Now in those days ...

In church, some passages in the Bible are read so frequently that we only need to hear the first phrase to know what will follow. One of those phrases is "Now in those days".

Christmas. Luke 2.

Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.” So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.

Luke 2:1-20 (NASB)

Merry Christmas

More Fedora Set-up

Now, back to that ToDo list:

1. How to put the system in standby mode
   

   Click your name in the Top Bar and select Suspend. The machine comes back up by just hitting the Enter key.

2. Find and install Adobe Flash plug-in
   

   Follow the instructions (more or less) in here http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Flash

3. Find PDF plug-in
   

   Not needed. Use Document Viewer, which is included by default.

4. ITunes

   Todo

5. Find VNC Server/Viewer download

   The vino VNC server/viewer is already installed. Todo.

6. Find Lexmark printer driver download
   

   Start here: http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Printing/ConfigurationTool

7. Download OpenOffice
   

   Use LibreOffice instead.
   From here, I downloaded LibO_3.4.4_Linux_x86-64_install-rpm_en-US.tar.gz
   Then follow the install instructions in the README file.
   A JVM is apparently also needed.

8. Tunneling software

   Todo

9. Customize GRUB

   Fron a terminal:
   > su -
   > cd /boot/grub
   > cp grub.conf grub.conf.backup
   > gvim grub.conf
   Use '#' to comment out unwanted menu entries
   Change the timeout value to 30
   Change the title from 'Other' to 'Windows XP'
   Swap the order of the menu entries so that Windows is first
   Save and exit
   Log out
   Reboot and test

10. Download Perl
    

    Not needed. Included by default.

11. Install git

    Similar to installing 'vim' (see below).
    Click check boxes for 'git-[version]...' and 'gitk-[version]...'

New items not on the previous ToDo list:

1. Install Java

   In Add/Remove Software
   In textbox, type 'java'
   Click 'find'
   Click checkbox for 'Java'
   Click 'Apply' button (downloads for a while)
   Additional confirmation required
   Click 'Continue' button
   Enter root password
   Click 'Authenticate' button (install proceeds)
   Pop-up for IcedTea Web Control Panel (click 'Close')

2. Install vim

   In Add/Remove Software
   In textbox, type 'vim'
   Click 'find'
   Click checkbox for 'vim-X11-...'
   Click 'Apply' button (downloads for a while)
   Additional confirmation required
   Click 'Continue' button
   Enter root password
   Click 'Authenticate' button (install proceeds)
   At pop-up, click 'Close'
   In a terminal:
   > su -c 'vi /etc/bashrc'
   add 'alias vim=/usr/bin/gvim'

3. Install graphviz

   Use Add/Remove Software, searching for 'graphviz'
   Select packages for development, PDF, HTML, demo graphs, Java, Perl, Python, PHP and Ruby

4. Install emacs

   Use Add/Remove Software, searching for 'emacs'
   Select 'GNU emacs text editor'

5. Find ATK utilities: pipescript, ox, mrhex, ez

   Todo
   

6. Install Python

   Included by default.

7. Install gcc

   Use Add/Remove Software, searching for 'gcc'
   Select 'Various compilers', 'C++ support' and 'Java support'

Installing Fedora (GNOME desktop version)

Previous experiments with Fedora are located here.

In an ongoing effort to create a Linux set-up usable by the whole family, I'm reinstalling Fedora 15 with GNOME over my previous install with the LXDE desktop.

So I begin:

1. From Windows, insert previously created Live CD for Fedora 15 with GNOME into the DVD drive.
2. Reboot
3. When the first screen appears, hit Escape button to interrupt the normal boot process.
4. Use F12 to choose a temporary start-up device
5. Select the CD/DVD drive, hit Enter
6. After a bit, a Live user session starts.
7. Double-click the 'Install to hard drive' icon.
8. Select 'U.S. English' and click Next.
9. Select 'Basic Storage Devices' and click Next.
10. Enter name of the computer and click Next.
11. Select the time zone and click Next.
12. Enter the root password twice and click Next.
13. Record the root password somewhere safe in case it's forgotten.
14. Select 'Replace Existing Linux System(s)' and click Next.
15. Receive the final 'Write changes to disk' message. There is no turning back after this point. Click Next.

The installation process starts copying files into the system and updates the screen with progress messages. Eventually you get to a 'Congratulations' message. Click Close.

