odom got lucky

Phoenix Suns forward Amar'e Stoudemire, after Lakers forward Lamar Odom scored 19 points and grabbed 19 rebounds in L.A.'s 128-107 Game 1 win: "I'm not giving him no hype right now; he had a lucky game in Game 1."

Tonight, the Lakers finished off the Suns in six games. Odom's luck held up throughout the series. He averaged 14.0 points and 11.8 rebounds for the series.

Stoudemire averaged 25 points a game for the series, but he was a huge disappointment on the glass. He only managed double figures in rebounds in one game, finishing with 11 in Game 3. He finished with only 3 rebounds in Game 1, and 4 rebounds each in Games 5 and 6.

He averaged 6 rebounds for the series.

This from a guy who's supposed to be one of the premier power forwards in the game. As I've been saying for a few years now, Stoudemire ain't no Charles Barkley. The guy nearly got doubled up in rebounds by a Lakers forward who doesn't even start! Stoudemire had the nerve to call him "lucky" and then got badly outrebounded by him in every game but one! And in the two biggest games, both games that the Suns had to have, both games that turned out to be Suns losses, Stoudemire could only manage 4 rebounds in each game! Meanwhile, "Lucky" pulled down 13 rebounds in Game 5 and 12 in Game 6.

Stoudemire's 25 points per game in the series were meaningless. The Lakers exposed Stoudemire as the one-dimensional player that he is. He is not among the elite players in the league, at least not yet. Miserable performance.

Meanwhile, Odom once again showed that he is a big-time player, and one of the most important non-starters in league history.

that talk doesn't belong here

At the MepisLovers forums, you won't encounter any religious or political discussions. The administrators and moderators won't stand for it. And that's fine by me. It's one of the things that makes MepisLovers possibly the best Linux forums out there.

It's nothing but a zoo at other forums where those types of discussions are allowed to take place. They don't contribute anything to the forums. They just lead to arguments and bad feelings.

Please, please, please: Let's keep religion and politics out of Linux forums. There are other places, other forums to talk about that stuff. We don't need any of it at the Linux forums.

trinity, the kde 3.5 fork

ComputerBob tipped me off about the KDE 3.5 fork codenamed "Trinity." The project "aims to keep the KDE3.5 computing style alive, as well as polish off any rough edges that were present as of KDE 3.5.10."

http://trinity.pearsoncomputing.net/

Some other comments and screenshots:

http://www.itlure.com/2010/05/trinity-project-picks-up-where-kde-3510.html

where's vince?

The Orlando Magic managed to break through last night at Boston and avoid being swept out of the playoffs, escaping with a 96-92 overtime win.

But, I was shocked when I saw Vince Carter's line. In almost 31 minutes, he tallied:

3 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 0 blocks, 3 turnovers, 1-9 FGs, 0-3 3PT, 1-1 FTs.

What makes it look even worse, if that's possible, is that everyone's talking about how Carter disappears at crunch time. In Game 2, with the Magic down by three, 31.9 seconds left, Carter, an 84% shooter from the line during the regular season, bricked two free throws. Orlando went on to lose, 95-92.

Fortunately, despite Carter's dismal performance in Game 4, Orlando survived. Carter will have a chance to redeem himself. For his sake, I hope he comes through with a big game and helps push the series to a sixth game.

facebook privacy and "opt-in"

Back on May 7th, I wrote "kill your facebook account," talking about how to permanently delete your Facebook account instead of "deactivating" it.

I stopped using Facebook for a couple of reasons.

One, I was getting bored with it. Too many boring posts that I wasn't the least bit interested in were showing up on my wall. I simply didn't care about what games people were playing. I didn't care about receiving Facebook gifts. I certainly didn't care to read about certain folks' political views.

Two, I felt like it was a waste of my time to even go to Facebook and check on things. I already belong to several Linux forums, and I follow news and sports and other things on the internet. And, I have plenty of non-computer things that I like to do. Facebook was just taking time away from things that I love.

If you've followed recent computer-related news at all, you know that there seems to be a backlash against Facebook and other social networking sites because of privacy concerns. Facebook is promising to make some changes in their privacy settings, making things simpler for users.

Some people don't feel that this will be enough. Check out Jacqueline Emigh's PCWorld article, "Note to Facebook on Privacy: How About Opt-In, Not Opt Out?," where she writes:

To give Facebook members more real control over how their personal data is used, Facebook ought to be simplifying its privacy tools in the direction of “opting in”– where users need to actively volunteer to share information – instead of the opposite “opt out” approach. In essence, Facebook should be giving users an easy way of turning on third-party services – if these are desired – rather than an easy way of turning them off.

