WyoCo / HearIt / Trabing

Obama the Politician

Even the best made suit will come apart if only the right string is given a pull.

Sometimes that’s all you need to know about politics.

In May of 2008 Senator John McCain’s campaign thought they had found a promising loose thread dangling from Senator Barak Obama’s well tailored positions on Iraq – Senator Obama hadn’t been to Iraq in two years!

On May 27th Senator McCain offered to travel with Senator Obama to Iraq. This offer by Senator McCain was promptly rejected by the Obama camp, the last thing they wanted was live video feed of Senator Obama being tutored ‘On The Ground’ in Iraq by his rival Senator McCain. Go figure.

Senator McCain had scored a hit, how could Barack Obama’s opinions on Iraq be taken seriously when Senator Obama hadn’t visited the country since January of 2006?

On top of the ‘how can Senator Obama be so sure the Surge is a failure since he hasn’t been to Iraq in two years’ factor there was Senator Obama’s perceived fear of anything General David Petraeus might tell him.

Barack Obama was willing to meet with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but won’t meet with General David Petraeus? What gives? Maybe Senator Barack Obama was scared of what Petraeus would show him and have to admit he was wrong?

Suddenly Senator Obama had a problem. On one hand if Senator Obama didn’t go to Iraq he would look stubborn and uninformed in the eyes of the much coveted Independent Voter. On the other hand Senator Obama can’t admit that the Surge has succeeded or he risked alienating the far left MoveOn.org wing of the Democrat Party.

What a pickle.

On June 16th Senator Obama made the decision to visit Iraq, being pummeled by Senator McCain over the issue was just to painful politically .

Senator Obama decided to go large, in addition to visiting Iraq and Afghanistan Senator Obama would lead an extensive entourage of fondling media groupies to Kuwait, Jordan, Israel and the West Bank. Once the Middle East was left behind it would be off to Germany, France and England.

Senator Obama should have stayed home.

Here we are on August 5th. There was no much expected bounce in the polls for Senator Obama as a result of his whirlwind tour, if anything Senator Obama has lost around 10 points to senator McCain.

Why?

Senator Obama couldn’t have picked a worse time to leave the United States and he couldn’t have been more condescending on message. Most of all, I don’t mean to be snide, his talked a lot.

While all across the United States Independent Voters were paying nearly $5.00 for a gallon of gas Barack Obama was on the other side of the planet trying to convince himself that the Surge was a failure, proclaiming he was a ‘Citizen of the World’, and making backhanded remarks about the country he was running to be President of.

At one point he decided it would be a good idea to blow off a hospital full of wounded United States soldiers because he couldn’t take his camera crew in with him to record his visit.

Not good.

While Senator Obama’s campaign sought to solve one problem (their candidate’s perceived ignorance of what is happening in the Iraq and Afghanistan of 2008) his handlers have unintentionally spotlighted Senator Obama’s real weaknesses – Senator Barak Obama is a politician of the lowest common order.

From a marketing standpoint the one thing Barak Obama had going for him was vagueness. Hope and Change – vague ethereal goals that simultaneously mean everything and nothing at all.

In attempting to deny the McCain camp a medium sized issue, good for maybe one or two percentage points in the polls, the Obama camp has exposed their candidate for what he really is – a ruthless politician who will say anything to get elected.

No Hope. No Change. Not very appealing to the garden variety Independent Voter.

Every day Senator Obama was on his overseas tour of the Middle East and Western Europe he spoke and pontificated and the attractive vagueness dissipated, the man who held himself out as an agent of change was revealed as nothing more that a unprepared one term senator from a radical district in Chicago.

At least that’s how I see it.

That’s it for today, take care and be safe.

How long should a computer last?

People ask me how long they should expect their new computer to last. Two years? Five years?

Over time I have found the answer to that question can be broken down into two parts.

Part One

This is simple; a computer will last as long as the software needs of the user don’t exceed the capabilities of the computer.

