Month: July 2011

Why Police Must Be Recorded

Many states currently have laws against recording police officers while they’re on duty. The only reason I can see for the existence of these laws is to allow the police to get away with crimes they commit while on duty. What kind of crimes? How about threatening to murder a person because he was lawfully carrying a firearm. The following is a dashcam video of this very scenario:

The first thing that really caught my attention (besides the officer being a complete fucking asshole) was the fact the officer took the driver’s permit, put the drive in the car, then pretended he couldn’t find the driver’s carry permit. Normally I would write this off as an honest mistake (the officer pocketing the permit absent mindedly) but the conduct of this officer makes me believe that action wasn’t an accident at all.

From there the officer literally threatens to murder the driver. There are a couple of things to take away from this situation. First, never ever ever talk to the police more than you’re legally required to. After the driver was finally able to inform the officer that he was carry a firearm he should have said nothing afterwards. Don’t try to explain your situation, don’t try to reason with the officer, say nothing as is your fifth amendment right. It’s the job of the officer to use everything you say against you a believe me they will do exactly that. This goes double for hotheads like the officer shown in the above video as he’s angry and if you talk you’re likely to raise you voice in anger as well.

Second, if you’re in Ohio and must legally inform the police that you’re armed ignore any attempts of officer to cut you off. If they attempt to interrupt you before you’ve informed them that you’re carrying keep talking and raise your voice above the officer’s so he can’t claim he didn’t hear you.

Third, all officers should be recorded while they’re on duty. This also means there should be no laws against individuals recording the police either. If the dashcam video had not seen the light of day the driver could very well be facing graver charges as the officer would basically be able to claim anything he wanted. Without video and audio evidence it’s your word against theirs and the state is always going to side with their own agents.

Four, have a lawyer available to you. You should have setup a consultation with a lawyer when you obtained your permit because the last thing you want to figure out after you’ve had to defend yourself is who you’re going to call. The driver in this video would have been better off remaining silent and contacting his lawyer at the earliest convenience. With the way the officer was acting I wouldn’t have been surprised if he started beating the driver.

The officer in this video should be brought up on every available charge in the book. At the very least he threatened to murder a non-violent individual. If those who are supposedly tasked with protecting us are threatening to murder us we should no longer be required to keep them in our employ.

OS X Lion Server Admin Tools

When I upgrade my machines to OS X Lion I noticed something of importance was missing, Server Admin Tools. For those who don’t know Server Admin Tools is a package of applications that works as a front-end for maintaining OS X Server installations. These tools aren’t necessary as you can managed everything from the command line if you desire but, being a naturally lazy person who isn’t too fond of manually editing a 500 line text file to change one little thing, I prefer using a quick graphical interface. The administration panel that is included with OS X Lion Server is a toy that doesn’t allow any real manual configuration so that’s out as far as I’m concerned.

Thankfully Apple has posted Server Admin Tools 10.7 on their website. Why the OS X Lion installer didn’t automatically include this or download it from the website when it was upgrading my system I’ll never understand. It wouldn’t be that difficult for the installer to see that I have Server Admin Tools installed and thus it should either upgrade those applications or leave them the Hell alone. Simply removing them wasn’t my idea of funny nor entertaining.

Either way if you’ve upgrade your system to OS X Lion and rely on Server Admin Tools you’re relegated to manually navigating to the website and downloading the installer package.

Increasing Taxes and Increasing Revenue are Not Synonymous

The thieves at the Minnesota State Capitol have apparently made an agreement to increase the deficit on the budget meaning the state shutdown is over. Like most agreements this one has left everybody wanting. What really galls me though is the fact that those angry about the lack of tax increases keep referring to it as a revenue increase. Calling taxation revenue is one of the biggest misnomers out there.

Think about it, if a thug on the street puts a gun to your head and takes your money do we say the thug has increased his revenue? No, we say he has stolen money. Revenue implies money that has been obtained through voluntary exchange. Taxation is not voluntary exchange but theft. Mark Dayton wasn’t looking to increase the state’s revenue he was looking to steal more money from Minnesota citizens.

Thus we shouldn’t say that the budget agreement included a lack of increasing the state’s revenue, we should be saying the budget agreement included the state stealing less money from us.

And before anybody bring it up I do realize I spend a lot of time ranting about this subject. It’s not because I think the verbiage is all that important, it’s because I want to point out the double standard most people have. When a private individuals uses violence to take from another we call that individual a thief whereas when a government uses violence to take from many people we call it taxation and legitimize it. Whether you believe the ends of taxation justify the means is debatable but saying taxation isn’t a form of theft is flat out lying.

