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tonybaldwin

[ website | baldwinsoftware.com ]
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[ calendar | insanejournal calendar ]

This is what Revolution looks like [16 Nov 2011|07:26am]
[ mood | mood ]
[ music | music ]

The historian Crane Brinton in his book "Anatomy of a Revolution" laid out the common route to revolution.


The preconditions for successful revolution, Brinton argued, are:



  • discontent that affects nearly all social classes,

  • widespread feelings of entrapment and despair,

  • unfulfilled expectations,

  • a unified solidarity in opposition to a tiny power elite,

  • a refusal by scholars and thinkers to continue to defend the actions of the ruling class,

  • an inability of government to respond to the basic needs of citizens,

  • a steady loss of will within the power elite itself and defections from the inner circle,

  • a crippling isolation that leaves the power elite without any allies or outside support and,

  • finally, a financial crisis.


  • THE TIME IS NOW!
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subject [09 Nov 2011|12:57pm]
[ mood | mood ]
[ music | music ]

Angel Spit
click to enlarge
</p>

from last night at the Webster, in Hartford, Angel Spit.

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The Mexican Fisherman [22 Oct 2011|01:30pm]
[ mood | amused ]
[ music | seether ]

The American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked.

Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied, "Only a little while."

The American then asked, "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?"

The Mexican said, "With this I have more than enough to support my family's needs."

The American then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life."

The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing; and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat: With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor; eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution.
You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles and eventually New York where you will run your ever-expanding enterprise."

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"

To which the American replied, "15 to 20 years."

"But what then?" asked the Mexican.

The American laughed and said that's the best part. "When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."

"Millions?...Then what?"

The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

Author Unknown

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99 percent is a very large percentage [18 Oct 2011|02:31pm]
[ mood | mood ]
[ music | music ]

Historically, a story about people inside impressive buildings ignoring or even taunting people standing outside shouting at them turns out to be a story with an unhappy ending.

... and other observations from Lemony Snicket

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y r u fukn me? [30 Sep 2011|05:31am]
[ mood | amused ]
[ music | jessy bulbo ]

New URL shortening service: fukn.me

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Preview of Xpostulate Improvements [25 Sep 2011|12:46am]
[ mood | amused ]
[ music | banda topaz ]

A preview of what's to come...


Thinking of UI enhancements, I added the Xpostulate little icon thingy right into the GUI.






What do you think?


Other items on their way:


  • Posterous support. I have interacted with the posterous api via bash with curl, so, just need to translate my scripting for that to tcl with http. Cake, but requires time. I thought I would have that done this past week, but, no joy...too much work (somebody's gotta pay the rent around here).
  • Blogger support. - The great and benevolent Google® has granted me an API key, and I have looked at the API, but not yet played with it, but this is likely to come this season...soon, me dro0gies.

  • Read your statusnet public timeline or updates from a specific person. This I have, again, done in bash, so just a matter of coding it into tcl. Although, I question if this is appropriate for Xpostulate, and whether it might not be better to do this with iDenTickles only, since iDenTickles is a microblogging client, and Xpostulate is intended for crossposting to blogs, not reading others' updates.

  • Download, edit, & republish older entries. This is on my todo list, but for each blogging service I have to look at how their API handles this, and then code stuff in, and develop new GUI elements for housing various functions, and blah, blah, blah. It will be work..heavy lifting...but it's on my TODO list.




posted with Xpostulate
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subject [21 Sep 2011|09:20pm]
[ mood | mood ]
[ music | music ]

How far you have fallen, Google? BonnieNadri.Com http://is.gd/NIk4x2

Once upon a time Google was a company I was proud to tell my friends and family would NEVER abuse privacy or use it to invasive ends. I was proud to point to "Don't be evil" and their 2009 statements about total commitment to "being who you want to be". I was so very proud to associate myself with and bear Google's name, tag, and image as something I truly felt beneficial and important and special.

