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Showing posts from 2007

Popcorn Hour, Multimedia Player

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I finally got a device that could be used as a media plaher and believe it or not it is called the Popcorn Hour or Network Media Tank, Model A-100. It took about 2 and half months to get the device because the company, although not well know, has developed sort of a cult following that the Media Tank is often sold out as soon as the batches are manufactured and released. To get the product you will have to register on the company’s website and you will be informed, by email, when your allotment of the media tank is available. You will then you have two to three days to accept and make a purchase. After that, it takes additional two weeks or so to receive the product. I have used my Vista Ultimate PC as a HTPC (home theater PC) since I got in June 2007. To do this the PC would be moved from the office to the living room near the flat screen TV for the night. It was too much of a headache. At $179 plus shipping, the media tank quickly eliminated the need to do this. The device is no bigg

In Praise of Benazir Bhutto

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Not often do deaths famous people affect me. The death John Kennedy Jr. was one of such and so is the recent death of Benazir Bhutto, who was also twice prime minister of Pakistan and role model for a lot of people around the world. As for JFK Jr., because he was just about two year older than me and he was a role model, in spite of the fact that we had nothing in common. Well, he was a magazine publisher, a role that I had aspire to be in my younger days. The parallel I draw from both deaths is that of a waste. JFK Jr, I wanted to see his magazine “George” become a powerful voice in the media landscape and Bhutto, I wanted to see her lead the Pakistanis out of the grips of Musharraf. Politics aside, but one cannot discard the notions that our President Bush’s blind support for the fake presidency of Musharraf (much like that of Bush’s presidency) a murderer, contributed in large extent to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Again, Bush’s politics in Pakistan is another discussion e

What will Bush do after he leaves the Whitehouse?

I was just wondering about this, I don’t know why, but what will President Bush do after he leaves the Whitehouse? I mean a man in his capacity should be able to do some good in the world to reverse all the mistakes he made in the last 8 years, right. We know that President Jimmy Carter has been an advocate against poverty and he demonstrated this by building houses habitatforhumanity.org. President Clinton has been all over the place campaigning against AIDS and poverty all over the world. The much admired President Reagan died, plus he was too old to do much anyway. What about Herbert W. Bush? Well, he sort of helped upon being called by his son to oversee raising money for Katrina. One does not expect George W. Bush to do anything either, laughingly a colleague suggests that G.W. might be working for Halliburton after he left office in 20089. There is just not any ounce of altruistic and philanthropic mentality in the Buses.

7 Year Hitch

Frankly I think it is a good idea that there should be clauses in marriage that actually expire the marital relationship in seven years. Yes, that’s what a German politician, Ms. Gabriele Pauli of the Christian Social Union, proposed. She should know, she has been married three times. Sadly she lost to an old fuddy - duddy , Erwin Huber. As intriguing her notions are I don’t see how to make it work amicably between married couples, especially when the issues of children are in the picture. However, it is worth noting since there are many marriages that fail within the first few years. Maybe the jet set will start the trend, but they already have higher divorce rate than ordinary people anyway. The Telegraph's articles on the subject is quoted below for your reading pleasure. German politician argues for 7-year marriagesBy Harry de Quetteville in Berlin Last Updated: 3:55am BST 21/09/2007 A latex-wearing, twice-divorced German politician has stunned her staunchly conservative party

Racism is Still Alive

I read somewhere that 6 high school students face charges in Jena Louisiana because one of them defies the unstated rule at the school. He sat under a tree on the school campus that's reserved only for his fellow white students. I can't do justice to the story here I am hoping that you will take the initiative to read about it in the full story I pasted below. The source of the story is website called The Color of Change . Better yet, since most of us are visual, I have also posted a youtube link to a video about the on-going this particular injustice done to Jena 6. Cheers... Message Source: http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/message.html Youtube .com Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuoiZnr4jLY Last fall in Jena, the day after two Black high school students sat beneath the "white tree" on their campus, nooses were hung from the tree. When the superintendent dismissed the nooses as a "prank," more Black students sat under the tree in protest. The Distr

