Craig Zeigler

After reading an article about Hugo Chavez and his desire to set the price of oil between $80 and $100 I find myself asking why exactly he is doing this. Obviously he desire to do this is to keep himself popular with his people and as a result, in power. The idea of his social ambitions being curtailed with the decrease in oil prices would likely destabilize his hold on that country and make him tone down his rhetoric against the United States.

This morning on the way to work, I was listening to NPR and their endless President Obama coverage really struck a cord with me. It seems when John McCain decided to suspend his campaign and stay in Washington to at least appear that he is doing something with this whole bailout thing, Obama is out campaigning instead.

Over the past several weeks, there have been a great number of articles, commentaries, and rants about the upcoming Chinese Olympic Games. When I first heard that China would be hosting the 2008 Summer Games, I was astonished. China isn't exactly known for supporting the things the games are supposed to symbolize these days. For a country that puts no obvious value on human life, and allocates vast amounts of its resources to quell any dissent or resistance, I don't think they should have the honor of hosting the Olympic Games.

Slashdot has a good article about Steve Jobs, and his seemingly unbreakable link to Apple. After reading it and several of the comments I tried to leave a comment of my own, but it seems the comment system doesn't like Firefox 3.

It seems when Mr. Jobs was running Apple, things were great, and the company was doing fairly well. Once he left, the company seemed to stray from the path it was on before he left. When he returned, the company seems to be on an exhilarating track, and doing very well. Recently, Mr. Jobs had some health problems, and that noticeably affected Apple's stock price. This leaves many investors wonder what is going to happen to Apple after Mr. Jobs is gone from the company.

Yesterday, the US Supreme Court struck down a law banning firearms in Washington DC. This was a huge step forward in common sense which is something I thought was totally lacking in our nation's capital. It made no sense to me that DC would have a ban on guns while holding one of the highest crime rates in the country.

I just finished reading an article at ArsTechnica about “hyperconnected” employees and it started me thinking about why this is so. From my standpoint at least, I see connectivity from anywhere as a necessary thing in today's workforce. This is even more true in the IT industry.

Most of us that work in IT understand that because computers run everything in our daily lives, and those system must stay running at all times. When you're in a support or admin position, you are responsible for keeping your company's or customer's systems running, and when something happens, you're expected to be able to deal with those problems.

I just finished reading the latest chapter in the Microsoft/Yahoo! takeover, and can't help but chuckle a bit. This is an ongoing battle I've been following for some unknown reason, but it remains to capture my interest. There is something about someone saying no to Microsoft that makes me smile.

I have noticed lately that when I go to Google News that any pictures of President Bush are of him with his head tilted, and looking like some kind of retarded dog. Many people these days will make some comment about how he looks retarded because he is. That isn't something I'm willing to accept, but who can really blame them after what the American media has done in the lead up to the next election. Not to mention the fact that after seven years of Bush, there are few people who still support him.

Yes, this seems like an odd topic for a post, but whatever. I noticed the other day that my desktop was getting more and more sluggish. Also, my new game addiction is somewhat beyond that this box of nearly 2 years will handle well, so its time to consider upgrading. Keeping in mind that I'm lucky to get 2 years out of a desktop, this one has served me quite well, and I shall have a use for it once it has been replaced. What that is, I'm not really sure, but its plenty fast enough with enough ram/disk space to do anything I really need a server to do.

There is a good chance I'll get some flack from this but I really don't care. As I write this, I'm sitting here watching the Formula 1 race from Spa, and have noticed over the past couple of races that I'm less excited about it. There have been several god passes, but I tend to dwell a bit on the cars and the technology.