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Here's I'm going to tell you about all the Firefox extensions I use. I've repackaged them all and have them locally, so you can install them from here, and I've also included links to their page so you can go over there. Sometimes I'll write articles about more than one extension, and I'll additionally have all of them packaged into one file so you can download them at one time. I'll also talk about some of the overlooked and useful features built in. If anyone has suggestions as to extensions or features, feel free to add them in the comments.

As I said in my introduction, I consider myself somewhat a Progressive. There are people out there that think that's just another way to say 'Liberal', but in reality progressive political thought and liberal political thought are often at loggerheads, which I will probably write about at some point in the future. The 'New Left' is, at this point in time in this country, comprised of both traditions. I also hold a few liberal views, including some that the left doesn't!

Continue reading "About Politics" »

The Notepad that comes with Windows is a prime example of how Microsoft doesn't understand what sort of software is supposed to come with operating system. A useful text editor is right up there at the time, but Notepad is broken and defective by design in so many different ways that this would turn into a rant if I listed them all. So, instead, I shall list Notepad++. Download it, install it, use it, and stop worrying.

Continue reading "Software I Use: Notepad++" »

This series is going to be talking about stuff I use on my computer to get my work done. Sometimes they're not the most popular, and I'm sure others will take issue with them, but I'm not issuing awards or anything, I'm simply saying that I, personally, use them right now. My computer is running Windows XP, so you can assume all the software here will work on it, although I'll try to note if there's some other OSes supported. A lot of this software will be free software, either as in beer and/or as in speech. Some of it won't.

Well, I've finally installed some blogging software instead of using straight HTML. We'll see how it works out. This site is going to be a confusing combination of talking about some vaguely progressive politics, configuring a moderately-sized mail and web server, some PennMUSH stuff, and random rants about whatever I want. I'll also be putting up stuff I've written in the past in various places, with a randomly chosen date of the state of the year. I'll try to actually have useful categories so people can just read what they want, and I plan to start each category with a sort of overview post that will tell people what to expect. Usually I'll have comments off, except when I am actually using this thing like a blog and commenting about someone else's blog posts. I'm not planning on requiring or even allowing user-registration.

So, right now, we have crazy people who have come up with a single specific example that is supposed to be justification for legalizing torture. The premise that there is a bomb set to explode in two hours, and that we have the guy in custody, and we need to torture him to find out where it is to disarm it. This is stupid on a number of levels.

Continue reading "Ticking time bombs" »

Here's a rant I made some time back about software patents. It's still true: You think I'm about to start talking about software patents and how they retard the industry. But I think that's been amply covered. Or I could talk about how they are basically patenting math, but that's been amply covered also. Instead, I will talk about how they don't even work like patents.

Continue reading "Software patent rant" »