Linux and personal update

This is a catch-all post. I have another one on my mind but I have waited too long to do this and I have loose ends to organize.

First, the Linux update. As I type this, I have been using Pinguy Linux for a couple of months. I have dual-installed it on two laptops, both of which run Windoze 7 otherwise. I re-installed it on this one because of a booting (startup) issue, and that has worked well. This netbook has no DVD drive, but saving the Pinguy download to an SD card solved that. In addition, it gave me an entire set of software that I can carry around in my pocket if need be.

Most of this works the same way it did in Windows although the wording may differ and program names always do. Setting up different software is easier because I don't have to download or pay for any of it; it's included free and is part of Pinguy. All I have to do is click a "menu" button in the upper left corner of the screen and find the correct category of software. The actual installation is pretty much exactly the same. Most other functions reside there as well. The menus get long but I like the organization.

I spend most of my time in Mozilla Firefox, a popular browser that works with almost everything on the Internet, and I do occasional word processing (Libre Office). All of this is familiar. Now and then I use something else. No problem. The desktop differs from Windows; there are more useful things there. Also, the browser screen does not automatically take up the full screen, but it can be set to do so from that same menu button. If I leave it as only part of the screen, I tend to run into things in Docky, which is basically the task bar containing things like the trash can (recycle in Windows) that people use often spread around different sides of the screen. All in all, the big problem was installing Pinguy in the first place. Once installed, it works more easily than I had expected.

Now for the personal update. I have had an interesting time at the same time that most of my days have been boring. I have had no cash income between selling my junk car before Thanksgiving and receiving my income tax return a few days ago. Therefore, I spent very little time in stores other than grocery buying with my food benefits.  I find little that I can do with no car, no money, and no job. I have however caught up on most of my Internet activities. I actually read a bit less than I did before due to that.

The transit here lacks reliability, evening operating hours, and intelligent design. I have been using it anyhow when I could get the $1 per trip fare. I celebrated when I finally got one of my bicycles back. I have been riding it whenever possible. When my tax return came in, I ordered a trailer for the bicycle. Given that I will not have money to buy a car in the near future, I will use the trailer to make the bike do jobs such as big grocery runs and trips to the laundromat.

I continue in the process of trying to get a disability income. I received my notice that my first appeal was denied pretty much as expected. I am waiting a while to continue the process because I have Medicaid now and I am using it to gather much more evidence of my medical condition.

The two largest current events in my illness/disability story are (a) I am now taking an extended-release generic for nitroglycerin (heart medication) as an experiment to see whether it helps my symptoms and (b) I have a sleep study scheduled for the 20th of this month.

The shortness of breath and constant fatigue do seem to improve with the medicine. I may have found a cause for my un-wellness. That is a good news-bad news kind of thing. The bad news is that I might have heart problems. The good news is that those issues might get me my disability.

Most of the people who know me and also the medical people expect the sleep study to find apnea. Given that I snore too much to sleep on my back (I wake myself up)  and have had insomnia my entire life, they are probably right.

As I mentioned above, I have another post in mind. You will see that as soon as I have the energy to write it.

Pinguy Linux update

One month on, Linux is again a major malfunction for me. I installed it on my laptop after it had worked well for about ten days or two weeks. There was a glitch about starting it from the "boot menu," and I eventually re-installed Pinguy because of that. When I updated after the re-install, something went wrong with the boot menu, and now I cannot make the computer do anything. Fortunately for me, I have a little simple computer that I can use. When I asked a question about this on a Pinguy forum, I got an answer that assumed I did not know to save changes, which is one of the earliest things I learned about computer work, circa 1989. One of my issues about Linux in general is that most of the Linux users I talk to show condescension, contempt, or both.

I will probably keep the computer that is down and try other things. After all, I have nothing to lose. I keep reading how Pinguy is "user friendly" and usable for anyone, even the inexperienced. I don't think so. Linux in general is over-sold. I have been pursuing this particular will-of-the-wisp for several years. It has cost me a prior computer and forced me to "restore" another to factory settings, losing all of my documents and pictures in the process. Moral of the story: user friendly is an easy term to say, but actual results may vary.

