Dean Paxton

Category: paxtonland

  • Nevermind

    Due to an avalanche of emails (meaning 3), paxtonland will resume. After all it’s election season.

  • Family Photo Spray

  • Bring Back The Links!

    Thanks for waiting around for more links 🙂

  • So, Flint is Burning

    This is for all of you out-of-towners that may not have heard, Flint is in chaos at the moment.  Since the mayor closed fire stations and laid off firefighters, there have been over 50 fires in the city in the past week.

    Mlive is trying to cover it.  In their own inept way.

    Someone is trying to keep up with them all on Google Maps.

    Some fire departments are giving up.

    You can keep up with the excitement by listening to live streams from fire and police dispatch.

    It’s not national news.  No one would be surprised anyway. Flint’s best commodity for export is being the butt of every joke about what is wrong with this country.

    People look to flint – to feel better about their stupid towns.

    -ddp-

    Photo credits to Tarra Sifferman

    Links credits to A. Cleveland, K. Whiteaker, K. Baker,  and J. Wood

    hiteaker

  • Holy Neglected Website!

    Ah, so…  you are still here.

    Thanks.

    Sorry that it takes me so damned long to write stuff.

    I work to hard.

    So, I’ve done some background work keeping paxtonland up to date technically.  There are still quite an awful lot of people that come here, despite the fact that I never seem to have time to write.

    As they say, if it’s important, you’ll do it.

    I’ll do it.  Sorry again.

  • paxtonland Overhaul

    I’m working on things at the moment. Will be back soon…

  • Extended Hiatus

    I’ll be on a break from paxtonland for a while. Please feel free to browse the archives, others will continue to post. Thanks as always for reading.

  • paxtonland changes

    paxtonland Probably, you’ve noticed a few changes around here. Some of these changes were badly needed for many years now. Most importantly, standardizing on a somewhat modern and readable design. That is something that I should have done a very long time ago. Some of the colors used here were so bad, I’m not really sure why I picked them, except that myself and about 1/2 the web design community was using a lot of orange then (1999). Also, there was a darker shade of cyan that Netscape was quite fond of back in their good old days (1995-ish), so was I. For some ungodly reason, I combined the two. While it was unique and it definitely made this site stand out, it was simply a horrible combination that was difficult to read for long periods of time. Given the amount of content that is on this site. I owed it to myself, my wonderful contributors, and to you as readers to make it better. When the poor design of a website gets in the way of good content, well… it’s just a shame.

    While on the subject of the amount of content, you’ll notice that things are organized a bit better and categories are now displayed. The search feature works much more quickly and accurately than it used to, nothing against Google, to be sure. Hopefully, if you’ve come here to find a specific post, you’ll be able to find it much easier. You’ll also notice that the recent comments list is still there, as it was. Additionally, you’ll see an “unread comments” section. Some of the original links to older posts here are permanently changed. A few (100 or, so) of the older posts and comments did not make it in the data migration to the new system. So as a result, some posts will just not exist any more. It was a problem that I was struggling with and decided it shouldn’t be a barrier to the upgrades any longer. Also, I’ll be slowly pruning the archives of posts and comments that are no longer valuable.

    For now, until I can be sure that I can protect paxtonland from comment Spam, only registered users can comment. In a couple of days, I will open comments to the public that will be moderated. Finally, when I can be sure that I’ve secured everything as much as I can, I’ll open comments and trackbacks back up to the general pubic.

    Update, 4/5/05, 6:25 PM, EST:
    Comments are temporarily open to the public for testing. New user registration is closed for the moment. To my regular readers, thanks so much for your patience through this upgrade.

  • We Get Mail…

    From the paxtonland contact form:

    On 2005-02-23 at 20:35:13,
    The following information was submitted:
    Name = Riley Ruesan
    Submitted by = [withheld to protect his stupid yet, innocent friend]
    comments =

    Hi. Im using my friends email. But I 100% disagree, For one, Bush is religious. Mabe you need to stop critisizing his christianity and Get some god in your life. Im not saying he is a saint, he has made bad descions, But he has kept my and your country alive.So show some respect. And no I dont agree with the not letting gays marry, but come on! He is just as good as you. and if he DID do pot that only shows he human. Wish I could say that about you.

    Riley, thank you for pointing out One True Way through the kindness, understanding and patience that people like you exhibit in such grand abundance to me. Next, I am confident that forgiveness shall follow. Now, with my new-found enlightenment, all has become clear to me now:

    I am grateful to the 53% of voters whom also have been touched by god, thereby putting him into office. I’m grateful to the almighty intervention at the polls, for finding as many faithless (as I was) democrats and illegally barring them from casting their filthy vote for the degenerate democratic panderers. I’m grateful they did nothing to stop this. I’m, grateful in retrospect, that he was placed into his highest and most noble calling by the guiding hand of our lord who stopped evildoers from doing satans work at the polls. Thank god almighty that the voice of the people was subdued by the supreme court, during his first election and our new leader could begin his holy quest for righteousness.

