Something Random

[Mercutio]

Aircraft Carriers and Nuclear Subs aren't exclusively military technology. They're a statement of the regime's foreign policy priorities. We keep a carrier group in the Mediterranean Sea, a crapload of them in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf etc. It's not quite the same thing as gunboat diplomacy, but essentially there's nothing short of a nuke that's going to dislodge a modern US fleet once it sets anchor and the entire world knows it. Nuclear Subs are probably less important at this point since they were a deterrent for mutually assured destruction, but again, they're part of the overall profile of our naval power and if we didn't have them, that would be a strategic vulnerability for our billions of dollars in carriers.

If we're going to maintain our status as the largest military power on Earth, we DO have to invest in space-superiority, which is just a giant money sink, and also in cyberwarfare, where I have a strong suspicion we're terribly vulnerable, both because we've connected so much stuff to our communications networks and depend on it being connected, and because our enemies know it's a cheap way to compete with us. We're not going to have any reliable way to deal with guys with RPGs living in caves or IEDs or car bombers until we get around to building Skynet and letting the Terminator loose on the world, so that's another weakness in our military that probably just isn't fixable.

 

[ddrueding]

My main problem with a fully automated army is that it is only a good hack away from a military coup. Others mention that if no one on our side dies in a war the public won't be opposed. I think the money is enough of a deterrent at this point.

The other thing we need to do is get better at taking the occasional hit. Tech makes the world smaller, and that means everyone can reach everyone else easier. If every little 9/11 causes us to freak out for several years than we can be taken down and kept down quite easily.

 

[Mercutio]

I think our national ego is too wrapped up in the metaphorical size of our military wang. There's no such thing as perfect security and the sooner we accept the fact that an Oklahoma City or 9-11 is going to happen every so often no matter how many brown people we kill or middle aged women we let the the TSA grope, the more secure our position in the world will ultimately be.

 

[ddrueding]

I think our national ego is too wrapped up in the metaphorical size of our military wang. There's no such thing as perfect security and the sooner we accept the fact that an Oklahoma City or 9-11 is going to happen every so often no matter how many brown people we kill or middle aged women we let the the TSA grope, the more secure our position in the world will ultimately be.

I'd have to agree with that.

 

[mubs]

Your command of the language and of expression is awesome, Merc!

 

[Mercutio]

Gotomeeting / Gotowebinar / Gototraining are not capable of recording the activity inside a virtual machine Window. In my testing this means VMware Player / VMware Professional and Virtualbox. This seems to be true regardless of hardware settings, though at this point I have not tried reverting back to Windows XP and completely turning off graphics acceleration, which is my last straw.

When asked about this, Joe DiMarco from Goto* told me: "I understand you are having an issue with VMWare Player contents not being recorded in a GoToWebinar session. It appears there may be some layering interference between the two applications which may be causing the issue. If able, avoiding using VMWare should resolve your issue. Also check to make sure you are on the latest version of VMWare and GoToWebinar."

I'm mostly posting this so it gets indexed by Google, since there's nothing about this issue on the GoTo* site.

 

[ddrueding]

Nice. "I understand you are trying to use our product in a reasonable and practical way, and that it doesn't work. Don't do that."

 

[Mercutio]

I do understand the technical reasons behind the layering issue he alludes to: It's about the VM using privileged GPU stuff to run acceptably, and it does only imapct recordings, not live presentations, but they sold me a product that's supposed to be able to view and record my presentations and it doesn't do that. For as long as Citrix has been around, I had hoped they would have some kind of solution in place.

 

[Handruin]

I do understand the technical reasons behind the layering issue he alludes to: It's about the VM using privileged GPU stuff to run acceptably, and it does only imapct recordings, not live presentations, but they sold me a product that's supposed to be able to view and record my presentations and it doesn't do that. For as long as Citrix has been around, I had hoped they would have some kind of solution in place.

What about Live Meeting? I remember seeing people record their desktops of VMs in these presentations.

 

[CityK]

Gotowhatever said they were working on a Linux client seven centuries ago ... I haven't checked recently, but I'd imagine the status is still the same

 

[ddrueding]

This. I've been at a loss to explain how I can have strong opinions about policy and be so unenthusiastic about politics and voting. I don't think there is a single sentence in here that I disagree with.

It isn't leaning either way, it just pisses on the whole process. Which is really what I feel like doing.

 

[Will Rickards]

So you're remote desktop'd into the vm and it still doesn't work? Or is this not windows?

