Here I Am (Meme)

1. Take a picture of yourself right now.
2. Don’t change your clothes, don’t fix your hair…just take a picture.
3. Post that picture with NO editing.
4. Post these instructions with your picture.

You’ll excuse the messy look, I just rolled out of bed.

-eddie martinez

Silly Things I do: vol. 2

Starring the best communication protocol known to man: ssh+screen+irssi

Most nights I am done with my computer for the night and I want to leave IRC on one computer. To detatch the screen session and return  to it later I do ctrl+a and then ctrl +d. Then I type ‘logout’ and then ‘exit’ go to bed. To get back in the morning I do ssh user@server.com and then i authenticate. I return to irc using the screen -rd command. Very simple.

Sometimes I try to leave by doing this. ctrl+a and then ctrl+d and then +exit+exit. The next morning I get mad and have to log back into IRC.

Explanation. Ctrl+a followed by ctrl+d in screen will detatch the screen at the server. However, by using ‘exit exit’ twice to close my connection to the server and the terminal/konsole/bash shell on the laptop, I am killing screen and the attached irssi/irc sessions. This is the opposite of why I want to use screen+irssi+ssh.

The proper way is to do ctrl+a and then ctrl+d for screen on the remote server. Type ‘logout’ to end the connection and then type exit to close my terminal.

So don’t do what I do, follow proper screen+ssh+irssi technique unless you want to wake up in the morning, curse at yourself, and sign back into all your irc rooms.

Silly things that I do

Remember now:

ctrl+alt+backspace will restart X

ctrl +shift + backspace will clear your private firefox data.

don’t mistake the two, it could result in a widespread emberassment.

Arguing about Scientology

At the mall today I had a one sided conversation with a group of Scientologist which was very striking to me. It was one sided in the regard that I don’t feel that the people I was arguing with were really informed enough to engage in the conversation at a truly deep, semantic level.

When asked about the OT levels and the higher power Xenu for example, the person quickly denied any such entitity existing, as they had done in previous conversations. Moreover, it was a vehemont and loud denial, meant to be an authorative stance. According to Jim Lewis, who is refrenced and quoted on the Xenu Wikipedia page, this is not the case however. Being one of, if not the most, authorative scholars in Alternative Religions, I find the claim by said Scientologist to be misinformed, if not an outright lie. I would like to err on the side of caution and give them the benefit of the doubt.

The conversation moved on to the influences of the church, where a more senior fellow from Scientology told me about the origins. According to him, L. Rob Hubbard traveled early in his life and learned the rituals and systems of the Easter religions, where the first religions were invented created.

Even later in the conversation, he claimed that Scientology is a technology, an understanding of the world, an ideology, science, and belief system.

Problems I have with this:

Scientology is not a science. I have seen no public works which describe their research methods, falsifiablity, and experiments. Further, a science requires independent study and hard evidence is required, none of which I’ve seen. How are advances in the science made? Moreover, full knowledge and understanding of the ’science’ is requied….

There was a claim by the Scientologist that said:

The information [re: Xenu] is doctored information that was taken and then completely altered to make everything sound spacey….if such a document exists. If there is a document out there claiming this stuff, then they[anyone with knowledge re: Xenu] would not have the acess to talk about copyrighten materials, they just simply would not have access to such files if they existed…. If they did have such documents, they’d be the biggest copyright theif alive.

I have a problem with on several levels. For one, I find the copyright claim to be dubious, although I am not familiar with the copyright law in the 1950’s, I think that the actual documents would be in the public domain. Even if I’m wrong for this one, this is not the point. All religious/scientific texts should be in the public domain. Regardless of the actual understanding of what Scientology is, this should be public. It’s knowledge and understanding of the world which should be reviewable by all.

Second, the claim of ‘largest copyright thief’ is a straw man logical fallacy.

Thirdly, this document regarding Xenu DOES exist. Further, it can be found in L. Rob Hubbard’s own writing on page 236 of the NEW OT3 chapter of The Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology this page. All of this is in the public domain. Legal issues aside, the inability to control the spreading of this document on the Internet has made this a de facto truth. Later, I was specifically told that Scientology is not about rockets, aliens, or spaceships in any regard. I guess they looked at Hubbbard’s handwriting and rejected it from the official understanding of Scientology?

Another issue I had with this conversation was the question regarding the origins of Scientology. The claim is that L. Ron Hubbard learneed from but was not influenced by the other religions. When I asked about the relationship between Jack Parsons and Hubbard, the Scientologist said that the name was new to him. This is a historical inaccuracy, seeing as Hubbard and Parsons performed ritual magick together, as well as Hubbard marrying (Betty Northup) the half sister of Parsons’ wife, after she had lived with Parsons for some time. Further, Allied Enterprises is a boating company created and owned by Hubbard, Parsons, and Betty Northup in 1946, which means that the 3 at minimum, be easily linked. Either this is a lie, an ignorance, or a mix of the two.

