June 2008 - Posts

• “I’m not at liberty to answer that question”

  Like many I wish our politicians could just get along and when they fly off the handle I too often times just shrug and wish I could vote them out... last night though I heard something that got my blood boiling and that couldn't be ignored. Last night when driving home I heard a clip from C-SPAN from that day when Congressman Bill Delahunt (D-MA) was asking questions of David Addington (chief of staff to the Vice-President) about "enhanced interrogation techniques" and waterboarding, Mr Addington declined to answer some questions in part out of concern that Al-Qaeda may be watching C-SPAN and that his answers could give away too much. A legitimate concern? Maybe, maybe not. We can at least call it a consistent one from the administration. The response from Congressman Delahunt however was completely unacceptable when he said in part: I'm sure they are watching and I'm glad that they finally have the chance to see you Mr. Addington See the following YouTube video for the longer exchange leading up to this: At first glance... the Congressman seemed hopeful that Al-Qaeda may just be watching, seeing the face of Mr. Addington and would soon strike against an aid to . Even then… I couldn't quite believe it so I called Congressman Delahunt's Washington office to ask and found the voice mail box was full... so I called back this morning, the conversation went something like this: Office Congressman Delahunt's office Me Hello, I was curious if you could tell me what Congressman Delahunt meant yesterday when he said " I’m glad that they finally have a chance to see you Mr Addington" with regards to Al-Quada and the vice-presidents former chief of staff. Office What state are you calling from? Me Washington State. Office I'm sorry but since you aren't… Me Ma'am I am a US citizen who has serious questions and concerns about the comments of the Congressman who represents far more than the people of Massachusetts 10th district. Office Do you have a comment you'd like to leave? Me No… just a question... was the congressman actually calling for the death of a private citizen?   <5 second pause> Office I'm not at liberty to answer that question, is there anything else? Me Thank you, that actually answers my question perfectly. If there is another reason... I'd love to hear it… unfortunately those other options I can think of are quite laughable. Have a moment? Feel free to call Congressman Delahunt’s Washington office at 202-225-3111 and ask exactly what he meant. If you do call… please remember to be respectful. Posted Jun 28 2008, 12:19 AM by I Hate Linux

• When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions

  Last weekend I ran across an episode of When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions and was... awestruck, completely and utterly dumbfounded... even as I (slowly) write this blog post I have to do so only during the commercials because the footage is incredible. I've seen plenty of old NASA footage... but some of this material is just... unbelievably beautiful. If you've got even a passing interest in the space program and access to the Discovery Channel (or Discovery HD (oh how I wish I had it))... take a watch of an hour of this program. You don't watch it for the commentary from those involved (the likes of which you've probably seen before)... but for the 'never before seen' footage. Why the interest? In part when I was young I dreamed of being an astronaut... until I realized that given my likely height and genes (my dad being 6'3.5" and me now being a solid 6'4") that my chances were pretty nil (despite Jim Wetherbee). At the same time I think that its a shame that this country doesn't have an a competent ideological rival who we are racing to the moon or beyond as frankly... I don't think Islamic terrorists are likely to develop a space program. That all being said... there is a part of me that is tempted to pick up a Blu-ray player and the Blu-ray disks of the series... though it is worth nothing that my birthday is July 12 :) Posted Jun 15 2008, 11:18 PM by I Hate Linux

• Power Pack 1 and Tab Manager

  With the recent public release the Release Candidate of Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 it is imperative that any users of Tab Manager take special care when upgrading to avoid being incessantly nagged. Problem Due to changes in the way the Console in Power Pack 1 loads tabs and the way I hid tabs from the pre-PP1 tab loader, some add-ins may cause Tab Manager to crash on startup as well as see duplicate tabs within the console. This situation is especially likely if any Microsoft tabs were put under the control of Tab Manager. Solution It is highly suggested that all users of Tab Manager use it to restore all tabs to their normal state and only then uninstall Tab Manager prior to upgrading to Power Pack 1 (RC or final), to do so: Launch the Home Server Console Launch Settings Select the Tab Manager tab Make sure the "Hide Microsoft Assemblies" check box is unchecked Double click on each item listed in the "Managed Assemblies" list until the list is empty Click the OK button Click Yes to on Restart Required prompt Re-launch the Home Server Console Launch Settings Select the Add-ins Tab Locate Tab Manager from list of currently installed add-ins and click it's Uninstall button Restart the Home Server Console Note that if you have already installed the Power Pack 1 beta and you are seeing messages on startup of the console that certain Microsoft tabs (displayed as HomeServerConsoleTab.TabManager.Health.dll, HomeServerConsoleTab.TabManager.People.dll, HomeServerConsoleTab.TabManager.Sharing.dll, or HomeServerConsoleTab.TabManager.Storage.dll) you will need to manually remove them yourself after logging into your Home Server with Remote Desktop in order to remove the error as after Power Pack 1 is installed, Tab Manager is unable to over write the existing files (by design in Tab Manager for safety)). Failure to restore the tabs to their original state prior to installation or deleting these files (if necessary) will not break your Home Server, it will instead lead to less than desirable operation through excessive warning messages on startup and some duplicated tabs. If there are any questions on this issue feel free to post questions here or email me directly. Posted Jun 09 2008, 03:13 PM by I Hate Linux Filed under: Windows Home Server

• Multiple-Voices

  What's worse than hearing multiple voices in your head? Trying to speak with multiple voices. The time has come to split my blogging as I now find myself having two separate voices... Brendan Grant, Software Development Engineer on the Windows Home Server team at Microsoft... and Brendan Grant who also happens to be a Software Development Engineer on the Windows Home Server team at Microsoft. In the first case it's a semi-official voice complete with @microsoft.com email address... while the other is just some guy who likes technology, politics, Windows Home Server, etc and just has an @dahat.com address to go with it. Therefore starting immediately this blog will attempt to return to its roots as my personal blog related to... whatever (tech & politics mostly)... and when it comes to Windows Home Server or other more official things I suggest you take a look at my new blogs.msdn.com blog: Brendan on Windows Home Server. From time to time here (as I circumstances permit and/or is needed) I still plan to blog about WHS related bits here such as the status of my add-ins, though for any good deep stuff the new blog will be the place to look. Posted Jun 09 2008, 09:41 AM by I Hate Linux Filed under: Windows Home Server