I agree with this, 100%. But I don't know if Facebook would ever take that route. Also, I don't think it will ever make a difference to me. I can't see myself ever going back to Facebook; my reasons for quitting haven't changed. And it might not make a difference to any of the people who have left Facebook over privacy concerns; when you lose someone's trust, it's difficult to win it back.

imagination

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." -- Albert Einstein

divisions

At the Debian User Forums, folks rarely let pass an opportunity to bash Ubuntu.

Ubuntu users like to criticize Linux Mint.

It goes on and on. The "best distro" is "the one I am using." The biting comments never seem to end. The crap extends to arguments over which desktop environments to use, as well. An Xfce user must despise KDE and GNOME.

One of my goals when I was getting started with Linux was to become "a Linux user." I wanted to know enough about Linux to be able to sit down and find my way around any type of Linux system.

I feel confident that I've accomplished that.

I don't think it matters much which Linux distro I use. It doesn't matter which desktop environment or window manager I use. I've reached a point where, for the most part, Linux is Linux.

There's a reason that so many people love to use any given Linux distribution or desktop environment or whatever. Very often, if you give it some time, you'll find out that there are reasons for you to like it, too.

But a lot of Linux folks don't like to think that way. They'd rather stick to one thing, be on one "team." It's like there's this tribal way of thinking that comes out. You can't be a Linux user, you've got to be a Debian user, an Ubuntu user, a Mepis or a Mint user. You can't possibly "cross over" to the other side and be a traitor. You can't have both KDE and GNOME installed on one system and Xfce and Fluxbox on another. You have to pick one, and only one. Every chance you get, you have to let everyone know why the distro or DE or WM that you use is the greatest and why some other one is not.

This infighting is silly. It's a complete waste of time. Grow up, people.

mayoral wager

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon (who is also against Arizona's new immigration law), prior to the start of the NBA Western Conference Championship Series between the Lakers and the Suns:

Mayor Gordon:

Our cities have more in common than the pursuit of a championship. We both recognize the contributions our immigrant communities have made: Los Angeles is internationally recognized for its multicultural history, and Phoenix is internationally recognized for its two-time Most Valuable Player, Steve Nash, who happens to hail from Canada.

The Suns have managed to best our Lakers in their last two meetings, but since your new immigration policy is set to kick in soon, we look forward to welcoming Steve to our team the next time he forgets to carry his passport with him. I’m sure he will fit in quite nicely as we pursue our 31st Conference Title.

In all seriousness, I do want to applaud “Los Suns” for standing up for the American values we all cherish, no matter where our families came from, no matter when they came to this great country. Nothing brings a city together like an NBA championship, although in this case, I guess you’ll just have to take our word for it.

Our wager:

Should the Suns prevail, we will humbly accept ownership of “American’s Toughest Sheriff,” Joe Arpaio, Sheriff of Maricopa County. Perhaps a stint in Los Angeles would teach him that you cannot deduce immigration status simply by looking at a person.

Should the Lakers be victorious, we will deliver to you both Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman, Republican candidates for Governor of California, currently battling for supremacy on the issue of illegal immigration. Perhaps some time in Arizona would show them both that being governor isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be.

Additionally, should the Lakers ultimately win, we will send a group of students to Dodger Stadium to behold the other great sports franchise in Los Angeles. Similarly, should the Suns best the Lakers, we call on Phoenix to treat a group of students to cheer on the Diamondbacks.

Good luck and go Lakers!

Very truly yours,

ANTONIO R. VILLARAIGOSA

Mayor

stay

Looks like I'm not the only person out there who thinks that LeBron James should remain a Cleveland Cavalier.

The question is, will he?

Like others, I was not impressed at how he finished out the playoff series against the Boston Celtics this year. Not a performance that will remind anyone of great champions of the past -- unless you count Kobe's disappearing act in Game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals, a 131-92 blowout of the Lakers at Boston.

Kobe returned to lead the Lakers to the tile in 2009.

Chances are, LeBron won't return to Cleveland.

But, if he does, I'll forever be a fan of his, especially after reading "LeBron's heart, game belong in Ohio," by Yahoo! Sports' Dan Wetzel.

For once, I'd like to see a guy stay put. Stay there, make yourself better, make your team better. Don't cop out, don't go trying to team up with the "best players" just to chase a title. Do it the right way, the old school way, by willing your way to the title. The hard way, not the easy way.

But, that's not how we do things, is it? Even in grade school leagues, parents try to put their kids on the team that has the best players, just so that their kid will have a better chance of winning a championship. That's what it's all about, right?