The last statement which caused me confusion and ire was the claim that Dianetics/Scientology can help increase abilities and other such ‘powers’. Specifically I asked him, ‘you mean like Spiderman or Superman’ to which the reply was ‘for some people, yes, that is an option’. Even for a religious person, this was a bold and redicolous statement…

I’ve tried to present this encounter in a fair and balanced manner, but we all know this is impossible. Comments, feedback, etc. are appreciated.

Stay classy San Diago,

-eddie m.

Ubuntu on Schools?

I sent the following email to my school’s Office of Technoly Services (here: OTS) about their partnership with Dell, Inc. and the  lack of Open Source love I found on their end:

I’m looking for information regarding the IIT parternship with Dell, Inc. Specifically I navigated to the Dell website through the OTS link and searched through the laptops. In searching through the laptop/notebooks, I was unable to find any option to change the Operating System, a major point for me as I am an Ubuntu Linux developer. It is fact that Dell has been selling Ubuntu Linux Laptops for almost a year already (see: http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2007/05/01/13147.aspx) and I would like to speak with someone about ordering an Ubuntu laptop through the IIT/Dell partnership. I have as of yet been unable to find any information on the Dell/IIT OTS website as to the proper authority on this issue.

Thanks for the time,

-Eddie M.

That is where the email ends. If anyone has any experience on this issue, or knows of a proper contact, please let me know. Thanks!

What Ubuntu’s next move SHOULD be.

So Ubuntu has developed a great community, strong user base, bi-yearly release cycles, blah blah blah. I get it, and I do follow up on the news quite a bit. But here is the area where Ubuntu should be moving into next:

Exclusive clothing.

That’s right. Nothing screams ‘I am a balla and you should cop gear like mine ASAP’ as much as a nice pair of kicks. I’m sure most of the people out there reading this (I can’t imagine there would be many) think this is either a bad idea, or a stupid one. But I do believe that Ubuntu moving into the market of exclusive clothing and hyping the product as much as possible is a good move. Take a look at
shoes like these and tell me that you wouldn’t like to rock similar shoes to those.

So now I pass the idea onto the Ubuntu-Marketing team and when the clothes come, a free hookup or Fight Club style nod is more than enough for me.

-Eddie

(Yes damnit, I am serious.)

why?

In… 6 hours, a subsection of the paper on stem cells is due to my Biology group with my work. My particular topic is the argumentation for/against stem cell research, from a moral and academic perspective. Those two sections are the most common viewpoints and arguments, though the topic can be analyzed existentially, biologically, philosophically or from a Utilitarian viewpoint, among others.

In doing my research I stumbled across a company: StemCells, Inc. Aside from the obvious creepyness of this company, I couldn’t help but wonder what they were all about. The Inc. states that they are a company, and yes, they are a corporation. Their goal is to develop stem cell technologies, patent and trademark them, lastly entering into contracts with third party companies. Proprietary humans, this is exactly what we need.

I support stem cells on a purely academic level. If you look at the number of stem cells being left to die or killed because they are not needed for research (federal funding is a problem), or simply stored infinitely… Compare that to the potential gains and it seems like a pretty solid deal. True, nothing HAS come of stem cell research yet, but I’m a pollyanna idealist, so I’ll pretend otherwise.

Here is what is troubling me, a line from the company info:

An important element of the Company’s stem cell discovery program is the further development of intellectual property positions with respect to stem and progenitor cells.

….WHAT?!? No! Bad company! NO Intellectual property! Further research shows a heavy interest in IP, copyrights, licensing right etc.

Simply put, this company is evil. It’s not their fault.

The United States Supreme Court ruled in Dodge vs. Ford (1926? I forget the date) that corporations have no LEGAL RIGHT to be ethical in any way shape or form. In fact, their primary and sole obligation is to increase the stockholders’ profit. Ethics are then, illegal. This ruling is the basis of modern capitalism, the structure to which Microsoft, ATI, and countless companies adhere.

Of course my problem is not Capitalism or money (actually I prefer a mixed model form of economy) but companies such as this. Companies which use DRM or other such forms to restrict culture. A company which pays lip service to human growth/advance and looks at their bottom line at the end of the end. There is a good scene in Fight Club about this where one of the main characters (the one who WASN’T brad pitt) is explaining his job.