If you purchased a PC to run Microsoft Office 2000 in 2001 and that is all you will ever do with that computer than all you really have to worry about is the hard-drive crashing or some other catastrophic disaster (which is Part Two).

The problem is you may be forced to use software that exceeds the capabilities of a perfectly functioning computer.

Let’s say you own a business and when you bought that computer you installed QuickBooks Pro 2000, but you now need to upgrade to QuickBooks Pro 2008.

Don’t even think about loading QuickBooks Pro 2008 on that computer.

That computer you bought in ’01 won’t run QuickBooks Pro 2008. Your software needs now exceed the capabilities of that trusty computer that has served you so well until now.

Or take for instance anti-virus security software. If you run out and buy McAfee Antivirus or Norton Antivirus you will discover neither will install on Windows 98. Not that there isn’t antivirus software available for Windows 98, but you can’t load McAfee or Norton.

You see Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 98 on July 11, 2006. Due to Microsoft’s decision to stop supporting Windows 98 most commercial software developers stopped building software that will install and run on Windows 98.

That might not see fair, but that’s the reality.

As long as you only need to run software that was built to run on your computer that computer will not become obsolete, it will last nearly forever.

Unfortunately the odds are extremely great that at some point you will be forced to buy new software and the useful lifespan of your computer will come to an abrupt halt.

Part Two

A computer is a machine and how long it will ‘last’ depends on the parts of the computer.

If you back up all your data (and we all should) any competent computer repair person can build you a machine with which to load your operating system and restore your data.

If you are interested, or if you have a need, you can check out eBay and look at all the old computers, and old computer parts, for sale. Many online auction sites sell old computers and old computer parts; it is possible to keep an old computer running for the foreseeable future.

The bottom line

It is not a good idea to keep a computer for more than 5 years. Between Microsoft, Apple, whatever strain of Linux or BSD that you embrace, there are just to many changes over a five year time frame that push computer hardware past it’s pleasant usefulness. While it may be possible to keep a computer running for 10 or 20 years I wouldn’t recommend going that direction.

Some people have unlimited financial resources, most of us don’t. The longer you own a computer the more expensive and frustrating you will find it is to have it repaired as the machine approaches antiquity. Computer technicians come into the field and move on, finding a computer technician in 2008 who knows what to do with Mac OS 7.2.2 or DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1 not easy.

So my advice is to save $200 to $300 a year for a new computer you will buy every five years and stay on top of the technology.

A $1000 dollar computer is a pretty sweet machine, and your friends won’t make fun of that TRS-80 when they visit.

Obama lies down with Fannie Mae.

Both conventions are over, the bounces have done bounced themselves away, and Obama is still running from his past.

Could things get any worse for the junior senator from Illinois?

The last ugly revelation to come to light concerning Senator Obama is his receiving $126,349 from the GSE (Government Sponsored Enterprise) known as Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Association) and and Freddie Mac (Federal Home Mortgage Corporation).

Only Democrat Senator Chris Dodd has taken more money from Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac than Barack Obama.

More damning than the money is this: Two of Senator Obama’s advisers held high level positions with Fannie Mae.

Big Democrat Jim Johnson, recently on Obama’s VP search committee, has hauled in millions from his Fannie Mae CEO job.

Former Fannie Mae’s chief executive Franklin D. Raines takes calls from Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, the Obama campaign seeks Mr. Rains sage advice on mortgage and housing policy matters.

These facts raise questions.

Will Senator Obama take preemptive action and rid his campaign of these individuals?

Will the media mention that Senator Obama has embraced these former Fannie Mae kingpins and taken advice from them?

On the first count there may be a slight possibility that the Obama organization will take steps to distance their candidate from both Johnson and Rains. Enough plausible deniability will be created to give Senator Obama a way out. The bad apples will be purged, the donations explained away as unfortunate accidents.

On the second count I predict the equivocation will be used by the media to give Senator Obama cover fire from any attack from the McCain campaign. Some loyal muckraker will discover some distant relationship between Fannie Mae and McCain and proclaim mutual guilt.

If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas.

But Barrack Obama already had fleas: Bill Ayers, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, ACORN and the dark presence of Saul Alinsky.