Not in my mind. Character counts for something here, even in sports. And my opinion is that LeBron would show a lot more character and class by staying in Cleveland. Even if he never wins a title there.

use the best tool for the job

Some folks understand that cloud computing doesn't have to be an either/or proposition. Sometimes Google Docs is the best tool for the job. Other times, you really don't want to put your data out in the cloud.

I don't use MS Office, and I rarely use Google Docs, but here's a good Lifehacker article: "How to Get the Best of Both Google Docs and Microsoft Office."

chrome 6

When I did a "reload" today in Mepis' Synaptic, I found an update available for google-chrome-unstable. This took me from Google Chrome 5.0.396 dev to Google Chrome 6.0.401 dev.

The Softpedia article "Google Chrome 6 Is Here" notes that it's "just a regular update," but that "it does mark a new cycle in the development process."

Folks who would like to know more about the differences between the Chromium browser and Google Chrome, as well as more about the development cycle and numbering scheme, should check out this web page: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Google-Chrome-vs-Chromium-Understanding-Stable-Beta-Dev-Releases-and-Version-No-140060.shtml

Lucid: Sounding Good

I'm sure that there will be the normal range of positive and negative reviews of Ubuntu's latest release, Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx). And, as always, I take any review with a grain of salt.

The Dedoimedo reviews are usually pretty good, though. Detailed, for sure. Also entertaining.

The concluding comments in the Dedoimedo review of Ubuntu Lucid were encouraging for LTS fans like me:

This is by far the best Ubuntu release since I started taking interest in the distribution, way back with Dapper in June 2006. While you do not get everything out of the box as some other distributions like Mint or PCLinuxOS offer, the overall quality and integration surpasses the slight inconvenience of the extra few minutes of downloads and configurations. And you still have a better, faster, more secure system than other market rivals, for absolute zero cost.

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/ubuntu-lucid.html

Looking forward to installing it here!

fredette, MWC hoops, etc.

Dang. BYU's Jimmer Fredette decided to pull his name out of the NBA draft. Not good news for us University of New Mexico Lobos fans.

Even worse, UNM's Darington Hobson decided to stay in the draft. I really didn't think he was good enough to play in the NBA, but I guess we'll see. I think he'd have been better off coming back and helping UNM to another MWC championship instead of going on to play in the NBA D-League, which is most likely what will happen...

KJ on the Arizona immigration law

Kevin Johnson, the former Phoenix Suns point guard and current mayor of Sacramento, CA:

Arizona Immigration Law Violates Our Fundamental Rights

By Kevin Johnson
Mayor of Sacramento
I’ve never said much about this, but there was deep personal sadness when I was traded from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Phoenix Suns in February 1988.
The trouble had no connection with basketball. I was ashamed of my new state for another reason: A year before the trade, Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham rescinded the holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Suddenly, I was expected to play my heart out for audiences proud to denigrate the civil rights victories won by Dr. King.
Arizona needed five years and the loss of an estimated $300 million in tourism dollars – including the removal of the 1993 Super Bowl – before voters finally gave Dr. King his day.
Today memories of those sorry days have returned.
Arizona is back at it, passing a law that allows police to demand ID from anyone who “looks” like an undocumented immigrant.
Don’t get me wrong. Our country must protect its borders. We are a nation of immigrants, and immigration must be managed with thoughtful, fair and productive protocols.
Government agencies must work diligently to respond to immigration issues. But our response must be appropriate and consistent with the fundamentals of our nation.
The Arizona law contradicts the foundation of American justice on multiple levels. Beyond the law’s discretionary bigotry, it stands as a hypocritical application of presumptive guilt, a violation of our essential Constitutional rights. Ultimately, it requires the most color-blind police officer to judge people based on their skin color.
I spoke with Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon on Wednesday afternoon (April 28). He asked me not to call for economic sanctions and boycotts against Arizona.
As mayors, we share a common understanding of negative economic impacts. Damaging the good work of Mayor Gordon and the many honorable people in his city in retribution for the immigration law can become the equivalent of trying to make two wrongs equal one right.
But I strongly feel we must seek a positive resolution to Arizona’s injustice, hopefully with dialogue. I will go to Arizona and meet with leaders there if that will help. And at Sacramento City Hall, I will begin the process of seeking collaboration on this issue with my colleagues at City Hall.
As a resident of Arizona during the time of the struggle to honor Dr. King, I understand how collective pressures can bring our Southwestern neighbors to their collective senses.
I still have many friends in Arizona, and know the state is not a land filled with hatred. But sometimes Arizonans need a reminder of their foolishness.
If we open a dialogue with Arizonians and remind them of the consequences from the Dr. King holiday embarrassment, maybe they will get it.
from:

http://www.teamkj.org/tabid/72/Article/347/arizona-immigration-law-violates-our-fundamental-rights.aspx

Google UI - old and new

Some screen shots comparing the old Google interface with the new, as viewed through my Firefox browser. Click on the images for a larger view.


