Chris Marts

Ich wünsche euch ein frohes Weihnachtsfest und alles Gute zum neuer Jahr!

Two very good quotes from George Orwell this time.  Orwell is most notably the author of "1984" and also "Animal Farm."  When you hear people talk about Big Brother, you can thank Orwell.  Or think of an Orwellian society, a controlling totalitarian society. Journalism is printing what someone else does not wanted printed.  Everything is public relations. During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.

Apple is working quite successfully to ban the import of HTC products in the United States.  This is just another saga in the ongoing patent wars between Apple, Microsoft, and the Android crowd.  Aside from the fact that the delayed import of Android devices is annoying, its disappointing to me in other aspects. I'm actually becoming fond of the iPhone.  There's definitely things I would change about it.  A larger screen would be great (and rumor is, the next iPhone will have it).  Perhaps making it more durable would  help as well.  What I really like is jailbreaking. It is very difficult to root most Android phones.  I've been considering rooting my HTC Droid Incredible 2 or more likely my old Motorola Droid 2 Global.  Unfortunately...  That involves rolling back the device firmware, gaining root access, and then loading whatever you want. On the iPhone, its as simple as visiting jailbreakme.com  and clicking the button on t...

Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

With all of the ridiculous legislation that education is facing in the United States, I cannot foresee this country turning out many more great thinkers.  If we do, they will be privately educated where those institutions have the ability to truly challenge students' thinking. The aim of public education is not to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. ... Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim ... is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States... and that is its aim everywhere else.  -H.L. Mencken This actually makes me think of an anecdote from a teacher.  When one of her students failed to complete his homework consistently, she phoned the child's mother.  She explained the situation that this young pupil was failing to complete assignments and she was seeking the mo...

I love deadlines, especially the whooshing sound they make as they go by.   -Douglas Adams Who isn't this relevant to?  Sometimes we just can't meet deadlines or follow through with our promises.  Its time to fret about this less and move on.

Part of buying an Android smartphone is, at least partially, accepting whatever modifications the manufacturer has made to the Android operating system.  However, if you don't care for their modified version, you can change a lot of the appearance through different launchers.  A launcher on Android is the homescreen(s) and app drawer as well as theme capability and included widgets. After reading an article about doing some spring cleanup on my phone, I decided to really trim it down with a different launcher.  I own an HTC Droid Incredible 2 and the HTC Sense UI is a bit plain.  I had tried different launchers on my old Droid 2 Global and thought I'd try them again.  I was glad I did. After looking through the numerous options (I've estimated at least three or four dozen different launchers), I settled on Go Launcher Ex.  Why?  Customization.  I wanted to select how many home screens I truly need, I like the ability to delete apps from the ap...

Go live your life folks.  Get off the computer and embrace the world. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover   - Mark Twain

This week my quote is much more than a quote, its a decent excerpt from Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler.  I find it especially relevant with all the lies we hear during election season. The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed, because the vast masses of a nation are in the depths of their hearts more easily deceived than they are consciously and intentionally bad (there is more ignorance than evil).   The primitive simplicity of their minds renders them more easy victims of a big lie than a small one, because they themselves often tell little lies but would be ashamed to tell big ones. Such a form of lying would never enter their heads. They would never credit others with the possibility of such great impudence as the complete reversal of facts. Even explanations would long leave them in doubt and hesitation, and any trifling reason would dispose them to accept a thing as true.   Something therefore always remains and sticks from th...

Checking out the perches. We finally moved the chickens from their indoor abode to their comfortable new setting outside.  I had a couple final touches to do on Saturday but they're moved for now.  Unfortunately...  We have some reconstruction to do on it.  We're actually going to make it taller.  So in the mean time, I'm putting up fence for the chickens' run and they can scratch around there while we make final adjustments one day.

Since taking on a flock of chickens, I've been pretty curious just what I can feed my birds.  Sure, there's store bought feed but I want the strong healthy yolks and solid whites of a farm yard chicken egg.  While I intend on letting my chickens free range under my supervision, I have still been curious how to supplement their diet. One of my favorite chicken sites, BackYard Chickens , had just the answer.  I won't list everything on the site but the simpler formula is won't not to feed your chickens: no candy/sugar, no salty stuff, no green potato peels (some sites simply say no peels at all), no dry beans, no avocado, and no citrus.  There's tons of veggies and fruit that chickens simply love.  Meal worms and scratch grains help too.

*UPDATE* This has become, by far, the most popular post on my site.  Thank you for all of the interest.  In the time since I originally wrote this in 2007, the BitTorrent and Peer to Peer landscape has changed substantially.   PeerGuardian is no longer considered safe.  MoBlock does not work either.  For your own personal protection, I would recommend purchasing a VPN service or consider switching to newsgroups.   BitTorrent is under constant attack by governments, ISPs, and private industry groups.  Many want to shut down this invaluable tool completely.  ISPs have been throttling torrents slowing down your progress.  They don't recognize the advantages it carries allowing large groups to share data for free and/or open source software, indie artists, and other copyleft material.  Its tremendously easier downloading Linux or free indie artists now than it was ten years ago. Unfortunately, it may be necessary to protect yours...

Or should I say "Goodbye Ubuntu?"  I have been using Ubuntu steadily since 4.10 Warty Warthog.  Ubuntu installed easily and I even got my laptop wireless card to work at a time when it required crazy configuration and extracting Windows drivers.  I still tried other distros during that time even running some for a good while.  I tried out Fedora Core, Freespire, Linspire, Mandriva, Mint, openSUSE, and even TurboLinux (well before Ubuntu though) amongst others.  No matter what I have tried, I have come back to Ubuntu. After Gnome 3 and Unity were shown off, I switched off to Kubuntu for the KDE desktop.  KDE works well on Ubuntu but I still wasn't pleased that Canonical continues to focus on Unity.  I also contemplated a switch to Mint but when the Mint Gnome Shell Extension was announced, my heart sank.  MGSE just continued to mask the problems with these new desktops.  There was plenty of discussion about the issues with Gnome 3 (or Gnome Sh...

I've taken a keen interest in homemade cleaners and especially laundry detergents or soaps.  Everyone seems to have an idea about how it should be made and how diluted it should be.  I've found powdered recipes and liquid recipes.  I've found recipes that take three ingredients or as many as seven.  Until I have a chance to try them all (which according to what their creators' claim could take me years to use them all up), I'll post recipes and links with some hope for feedback.  If you've used them, let me know. An important note...  I intend on watering plants with the leftover water from laundry.  If you're doing the same, skip the borax.  It will kill your plants.  Also, I would recommend you stick to more decorative plants or at least not root crops. Liquid Laundry Soaps The Duggar Family is well known for their television show  19 And Counting  on TLC.  Regardless of how you feel about their lifestyle, we could all take l...

My wife and I have been throwing around the idea of chickens for a long time.  Its something we thought we would enjoy having and taking care of as well as collecting those wonderful eggs.  One Saturday, we researched the whole deal.  We bought books and a magazine, discussed our future chicken coop, and decided this is the year we're going to do it.