System i Addict

I give you this. While the Pledge or Allegiance is being said Obama who has always refused to cover his heart with his right hand, also is not saying anything. This is not an American, much less a President. I find this insulting and pathetic.

For all of you Obama supporters, he didn’t go to the EU because he needed to, he thought it would help you all think more of him because the EU thinks more of him and which most of those places, in fact all of those places are Socialist Left countries where Obama’s views are considered more towards the middle-left. We do not need a socialist leftist running the country.

Link to Article

Spurred by an e-mail from someone deep in the marketing ranks, Microsoft last week traveled to San Francisco, rounding up Windows XP users who had negative impressions of Vista. The subjects were put on video, asked about their Vista impressions, and then shown a “new” operating system, code-named Mojave. More than 90 percent gave positive feedback on what they saw. Then they were told that “Mojave” was actually Windows Vista.

I have someone in my list of people I trust asking me if I know anyone in or around Denver or Salt Lake that is looking for a Job being a Senior System i Admin for a Bank in the Rocky Mountains, they run JackHenry’s software and you are going to need to move to the Colorado.

Oh and one last thing, they are a Lotus Notes shop so if you read this blog and are a fan of Lotus then I think you will be happy, you will have to convince them to run it on IBM i but knowing how stable the IBM i is you can help them out, they run Lotus Domino on Windows right now…

If you want to be considered I have the inside track to the IT team, send me your resume and I will forward it on and get you some exposure.

-David

david dot vasta at gmail dot com

Link to post

earn these 10 tricks and you’ll be the most powerful Linux® systems administrator in the universe…well, maybe not the universe, but you will need these tips to play in the big leagues. Learn about SSH tunnels, VNC, password recovery, console spying, and more. Examples accompany each trick, so you can duplicate them on your own systems.

I like this post…..it warms my heart!

Wanted to post this for ya’ll

Link to Hype: The Obama Effect

I am not fair and balanced. I will openly tell you I don’t like Mr. Obama. He is the worst kind of person and should not be considered for president, in the same breath Mr. McCain is also very hard to deal with as well.

Obama did not grow up in this country, he hates far to many people and has done nothing to get the job he is asking us all to put him up for. He is a chump and a good speaker who thinks horrible racist things, and is not for unification or anyone. He did not do it in Chicago and has not done it in the US Senate so why the heck are all of you thinking he can do it in the oval office? You all have been duped to think he is a good person, you need to read about what he has really done with his time in one of the most politically currupt cities in the US.

Sadly the America my great grandfather knew, where you work hard and you succeed is now a thing of the past, I work hard get taxed and it’s not enough, so they want more and if we follow Obamas lead we get a dummy for president who is going to tax and spend until we all are poor and broke, and that’s what Soviet Russia did in the 60s & 70s and we all see what it got them. Nothing but hard times. Socialism is not responsiblism.

If you want to live in a nanny state move to the UK, Belgium, Netherlands or some other place where the taxes are well over 50% of your pay, and everyone is mostly broke and struggling while the rich will remain rich…..but please leave America to the hard working entrepreneurs and not the liberal left and Hollywood elites.

Presidental Election years always make me sick, politics is like dealing with thugs and criminals and in the end we get nothing for what we get taxed for. Where is Ross Perot with his charts and graphs when you need him?

We have started a little get together here in Charlotte of geeks, call Lunch Time Geeks. If you are in the South Carlotte/Rock Hill area drop me a line we would love to have you.

Well we were all talking about the Lotus bloggers out there and I asked who read Volker’s post, and most did, then someone said when does he have time to work is he is always surfing for information and posting it? Is that not a full time job?

So I am posting it here in hopes we could shed some light on the topic. It’s not all about Volker though, when do you have time to post? How much time to you dedicate a week or day? Is it something you like doing or you do becasue you are in the biz and it helps create revenue?

-David

Becasue it’s important!

Link to Article Link to Medal Of Honor Web Site

Petty Officer Michael A. Monsoor, United States Navy, distinguished himself through conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as a Combat Advisor and Automatic Weapons Gunner for Naval Special Warfare Task Group Arabian Peninsula in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom on 29 September 2006.  He displayed great personal courage and exceptional bravery while conducting operations in enemy held territory at Ar Ramadi Iraq.

During Operation Kentucky Jumper, a combined Coalition battalion clearance and isolation operation in southern Ar Ramadi, he served as automatic weapons gunner in a combined SEAL and Iraqi Army (IA) sniper overwatch element positioned on a residential rooftop in a violent sector and historical stronghold for insurgents.  In the morning, his team observed four enemy fighters armed with AK-47s reconnoitering from roads in the sector to conduct follow-on attacks.  SEAL snipers from his roof engaged two of them which resulted in one enemy wounded in action and one enemy killed in action.  A mutually supporting SEAL/IA position also killed an enemy fighter during the morning hours. After the engagements, the local populace blocked off the roads in the area with rocks to keep civilians away and to warn insurgents of the presence of his Coalition sniper element.  Additionally, a nearby mosque called insurgents to arms to fight Coalition Forces.

