The New York Times Mocks Absinthe

Eric Konigsberg of The New York Times says Care for an Absinthe? Ptooey!

If absinthe were a band, it would be Interpol, third-hand piffle masquerading as transgressive pop culture. If absinthe were sneakers, it would be a pair of laceless Chuck Taylors designed by John Varvatos for Converse. If it were facial hair, it would be the soul patch...You could say that absinthe is a kindred spirit of so many falsely subversive things: ear piercing for men, tattoos on women, those cigar bars, pole-dancing-aerobics classes, mind erasers, blogging about one’s bikini grooming...

QotD for 2 Jan., 2009

Sol Short once told me that mankind is divided into two basic sorts: those who find the unknown future threatening and those who find it thrilling. He says the rupture between those two sides has been responsible for most of the bloodshed in history. If change threatens you, you become conservative in self-defense. If change thrills you, you become liberal in self-liberation. He says the Threateneds are frequently more successful in the short run, because they always fight dirty. But in the long run, they always lose, because Thrilled people learn and thus accomplish more. ---Joel Johnston, lead character in Robert Heinlein & Spider Robinson's novel Variable Star

QotD for 27 Dec., 2008

There is nothing so secular that it cannot be sacred, and that is one of the deepest messages of the Incarnation. ---Madeleine L'Engle

[from Ellie via the Mad Priest]

QotD for 24 Dec., 2008

I'll bet when we elect our first gay president, he doesn't invite an avowed racist to deliver the invocation. ---Scot Hacker

HOWTO: Install KeePassX for Ubuntu 'Hardy'

KeePassX is a cross-platform application that can store various bits of useful information like passwords, software license keys, account numbers, etc... in an encrypted database. It is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and the database it keeps is portable between these platforms.

The packages for Windows and OS X look pretty straight-forward, but installing it under Ubuntu 8.04 'Hardy' this morning was an unexpected pain. Here's how to do it:

1. goto the KeePassX downloads page and grab the version under "Linux...Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron)" labeled "DEB binary package v0.3.4 (x86)".
   
2. edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file to enable the 'backports' repositories.
   
3. use the Synaptic package manager and install the following: libqt4-core libqt4-gui libqt4-dbus libqt4-network libqt4-script libqt4-test libqt4-xml libqt4-assistant libqt4-designer libqt4-opengl libqt4-svg (you'll probably get all of these, plus a few more, as dependencies once you mark the first few for install).
   
4. then launch the gdebi package manager by double-clicking on the KeePassX '.deb' file you downloaded in step 1 and click the 'Install' button.
   

KeePassX should now install w/o any dependency-based errors and show up in your "Applications..Accessories" menu.

I suspect much of this libqt-based nonsense would be moot if you run the KDE version of Ubuntu named 'Kubuntu,' as KDE itself depends on the Qt libs. But this is how I got it to install under GNOME on the std. Ubuntu 8.04.

Search Lifehacker.com for tips & tricks on using KeePassX, and the orig. Windows version KeePass.

IE Users Should Switch

The Times of London reports Internet Explorer users warned to change browser over security fears:

Microsoft admitted today that a serious flaw in security has left all users of Internet Explorer, the default web browser for most people, vulnerable to attack from hackers.

The loophole allows criminals to commandeer victims’ computers by tricking them into visiting tainted websites that steal passwords. Computer users are advised to switch to an alternative internet browser, such as Firefox or Google Chrome, to be certain to avoid hackers who have so far corrupted an estimated 10,000 websites.

Here are the links to the Firefox and Opera web browsers. Microsoft has also has a security advisory on TechNet if you're, you know...insane enough to stick with their products...

Or for sweet heaven's sake, dump all this nonsense once and for all, and get a Mac :)

UPDATE: Microsoft issues a temporary fix.

Good Manners on the Inter-tubes

Scalzi reminds us of a key bit of netiquette in The “Bcc:” Field is Your Friend.

I was reminded of this a short while ago when I received an email from a blogging friend with a CC: field chock-full of addrs for other folks - among them another blogger who hadn't chosen to share her email addr with me (not that I'd asked, it's just never come up).

So make Ms. Manners proud and go read dat :)