There’s a fun article on [MSNBC – The Tech-Support Generation]:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6522314/site/newsweek/ that talks about young Americans going home for Thanksgiving, and to fix their parents’ computers.

I think my family is reasonably adept at handling their own technological issues though. I usually end up fixing stuff anyway, but they’re pretty capable of handling it on their own. I’ve trained them well. 🙂

Honestly, I can’t say I blame them for asking me, when they do. I’m a little over-educated when it comes to computing and technology, even compared to other PhD students, so I’m really *supposed* to know the answer. Sometimes I don’t though. There’s too much. And a student’s budget doesn’t leave that much room to buy and play with the all the latest technogadgetry.

I can’t wait to come home. 🙂

I’m sure some of you have seen this before, but I’m a little astonished to see this sort of thing done so explicitly. I suppose there are websites for buying term papers and stuff, but this is new for me.

Have a look:
Rent A Coder – C Basic Sorted Array List

Basically a student is asking someone to do his/her homework, using a programming contracting site. I see that the request was cancelled– hopefully the student rethought the idea– but it’s dismaying that it was even posted. There’s even a link to the course assignment webpage. It might be a joke, but I know that if I were doing it as a joke, I’d put up something more elaborate, and inject some more outrageous or humorous bits into the description.

Is this sort of thing common? I sure hope not. I like having faith in humanity, thank you very much.

John Ashcroft’s Justics Department supports some pretty scary legislation. Yes, this includes the Induce Act, and the [Piracy Deterrence and Education Act]:http://www.publicknowledge.org/content/legislation/hr4077 (linked for your convenience). Since I can’t directly vote Ashcroft in/out of office, perhaps this would mean voting for Kerry. Have a look at this article:

[Wired News: Ashcroft Vows Piracy Assault]:http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,65331,00.html?tw=rss.TOP

Unfortunately, the picture isn’t so clear, since [both of them seem to say]:http://p2pnet.net/story/2560 “we support copyright” equally vaguely. The RIAA seems to [contribute roughly equally to both sides]:http://www.opensecrets.org/softmoney/softcomp1.asp?txtName=recording though the TV/Movie/Music sector [seems to favor Democrats]:http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.asp?Ind=B02 .

[Some guy]:http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/archives/000653.html seems to think we really should just consider educating the Republicans, since they’re supposed to support “less government,” “less regulation,” and “market determination.” Don’t forget to lobby your congressional reps, I suppose.

Please do vote. If you don’t like either of the two, vote for one of the smaller party’s candidates, so your dissenting voice can at least be counted.

It’s a rare event for any foreigner to be in contact with the leader-recluse Kim Jong-il of North Korea. But making pizza for him? Indeed. Here’s the article: [BBC: Making pizza for Kim Jong-il]:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3559266.stm . It’s worth a listen online. The audio segment(I made pizza for Kim Jong-il) is supposed to air on [BBC’s Radio 3]:http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/ at around 2:40pm PDT, but I will probably forget. If you do listen, post a comment here, or on your own blog(and give me a trackback so I can read it).

While North Korea has [horrible prison camps]:http://www.hrnk.org/hiddengulag/toc.html , [horrifying human rights]:http://www.nkfreedom.org/important_nk_topics.html, and [virtually no freedom for individuals]:http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/russia/map_nkorea.html , at least their great leader still gets to fly in foreign chefs to teach cooking cuisine to selected chefs. (sigh)

Please have a look at this [Feb 12 entry]:http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/2004_02_01_dear_raed_archive.html#107660057407559034 from Salam Pax.

Reading blog entries from Salam Pax brings me a lot closer to the plight of the Iraqi people, something which I don’t feel from leading newspapers and evening news. To politicians: please stop making Iraq a partisan issue. Stop focusing on what was screwed up. Everyone else: Perhaps we can focus on helping the situation? And if you are truly interested in sending a message to the government, lobby for change. Write your congressional representatives. Presidents are elected to follow the will of the people. Honestly, as a citizen, isn’t it a bit strange to put all of your political interest in a presidential election? The government functions day-to-day. The president isn’t a dictator. I can’t say that I identify strongly with either candidate, but it has become clear to me that if I cared about an issue, I need to do more than vote. Actually, I think voting for a presidential candidate is a pretty vague way of indicating how you think government should act. You vote for someone who you think is best for the job, but people are fallible. It seems to me that the things that happen in government happen because people have lobbied for their interests outside of elections.

Anyway. In an effort to be a more informed citizen about Iraq, please do take advantage of what the internet has to offer. Primary sources. News, information, from people who saw it first hand. From mainstream media, it sounds like Iraq is about to erupt in a civil war. Yet, positive things continue to happen there. Both Iraqis and foreigners are working hard to make things better. Bad things have happened, and they need to be resolved, but good things happen too.

