Free Republic

Despite all the hoopla about the introduction of Windows Vista, the truth of the matter is that the new OS isn't due for at least another seven to nine months — and it will probably be even longer before most of us start adopting it. Meanwhile, we've still got to deal with Win XP. In order to make the waiting easier, we've decided to assemble the greatest tips in the history of Windows XP. Here you'll find the tips that give you the most bang for your buck; that are most useful in terms of security, functionality, and PC performance;...

Roberts's performance in hearings leaves Democrats with 'dilemma' By Sheryl Gay Stolberg The New York Times FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2005 WASHINGTON U.S. Senate Democrats are deeply conflicted about how to vote on the nomination of Judge John Roberts Jr. to be the 17th chief justice of the United States, and appear divided about how, and whether, to use their vote to send a message to President George W. Bush as he selects a candidate to fill a second Supreme Court vacancy. "That's a critical part of this conversation," Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat and a...

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Hamlet has become a Muslim prince at the Ottoman court in an adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy which its Bosnian director says reflects the world after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. In possibly the biggest theater co-production the war-torn Balkans region has seen in some 20 years, Haris Pasovic is seeking to put "Hamlet" into a 21st Century setting. "One of the most important issues of the 21st century is the world's increased understanding of the Muslim issue following the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York," Pasovic, himself a Bosnian Muslim, told Reuters...

...The CBO projects that the federal government will collect $2.14 trillion this year. That's a hefty 58% increase from a decade ago. Washington may have many problems, but a shortage of money is not among them. All those dollars have not just gone to Iraq. The $286.5 billion highway bill is evidence that Washington is spending record amounts on infrastructure. And there's lots being lavished on all types of capital expenditures. The budget of the Army Corps of Engineers -- the federal agency tasked to help waterproof New Orleans -- is 31% higher today than it was 10 years ago.......

Signaling needs significantly more time in Mac OS X (Darwin) than on Linux. The processor plays a minor role: the Opteron at 2.4 GHz is a bit faster than the Xeon 3.6 GHz running exactly the same (x86) code. However, it is clear that the operating system plays a much bigger role: a 2.5 GHz G5 running Linux easily beats the identical system with a 2.7 GHz G5 running Mac OS X. Despite the FreeBSD heritage, the TCP signals are very slow (4 times slower!) on Mac OS X.

The 20th Century’s energizing dynamic was totalitarian socialism. Leading that parade were proponents like Stalin and Communist Russia, Hitler and his National Socialist Party, China’s Chairman Mao and a host of lesser lights like Saddam Hussein in Iraq. All preached the equality of outcomes for their people despite their own personal power-hungry obsessions. All seduced the world with their “humanity” that no one should paid more for their work than any other. They all preached a socialism that elevated the group at the expense of the individual. Fortunately for America, their citizens continued their abiding devotion to individualism during the...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The rock band Nine Inch Nails said on Friday it canceled plans to appear on next week's MTV Movie Awards after the network questioned the band's plans to perform in front of an image of President Bush. The band was slated to perform "The Hand That Feeds," the first single from its latest album. A Los Angeles Times review called the song "a warning against blind acceptance of authority, including that of a president leading his nation to war." "We were set to perform 'The Hand That Feeds' with an unmolested, straightforward image of George W....

RALEIGH, N.C. (NNS) -- Former Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class-turned-actor/comedian Bill Cosby took time to honor a local Navy Reservist for her service during his stand-up performance May 15 in Raleigh, N.C. Navy Counselor 1st Class Lauren R. Fyfe contacted Cosby’s management when she found out he was going to be performing in her hometown while she was on leave. All Fyfe said she was hoping for was the opportunity to have Cosby pose in a picture with her holding an American flag she owned. “The flag has been with me everywhere I go in the Navy,” said Fyfe. “Once, I...

Viagra could be the key to boosting countries' flagging economic performance, it's being claimed. Doctors at a medical health conference in Singapore have been warned sexual problems could take a high economic toll. Psychiatrist Emil Man-Lun Ng, from the University of Hong Kong, said: "If you are sexually not fulfilled, your quality of life will decrease, which leads to a dip in the resources of the country and the economy." The professor, who is founder of the Asian Federation for Sexual Health, is among the experts from Asia, Europe and the US attending the three-day Sex Health Conference. He said:...

  AUGUSTA — Gov. John E. Baldacci’s job approval rating plunged over the cliff this week, according to a New Jersey-based polling organization’s state-by-state comparison of chief executives. Although nearly 70 percent of respondents approved of his job performance in a February poll, according to one Maine pollster, Baldacci’s approval rating plummeted to 37 percent over the weekend, according to SurveyUSA, one of the country’s largest computerized polling companies. A subsidiary of Hypotenuse Inc. of Verona, N.J., SurveyUSA conducts numerous “bullet polls” for 50 television stations across the country, including WLBZ-TV Channel 2 in Bangor and WCSH-TV Channel 6...