    I thank god that he was able to rest by staying on vacation for a record setting 42% of his first year in office. As it turns out, he would sorely need the rest. God knows all and prepares the ready, in his own ways. The difficult times since Sept. 11 2001 have proven gods purpose for young George.

    God has delivered his message through George and he has repealed more civil rights for Americans and especially for U.S. immigrants, since Abraham Lincoln… with more rights evaporating everyday. Thankfully, I say that I am honored to sacrifice more and more of my personal freedoms to the great cause of liberty from tyranny. I should only be a matter of time until stupidity such as I have spewed copiously throughout these pages will also soon be stopped. Praise god.

    I am only too fortunate and hopeful to have granted, though never asked, nearly 200 billion dollars to fight evil across the world. I am grateful to the record-breaking deficit that spending has incurred and indeed view it as a very small price for my children to have to pay. For only George, his followers and god can know it’s true purpose and the righteous vindication that it will bring.

    Upon guidance from god, he was told by angels to seek weapons of mass destruction and proved links to Bin Laden. Unfortunately, Satan himself, the ultimate terrorist, has intervened and made our glorious George to appear as if a fool in front of the world, as the lack of evidence of those two things have even been admitted to by the white house. George wasn’t angry, nor was he deterred from his holy quest, nor will you be.

    He has, through god, preserved my peace by through war in two countries. By sacrificing the lives of nearly 1,700 Americans, injuring another 10,000, sending over 16,000 ungrateful Iraqi citizens to an early grave and injured another 25,000, I am finally free of terror.

    With all of those great accomplishments behind him and many more in front of him… how can I, a degenerate and faithless liberal, dare to criticize him in these endeavors and during our most darkest hour of need? How could I have been so foolish to question the motivations of a man placed into office by the largest political campaign fund raising effort in the history of the world? How could I have foolishly assumed that millions of Americans have died to allow me the right to say whatever I damned well please?

    I can only hope and pray for your forgiveness, Riley… The forgiveness of George and all of his followers… The forgiveness of the 53%… The forgiveness of our government… And finally, the forgiveness of god, who most wisely, guides my governments deeds, words and actions in spite of me and my ungrateful mannerisms and my rejection of it’s most holy countenance.

    God spare me and hold me in low esteem and may he allow me to creep from the mire and pith of my own damnation. Enlightenment is the first step in the path to righteousness. May god help me and may he continue to help you.

  • Maybe We Should All Keep Our Mouf Shut

    Teacher sues lesbian mom for defamation in Louisiana… that is before mom got a chance to file suit herself.

    The teacher sent this student behavior contract home with Marcus McLaurin, all of 7 years old. The child explained to another that his mother was gay. The teacher blew a gasket, scolded him in front of the class and sent Marcus to the principal. They then decided that the best course of action was to sentence him to “a special behavioral clinic.” where the boy was forced to write “I will never use the word ?gay? in school again.”

    When gay mom complained, the teacher reacted in a fashion best suited to the bible belt and filed a sleazy, pre-emptive defamation suit against gay mom.

    Is this as good as it gets here in our by-god-blessed America? Pretty much, it is. We are obviously simply a nation of bigots who turn to the nearest group that is politically or, religiously correct to hate. Once they “collectively” decided it was “not Christian” to hate minorities, they now focus their need to hate at homosexuals, mostly because “the bible tells them so.”

    Well, young Marcus, if its okay for them to hate you and your mom since she is one of “The Gays,” I’m telling you that it is okay to hate the red state, NASCAR loving, Marlboro smoke fartin’, Budweiser snortin’, rootin’ tootin’ entire lot of them. May the ACLU rain down the eternal hellfire of litigation upon them. Hopefully, they won’t get the pointy white hoods dirty in the process.

  • Friends Roundup

    I’d like to remind everyone to visit some of my friends as often as you can. Most of them are long time relationships, some are personal friends: shortwoman for being politically and economically smarter than all of us, I want her to replace Greenspan. Jerry Kindall for always keeping current and being a year older yesterday. Quonsar for being delightfully funny when I need him. Coell, for representing the upper 1% of livejournal users (we gotta get you your own system). Empty is form for keeping the ball moving, when I’ve dropped it lately. Blue Skies Falling for surviving a post-apocalypse Flint. Finally, my lasting respect for Greasy Skillet, Beatnikpad and Keelhauling for being faithful readers for so many years.

