I read this on slashdot, and I agree 100%:

I would prefer to live freely and unobserved and someday die in a terrorist attack, than live in a “security” hell for all my life with cameras and RFIDs up my ass.

I fear for my country.  This has nothing to do with the economic situation.  It has everything to do with the fracturing of this country.  Each year the two sides of the political fence become more extreme.  Instead of healthy debate, we now have name calling, insults, and accusations.  Dirt on the other guy is demanded by the people, and the press is more than happy to dish it up.  It doesn’t matter if the dirt requires a bit of imagination and some creative editing of a quote, the dirt will be found.

Who’s fault is this?  It’s the people’s fault for pushing the country to one extreme or the other.  It’s the politicians’ fault for moving to the extremes of all issues in their quest for election, no matter what the cost.  It’s the press’ fault for becoming nothing more than sensationalist gossip rags.

I stopped reading newspapers and watching tv news because of their lack of neutrality.  I’m finding it more and more difficult to read election coverage online for the same reason.  Discussion boards have all the class and intelligence of a grammar school playground.  Debating issues is a thing of the past.  “He said, she said, your mother” is the order of the day.  It’s so bad, that I fear there will be violence when the election results are announced, no matter who wins.

We’re going to lose this country.

My current contract runs out at the end of the year, so I updated and activated my online resume on Sunday.  The initial response was rather overwhelming.  Most headhunters are very professional and do their job.  Some, however, are idiots.  I’d like to address these few idiots.

Read my fucking resume, you moron! Where the hell did you get the idea that I’m a PHP developer?  Yes, PHP is mentioned, but if you had actually read my work history you would have seen that PHP coding was a very minor function.  A PHP (or any other language) developer would have listed numerous instances of developing major web applications.  He would have proudly touted the websites that he was particularly proud of.  You don’t see that on my resume, do you?  Of course not.  That’s because I’m a Linux system administrator.  Anyone with half a brain would know that by reading my work history.

Your job, as a headhunter, is to match up companies with the right talent.  That means you read resumes to narrow down the search.  Yes, you can use keyword searches to reduce the number of resumes you read, but you don’t rely on those bare results.  You read them, you look at the jobs you have to fill, then you send off an email to the job hunter to see if he is interested.  You don’t go directly from keyword search to automated letter because this is just going to annoy the hell out of me and get you placed on my blacklist.  Yes, I do have a blacklist.  It’s reserved for headhunters that are obviously too stupid or too lazy to trust.

Fortunately, most of the headhunters already know this.  I received some excellent prospects (on the very first day!).  The requirements of these positions closely match my skill-set as laid out very clearly in my resume.  These headhunters are professionals and have my respect.

So what are you?  A moron or a professional?  Those of you who already sent me developer positions, it’s too late.  Perhaps you can learn from your mistake.  Do your job right and maybe you won’t piss off the next guy with an impressive resume.  The professionals hope you continue being an idiot.

UPDATE: Julia at Nelson Technology, a technical recruiting company, deserves special recognition for not doing her job.  I just received an email from her for a position that I would be absolutely perfect doing.  I would be perfect because it’s for my current job that I am leaving!  Julia obviously did not read my resume since, if she had, she would have seen the name of the company I’m at is very clearly listed.

I watched her speech at the RNC last night.  I must say, she scored a home run.  She easily has all the conservative women in her pocket.  She also has a lot of the fence sitting women on her side.  Veterans are going to be seriously considering her and McCain.  Parents with children of special needs are also going to be swayed quite a bit.  I’m not sure how Hillary fans will react.  Most will probably get over their anger with Obama and vote the party line.

Her speech was one of the best I’ve seen.  She figuratively dragged Obama onto the stage and field dressed him like a moose carcass with a rusty knife.

However …

I still don’t like her positions on social issues.  She’s way too conservative.  I prefer a conservative when it comes to fiscal matters, which she scores high marks on, but if her religious views are part of how she governs, that’s unacceptable.  I don’t want abortions outlawed.  I don’t want creationism (or it’s evil twin intelligent design) in the classroom.  I don’t want religion in the schools at all, although I think the left has shown to be incredibly intolerant when it comes to school xmas events.  If an xmas event is voluntary and after school hours, it should be allowed.

