Author: DOuG pRATt

Faith, Hope and Parity

I’m in Remote Desktop, accessing a Windows 2003 server at work, using the “shadow 0” command to run as the console (having made the necessary gpedit.msc edit), and all of a sudden — BOOM! Session gone. Connection lost. So I jump on the digital KVM and start a session there to check the console, and whaddaya think I see? I see this!

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a parity error on a machine with ECC memory. I’d just finished installing Windows Server 2003 and all of the updates, and was preparing to set up Clustering, with the quorum resource on the SAN, when the error hit. Annoying. The machine is running again, but for how long… ?

Now aren’t you glad I rarely mention work stuff?

MAD With Greed

Some time back I offered a bit of background behind the face of MAD Magazine’s mascot, Alfred E. Newman. The image of ‘The Kid’ had been around, in one form or another, long before it came to rest in MAD. Recently, while watching a reconstruction of Erich von Stroheim’s epic film Greed, from 1924, I happened to notice this.

We’ll Stand Up When Rove Stands Down

Good riddance to the divisive and destructive Karl Rove. He’s no genius, but he is the most successful in a chain of Republican operatives without scruples. It’s a list that includes the excretory Roy Cohn and, more recently, the pitiless and pitiful Lee Atwater.

You want an example of Karl Rove being divisive? Here’s one. Listen to this statement by Rove.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/AUG07/Rove.mp3]

This is a complete mis-characterization. What the Democrats wanted was adherence to the FISA Act, which requires court approval of the surveillance.

Colbert vs. Branson: Cooler Heads Prevail

The Net is full of talk about a spat between mega-rich Richard Branson and mega-influential Stephen Colbert. If it’s true that a peeved Branson dumped his glass of water on Colbert during the recording of a segment of The Colbert Report, then Branson is a fool, because the only possible outcome is Branson will lose and Colbert will gain. It’s been reported that Colbert retaliated.

The latest word is that the scene will be shown, so we will all be able to see what really happened. You can, of course, count on me posting it here as soon as the video of the event is available.