Deacon’s Blog

I installed two new plug-ins - and hopefully they will add to vastness of my technology

The first is the Lifesteam plug-in. You can view my Lifestream page here.

Lifestream allows me to share my scrobbled songs from Last.fm, interesting RSS feed items I would like to share — without having to write a whole post about them, my Tweets, Flickr additions, postings and assorted other gagetty fun.

The second addition is SMS Text Message from SemperFi. You will find a test messaging sign-up in my sidebar. I will use this plug-in to send out text messages for upcoming PNCC events and happenings. For the most part these will concentrate on events in New York’s Capital Region and Diocesan wide events. Feel free to sign-up if your interested in getting texted — and no, I won’t be texting you day and night. Any information you provide to enable this service is covered under my existing privacy policy.

Thank you to the WordPress plug-in developers who built these. They work as expected and without issue. Your efforts are appreciated.

Everything Else Blogging, plugins, Technology, WordPress

From Fox News (I know…): U.S. Army Says Blogging Site ‘Twitter’ Could Become Terrorist Tool. The emphasis is mine.

The U.S. Army is flagging the popular blogging service Twitter as a potential terrorist tool, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported Sunday.

A recently released report by the 304th Military Intelligence Battalion contains a chapter entitled “Potential for Terrorist Use of Twitter,” which expresses concern over the increasing use of Twitter by political and religious groups, the AFP reported.

“Twitter has also become a social activism tool for socialists, human rights groups, communists, vegetarians, anarchists, religious communities, atheists, political enthusiasts, hacktivists and others to communicate with each other and to send messages to broader audiences,” according to the report.

“Twitter is already used by some members to post and/or support extremist ideologies and perspectives,” the Army report said.

The blogging service and social networking site has previously sent out messages known as “tweets” faster than news organizations during such major news events as the July Los Angeles earthquake and the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis.

“Terrorists could theoretically use Twitter social networking in the U.S. as an operation tool,” the Army report said.

Let’s analyze this. Twitter is a communication tool. Like any tool, it can be used by anyone. It’s sort of like water. Think about that. What if the 304th Military Intelligence Battalion had said something like this:

A recently released report by the 304th Military Intelligence Battalion contains a chapter entitled “Potential for Terrorist Use of Water,” which expresses concern over the increasing use of water by political and religious groups.

“Water has also become a tool for socialists, human rights groups, communists, vegetarians, anarchists, religious communities, atheists, political enthusiasts, hacktivists and others,” according to the report.

“Water is already used by some members “to further extremist ideologies and perspectives,” the Army report said.

Water has previously been used in blessings and baptisms - which are a form of indoctrination. It has also been used for drinking and washing during such major news events as the July Los Angeles earthquake and the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis.

“Terrorists could theoretically use water as an operation tool,” the Army report said.

I think that a report (which we as taxpayers funded) highlighting things that are self evident can only have one purpose - to scare people. Do you see that dark skinned man with the fez Twittering there in the corner - I wonder what he’s up to…

What’s really disturbing is that the report makes a direct connection between religious groups and terrorism. Further, it bunches together all sorts of groups that might challenge conventional, government approved ideologies. It is an attempt to instill fear in anyone who might challenge the status-quo, who might be labeled as having extremist ideologies and perspectives (a hugely undefined category - the government can make it out to be whatever it chooses).

By definition we, as Christians, hold extremist views. The Gospel is not about the status-quo. It challenges us personally and as a society, and in its totality it demands justice. We cannot close our eyes to the sins of the world and act apart from the world. We must meet every sin, personal and societal, with a demand for repentance and reform.

I wonder — if someone is in a religious community that is vegetarian and supports human rights — will they be the first to be interred?

Maybe, just to be funny, we should all vote for one of those nondescript parties at the bottom of the ballot. Would that officially label us as extremists? In New York our choices include the Socialist Workers Party and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

Current Events, Perspective, Political Blogging, Humor, Technology

From Jeff Duntemann’s ContraPositive Diary, an interesting bit on the history of the Chicago Independent Catholic movement under Bishop Kozlowski, part of PNCC history: The “Pepper Riots” and the PNCC.

I haven’t run across Mr. Duntemann’s blog/diary before but it is very interesting as is his biography. The thought that crossed my mind is that he is a self-made, technologically minded renaissance man. Fascinating reading - check it out.

PNCC Blogging, Technology

Prof. Slawomir Lotysz from the University of Zielona Gora has a very interesting website (all in English) on the history of technology.

Check out: Almost Untold: History of Technology from a Side

Tip o’ the biretta to the Joe Strzalka of the Polish American Forum newsgroup.

Poland - Polish - Polonia Technology

The Young Fogey has written a few posts commenting on the spam he receives.

