I Would Rather Be Blogging! 2.0

DNA day

What do you know ? Today is also a DNA Day!

Link: Happy DNA Day!.

National Day of Silence

Looks like today is a national day of silence. Haha! I wish my cubicle neighbor heard about it :)

Link: chris uggen's weblog: day of silence.

Civilized democracies don't hang

Saddam Hussein was hanged this morning.

It is a truly sad moment for humanity. Now, don't get me wrong. Saddam was an evil dictator who deserved to be tried for crimes against humanity. It is hanging that I have an issue with. What's more abhorrent is the fact that his hanging was televised worldwide by major news networks and now it is on YouTube. It is despicable that it was allowed by the American government to happen.

I was under the impression that we don't live in the middle ages anymore. I neither oppose nor support death penalty. I haven't developed a strong opinion either way. What I am opposed to is cruel and unusual punishment. Public hanging is cruel and unusual.

Now that Saddam is dead is the world really a better place ?

Link: Boing Boing: Saddam Hussein has been executed (and now it's on youTube).

Bloglines clip blog splicing

I added my bloglines clip blog to the RSS feed. It will show up as a daily summary. Why ? Because I often don't have the time to write a full-blown opinion but would like to share blog clippings with my readers. If anyone objects comment here. This blog is not syndicated by COSI anymore so noone from Clarkson should be complaining anymore.

Looks like my blog may get removed from COSI Planet

When I was at Clarkson my friends and I founded Linux Users Group. After we graduated in 2000 it became Clarkson Open Source Institute. A couple of years ago someone set up an aggregate to gather blog entries of COSI/LUG alumni.

Things change, of course, but one thing remains constant. Every graduating class at Clarkson has at least one geek who thinks he knows what the Internet should contain and who deserves to share bandwidth. What they don't realize is that we are all paying for hosting and bandwidth in one way or another and all deserve to use it as we see fit.

Jacob Torrey's issue with my blogs was that I don't always write a whole opinion. I sometimes, quite often actually, post a link to an interesting resource I found on the Internet because I know that if I don't do that right away I will never blog it.  Jacob seems to think that there is no point in link-blogging because if someone is looking for something they can just Google for it.

I disagree. So do many other people who use services such as del.icio.us, dzone, newsvine, digg, etc., and the rising RSS subscriber base across all of my blogs. That is not because people can't use Google. It is because to search you need to have a-priori knowledge of the subject you are looking for. What Google doesn't address is access to information you don't know you don't know yet. And that is why I blog links to other pages. That is also why I subscribe to other people's link blogs.

I don't have a problem with my blog getting removed from COSI Planet. I am most definitely not going to lose any sleep over it. That is because I do not consider myself a COSI Planet writer. I write for my own blog. Jacob's problem with my short and frequent posts pushing other posts off the page can be easily solved by changing the formatting of COSI Planet. But that would be too logical for Jacob.

In case my blog does get removed from COSI Planet those of you still interested in subscribing to my blog can do so by visiting my site directly and clicking "Subscribe" button on the upper left side. That is how blogs are meant to be read -- in an RSS reader where you can filter and format things to your liking. You can even unsubscribe from a blog you don't like.

Randy Morin is a slime; and Oleg's blog will be removed from the planet

COSI (Clarkson University Open Source Institute) is about to remove my blog from their alumni page. Why ? There is one disgruntled reader who is upset about my short posts.

Jacob Torrey writes on his blog:

 

I have been getting more and more annoyed by the many short (useless) posts that come out of Oleg's blog everyday. I am calling a vote to remove his feed from Planet COSI. If you feel strongly one way or another, please feel free to comment to this post. I think that in 2 weeks, if the majority votes to remove his feed, and he doesn't clean up his act, that his feed should be removed.

You can follow my arguments in his comments section. My basic point is that, boohoo, big frigging deal. Every couple of years COSI [ed: my alma-mater's student club that used to be called Clarkson University Linux Users Group (that I co-founded)] has new leadership and new constituency. Jacob Torrey, for example, appears to be an arrogant geek with opinions on what the Internet should contain. He believes that posting a link to an article is redundant with people's ability to use Google. He spends his spare time flaming me and memorizing Perl regular expressions.

Now his friend Ryan advances Jacob's agenda with a personal attack on Randy Morin:

Randy Morin is the type of slime that should be eradicated from the Internet for taking up bandwidth.

Looks like Randy earned himself a new fan.

Link: Vote: Remove Oleg's Blog from Planet | Ranok's Ramblings.

YouTube - Rudy Giuliani Blames the Troops

Thanks to YouTube there is a proof that Giuliani is a certifiable bastard.

Link: YouTube - Rudy Giuliani Blames the Troops.

A preview of what Giuliani's campaign will be like

Guilliani is a certifiable bastard

In 2004 while helping Bush get re-elected Guilliani blamed the quagmire in Iraq on troops.

Link: I Would Rather be Blogging!: Guilliani is a certifiable bastard. Also this.

Giulliani will milk 9/11 till its dry

Rudy Giulliani was milking 9/11 as he helped his buddy Bush get re-elected. He will milk 9/11 to get elected in 2008. My prediction is that it will backfire.

Link: The Carpetbagger Report » Blog Archive » Walking pretty close to the ‘exploitation’ line.