The old Google main page:




The new Google main page:




The old Google logo:

The new Google logo:


Search results with the old Google:





Search results with the new Google:





I do like the old logo much better. As for the search results, I think I can live with the new style.


Side note: Looks like the changes by Google have resulted in the end of the Scroogle search engine. Said the folks at Scroogle, "We regret to announce that our Google scraper may have to be permanently retired, thanks to a change at Google..."

The full announcement from Scroogle: https://ssl.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbwssl.cgi

google's new ui

A few days ago, in "opening to rave reviews," I wrote about Google's new user interface on the Google home page.

I didn't like it. I'm starting to like it better now.

I also found out that there's a link to the old Google interface, at http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=all. You can compare the old and the new and decide for yourself which one you like best.

average joe

I wasn't happy with Joe Johnson when he bolted from the Suns to play for the Atlanta Hawks back in 2005. I couldn't understand why the guy would leave a good team for an awful team (which Atlanta was at the time), just for the chance to be "the star" and to earn a bigger paycheck.

I thought he should have stayed and helped the Suns in their quest for a title.

Plus, I never thought he was good enough to be "the star."

Joe Johnson has proven to be a good player. Maybe even a star. But he's also proven to wear the "over-rated" tag quite while.

Tonight, the Orlando Magic completed a four-game sweep of the Atlanta Hawks.

Check it out:

Game 1: Orlando 114, Atlanta 71.
Game 2: Orlando 112, Atlanta 98.
Game 3: Orlando 105, Atlanta 75.
Game 4: Orlando 98, Atlanta 84.

And how did "the star" perform?

Game 1: 10 pts, 7 reb, 3 ast, 0 stl, 5 TOs, 4-11 FGs, 0-4 3PT, 2-4 FT.
Game 2: 19 pts, 2 reb, 5 ast, 1 stl, 1 TO, 5-16 FGs, 2-4 3PT, 7-7 FT.
Game 3: 8 pts, 5 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl, 2 TOs, 3-15 FGs, 0-3 3PT, 2-3 FT.
Game 4: 14 pts, 4 reb, 5 ast, 0 stl, 2 TOs, 5-15 FGs, 1-6 3PT, 3-5 FT.

Not star-like, by any means. An average performance, at best.

You might even say that Joe Johnson choked. You might say that Joe Johnson is not really a prime-time player.

You might say a lot of things about Joe Johnson right now. Hawks fans might be saying, "Get rid o' the bum!" I wouldn't blame 'em.

And, how about adding insult to injury? How about rubbing a little salt in the wound?

His former team, the Phoenix Suns, will be facing the LA Lakers in the Western Conference Finals.

Joe Johnson, presumably, will be at home watching. And maybe taking a few notes.

triple double

Rajon Rondo led the Boston Celtics to a series-tying, 97-87 Game 4 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers with 29 points, 18 assists, and 13 rebounds.

Yes. Rondo, who stands 6'1", grabbed 18 rebounds.

Cleveland's front-line starters, LeBron James (6'8"), Antawn Jamison (6'9"), and Shaquille O'Neal (7'1"), combined for only 20 rebounds, with James grabbing nine of those!

It was a triple-double for the ages. As reported at Yahoo! Sports, "Rondo became the third player in playoff history to have at least 29 points, 18 rebounds and 13 assists according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Oscar Robertson had 32 points, 19 rebounds and 13 assists in 1963, and Wilt Chamberlain had 29 points, 36 rebounds and 13 assists in 1967."

Awesome!

opening to rave reviews

LOL! This, from the Google Operating System Blog:

Google's New Interface: Colorful and More Powerful

What a joke. Wasted space. No option to change back to old way. Did Shuttleworth have something to do with this?

Okay, just kidding about Shuttleworth...

See the comments that follow the article? How long do you think before Google backs off on this?

arizona crayons

Found on the internet:

kill your facebook account

The blog entry linked here shows some screen shots of what you'll see if you decided to deactivate your Facebook account.

The thing is, deactivating your Facebook account is not the same thing as deleting it for good!

If you want to completely delete your Facebook account, you can do it by going to the page linked here: https://ssl.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account

Buh-bye, Facebook!!!

evil

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." -- Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

A Wikipedia article on the mathematician, physicist, and Catholic philosopher, Blaise Pascal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal

all-nba

From NBA.com:

The All-NBA Teams were chosen by a panel of 122 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. The media voted for All-NBA First, Second and Third Teams by position with points awarded on a 5-3-1 basis.