As it stands, what Google is doing under cover of "convenience" is the worst kind of duplicitous and invasive violation of trust imaginable, all of which is occurring with candy coated marketing that keeps the user as ignorant and in the dark as possible.
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New Xpostulate release in the works [18 Sep 2011|04:40pm]
[ mood | amused ]
[ music | seether ]

Okay, I just pushed new code for Xpostulate to github with the following changes:


  • removed iziblog, scribbld, inksome (spam SEO havens anyway)

  • removed twitter until I can get oauth working

  • added support for custom wordpress installations

  • added support for posting to friendika with bbcode insertions

  • changed identi.ca feature to support any status.net installation.

  • also, various pertinent alterations to gui, of course


all in ONE DAY! because I F--KING ROCK!

I have NOT updated the win/lin installers on the main Xpostulate page, yet.
I have to play with installjammer and get those worked up again, and will probably give a day or two for this new code to be tested,
since, it seems, I now have a contributor on the project who seems willing to test and prod this code.

Still to do:

  • I really, really want a button to click to automagically translate bbcode to html or vice-versa.

  • That I can do, but need time.

  • Get oauth working for twitter...maybe

  • add support for blogger

  • change the LJ, IJ, DJ, DW to be simple moveabletype, with multiple options, rather than hardwired for 4 different sites, so, say, if you only use LJ and DW, you don't have DJ and IJ cluttering your interface, or, even, if you have multiple LJ accts (I do, one for my art, other for hackery), you can do that, etc.



Now, I really must get back to translating these Brazilian pharma regulations.
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Fault Lines, the Top 1% - Al Jazeera [02 Aug 2011|11:21pm]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdVODFombco


The richest 1% of US Americans earn nearly a quarter of the country's income and control an astonishing 40% of its wealth. Inequality in the US is more extreme than it's been in almost a century — and the gap between the super rich and the poor and middle class people has widened drastically over the last 30 years.

Meanwhile, in Washington, a bitter partisan debate over how to cut deficit spending and reduce the US' 14.3 trillion dollar debt is underway. As low and middle class wages stagnate and unemployment remains above 9%, Republicans and Democrats are tussling over whether to slash funding for the medical and retirement programs that are the backbone of the US's social safety net, and whether to raise taxes — or to cut them further.

The budget debate and the economy are the battleground on which the 2012 presidential election race will be fought. And the United States has never seemed so divided — both politically and economically.

How did the gap grow so wide, and so quickly? And how are the convictions, campaign contributions and charitable donations of the top 1% impacting the other 99% of Americans? Fault Lines investigates the gap between the rich and the rest.

This episode of Fault Lines first aired on Al Jazeera English on August 2, 2011 at 0930 GMT.
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Art & Music of Tony Baldwin [29 Jul 2011|12:38pm]
[ mood | artistic ]
[ music | tony baldwin ]



I made a video of my paintings, set to my music.
Embedding seems to be troublesome here, at the moment. Here are links.

Art and Music of Tony Baldwin on youtube

Art and Music of Tony Baldwin on vimeo.

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Give me liberty! [13 Apr 2011|12:55pm]
[ mood | pensive ]
[ music | silence ]

I'm very much a libertarian.
It will come as a shock to some to hear me say that, I know, because I've been known to support all kinds of "socialist, commie, pinko" stuff.
Does that seem incongruous to you? It doesn't to me.
Perhaps that warrants explanation. It's really not that complicated.

I'm a complete and total libertarian in regards to personal freedoms.
So long as you are not infringing the liberty of another, you should be free to do as you choose.
Yes. I believe that, but, you know there are always caveats.
I should explain it thus, perhaps:
I am a complete and total libertarian in regards to personal freedoms, but not when it comes to economic matters?
No. That's not it.
I am a complete a total libertarian in regards to personal freedoms, and that means preserving the greatest amount of freedom for the largest number of people, and if that means limiting some people from hording resources, then, well, that's okay with me. And if it means limiting some folks from damaging the environment upon which we all depend for our health, happiness, and, thus liberty, well, you know I'm going to support such limitation.