  • So, This Is The New Paxtonland

    So, this is the new paxtonland which is currently in beta. I’m testing it with old data from this site and trying to work out some bugs. Please take a look, poke around, test it out and come back here and give your me comments, ask for features, and make suggestions. Here are some of the new features that will be available:

    – Better categories: Find stuff better
    – Better search engine: Find stuff even more better
    – Stronger comments engine: Much faster comment posting, much easier to post comments
    – New author sign up: You can sign in and post all by yourself if you wish
    – Generally much faster and more robust
    – 180 degree design: This version is CSS, standards compliant, and (I hope) much more readable. But, a close approximation of the old site is still there
    – Better e-mail protection: Less SPAM for you

    I’m hoping for some good feedback so, again… let me know what you think.

  • Putin Is The New Blair?

    So, interestingly despite hurling verbal nasties back and forth over the syntax of the word “Terrorism,” I find it odd that suddenly both the Americans and the Soviets are suddenly keenly interested in Iranian arms potential again.

  • Is A Hiatus A Kind OF Flower?

    I’m going to take a small sanity break.

    After over four (really, closer to 10) years of regular publishing, I’m going to take a small rest from paxtonland. Others will probably continue to post here but, I’m going to take the next couple of weeks off.

    I’m sure you’ve all noticed the slowdown here. Some of us aren’t posting as regularly as we used to. Some of us (mainly Dan) still are on pace. As for myself, I’m terribly busy trying to get several projects off the ground and meeting business and family obligations. I figured you’d rather read that than come here and read the same old posts hoping for an update.

    When I return, I’ll start planning a new version of paxtonland that has a better search engine, more functions and a better way to navigate and find archived entries. There’s a lot of stuff here that’s nearly impossible to find due to poor information organization. Something that I’m good at in the real world and just never got around to doing here.

    For you daily link junkies, please visit my friends at: kindall.com, shortwoman.com, linkfilter.com, blort.com, metafilter.com and waxy.org for many of the funny, interesting and thought provoking things you’d see here if I were any of those things, of late… which I’m not.

  • Paxtonland Hostile Takeover

    paxtonland has survived a hostile takeover. I have rescued this site from the clutches of a conservative operative. You may notice some strange things as a result of the takeover attempt, let me know if you see anything odd.

  • Bushisms Gone

    I’m taking down the random Bushisms for now. [right click] -> [save] to keep ’em if you want them.

  • paxtonland Update or, “Ode To A Virus”

    I’ve finally updated the “software” section for the month of September. This time around, and in lieu of the times, yet another anti-virus program is reviewed and suggested. Check it out.

    The virus business surely is a very strange animal. One that hasn’t changed much in many, many years. Oh, the viruses have changed sure but, the way we deal with them hasn’t changed all that much. Meanwhile, Microsoft has avoided having to deal with viruses at the operating system level, they just won’t do it. Today, we still have to give up precious system resources or, else be vulnerable to any virus in the wild and suffer the consequences of being unprotected. The whole “Virus Writer / Anti-Virus Software Writer / Microsoft” triad just smacks of conspiracy and almost always has.

    Remember the DOS and Windows 3.1 days? Not really? Well, let me tell you that viruses back then were not simple script driven, Visual Basic dependant exploits. Viruses back in those days were elegant, artful, and took real work to program. They were definitely real works of evil genius. Not the silly and mostly harmless pranks that we see today. In those days, viruses would cause real system damage and in most cases, they were able to completely render a machine inoperable. In the least case, they would cause you to loose files and data. In the worst case, they would actually infect the system BIOS causing yo major headaches. In a very few viruses out there, they could actually render a computer into a hunk of worthless metal, forever. They did all of this with just a few lines of assembly code.

    Today, big corporations spend millions and millions of dollars on anti-virus software for their servers, their e-mail servers, their corporate firewall servers, their application servers, their database server, their web server… (pant) and of course, their end-user desktops. This is in the day where most viruses are mere practical jokes that exploit some Microsoft weakness or other. This is in a day where those weaknesses are known to exist yet, companies and IT departments still insist upon using those vulnerable and exploited products, no matter what the cost. Back when viruses were quite dangerous and harmful, I can remember literally pleading with the management of a fortune 100 company to spend just a few dollars for just one license and being told “no” on numerous occasions. So, we scanned the systems by hand and eventually with automated scripts, using software we begged borrowed or, had stolen… And we did it while walking uphill! In the snow! Both ways! And, we were glad to do it!