Another Idiot That Doesn’t Understand Economics or Crime But Wants to Meddle with Both

There is stupid and then there is extremely stupid. Joe Huffman found an example of the latter in the form of a person named Otis Rolley who thinks adding a $1.00 tax to each bullet [PDF] will help reduce gun crime:

Reducing the violence in our neighborhoods will take a full commitment from the Mayor’s office, the police, neighborhood and community leaders, and faith leaders. It will take a partnership across the city.

To do this, as Mayor, Otis will:

[…]

— Impose a $1 per bullet tax on all bullet purchases in the city;

[…]

Impose a $1 per bullet tax. It is undeniable that we have to do more to reduce the devastating impact gun violence is having on our community. While the courts have consistently ruled against significant gun control legislation, there is still a way to decrease crime: substantially increase the cost of its’ commission.

Increasing the cost of guns won’t work because many criminals don’t purchase new guns and they can be borrowed or even rented in some areas. Therefore, as Mayor, Otis will move to impose a $1 per bullet tax (or about $50 per pack). That will increase substantially the financial cost of committing a crime and, unlike guns, bullets cannot be shared after their initial use. This will also dramatically cut back on the random firings that too often happen around holidays and celebrations.

That is a lot of herp derp to put between two blockquote tags. Here’s what Mr. Rolley’s plan will accomplish:

— Punishing legitimate gun owners who wish to do business in the city by buying ammunition;
— Punish stores selling ammunition;
— Nothing else;

Mr. Rolley doesn’t understand the basic concepts of economics or crime. First you have the economic issue that this type of city-wide tax would cause. If a box of ammunition in Baltimore costs $50.00 more than anywhere else due to such a tax gun owners are just going to buy their ammunition outside of the city (either by traveling or, more likely, ordering it online). What this tax would effectively do is drive business out of the city and that’s normally not considered an acceptable economic goal to most people.

Then you have the whole concept of crime. Criminals have the same options available to when it come to purchasing ammunition elsewhere but they also have another option, theft. If somebody is willing to commit a violent crime chances are they will have no problem going down to the local Wal-Mart and stealing ammunition. There is a large disparity between stealing and murder but chances are pretty high that a person willing to commit the former will also be willing to commit the latter.

And there is always the fact that ammunition can be manufactured. Many gun owners, myself included, also reload ammunition for a hobby and it may come as a shock to anti-gunners but bullets can be cast out of melted down lead. It’s true. You can go around town stealing wheel weights off of peoples’ cars, melt them down as they’re made of lead, and cast them into bullets. In that case Mr. Rolley’s proposed tax idea would lead to people making their own bullets and a epidemic of shaky cars. Lead can also be found in other places like fishing supply stores so even banning properly balanced wheels won’t stop this clever workaround.

NoScript Awarded the $10,000 Dragon Research Group Security Innovation Grant

It’s likely you’ve heard to praise the awesome Firefox plugin that is NoScript. NoScript is the primary reason why I’m still running Firefox instead of Chrome. That’s why I’m glad that the plugin was awarded the Dragon Research Group Security Innovation grant which includes $10,000.

NoScript is kind of a Swiss Army knife in regards to Firefox plugins. The main purpose of the plugin is to block scripting on all domains that you haven’t specifically white listed. This not only improves security by preventing malicious scripts from running but it also makes the web a much nicer place to visit since it blocks those annoying pop-over ads that block the site until you dismiss them. I’m honestly at the point where I can’t even stand visiting many websites unless I block scripting on those domains.

Another Successful Business Owner Screwed Over by Erroneous Regulations

I’m sure most people read the this story and don’t really think much of it:

One of the most famous faces in the Twin Cities bar scene says he has sold his stake in the four pubs he co-founded: Kieran’s Irish Pub, The Local, Cooper and the Liffey.

Why? Folliard wants to go into the whiskey business full time. Earlier this year, he replaced much of the top-selling Jameson Irish Whiskey at his four pubs with his own brand, 2 Gingers. Now he wants to take his product out into the marketplace by selling it to liquor stores and other bars.

But liquor laws prevent the ownership of both a distillery arm (he imports his brand from Ireland) and a retail outlet (such as a bar). Therefore, he has to leave his pubs behind. He said he anticipates that the move will be scrutinized, but insisted that his exit from the pubs is a “complete severance.” He informed the bars’ staff Tuesday of his departure.

