is a choice, whether we realize it or not.”

Remember kids, it’s only the pursuit of happiness that’s gauranteed.

This is officially the coolest phone ever. Probably the best phone for phone sex too, I might add.

If you haven’t seen it already, The Elegant Universe is a dope redux of some theoretical physics. A little too “TV” at times … and won’t answer all your questions … but neat just the same.

Louisiana is safe for the time being.

Autometa Reciprocal Peer eXchange Projector (RPXP) is quite possibly very cool. Let’s wait for the mainstream. pardon the pun