Today is Statehood Day, Minnesota’s birthday. 153 years ago today Minnesota became the 32nd state in the U.S. Since then, Minnesota has done pretty well. We’ve had things we can be proud of. Like all places, we’ve had things to be not so proud of. Hopefully, we’ve learned from the mistakes so as not to… Continue reading Happy Birthday, Minnesota
These Things I Believe
Aside from the successful mission against bin Laden last weekend, it’s hard to find any positive news in the political sphere these days. Congress is talking about deficits, debt ceilings, inflation, bond vigilantes, and budget cuts. GOP presidential candidates are talking in South Carolina about how we have enough fossil fuels in the U.S. right… Continue reading These Things I Believe
Computers break in strange ways
I’ve been incommunicado for a bit due to yet another computer malfunction. This was a truly bizarre one, and the diagnosis I made, strange and unlikely as I thought it was, turned out to be correct. It’s a reminder that computers can fail in rather odd ways.
IT Security Survey
I’m currently working on my MSST Capstone project, which is going to focus on IT security in small organizations and small businesses. If you work in a small business, especially if you have an IT role, please fill out a short survey I’ve put together. It’s 36 questions, mainly yes or no, so it shouldn’t… Continue reading IT Security Survey
U.S. Government shuts down online poker
I don’t write too much about online poker, simply because I’ve been too busy to write about much of anything these days, between work, school, and the rest of the banalities of life. However, it’s hard to ignore the subject on the day that the U.S. government essentially shut it all down. Charged with fraud… Continue reading U.S. Government shuts down online poker
The budget: numbers or values?
At both the state and national level, our elected officials are dealing with budget deficits and how best to handle them. This leads to a lot of numbers thrown about, such as “15% cuts” and “$30 billion versus $38 billion” and the like, along with various stories about who is “winning” or “losing” the debate.… Continue reading The budget: numbers or values?
Job-killing taxes?
“We can’t raise taxes, that will drive away jobs!” Such is the oft-repeated refrain uttered by Republicans at the Capitol. The implication is that it’s a direct correlation: high taxes means fewer jobs. But is that really the case? The statistics seem to say otherwise.
Tax Incidence Update
Minnesota’s latest tax incidence study came out this week (and can be found here). I’ve written about it before, and the trends are pretty much the same as previous studies. Two graphs jump out at me. The first is the overall effective tax rate: It peaked in 1994, and since 2000, has stayed remarkably stable.… Continue reading Tax Incidence Update
Customizing Clonezilla’s custom-ocs
In a (very popular by search engine standards) previous post, I talked about moving from Norton Ghost to Clonezilla. Part of the move from Ghost to Clonezilla was creating a method of automatically determining the computer model I was imaging, and selecting the right image. This is possible by changing the custom-ocs file, and here… Continue reading Customizing Clonezilla’s custom-ocs
New GnuPG key
My GnuPG key was set to expire at the end of this year, so I created a new one. The key is located here. In the extremely unlikely event you need to email me something securely, use this! I’m a big fan of crypto and secure email. Too bad I so rarely have need to… Continue reading New GnuPG key