Dave Barry from 13 September 2001: Not funny, but true

I'm not naive about my country. My country is definitely not always right; my country has at times been terribly wrong. But I know this about Americans: We don't set out to kill innocent people. We don't cheer when innocent people die.

The people who did this to us are monsters; the people who cheered them have hate-sickened minds. One reason they can cheer is that they know we would never do to them what their heroes did to us, even though we could, a thousand times worse. They know that when we hunt down the monsters, we will try hard not to harm the innocent. Those are the handcuffs we willingly wear, because for all our flaws, we are a decent people.

remembered via Ken Layne

5:29:21 PM  comment []    

How to Install Debian GNU/Linux on your Xbox

My goal was it to bring Debian GNU/Linux to the XBOX. This Document describes the steps which are needed to install Debian on your XBOX.

To do this you need an Xbox ($199) with a modified BIOS chip (~$100 installed). Or buy a pre-modded Xbox for $299. For $300 you get a pretty reasonable server. Plenty strong enough to serve web pages and handle email.

Interesting to note the Xbox Linux Project. It's not your ordinary open source project. This one has $200,000 in prizes: various amounts for different tasks. Where'd the money come from? Unknown. The donor chooses to remain anonymous.

Hmmm, who would like to a) burn Bill's britches, b) allow MS to subsidize hardware costs for a bunch of Linux servers, and c) take away Microsoft's cut of a bunch of game sales. And all for a measly $200K? Larry Ellison? Steve Case?   

5:24:32 PM  comment []