Read a milblog or two. Biased as they might be, they are much less filtered than, say, a CNN broadcast. Try [this]:http://www.thegreenside.com/story.asp?ContentID=9136 and [this entry]:http://www.thegreenside.com/story.asp?ContentID=9172 from [The Green Side.]:http://www.thegreenside.com I listed more milblogs and blogs by Iraqis in this [blog entry.]:http://www.wilyness.com/blog/archives/2004/03/17/blogs_from_iraq.php But here’s another one ([Nabil’s blog]:http://nabilsblog.blogspot.com/ ) by a 17-year old in Baghdad. He blogs in Arabic occasionally because his friends complain that they don’t understand the English.

Anyway, I guess I’m just feeling a little political right now, and maybe just a little sick of reading so much negative news. Let’s all pray for some world peace, okay?

Okay, really quick. I’m doing a little house cleaning for my vast, unorganized pile of data, and I came across this link:
[Follow the Money: Who’s Really Making the Dough?]:http://industryclick.com/magazinearticle.asp?magazinearticleid=132835&magazineid=33&siteID=15&releaseid=9554&mode=print
It’s pretty interesting. Still, I don’t think it costs that much. I bet that 250k spent on marketing is internal billing from the record company’s own infrastructure, and the recording likewise. So. Yes, the artists aren’t making out all that well in a “normal” record deal, but really, I think there’s a highly tuned infrastructure in these record companies that is so used to spending money in a certain way, on certain things, etc. It’s really hard to change. So it seems best to use independent labels, where the recording and marketing costs can be much less. Recording equipment, anyway, should be much cheaper these days (or is industrialization just a pile of junk?).

Have a look at the article. Oh, and by the way, yes, I’m kind of disappointed that Rupert Murdoch decides what’s news, that record companies decide what’s recordable, and that Clear Channel and MTV decide what’s hip. I know, they all worked hard for their lucrative positions, but all I have to say is “power corrupts.”

This was an interesting read…
[Oil For Terror]:http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/cRosett/?id=110005011

It’s a look on the UN’s Oil-for-food program for Saddam’s Iraq. Yes, well, um… hm… somehow, it doesn’t seem that the sanctions had as much to do with Iraqi economic difficulties. One of the stories: a shell company setup by senior officials of Saddam’s regime was a UN-authorized purchaser of Iraqi oil. Also, why would the United Arab Emirates purchase oil from Iraq?

I thought it was worth reading…

Okay, so it still feels a little biased towards corporations, but [Sweatshops and Globalization]:http://www.aworldconnected.org/article.php/525.html is still a pretty decent article about “low-wage” factories in third-word/developing countries. It’s pretty persuasive. Still, there’s a really fine line between operating with the market’s real supplies and demands, and being greedy and artificially keeping wages low or lobbying governments for unfair competitive advantages and subsidies. Oh wait, did that sentence make any sense? Better ask someone better versed in international trade and economics.

See also: [A World Connected]:http://www.aworldconnected.org

Hey, it’s another interesting piece from the folks at [Reason]:http://www.reason.com (your regularly scheduled libertarian editorial site) on one person who has [vowed never to pay income taxes again.]:http://www.reason.com/0405/fe.bd.its.shtml

Though I can’t say that I agree with much of the stuff that Reason publishes, they present reasonably researched articles that slant differently than normal media. Nearly all news is slanted one way or another, right? If I absorb the same facts from different slants, I end up a more informed person, don’t I?

(So… I just wrote this long email to someone asking for recommendations on cell phone service, and I figured I should post it here, both for my own reference and in case anyone finds it helpful or has something to add.)

I have a home phone, but rarely use it. It’s for telemarketers to use, and for when I want to call international, since cellphones don’t support the 101nnnn (like 1010-220 or 1010-345) dial-around long distance system.

Anyway, I have Sprint, and it’s okay. Its main benefit is trouble-free coverage, a good plan, and I have other family members with it. I have the “please don’t switch to AT&T” plan, at 36/month for 500 peak, 3000 off-peak, 500 sprint minutes. No home calling area, free domestic long distance. It’s only offered if you ask to cancel service with them.

I would recommend Sprint or Verizon (no preference), since they both have really decent coverage. The others have their own problems, which may or may not apply to you. I hear that Cingular is okay if you’re in SF or in LA, but fairly sucky in other places, like suburbs between SF and San Jose. Cingular may be better now, since they bought AT&T wireless. T-mobile has good plans, but their coverage isn’t very good. Still, if you don’t have a car, maybe you won’t go anywhere where the more spotty providers have deadspots.

Try not to get stuck with a contract greater than a year. But remember that the law says you can cancel any cell phone service and return the phone within 30-days of purchase.

All of them have bad customer service. I’ve had my own bad experiences with Sprint, and my friends have bad experiences with AT&T. I’ve heard of bad experiences with the others.

Actually, the cheapest long distance I’ve found is prepaid: www.onesuite.com . Its only problem is that the call quality would sometimes be bad when calling some overseas destinations. Oh, and your account expires if you don’t recharge it for 6 months (minimum $5 recharge). bigzoo.com has similar rates, but had security problems in the past with leaking credit card numbers, so personally, I can’t trust them.