In the early afternoon, enemy fighters attacked his position with automatic weapons fire from a moving vehicle.  The SEALs fired back and stood their ground.  Shortly thereafter, an enemy fighter shot a rocket-propelled grenade at his building.  Though well-acquainted with enemy tactics in Ar Ramadi, and keenly aware that the enemy would continue to attack, the SEALs remained on the battlefield in order to carry out the mission of guarding the western flank of the main effort.

Due to expected enemy action, the officer in charge repositioned him with his automatic heavy machine gun in the direction of the enemy’s most likely avenue of approach.  He placed him in a small, confined sniper hide-sight between two SEAL snipers on an outcropping of the roof, which allowed the three SEALs maximum coverage of the area.  He was located closest to the egress route out of the sniper hide-sight watching for enemy activity through a tactical periscope over the parapet wall. While vigilantly watching for enemy activity, an enemy fighter hurled a hand grenade onto the roof from an unseen location.  The grenade hit him in the chest and bounced onto the deck. He immediately leapt to his feet and yelled “grenade” to alert his teammates of impending danger, but they could not evacuate the sniper hide-sight in time to escape harm.  Without hesitation and showing no regard for his own life, he threw himself onto the grenade, smothering it to protect his teammates who were lying in close proximity.  The grenade detonated as he came down on top of it, mortally wounding him.

Link to Web Site JapanesePod101.com

I lived in Japan from 1993 - 1995. Not really that much time and since I was a child I can remember being fascinated with Japan and their culture. I still am today. I think the language is a huge part of that culture and history and I try to learn a little bit every now and again. I would love to have more time but it’s not possible.

I did find this Podcast and site to be really helpful and if you are going to go live in Japan I think it’s essential. I would encourage anyone who is visiting even for a holiday to try to learn as much as possible as it will only make your visit that much better.

If you are in the military like I was you need to learn too. It will make your daily interaction with local contractors and other people on base and off base richer and exciting.

Thanks and sayonara!

So my Volvo S60R is in the shop getting a computer looked at. No big deal, just one of those things. It’s the computer that takes care of the Active Suspension. In my S60R I have three settings for my ride type, COMFORT, STIFF, and RACING or Advanced. I can’t recall the actual names but they go from soft to tight with little to no body roll. Oh well the computer is broken so Volvo is fixing it under warranty.

They gave me a 2008 Volvo C30 to drive. I actually asked for it because I like to drive something different when I can. They always try to put you in a model either the same as the one you own or higher, but I wanted to see what the C30 was all about.

From the outside the C30 looks like a Volvo, and has the very distinctive Volvo lines. It’s nose is Volvo, and it has the Volvo hips on it that make it look very Volvo. I like the Volvo body style so the outside is a winner for me. It looks very exciting and very Volvo. The front bumper is very sporty looking and has an aggressive look to it. The rear is a bit odd but it works as a hatch back. I would have liked to have more room to slide in wider objects but over all it’s good.

The rims on this I think are 17″ and are really nice looking as well. The tires are decent with just the right amount of rubber so that you don’t ding you rims on every pot hole in town.

I lifted the hood, or bonnet for you brits, and the 5 cylinder engine with a the turbo looks very well placed. There is room around in there for some bit of performance kit and I know when Volvo was making this they were hoping to capture a bit of the tuner market.

The transmission is a auto with the auto-shift 5 speed and like all Volvo’s the shifting is slow. I will talk about that in a bit.

Once you get inside you start to wonder if Volvo built this or Ford. My S60R is well built and feels tight inside. The interior of my S60 is very well done, but the C30 is plastic, and way to much of it. Everything is plastic and I would expect this in a Ford Focus, but not a C30. Volvo is putting this up against VW’s and BMWs not the Focus, so why did they go cheap on the inside, the one place you will spend the majority of your time. I would rather the seat been in with the engine because that area looked nicer and better built. Oh well.

The seats are comfortable, but they are not Volvo seats. Volvo seats in other Volvo’s are really comfortable. Really huggy and make you want to drive more. The C30 seats are boring and kind of plain. They don’t hug you and they don’t make you want to stay in the car longer, they make you want to find a parking space as fast as you can or return home.

The instruments are also very Volvo and easy to read. I like the fact that Volvo made the gauges right and they work. I like that. They are very easy to read and have all of the bits you expect  from a Volvo in the gauges.

