dear lazywebs: help me fix the internet

Hello all, maybe you can help me fix a problem with webbrowsers on Kubuntu Hardy Heron.As far as I can remember, the trouble all started 3 days ago or so.

When I go to start Firefox, it idles (meaning that the ghosty looking firefox icon starts on the panel) but never starts. If I try to open up 12 instances of firefox, maybe one or two windows might open. But most of the time, nothing opens. When the window goes open to The Google (which is a hilarious joke for everyone counting), it freezes and i have to do a hard ‘killall firefox’ for it. Just an fyi, even if the firefox window doesn’t open the process is seen running when i check htop or run ps aux | grep firefox.

I did a sudo aptitude purge firefox, and then I tried to ‘apt-get install firefox’. This resulted in
being told that the program is already installed. Sweet!

I tried to remove firefox using Adept, but the icons still appeared on my computer. And then I tried to run them, they tried to start up, as described above, but died epicly. So i had tried apt-get install firefox and it ‘installed’. mysteriously.

When I try to run Epiphany, it tried to open up and then it crashes. Great.

any and all suggestions are welcome, I just want to use a webbrowser on my home desktop again. konqueror’s inability to handle the websites I visit is very tiring and annoying.thanks all!

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.

Chicago Hardy Party, part 2

Hi All,

As a way to celebrate the efforts of all of us during the Hardy Heron release cycle we’ll be gathering at the Goose Island Brew Pub (1800 N. Clyborn, Chicago, Illinois) this coming Saturday, April 26th.  The release party will start at 2pm, and we have the room reserved until 6pm (one hour later than previously indicated).  You do not have to be 21 to part-ay at this part-ay.  It will be a family-friendly affair unless someone brings a bunch of skateboards and large boomboxes. Note: very likely to happen. Although at that point, fiasco is more likely to be the applicable word than part-ay.

Please come hungry.    We will be able to order food from Goose Island’s bounteous menu, and may also request and consume one or more of Goose Island’s ‘ultimate drinkability’ beers or finely crafted sodas.  This is good stuff.  Charlie Trotter comes here for tips on how to make good Buffalo Burgers and Wolfgang Puck has been known to inquire about how they make their vegetarian chili.  That is what I’ve been told.

For those individuals who may be using pre-civilization technology (i.e., something other than a Hardy Heron release – ha ha . . .  I kid, I kid . . .), We’ll also have a set of K/X/Ubuntu Hardy Heron CD’s available to help upgrade your laptops to the latest 8.04 release of 8.04 awesomeness.  (Just please be sure to back up your data beforehand if you wish to upgrade your machine at the partay.  Upgrades and beer/soda don’t always go well together.)

Some folks are RSVP’ing on the wiki (thanks!) but if you don’t have a wiki account, just let us know and I’ll add your name to the list for you.  For others, the wiki is here:  https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ChicagoTeam/Meetings As my mom used to say, RSVP yourself before you wreck yourself. ubuntu-us-chicago@lists.ubuntu.com

The Hardy Heron development cycle has been a good one, so let’s celebrate our efforts!  I look forward to seeing everyone there.

-Eddie Martinez via Jim Campbell’s announcement to the Mailing List and a blatant copy and paste…

Overheard in …. the airwaves

“I don’t even know where I’m staying tonight. I might be crashin’ with Jorge Castro, I’m not sure yet. We might even spoon, who knows?!

…

and don’t go bloggin’ this, I’ll kick you off the planet”

-Richard Johnson aka nixternal

“That’s going to happen anyway, there is a policy against offensive content.”
-Eddie Martinez aka posingaspopular aka eddieftw

I know Richard will kill me for this, but this was by far, the funniest thing I’ve heard all day.

It’s my Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Freddy Martinez as well as myself for turning 21. Awesome!

Ubuntu-Chicago Hardy Heron Release Party

Hi All,

I’m glad to report that we have reserved a room at Goose Island Brew Pub (1800 N. Clyborn, Chicago, Illinois) for Saturday, April 26th.  The release party will start at 2pm, and run until about 5pm.  You don’t have to be 21 to enter.  We can do something else afterward if there is interest, but that is our plan for Goose Island.

We will be able to order off of the menu (so people can get buffalo burgers if they want them :-)

Please RSVP on the wiki if you intend to make it.  https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ChicagoTeam/Meetings

The Hardy Heron development cycle has been a good one, so let’s celebrate our efforts!  I look forward to seeing everyone there.

-Eddie M.

ps. EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA big thanks to Jim Campbell for helping setup this meeting and all off his Hardy work this release. He is aiming for Ubuntu membership in the near future, so anyone who reads this should be aware that without his help on this meeting, I would be in major trouble.

Internet meme’s are popular

history|awk '{a[$2]++ } END{for(i in a){print a[i] " " i}}'|sort -rn|head

125 clear
55 ls
51 ssh
47 sudo
47 exit
40 cd
11 tar
9 man
8 killall
8 cat

As you can see, i use ‘clear’ alot. It’s easier than using ctrl+L because I most of the times that I want to do Ctrl+L, I have to look down at the keyboard, and that is just.not. cool. Does anyone else get bothered if their terminal is completly covered with text?

ls -lash is my preferred command, but ls works just fine.

