Monthly Archives: June 2006
Interesting Frugal Food Stuff
I consider myself reasonably frugal when it comes to food, though I am nowhere near as penny-pinching as some people in this category. As I have said before, I do not believe that lower grocery bills are the point of living deliberately and frugally. However, I am aware that the grocery bill is, by far, the easiest place to pinch pennies (or dollars) when needed. A perfect example is this $45 weekly menu for 4 people or this slightly less frugal $70 weekly menu for 4 people. These menus are particularly striking in light of the USDA considering the thrifty food plan for a family of four to be $120 per week. Looking at that list, I also discovered that while I feel as if we spend a good bit more on groceries than we must, our $200 a month grocery budget is well below the “thrifty” level for a married couple, which is pegged at $71 a week. Interesting… Read more
Warren Buffet as Frugal Role Model
Warren Buffet has made headlines recently for his enormous gift of $50.5 billion, the largest charitable donation by an individual in U.S. history. He has always been an admired, sometimes revered tycoon, nicknamed the “Oracle of Omaha” by the press for his astute investing. The interesting thing about this gift however, is that not having the money will mean little, if anything, to Buffet’s day-to-day life. Buffett is famous for his unpretentious lifestyle. He lives in the same house in Omaha he bought in 1958 for $43,000. His annual chairman’s salary from Berkshire Hathaway of $136,000 is modest by U.S. corporate… Read more
Thirteen Good Signs For Civilization
As a proponent of deliberate living, slowing down, and other types of voluntary simplicity, there are quite a few things that I think are important signposts on the way from an industrial-scale to human-scale society. Here are thirteen things that I am glad to see growing in popularity: Farmers Markets and Community Supported Agriculture Microbreweries “Heirloom” vegetables, and backyard vegetable gardens in general Artisanal foods; cheeses, breads, etc. Time-consuming hobbies such as knitting, gardening, woodworking, etc. Home cooking and regional food identities Scrapbooking, journaling, blogging and other reflective hobbies Buddhism Supper clubs in both the commercial nightclub sense and in the small group Cooking Light sense Micro businesses, particularly one-(wo)man outfits such as eBay power sellers Homeschooling and “unschooling” Community banks and Credit Unions Telecommuting, job-sharing and other flex-time work arrangements “> The purpose of… Read more
Linux has better patching than Windows or Mac?
Has Linux patching surpassed Mac and Windows? by ZDNet’s George Ou — Without a centralized patch management system for all software regardless of vendor, the average Windows and Mac user will simply leave the door wide open on third party applications for hackers to… Read more
A Cynical Look At “Lifestyle Amenities”
There has been, since the mid 90′s, a trend towards companies offering more and more on-site amenities. From day care to car washing, coffee bars to game rooms and massage therapists, companies, especially IT firms, are falling all over themselves to provide these types of things “to attract the best talent”. Have you ever stopped to wonder why companies jumped on this idea so quickly, went along so willingly? There were no editorials about how the “casualization” of American workplaces was a recipe for laziness as there was when, horror of horrors, men became able to dress themselves and stopped relying on the suit as uniform avoidance of fashion. Why is that? Some people would have you believe that it is a sign of a shift in priorities, evidence that companies are finally waking up to the realities of “work/life” balance and doing what they can to create “accomodating” work spaces. I think that is bullshit, probably originating from some IT firm’s ministry of propaganda public… Read more
Desktop Linux In The Enterprise
Previously I have talked about issues with desktop Linux that I believe must be resolved before home users will adopt it. Most of these are not as much of an issue for businesses looking to make a move to Linux desktops. Hardware can be selected that willnot have driver issues, DVD playback is a priority feature in most business settings, and there are some neat things that corporate IT departments can do to make life easier, mostly involving automated patch management. So, why hasn’t desktop Linux taken off in business environments? I really don’t think the fact that it hasn’t is indicative of any intrinsic problem with Linux, I believe that it is due to bad management – both IT and personnel. Business computer users are some of the most conservative folks around when it comes to new ways of doing things. From the busy, deadline driven worker up through management, there is a point of view that goes something like If X takes me 30 minutes to do now with old method A, and this… Read more
Arghhh!
Why, oh why would a web host be stupid enough to install hundreds of directories for hundreds of customers with permissions 777 and then run apache as ‘nobody’? Why would they also run PHP with ‘register_globals=true’ and without open_basedir? Why would they not use chroot jails for Apache? Why would they not provide CGIWrap or suEXEC? …no posts in days, I know. I am too busy cleaning up after an easily prevented script-kiddie attack. Stupid, stupid host. Tons of scripts running on their virtual host boxes, most with some sort of file upload capability, and they run Apache as nobody! Nicely done, asshats. One user or one script gets compromised and suddenly every folder on the entire server that is perm’d 777 starts serving up WMF exploits to every website… Read more
Martin Taylor Shown The Door
Microsoft’s leading FUD-meister, Martin Taylor, has abruptly left the company, after a thirteen year stint that included heading up Microsoft’s FUD campaign “Get The Facts”. Taylor had no comment on the move, and Microsoft, speaking through their public relations firm Waggener Edstrom, said only “We appreciate Martin’s contributions at Microsoft over the past 13… Read more
Dear Montreal, New Jersey, Buffalo & Edmonton,
Y’all come on down and visit the cup whenever you want – we’re real… Read more