As a person attached to organizations with the word “Polish” in them, being part of Polish newsgroups, and perhaps by my Polish last name alone, I get hit with Polish E-mail spam.

Everyone knows something of the Nigerian scams, the I’m the wife, daughter, girlfriend, cousin, of a deposed dictator, and the have we got meds, potions, cures, and ‘enhancers’ for you pitches.

As Serge has often said, the poorly crafted language is enough to let you know these aren’t genuine.

Anyway, let me tell you about Polish scams.

In a way, they are the most devious and cruel of all scams.

They play on the long tradition in the Polish-American community of helping our poor, suffering, downtrodden brothers and sisters in the old country.

We all recall grandma and grandpa, or a parent, or an aunt or uncle sending money to cousin Jan. You may have known Jan as your poor rural cousin, down on the farm. He allegedly had nothing and needed everything. In many cases this was true in the years following the Second World War and under communism. Émigrés were exceedingly generous, and those dollars stored in cupboards or in the mattress really helped in bringing Poles out from under the economic destruction caused by the Communist system.

The typical Polish scam has these lowlights and variants:

• The person lives in a small community (although I’ve seen a few from major cities).
• The family is poor and the father (if one exists) is unemployed.
• Someone has a serious medical condition (typically a small child, sometimes a woman with several children - and the husband is desperate).
• There is a picture of the sick person (typically black and white, with a seal or stamp of some type in the corner of the picture - hey it must be authentic…).
• There is cryptic medical documentation attached, and sometimes a lot of it (statements from doctors, usually from the big city, clinics, specialists - all stamped, sworn to in front of a notary, and certified).
• There is a request for money so little Magda can get medicine, rehabilitation, or specialized therapy.
• There is information regarding a bank account and instructions for initiating an electronic transfer of funds to help the poor waif.

Just prior to leaving for Poland for the first time, back in 1991, our group leader, Dr. Ryszard Sokolowski (Ричард Соколовский) (the link is from the Tver/Твери group he founded), gave me some of the best advice I ever received. “Don’t be romantic about Poland” or words to that affect. He joked that we wouldn’t be met by girls in ethnic costumes dancing the Polka.

The communist system in Poland had just breathed its last breath a year-and-a-half before. There weren’t many consumer goods, that is, there wasn’t a vast selection of stuff. But there was stuff. I remember buying cans of Coke for about thirty cents off the back of a truck. There were VCRs in almost every home. There were mini satellite dishes on homes and apartment buildings (how many folks in the U.S. had mini dishes in 1991? Back then we were still buying the giant dishes that took up your whole backyard).

In other words, our perception of our poor cousins was part truth and part the fabrication of cold war propagandists. I’m not downplaying the suffering that existed and the repression that was very real, but we tend to paint things very black and white, and they weren’t.

If you are ever hit by one of these Polish scam artists looking for help ask this all important question: If they are so desperate for help, and entangled in illness and suffering, how did they find the time to establish a bank account, set-up electronic transfers, and mass spam thousands of folks (with scanned documents) from their poor rural village? The bandwidth alone would eat-up their life savings…

Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia My life, Technology

Some things that have passed through my thoughts in the past month or so:

New York - Bastion of Stupid People

I guess our Legislators consider us to be so stupid that they have to put forward all kinds of weird legislation in order to protect us from ourselves. To wit from TechNewsWorld:

New York pedestrians could find themselves on the wrong side of the law just for crossing the street while chatting on a cell phone or listening to an iPod if state Senator Carl Kruger gets his way. The New York lawmaker plans to introduce legislation to make it illegal to use portable electronic devices such as a BlackBerry Get the Facts on BlackBerry Business Solutions or PlayStation Portable game console while crossing the street.

The legislation comes after the deaths of two pedestrians in Sen. Kruger’s Brooklyn district within the past five months. “iPod oblivion,” the lawmaker said, has become a term used nationwide to describe the state of compromised awareness that is a result of the huge popularity of electronic devices among users of all ages.

“You can’t be fully aware of your surrounding if you’re fiddling with a BlackBerry, dialing a phone number, playing Super Mario Brothers on a Game Boy or listening to music on an iPod,” Sen. Kruger claimed.

…

“This is an avoidable tragedy,” Sen. Kruger added. “If you’re so involved in your electronic device that you can’t see or hear a car coming, this is indicative of a larger problem that requires some sort of enforcement beyond the application of common sense.”

Here’s the Bill he submitted. It applies to persons in cities with a population of one million or more.

Funny thing is that there’s only one city of more than one million persons in New York, and that is New York City. The rest of the state is so economically dead that anyone who can leave does. At least they’ll get hit by a bus while listening to their iPod in warmer climes, while holding down a good paying job, and paying little if anything in taxes.