The radio is a nice unit. Volvo has done the thin center console thing they have been doing to all the new Volvo’s so it looks high tech and new age. I like that. The radio sounds great and is very easy to operate, there is even a place to plug in an MP3 player, CD player, or 8-track player, your choice . The only down side is you need someone to operate the player since the plug for it is under the drivers right arm in the center console.

The A/C is right below the radio right where any Volvo owner would expect to find it and it works just like every other Volvo on the market. The only issue is that because the entire interior is made by lego plastics it sounds like hell. No it really does, while It is very cold, I have to wonder what they could not have made it a little less noisy.  If you have it off and have the radio at a reasonable level listening to Ira Glass on NPR and you turn on the A/C you have to crank up the radio to hear it. I like being cold but I also like to be able to listen and think while it’s on. I could not wait for the car to cool so that I could turn it down.

The engine, the engine….where to start. I love the engine. It’s just the right size for the car. I love the power an I love it that it’s turbo. There is a bit of lag but it’s not in the way of going. I don’t like the auto-trans, and like all Volvos with auto-trans when you put it over and decide you want to be a little sporty and shift when you like you get a hammer to the head becasue the auto shifting on the Volvos is just poor and I think Volvo knows the shifting is bad but in the past 6 years has done nothing to make it faster. There is an unreasonable amount of time from when you request the shift to when it actually does. This is the one place and the one point where I would dump Volvo on it’s head. I have had auto-shift trans before and they are resonable with the shifting. Porsche seems to do them pretty fast, Audi is quick, other lesser car companies I expect it from, but Volvo needs to re-engineer this auto-gear shifting problem. It’s just pathetic, and I am sure there is an engineer in Sweden who would love to explain why and I don’t care, you all need to fix it and fix it now.

The ride quality is not bad. I like a car that is a little stiff and lets you feel the road, I just don’t want to hear the road. I am ashamed to say, but I owned a Kia Spectra at one time, and it was a noisy road car. The Volvo C30 is not that bad but it’s noticeable and that is bad. Volvos are comfortable and supposed to be quiet so that you and the family can talk and be happy, well in the C30 that is not going to happen and with the A/C on it gets worse.

Overall I like the C30, I like the performance and I like the ride and feel of the car. I don’t like the noise levels from the A/C and the road. I could also use a little more comfort and a little more Volvo in my Volvo. I think they missed the mark and need to try harder and make it soon. Maybe the 2009 is going to be better and maybe they know all of this and are addressing it now. For the price I think you would be better moving up to a Volvo S40 or and Audi A3. The Volvo is pretty to look at but falls short when it comes to comfort.

This is what I think Volvo wanted when they created this car. For it to be a platform for the Tuners. EVOLVE has taken it seriously and made this. I love it and wished I was 18 all over again. I would get one in  a heart beat and tune it to no end.

I don’t think it take a rocket scientist to know I don’t like Obama, at the same time I don’t like McCain either. They are both too hard to listen to. I don’t think either one has ever read the constitution or really cares about less taxes and less government.  But I had to post this:

Link to Article :Would You Hire a President Who Padded His Resume?

NO!

I have been known to like cars. I like nice well done cars. I currently own a Volvo which I adore. Now before you chalk me up as some Euro car nut that is to good for an American car lets get this straight. While I like my very affordable Volvo, which is also very safe, Volvo is owned by Ford which I really have never seen how they stay in business. But I drive my lovely Volvo and it’s a trooper of a car.

GM is having a rough go at it, and while I know why they have missed the boat and over time will eventually fail. Why David, you ask, is GM failing? I will tell you. GM has made mistakes, big nasty ugly mistakes like keeping Buick around and Pontiac for that matter. I am going to catch hell for that but in the end there is nothing you can say to change my mind. GM should have shut down Olds, Pontiac and Buick all at the same time. They kill any profit that Gm would have made and I don’t care what the numbers look like, they make your car company look old, which is something the System i is fighting too so I know how that battles goes. They are old, tired looking cars that no one wants….except old people who have been buying them for years and can’t put themselves to looking at one of those “Jap” Honda’s….I hear it everyday and it kills me. So be it.

Next is Chevy. The only thing they have going for it is the truck line and the Corvette. Everything else is crap. I mean it and I am not joking, it’s all crap and looks like it was all built out of cardboard and old  beer cans. The engineering in them is old and tired and you would expect to see it on a kids power wheels but not in a car I just paid $20,000 for.

Deep down inside we all know Chevy has it in them, We all know Ford does too, they show it over and over again at times, but they never put it all in the same car. Ford poured theirs heart and soul into the Mustang and it looks great but still have a really cheap feeling interior and the solid rear axle is ridiculous. You saved the customer $3000 so that they could have the worst ride ever in the newest Mustang ever. How sad.

