Recently I decided to give XBMC Live a try as the alternative to making my own Ubuntu install. I figured they might have it worked out to go a little faster. It looks as though I was right, and it's a great install so far as I can see, but I also discovered that they left out bluetooth. As probably the best cheap option for a good remote is a used Playstation 3 remote available at a gamestop near you for thirty bucks or less, this seems like an unfortunate omission. As I want to use a Logitech MX5000 keyboard hooked up to an MX900's USB Bluetooth dongle/mouse charging cradle, it was especially annoying.

TSA's "nude" body scanners are completely ineffectual. As far as anyone can tell, they are designed to make it easier to smuggle stuff onto planes, as they miss stuff that normal metal detectors catch. Your tax dollars at work to commit rape and take child porn photos.

Since I got a Mixman DM2 and like to run Linux I decided to put the two together. Slight hassle, though, the kernel doesn't sit still while you're not watching. A slight tweak is needed to get the driver to work on a modern kernel; in my case, 3.0.0-14-generic on Ubuntu.

I got a used Mixman DM² and here's some notes on what I've done with it on day one. This is on Windows XP; you can use the device on earlier versions of Windows, but not later ones. Works fine on OSX and Linux supposedly, but I haven't tried it in either place.

The fun, it burns. And it never stops, either.

In the last few days the Ford's had new batteries and some cable soldering work done, eliminating two of the four lead terminals and replacing them with the stamped steel lead-free style. The Mercedes, meanwhile, has had an '83 (or was it '84?) W123 300D turbo rebuilt and installed, along with a manual boost controller, W123 air filter housing which I still need to modify to take the W126 cold air intake, and VDO boost and voltage gauges. The voltage gauge is just something I had around, and it's taking up space until I get a VDO pyrometer to go in there; it's never a good idea to turn your turbo up without a pyro.

Less than 12 hours after opening, the Obama administration’s “virtual embassy” in Iran was blocked by Tehran’s digital gatekeepers on Wednesday. [...] White House spokesman Jay Carney condemned the blockage in a statement Wednesday evening, saying the Iranian government had “again demonstrated its commitment to build an electronic curtain of surveillance and censorship around its people.”

Unfortunately, he was a terrible hypocrite who, if there was any justice, would have seen his tongue fall out of his mouth.

The United Nations envoy for freedom of expression is drafting an official communication to the U.S. government demanding to know why federal officials are not protecting the rights of Occupy demonstrators whose protests are being disbanded -- sometimes violently -- by local authorities.

The following is something I posted on someone's Google+ thread. Long rant follows the break as it did not there.

100 years ago there weren't laws preventing you from using humanure to grow your food. And no-till agriculture is more efficient than that nonsense using rototillers and tractors and so on. Of course, it's only nonsense if you're only producing enough food for your own consumption; machines have their place in agriculture. I eagerly await further advances in robotics in agriculture, as that is the technology that makes it possible for economically feasible mechanized food production without destruction of the soil, water, air, et cetera. However, we have masses of unemployed in most of our societies worldwide, and such an advance would only exacerbate this problem. (long rant which followed deleted and moved to my blog)