When I read the story the first thought that popped into my mind was the fact there is another successful business owner who was fucked over my erroneous legislation. It’s true, in Minnesota a person can’t own both a distillery and liquor retail outlets. This means if you currently own one type of business your only option to enter the second type is to sell off your stakes in the latter.

There is absolutely no reason a person shouldn’t be able to make their own liquor and sell it at establishments that they also own. Unfortunately for many business owners they’re stuck having to make a decision between what type of business they wish to pursue. I don’t personally know Kieran Folliard but I don’t know the four bars he co-founded have been successful ventures (Kieran’s Irish Pub and The Local are great establishments by the way) meaning he’s a person willing to put a lot of work and effort into making a product people want. Thus I’m sure his new venture will do well but sadly he was forced to throw away all his previous success just to try something new.

Regulations that force a person to abandon previous success just so they can try their hand at something new serve no purpose. Such regulations simply punish those who do well by keeping them from competing in other markets where they do equally well, if not better, than current actors in that market. These regulations are nothing more than anti-competition measures that protect those currently in markets from having to worry about somebody new coming in and offering a better product.

Burn

This post really has nothing to do with anybody but the subject matter amused me. I love it when somebody delivers a great comeback such as this one:

Today, Contessa “educated” a conservative Representative that without the bailout, the country would be in “a depression.” Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) said he disagreed which prompted the MSNBC host to ask him if he had a degree in economics.

“Yes ma’am, I do. Highest honors,” Rep. Brooks responded.

According to his Congressional page: “Mo graduated from Duke University in three years with a double major in political science and economics, with highest honors in economics. In 1978, he graduated from the University of Alabama Law School.”

That would be like asking Wernher von Braun if he was a rocket scientist. If you’re going to insult somebody’s credentials you would do well to first find out what that person’s credentials actually are.

My Initial Thoughts on OS X Lion

I have successfully installed OS X Lion on both my Mac Pro and my MacBook Pro. I’m not ballsy enough to attempt the server upgrade until this weekend though so my initial thoughts are all going to be related to client software at this point.

The very first thing I want to point out is the fact having reversed scrolling enabled by default is the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever encountered. Seriously! When I scroll up on a trackpad or mouse I expect the screen to move up, when I scroll down I expect my screen to move down. This is a pretty basic concept that’s been with us for a while now. An operating system isn’t a fucking flight simulator, we don’t need to reverse the controls for moving up or down. Thankfully this can easily be disabled in the preferences but it seems like such an idiotic thing to have enabled by default.

That was by far my biggest annoyance which is to say I haven’t ran into anything that annoying so far. OS X Lion seems pretty stable outside of the box which is a nice change as most initial releases of new OS X versions have been rather buggy, sometimes bordering on unusable. For Lion the installation went off without a hitch and everything seems to be running properly so far.

The whole full-screen mode for applications is a rather pointless gimmick in my book. I have no idea why Apple saw fit to include such a feature in a desktop operating system but it’s optional and thus easily ignored.

I’m not at all happy with the new way virtual desktops are laid out. Previously you could have a grid of virtual desktops which meant accessing one desktop from another could be done quickly. I usually run with six virtual desktops and in Snow Leopard I had them arranged in a grid consisting of two rows and three columns. In Lion virtual desktops are all laid out linearly meaning you only have one row. This makes traversing from desktop one to desktop six a pain in the ass if you’re using keyboard shortcuts. I’ve not found a way to revert the desktop arrangement to a grid yet, nor am I even sure you can. Either way I find this extremely annoying as it really fucks up my workflow.

I have no real opinion on the disappearing scroll bars. I seldom look at or use the scroll bars anymore so the fact that they vanish when you’re not actively scrolling is irrelevant to me.

The new Mail application is light years ahead of Snow Leopard’s version. The layout feels much better and everything seems to move smoother. I also like that the System Preferences has a central panel to add e-mail, calendar, and address book accounts. It was a bit annoying having to open each separate application to add the appropriate account.

The new “natural feel” iCal and Address Book applications are just fine by me. They look a bit out of place but I don’t think they’re as ugly as many have made them out to be. Honestly I rarely interact with either application on my desktop or laptop so this is another thing that doesn’t really affect me.

Launchpad is pretty worthless in my opinion. I’ve been running with a Application folder stack on my dock forever now to launch applications. It’s actually easier for me to click on the stack icon, scroll to the application I want, and launch it than it is for me to launch an application via Launchpad.

Some of the new trackpad and mouse gestures are pretty sweet. I really like the fact that I can now use my trackpad and mouse to scroll, flip between virtual desktops, show my running applications, and many other things. Apple has done a great job realizing the utility of a trackpad with multi-touch capabilities and I hope other computer manufacturers follow in step.