Simply, he does a cost/benefit analysis of his company’s exploding tires, and considers the interest of his company above the lives of humans. Scary stuff, but real people do it everyday. Life doesn’t have to be a movie for a company to destroy human life.

The fact that Stem Cells Inc. literally does cost/benefit analysis with human life is just scary. I don’t know if I can support stem cell research anymore, quiet frankly.

“The Company also intends to pursue a series of non-exclusive agreements whereby third parties would have access to the Company’s cells for use in gene discovery and use, drug discovery and screening, and diagnostics. StemCells has outlicensed some of its technology to BioWhittaker, Inc. and Stem Cell Technologies, Inc. for research purposes.”

Yea…. give me a break.

-Eddie M. Disgruntled scientist

OSS fireworks

After a productive day running around with Jim C., talking about computers, fireworks, phones, the crazy Chavira familty and almost getting into a car accident (thanks to Eric C. for that one) among other issues, I have decided to help out with technology in anyway I can.

I will of course be spending more time in the IRC chans, trying to fix whatever problems I do know how to fix.

I will be trying to help out xubuntu anywhere I can, Jim is going to help me with that.

I will start spending time at Free Geek and doing what I can to work with free computers. I will try to visit the Chicago LUG meetings.

I will be trying to do bug work, documentation, etc. If you guys need anything, just email me (eddiemartinez@gmail. com) and let me know what you need and I will try to help.

These aren’t promises so much as they are goals and attempts at plans for the next few months. Again, if you need help with anything let me know. I need sleep.

-Eddie Martinez.

Free(dom)

In a conversation about non free file formats (Can’t use PowerPoint to do my bio presentation. Sorry…. Can I use Open Office?) with one of my lab partners, she became understandably confused. I noticed a look of dispair rising exponentially as I talked; NFF, DRM, license types etc. can be a bit much at first glace, so I let it slide. Her interruption however, was a slap in the face: “I just don’t get what it’s all about..” Is that how we look as a community to the general population? Geeks rambling on about 2 lines of text in a license or 6 lines of code in a program that we hardly think twice about, until it crashes?

Obviously this is a gross exaggeration of the conversation, as we have moved past that a society in whole, and my arguement is based on an account of my life. 1) Overexaggeration, 2) Story. 2 logical fallicies in one sentence? Wow, if Red_Herring wasn’t already taken, I might consider that as a nick. Actually though, RJ posted a blog that got me thinking quite a bit. In particlar, one sentence stood out:

Well the big appeal to getting a fancy shmancy Mac is the looks and OSX.

Here, we see more of the underlying fundemental issues come into play. Most people, what they are looking for in a computer, is not a super stable, editable, free software. They are not looking for quality or angsting for a quick fix to a pesty bug. “M$ has a majority market share in the new desktop PC marketplace”, Bug #1. Well no, they dont own desktop PCs. They don’t dominate the OS market either. It’s much simpler and evil then that.

First post/Install Bug

Before I say anything interesting (never) let me introduce myself. Eddie Martinez. Posingaspopular. I like computers (Ubuntu rox), skateboarding, photography, Freedom, FL/OSS, reading (anything is fine by me), discussing politics with open minded people, movies, music (all genres), sports of all kinds and talking to people in general. My email is eddiemartinez@gmail.com and I don’t mind being contacted by non spammers at all.

Blog, Blago-Blag, Web-Blag etc. Here we go, post #1:

I don’t really know what to do with all this so I’ll just update whatenever anything remotely connected to Linux comes across my lap. I recently (2-11-07) reinstalled my Dapper Ubuntu (thanks to chris_) on my hard drive and the partioning was particularly tricky. Yesterday (2-12-03) I ran into a user at #ubuntu on IRC who was having the exact same problem as me. Note: I’m in there as much as possible, as well as #ubuntu-chicago and #imagi-nation. If I’m online, I’ll respond to ping from any of those rooms. Apparently, there is a bug where Edgy (and Dapper) will refuse to reuse an existing partion and claim ‘no root file system’. The bug report is https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/67130
Does wordpress support HTML? I assume it does, but I don’t know how.

Terminal>root>fdisk>delete partitions (Windows partitions dont need to be deleted). Switch back to the installer and edit it again.

This is for MANUALLY editing a partition table at the installer. I have yet to understand

In particular, my / and swap both went to hda2 after reformating hda2. This is all IIRC though. Hopefully anyone who reads this will now know what to do in case they run across this problem while trying to help someone out. If I’m making myself unclear, or I posted something incorrectly, let me know.

YAY! End of my first blog. More soon if all goes well.

Best Wishes,

Eddie Martinez CC, NC