From the Live session:

1. Select 'User -> Log out'
2. From icon at upper right, select Restart.

Eventually I reached the Welcome screen.

1. Click Forward.
2. Click Forward.
3. Enter user name and password and click Forward.
4. Check the time and date and click Forward.
5. Select 'Do not send profile' and click Forward. I've already sent the profile for this machine.
6. Log in with the new user id and password.
7. Click 'Activities'.
8. Click 'Applications'.
9. Click 'Software Updates'.
10. The 'Software Updates' window opens up. (402 updates available.)
11. Click 'Install Updates' button.
12. At this point I got a 'Transaction Error' message. The details indicated that one of the items required a more recent version of Fedora 15. Find that item in the list and unclick the checkbox.
13. Click 'Install Updates' button.
    
14. On the 'Additional Confirmation Required' panel, there are messages that other items need to be installed and removed. Click 'Continue'.
15. The download and install takes a long time. Eventually a message is displayed 'A restart is needed. click 'Restart computer'.

During the restart, just let the first screen go by. At the GRUB screen I noticed that two versions of Fedora are listed, followed by item 'Other' (Windows) in the 3rd position. I let the first version of Fedora listed automatically boot, which failed to make progress. After a good wait (no activity on the hard drive for 5+ minutes) I powered down.

Then when I powered up again I selected the second version of Fedora listed. Please note that it took a long time for this (good) version of Fedora to boot up. However, hard drive activity did indicate that progress was being made. Be patient at this point of the install.Eventually I got back to the sign on screen and was able to sign on. The updates were successfully loaded.

Some good Fedora resources:

• http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FAQ
• http://www.fedorafaq.org/
• http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=fedora
• http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Flash for Adobe Flash player
• http://www.gnome.org/ for GNOME
  

Test Driving Ubuntu Linux - Part 3

Continued from Test Driving Ubuntu Linux - Part 2.

Back to laptop #1
Still unable to get the external monitor to be recognized by the system. There appears to be a variety of open questions on this topic.

Update 02/04/2012: A possible solution to the external monitor problem has been posted on the Ubuntu Forums.

Attempted to use the instructions from Part 2 to download Adobe Flash. I first tried the 'sudo apt-get' command, which did not work. The Install button did work and I could watch YouTube after that point. However, no Pandora.

Searched around for this page: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats, which has a 'click here' link to open 'Ubuntu Software Center' for 'Ubuntu restricted extras'. It's worth a try. After the install, I can still watch YouTube videos. Also, now Pandora does not complain about not having Adobe Flash and lets me sign in. However it does not play any music. More to research here.

Test Driving Ubuntu Linux - Part 2

Continued from Test Driving Ubuntu Linux.

After signing on you get a clean environment with several applications in the 'Launcher' on the left side, and set of system utilities in the upper right corner. Now the customization process begins.

1. In the upper right, find the Network pull-down. The wireless network is listed, so I just click on it to connect.
2. In the Launcher, Firefox is included as one of the icons. Start Firefox and restore the previously saved bookmarks. NOTE: The user interface is much like the Apple/Mac/OS X interface. That is, the frame for Firefox itself is very clean and does not contain any top bar menu. In order to find the top menu (including 'bookmarks') you need to click on the Firefox frame, then move the mouse pointer to the top bar of the entire screen. Then you'll see the menu items for Firefox. Select 'Bookmarks -> Show All Bookmarks'. Then click on that 'Library' window, go back to the top of the screen and select 'Import and Backup -> Restore -> Choose File'. Then you can find you bookmarks file on the flash drive.
3. Next, try out a few of the restored bookmarks. All of the usual news sites look good.

Software Updates

1. Use the top right System button, and select 'Software up to date'.
2. The 'Update Manager' window says that 302 updates are available. Click 'Install Updates'.
3. An 'Authenticate' window pops up. Enter password and click 'Authenticate'.
4. An error message pops up. 'Requires installation of untrusted packages'. Click 'Close'.
5. Searched Ubuntu Answers for the error. From a terminal do:
   > sudo apt-get update
   > sudo apt-get upgrade
   See UPDATE below
6. The Terminal is found by clicking on the 'Dash Home' button in the launcher and typing 'terminal' in the search box.
7. Click on the 'terminal' icon to start a terminal window.
   