The new interface elements in Lion are pretty as well. It’s a pretty meaningless change but I like the new look.

I’ll keep you guys apprised of my findings but so far I’m liking Lion even though I find most of the new features to be rather pointless gimmicks. It seems solid from the start which is certainly better than previous OS X releases.

A Valuable Lesson For Those Upgrading Servers and Clients to OS X Lion

One purpose of this blog is so readers can learn from my mistakes. If you’re planning on upgrading both client and servers to OS X Lion you should be aware of something.

First you should know that OS X Lion is a separate download from OS X Lion Server. Instead of having two versions of their operating system available for download Apple has made the server utilities available as a separate installable package. I like this option honestly but I did make a mistake that ended up costing me $29.99.

Because I didn’t want to tie up my server with a major download I initially purchased and downloaded OS X Lion from the App Store on a client computer. I tried to also purchase OS X Lion Server at the same time but the App Store wouldn’t allow me to do so from a system not already running Lion. Later I decided to download OS X Lion on my server so it would be available for install when I was ready (as OS X Lion is a 3.47GB download, I thought getting on the system early was a smart move). When I went to download OS X Lion on my server the App Store reported that I needed to also purchase OS X Lion Server. The App Store did warn me that both would be purchased and that I would be charged $79.98 but being I was in a hurry I made an assumption. My assumption was that OS X Lion was already in my purchase history and thus only OS X Lion Server would be purchased at this point. That assumption, like most, was incorrect and I am now the owner of two OS X Lion purchases.

There are three options available to those wanting to upgrade both server and client computers to OS X Lion. The first, and probably easiest option, is to purchase OS X Lion on a computer currently running OS X Snow Leopard Server. Doing this will require you purchase both OS X Lion and OS X Lion Server at the same time but they will appear as separate purchases in the App Store which will allow you to download just OS X Lion on client computers.

Option number two is to purchase OS X Lion on a client, format the server, install OS X Lion, purchase OS X Lion Server, and then restore your server specific settings. This is probably the most painful method of upgrade both server and client computers to Apple’s new operating system.

The third option is to install OS X Lion on a client, upgrade that client, and purchase OS X Lion Server after the upgrade is finished. This will put both OS X Lion and OS X Lion Server in your purchase history and you should be able to upgrade your server without having to purchase any additional downloads.

So the lesson I have for everybody reading this is making assumptions don’t make assumptions, they can be expensive.

EDIT: 2011-07-20 16:30: I contacted Apple through their App Store support page and they got back to me within a few hours and issued a refund. That’s pretty good support considering the mistake was ultimately mine for making the assumption that I wouldn’t get charged twice.

Buy Your Snow Blowers Now

There are a lot of people complaining that they can’t find air conditioners for sale anywhere in the Twin Cities area. Guess what? You should have purchased an air conditioner before the heat wave hit, not during. I’m a man who believes in being prepared and thus I usually buy things before I know that I’ll need them. Many people, on the other hand, seem to avoid planning ahead and thus buy things when they need them. The latter people often cite that buying something ahead of time is a gamble since you may never need it but when the weatherman tells you a week ahead of time that it’s going to be 95 degrees outside with very high humidity it’s no longer a gamble with odds in your favor.

If you need a device to handle something that will affect many people at the same time waiting until the last minute is a stupid idea. Waiting until the last minute means you’re going to be competing with everybody else to get your desired device. This fact should be apparent to anybody who waited until the first big blizzard to purchase a snow blower. After the first blizzard hit in Minnesota there wasn’t a snow blower to be had anywhere.

Thus it’s a good idea to get a snow blower now as they’re easily obtained and likely cheaper as there is little demand for snow blowers during a heat wave. Winter is the time to buy your air conditioner as it’s easily obtain and likely cheaper. I’m glad I have a father who taught me this. Do you know what he did when power went out during one of the blizzards last year? He plugged in his big ass generator and kept the heat going because he was smart enough to buy one before he needed it. Hell his generator can keep the air conditioner running in his home of power were to fail during this heat wave.

Do you know what else is good to have available to you? Extra food and drinking water. Did the last blizzard leave you stranded at home unable to get to the grocery store? Did it cause your water pipes to freeze and burst leaving you in need of drinking water? Neither problems are problems if you did your work and prepared ahead of time.

My advice to everybody is this, don’t wait until the last minute to prepare yourself for a future scenario. Get what you need before you need it and when it comes time that you need it you’ll have it and be happy.

This has been a public service announcement from your friend Christopher Burg.