Conclusion.  Overall I think Sarah Palin has helped McCain’s chance for election, but I consider her a negative aspect of his campaign.

Who else thinks she looks like a naughty librarian?

The presidential election is fast approaching.  I’m still not thrilled with my choices.  I’m a moderate, not too far on the left or the right.  I am socially liberal and fiscally conservative.  That means I want maximum freedom for everybody, but I don’t want the government paying for all that crap.  Freedom isn’t something the government buys for us.  It’s something we already have but can be taken away by the government.

I simply can not vote for Obama.  He’s a hard core socialist.  He’s even more socialist than the one registered socialist in Congress, based on voting records.  He believes the government should level the playing field by taxing the successful more, and buying the loyalty of the poor.  That makes the poor happier, until you run out of successful people to tax (look at history to see how that is done).  Then all you have are a bunch of poor people expecting more handouts, but your have nothing to give.

The best way to promote freedom is to promote opportunity.  Make it possible for anyone who works hard to succeed.  Success is different for each person.  For an uneducated immigrant, success is seeing his kid graduate from college.  For another person, success is buying the first house.  Success isn’t always being rich enough to retire to the Bahamas.

As for McCain’s VP choice.  She’s WAY too socially conservative for my taste.  She is against abortion under any circumstance - even when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.  While I don’t particularly like the idea of abortions, I feel they should be allowed in the first trimester.  I’m unsure about the second trimester.  I’m against third trimester abortions except in special cases, e.g. medical necessity.  Hell, if a woman so stupid she waits until the third trimester to get an abortion, then she’s definitely too dumb to be allowed to be a parent.  So put the kid up for adoption and sterilize the idiot mother to protect the gene-pool (that should generate some hate mail).

She also is against sex-education except for teaching abstinence.  She should personally know that trying to teach that to a teenager is all too often a failure.  You can hope your teenager will abstain, but the reality is they are an exploding pile of hormones, barely under control.  Urge abstinence, but teach them birth control and protection from disease.  Hope for the best, plan for the worse.

The most troublesome thing about this election is how blatant the media is about their backing of Obama.  They are so fawning that you half expect the reporters to drop to their knees and give their anointed one a quick blow job.  I stopped paying attention to newspapers and t.v. news years ago when it comes to politics.  Every now and then I take a peek at what’s going on and it always reaffirms my decision to ignore them.

Despite my dislike of Palin, I’m probably going to vote for McCain since there is no way in hell I will vote for a socialist.  At least Palin is pro-gun rights and, while being against gay marriage, she has shown she can reach a compromise when she vetoed an Alaskan state bill that would have banned benefits to gay partners.  Personally, I haven’t decided on the gay marriage issue, so her meeting halfway on this issue is fine by me.

So Russia has attacked and invaded another country.  Where are the peace marches?  Oh, that’s right, they are only against the United States going after evil bastards.  They have no problems with another country attacking a peaceful neighbor.

So where are the United Nations resolutions?  Oops, they aren’t Israel.  So no resolutions.

I’ve done more than the UN and the peace-niks combined.  I added this to my server firewall rules:

iptables -A INPUT -m geoip –source-country RU -j DROP

My servers no longer exist to all of Russia.

I was at a restaurant with some friends and because I had mentioned that I thought the waitress was hot, they started chatting it up with her in an effort to break the ice.  When the waitress mentioned her name was Miranda, I tried to come up with a witty response about her name and the movie Serenity.  My suave and debonair line probably came out something like, “Ack oogle drool SERENITY er ah snicker FIREFLY.”

Yeah, I’m the lady’s man.

California just passed a law that will ban trans-fats in restaurants.  The premise for passing the law (heart disease) is based on junk science.  Even if there was a definitive link to heart disease, whether or not I choose to eat donuts cooked in trans-fat is my business and my business alone!  I want the government to butt out of my life and butt out of my eating habits.