    Well, one thing is for certain, the virus writers will continue to chip away at the Microsoft products and the anti-virus writers will continue to vigilantly release updates, fixes and remediations. That equation hasn’t changed in nearly 20 years. Yet there is more, the equation is begining to change ever so slightly.

    That slight change brings forward the real question: Where is the line drawn between viruses and spyware? In my humble opinion, that line is already blurred beyond recognition. In fact, the new spyware is often far more dangerous and damaging to your system than most of the prank, nusciance viruses that are floating around. Some of them are harmless data gatherers, others are destructive programs that make you and your computer behave in ways you don’t want. They send information about yourself and your family, that you don’t want to, to god-knows-where. These things are actually viruses for profit. They are written, paid for and endorsed by big business. Specifically to give them more demograhpic information that you would yourself, on your own. All with the goal of profiting, which is what business do. I would not expect to see a trend that deals with spyware in anti-virus programs. Nor would I expect the way that Microsoft deals with spyware to change since Windows XP is essentially a spyware server for Microsoft itself.

    This problem with spyware today, is just like the early days of viruses infections was. Once again, it is completely up to you to protect yourself. In fact, beware of the virus

  • From the “Damn, this is way worse than Y2K!” Dept.

    Iraqis offer tips for U.S. blackout

  • paxtonland Labs System Recommendations

    I’ve recently updated the paxtonland labs system recommendations. Now, they reflect a bit more current hardware info and prices.

    Hopefully, they will be of some use to some of you. I’m really just doing them as an exercise to: a). keep me up to date on system pricing and new stuff that is out there. b). give me a wish list of things to have myself. I’ll be expanding the server reccommendations to include more details, tape backups, etc. But, for now that should hold ya.

  • paxtonland Update: New Forum Added

    Added a new category to the paxtonland forum called The War Room. Get in there mix it up. Please try to keep comments about the posts within the comments links. For all other discussion, take it to the forum. That way what you have to say won’t be buried.

  • paxtonland Update: New Features

    So, we’ve made a few changes around here. Mostly behind the scenes. Two things you will notice is that 1). comments now have permalinks. That way, if you want to mail a comment or, refer to a comment within a comment, or refer to a comment in a post, you can link directly to it. The other obvious thing you may notice is that 2). I now list the last 15 comments, by the author and the entry title. Scroll down and look on the sidebar under “Archives” and you’ll find what I’m talking about. This way, you won’t miss it too easily when someone rants back to your rave.

    Finally, in the comments, I’ve removed the display of all e-mail addresses for spam protection reasons. Previously, I merely coded them to hide them from the spambots but, that is a loosing battle. I will still require an e-mail address to post comments to prevent anon commenting. I don’t save them or add you to any mailing lists. If you want to subscribe to the mailing list, you have to do that yourself, also on the sidebar. Also, you can add the URL of your website and I will display that, and it will be clickable.

    Cheers from the bowels of PL. Oh, I added some more Bushisms, there are about 250 of them now.

  • Don’t Like Your Country? Create Your Own

    paxtonland_flag.jpgNationStates is a nation simulation game. You can create your own nation that loosely reflects your ideals. There is a United Nations and political issues are similar to what you’ll find in the “real world.” There is a humorous bent to the whole thing but, the issues are serious enough. I’d been looking around for a good geo-political simulator for a little while now. We’ll see how this one stacks up.

    You’ll find The Rouge Nation of Paxtonland there. Sent in by Rich who is also known as The King of The Dominion of Fusinski

  • paxtonland Software Guide

    Dean’s Software Guide has been updated for January 2003. It has also been updated for December 2002, November 2002, October, 2002 and September 2002. Wow.

    Yeah, I got a little behind.

  • A Christmas Gift

    If there is one thing I’d like to ask for this year, it’s that more people would investigate the story of Leonard Peltier. Twenty six years in prison, for a crime he did not commit, which he was convicted of due to FBI-forced and incidentally untrue testimony. The people who post to Paxtonland are a smart bunch, good with words and convincing in arguments. I’ll be writing a minimum of one letter per month to President Bush asking for clemency for Leonard (which, by the way, Clinton promised and didn’t come through with) – will you join me in doing the same? Merry Christmas everyone.

  • Paxtonland Update: Software

    Dean’s Software Guide has been updated for the month of August. This month we feature the Windows version of OpenOffice, a Microsoft Office replacement.

    Please, give me some feedback on the reviews and comments that I have on the software guide. Many areas of this site fall behind but, I put a lot of effort into that one. I’m hoping to have a better system for categorizing and organizing the software. One that will include comments and voting. If you have any suggestions or, Movable type users, if you have any ideas for me to lay it out using MT, let me know.

    Thanks

    -ddp