Josh-Kerr.com

Microsoft has recently updated their main page for Windows Vista.  Before I go into too much detail let me all remind you that I’ve played around with their Beta copies of Vista on a 999MHz Processor with 768MB PC133 RAM, 20GB hard drive and a 64MB Radeon 9600.  With that said I should qualify for the basic version of Windows Vista.  We’ll let me just say that I hope for their sakes that they have made some drastic improvements.  With those specs I was crawling!!!  The beta versions I was messing with didn’t have the full Areo theme going but did have some transparent windows by default.  That same box (same specs and all) is now my Gentoo workstation.  It r0×0rs my b0×0rs.  I do have another box that more than meets the requirements for premium.  So I guess I’m ready though you’ll have to pardon me if I don’t seem too sure….

I was reading The Register as I do every day and I stumbled across this article.  “ShellyTheRepublican” gives here obviously pro Microsoft Republican extremist and uninformed opinion of Linux and any other non Microsoft OS.  Personally, I found it hilarious.  The blog has been flamed enough if you read it and want to comment, there are over 500 comments, but still, I thought you might enjoy.

I heard about this early this morning on my way to work.  CNN did an article about Congress women McKinney hitting an officer for stopping her at the security checkpoint.   Read the  article, you might get a laugh (or chuckle) out of the way that she tries to turn this into a ratial profiling issue.  At the very least, check out the way that she refuses to actually answer a question during the interview.  (Link in article).

I stumbled accross this article on Digg.  I found it to be an iteresting read both the original article and the comments on Digg.  Read it.

Slashdot has an article that tries to prove that prayer does not help people with heart problems. First off, let me say that this is a sad attempt to try to justify a disbelief in prayer or the belief that science is the “all knowing facts of life.” When you read the article you will note that the researchers, Duke University, had a previous study where they found that prayer helped and now they have a study where they found that prayer didn’t help. So the “obvious conclusion” is that God doesn’t exist. If that’s what you believe I pity you. I really pity you. It was heart breaking reading the trolls’ comments on Slashdot. “God doesn’t exist, this proves it.” “SEE? SEE? I TOLD YOU!” And much much more. One person went as far to quote the Bible trying to prove that God doesn’t exist. Stop, you’re embarrassing yourselves. First off, everyone is taking scripture way out of context. Read the whole story before you try to use part of scripture to justify your disbelief. Sooner or later you will realize that science is not the absolute truth. Example, science was used to prove that the earth was flat. Scientist for a time proved that the sun revolved around the earth. But wait, the earth is round and the earth revolves around the sun! Science is not the absolute truth! I pray for your sake that you will realize this before its too late.

I’ll end with this. For those that actually believe in the big bang theory I have something to ask you. First, we can all agree that if the earth had been closer to the sun we would all burn up in an instant. If the earth was farther way we would all be frozen. Second, look at the life around you, how it fits in just right. Seems almost perfect right? You believe we came from a blob of cells, the rest believe in creationism. Third, look at the universe, massive, countless stars and an infinite way it could have gone wrong from the “big bang”. Almost like a puzzle, it was all placed together just right so that every piece fits just right. Here’s my question. If I take an unopened puzzle of 1,000 pieces, large but not that big of a puzzle, open the box and through it in the air (bang), how many times will it take for all the pieces to fall perfectly into place and form the finished puzzle?

Yahoo News is reporting that Sony’s Universal Media Disc (UMD) movies are hurting, bad!  While I don’t own a PSP, and have no immediate plans to buy one but you never know, I have always found the device to be “techno savy” with its sharp display and variety of games.  However I could never see how people would actually buy movies for the PSP.  I’ve been to some stores where the price for a UMD movie was only 5 bucks less than the price of a DVD.  On the flip side I’ve seen some UMD movies 5-10 bucks more than the DVD!  Seroiously, who pays for roughly full price for a mini DVD with less video/audio quality and no special features just to watch it on a 4″ screen?!   It’s rediculous.  So long UMD, nobody will miss you.