One of the many reasons the State of California is broke is the government doesn’t know when to stop.  Anything and everything must be regulated.  And any time you regulate something, there is a cost which drains tax money from necessary services.  California has a broken budget.  It’s not because of a shortage of taxes.  We have some of the highest tax rates in the country.  It’s because the idiot politicians think everything under the sun is their business.

I have a message for every single politician in the state, “Get your fucking hands off my donuts!”

Here’s a quick quiz.  Fill in the blank.

“Enough is enough – we need to get tough on ______ in this country and our judges should be handing out tough sentences, not brandishing their own.”

If you guessed “guns”, you would be wrong.  The correct answer is “knives”.  They haven’t learned a damn thing from the their gun control fiasco — all guns banned, violent crime going through the roof.  The U.K. insists on doing the exact same thing with knives.  Because if you pass a weapons law the criminals will fall right into step.

My current musical passion is blues guitarist Ana Popović.  She’s awesome on the guitar, an excellent singer, is hot looking, and has a sexy Central European accent that I have a weakness for.  Because when you think of the Blues, you naturally think Serbia!

My weakness for the accent probably comes from being raised on Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons and being corrupted by Natasha Fatale.  My ex never did understand why I wanted her to say, “must get moose and squirrel“.

The U.K. keeps sliding deeper and deeper into the worst type of Orwellian nanny-state.  It’s become so bad that I find myself saying to myself, “you’ve got to be fucking kidding me!“.

First they took away everyone’s firearms leaving them with little means of defending themselves from thugs.  The result has been the highest violent crime rate in the western world and the skyrocketing rate of “hot burglaries”.  The nanny-government followed up by making it illegal to use force to defend yourself against a criminal or to prevent a crime.  Here’s a recent example.  A businessman witnesses a burglar breaking into a mobile phone store.  Being a good citizen, he pins the bastard on the ground while passers-by called the police.  In a civilized country he would be thanked by the police and possibly given some honor.  Not bloody likely.  They let the thief go and charged the hero with assault.  Read the full story.

Not content with making it possible for the lawless to take over, they also want to interfere with your religious beliefs.  A school conducted a religious education class, specifically on the religion of hate, aka Islam.  Two schoolboys refused to kneel and pray to the god of pedophiles, so were punished with detention.  Again, read the full story.

Finally, because there might be some secret racists hiding about, the nanny-state has printed a nearly four hundred page inquisition how-to for weeding out evil.  “Even babies can not be ignored in the drive to root out prejudice.” WHAT THE FUCK!  Children who turn their nose up at unusual foods are suspect. Obviously the fucking retards who wrote this book have never dealt with children who have a habit of saying “yuk” to something they liked just yesterday.  Again, read it all.

I have a question for the subjects of the UK (they don’t deserve to be called citizens).  Are you people so incapable of dealing with your day to day lives that you simply must have your idiotic government control every tiny aspect of it?  Can’t you fucking think for yourself for just a moment?  Your country is completely lost.  You gave up all your rights.  You are nothing but children. 

Never again sing the words to Rule, Britannia!

I just finished the excellent book Moment of Truth In Iraq, by Michael Yon, the longest embedded journalist in Iraq.  He thoroughly covers our military’s triumphs and mistakes in this war.  The bad news, we screwed up a lot in how we handled the country, mainly by creating a huge vacuum after dismantling their military and ignoring the rather import local sheiks.  The good news, we’ve recognized where we went wrong and have done a pretty damn good job of correcting them.

It no longer matters why we went to Iraq.  The deed is done.  With that in mind, you must ask yourself, “what should we do now?” If you believe we should pull out immediately, then you are promoting the bloody destruction of the people of Iraq as several countries are just drooling for the chance to invade and take over - Iran being at the front of the line.  Do we have a moral responsibility to help rebuild this country, or are morals irrelevant and that country is not worth a single American life, regardless of the fact that we put Iraq in this precarious situation?

