Real Democracy.

Before the last big election in the U.S.A. I managed to get on to a great deal of political Email lists, as I’m sure many of you did. And while they all managed to end up in the Junk email box, as I have very little vested interest in U.S. Politics anymore. I have seen a great deal of anguish about the emergence of the Tea Party Movement and the Radical and apparently irrational candidates demands.

I have worried as many that these people represented the worst in U.S. politics, the radical Right Wing elements who are being manipulated by ultra-conservative GOP millionaires. However, and I mean some how, however, they have managed to get off the leash from the directions of their handlers and appear to actually believe in their, from my perspective, misguided ideals. And there by hangs the tail on the political animal.

Democracy! It’s not just for mainstream (managed) Democrat or Republican candidates, those willing to say or do anything to get elected to office. Those who, with party backing, pay millions of dollars to get elected to political positions that really only pay a pittance. Just so thay can exert influence for those who paid to put them there. They are not really representing their electorate who voted for them, not representing the views and opinions of the people they were elected to serve, but those who paid to put them there. And we both know that is wrong.

So from another perspective, if a Tea Party candidate, who might believe in Pink Faeries who deliver chocolate cookies, receives enough votes from people who also believe in Pink Faeries. Then that person has every right, democratically, to server in the U.S. government. They would be doing exactly what they were elected to do, represent those who believe in Pink Faeries. In fact they would have more right to be there than those who were bought and paid for by lobbyist with an agenda.

And the worst case of this Pink Faerie representative in the Senate, or the House, nothing, except that they would not be beholding to anyone, except those who believed in Pink Faeries. Do you, for a minute, believe that legislation would ever be created to effect the U.S. regarding Pink Faeries? Would they be capable of generating the votes in congress to pass such legislation? Then what does anyone have to worry about, with ANY other belief that ANY candidate might profess during an election. They will first have to gather enough votes to get elected, then manage to promote any such idea in congress to a majority vote. And they have the right to try, in fact that it part of the problem with the two party system of politics in the U.S., not enough parties to represent all of the views of the differing sectors of American voters.

So while I don’t believe in the Tea Party, I will defend their right to make the attempt put forth their ideas and views to the vote of the people of the U.S. and discover for themselves the measure of acceptance of those ideals from the voting public. And if they are elected, so be it, this is the voice of the electorate, let it be heard.

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Posted in Conspiracies, Democracy, Freedom, Law, Liberty, Patriotism, Politics, Religion, Social Networks, The Future, Truth, World Events, corruption, government | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Apple’s outrageous share of the mobile industry’s profits

That pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?

Pie chart: Apple’s outrageous share of the mobile industry’s profits

BERJAYA

In any other businesses this would be called a RIP OFF! by Apple, but with the Apple-Fanboy base, They can do no wrong. I used to be a Apple Evanglista back in Apple’s dark days, and I still use a MacBook. But I use a Nokia N900, because I can do more, with less Apple regulation, and I pay a great deal less than any iPhone ball-and-chain.

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Posted in Apple, Freedom, History, Liberty, Linux, Mac, Maemo, Marketing, MeeGo, N900, Nokia, Press, Statistics, iPhone, monopolies, telecommunications | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A missing (technology) link

I may have stumbled upon a missing link in our technology. But first let me tell you a bit of myself.

I use a CPAP to help me breath at night. And while I won’t die without it, I am somewhat dependent on it for a good nights sleep. Last night I got up for a respite in the necessary and a small clasp gave way. Not completely broken, but incapable of holding my mask on. I managed to kluge a fix in the dark, and finished the night.

I had opened and closed that clasp a thousand times. I was dependent on the tiniest component to breath and sleep. And it came to me that the bits and pieces we use everyday in our high technology lives, have us somewhat by the short hairs. I thought of flash memory sticks, and SSD’s which are built with a limited life span. Just like my clasp, one snap past it’s sell by date. Mean Time to Failure.

Just like every other device we use, you have to have a backup, a plan. Mine with the clasp, was a touch of superglue and the cost of a bit of inconvenience. But what about a life’s work on a flaky flash memory.

Got your super glue handy?

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Vodafone ripoff in Wales

Moments after we arrived in Wales, we were interested in checking email and whatnot. So we stopped at a McDonald’s to use the non-existant WiFi. So realizing we were in a Vodafone cell site, I thought I’d use my JoikuSpot from my Nokia N900.

No problem we even got decent download performance on the 2MByte download. And then we disconnected, and the shock set in.

I got an immediate SMS with the following;

You’ve spent eur41.43 data roaming and your usage will be capped at eur60.50. To continue past the cap, text PASS EU CAP to 50193. For more info see vodafone.ie

WTF, this is a Vodafone SIM (IE) and they are charging this kind of roaming charge in vodafone Wales. What a Ripoff!

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Posted in Ireland, Maemo, N900, Nokia, telecommunications | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Underground War – Whistle Blowers strike back.