8. Type the above commands in the terminal window and enter your password when prompted.
9. It takes quite a while to run.
10. After rebooting, opened up the 'Update Manager' again. Now there are only 2 items remaining in the list. Apparently these are the ones causing problems. Just click 'Close'.
11. UPDATE: Using 'sudo apt-get ...' will work around the problem, but will not fix it for next time. Instead, use the instructions here to find and use the "Select Best Server" button. Then retry updating software through the Update Manager.
    

Installing Adobe Flash

1. Start Firefox
2. Go to YouTube to view a video. This resulted in an error message that the Adobe Flash Player is needed.
3. Open 'Ubuntu Software Center' from Launcher.
4. Search for 'Flash'.
5. Click on 'Adobe Flash plugin'.
6. Click 'Install'.
7. Enter password and click 'Authenticate'.
8. This results in a error message: 'Failed to download package files'.
9. The 'Ubuntu Software Center' has a link named Developer Web Site. Click on that.
10. At the bottom of that web-page is the following information. To install, open up the Terminal and type:
    > sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree
11. The Terminal is found by clicking on the 'Dash Home' button in the launcher and typing 'terminal' in the search box.
12. Click on the 'terminal' icon to start a terminal window.
    
13. Type the above command in the terminal window and enter your password when prompted.
    
14. Success. Guy on a Buffalo
15. Likewise, Pandora is good.

Keeping Apps in the Launcher

The terminal is a good thing to have handy in the Launcher. Keep it in the Launcher by right-clicking on the terminal icon and selecting 'Keep in launcher'. This works for any running application.

Test Driving Ubuntu Linux

For my next experiment with Linux, I decided to try out Ubuntu.

Laptop #1
I noticed that Ubuntu has an option to run alongside Windows. You can download the installer through the Windows Installer page, which worked fine in my newer laptop PC. Basically, you install Linux onto your machine like you would any other Windows application. When you power up the machine you get an opportunity to choose which operating system to run. I just did a quick run-through with this version. The one thing I did notice is that the external monitor for my laptop was not recognized, and I could not use it. Apparently this is a problem with some new Intel/NVIDIA set-up.

Laptop #2
Next, I downloaded the 64-bit version of Ubuntu 11.10 from the Ubuntu download page. The 32-bit version is the "recommended" version, but reading in the Questions for Ubuntu page, I found out that the 32-bit version is only recommended because it will work on either 32 or 64-bit processors. If you know you have a 64-bit processor, go ahead and download the 64-bit version.

The download went fine and the instructions for creating a CD worked fine for creating a DVD (instead of a CD). The download page also has some nice "Show me how" buttons which are useful for a first-timer.

Using the DVD, I booted up this version on another laptop. In order to boot from the DVD drive, you need to watch the first screen and use whatever key is needed to interrupt the normal boot process (the Esc on this laptop). Then, you need to find the key for boot source options, or something like that (F8 on this laptop). Then select the CD/DVD drive and hit Enter.

Here is a quick summary of the installation steps, starting from Windows7:

1. Save Firefox bookmarks to a flash drive.
2. Insert Ubuntu DVD into DVD drive.
3. The drive will autoplay. Select 'run wubi.exe' (the Windows installer).
4. Click 'yes' on User Account Control.
5. Select 'Install inside Windows'.
6. Enter a new user name and password.
7. Click 'Install'.
   
8. It takes about 3 minutes to copy the files over from the DVD to the internal hard drive. When it is finished, the DVD drive will open. Remove the disk and close the DVD drive.
9. The set-up wizard shows a 'Reboot now' option. Select that and click 'Finish'.
10. After the system reboots, you get to another install screen. About another 10 minutes is needed to copy files and configure the system.
11. When the installation is complete, you see the Windows Boot Manager screen. This is the screen where you can select to boot either Windows or Ubuntu (use the arrow keys, and Enter).
12. Selecting Ubuntu, you finally get to the sign on screen. Enter your user name and password to sign on.
    

Overall, the installation process was quick and easy. To remove Ubuntu from your system, just do the following:

1. Boot back to Windows.
2. Open 'Computer'.
   
3. Select 'Uninstall of change an program'.
4. Find 'Ubuntu' in the list of programs and click it.
5. Click 'Uninstall/Change'.
6. Click 'Yes' on User Account Control.
7. On the 'Are you sure you want to uninstall?' screen, click 'Uninstall'.

