This is yet another case of people being able to abuse the DMCA’98 to violate free speech rights.

Let’s all take some time to educate ourselves on the danger, hate, and fear oozing out of this band of merry idiots.

O’Reilly can send his producer out my way, and I’ll offer two statements. One: kiss my ass. The other, the one I give to Mormon missionaries and Jehovah’s Witnesses when they come knocking on my door: you can get off my property, or I will be forced to protect my family.

Come on O’Reilly, send your goons after me… I dare ya. Email me and I’ll give you my address even. I even used to think you were just a nice, misunderstood conservative with a big mouth… now I know you’re just another right-wing fear-mongering bully.

We will be meeting at Espresso Royale at 7pm Central on Tuesday the 31st to discuss promoting a refuse burning ban in the Village. Please email me if you have any questions. If you would like to join in, and you’ll be there, please comment below.

Espresso Royale is in the shopping center on the corner of Windsor and Duncan in south-west Champaign, IL.

Now many of you are probably surprised to hear that I’ve been a Mac guy for a little over 6 months now, and what a Mac guy I’ve become.  I’ve got the Macbook (the white one, I still can’t be bothered to drop $2700 on a laptop), the iPhone, I even have the bluetooth keyboard and mouse so I can hook my macbook up to a monitor and use it like a desktop.  Hell, I even have the Apple TV… so believe me when I say that I’ve kind of become my worst nightmare: a proprietary software using Mac geek… so believe me when I say that I love my iPhone.  The iPhone is actually what prompted all of this Apple insanity.

Imagine my surprise this morning when I open Mail.app and see the Palm Pre.  If you haven’t seen it, take a peek over here: http://www.palm.com/us/products/phones/pre/

Many of you also know that I have a history with Palm devices.  Particularly with GNU/Linux use, until the release of the more recent Android and Nokia GNU/Linux friendly devices, Palm was pretty much the best choice for smart phone for non-Windows and non-Mac users (in my opinion).  Now, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Palm for some time because their devices are ugly, they don’t always work that well, their performance is crap, and they don’t do a very good job of working with the Free Software community to keep the sync software up-to-date… but who does, right?

I’m not saying all of my beefs with Palm are gone, matter of fact I’m still skeptical about how cool this Pre device might be (I HATE SLIDE-OUT KEYBOARDS), but I don’t think that there’s any denying that this device looks sweet.  Let’s face it, the screen-shots are sexy, they show colorful software that looks functional, simple, and shiny.  It’s vaguely reminiscent of our friend, the iPhone.  This device is using several new things that Palm seems very proud of: Palm WebOS, Palm Mojo Framework, and Palm Synergy (their new sync tool presumably).  It looks like a vast improvement on the Centro for sure, but as I said, I’m skeptical about the prospect of iPhone competition.

I dig the idea of iPhone competition, I certainly don’t think the iPhone is the end-all of mobile devices… there are some problems such as a severely bluetooth functionality, a lack of MMS, no video recording, no multi-tasking, no instant messenger support other than a handful of App Store programs which aren’t as good at IM as they could be; there are problems with the iPhone.  There are a couple reasons why I think that I’ll still be an iPhone user for a while: iPhone syncs with OSX seamlessly, and wirelessly if you have Mobile Me, iPhone is all one device and there is no slide-out keyboard (I HATE SLIDE-OUT KEYBOARDS), and the variety of neat applications on the iPhone is just astounding.

My hat, however, is off to the folks at Palm.  They have crafted what looks like a sexy device–though I still hate slide-out keyboards–and the software shown in the screen-shots also looks pretty sexy.  I just hope that they’ve removed the scourge of the Palm Desktop software and the Palm Hotsync software which has been the cause of much weeping and gnashing of teeth for me over the last decade.

Grandpa Mike Stemle's Glam-Shot.

VOLUNTEER PROFILE: Michael Stemle

Volunteer position at Habitat site: General, whatever is needed. Name it and I have most likely done it at least once, except for roofs. I have hammered everything that can be hammered, have painted things the needed (and some that didn’t need) painting, I have laid out walls, installed siding, installed kitchen cabinets, put up drywall, etc. I am the 2009 Vice President of the Board of Directors.

How long have you been working with Habitat? Since 1998. First house that I remember was on Neil and that family has done so well they added on to the house.

What’s your favorite part of working with Habitat? Being on the build site, helping others on the build learn that it is OK to not be able to hit a nail with every swing and that it is OK not to know the proper names for building components.

Previous or current profession: Software Development Manager

First job/weirdest job: 2nd class welder at a shipyard, setup lighting and sound systems for rock concerts.

Hobbies: Software, painting, just did a frog mural in my grandson’s nursery.

My friends describe me as: Crazy. Always has something to say. Willing to help.

What is the most memorable experience you’ve had with Habitat? Having the children of one of our families bringing a cup of water on a hot day and thanking me for building them a home. Watching the houses on the other three corners of a house that we were building get improved (an abandoned house became a clean grassy lot, another got new siding and another got new siding and a roof).

Favorite memory of working with Habitat: Having my children helping on a build site and mailing a donation “Thank you Card” to my son.

Now, you’re probably saying “but manchicken, pizza usually has cheese on it, and vegan cheese substitutes all taste like ass!”  Well, I couldn’t agree more… vegan cheese substitutes do tend to taste like ass, and that’s why I just don’t use them.  I make cheese-less pizza.  Now, without all that extra fat and Calories you can do a lot more with toppings, but you can also feel guilt-free about thick-crust pizza.  You probably could put cheese on this if you want, but I’m happy with just store-bought spaghetti sauce and onions.

You need:

• 1 cup hot tap water, 170ºF/77ºC max
• 1 1/2 tbsp yeast
• 2 tbsp brewers yeast
• 1 1/2 tbsp light corn syrup
• 6 cups all-purpose flour (3 cups for dough, 3 to knead into dough)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 8 tbsp canola oil (2 tbsp for the dough, 6 to oil your pans)
• 2 9-inch round cake pans

If this ignorant person is reading this blog, I just wanted to let you know that I cannot permit that degree of ignorant hate-speech go on here.  If you’d like to spread your own hate-speech like that, feel free to go out and get your own blog, don’t hide your hatred in the comments of my blog.

If anybody from the City or County of Denver is reading, I do have the IP of the person who did write this hate-speech from the comfort of your network, and I can provide that information to anybody who can convince me that they’re the appropriate authority… I’m pretty sure you have a rule against posting hate-speech on blogs from your network.