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Author: Marko

the little essay that keeps getting borrowed.

Posted on by Marko

I really dislike people who write guest columns that use someone else’s material, especially when that material came out of my head, not theirs.

One Mr. James W. King wrote a guest column for the Albany Herald. I use the loosest possible definition of the word “wrote”, because for his column, Mr. King limited his writing work to copying and pasting my “Why the Gun is Civilization” essay. This is not just unoriginal, it’s dishonest, and thievery to boot.

The Albany Herald didn’t ask for permission to use the essay. Neither did Mr. King. I don’t usually get all hot under the collar when “Major Caudill” gets quoted on some Internet forum, but the most cursory Google search by the editor would have turned up the proper authorship. I am thinking about sending my very first DMCA take-down notice.

(UPDATE: The link is dead now. May have something to do with all those emails the editor has been getting.)

careful, your mascara is running.

Posted on by Marko

I avoided looking at the display model iPhones on the way in, and averted my gaze from everyone elses iPhones. I wanted to enrich the experience of opening my own iPhone 5, and make it more special than it already would be…

You know you’re a pampered, entitled little whiner when you go to buy a new iPhone and feel compelled to write a tear-soaked blog post on how the AT&T rep “ruined” your first impressions of the phone by carelessly unwrapping everything prior to setting it up. ZOMG! He didn’t leave the protective film on it so I could peel it off in a quasi-religious trance! He unwrapped my USB cord so I was deprived of the experience! WAAAA! This is followed by a list of “How To” tips that outline how the experience should have gone. (In this kid’s ideal world, the salesguy should practically avoid eye contact and treat you like you’re in a bank opening a precious lockbox.)

The folks at the phone store don’t have the time to let every customer spend fifteen minutes ritually unpacking and getting to know their new iPhone. On iPhone launch day, these places are wall-to-wall with hipster kids looking to pick up their new phones between hitting Starbucks and pretending to go to class. You don’t want to make them late for their Ethnic Basketweaving 101 class so you can smell the packaging on your new iPhone.

capitalism is bad, except when it’s *my* profit.

Posted on by Marko

There’s a new party in Germany. They call themselves the “Pirate Party”, and they’re a loose conglomerate of people well left of the already pretty left-of-center mainstream Social Democrats: anti-Capitalism, anti-establishment, anti-soap-and-deodorant, the usual coffee house anarchists.

One of the platforms of the Pirate Party is that “information should be free.” They advocate unrestricted Internet sharing of books, music, movies, and whatever else can be uploaded to a file-sharing server, without any regard for copyright or intellectual property. One of the members of the Pirate Party’s executive committee, a 26-year-old named Julia Schramm, even called the idea of intellectual property “disgusting.”

Here’s where it gets really hilarious. Said Julia Schramm just landed a book deal with Albrecht Knaus, a German publisher owned by Random House. She netted a 100,000 euro advance for her anti-capitalist book “Click Me”. Some people uploaded the PDF version of the book to a file-sharing server and spread the link around via Twitter and Facebook, along with info about the Pirate Party’s stance on “free information”.

The author promptly issued a DMCA take-down request, and the file was removed.

There’s a saying in German that goes something like, “Preaching water and drinking wine.” It’s pretty amazing how often a politician’s bedrock philosophies only apply to other people, and are conveniently forgotten when one’s own ox is in line for goring. (And no, it’s not just those on the left of the political spectrum.)

it slices! it dices!

Posted on by Marko

Hey, you! Do you like sharp things? Then boy, do I have a recommendation for you!

I found this little number on Amazon a little while back:

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It’s called a Benchmark “Backpacker”, which is obvious hey-it-kind-of-sounds-and-reads-like-Benchmade Chinese product mimicry. Shameless brand name aside, the little thing is actually really nice. It’s a 2.75” hollow-ground fixed blade made of 1095 steel and fitted with Micarta scales, all for the price of a Kindle book or a brew pub burger meal. (It came out to under $20 with shipping.)

Even the Kydex sheath is serviceable. It has a non-removable belt clip on one side, lots of holes for paracord loops, and a carabiner hook strap on one end for attaching the sheath to a backpack or what-have-you.

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It’s a small, handy blade that has a satisfying heft and feel to it, and it has proven useful as a utility blade. I sometimes clip it to one of my belt loops upside down when I go to do some work outside. It holds an edge pretty well and is easy to sharpen on the ceramic sticks.

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It’s right handy for cutting open chicken feed bags or opening packages. Rig the sheath with some paracord, and you’ll have a small but solid neck knife that’s legal to carry in all but the most uptight jurisdictions.

I’m no dummy. I went to collige.

Posted on by Marko

Whenever a college fraternity or sorority makes the news, it’s usually not for any great feat of intellect. This one is no different:

Sorority vandalizes wrong car in response to hazing complaint.

The Greek D is “Delta”. Too bad the Greek alphabet doesn’t have a U or H.

eggs!

Posted on by Marko

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Araucanas are sometimes called “Easter eggers” because they lay pastel blue-green eggs. (Notice the size differences in this batch. They’re still adjusting their dispensing units.)

The eggs from our hens taste better than the store-bought ones. The yolks are darker and more flavorful. It’s been a fair amount of work and effort, but it’s nice to have locally-sourced eggs. And by “locally”, I mean “from the chicken coop across our driveway.”

how u spel deficet?

Posted on by Marko

So the Chicago Public Day Care System’s wardens—who, on average, earn $76,000 a year—are striking because the 16% pay increase over four years offered by the city just won’t cut it. Meanwhile, the Chicago school system has a dropout rate that’s close to 50%. But if you question the right of public sector union workers to have a guaranteed job for life and cushy pensions, you’re “playing political games on the backs of our children,” or something like that.

I’m not anti-union, strictly speaking, but between the strike in Chicago and the public sector unions in California driving the state into bankruptcy, it’s not all that hard to see where this is going. With our tax bills, we’re feeding an ever-expanding public sector whose unions have no qualms at all about blackmailing everyone else for 16% pay increases. (Remember—that money isn’t out of some mystical Chicago city money bin, it comes out of the paychecks of everyone else.) Don’t want to pony up For The Children™? Here are 400,000 kids on the streets—good luck finding daycare.

Meanwhile, Joe and Jane Taxpayer get shafted twice. They get to contribute an ever-increasing portion of their paycheck to enlarge the public sector, and that public sector’s busywork usually involves nickel-and-diming Joe and Jane and gagging them with red tape.

how to react to an armed robbery attempt, textbook solution.

Posted on by Marko

Here’s a video of an attempted armed robbery at an Internet cafe in Florida. Three guys rush in, guns in their hands…and the security guard, seated behind a desk, gets up, draws his gun, and starts firing not three seconds after the bad guys open that front door.

http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_c3#/video/bestoftv/2012/08/31/pkg-security-guard-shoots-thieves-internet-cafe.weshpkg-security-guard-shoots-thieves-internet-cafe.wesh

This was in the wee hours of the morning, when human reaction times are at their worst, and the guy has a job that’s probably pretty boring most of the time, but he went from checking his computer screen to Battle Stations in absolutely no time. He didn’t hesitate or freeze under stress, he just committed himself to action and then followed through, protecting himself and the customers of that Internet cafe against armed and numerically superior aggressors. That’s how it’s done, folks.

What is it with armed robberies of Internet cafes in Florida? What’s the potential take at an Internet cafe, other than the customer wallets and maybe a few laptops?