Quite awhile back I wrote a really bad review about iTunes. I have since started to actually use it. It seems to have improved greatly since the first Windows version. I prefer the interface for purchasing and downloading music. As far as playing, I think that I still prefer WMP, or my front-end (Meedio), but it is not half bad. My only problem with it is that I have to burn my purchsed music to CD, then re-rip them to get mp3 format because I cannot play the protected aac files from Meedio on my HTPC. If that were corrected, or Meedio added iTunes support, that would kick ass.
February 2005
New Orleans Here We Come
Just bought plane tickets and hotel rooms for Stephanie and I towards the end of March. Woot! Arranged for childcare for Anna and Ruth. I will still need to call one of Christopher’s friends (parents) to see if he can stay over for a couple of nights. Stephanie and the girls are out on spring break that week, but Chris is not, so he will have to stay with a schoolmate.
I cannot remember the last time that Stephanie and I did ANYTHING for more than one day without at least one of the children. I am sure that we have, but I don’t remember when. Possibly our anniversary 17 years ago.
Goddamn I am looking forward to this. Going to be too expensive, but fuck it.
Will have to make sure to take my camera. If I can get ahold of a laptop for the weekend I may do some blogging. Otherwise will just have to save everything and post when I get back.
The difference between the USA and Europe
Ran across this here. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Some fairtax links and stuff (H.R.25)
I am very big on the Fairtax Act. I’ve come across several articles and links this morning that pertain to Tax reform and the Fairtax Act (H.R. 25 and S.25).
St. Petersburg Times.
Washington Times. Not much in this article, it is mainly about Johnny Isakson, a supporter of the act. I voted for him this time around, mainly because he is a backer.
Chicago Sun-Times. Not really abou the Fairtax, but some of the links just show different ideas which all add up to the fact that U.S. Citizens wat tax reform.
Top Ten Reasons to Support the Nonpartisan Fair Tax Legislative Package-HR 25. This is posted at the Conservative Voice. Unfortunately, most of the liberal sites that I visit do not belive in Economic Conservatism, so there are not too many sites that will mention reform, which is really funny, as most Republicans seem to want to increase spending almost as much as liberals, but at least they are willing to discuss reform. Most “Democrats” (yes, I know I am lumping them all together) seem to think the only place we can cut spending is on defense, as ANYTHING else we might cut spending on seems to affect Veterans, Children, Old People, or Education. Can’t cut anything there, and particularly not welfare.
H.R.25. The actual bill itself. A must read whether you hate it or love it. Can’t exactly argue against it effectively if you haven’t even bothered to fucking read it can you now.
H.R.25 Co-Sponsors. As of the first of the year there was one sponsor and 54 co-sponsors. One lone democrat with some sense.
A debate on the bill. Looks like it has been over a month since anyone has posted.
An article that explains in pretty simple terms how it would affect you
John Linder is the sponsor of H.R.25.
FEC complaints against several poeple and organizations that grossly misrepresented the Fairtax Act during the last election.
The FairTax: A Trojan Horse for America? This starts to read as a pretty good article on why NOT to support the act, but once I finished reading it my reactions was that whoever wrote the article was full of conspiracy theories about what “might” happen. At least they read the act, which is more than I can say about 99% of the DNC.
David L. Kendall, a Professor of Economics & Finance at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise.
The Fairy Tales that liberals tell”.
Representative Nancy Pelosi and Other Democrats are Out in Left Field.
A bunch of links related to the Fairtax.
Social Security and the Baby Boomers: What Could Have Been
Found this interesting article at the Heritage foundation about Social Security reform. Apparently the report is based upon data from the US Census bureau as well as the Federal Reserve.
It would be really nice the see some SS reform in my lifetime.
CNN.com – White House wants states to help fund intercity rail – Feb 21, 2005
Just more bullshit. I agree wholeheartedly with the President. Propping up Amtrak with subsudies is bullshit. Amtrak is a business. Either it is a profit making business or it needs to fold and let someone else take over. Cutting down, or completely out, the subsidies that keep Amtrak afloat is probably going to be the only way to get some kind of reform and force them to get their shit together.
I see the big airlines such as Delta in the same light. The government needs to quit propping them up with my tax money. There are profitable airlines out there, and if the big airlines go bust, other companies that know how to actually conduct business will fill in the gaps.
BeyondTV
I really like using BeyondTV, but hate it that when I move shows out of the default directory, most of the information about the show is lost. I could move them using the web interface, but that is a pita, have to do it one at a time, and it is slow. I wish that the information was retained differently. I keep my videos spread out on five different drives, and when I go to move them into each shows directory would like to keep each shows info.
24
Damn, I hate cliffhangers. If you don’t know, it doesn’t matter. Unimportant in the great scheme of things, but goddam.
Homeseer and IIS
I am going to go ahead and start porting my Home Automation pages over to IIS again pretty soon. Right now they are accesible on port 8080 using the HS web server, but I much prefer being able to get to it on the standard port 80. Rather than actual control, which would require that I expose the COM interface, I may just export the data to static pages in a virtual directory using php. Will have to take a look at it on my days off.
Television is shit
I have not watched much in the way of TV in a long time. Most years there is maybe one or two shows that I like. Amazingly enough, there are several shows on now that I hate to miss, among them, 24, Lost, West Wing, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek: Enterprise, Carnivale, Deadwood, and The Sopranos. Damn. Someone got smart and put on decent shows. More shit to numb my brain.
Just means less computertime, but I got your fucking number, my TV runs through my computer, haha. Thought you had me there didn’t you. Well fuck you, I record everything, skip commercials, fuck you very much Tivo, don’t need your bullshit, I can even automatically cut the commercials out and never see them, and watch them at my leisure.