Continued at Test Driving Ubuntu Linux - Part 2.

Climategate

Everything you need to know about Climategate is addressed in this terrific book by James Delingpole.

Watermelons: The Green Movement's True Colors

What Moore witnessed was the beginning of a process which would accelerate in 1989 after the fall of the Berlin Wall: the supplanting in the Green movement of the old guard of ageing hippies with a new breed of zealots less interested in saving Planet Earth than in destroying the capitalist system. These are the “Watermelons” of this book’s title—green on the outside, red on the inside.

The book is available as a free Kindle download through Amazon. The Kindle reader for PCs is free too.

While you're at it, there are lots of other free books available too.

Emotional Intelligence

Secret social skills successful people know - Penelope Trunk

Here are the four personality types and how to inspire them.

Power. Type-A types. For a job well done, reward this person with public recognition when a task or project is finished. Reward the person with visionary, forward-thinking projects.

Relationships. The cheerleader type. This person also wants some sort of public recognition, but it should be fun. And the thank-you speech is really important to this person. Reward them with projects that are varied and well defined.

Ideals. The crusaders. This person wants to be rewarded along the way, not just at the end. Reward this person as part of their team, not alone. Show faith in their ability to build strong partnerships by giving them more work to leverage that skill.

Craftsmanship. The perfectionists. Reward this person for attention to detail, and do it in a private, one-on-one way. They don’t want big fanfare. This person wants acknowledgement that they did a good job by seeing executive management adopt their work as the standard.

Eurozone Death Spiral

Due to overspending in an environment of relatively low interest rates, many Eurozone nations are heavily in debt. As their economies have stagnated, these nations are having difficulty collecting enough tax revenue to pay the interest on the debt (let alone the principle). Attempts to raise more tax revenue through increased tax rates have caused these economies to slow down even more. (Given the higher tax rates, some businesses and individuals have decided not to undertake the risk of starting a new venture.)

As this debt burden snowballs, Eurozone nations are beginning to see their credit ratings fall. As a result, any future attempts to borrow more money or refinance current debts will be at higher interest rates, further compounding their indebtedness. Due to the increased risk of default, individuals and banks are beginning to refuse to lend to these nations at the previous low rates.

Meanwhile, the banks have already lent huge amounts of money to these debtor nations. If the nations default on their loan payments, the banks themselves are threatened with collapse. As a result, the banks are also beginning to see their credit ratings fall. If investors in the banks begin to flee, then the banks will collapse. Who then will lend to the debtor nations?

New Signs of Eurofail as Sarkozy Preps For Downgrade - Walter Russell Mead

The European situation continues to worsen as embattled French President Nicolas Sarkozy begins to soften the voters up to expect the loss of France’s AAA credit rating

Fitch warns Spain and Italy of downgrade as Moody's cuts Belgium by two notches - Louise Armitstead

The eurozone’s third- and fourth-biggest economies were warned by Fitch of a “near-term” downgrade, alongside Ireland, Belgium, Slovenia and Cyprus.

In a further blow, Belgium separately saw its credit rating downgraded two notches, to Aa3, by another leading agency, Moody’s.

Debt crisis: Brussels accord on the verge of collapse - Louise Armitstead, Philip Aldrick, and Ben Harrington

The banks that were downgraded last night include US banks Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, Barclays and France’s BNP Paribas. Switzerland’s Credit Suisse and Germany’s Deutsche Bank were also cut. The downgrade could raise the cost of borrowing for these banks.

Fitch cut the “issuer default ratings” at the banks to “reflect challenges faced by the sector as a whole”. The ratings agency said: “These challenges result from both economic developments as well as a myriad of regulatory changes”.

Left vs. Right Thinking

The Basis of Left and Right, Part 4: Moral Reasoning (or Kant vs. Aristotle Again) - Steven Hayward

Two things need to be observed about the conflicting modes of moral reasoning between left and right. The conservative’s innate caution rooted in the anchor of human nature and established experience leads him to evaluate any ideas according to the potential consequences, and especially with regard to the often counter-intuitive unintended or perverse consequences. Many liberals are averse to this mode of thought, guided instead by an often unacknowledged Kantian moral framework that values the purity of intentionality over consequences, or who think that potential adverse consequences can be overcome through the assertion of a morally pure will.... Their moral frameworks or so radically different that they may as well be speaking foreign languages to each other much of the time.

...