You know, government always gets this bad rap, and people, today, who call themselves "libertarians" here in the US are all up in arms wanting to limit government in all kinds of ways, so, perhaps my understanding of government is not that same as theirs.
Government is (was intended to be, should be?) simply that which WE (the people) have agreed upon as principles for our mutual benefit and cohabitation.
Call it "rules" if you like but mutually agreed upon rules, and intended not to infringe upon our freedoms, so much, as to preserve the greatest amount of freedom for the greatest number of persons.
That's all.
And if they prohibit me from, say, beating my neighbors with a shovel, it's not so much to take the choice of beating people away from me so much as it is to preserve my neighbors' freedom to not be beaten with a shovel. And if the prohibit me from taking a dumping on your lawn, well, again, that's to preserve your health and happiness.

The thing is, when it comes to economic matters, there's no denying that amassing resources in the hands of a few gives them power over others, which, thus, allows them to then infringe upon the freedoms of those others.
That's where I draw the line.
I shouldn't think that it's all too difficult to understand.
So, we mutually agree upon the means to equalize access to resources, within reason.
That doesn't mean robbing you to give to Fulano, who sits on his butt all day.
Nothing remotely of such nature!
It simply means not allowing Ricardo to gobble up all the resources, by hook or crook, and then demanding that you bow to his wishes in order to acquire what you need, in order to protect your liberty, not infringe on Ricardo's.
We communally, mutually agree to contribute to our community, our society, for the general welfare and benefit, thus allowing the greatest amount of liberty for the largest number of people.

So, if Pete and Percival love each other and wish to marry, they should be afforded that liberty.
It will in no way infringe upon Gary and Gertrude's libery to love each other and marry, or go about worship ancient, mythological Jewish zombies, or whatever.
It won't, in fact, infringe on anybody's freedom.
Let it be.
And, if Hank wants to wear a skirt and lacy drawers, let him! It's not going to harm you.

If Hannah wants to own a rifle and shoot at the range, well, so long as she's not shooting at you, what matter is it to you?

If Lisa and Lou want to film their bedroom adventures and share them with Jen and Jake, who enjoy that, well, who is that hurting? Nobody.
It doesn't mean that you ot I must participate, if we decline, so how can it harm us?
It can't.

It's only when, say, Chester wants to film himself harming children, of course, that we should intervene, or when Frank wants to fondle Filipa, who doesn't wish to be fondled, since, Frank's fondling would infringe upon her freedom to be free of fondling. Filipa's freedom to remain fondle-free is as important as Frank's freedom to fondle. Frank is free to fondle Frieda, perhaps, who enjoys such fondling. But not Filipa who would refrain.

When one member of the community causes harm to another, we must intervene.
When Pete pawns phony pharmaceuticals to the unsuspecting, thus endangering their health, for instance.
Or, Horaces heaves harmful chemical wastes in the forest behind Harry's house and poisons the water supply for everyone. Yes! We must intervene for the greater good!
We must, as a community, society, nation prohibit that.
And, when Larry goes upstream, dams up the river, and demands that every man, woman and child do his bidding or pay his price for a cup of water, well, he is infringing on everyone's liberty.
I don't care if he walked up stream uphill, barefoot, in 90° heat and 10 ft of snow, and built that dam with his own damned hands. He has no right.
And we all know that those who currently have control over the greatest amount of resources did not walk up stream uphill, barefoot, in 90° heat and 10 ft of snow, and build that dam with their own damned hands. They scooped up the land in fraudulent evictions, drove up there in Daddy's limo, and paid some poor hungry fellows an insulting wage to build the damned dam, while failing to provide appropriate safety measures, so that a quarter of said underpaid workforce were injured, and, of course, without access to adequate health care.
That system is NOT preserving the greatest amount of freedom for the largest number of persons.
It's allowing a few people to control resources, and, then, exploit and abuse others, the environment, and, even, the government that was intended to preserve the liberties that these few have stolen from the rest of us.
For the government to preserve our liberties, then it must truly be our government, of/by/for the people, and not owned by wealthy interests.