THE LEGACY COSTS OF DOING BUSINESSOn the back of both Ford [NYSE: F] and General Motors [NYSE: GM] having their credit ratings reduced to junk status this past week ? I thought it might be appropriate to take a closer look at why?Some would have us believe that North American automakers simply don’t build them like they used to! Well, being a proud owner of a 1980 Cutlass Supreme, with less than 100k original kilometers on the clock, I would concur with this line of thought. But then again, who really does build them the way they used to anyway? ...

For most of the history of this country, differences between the black and the white population--whether in income, IQ, crime rates, or whatever--have been attributed to either race or racism. For much of the first half of the 20th century, these differences were attributed to race--that is, to an assumption that blacks just did not have it in their genes to do as well as white people. The tide began to turn in the second half of the 20th century, when the assumption developed that black-white differences were due to racism on the part of whites. Three decades of my...

It was quite the site to behold. There they sat; McGwire, Sosa, Schilling, Palmeiro, some of today’s superstars of baseball and quite possibly tomorrow’s Hall of Famers. But this moment wasn’t about double-plays or RBIs, and instead of home or away jerseys they were wearing pinstripes of the Brooks Brothers variety. These icons of the diamond – along with Frank Thomas who joined them by teleconference and Jose Canseco who sat shunned at the end of the table – were subpoenaed by the United States Congress to talk about steroid abuse in Major League Baseball. A disturbing thought for a...

A private memo has just been released that demonstrates the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Committee intentionally watered down its report on city finances in 2002. This is the clearest evidence to date that the Mayor knew of the city’s financial crisis back in 2002. The memo also makes a troubling reference to concerns over the City’s ball park bonds and credit rating in the context of the Blue Ribbon Report being watered down. The memo is available online at www.sandiegobudget.org so you can read and judge for yourself. Below is our press release; the link to the San Diego City Beat...

Last fall, Washington’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson released the names of schools that failed to make “adequate yearly progress” (AYP) in the 2003-04 school year, as required by federal law. The good news: The number of low-performing schools dropped significantly from 436 in 2003 to 281 in 2004. The bad news: Most of the progress can be credited to lower standards, not higher academic achievement. In fact, some of the now-passing schools even regressed academically. It took weeks of data-crunching by Evergreen Freedom Foundation staff to determine how schools would have measured up in 2004 if the standards...

OLYMPIA—As early as tomorrow, the House may vote on a bill to authorize performance audits of state government. As currently drafted, however, that bill (HB 1064) falls short of meeting the necessary standards to ensure that performance audits are independently and comprehensively conducted by the people's state auditor. Hoping to seize on the current opportunity, the state auditor's office has suggested an amendment to HB 1064, which addresses the bill's current shortcomings. The state auditor's amendment surpasses the language provided to legislators in the Evergreen Freedom Foundation's performance audit pledge. Fifty-three Representatives are signers of EFF's performance audit pledge. The...

Just when it started to look inevitable that comprehensive performance audits would finally become law, Governor Christine Gregoire's staff is now blurring that vision. Despite claiming that "change is here and more is coming," Gregoire appears to be doing her best impersonation of former Governor Gary Locke. As governor, Locke routinely vetoed bills authorizing the state auditor to conduct performance audits of state government. Based on testimony provided by Governor Gregoire's office at two recent performance audit hearings, it appears that instead of "change," voters can expect more of the same. Consider the following testimony (in italics) from Mary Campbell,...

Are taxpayer-subsidized infomercials and payoffs to friendly commentators the federal government's answer to education problems? The U.S. Education Department's secret million-dollar taxpayer-financed marketing campaign to sell the No Child Left Behind Act is only a symptom of what's wrong. Former President Ronald Reagan used to say that government is not the solution, it's the problem. But we are in the post-Clinton era, and in 1997 former President Bill Clinton told us in Northbrook, Ill., to get over "our love of local control of the schools." While national media are filled with pictures of horrors all over the world, the biggest...

OLYMPIA—Sen. Pam Roach (R-Auburn) has drafted a performance audit bill reflecting 100 percent of the model language the Evergreen Freedom Foundation (EFF) submitted to legislators in the form of a performance audit pledge last year. Fifty-three members of the House (including Speaker Frank Chopp) and 17 members of the Senate signed EFF's performance audit pledge. This means there should be no obstacles to a companion bill being introduced in the House. "The legislature appears poised to finally adopt independent and comprehensive performance audits of state government," said Jason Mercier, budget research analyst for EFF. "We would like to thank Sen....

Some people seem to believe that education spending must arbitrarily increase each year regardless of whether or not current expenditures are resulting in necessary student achievement or efficient operations. This precept runs counter to a Priorities of Government (POG) review. If the results of the 2004 election are any indication, voters seem to agree. When asked to raise their taxes by more than a billion dollars per year to support increased education spending, sixty percent of Washington voters said "no" by rejecting Initiative 884 (I-884). Some claim I-884 failed not because it was an unnecessary tax increase, but because it...