The second observation flows directly from this. The conservative argument against a liberalism of moral intentions is that it has no logical or practical stopping point—there is no discernable “limiting principle” to liberalism; hence liberals can never say “enough” to its political interventions on behalf of reform and equality.

...

While liberals are congenitally discontent with the pace and extent of reform, they always have a general sense of what should come next, best expressed in Samuel Gompers’ famous one-word policy: “More.” More reform, more legislation, more equality. Conservatives, by contrast, do not have a clear or uniform outline of the good society; instead, conservatives have serious divisions among themselves about what the good society should be. It is not simply a matter of opposing “less” to the liberals’ “more.” Conservatives have deep theoretical differences over the relationship of liberty and virtue...

Class Warfare

The Class Warfare We Need - Steve Conover

A proper class war would require Democrats and Republicans to admit that the distinguishing characteristic of the enemy is not the level of income or wealth; rather, it is whether that income or wealth was earned. The true heroes in our economy are the producers and earners; they can be found all the way up and down the income ladder, and class warfare should defend and reward them instead of targeting them. Conversely, the proper targets are the class that includes cheaters, predators, pirates, and parasites—who can also be found at all income levels.

If class warfare is inevitable, let’s at least go after the right enemy. Fingering “millionaires and billionaires” as the culprits is the easy way out; it might pass muster in focus groups and might fit well into campaign speeches, but it doesn’t even come close to a proper description of the true enemies of economic growth and broadly shared prosperity. If we can target the right enemy, we’ll be fighting a good war; in that case, by all means, let the 2012 class war begin in earnest.

Class Markers vs. Causes - Glenn Reynolds

One point that I haven’t blogged, but that is worth mentioning here: The government decides to try to increase the middle class by subsidizing things that middle class people have: If middle-class people go to college and own homes, then surely if more people go to college and own homes, we’ll have more middle-class people. But homeownership and college aren’t causes of middle-class status, they’re markers for possessing the kinds of traits — self-discipline, the ability to defer gratification, etc. — that let you enter, and stay, in the middle class. Subsidizing the markers doesn’t produce the traits; if anything, it undermines them.

Keeping it Simple

The peril of ‘smart’ politicians - Frank J. Fleming

The main problem may be confusing “simple” with “dumb.”

If something is simple, then dumb people will believe it. And if dumb people believe something, then soon some conclude that smart people should believe something else. There’s a flaw in that philosophy.

Why shouldn’t you touch a hot stove? There’s no complex, smart answer to that. You’ll get roughly the same answer from Stephen Hawking that you’d get from Forrest Gump: It’s hot, and it will hurt.

But say you were going to argue that you should touch a hot stove. That would have to be a very complex answer, since it defies basic logic. And some people could run with that, talking in detail about pain receptors and the brain’s reaction to stimulus, and come up with a very smart-sounding argument on why touching a hot stove is a great idea.

Others will go further and mock all those ignorant people in the flyover states for their irrational fear of hot stoves and announce, “The most enlightened thing to do is to press one’s face against a hot stove.” Those people are what we call intellectuals.

Similarly, when someone comes up with a well-reasoned argument backed by top economists that two plus two equals five, there’s no brilliant way to refute it. The only response is: “No, you’re an idiot; it’s four.” But if you say that, you’ll be called anti-smart people.

And that’s the problem with the right: All its main stances on the issues are rather simple. And when concepts are simple, it’s hard to make smart-sounding arguments for them, while the arguments against them would have to be complex, which some people mistake for meaning they’re smart.

Which reminds me of one of my favorite Reagan quotes:

They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong. There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.

Ronald Reagan

Eurozone Update

Europe's great divorce - Charlemagne

WE JOURNALISTS are probably too bleary-eyed after a sleepless night to understand the full significance of what has just happened in Brussels. What is clear is that after a long, hard and rancorous negotiation, at about 5am this morning the European Union split in a fundamental way.

In an effort to stabilise the euro zone, France, Germany and 21 other countries have decided to draft their own treaty to impose more central control over national budgets. Britain and three others have decided to stay out. In the coming weeks, Britain may find itself even more isolated. Sweden, the Czech Republic and Hungary want time to consult their parliaments and political parties before deciding on whether to join the new union-within-the-union.

So two decades to the day after the Maastricht Treaty was concluded, launching the process towards the single European currency, the EU's tectonic plates have slipped momentously along same the fault line that has always divided it—the English Channel.