Alternately, do you believe we are honor bound to do everything possible to stabilize the country and leave them in a better situation than we found them?

So what’s your choice, America?  Turn our backs and leave them to their fate, or morals and honor?

Once again, Google has shown their contempt for the American military and has failed to provide a doodle for Memorial Day.  This is not an accidental omission.  Even if someone is against the Iraqi war, it’s no excuse for not honoring Fallen Heroes of past conflicts such as the brave men who gave the ultimate sacrifice to stop Nazi world domination in World War II, or the countless numbers who died ridding this country of slavery in the Civil War.

While working at Google, I realized that a rather significant number of the employees there truly hate America.  No surprise as they recruit a huge number straight out of college and from overseas.  Hatred of this country is as much a part of Google culture as free food.  Google has the highest concentration of idiots with 4.0 GPAs in the entire world.

College age citizens seem to lack common sense.  They have so many advantages from the simple fact that they are born here, yet espouse a great hatred for their country.  It’s one thing to criticize the government for wrongs, hell, I do that all the time.  It’s quite another thing to wish the death of our soldiers and the destruction of this country.  Hopefully, these young idiots will mature a little bit, recognize their stupidity, and correct themselves.  This doesn’t mean accept government mistakes blindly.  Continue to criticize, but do it to keep this the best damn country in the world, not to destroy it.

While I can almost understand our own young citizens in their behavior, immigrants who express a hatred for the USA confound me.  If you hate this country so much, here’s a suggestion: GO THE FUCK BACK TO YOUR SHITTY LITTLE COUNTRY.  We don’t want you.  We don’t need you. There are plenty of other people standing in line to get into this country and start a new life.  On the day they take the oath to become a sparkling new citizen, their chests will swell with pride and national holidays will be days of importance to them.  These people make the best citizens, possibly better than those of us born here for the simple fact that they had to earn something so precious.

A final message to Google.  Your corporate motto of “don’t be evil” is a nice bit of propaganda bullshit, but it means nothing when you help governments track down and arrest peaceful dissidents and to enforce draconian censorship in China.

I finally settled on a new cell phone after the fiasco with the LG Voyager.  Last weekend I picked up the HTC Kaiser, rebranded as the AT&T Tilt.  Calling it a simple cell phone is a great injustice.  It’s a hand held computer with a cell phone built in.  It’s major down-side is it’s Windows Mobile based.  I simply couldn’t find a non-Windows smartphone that I liked. 

It does pretty much everything I wanted.  It talks to my IMAP mail server.  It can browse the internet (I hate Internet Exploder so I installed Opera Mobile).  Handles Yahoo IM and the more typical SMS.  I even installed PocketPutty so I can log into a Linux server with a secure connection.  The GPS works perfectly with Google Maps and has already proven to be handy when I took a wrong turn and needed to find the best route to my destination.  It includes the usual contact lists, appointment planner, notepad, etc.  The touchscreen works rather well with the stylus, but the small keyboard is taking a bit to get used to it. 

The sound quality with the Plantronics bluetooth headset is excellent and connection quality is much better than my previous phone.  The built in voice dialer gave me some trouble, so I installed “Voice Commander” which is better, though rather slow to load after pressing the bluetooth button.

An online community is very active for this phone and they’ve managed to get a beta of Google’s Android to run on it (sort of).  I’m hoping I’ll be able to dump Windows entirely and go entirely Linux in the near future.

I don’t think so.

I picked up a new cell phone after using the most basic of phones for years.  I needed something that was internet capable.  After researching phone capabilities, I found the LG Voyager had all the features I wanted (and a few I didn’t need).  The phone is awesome.  It can connect to any POP3 or IMAP mail server so it was no problem having it talk to my mail server - one of my prime requirements.  It can also browse the internet, not the most pleasant activity on the tiny screen, but necessary at times in my work.  It has a touch screen on the outside, similar to Apple’s iPhone, and a qwerty keyboard when you pop it open.  it’s way too small to touch type, of course, but very nice for typing text messages, emails, etc compared to using a phone keypad - something I hate doing so much that I don’t text message.  It also has bluetooth, a camera (not important to me), GPS with voice directions, and can play mp3s and even videos (wtf!).  I thought I had found the perfect cell phone.