Let’s see, I am going to build a great sports car with heritage and a loving fanatical customer base, and short sheet the customers buy dropping 90 year old technology in the form of a solid sprung axle? What were you thinking Ford? You have Volvo, Land Rover, Jaguar, and others with independent rear end technology and you opt to go the stupid route. Not even Chevy is that stupid they actually did the rear end of the Corvette proper!

Now onto Toyota. While I think they produce some of the ugliest cars coming out of Japan you have to give them a gold star for the quality. Those Toyota’s will freaking run forever, and they are on the bleeding edge of where everyone wants to go with fuel economy. While the Prius is just plain hideous to look at, it’s smart and other car companies need to look at it and say, that is smart but we can do it better! Because you can. 50MPG is not a new thing. I had a 1993 Honda Civic VX that got over 50MPG and it hauled arse. There was nothing wimpy about it, but some 15 years later we are all giddy over 30MPG? What happened….we all went backwards a bit.

Take a look at what BMW is doing. They are building great cars and giving them hot engines that also sip gas, Audi and Volvo are doing it too. They have been and everyone is ignoring them? We expect it out of Japan, we expect the gas usage to be lite out of a Honda or a Toyota and with a German or Swedish car we want some performance too.  Japan should call Germany and see what  they can work out. I think at one time they did and made a company called Mazda which everyone seems content to ignore too, they are just one of the most loved racing car companies on the face of the earth yet they get no air time with GM and Toyota hogging all the free news clips and other media.

I am kind of happy in a way to see GM and Ford hurting. I thought a few years back it would teach them a leasson and make them rethink autos and how they did things and Ford seemed to wake up and take some action but GM kept on doing the same old thing.

GM has a company in Australia that makes hot cars, and yet we are subjected to “OK” Chevy’s here in the states. Why is that? Why can’t GM bring some of  the cars from the land down under to the US and sell them as Chevy’s?  Holden is the name of the company and you can find them here. Who out there would not want one of these? Holden Commodore SS?

I am done. I think GM needs to re-tool and make some damn good cars and stop playing like they just need to edge out Ford and Dodge. GM you need to edge out BMW, Audi and Volvo….the only way you are going to do that is stop the line and re-tool how you do things. You need to know your customers and they are not red-necked NASCAR fans, they are Americans who want a good car, that looks classy and does not have a bench seat in a sedan? Nice tight seats that hold you and an engine that moves you with a suspension that is not made of pound cake.

Just once start with the Corvette and work out from there…….

So I have pontificated as to who The STIG might be and my guess like many Top Gear nuts think it’s Ben Collins. We in an effort to throw off all us crazies the Top Gear staff thew us a curve ball….or did they?

Stig vs. F1 on Top Gear

Link to Ubuntu on Best Buy for $19.99

Ubuntu Linux offers all the power of Linux in a package that’s simple to use and easy to learn, even for users who’ve never used Linux before. The OpenOffice complete office productivity suite includes word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software to provide you with all the key desktop applications you need for success, while still allowing you to open, edit and share files with users of Microsoft Office, WordPerfect, KOffice or StarOffice. Surf the Web with ease using Mozilla FireFox, which features tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking and more. Easily instant message people on your AIM, MSN, Napster and Yahoo buddy lists from a single window with Gaim instant messaging. Manage e-mail, photos, music and more easily, and keep your computer safe with powerful firewall and antivirus programs. With Ubuntu Linux, your computer operates smoothly and efficiently, saving you time and preserving your peace of mind.

I was reading Bill Higgins blog post about converting from Windows to Ubuntu on his work desktop. While I am impressed with his little write up I would like to offer him a little something if he has not already found it.

WINE or Codeweavers Crossover Office :: Crossover for Linux

So I am going to give Southwest a thumbs up today for hang the smarts to kick off a family of people who with two adults with them could not control 4 kids. I am not heartless, I don’t think it sad they got stuck, and two of the kids have some kind of problem that would make them a bit to handle, but slippery slop of doing nothing has to stop and I think it’s starting to stop now. I think you can see by the video that Soutwest was justified for the removal, these people don’t seem like the organized, disciplined type.

*Airline’s grow a pair - Kicks poorly behaved family off flight*

The always quiet chisel faced British F1 driver announced today that he is retiring.  Link to F1.com

“With his home race just days away, Red Bull’s David Coulthard has announced he is to retire from competitive Formula One racing at the end of the 2008 season. Coulthard, who started his F1 career back in 1994, will continue to work for the team in a new testing and development role.”

Good luck David, You were always great fun to watch race!