Confronted by the financial crisis, the euro zone is having to integrate more deeply, with a consequent loss of national sovereignty to the EU (or some other central co-ordinating body); Britain, which had secured a formal opt-out from the euro, has decided to let them go their way.

Europe's blithering idiots and their flim-flam treaty - Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

This "fiscal compact" is not going to make to make the slightest impression on global markets, and they are the judges who matter in this trial by fire.

Yes, there is more discipline for fiscal sinners, but without any transforming help. Even the old "Marshall Plan" of the July summit has bitten the dust.

There is no shared debt issuance, no fiscal transfers, no move to an EU Treasury, no banking licence for the ESM rescue fund, and no change in the mandate of the European Central Bank.

In short, there is no breakthrough of any kind that will convince Asian investors that this monetary union has viable governance or even a future.

...

No doubt these dramatic events will be uncomfortable for Britain, but this will all be swept away by bigger events before long. The Europols have not begun to work out a viable solution to their deformed and unworkable currency union, and perhaps no such solution exists. The system will lurch from crisis to crisis until it blows up in acrimony.

By then, a separate cluster will have emerged (not the 10 "outs" against the 17 "ins", always a ludicrous concept), but rather a loose Anglo-Nordic-Swiss grouping that may not do so badly on the fringes and may begin to solidify into a seductively comfortable outer tier.

Eurozone banking system on the edge of collapse - Harry Wilson

Senior analysts and traders warned of impending bank failures as a summit intended to solve the European crisis failed to deliver a solution that eased concerns over bank funding.

The European Central Bank admitted it had held meetings about providing emergency funding to the region's struggling banks, however City figures said a "collateral crunch" was looming.

"If anyone thinks things are getting better then they simply don't understand how severe the problems are. I think a major bank could fail within weeks," said one London-based executive at a major global bank.

Many banks, including some French, Italian and Spanish lenders, have already run out of many of the acceptable forms of collateral such as US Treasuries and other liquid securities used to finance short-term loans and have been forced to resort to lending out their gold reserves to maintain access to dollar funding.

"The system is creaking. There is a large amount of stress," said Anthony Peters, a strategist at Swissinvest, pointing to soaring interbank lending rates.

France Has Second Thoughts About the Euro - Michel Gurfinkiel

The problem of the euro is that it is a currency, but not money. Money is largely magic. It is the sum total of what allows production, trade, work, innovation, profit. It works as long as there is confidence in it. “Give me good politics, I’ll repay you in good finance,” said Baron Louis, the finance minister of King Louis XVIII under the French restoration. In other words, see to it that everybody thinks he has a future under your government, whether he is a Royalist or not. As long as that will be the case, it will be comparatively easy to manage business, raise taxes, and balance budgets.

Baron Louis’ modus operandi was the secret of the American era of prosperity from 1945 to 2008. In a globalized world, the United States — as a benevolent hegemonic power — was providing good politics, i.e., confidence, and it allowed for good business everywhere. Whatever the theoretical state of the dollar and other currencies, the United States had iron: the will and the practical means to make war if needed. It cost the American taxpayer 4% to 5% of its GDP annually — no other Western business-oriented nation (except Israel) invested as much. Europe as a whole never took off from a 1% to 1.5% level. France and the UK never raised above 2%. And the American iron transmuted into gold.

The Europeans got weary of American leadership — especially when things were so good throughout the Reagan and then the Clinton booms — and most people forgot why they were so good. They mused about having their own currency and outdoing the dollar. They did it. They created a currency. But no money. Because they were just unable and unwilling to get together and to build up a federal European government and a federal European army. They did not realize there is no gold without iron.

Just in order to exist in front of the dollar as a mere currency, the euro had to be the most deflationist one ever, i.e., to be linked to superhigh interest rates and a rigid no-inflation policy. This in turn meant that local European economies were suffocated, and that the European welfare state was unworkable overnight. The only way out was to make maximum use of the non-European, still American-centered, globalized world. Even there, however, success was linked to inner discipline. The only eurozone country that really survived the euro was Germany, where industry workers agreed to lower wages in order to stay competitive.

Installing Linux, Part 4

I've let my experiment with Fedora Linux stagnate for a while. So I'm going to catch up with the latest version (16) first.