So.
I am a complete and total libertarian when it comes to personal liberties,
and I recognize the absolute necessity for a mutually agreed upon government, of/by/for the people, to preserve those personal liberties, AND, protect the masses from exploitation by those who amass greater access to and control over resources.
I'm extremely patriotic. I LOVE my country, and believe the democratic principles and liberties upon which our government system were built are of the utmost relevance and importance.
I think the Constitution is an amazing document, intended to preserve the greatest amount of liberty for the largest number of people, and, especially since the framers thereof recognized their own fallibility and left us with the means to amend it, if/when doing so becomes necessary or useful, when our growth as a society demands it, to preserve even greater liberty (such as when abolishing slavery or extending the right to vote to all citizens, etc.)

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test post [02 Mar 2011|09:37pm]
[ mood | curious ]
[ music | maskavo ]

test post (hacking on Xpostulate again)

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Sugar Free Pumpkin or Butternut Squash Pie [25 Jan 2011|05:34pm]
[ mood | mood ]
[ music | music ]

Sugar Free Pumpkin or Butternut Squash Pie

This can be done with either pumpkin or butternut squash. Personally, I really like the butternut squash.
Both pumpkin and butternut squash are high in carotenes, especially beta carotene (thus the orange color), and, to my knowledge, iron and other vitamins. They are not high in carbs.

ingredients

pumpkin or squash (duh)
spices: splenda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, all dried/powder form, and table salt
heavy cream and milk
two eggs
crushed pecans (for crust)
butter or margarine
Take a small pumpkin or normal butternut squash, like 1 lb., cut and skin it and boil it down until it's soft.

Place c. 15 oz of the above-mentioned, now mushy gourd in the blender with 1 cup of heavy cream, 1/2 cup of milk, both eggs, a tblspoon of cinnamon, a cup of splenda, half a teaspoon of salt, and a pinch or two of each of the other spices, to flavor.
BE CAREFUL with nutmeg and cloves, especially, as well as ginger. They are all powerful spices, and, while very yummy in appropriate amounts (I recommend a pinch to half a teaspoon, no more), too much will overpower the final product. Add the eggs, too.

Blend the mixture until it's creamy, like a milkshake.

Resist the urge to add vodka and drink pumpkin smoothy/daquiris (works best if you don't have raw egg in there, but the egg is needed for the pie, so, try that another time).

Mixed the crushed pecans with melted butter and a quarter cup of splenda, and spread this mixture in the pie pan.

Pour in the blended pumpkin/squash mixture, place in preheated oven (350°), and bake for c. 45 minutes, or until an inserted butter knife comes out clean.

Allow to cool, then dig in.
Good stuff!

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Sugar Free Mock Pecan Pie [25 Jan 2011|05:24pm]
[ mood | mood ]
[ music | music ]

Sugar Free Mock Pecan Pie

1 1/4 cups mashed pinto beans.
(canned ok, dry-homecooked better)
1 cup splenda
1/2 cup real butter
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 - 3/4 cup finely chopped pecans

Cream sugar, butter and eggs until well blended.
Add vanilla and salt.
Mix in the mashed beans.

Pour into 9 inch unbaked pie shell.
Sprinkle the chopped pecans over mixture.

Bake at 375 for 25 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for about 20 minutes more.
Pie is done when knife inserted in center comes out clean.

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Sugar free chocolate cake [24 Jan 2011|11:51pm]
[ music | catupeçu machu ]

Sugar free chocolate cake

2 cups of sweetener
1 ¾ cups of soy flour
1 cup of Hershey's no sugar added coco
1 ½ tea spoon of baling powder
1 ½ tea spoons of baking soda
2 eggs
1 tea spoon of salt
1 cup of milk
½ cup of vegetable oil
2 tea spoons of vanilla extract

Directions
Heat oven to 350F
Flour bowl (mix all ingredients into bowl)
Back 30-35 (with my experience about 50 minutes) Or untill middle is done
Let cool for 5-15 minutes
Frosting
Melt tub of frosting in microwave at high for 50 seconds
Pour about ½ of the frosting on to the middle
Spread
When whole cake is covered (mostly) pour excess frosting around edges

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LOVE146: END CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING [27 Dec 2010|09:49am]
[ mood | angry ]

CHILD – SEX – TRAFFICKING.