Those who still want to see Senator Obama elected to office seem to not care about these fleas, or find them admirable qualities in a candidate. It is unlikely the latest revelation (that Senator Obama was will to pocket cash from Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac lobbyists) will drive those who are devoted to Senator Obama away.

Some people just don’t care if their candidate is corrupt and hypocritical. Those who care can vote for John McCain. The same John McCain who cosponsored a bill in 2005 to create an oversight board for Fannie May and Freddie Mac because he saw warning signs of trouble. The bill was blocked by democrats who complained that the oversight would prevent lenders from giving out risky loans to those who couldn’t afford them.

Anywho, I’m interested in any perspective you might have so feel free to comment away.

Night all.

August 4th - Winter is coming.

The days do fly by. Working as I do in the great outdoors I can’t help but be aware that winter waits in the not to distant future. Freezing cold, heavy clothes, snow that is so cold it squeaks when you walk through it and dead truck batteries.

The joys of winter.

Some argue that they prefer winter, they can always put on more clothes – but when it is hot they can only suffer. How sad.

By and large these are the same people who have never had to work outside for 7 hours or longer when the high of the day reaches less than 10 degrees Fahrenheit.

No, it isn’t pleasant when the temperature reaches 100+. Did I say I enjoy it when I sweat so much my eyelids stick in the open position? I feel sympathy for anyone who swings a pick or cleans an oil spill on a hot summer day. I’ve been there and I know how the hot sun drains a working man.

And don’t forget in these summer months the sun comes up at 5:00 AM and doesn’t set until 9:00 PM. Those hours of available sunlight can make for a long day in the great outdoors. I can’t say that isn’t a bit tiring.

On the other hand a hard working man in the summer doesn’t have to deal with equipment that won’t or can’t start because the oil of the machine has assumed the consistency of rubber, a minuscule amount of water vapor in the air lines of a truck’s brake system is a huge problem of a frigid winter day.

The same thing that takes an hour to do on a hot day in July can take three hours in January just because of the cold. Hell, if it’s really cold some things take two days that take only an hour in August.

Not to mention that in cold weather a person working outdoors has to wear heavy packs, insulated coveralls, a vest, Thinsulate lined gloves, a good warm hat and/or helmet liners, at least one layer of long underwear and whatever else is needed no to die while outside.

Speaking of which . . .

The best advice I can give anyone who will have to be out there working for a living is to buy their winter gear now while it is cheap, those $50 insulated on sale Carhart coveralls will cost you $100 in November.

So for now I am enjoying the heat, the blue sky and the birds. I know what coming.

That’s it for today, take care and be safe.

Programming et. al.

So I’m getting back into programming a little. The AJAX thing looks interesting. Web 2.0 and all that jazz.

Then again I am faced with the prospect of living in Kaycee Wyoming where learning a programming language is akin to picking up advanced skills in sailing ship design. Nice, but when will I get a chance to use it.

Well, the answer to that is my own web stuff. And it really doesn’t hurt to keep somewhat abreast of what is going on in the way of web programming in case a really great contract comes my way.

Programming used to be pretty – well – simple. There was Fortran, Pascal and those other structured programming languages with there conditional statements and stuff.

Then came along Java, that was my first object oriented language and here were all these libraries. Like an idiot I have written huge functions that did things I later discovered a existing library did.

Now comes AJAX which seems to be a blend of Javascript, XHTML, XML, CSS, a DOM thingy and perhaps other beasties.

What’s will there be in five years? It seems as though the Web 1.0 stuff was pretty simple in comparison to what is going on now and heaven help me when the Web 3.0 technologies rear their ugly heads in 2015.

So tonight I’m just getting going on JavaScript, not that I haven’t used JavaScript in the past – but not in the context of AJAX.

Seriously, if I didn’t think it sounded impressive telling people I was going into AJAX development I probably wouldn’t even be looking into it.

At this time I am not sure what can be done in AJAX that can’t be done in PHP, but there must be something. Right?