http://www.rabidquill.com The Blog of Benjamin J. Thompson: Liberty, Literature, and Electrons. Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:39:17 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Currently I'm using a Lenovo ThinkPad T61p with all the fixins. It's a nice laptop, but comparing it to the much-more-modestly-powered iBook I used before this, I have to say I prefer the Mac OS X environment. My reasons are not the typical marketing lines you'll hear from Apple drones, ... http://www.rabidquill.com/2008/08/five-things-mac-fans-should-stop-saying-and-what-they-should-say-instead/ I am currently attending the Book Seminar at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. So far it has been nothing but the most enlightening experience for a book seller like myself. I can talk about the education I've been getting later, but right now something presses rather hard on my mind. ... http://www.rabidquill.com/2008/08/the-case-for-brick-and-mortar/ For me, getting a piece published is still a lot like winning a trophy. There's a case of them in my mind, with my dusty old city reporting articles from the Reedsburg Independent tucked in the back behind all the columns and editorials in the Crusader from my editing stint, ... http://www.rabidquill.com/2008/06/my-article-in-republic-magazine-building-the-shield-of-free-information/ One of the first things that are wrong is this: the deep and silent modern assumption that past things have become impossible. There is one metaphor of which the moderns are very fond; they are always saying, "You can't put the clock back." The simple and obvious answer is "You ... http://www.rabidquill.com/2008/06/to-go-forward-america-must-look-back/ I won't lie: I love playing competitive games across the Internet. Usually that takes the form of a PC or console shooter, maybe an RTS, but more than a few times I like taking a break from "hardcore" gaming and settle down to the likes of an online board game. ... http://www.rabidquill.com/2008/05/review-online-backgammon/ I think the McCain campaign is staffed by comedians. Granted, they've done a better job than the bumbling parasites running my favorite Congressman's campaign, but sometimes these guys make strange requests. Since McCain became the presumptive nominee, I've gotten regular solicitations from the Republican Party's newsletter to donate to his ... http://www.rabidquill.com/2008/05/buy-john-mccains-nine-year-old-book-for-the-low-low-price-of-150/ Last night I finished reading Ron Paul's The Revolution: A Manifesto. I'll admit right up front my heavy bias in favor of Ron Paul, but I wouldn't recommend a book to you unless it was an exceptional and riveting read. This book forces its reader to make a choice: to ... http://www.rabidquill.com/2008/05/the-revolution-is-now-officially-unstoppable/ Andrew Sullivan at TheAtlantic.com -- along with Obama's zombie army on Digg.com -- is giving Mr. Obama credit for having the "prescient judgment" to predict the housing crisis ... in 2007. For perspective, economists at HSBC saw a problem in December 2004. Anyone with more than two neurons between their ... http://www.rabidquill.com/2008/05/how-you-can-be-more-prescient-than-barack-obama/ When I upgraded the hard drive on my Thinkpad T61p from the stock 80GB to a Western Digital Scorpio 320GB, I was presented with a problem: I had to be able to change the partition sizes on the new hard drive, which can't be done if you're using the drive ... http://www.rabidquill.com/2008/05/how-to-use-your-western-digital-passport-external-hard-drive-enclosure-to-read-any-sata-laptop-hard-drive/ America's addiction to government is a serious one, and getting free of that addiction will involve a process of detoxification and recovery not unlike getting over alcoholism or smoking. Getting rid of a governmental artifice like the Federal Reserve or the government school system would have some pain to start ... http://www.rabidquill.com/2008/04/cutting-the-habit/