 

[Mercutio]

So you're remote desktop'd into the vm and it still doesn't work? Or is this not windows?

It doesn't matter. I suspect issue has a lot to do with underlying device driver for video acceleration and how their recording technology accesses what's happening on the screen. I suspect it would have the same problem were I trying to use their software to record the playback of a video file. On the other hand, they don't mention any caveats to screen recording anywhere on their site, unlike a couple other screen sharing services I looked in to, and they're owned by Citrix, which is basically the pioneer in screen sharing/remote display tech on Windows.

Plus, that shit costs $1000 a year and using virtual machines for training purposes isn't exactly a new idea.

 

[ddrueding]

Forgot to roll up the windows....now my car is full of grass....

 

[LunarMist]

I think there is a problem with the World Series reporting.

http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2012/...0-on-tigers-as-world-series-shits-to-detroit/

 

[CougTek]

That's a good one. Even better is the fact that almost three hours later, it hasn't been fixed.

 

[CougTek]

Or one can say that baseball has become a very dirty sport...

 

[Stereodude]

View attachment 534I think there is a problem with the World Series reporting.

http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2012/...0-on-tigers-as-world-series-shits-to-detroit/

Maybe they're using an Andropov. ;-)

 

[ddrueding]

That's a good one. Even better is the fact that almost three hours later, it hasn't been fixed.

Unfortunately it is fixed now. Thanks for the screenshot Lunar.

 

[Mercutio]

Why would anyone choose to get any amount of news from Fox?

 

[LunarMist]

Why would anyone choose to get any amount of news from Fox?

I was searching on the Google for World Series. She just wanted to know if there was a game tonight.

 

[Handruin]

Why would anyone choose to get any amount of news from Fox?

For comedic value.

 

[CougTek]

Why would anyone choose to get any amount of news from Fox?

In order to establish the value of something, you always have to find the bottom of the scale and then measure up.

 

[LunarMist]

I'm glad I traveled to NH early. Next week the weather in the northeast looks ugly.

 

[DrunkenBastard]

I'm glad I traveled to NH early. Next week the weather in the northeast looks ugly.

Looks like the big issues this time will be the long duration/slow storm movement and heavy rain, plus high winds from the North into trees with leaves on them.

 

[LunarMist]

The hors d'oeuvres are awful. Why am I here?

 

[CougTek]

Because you're not rich enough to be elsewhere.

 

[ddrueding]

The hors d'oeuvres are awful. Why am I here?

I've found that most "opportunities" become "obligations" before you even arrive, and nearly all do so before you go home.

 

[LunarMist]

Giants were the only good thing tonight. :beer:

 

[Mercutio]

I've known I need to find someone to take to the opera for about 10 weeks. Can't find anyone to take. A ticket to Lyric costs about half what my monthly rent does and now I don't even want to go.

 

[Bozo]

What about your stripper friend?

 

[LunarMist]

What about your stripping girlfriend?

 

[Mercutio]

I'd like to take someone who legitimately likes the idea of going.

 

[LunarMist]

Damn, the Bozo beat me to it. Merc, didn't you have a plan when buying tickets?

 

[Mercutio]

Yes. The person for whom I purchased my second ticket has since decided that she is rather more interested in other people.

 

[Bozo]

I'd ask her anyway. She might like it, but she will never know until she see a performance. If she says she doesn't want to go, at least you made the effort to ask her.

 

[Handruin]

Ask Reddit. They'll find you someone to go if you give them your story.

 

[Mercutio]

I don't get Reddit as a community. There are eleventy million sub-communities that seem to tend toward massive overspecialization or else they are so completely general that they'll immediately be lost among thousands of posts.

 

[ddrueding]

This. I've been at a loss to explain how I can have strong opinions about policy and be so unenthusiastic about politics and voting. I don't think there is a single sentence in here that I disagree with.

It isn't leaning either way, it just pisses on the whole process. Which is really what I feel like doing.

Surprised no one commented on this. Anyone listen to it?

 

[Mercutio]

Surprised no one commented on this. Anyone listen to it?

I heard it before. There isn't much to say about it, except perhaps that I think there might be better frameworks for understanding our electoral system than economic and financial ones.

Also that we really do have an obligation to vote if we've already made the investment to become informed citizens, if only because there are plenty of morons who will vote without undertaking that crucial step.

Lately I'm having serious difficulty driving anywhere because of my urge to vandalize peoples' Richard "Rape Babies are a gift from God" Mourdock yard signs.

Here is science fiction author John Scalzi's rather witty statement on that little matter.