Tell me this is a joke. Please for the love of God tell me that I’m seeing things. Dell, in all it’s wisdom has just released their new XPS system, the XPS 600 Renegade. What I can’t believe is that the starting price is $9,930. It’s got dual core over clocked processors, 4 Nvidia 7800 SLI graphic cards, Raided 160GB raptors, 2GB RAM, a great sound card, and a custom paint job. OK, nice hardware but 10 grand! I feel sorry for the person that deceides to buy it.

As promised I’m writing a response to Nagin’s speech that he gave the other day. For those of you who don’t know who Nagin is, he is the mayor of New Orleans that called out in anger for the lack of response when they were hit by hurricane Katrina. While I agree that the federal government was slow in responding to hurricane Katrina I think its crap for people to assume the slow response was racial. As part of the rebuilding process for New Orleans Mayor Nagin gave a speech that was to some inflammatory.

As we think about rebuilding New Orleans surly God is mad at America. He’s sending hurricane after hurricane after hurricane and its destroying and putting stress on this country. Surely he’s not approval of us being in Iraq under false pretenses. But surely he is upset at black America also. We’re not taking care of ourselves. We’re not taking care of our women. And we’re not taking care of our children. When you have a community where 70% of its children are being born to one parent. We as black people. It’s time. It’s time for us to come together. It’s time for us to rebuild a New Orleans, the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans. And I don’t care what people are saying uptown or where ever they are. This city will be chocolate at the end of the day. This city will be a majority African American city. It’s the way God wants it to be. You can’t have New Orleans no other way, it wouldn’t be New Orleans.

Excuse me?! What in God’s name are you thinking? I thought you were giving a speech to encourage people to come back to the city. Instead you decide to insult the government, insult the African American community, and then insult any non African-American all around MLK Jr. Day! Good job. Rather than trying to pull everyone together (a la MLK Jr.) you divide the city and piss off the nation.

So let’s break this down some. The comments about Iraq really don’t have any place in this speech. The speech was supposed to be inviting people to come and help rebuild New Orleans so where does Iraq fit in? If the 70% statistic Nagin gave is true then yes that is an alarming statistic, one that ANY race, gender, nationality, etc, should be concerned with. I still don’t see how this is helping to get people to come back. “Hey everyone, we have a serious problem with family values. 70% of children born are born to one parent. Doesn’t that sound like a great place to come and raise your family.” Seriously, what are you thinking? The only person in the last couple of years to make a criticism and not get marked a racist was Bill Cosby. And then we come to “Chocolate”. Yes New Orleans was a predominant African-American city but to have the nerve to tell any non African-American we don’t want you here?! How can this country become united (MLK Jr.) if the leaders are dividing it?

Some of you reading will probably consider me a racist for saying what I’m about to say but it’s something that’s been bugging me for a while. STOP PLAYING THE RACE CARD!!! When the city was hit by Katrina the government response was horrible. “The city is 60-70% African-American so it must be race related right?” No, it’s not race related. It was horrible response. Let’s rebuild New Orleans everyone. Race Card. It’s going to be a “Chocolate” city and “I don’t care what people are saying uptown or where ever they are.” For the love of God stop playing the race card. Not everything is about race. Stop trying to make it race related. For those out there that think that Nagin’s comments were not inflammatory ask yourself this. If a white mayor said “We’re going to make this a marshmallow city” what would be response from that? Or how about a “Mexican”-American mayor saying “Chorizo” city? I could go on and on but I won’t. Stop playing the race card. It’s old, it’s annoying, and it makes everyone take a step back instead of a step forward.

I heard about this on WOAI Radio down here in San Antonio. I have a long list of things to say about this but it’s late, I’m tired, and I’ve got to be up in 6 hours. I’ll post about this some more tomorrow.

Well, they managed to pull it off. The Longhorns beat the Trojans in a literally last minute drive lead by Vince Young. On a 4th and 5 play from about the 11 yard line with 20+ seconds left Young shuffled and then “walked” right into the end zone! There is a lot of hype flying around Vince Young and for good reason. He is a great QB and what I really love about him is that he’s HUMBLE!!!!! He’s not one of those “I did it all by myself” type like TO. Speaking of which, I’m glad Phili canned him a couple weeks ago. I pity any team that picks him up. Congrats to the UT Longhorns.