The last time I installed Fedora 15 x86_64 with the LXDE spin. And since the passwords have been lost, I'm going to install from scratch. Also, since I have a large enough USB flash drive this time, I'm planning to use that instead of a CD for the Live Image. This means that I'll first need to download the Live USB Creator.

Once the Live USB Creator is downloaded and installed, I selected Fedora 16 x86_64 Desktop and clicked Create Live USB. It took about an hour to download the image and create the Live USB.

On the machine where I'm installing Linux, I did the following:

1. Back up data to an external hard drive
2. Shut down the system
3. Remove the external hard drive
4. Insert the USB flash drive
5. Press the power button
6. Hit Enter as soon as the first screen appears
7. Hit F12 to choose a temporary startup device
8. Use the arrow keys to select USB flash drive
9. Hit enter

Fedora 16 automatically booted from there. Lots of applications and utilities are provided. In order to power off the machine, first you need to Log Out as the Live System User (use the pull-down in the upper right corner). Then once you are logged out, use the Power icon in the upper right corner and select Power Off.

The Live System User menu also has a Suspend option, which apparently puts the system on standby.

Change of Plan

Rather than install the Fedora 16 with Gnome from the USB flash drive, I decided to reinstall Fedora 15 LXDE from me installation CD. So I boot from the CD/DVD drive.

Then I just follow the instructions from Installing Linux, Part 2. This time I'm more careful about saving the root password. Everything went the same until step 9, where I was notified:

The partitioning options you have selected will now be written to disk. Any data on deleted of reformatted partitions will be lost.

I select "Write Changes to Disk" and the install begins. Everything appeared to go fine. The next step is to log out and then reboot.

After rebooting, I redo the steps outlined in Installing Linux, Part 3. Once I log back in, I'm able to start a terminal. I can also start Firefox, which needs to be downloaded and installed.

Now, back to that ToDo list:

1. How to put the system in standby mode. (Click Logout, then select Suspend. The machine comes back up by just hitting the Enter key.)
2. Find and install Adobe Flash plug-in
3. Find PDF plug-in
4. ITunes?
5. Find VNC Server/Viewer download
6. Find Lexmark printer driver download
7. Download OpenOffice
8. Tunneling software?
9. Customize GRUB
10. Download Perl
11. Download git

Fast and Furious Update

With Eric Holder testifying before Congress, and the release of new documents in the case, many new reports have appeared:

A Fast & Furious state of mind - Scott Johnson

Holder, Grilled on Gun Inquiry, Says He Won’t Resign - Charlie Savage

‘Furious’ twisting, Eric Holder stonewalls on - Michael A. Walsh

Sparks fly during Eric Holder 'Fast & Furious' testimony - Josh Gerstein & Tim Mak

Documents: ATF used "Fast and Furious" to make the case for gun regulations - Sharyl Attkisson

Documents: ATF Used ‘Fast and Furious’ to Make Case for Gun Control - Publius

Fast and Furious - Matthew Hoy

Rep. Matthew Hoy (R-Hoystory): Shame? Shame!? Hundreds of Mexicans are dead. Border Agent Brian Terry is dead. The department that you have authority over allowed more than 2,000 guns to cross the border into the hands of violent drug cartels and you have the gall to chide elected representatives of the American people who seek to hold you to account for your lawlessness?

Shame?

Your deputy submitted a letter to Congress that you withdrew only after subsequent disclosures proved it to be full of lies. You can split legal hairs about there being no “intent” to deceive Congress when that letter was originally submitted, but as time goes by that claim begins to look flimsier and flimsier.

Shame?

We found out just days ago that that ATF officials sought to use the violence in Mexico and the fact that U.S.-bought guns were showing up at crime scenes in that country as a pretext to push for further restrictions on Americans’ Second Amendment rights. You, of course, were ignorant of this.

Shame?

It’s been the better part of six months, or maybe 9 or 12, depending on the quality of your memory and the meaningless difference between “weeks” and “months” in your concept of time, since you knew about this operation and not a single individual has lost their job, let alone has had charges filed against them for violations of federal laws.

Hundreds are dead as a direct result of actions undertaken by your subordinates and you wish to shame Congress?

Mr. Attorney General, if you had any integrity. If you had any honor, you would fire those most responsible for this travesty and then resign yourself.

The only person in this committee room who should be feeling shame is you and what you allowed—either by design or by neglect—to happen in Operation Fast and Furious.