I may be the last to see this, a war, underground and undeclared, but a war. The opponents are a bit undefined but there is a clear and escalating combat in the world. I’m not talking about Terrorists, (although the establishment who is under assault may declare their attackers as such) I am talking about the the established order, The Multi-Nationals, the Big Press, Governments, Military establishments, Religious organizations. The big anonymous bodies that have been abusing their positions to detriment everyone else.

On the opposing side, are all the little people, groups and oppressed, or the perceived oppressed. Your fellow ‘pissed off’ worker setting next to you, who will explode in a fountain of Whistle blowing. A venting of frustration that will result in the next big internet explosion.

The WikiLeaks is merely the first oozing pustule on the face of the corporeal Corporations of the world. The World of Blogging has for many years undermined the world press both broadcast and print to the point that now the majority of the population now refer to the Internet for real news rather than the handful of corporation owned ‘News’ services.

Control has now slipped out of the hands of those who for years have managed the information flow. Evidence of this ‘management’ appears almost daily in the presentations of ignorance passed off as ‘News’. And where ‘Fair and Balanced’ openly bribe governments to maintain control, religious organizations openly attempt to promote such myths as Creationism at the scientific Truth.

The tide has turned, and the failing newspapers are only the start. Watch for more WikiLeaks and Whistle Blower sites springing up, more Lawsuits more Smear campaigns as the giant attempts to swat the Whistleblowers who are biting it to death.

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Posted in Conspiracies, Crime, Democracy, Economy, Education, Freedom, Honesty, Information, Internet, Law, Lies, Myths, Politics, Press, Religion, Science, Social Networks, Terrorism, The Future, Truth, World Events, corruption, government, monopolies | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The Big News from Ireland

The Big, I mean the Really big, the really REALLY big news from Ireland is a Runaway Cat Boards Train, Reunited With Owner Through Twitter and again here Cat sneaks on to train, gets lost, is reunited with owner via Twitter Who would have thought it. A cat. BERJAYA

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The Nokia N900 plays in a different world

When the Nokia N900 does real-time face tracking it again demonstrates why it’s not playing in the same SmartPhone world as the iPhone and Android phones.



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Posted in Android, Apple, Linux, Maemo, MeeGo, N900, Nokia, Projects, iPad, iPhone, iPod, telecommunications | Tagged , | 2 Comments

‘an chuid eile’ of the world

I have been having discussions all over the net about smartphones and feature phones and the vast marketplace for non smartphones in the third world. A market that Nokia is big in, but is not well supported with things like facebook, Twitter and other social networking communications features, due, in part to the lack of more robust networks in those areas. Even during a discussion at yesterdays Cork Open Coffee the subject of community services came up and I was reminded of a New Beta from Nokia called Nokia Listings ( here, here, here. and here ) which is intended to support communications, operating within a weak infrastructure, in a social networking type of framework.

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Posted in Broadband, Facebook, Information, Internet, Nokia, Social Networks, Twitter, World Events, iPhone, lifestyle, telecommunications | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Religious ‘Tight Ass’

I was reminded of this ‘West Wing’ after all the bull shit about the Mosque near the World Trade Center And tried, as I might, to remember that the United States was founded on the constitutionally guaranteed right of Freedom of Religion. Who knew?



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Posted in Democracy, History, Law, Liberty, Patriotism, Politics, Religion, Terrorism, World Events, government | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Geek Lust – in an Altoids tin.

Talk about geek lust, if I had a wish list, this would be on the top of the list.



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Breaking Bread

We now have the knowledged to predict how and where
a piece of bread breaks.

The wisdom is knowing not to bother calculating it.

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Another WordPress upgrade failure

Downloading update from http://wordpress.org/wordpress-3.0.1.zip…

Unpacking the update…

Could not create directory.: /public_html

Installation Failed

Why does it need to create THAT directory?

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The Real cause of the BP oil Spill

Not being one to believe in wild conspiracy theories, (Ok, so I read them sometimes) here is one that almost makes sense (almost).

The BP Oil spill was sabotage by U.S. Oil companies trying to eliminate BP from bidding on U.S. offshore Oil drilling contracts!

and the less believable part..

The sabotage was performed on the oil rig through Microsoft Windows software that was used to control the valves. The cyber-attack on the rig was executed from onshore.

UPDATE: Maybe not so strange @JoeGarde just sent me these links I’m sure you’ll remember this at the time http://bit.ly/9BDCze there’s also discussion about NSA and Win 7 http://bit.ly/bfFmEE

UPDATE 2: This is getting bad Social-engineering contest reveals secret BP info

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Posted in Conspiracies, Crime, World Events | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Nokia N900 moviemaking

Even though I’ve had my Nokia N900 for some time, I’ve never really tried out the video recording ability, So here’s my first.

It seems quite adequate as a recorder of the present reality.

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Amazing Internet

Yesterday I just got a trackback from a new article on Business News, Advices, Quotes And quite a handful of link through’s from there also. The funny part, call it amazing, they were linking to blog post I wrote 18 Months ago. Hardly a current, breaking news item, but the article seem to be quite active considering the link through’s and the minor nature, in context, with what the article was on about.

The internet really doesn’t forget.

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