Pinguy Linux

After several years of stress, mistakes, and other issues, I am using a Linux distribution as my operating system as I write this post. The confusion and issues cleared once I found a called OSDisc.com where I could request a "live" disc with the operating system (OS) I wanted to use. It cost me $4 for the disc and $4 and change of Postal Service shipping, but that includes all the software I need for anything I do. Using the live disc required no computer knowledge beyond changing the "boot order" of the computer, which is not especially difficult. I did have to look at the new GUI (starting screen, mostly), because that's better arranged and gives far more information than my prior Windows interface.

I have yet to install Pinguy on my hard drive because I'm being very cautious about saving my Windows files and about noting differences in operation from Windows systems, but I think I will be using the Linux setup most of the time in the future.

Hi to all two of my followers.

There's some sort of "update" on Blogger, and it showed me a peak on page views recently. While that may be someone stumbling across this by accident, it does mean I'm still a blogger in some technical sense.

I'm not sure what I've published here, but life has taken a fairly strange turn or two. I will publish more when I have permission, but for now I'll just say I'm living in a corn field in central Ohio. I have applied for a disability through Social Security, been turned down and appealed. I really do not expect to receive Social Security or SSI, but might be able to get Medicaid long enough to get some of my issues addressed. I will be looking for work after a few things here resolve and I have an assignment scheduled beginning in December.

Book Review: With Liberty and Justice for Some

With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful, by Glenn Greenwald (2011, Metropolitan Books, New York) reports the news: powerful people have attacked a founding principle of the United States, equality under law. These people, politicians and corporate interests, have reached a point where they dismiss Federal laws and international agreements openly, even boastfully. Greenwald provides in-text sources for the modern-day events and quotes the Founding Fathers or gives Constitutional sources for his background references. However, he does not give footnotes or endnotes should a reader wish to check the references.

Greenwald’s communication strength rests on his passion. He does very well at saying, “This happened, here’s proof it happened, and it’s wrong because it’s against the Constitution and the intentions of the Founding Fathers!” He makes this statement in reference to equality under the law very thoroughly, focusing on events from the President Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon to President Obama’s refusal to investigate or prosecute either Bush Administration torturers or Wall Street’s grand-scale fraudsters.

Greenwald spares neither parties nor personalities; liberals, conservatives, and moderates will each find some discomfort here. He also removes the illusions of those who still see the media as eager to expose wrongdoing. Greenwald concludes with a contrasting chapter on the lot of the less powerful, pointing out that the US prison population is huge and tends to be minorities and poor people. He points out that this growing prison population, largely non-violent drug users, does not correlate to either lower crime rates or reductions in drug use. In this chapter, he gives a good background to suggest why this continues despite its inability to achieve the stated results.

The flaws in Greenwald’s communication derive from his failure to go beyond passion. Except in the last chapter, he gives little background for his characters or their times. For example, why would Nixon do something as desperate as the Watergate break-in when he was leading in the polls and very likely to be re-elected without that? Why do people who make millions of dollars annually seek to make more millions by violating the law?

More importantly, he only cries foul; he does not suggest changes to make or even consequences of the current course. This negates his passion. Moving people to strong feelings without asking them to do something brings them depression and frustration, not understanding and satisfaction.

In short, With Liberty and Justice for Some gives a clear and impassioned picture of the decay of equality under law in the United States, but does little to help one understand why this is happening or what to do about it.

Unintentional Communication

This Republican primary season has become a fine example of the difficulties of directing communications to a limited audience. All of these would-be nominees try all-out to woo the likely Republican primary voters, essentially Tea Party activists. None of them seems to notice that the entire country watches newscasts, and only Fox News has any sympathy for them. This leads to fascinating spectacles again and again.

Early on, we saw Sarah Palin spouting whatever came to mind, complete with a reality TV show and a bus tour, only to realize that continuing as a celebrity is safer and pays more than actually trying to run for President. I suspect that she might have caught on that a majority of the voters do not believe she could see Russia from her front porch.  Her successors almost make her look sensible, and that is a difficult task.

