Required Reading Do not miss reading this.
posted by tom at 10:47 AM+

Smoking or Non-Smoking? One of my teachers from j-school has written an excellent op-ed piece for the Friday Times, regarding military response to the attack. He notes that only by gaining the support of the peaceful majority of Muslims, can we hope to eradicate those who would do evil. Take the time to read his essay.

This week I have at time been both proud and embarassed to have been part of the journalism profession. On the whole though, I think everyone has to admit that the press made a tremendous contribution to the life of our nation this week.

I note that the New York Times seems to be running only Red Cross banner ads on their site. I applaud their sensitivity in putting public service before business profit.
posted by tom at 4:12 PM+

What have they done? My home, the city where I was born and raised, exists no more. I will return, but what will there be there? How will the people I know and love, the town I adore, have changed forever? I can only guess, and offer my support for those who were impacted the worst by this. Both the city and country I call my home will not be the same for my children as they were for me growing up. We have lost not just so many loved ones, but some crucial parts of our way of life as well.

Working together, we can rebuild the city's financial district. Other scars may never heal.
posted by tom at 3:16 PM+

28 Days (or more) It's been a month since the last post. Why? Damn Code Red virus caused AT&T Broadband to cut off all the home web servers, including those of us running Linux who weren't even susceptible to it. How annoying.

Lots of stuff happened in August: I just got back from playing at the NACIVT volleyball tourney in Washington, D.C., where I travelled with Julia and my team the Boston Knights, my sister is off in Italy studying (shouts to my peeps in Rome, can't say that often), and I'm going to start taking classes next week at Harvard Extension School, the New School of Cambridge.

I think it's going to be time soon to revisit how this page looks... someone taught me how to replicate that Aqua button look from Apple, so I may do a little style based on that... who knows.
posted by tom at 5:07 PM+

We're Back Sorry for the extended hiatus, followed by the site being completely unavailable. I've been very busy and travelling as well. This was probably the longest break I've taken since starting Karlo.Org. It's like working out at the gym; you're fine for months but then you miss a week and suddenly the habit is broken. Next thing you know, you're sitting on the couch eating oreos and milk all evening in front of the TV.

Mmmm... Oreos. Obviously it's mid-day and I haven't gotten my lunch yet.
posted by tom at 1:28 PM+

Cop vs. Cop Too good to resist linking to. The police in Seattle are bored since the WTO left town. So bored that a few of them rammed their patrol cars together and proceeded to have a gunfight. Luckily no civilians were involved, and nobody was hit. Methinks that doesn't say anything good about their accuracy.
posted by tom at 11:46 AM+

System "Upgrade" Due to my amatuerish sysadmin practices, the server had some issues for a day or so. It's all fixed now, but as a result of the time I had to put in to rectify the problems, we've upgraded the server somewhat. Karlo.org is now running Mandrake 8.0, plus has some extra memory (total 128 megs.)

A very painful way to upgrade the system, but we don't seem to have lost any fingers or toes. I did, however, cut open my pinky and drip blood everywhere. Long story.
posted by tom at 10:50 AM+

Toymaker's System Ever wonder what machines Dell Computers head honcho Michael Dell uses at work, home and on the road? Dell's web site has information on their CEO's systems. Nothing mind blowing, but those twin black 17-inch monitors at home look sweet... and he definitely has a taste for black, it seems.
posted by tom at 11:49 AM+