I hate this time of year, and I have good reason. I start getting ready around now - I turn off the phone. I avoid the news. I take a long walk in the big blue and green room away from the computer, away from the flag-waving hype from loudmouthed Republican talking heads that makes me want to hurl my guts up for days because I know how shallow and temporary it is.

A week ago, it began - the anniversary diaries appeared. You know, the ones about August 6, 2001, the day that an intelligence threat analysis memo made it to Bush's desk which said "Bin Laden determined to strike in the US".

What makes me a little queasy is that August 13, 2001, is my own particular anniversary. Seven years ago today, blissfully unaware of whatever might have landed on Bush's desk, I suddenly decided that making backups of all my files to CD would be a Real Good Idea(tm). All my email, stuff I was working on, scripts and tools, etc. It just seemed like a good idea at the time. I burned 3 CDs worth of data and took them home.

Via LiveJournal:

Today, I discovered that RealClimate is blocked. Exactly how is a climatology site objectionable? Of course, the propaganda information sites they do allow are equally interesting. There has never been a day that drug abuser Rush Limbaugh or felon G Gordon Liddy has been blocked, to my knowledge. Comedian Al Franken’s Senate campaign site - blocked. Air America was blocked, then allowed, then blocked, and now it’s allowed again I believe. For the longest time, Little Green Footballs was allowed, while DailyKos was blocked. Now, they’re both blocked.  I can get behind that - neither of those sites is official use, I’d wager. Drudge Report and WorldNutDaily - always accessible.  Slate’s Video News - blocked. Go figure.

Seriously, RealClimate? Frack.

I can't speak to the veracity of this specific claim. No doubt there may be concerns with certain sites loading on local networks that have nothing to do with political content. But the general problem outlined, and more importantly, the political bend of the lucky sites that seem to effortlessly escape notice of sysadmin time and time again, is surely familiar to all. It's time to compare notes. Are you on a government or government related network? What sites are blocked and which are allowed? Who makes those decisions at the local and national level?

This isn't going to be a some intospective, analytical diary, it's going to be about restoring our pride and our standing (the wife and kids are in bed - a few glasses of vino and I'm ready to roll here).  I ask us not to do this only for others but ourselves as well.

I am asking everyone to give what they can, promote when they can and to VOTE for Barack Obama.

crossposted from unbossed

A new study by the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and CareerBuilder.com provides new data on motives for sending US jobs abroad (and abroad can mean Canada) as well as which jobs are a likely target.

I routinely have access to jobs for IT, Engineers and other professionals.
These jobs are full-time, permanent positions (not with a staffing company) in MI.  There are no fees charged to the job applicant or employer for this service.   Information and applications can be accessed on-line.

Apparently, the last professional did leave MI and forgot to turn out the lights.  I would think the scarcity of high skilled labor left in this state, combined with really affordable housing and a lower cost of living, might be really attractive to someone out there.  

If anyone has any suggestions on where to post and recruit the many, many jobs we keep getting and are expected to fill, please let me know.  We, of course, have tried all of the traditional routes:  ads, colleges, training schools, networking with everyone in the world, etc.  

Information and links to the jobs are below the fold.

crossposted from unbossed

According to a GAO report out last week, over the last three years, the number of  reported incidents in which sensitive government information and information systems has been put at risk has skyrocketed.  In FY2005 3,634 incidents were reported. By FY2007, that number was 13,029 incidents - about a 259 percent increase.

Broadband access to the internet is yet another sector of American infrastructure that has languished due to short sighted Republican economic policies.  According to a report from Educause, an association comprised of IT managers from over 2,000 universities, access to the internet in the United States is both slow and expensive when compared to the rest of the developed world.  These IT managers believe that we need to have at least 100 megabit service to every household in the country if we are to be competitive in the global economy.

It's hard for me not to have mixed emotions about a national holiday that really doesn't make people emotional.  It signals the end of summer, kids to school, back to work after long weekend or maybe last summer vacation week. Or not - for the ranks of the hundreds of thousands of former American IT workers whose futures have been left dangling. American workers - your neighbors, your friends, your family members are losing their careers and futures to workers already here or arriving in the U.S. Workers who are recruited offshore to be trained and placed, low-cost, into American organizations. Placed into government projects, university positions and grant work, right down into retail stores.  

The Right just keeps getting nuttier and nuttier. I could list a dozen examples, easily, but will settle for the fact that three of the ten Republican presidential candidates publicly disavowed evolution during their recent debate. Soon, the Right will be taking stands for and against heliocentrism.  Oh wait…  

This delusional thinking is, I believe, an artifact of desperation – desperation to hold onto power and prerogatives that are quickly fading. But the levels of the Right’s delusion and its desperation are so extreme that you have to wonder what’s going on.  Well, I think I know, and it’s this:

crossposted from unbossed

There is a new report out from the Department of Education Inspector General that finds wholesale failures as a result of privatizaing the Department's IT. In brief, the EdIG found:

1. The contract for privatization lacked effective methods for ensuring that the contractor performed, and later changes did nothing to improve the situation.

2. The controls in place at the Department of Education did not ensure that the "contractor provided the quality and services required in the contract".

3. The Department of Education did not have practices in place to police the contract.

http://redstate.com/

Did they forget to pay their bills, or is something else awry? It seems unlikely that they would be flooded with enough traffic on a Friday afternoon to cause a crash. Any IT people in the house who can shed some light? Is it too much to hope that Erick, Academic Elephant et. al. have gone to spread their pseudointellectualism elsewhere?

   The difference here is that the articles can be positve or negative in regards to the keyword.  But the article should make a case for progressive ideas.  If you get confused just watch some of the others.  Ideally each reply will contain one keyword in the title followed by a link.  Feel free to describe why you think the article works well.  I'll then go through and compile all the googlegrenades in a final list that we can use

One day the Democrats will understand the true power that web publishing can deliver.  Until then I think they need our help.  I made a quick list of my observations.  Please leave your own suggestions as well.  

There are some very good features and I'd like these to stay.  It just needs some tweaking and we'll be on our way for 2008.

List Below The Fold

I'll not digress further. Here's the "news":

LONDON (Reuters) - Imagine being able to check instantly whether or not statements made by politicians were correct. That is the sort of service Google Inc. boss Eric Schmidt believes the Internet will offer within five years.

From Business Week:

What's Really Propping Up The Economy
Since 2001, the health-care industry has added 1.7 million jobs. The rest of the private sector? None

a simple fact: Without the health-care industry the nation's labor market would be in a deep coma. Since 2001, 1.7 million new jobs have been added in the health-care sector, which includes related industries such as pharmaceuticals and health insurance. Meanwhile, the number of private-sector jobs outside of health care is no higher than it was five years ago.

http://download.movedigital.com/...

·    Will builds 20 PC's during Ernesto! Gung-ho!
·    12,000 India high schools switching to Linux...
·    ...and Richard Stallman started it!
·    US bird flu death count: still zero. Be afraid!
·    Computer paleontology: 386 with DOS 6...
·    OK to store data on a 16-year old hdd? NO!!

I need to buy a domain but I'm not sure who to go with. When you do a google search godaddly.com popps up. But I know the godaddy CEO Bob Parsons is a right wing fanatic Rush Limbaugh wannabe.

http://download.movedigital.com/...

· Strain of bird flu found in USA...Deathcount: Zero.
· Of all the things killing people, why focus on bird flu?
· Jimbo, Patrick and Will rag on cell phones in cars!
· Bluetooth headsets: Jimbo reviews two cheapies!
· Tip: Bluetooth as doggie chew toy--not good!