I’ve been using Windows Vista Beta for months now. I sort of like it, kind of. The constant security pop ups are a total pain in the ass and some applications just don’t work with it, but it’s pretty enough. It’s…fine. But the free beta version ended yesterday and backtracking to XP seemed like a real horror show AND I don’t have the money to upgrade this week since rent is due. I didn’t want the computer to be down for a week since it’s the main computer that Lauren uses, so I spent a few hours yesterday and installed Ubuntu 7.04 instead.
The install wasn’t too painful once I created two partitions on the extra drive I have in the computer. I made them small - 10 gigs for the main one and 5 gigs for the swap - but that was plenty of space. Downloaded the Live CD version, did the install and once it was done I followed the directions on the extremely useful 13 Things Must Do Things On Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn, which gives you step-by-step instructions on adding fairly essential stuff particularly if you want to use Ubuntu for internet surfing, such as getting Flash and Java installed. I got that going last night and so today Lauren was able to get online and it worked well enough. Some problems with the audio playing and Lauren misses Yahoo Music.
Then tonight I started to figure out Beryl, which is an amazingly badass thing that gives you all sorts of graphic coolness for Ubuntu, including the glassy / gauzy look that Vista has that is supposed to be a big selling point. Really, it’s incredible - words won’t do it justice. Then I installed Celtx, the free open source screenwriting / media production tool because Script Frenzy starts tomorrow and damn it, I’m going to do it. So now I’m even happier with Ubuntu. All free, all legal. If I were putting together an office for writers, it’s what I’d use…
Mark Kleinman nails Law And Order actor Fred Thompson for his bullshit about Scooter Libby. In a speech to the Council For National Policy, Thompson said…
The only problem with this little scenario was that there was no violation of the law, by anyone, and everybody — the CIA, the Justice Department and the Special Counsel knew it. Ms. Plame was not a “covered person†under the statute and it was obvious from the outset. Furthermore, Justice and the Special Counsel knew who leaked Plames’s name and it wasn’t Scooter Libby. But the Beltway machinery was well oiled and geared up so the Special Counsel spent the next two years moving heaven and earth to come up with something, anything. Finally he came up with some inconsistent recollections by Scooter Libby, who had been up to his ears studying National Intelligence Estimates. But he worked for Dick Cheney, so that apparently was enough for the special counsel.
I didn’t know Scooter Libby, but I did know something about this intersection of law, politics, special counsels and intelligence. And it was obvious to me that what was happening was not right. So I called him to see what I could do to help, and along the way we became friends. You know the rest of the story: a D.C. jury convicted him.
And Kleinman points out…
I’ve highlighted the parts that the sentencing memo demolishes. Valerie Plame Wilson was a covered person: working covertly, having her identity actively protected, and having traveled abroad seven times under both official and unofficial cover in the five years prior to the leak, and while Libby wasn’t the only leaker he burned her to at least three different people before the Novak column ran. Note also the wonderful passive construction — Plame’s CIA identity “was leaked” (by no one in particular), and the deniably but unmistakably racist crack about a “D.C. jury.”
And in other Libby news, Scooter is seeking leniency depsite showing no remorse for lying “repeatedly and blatantly” to FBI agents and a grand jury probing the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity.
NBC has clinched 36-year-old prolific producer Ben Silverman as its new showbiz honcho. He’ll have a bigger title than Reilly did. It’ll be NBC Universal West Coast chairman or something (similar to that enjoyed by the network’s last Hail Mary hire, Don Ohlmeyer, back in the ’90s). At the same time, the very capable Marc Graboff will be promoted to still run the business side of things. I’m told there’s even the possibility that Graboff and Silverman will become co-chairs.
They were named co-chairs and from what I’ve heard, I think this is a great move. It seems like Marc Graboff will handle the business end of things and Silverman will handle more of the creative end. Very smart.
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