PARANOIA IS NOT EDUCATION

There’s been a lot of talk going on in the news about identity theft. I understand that this is a terrible crime that can leave a person penniless and in dire financial straits. The main culprit, of course, is the internet. The news reports are full of “Beware of this” and “Beware of that”. My beef, and this is probably something inherent in TV that I have long been immune to is that important information like this is given 30 seconds to 2 minutes on the nightly news. That is not enough time to educate anyone about the dangers of almost anything. The only thing it can do is spread fear, and that is no way to combat a problem.

WHAT LINUX NEEDS

I was thinking about this last night. Why does’t any of the main Linux distrobutions contains a Windows conversion package? It would basically make the first CD of a multi-CD installation a live CD. That live CD would contains software that would back up the user’s files in Windows. If the person has a CD Burner, they would then be given the option of burning those use files to a CDR. Then the software would continue with the installation. That way, even if the person screwed up their HDD with the partitions, then would not have lost all of their settings.

LEARNING CODE THE OLD FASHIONED WAY

Warning! INCREDIBLY POLITICALLY INCORRECT MATERIAL AHEAD!

I’m currently trying to pass my General Class Amateur Radio exam, and I found the following book online. As you may be able to tell, it was written several years ago. When I read this book, I get the image of an older gruff gentleman telling me the best way that he knows how to learn Morse Code. He really doesn’t give a damn for my new-fangled ways of doing things, but he sincerely wants me to learn. Here’s the introduction: