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Don’t let me down again…

Because of how much tutorial information is on my site, I get a lot of email asking for help with various problems. Usually I help out if it’s something simple and I have time. Today I got a funny one:

Subject: I need help



Hi Joe,

I need help with my assignment, please help me to put this together,

… (details omitted) …

Please help me writing the script.This assignment is due today for class.

I sent a polite reply pointing to some relevant information, but I’m really curious about this person’s worldview.

I know this is over a year old, but I hadn’t seen it before: The NPR 100, their choices for the most important American music of the twentieth century. It’s quite a list and it makes me feel good to have heard or own a good percentage of these.

Will Fast Food Be The Death Of Us? Yes.

Also read Liquid Candy for more on the soft drink problem. I highly recommend Fast Food Nation although you might not have as many lunch choices after reading it. Having grown up in Orange County California, the history of the fast food moguls was as interesting as what’s wrong with the food.

It’s amazing how many unrelated tasks can be accomplished when writing towards a deadline.

The family of Charles Bishop released this unfortunate comment:

“Charles and his family have always fully supported our United States war on terrorism and Osama bin Laden.”

Man, language sucks. I know what they meant, but the literal interpretation of those words is that they support the US war on terrorism and they also support Osama bin Laden. Miserable contradiction. That poor family, they will have no opportunity for the complex grief that follows a suicide. Between the FBI, the media and their son killing himself publicly, they must be absolutely overwhelmed.

I’m curious to see what he actually wrote. I doubt it stands up to John Walker, but I’m sure Ann Coulter will have another vitriolic McCarthyist column about how this kid’s upbringing just begged him to join Al Queda. That Ann, always one to comfort a grieving family. Maybe he was confused about why there are so many shades of gray in human behavior. Maybe he didn’t understand why so many people criticize the president privately but no one speaks out publicly. Maybe he just wanted to get back at someone who hurt him emotionally, suicide as the ultimate revenge.

Calling him nuts is just too easy.

If Charles Bishop did leave a note expressing sympathy for bin Laden, this reflects another problem that isn’t being dealt with; a whole lot of people at home and abroad find Osama bin Laden’s anti-US message very compelling. I fear that we’re fighting the battle for hearts and minds with the same strategy that lost the war on drugs.

A lot of people are missing the point of the new iMac. It’s not a computer for pros, it’s a computer for regular users. It’s for the receptionists desk, moms, grandparents, elementary school kids, doctors, lawyers, authors. It’s simple, it doesn’t need fiddling with. Open the box, plug it in and turn it on. I bet at least 40% of all iMacs have never been opened up even to add RAM.

This reminds me of mountain bikers bitching that the Segway could only go 12 mph.

I have a theory that there are two kinds of tech people. Those who always have the newest gadget and fastest computer, and those who hotrod whatever they can get their hands on. I fall into the hotrod category. My main machines are all more than three years old now. Sometimes it sucks, but they’re still getting by and I don’t really have time to move everything to a new machine right now. (Which is a good thing since Apple didn’t announce new pro towers yesterday)