Month: September 2006

links for 2006-09-29

  • We are not innocent.’
    in our headlong rush to hand George W. Bush the keys to the Great American Torture Machine we do damage to our enemies, we do damage to the innocent, and just as importantly we do damage to ourselves. We will have inscribed upon ourselves the following: ‘
    (tags: war values Iraq)
  • phrase of the day
    Republicans will run away from him like he’s a Army recruiter
    (tags: politics)
  • Senators Against Law
    my two senators –Cantwell and Murray — aren’t on the list. Good for them.
    (tags: politics 1984 9/11)
  • CJR May/June 2006 – Weird Science
    By its very nature, the edge of knowledge is at the same time the edge of ignorance. Many who have visited it have been cut and bloodied by the experience.”
    (tags: science journamalism)

resetting a forgotten WRT54G web admin password

For some reason, I haven’t been able to access wireless router consistently. My password seems not to be right. But how to create/change it if you can’t log in? This assumes a WRT54G with the dd-wrt firmware.

Assuming you’re on some system that supports openssl (I did this on FreeBSD), you can just make a new one:

[/usr/home/paul]# openssl passwd
Password: ********
Verifying – Password: ********
#########

Assuming you’re not totally locked out (you did set up ssh, didn’t you?), you can then write your changes to the router’s nvram and it should work for you with the new password.

nvram set http_passwd = #########
nvram commit

If anyone can offer advice on other ways to do this, please leave them in comments.

the right to be boring?

The Online Photographer: A Brief Policy Note:

Many forums tolerate what are called “thread Nazis” (this is what they’re called—it’s not my term), whose self-appointed task is to keep all the discussions strictly on topic, never suffering anyone to stray.

Apparently, this refers to a comment I left, wondering if a rundown of upcoming TV series premieres could be run on a personal blog rather than one called “The Online Photographer.”

Rather than leave another comment, I’ll just unsubscribe.

I like the idea of group blogs that focus on an area of expertise, kind of like a magazine (remember those?). If I pick up a copy of a specialist magazine on photography or watchmaking, I don’t expect or want to see an article on upcoming TV shows or snacks or sporting goods. In fact, I would read an article about watchmaking in a photo magazine if it was up to the standard of the photo articles — informative, well-written, and worth my time.

The comments from other posters approve of the rambling, saying “it’s your blog, do what you want.” But it’s a group effort, as well, with the other posters staying on topic and shedding light on photo-related stuff.

And at the end of the say, who am I to accuse anyone of being boring? I have never claimed an area of expertise: in fact, a lot of the posts here exhibit a complete lack of any.

want fresh veggies? go pick them yourself

Crackdown on illegal immigrants leads to a shortage of farm workers:

What do you know? The crackdown on illegal immigration has led to a shortage of produce pickers this year.

The tightening of the border with Mexico, begun more than a decade ago but reinforced since May with the deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops, has forced California growers to acknowledge that most of their workers are illegal Mexican migrants. The U.F.W. estimates that more than 90 percent of the state’s farm workers are illegal.

Whaddaya think? Will we see a sudden surge in domestic/native-born workers to fill those jobs?

The bottomline seems to be: do you want to let the stuff rot in the fields or on the shelves?

If we were to somehow get everything picked but at the wages demanded by native-born workers, the prices would be too high for many to buy anything. So it might end up making more sense to leave them to compost rather than dump them in the waste stream.

links for 2006-09-25

“A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic”

someone is weighing his place in history: two things come to mind.

The Carpetbagger Report » Blog Archive » ‘Just a comma’:

BLITZER: Let’s move on and talk a little bit about Iraq. Because this is a huge, huge issue, as you know, for the American public, a lot of concern that perhaps they are on the verge of a civil war, if not already a civil war…. We see these horrible bodies showing up, tortured, mutilation. The Shia and the Sunni, the Iranians apparently having a negative role. Of course, al Qaeda in Iraq is still operating.

BUSH: Yes, you see — you see it on TV, and that’s the power of an enemy that is willing to kill innocent people. But there’s also an unbelievable will and resiliency by the Iraqi people…. Admittedly, it seems like a decade ago. I like to tell people when the final history is written on Iraq, it will look like just a comma because there is — my point is, there’s a strong will for democracy. (emphasis added)

Now that we have had more military personnel killed in Iraq than civilians on 9/11 and a commitment to keep on keepin’ on til 2009, how is this insignificant? And is this a tacit admission that his legacy is a flyspeck?

Bonus points if you recognize the quote I swiped for the title.

perspective

I’d like to see a timeline of Clinton’s actions against bin Laden, et al, the reaction to the USS Cole bombing, the first WTC attack, compared to the Whitewater investigation, the impeachment, etc.

Think Progress » FULL TRANSCRIPT: Clinton Takes On Fox News:

WALLACE: Do you think you did enough sir?

CLINTON: No, because I didn’t get him.

WALLACE: Right…

CLINTON: But at least I tried. That’s the difference in me and some, including all the right wingers who are attacking me now. They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try and they didn’t…I tried. So I tried and failed. When I failed I left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy and the best guy in the country, Dick Clarke… So you did FOX’s bidding on this show. You did you[r] nice little conservative hit job on me. But what I want to know..

WALLACE: Now wait a minute sir…

CLINTON:…

WALLACE: I asked a question. You don’t think that’s a legitimate question?

CLINTON: It was a perfectly legitimate question but I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked this question of. I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked: Why didn’t you do anything about the Cole? I want to know how many you asked: Why did you fire Dick Clarke? I want to know…

WALLACE: We asked…

CLINTON:…

WALLACE: Do you ever watch Fox News Sunday sir?

CLINTON: I don’t believe you ask them that.

WALLACE: We ask plenty of questions of…

CLINTON: You didn’t ask that did you? Tell the truth.

WALLACE: About the USS Cole?

CLINTON: Tell the truth.

WALLACE: I…with Iraq and Afghanistan there’s plenty of stuff to ask.

CLINTON: Did you ever ask that? You set this meeting up because you were going to get a lot of criticism from your viewers because Rupert Murdoch is going to get a lot of criticism from your viewers for supporting my work on climate change. And you came here under false pretenses and said that you’d spend half the time talking about…

WALLACE: [laughs]

CLINTON: You said you’d spend half the time talking about what we did out there to raise $7 billion dollars plus over three days from 215 different commitments. And you don’t care.

I think I would have choked Wallace with his damn tie. He may as well admit he gets his questions from the West Wing and they likely aren’t stumpers. Hard to believe this is Mike Wallace‘s son.