Michelle Bachmann (remember her?) knew she would not have to use facts and figures to please the Tea Party. She was doing well without that, but then Newsweek put her picture on their cover looking crazy.  Really crazy. Someone claimed that "crazy" was the only kind of picture available, and she drowned in the waves of laughter. Ron Paul comes and goes in the polls. The problem with him seems to be honesty. Congressman Paul appears to be a libertarian at heart, and that works fine on issues such as smaller government and lower taxes, but he would rather not outlaw sex or attempt to imprison anybody the Tea Party disapproves of.  Governor Perry of Texas tends to talk like a drunk in a bar, which would be less of a problem if his many competitors pointed it out less often. Herman Cain knew the right words (except for that 9-9-9 thing) but quickly got a reputation for sexual harassment and at least one long-term adulterous affair. The Tea Party does not approve of sex for fun under any circumstances. Mitt Romney has somehow maintained a decent position in the polls through all of this. I suspect he depends on the non-Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, because he makes sense when he talks most of the time. Unfortunately, he has a record that would serve a Democrat well, he changes his stated positions often, and he is a Mormon. While I see Mormons as a kind of fundamentalist Christian, many in the Tea Party see them as some bizarre “other” creature, possibly out to destroy them.

So all of these people parade before the devout followers of Rush Limbaugh et al., trying to reach the Republican convention with enough delegates to grab the nomination so they can run against President Obama.  They debate again and again, looking more and more foolish. They attack each other, using old pictures, past statements, and wild accusations.

The great thing for Obama is that they also parade before the rest of the USA. Obama will not need to spend as much money as usual on making new advertising against whichever one of these people outlasts the others. He can just use video of the debates and information the Republicans have already uncovered in this primary season.

The Republicans seeking the nomination are communicating more effectively than they know. Unfortunately for them, they are telling all Americans, not just the party faithful, who they are.

Book Review: Pictures of the Mind

Pictures of the Mind: What the New Neuroscience Tells Us About Who We Are
Miriam Boleyn-Fitzgerald
FT Press, 2010

Here's a book on brain imaging, and it turns out to have everything to do with communication. After all, communication of any sort originates in a brain (mind) and is directed to other brains (minds). Beyond that, people find it easy to believe they understand their own actions, moral values, and identity. Many people even believe that their memories given a clear and complete picture of their lives. This book addresses all of those questions, and the answers will enlighten readers.

Pictures of the Mind opens with a discussion of the differences among people in different non-responsive states; some are essentially dead, some not. Work on those distinctions should matter a grat deal to anyone whose loved one(s) cannot respond to stimuli. In fact, because accidents or illnesses can put anyone in such a state, this matters for all of us.


Having made a strong beginning with that important topic, Pictures of the Mind goes on to examine a new understanding of how people can change their personalities (emotional responses to life) by effort and why that matters so much, which includes a discussion of something I have learned from experience, that meditation is a more effective treatment than medication for some illnesses.

The chapter on happiness should help cheer readers after the serious topics, and happiness turns out to have a serious side itself because happiness and health go together. This also marks Pictures of the Mind as more than a discussion of illness; health, mental as well as physical, needs study. Then comes  unhappiness; the next fascinating finding is that addicts have important brain responses in common with people who suffer chronic pain; progress in studying one might lead to progress with the other. This chapter adds a great deal more to that finding.

The most interesting part of the entire book for many readers will be the chapter on morality. This addresses whether the "brain" is exactly the same as the "mind" as well as the fact that the brain handles different moral decisions in measurably different ways, with contradictory results. Equally interesting, young brains do not have the same capacities or the same responses as grown-up brains. A fascinating discussion of legal and moral responsibility ensues, considering both people with impairments and "normal" (no measurable defects) citizens. Of course, spirituality, religion, and whether they are separate from the mind become a running thread in this section.

The chapter on memory (including releasing the power of or even removing traumatic experiences) and the concluding chapter on the "self" continue the fascinating quest to understand what it means to be human. The author is considerate enough to include a list of resources at the end of her book, so readers can continue learning about this fascinating subject.