Unfortunately, the phone is only available through Verizon, and in the infinite wisdom of their marketing department, they completely fucked it up by locking it down tighter than a gnat’s ass.  The only programs you can load onto the phone must be obtained through their “Get It Now” service.  That guaranteed I couldn’t get an ssh client (one of my major desires).  It won’t even let me run Google’s Mobile Maps because of their anal retentive policy.  Their mapping software included for free with my service is ok, but I want to use Google’s.  My attitude is it’s my damn phone, I paid for it.  I will use it as I damn well please.  Since there is no way around their idiotic policy (it can’t be hacked), I will return it this weekend since they have a 30 day return policy.

This could have been the iPhone killer.  This could have been the best cell phone available.  However, their desire to extract every single penny they can from their customers has ruined it.  Message to Verizon: Stop treating your customers like sheep to be sheared.  Some of us won’t tolerate it.

I’m again researching cell phones.  So far, though, I haven’t found something as nice as the Voyager.  The “Tilt” looks promising, but it’s Windows based.  I’m a Linux system administrator, so using it would be wrong!

Follow up: I should point out that I have very specialized requirements.  The LG Voyager doesn’t meet my needs.  However, for most people it would be an excellent choice.  If you want a cool gadget.  If you would be happy with the limited selection of programs offered through Verizon’s GIN system.  If you don’t mind third party applications being locked out, then by all means, get one.

I start my day with a couple of shots of espresso.  In the past I used a standard consumer class manual espresso maker.  This meant I needed to grind the beans, pack the grounds, add water, then wait a several minutes for the machine to brew a shot.  When just waking up, this was a bit much (I’m not a morning person).  After reading up on espresso makers, I picked up a reconditioned super-automatic espresso maker, the Jura-Capresso Impressa E8.  Because it was reconditioned, it was less than half the regular retail price of about $1,200.  As a factory reconditioned unit, it came with the full warranty of a new unit.  Factory reconditioned typical indicates the unit was returned immediately after purchase because of some problem or because the buyer was not happy with their purchase.  The factory fixes any problems and repackages like a new unit but sells it for far below the regular price.

Functionally, I have not had a single problem - it works perfectly every time.  I am beyond pleased with the results.  When the unit is first turned on, it takes about one minute to heat the water and “flush” the system.  Once it is warmed up, a push of a button delivers a shot of espresso in under 30 seconds.  That 30 seconds includes the time to grind the beans.  You load it up with a quantity of the coffee beans of your choice and a supply of water.  When either the water or the bean supply runs low, a digital display lets you know.  It also tells you when you need to empty the bin containing used coffee grounds.

The quality of the espresso is dependent upon the beans you use.  The online store I purchased it from included a pound of beans they call “Automatika”, which wasn’t bad, but not great.  I tried a variety of coffee beans available locally, from Starbucks, the supermarket, etc.  Not one of the choices was worth the money.  I finally got my hands on some Jamaican Blue Mountain espresso roast.  This was perfect espresso!  Smooth as silk.  Not a trace of bitterness.  My ex would love it.  It cost slightly more than store-bought beans, $50 for three pounds, and is well worth the slightly higher price.  Unfortunately, the price recently went up to $70 for three pounds.  I hope that’s just a seasonal price increase, otherwise I may have to find a replacement bean supply.

The espresso maker will also froth milk if your preference is a latte or mocha, but since it only has a single boiler, you can make espresso or froth milk, you can’t do both at the same time.  Higher end models include double boilers and would be a better choice if you prefer milk based drinks.  Alternately, you can purchase a separate milk frother, though I have no experience with these.