These three words should never be used in the same sentence, let alone be a reality. But for millions of the world's most vulnerable citizens these words define their childhood descent into sexual slavery.



Love146 is a non-profit international human rights organization that is dedicated to the abolition of child sex slavery and exploitation through prevention and aftercare. The industry of human trafficking, and specifically child sex trafficking, is the second largest illegal money-making industry in the world, second only to drug trafficking. Human trafficking will soon surpass drug trafficking, as drugs can be used only once; but children in sexual slavery and exploitation perhaps 15 times a day. Every day. For years. But there is hope. My hope for you is to be as inspired by these children as I have been.



There are currently around 14 million trafficked worldwide, some as young as three years old, many forced into sexual slavery. Unicef estimates 1.2 million additional children are trafficked every year. That is 2 every minute. They must endure an unimaginable fate. They are the currency in a brutal trade, sex trafficking.



Intervention is imperative. We must achieve no less than the ABOLITION of child sex trafficking. This is modern-day slavery on a scale never before seen in human history. You may wonder how so many children are trafficked. The tactics of traffickers are varied and creative. Some children are kidnapped, others are promised good jobs in far away cities, and others are knowingly sold to these traffickers due to extreme poverty. Where there is poverty, there is opportunity for trafficking. And where there is a demand for the exploitation of these children by predators, there is a market to traffickers. These children become mere commodities.



But this is not just a problem for others, far removed from our borders. Child sex trafficking is not just taking place in Russia, India, Latin America and South East Asia, it is happening worldwide on an epidemic scale, including here in the United States. Martin Luther King once wrote, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere". This is happening in our own back yard, down the street from our houses, within our communities. These slaves are trafficked into our country for exploitation here. They are sold through our classified ads in local papers, on websites and online communities right under our very noses. This is not just "someone else's problem". We are compelled as human beings to take responsibility for these children and to fight with all our power to restore their childhoods, their lives and their potential.



What do we do about the issue? LOVE146 works alongside organizations who physically rescue these children. But these organizations have a huge problem – they could rescue literally thousands more children from brothels right now, today, but there are virtually no safe aftercare facilities in which to place them nor trained caregivers to restore them. These children cannot be liberated from bondage only to end up at risk of starvation, homelessness, or being re-trafficked and re-exploited. So - at this very moment, children in brothels around the world could be set free if additional safehomes and trained caregivers existed.



This is Love146's mission - To work toward the abolition of child sex trafficking and exploitation through prevention and aftercare. LOVE146 trains aftercare workers, multiplies safehomes, aids socioeconomic development programs in high-risk communities and provides a voice for these survivors of modern-day slavery. The trafficking and rape of children for profit is one of the darkest stories on the planet. This physical, mental and emotional trauma leaves children broken and scarred for life. Intervention for these children are critical to their survival. Without safehomes and trained care-givers this cannot happen. This is why Love146 exists.



Try to convey the sensitivity of the issue while explaining that this situation needs urgent attention. Love146 understands how vast this issue is, but we also believe there is real hope. Child sex slavery can and must be abolished, not just diminished. Tell the story of a child who has been rescued out of sex slavery and is now healthy (you can visit our website for stories). Connecting to statistics is difficult, but people can connect with an individual's story. Inspiration and awareness will lead to action; action will lead to abolition and restoration.



Love146 understands how vast this issue is, but we also believe there is real hope.

Child sex slavery can and must be abolished, not just diminished.


Learn more here

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The Firewater [07 Oct 2010|08:32am]
[ mood | none ]
[ music | none ]

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You like this [06 Sep 2010|09:57am]
[ mood | amused ]
[ music | carlinhos brown ]

You like this.
You like this.

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Qualified Interpreters for Quality Health Care [28 Aug 2010|08:02am]
[ mood | serious ]
[ music | kerli ]

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Professional Interpreters Save Lives [28 Aug 2010|07:42am]
[ mood | serious ]
[ music | kerli ]

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