New Job

That is just what it is - a job. I admitted it to my wife as soon as she asked how my first day was, "I hate it." I started a new job today and I immediately regretted my decision to join this big company in a transaction processing business as a contractor. I was not desperate for another job, I had a job that compared to this new one was somehow better. How did I come to the point of making this stupid mistake? About two and half months ago I moved from California to start a position at a start-up company in Lennox Square area of Buckhead, that's one of the millionaire's row of Atlanta. The product or service of the start-up is a "sexy" application that make for a worthwhile contribution and I warmed up easily to my peers in my immediate department and the small 60 person company. However, my department happened to be led by someone that is management challenged and needless to say I felt that my first few weeks with the start-up was wasted and I left work

Airlines , Their Policies and Gouging of a Common Person

My ordeal (a slightly harsh word) started after I booked a return flight from Atlanta to LAX for a personal business. I had to mention that because this is not a business trip that some corporate entity will pay for nor am I a small business owner that could write off air fares while I claim I conducted 50% business on a weekend trip so as to claim the expenses on my taxes. By the way, I owed Uncle Sam and the Governator for the 2006 tax year. Happy that I would be able to make the trip to reconnect with friends and relatives after 3 months absence from Los Angeles, I went out to throw a half-size football with the kids. Just before I sat down for dinner, I though I check the itinerary and to my shock and annoyance, because I know there would be no favorable solution, I noticed I have booked the return flight on the same day! That will leave me only two hours to spend in Los Angeles, on that same Friday. Unless you were a drug dealer completing a deal or that other "t" word

Import Email Back to Yahoo Mail Plus

For the past several days I have been plagued by a mistake I made. I finally got a new Dell PC (yes, I'll stick with Dell) and installed my Windows Ultimate Vista and Office 20007 Standard I won at a conference I attended back in February 07. Yes, even I get lucky sometimes. The installation was a breeze for both the OS and Office but that's another blog entry. Needless to say Outlook 2007 setting for Yahoo pop mail was completed within a couple of minutes or less and I think that was the root of my issues. clicking the "more settings" button on the Internet E-Mail Settings window gives you four other tabs the last one of which is the "advanced" tab. I was so excited to download all my 1,900 email messages in my new Outlook 2007 that I neglected to get to the last task of at this point of the setup - a task I have done diligently for about 3 years now. The e-mail "Delivery" options allows one to (a) leave copies of email on the pop server. In

A Mokery of Justice - Paris Hilton

Talk about making a mockery of justice! Hilton is out after barely 5 days? Whoever says there are no double standards in the justice system of the US is ignorant. No ordinary person who has "records" minor crime, altercation with the law in the famed third-strike state like California will be allowed to go scott-free. That's pretty much what has happened; Paris Hilton she went unpunished for breaking the law just the way the "some" elites of this country escape the rule of the law. She was given house arrest for only 40 days! If you've been to Beverly Hills area you'll know this is a joke and the Hilton family being one of the early settlers of the city has a very huge pad. So she will pretty much be on vacation with party and spa treatment continuing. Abuse of the law is a common occurrence in Washington, so why not in Hollywood? But I salute the jury of I Scooter Libby courtroom for rendering him guilty. In his case however, I believe he knew something

What? Tony Blair to be named Mideast Envoy

More and more the state of world politics just gets ridiculous. Tony Blair of all people? Are there no other qualified people in the world? He was the key spokesman for George Bush on the Iraq fiasco and now he would be appointed as an envoy to the same region. This is like letting a cat guard a mouse. True, he is eloquent, perhaps good negotiator and supposedly bright - everyone attested to this because of his Oxford education but that doesn't make him fit, politically, for the proposed position of middle ease envoy. To make the situation worse, the Yahoo article indicated that it is very likely he gets it. Maybe he is good for the post but not right after his premiership. There should be at least a cooling down period of about three years - he needs to reflect on his part in the atrocities of Iraq.