Wicked,

eddie m.

Egregious abuses of copyright law

For those of you that don’t read Slashdot, which is probably a relatively small number. There is an article, linking to this Wired Blog about notetaking in class. I’ll let you decide how you feel about this on your own, but I am as equally troubled by the profiting off of students who are too lazy to go to class. Yes, it is a good market, but college is expensive enough as is, and I fail to see how this long drawn out argument will directly help students learn.

-Eddie

Reasons and Ideas to get worked up about

I’ve been busy as of alot, so I haven’t much time to quickly and foolishly throw up my ideas regarding the world. Also, I’ve tried to cut back on any blogging that has political conotations because, quite simply, I dont feel this is the best avenue to do so. However, I’m going to skip my own self-checks for this one.

“Plants” with “leaves” no more efficient than today’s solar cells could out-compete real plants, crowding the biosphere with an inedible foliage. Tough omnivorous “bacteria” could out-compete real bacteria: They could spread like blowing pollen, replicate swiftly, and reduce the biosphere to dust in a matter of days. Dangerous replicators could easily be too tough, small, and rapidly spreading to stop – at least if we make no preparation. We have trouble enough controlling viruses and fruit flies.

Among the cognoscenti of nanotechnology, this threat has become known as the “gray goo problem.” Though masses of uncontrolled replicators need not be gray or gooey, the term “gray goo” emphasizes that replicators able to obliterate life might be less inspiring than a single species of crabgrass. They might be superior in an evolutionary sense, but this need not make them valuable.

The gray goo threat makes one thing perfectly clear: We cannot afford certain kinds of accidents with replicating assemblers.

Reference

Okay, first of all, let’s get all this bullshit out of the way. Are people honestly arguing, that through advances in SCIENCE, humans will create viruses and animals and organisms that will DESTROY the world?!? I use caps in the previous sentence for two reasons. One is to highlight the hysteria and fantasy of people who see such destructive actions as being inevitable. More importantely, I want to show how this is not true. I don’t honestly believe that Darwin is going to get ate by a killer mutant virus in the near future that will destroy the entire Earth. It should be obvious by now, that I am being condensending and dimissive of these claims, because they are as equally irrational as the utopian idea that machines will free humans to a point where work and leisure will be mixed, and there will only be a need for a four hour work day. This last idea was advanced near the Industrial Revolution and it didn’t happen. Science destroying Science? In a micro sense, I can understand the appeal of us vs. them survivalism, but this is not the scope on which the article is talking about, thus speaking about the idea as an inevitable conclusion is reckless at best.

This is the exact same hysteria I see in the present day arguments about global warming. I will not go into the scientific ideas behind global warming, but I will say that I do believe global warming does exist. What I do have a problem with is people running up to me and telling me that my life is in immidiate danger because of global warming. Worst of all, polar bears are drowning! I’ve seen polar bears before. They are big. They can take care of themselves. And if they cant, well then that’s okay too. No, seriously. It’s okay. If any animal is having trouble surviving, that’s not on me. They can adapt, or they can become extinct. I will not rush to defend polar bears because I feel bad about their drownings (read: that is a logical fallacy), and go out of my want to mess with Darwin. That’s illogical. If you accept global warming as real, then you most likely see it as a threat to the ecosystems of the planet. However, most people who talk to me about global warming fail to see that other organisms will step in and fill this void. This is how SCIENCE works. If you think otherwsie (such as the earth being 6000 years old, or global warming being a byproduct of an upcoming alien invasion), then I can’t help you.

There is more to this idea however. Nobody who campaigns against global warming, or is worried about the future robotic overlords, is denying that these technological advancements are inheretly bad. In fact, most if not all (spray on pancakes vs chesse in a can being a good example), of the people out in the world will consider that they are better off now than they were 4 years ago. Of course this is a complicated and loaded question which cant be answered in one sentence and guided by skill sets, the economy, life in general. But technology is a great enabler and offers so many useful and helpful benefits, that it simply pisses me off when I hear simplistic and irrational arguments which fail to see the larger picture of the impact of technology on the world.

-Eddie

Note: the author of the Wired article above is a great fan of technology and hugely important in the development of modern computing, more so than I could ever be. With this consideration in mind, I still disagree with his article.

dear lazywebs…

My sound broke. There is a good reason why my sound shouldn’t break. I upgraded Xubutnu Gutsy to Kubuntu Gutsy (apt-get install kubuntu-desktop) and then Kubuntu Hardy (apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade) and now my sound won’t work. I can’t see any reason why this would happen. Specs:

Under System Settings-> Sound System I have the ‘enable the sound system’ button clicked (sidenote, why is this even an *option*?)
Audio Device configured to Autodetect my audio device.
Running alsamixer in a konsole, I see that all my sound is enabled
I don’t have the mute button enable.
This is true for movies, music, etc.
When I open up kmix, instead of the slide button being blue (it is all the way up), it is grey.
When I try to play a song in Amarok, the amarok slide button is grey, instead of blue. This is the button that leads you skip to a certain section of a song, etc.
Restarting HAL doesn’t fix the issue

Any/all ideas are appreciated.

-Eddie M.