Yesterday, two bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring over a hundred others. The big question people seem to be asking today, besides “who did it,” is “what it a terrorist attack?” My response is “who cares?” Continue reading “Boston Marathon Bombing – (Who Cares If) It Was Terrorists(?)”
School Choice and Consolidation in Vermont
Now that the Vermont Yankee debate has died down, the current hot topic before Vermont’s state government is school choice. Here’s what I think on this. Continue reading “School Choice and Consolidation in Vermont”
Bethel Votes to Withdraw from Windsor Northwest Supervisory Union
Here’s a summary of the highlights of this week’s school budget meeting:
- The chair of the school board announced that the superintendent has been put on administrative leave.
- The school board asked if the taxpayers would borrow $480,000 to pay back, over a period of three years, the debt that has been accumulated.
- Townspeople attempted to get details on both of these points, which was like pulling teeth without Novocaine.
- The board informed the taxpayers that audits have not been complete for at least three years.
- Many people griped, loudly. Included in this crowd, I informed them that, while I realize they are volunteers, the board has a responsibility to look after these things.
- The two board members whose terms were up for renewal were unanimously re-elected.
- The taxpayers voted to withdraw from the Titanic known as Windsor Northwest Supervisory Union. Continue reading “Bethel Votes to Withdraw from Windsor Northwest Supervisory Union”
Bethel Town Office: Still Can't Get Through
Public Education
A client of mine, who really feels more like a colleague on most days, just sent this little gem which pretty much sums up the state of public education in this country today. Take a listen and tell me what you think.
School Answering Machine Message
Useful and Fun Bash Prompt Tweaking
A friend of mine gave me the following code, which he pulled off of http://serverfault.com. The site’s still in beta, and I don’t have an account there so I can’t actually get the full source URL, but here’s the code: Continue reading “Useful and Fun Bash Prompt Tweaking”
Scam Alert of the Day (Or How Not to Try to Scam People)
I just got this email this morning, to our technical support mailbox: Continue reading “Scam Alert of the Day (Or How Not to Try to Scam People)”
On Fresh Ubuntu, Fiber Optics, and Divorce
Okay all, I’ve been silent for far too long, and I figured it was time to come out with some official statements for the benefit of the (albeit small) community that has formed around the Fresh Ubuntu podcast, and also for my other friends whom I haven’t had a chance to touch base with on a one-to-one basis. Continue reading “On Fresh Ubuntu, Fiber Optics, and Divorce”
Bethel Signs on to EC Fiber
From this week’s Select Board Meeting Minutes:
With respect to the Town joining with others through the ECFiber Interlocal Contract to develop and implement a communications system, Chairman Fox stated that the Town appears to be in receipt of sufficient legal advice to confirm that the draft Interlocal Contract for formation of ?ECFiber? should now be signed, it being anticipated that the initiative will move forward expeditiously, and that a final form of the contract will be available for consideration in the near future which, when executed, will perpetuate the association being formed at this time. He then made the motion to approve the subject contract, this motion being seconded by Joe De Freitas and unanimously carried. Justin McCoart asked if the Town had yet appointed an alternate representative to the ECFiber Board of Directors; Chairman Fox advised such has not yet been undertaken by the Board.
gAIM -> Pidgin -> Funpidgin -> Carrier?
There’s a little program out there known as Pidgin, which is an open-source messaging project formerly known as gAIM. It supports communications with all of the popular chat platforms out there, like AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, and Jabber. I have been using it for years and love it.
However, there is a sense in the user community that the Pidgin developers have been unresponsive to user requests. Apparently the straw that broke the camel’s back was the latest version not allowing you to resize the text entry box, forcing the user to rely on the program doing so automatically. Continue reading “gAIM -> Pidgin -> Funpidgin -> Carrier?”