Year: 2010

Operating System Install: FreeBSD

mike 1 Comment Technology

I installed FreeBSD for the first time in a long time today.  I had to install it twice.  That sounds really bad, but it was for a surprising reason.

The install was pretty simple from the DVD; it kept asking me questions, and I answered them quickly, and after about 5 minutes, the entire process was complete.  Because the process was so fast, that I thought I had done something wrong (perhaps I had been bit by the cluky ANSI installation interface), so I installed again.  But again, it was a quick process and only took 5 minutes and then it returned to the main install screen.  Puzzling.

After a minute of thinking, I decided to try to boot.  And it worked!

So the entire from-scratch install process only took 5 minutes!  I certainly didn’t expect any sluggish Microsoft-like install times, but 5 minutes was amazing.  I guess they needed a bigger “I’m done” screen so that idiots like me won’t have to install twice.

OpenSecrets

mike 0 Comment Politics

OpenSecrets is a great site.  Find out for yourself where the money is flowing in politics.

Interesting was reading about Scott Brown (highly publicized Senate race in Mass) and also where healthcare companies donate their money.  You might be surprised to know that it’s mostly going to Democrats right now, but I suspect that is due to their large majority population in congress.

For tech fans, reading about Microsoft’s PAC is also interesting.

Of course, if we really want to control our own government, we need to nix all political PACs and lobbyists.  Then OpenSecrets wouldn’t be such an interesting site.