Mike Cohen

Larry Lessig supports Obama

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Larry Lessig announced his support of Barack Obama for president. I agree with him that Obama truly wants to change how government works and actually believes what he’s saying with conviction rather than just following polls.

Minipundit also points out how Obama could restore the world’s opinion of the US:

When the mere presidential candidacy of Obama can convince a boy in Kenya who hasn’t even traveled as far as Tanzania that he, too, can become a U.S. Senator, that means something. His election – not to mention his policies – would provide America with soft power on levels that Hillary or Edwards simply could not reach. And that’s something voters should really consider.

Although I’ve been feeling pretty bitter about politics in general, with the media predicting that Hilary will win, and disgusted with the Democratic party for stripping Florida of their delegates, I really want to see Obama win.

My kitchen is done!

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The guys put in the last piece of granite today. The bar and most of the backsplash went in yesterday, but they were missing the side piece and the piece behind the stove. They still have to come back for one last time to plaster & clean up a few things.

My kitchen is done! My kitchen is done!
My kitchen is done! My kitchen is done!

Clive Thompson: Why Science Will Triumph Only When Theory Becomes Law

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Via Wired:

For truly solid-gold, well-established science, let’s stop using the word theory entirely. Instead, let’s revive much more venerable language and refer to such knowledge as “law.” As with Newton’s law of gravity, people intuitively understand that a law is a rule that holds true and must be obeyed. The word law conveys precisely the same sense of authority with the public as theory does with scientists, but without the linguistic baggage.

Evolution is supersolid. We even base the vaccine industry on it: When we troop into the doctor’s office each winter to get a flu shot — an inoculation against the latest evolved strains of the disease — we’re treating evolution as a law. So why not just say “the law of evolution”?

Best of all, it performs a neat bit of linguistic jujitsu. If someone says, “I don’t believe in the theory of evolution,” they may sound fairly reasonable. But if someone announces, “I don’t believe in the law of evolution,” they sound insane. It’s tantamount to saying, “I don’t believe in the law of gravity.”

Triple Boot

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I’ve set up my iMac to triple boot Windows with Boot Camp, Leopard, and Tiger. It’s not too difficult. You need to back up all data on your machine first.

  1. Format the drive as a single partition and install Leopard
  2. Install Windows with Boot Camp
  3. Open disk utility, shrink the Leopard partition, and create a new partition.
  4. Install Tiger in the partition you just created

I Gave One and I'm Getting One

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I just ordered an XO Laptop from laptopgiving.org. The way this works is by purchasing two XO Laptops for $400, you receive one and the other one goes to a child in a developing country. $200 of the purchase is tax-deductable, plus you get one year of free access to T-Mobile HotSpots.

Home Server Changes

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I retired my Linux server and moved my Mac Mini, which was formerly connected to my TV as a DVR, into my office as my new server.

Since I’m using a Buffalo TeraStation as my file server, the only thing I was using the Linux box for was printer sharing & web testing. The Airport Extreme base station isn’t an acceptable file server for Time Machine backups.

The Mac Mini does support time machine backups & printer sharing, as well as sharing iPhoto & iTunes libraries. Since I have a cable TV outlet in my office, I can still use it as a DVR and watch my recordings wirelessly using EyeTV’s new sharing feature.

I can run Linux just as well under VMWare for web testing & software development.

Over the weekend I’ll replace the Airport Extreme base station with an 8-port Gigabit Ethernet switch and my old Linksys WRT54G.

Kitchen counter installed

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The granite counter top was installed today. They didn’t have the pieces for the backsplash & bar yet, so those are being installed Monday. When that’s done, my kitchen will be finished!

Kichen Counter Installed

Demonizing immigration didn't do the trick

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Via Daily Kos:

Republicans are pinning their 2008 hopes on the same thing they pinned their 2007 hopes — demonizing scary brown people. But as I noted yesterday (despite some disagreement), and as noted by Roll Call’s Morton Kondracke (subscription only) the issue simply didn’t prove electoral gold for the GOP.

I consider immigration a non-issue. I don’t see any problem. Immigrants aren’t taking my job (in fact my job is in Canada). They spend money & pay taxes. They take jobs that citizens won’t touch, like harvesting crops. Without cheap immigrant labor to harvest it, food will be a lot more expensive.

Another Leopard feature: paths.d

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If you use the terminal and use MySQL or open source packagers such as MacPorts or Fink, you’ve probably had to edit your shell startup script to set the command search path so you can access the new commands.

Leopard makes it much easier – simply place a file in /etc/paths.d listing the additional paths you’d like added to your command search path. For example, if you use MySQL, you should create /etc/paths.d/mysql containing the following:

/usr/local/mysql/bin

No more editing .profile or .bashrc, and it’s available to all user accounts automatically.

Thanks to SysArchitects for bringing this to my attention.