Blackhacker

Although Brewster Kahle started and sold companies for big bucks, his true love is capturing the whole Internet at the Internet Archive, which he founded and runs today.

 

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Bill Joy — the father of Berkeley UNIX — explains why he was fired from the International House of Pancakes

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 Nerd: Bill Joy: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The following is an actual email I received at work from my union.

Dear [Mr Hacker]:

I am writing to you about a very serious matter that could affect your future employment. Please attend carefully to this email. If you have any question about its meaning, you should contact me directly or the [UNION] office.

The collective bargaining agreement between [MY EMPLOYER] and the [UNION] contains a union security clause generally requiring, as a condition of employment, that all covered employees tender to the union an amount equal to periodic dues uniformly required as a condition of Union membership each month. If you have not already received a copy of the collective bargaining agreement, you may do so by contacting me or the union office.

The information from [MY EMPLOYER] Payroll indicates that you have been covered by the collective bargaining agreement since [Nevuary] 1, 2002 and have not paid dues or agency fees. The periodic dues, which serve as the basis for calculating your obligation, are currently 0.55% of your gross earnings.

While [THE UNION] may be legally entitled to collect the full amount owed to the union, in the interest of quickly settling this matter, we are willing to accept the following:

An amount equal to one-half of all dues or fees owed dating back to [Nevuary] 1, 2002 or your date of hire, whichever is the later
The completion of the attached forms, including the Payroll Deduction Authorization Form, so that you may remain current in payment of dues or fees during your tenure as an [THE UNION]represented employee

According to our records, an amount of $XXX.YY would satisfy your outstanding debt to [THE UNION]as noted above.

To make arrangement for your payment of outstanding dues or fees, please contact the [THE UNION] office. If you have not contacted the local within forty-five (45) days of the date of this email and made suitable arrangements to pay the back dues or fees and begin paying fees each month, we will have no choice but to take the next steps including insisting that the full amount of back dues be paid.

If you believe that our records are in any way incorrect or if you have any questions, please call me or the [UNION]office immediately.

Sincerely,

[A UNION LACKEY], Secretary-Treasurer

Took a joint around the Blogosphere to see what people where saying about the show. Reviews by real people seem to be as mixed as professional reviewers.

liked it

off the hook!
–bluzhift

But first, on a light note, I enjoyed the premiere of the Boondocks overall. It definitely has those new-show jitters where the pacing’s uneven and a few of the jokes or lines are clunky.
— assistantatlas

It was hilarious, very pretty to watch, and completely entertaining.
— tempegg

The Boondocks is !@#$%^& awesome.
— greatestjournal

just peeped it on the TiVo, and I’m a fan.

That statement’s got to be qualified, though. I don’t think the first episode was flawless, but I tend not to like the first episode of everything. Typically, folks have to try to cover too much ground in the episode in an attempt to paint a representative portrtait of the series. With that in mind, I will say the show was imperfect.

But man, the funny stuff on there was funny.
— bomanijones

****½
fuzzy-thoughts

hated it

ok, this show sucks
–wuzig

So I watched the first episode of Aaron McGruder’s “Boondocks” last night. And although the graphics were great, I have to tell you, I didn’t really get it. I have been a fan of the comic strip since the beginning, so I know of its history. However, I just am not quite grasping it.
— thoughtsbymonika

The show had 1 maybe 2 funny spots. I expected more “ha ha”. The satire/political commentary was in your face and showed no ingenuity.
Ed Brown aka DarkStar

update:

liked it? I loved it. that thing is off the chain! I hope it stays on for as long as the simpsons.
— PhillyMogul of Black Economic Empowerment

With the release of MySQL 5, with Stored-Procs, triggers, XA and other great stuff, it is now, at long last a truly relational DB. Oracle, the 500 lb gorilla in the DB market, has answered by releasing a free version Oracle. Remember this is free as in beer, not free as in freedom.

Oracle intends to release a free version of its database, a reaction to the growing competitive pressure from low-end open-source databases.

The database heavyweight on Tuesday is expected to announce the beta release of Oracle 10g Express Edition (Oracle Database XE), which will be generally available by the end of the year. It is targeted at students, small organizations and software vendors that could embed the Oracle database with an application.

I still don’t see why low end user would consider Oracle of MySQL. The license, and the software puts limits on the number of processors, the amount of memory, you can use to for this product. This what is wrong with the Oracle pricing model to begin with. With More’s law in effect hardware prices trend down ward. Making upgrades in hardware the least expensive way to ad capacity. Oracle want to put the debacle on that. Or get a piece of that. Anyway, I think if Oracle really want people to start using this they should target the product to hosting sites, producing a totally unrestricted version, minus the more exotic bells and whistles.

Dap: ./

Just saw the premier of the Boondocks Animated series. The reviews I heard where mixed. I take reviews with a grain of salt. USUALLY people who do reviews are hardly ever the intended audience. Me being a HUGE fan of the strip am willing to give the show a HUGE benefit of the doubt.

I thought it was pretty good. Their where some pretty funny parts. John Witherspoon is the OBVIOUS choice for granddad but Regina King playing Huey and Riley is going to take getting used. her pitch is just too daggon high. She sounds like a south park character. They also sound to much alike to be two different people. Lastly she really needs to work on her comedic timing. I could tell where I was supposed to laugh but I wasn’t always compelled to do so.

There where still funny moments. But they where mostly situational. Not really the cleverly delivered lines that I would expect from a a comic with so much social commentary. They should high hire some joke writers.

Highlights:
“Bet You wish you had your rain coat right now.”
“Don’t trust them new niggas over there.”

While the show wasn’t AS funny as I was expecting, (I had high hopes) the show did get a chance to get some social commentary in:

1. Rich white people have a different level of threat than the rest of us. Even if they found that the Reagan was the devil it wouldn’t faze them much. After all. no matter what they are still rich.
2. “He’s so articulate” Chis Rock has a joke about this. He was talking about Colin Powell. He would say that people LOVED Powell but and he would say that the only thing white people had to say about him is that “he’s so articulate.” The point of the joke was that Colin Powell was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs at the time. Of course he knows how to speak. Chris and Eric are making the same point, that white people are so amazed that black people can speak that they are not listening to what we say.
3. “In thirty years that boy will be President. and he’ll still be “I wonder if Bush Sr. knew with such certainty the destiny of Bush Junior after he dodged combat duty.

By now you have heard about the ‘Closed Session’ that was forced by the Democrats. I am sure there are some procedual ramifications that for some reason are not being explain the the press.

And I am also sure there was more to it that just kicking everybody but the Senators out of the room.

But I am sure this had almost NOTHING to do with pre war intelligence. And everything to do with the Alito nomination. Obviously this was a message the Repubs, in particular Dick Cheney, as President of the Senate, saying “leave Senate rules alone. We will shut this Mother down. And you won’t be able to pass gas up in here let alone a bill. Ya Heard ???!!!”

I was wondering how long it would take for someone to make and post this image.

Dap : Pandagon