Category Archives: Soapbox

Shuttle Launch In Person

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So I got the opportunity to go down to Florida and see the May 11th shuttle launch in person.  It was a fun day at the Space Center awaiting the launch and while it was a VERY hot day the launch itself was very cool.  I had expected it to be cool in the whole “I’m witnessing a Space Shuttle launch” way, but it was actually just an awesome sight.  Below are the on site witness video and the official hi-res NASA vid.

Oh and the brightness of the thrust is not captured in either video.  I actually thought to myself as I watched through my 8×40 binos:  I wonder if I should be staring straight at this -shrug- oh well.  :D

Biden Reveals Location of Secret VP Bunker

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Is there such a thing as a Pre-Darwin Award?  I mean Biden’s idiocy hasn’t caused his natural selection – yet.  In his latest blunder, the VP blurted out the location of the secure bunker he would be hustled away to in the event of a terrorist or other theat.  Oops.  And in a room full of media, so no keeping a lid on that one.

Anyone else thinking Biden was chosen to reduce the threats to the Pres?  President Biden would be SCARY!

Don’t Let The Bed Bugs Bite – Your Wallet

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Democratic Rep. G.K. Butterfield wants to spend $50 MILLION of tax payer money in the fight against -gasp- Bed Bugs!

The Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite Act of 2009 (yes that’s really it’s name) would train health inspectors how to recognize signs of the insects, require public housing agencies to submit bedbug inspection plans to the federal government. It would add bedbugs to a rodent and cockroach program in the Department of Health and Human Services . It also would require the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to research bedbugs’ impact on public mental health.

I guess Congress has to find SOMETHING to spend $3,690,000,000,000.00 on.

Thanks Rob

Obama Hid Positive Voucher Report Until Congress Killed Program

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The Dept of Education’s latest report showed the DC pilot voucher program has been very successful in improving the educational opportunities for poor Black & Hispanic kids.  As this didn’t help the position of anti-voucher political allies, Obama’s administration held back the positive news until after Congress killed the program.

Glad those poor minority students now have better representation with the first Black President! Too bad the inner city kids didn’t have a powerful lobby that could donate lots of money to Obama’s political campaign.  Otherwise he not only would have kept their scholarships – he might have purchased a 55% stake in their private school for them!!!

The Ultimate Netbook

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Lenovo is taking suggestions for a higher quality ThinkPad netbook.  Here are mine:

The Ultimate Netbook: Think Sony P done right (bigger).

Using the Thinkpad Trackpoint & 100% sized keyboard but maintaining the wider format.  You get a 11-12″ screen with the footprint of a 10″ netbook.  Dial back Sony’s ridiculous res to the soon to be standard 1366×768. You have usable resolution on a screen large enough to not require squinting. Take the Asus/MSI over/under-clock to the next level with 1.12/1.66/1.84Ghz & focus on reasonable sized SSDs (32+GB) for the power savings & performance balancing act.  As much performance as possible is great but battery life is key.  8-10hrs would be great but 6+ (in the real world) is required.  Find a way to fit an expresscard/34 slot without losing too much and you’ll be at the head of the class for expandability.  And finally build quality, build quality, build quality.

Such a netbook could command a (relatively) premium price and sit between the std netbooks and ultraportables.