This espresso maker has loads of features and includes a DVD to show you how things work.  You can adjust the grinder for fineness of the grounds.  It has a replaceable water filter to make sure the espresso isn’t tainted by low quality water and to protect the internals (especially important if you have hard water).  The shot size is adjustable from 1 oz to 4 oz in half ounce increments.  I have mine set to 2 oz, the size of my espresso cups.  Once set, you never need to mess with it again unless you wish to change the shot size.  It can make two shots at once with a single button push, with the quantity of coffee grounds adjusted appropriately.  There’s a bypass chute so you can pour preground coffee in and skip the beans completely - handy if you want to make a shot of decaf for a guest.  After two hours of non-use, it turns itself off.

I love this espresso maker.  I typically use it twice in the morning and sometimes I have a shot in the evening.  On weekends, I drink way more espresso than I should because it’s so damn easy and tastes so good.  It’s been in constant use for almost a year and works like a champ.  If/when it does finally break down, I won’t hesitate to buy a new one.

Addendum: One minor problem, not a big deal.  The beans tend to not feed perfectly, so I have to push them around in the hopper all the time.  That’s not hard since the hopper opening is right on top and I just need to flip the top open and poke at the beans a little bit to fix things.  The engineering fix is to make the hopper steeper, but that would require the unit to be a bit taller, and it’s about as tall as you want it to fit conveniently on the counter and under the cabinets.

My contract job at Google ends on Monday.  This is not a surprise since it was not a contract-to-hire position.  I’m going to miss working there.  It’s a great place to work.  The free meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) meant I never had to buy groceries - just snacks.  What I won’t miss is the long commute.  It was around ninety minutes each way.  Spending so much time on the road every day was tiresome.  Fortunately, I already have a new job lined up and am just waiting for the paperwork to be processed and be given start date.  The new job is local, only a fifteen minute drive, so I get back over two hours of my life every day.  The base salary is slightly lower, but it’s a permanent position so I get full benefits - health coverage, holidays, vacations, etc., which more than makes up for the difference.

When time allows, I will be writing something on the culture of Google.  The good stuff has been well covered.  I’m going to talk about the not so good stuff.  No business secrets, though.  My ethics would never allow me to violate a nondisclosure.

Update: The local job never materialized.  The headhunter kept insisting I was going to receive a formal offer real-soon-now, but after two weeks, I gave up and took another offer.  The commute is going to suck, but it’s only a three month contract so I can live with it.

Campaigning for the presidential election is starting to kick into high gear.  Personally, I never decide how I will cast my vote until the last week.  I can’t, for the life of me, figure out how people can drive around with half a dozen bumper stickers for their chosen candidate this far away from the vote.  Don’t you people spend any time thinking about this?  For god’s sake, this is important!

Who I vote for will come down to a single question, “Who will defend and protect the Constitution the most?” In other words, who will take their damn oath of office serious.  Only two candidates make the grade, both Republican.  Ron Paul and Fred Thompson.  I don’t think Ron Paul has any chance as he comes of as a bit of a loon.  Fred Thompson is very presidential looking and is extremely intelligent, but he’s a bit too far on the “right” for me.  We disagree on a few key issues, abortion rights, for example.

On the left, not a single Democratic candidate believes in the Constitution.  From what I see, every single one of them would sooner wipe their asses with it than uphold it (the same is true of the remaining Republican candidates).

I fully expect to be stuck with no choice.  The final race will end up being between two jackasses who have no understanding of their true job (defending my damn Rights!) and I’ll end up throwing my vote away in protest.

Addendum: Fred dropped out of the race before it even got started.  Asshole.  I’ve decided to skip this election entirely.  I loathe all the remaining candidates so much there isn’t even the option to vote against someone.  Shit.

Sometimes you run across a blog post so imbecilic that a right proper flaming is called for.  Instead of wasting any effort on crafting the perfect high-temperature reply, I put together a script to do the job automatically.  So without further adieu, The Flame-O-Matic.  Give it a click and enjoy.  One minor problem, it occasionally repeats itself.

I almost named the script Dailykos.

The text used in the script is based on The Ultimate Flame, which I converted to a Dada Engine grammar rule.  I then added a PHP wrapper to make it web accessible.