As to other moments of legislative brilliance:

I’ve already commented on Law and attempted Laws to ban trans fat and foie gras in this blog. We’re all ignorant of educational efforts promoting good eating and better health. As such good health has to be forced on us. I can’t wait for the next government hiring initiative. A cop for every citizen. You will walk that treadmill, you will do it now!

On the heels of all that is inattentive driving legislation. Put down that coffee (then they get you for driving while drowsy), cigarette, sandwich, comb, or shaver.

What really amazes me is that our elected leaders wish to protect us from ourselves in every way possible but can’t muster the courage to protect the unborn (yes, New York is rushing headlong into funding embryonic stem cell research - which doesn’t work).

They can promote so called ‘gay’ marriage, but can’t reform a corrupt legislative process wherein all state laws are agreed to behind closed doors by an oligarchy of the Governor, Assembly Leader, and Senate Majority Leader.

The New York Sun carried an article on legislation being considered which would offer an apology for slavery, and reparations. See Albany Mulls an Apology for Slavery: Reparations Study Is Being Sought.

Oooooh white guilt. I get to pay because someone in New York once owned a slave.

Wasn’t me, my family, or really anyone I’ve met. I have no guilt over slavery. My people fought against slavery in Europe, Haiti, and the United States.

When someone talks to me about their guilt over treating Polish immigrant coal miners as slaves - in the 20th century, the nativist movement, their guilt for selling Poland to the Soviet Union, or their snickering at Polish jokes, then we’ll have something to discuss. I’d also like to see a formal apology from all the states where the Klan actively targeted (and still does target) Catholics with the necessary reparations being paid to various Catholic Churches.

And a technical question. If the citizens of New York are apologizing for slavery does that mean its African-American citizens are apologizing to themselves?

Of course to answer that question you would have to understand the whole concept of citizenship.

I think rather that the people who promote such drivel and no more than self-serving stooges. They’re the ones that the family had to place in politics in order to prevent their bringing the family fortune to ruination (aka George Bush I and II).

Then, of course, NY stupidity extends overseas

See: Settlers launch first drive in U.S. to sell homes from Haaretz. One of those Americans who actually went through and bought a home in Israel’s occupied territories is Dov Hikind. He bought a home in Shomron. As one commentator on a blog said, he should make aliyah now. I agree and that’s his right, especially if that is where his heart is.

Why stupid? Because Mr. Hikind is fermenting continued bloodshed over land Israel has no right to occupy (unless of course you’re a dispensationalist) and he’s doing so as an elected representative of the people of New York.

That’s right, Mr. Hikind is a New York State Assemblyman representing the 48th District. You know, sworn to serve this country and this state.

Oy, he could have had a nice place in the Catskills with no problem.

Current Events, Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political Food, Humor, Life, Technology

I see that Bill Gates has is panties in a bunch over Apple’s new ads. Poor, poor rich man - can’t take it can he (I’m hearing Bugs Bunny now).

The Apple ads are funny, sarcastic, and true.

I installed Vista as I previously blogged. The Vista tester told me - no problem, go for it. My computer ran like an old Russian tractor. After the purchase of two additional gigs of RAM I’m pretty much ok.

The UAC prompts that pop up are the biggest pain. Imagine working along, several windows open, several different task going on, blogging your random thoughts, and boom, your screen goes black (at least they didn’t choose blue as in the BSoD). It then re-appears grayed-out with a prompt as to whether you want to allow the action to occur. Ummm, yeah, I just clicked on a program because I wanted to install, uninstall, or change it. Well there goes that thought out the window(s).

Vista is Windows on steroids trying to be a MAC. If I didn’t need my PC, I’d toss it.

In regard to Mr. Gates complaints against Apple and Mr. Jobs - at least Mr. Jobs is throwing some innovative stuff out there. See: Jobs Calls for End to Music Copy Protection. All Mr. Gates can do is gripe.

Everything Else My life, Technology

I’m a pig when it comes to acquiring new technology. The new Apple iPhone looks phenomenal and I want one. It’s thin, does the work of my iPod nano, phone, and Palm and all managed through the ITunes interface… and takes care of the problems people typically experience in using such devices. Intelligent design. Nice!

The AppleTV box looks nice as well.

Everything Else My life, Technology

Gmail is offering a new java based application for mobile telephones. See: What is up with this new Gmail mobile application? by ZDNet’s Matthew Miller:

Google released a new Gmail mobile application yesterday that has led to a bit of confusion since they already have a mobile formatted Gmail site you can access from a mobile browser. This new method is a downloadable Java application so you must have a Java-enabled device and it appears that the T-Mobile USA limit they state may not be accurate. Find out all the details on using this application with T-Mobile on a Nokia N73 in the full blog entry.

It took me all of a minute to download and set it up on my Audiovox 5600. It is very cool – and works great.

Everything Else Technology