2009-10 All-NBA Teams

FIRST TEAM Position Player, Team (1st Team Votes) Points Forward LeBron James, Cleveland (122) 610 Forward Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City (107) 579 Center Dwight Howard, Orlando (122) 610 Guard Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers (119) 604 Guard Dwyane Wade, Miami (81) 520 SECOND TEAM Forward Carmelo Anthony, Denver (9) 321 Forward Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas (10) 356 Center Amare Stoudemire, Phoenix (2) 239 Guard Steve Nash, Phoenix (24) 366 Guard Deron Williams, Utah (14) 343 THIRD TEAM Forward Tim Duncan, San Antonio -- 125 Forward Pau Gasol, L.A. Lakers -- 94 Center Andrew Bogut, Milwaukee -- 149 Guard Joe Johnson, Atlanta -- 118 Guard Brandon Roy, Portland -- 87

Other players receiving votes, with point totals (first team votes in parentheses):Chris Bosh, Toronto, 80; Rajon Rondo, Boston, 47; David Lee, New York, 43; Carlos Boozer, Utah, 33; Chauncey Billups, Denver, 24; Zach Randolph, Memphis, 20; Al Horford, Atlanta, 19; Jason Kidd, Dallas, 18; Derrick Rose, Chicago, 15; Chris Paul, New Orleans, 14; Manu Ginobili, San Antonio, 13; Chris Kaman, LA Clippers, 9; Brook Lopez, New Jersey, 6; Josh Smith, Atlanta, 6; Paul Pierce, Boston, 6; Gerald Wallace, Charlotte, 5; Marcus Camby, Portland, 3; Andrew Bynum, LA Lakers, 2; Danny Granger, Indiana, 2; David West, New Orleans, 1; Kevin Garnett, Boston, 1; Mo Williams; Cleveland, 1; Tony Parker San Antonio, 1.

Los Suns

The Phoenix Suns, sporting their road "Los Suns" jerseys (in part to protest Arizona's new anti-immigration law), beat the San Antonio Spurs, 110-102, to take a 2-0 series lead.

San Antonio has certainly been the Suns' nemesis over the years. And, with the series shifting to the Spurs' home court for the next two games, I'm certainly not counting any chickens before they've hatched. This is San Antonio we're talking about. We know too well what Ginobili, Parker, and Duncan can do. Richard Jefferson is still going to bring his solid game, and George Hill has yet to really bring it in this series.

But the Suns did what they needed to do. They protected their home court advantage. They're in a great position -- two wins away from reaching the Conference Finals!

Back to the subject of the jerseys. Johnny Ludden of Yahoo! Sports wrote:

In a Cinco de Mayo tribute to the city’s Latino community and a symbolic protest of Arizona’s controversial immigration-enforcement bill, the players wore their “Los Suns” jerseys. Sarver, Kerr and Nash all denounced the bill, and while the Suns have received national praise for the move, they’ve also been, in the words of one staffer, “absolutely crushed” at home. Polls suggest nearly 70 percent of residents support the bill, spurring angry callers to jam the Suns’ switchboard all day. Kerr admitted the team will lose some level of season-ticket holders.

Well, I hope the angry folks can get over it. Of course, I support the move by the Suns to wear the jerseys, and I hope they get a chance to wear them in the NBA Finals. Go Suns!!!

rossiter road

Ahmad Jamal, Rossiter Road. After all these years, this collection (recorded in 1986) still brings joy to my heart!

My mom introduced me to the Ahmad Jamal Trio years ago, but I don't remember which LPs she had.

A link to a Wikipedia article about Ahmad Jamal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Jamal

celts vs. cavs

The 2nd-round playoff series between the Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers is tied up at a game apiece after Boston's big 104-86 win in Game 2.

But, what's up with the fouls? In the first game, Boston was whistled for 25; the Cavs, only 17. In the second game, the difference was even bigger: 31 for the Celtics, 16 for the Cavs.

Whatever, it didn't seem to make much difference in the second game. The Cavs missed 12 free throws and shot only 68.4% from the line in the blowout loss. In fact, in Game 1, Cleveland went 21 for 31 (67.7%) from the line.

Hm.

If they're gonna keep missing like that, then maybe Boston should keep up with the aggressive defense. Maybe that's been the plan all along.

It seems that the Celtics are confident that they can pull off the upset. I don't see any reason why they shouldn't be.

Let's see if LeBron and the Cavs can adjust.

priceless

'Nuff said.