A Few Personal Notes ...
Be Careful for What You Ask For
Our new Governor was elected with a mandate for change. New Yorkers were rightly upset with burdensome tax loads, inefficiency, bureaucracy, and red tape. We don't like the unbalanced state of affairs that exists between upstate and downstate. We don't like a chronically late state budget or the fact that, in reality, three people run everything in Albany.
We don't like the fact that state workers are the fourth highest paid in the union. We don't like worker compensation laws that are a barrier for small businesses, the way money is distributed to local school districts, or the fact that Medicaid costs in New York are some of the highest in the nation. Instead of lower taxes and smaller government, over the past twelve years we've seen taxes going up and the size of government getting larger and larger. What we need, or so we thought, was a new Governor who would kick in a few doors, take no prisoners, and break a few heads.
In came the sheriff of Wall Street, a man with just such a reputation.
Now that he has been office for a little over three months the whole state is in an uproar. He has floated a budget that reflects smaller taxes, but also, smaller government, less regulation, fewer services, and greater efficiency. Everyone, or so it seems, is spitting nails (my mother would say) because they are so angry.
Health care workers, unions, administrators are running advertisements on television using scare tactics to frighten the general public into believing that patients of hospitals and residents of nursing homes will suffer. The Governor counters with a press conference reporting the compensation of the top ten administrators in a downstate, not-for-profit hospital exceeded ten million dollars! Ouch.
State senators and legislative representatives sought to fill a vacant state comptrollers position (left open by a corrupt, good-for-nothing scoundrel). Instead of seeking the most qualified candidate, elected official returned to their featherbedding, line-your-pockets-with-pork ways of doing business, and installed one of their favored sons – to which the new Governor rightly cried “Foul!” This time around, it isn't a fact that the emperor doesn't have any cloths, it is our elected representatives and senators who aren't wearing any cloths, and they should be ashamed of themselves.
If the old sheriff of Wall Street is going to be effective in changing Albany, of using a half-nelson to wrestle corruption out of the State of New York, he is going to need the support of the people. The people need to step up to the plate and not back down to the scare tactics of special interest groups, lobbyists, or corrupt elected officials.
I'm convinced that there is enough money in Albany to fund excellent education, provide a fair compensation for health care institutions, pay for good roads, support business enterprise, and maintain sufficient prisons. There is enough of our tax dollars to fund public health, public safety, and to care for our most vulnerable – children and seniors.
If only we have the will.
Don't leave the new Governor hang out to dry. He is a good man, a smart man, with the will and determination to reform Albany. Let Eliot do his job. We'll all be glad we did.
Broken Windows
With the development of a new Microsoft Windows operating system, called "Vista," comes the inevitable problem of upgrading from the old operating system, called "XP," and all of its associated difficulties. XP is an excellent operating system and it has served most of us well for the past five years. It wasn't an easy transition from Windows 95, 98, or 98 Second Edition, but because the rest of the world found XP the predominate player in the marketplace, everyone just knuckled under and went along.
In a few short years, Microsoft will discontinue supporting XP, just as it had each previous operating system. When this happens the anti-virus companies will also discontinue support, turning their sole attention to Vista. This will make it nearly impossible to continue running XP, making a lot of hardware and software unusable.
"So why not just upgrade when Vista makes it debut?" you ask. Good question. There are a number of difficulties with just upgrading:
So, what is one to do?
There are two viable options to home users, both of which I have personal experience in and with which I fully endorse.
Option #1: If your hardware is more than three years old and you planned on upgrading it anyway, I'd suggest you look to replacing your computer with a computer from Apple. I run an Apple laptop (for my personal use) and an Apple desktop (for the family). Apple computers are known as a "Mac" (as in "Macintosh") and they operate their own operating system, known as "OS X."
I can do everything on a Mac that anyone can do on a Window's PC. Everything. I can do it faster and easier, too. My system doesn't crash. There are so few viruses written for Macs that most of us Mac users do not even need to run anti-virus software. At less than 3% of the market share, hackers and crackers leave the Apple world relatively alone. When there is a security threat, Apple updates and fixes the problem usually within 24 hours.
When our old family Window's PC was at the end of the line, I went to the Apple store at Eastview mall, picked up a Mac "Mini" for $599, brought it home, installed it within a half hour, and had the whole family oriented by evening. We used the same monitor and mouse, saving me the hassle throwing out good equipment. It works flawlessly.
Option #2: If your hardware is three years old or less, consider changing operating systems - from Windows XP to Linux. I found this is very simple and easy to do ... and it is FREE!
There are many forms of Linux available, but after listening to SoundBytes computer radio show / podcast hosted on WHAM for years, I decided to take their advice and try Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a complete Linux-based operating system, freely available with both community and professional support. It is developed by a large community.
The Ubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Ubuntu Philosophy: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customize and alter their software in whatever way they see fit.
These freedoms make Ubuntu fundamentally different from traditional proprietary software: not only are the tools you need available free of charge, you have the right to modify your software until it works the way you want it to.
The best thing about Ubuntu is their "try before you buy" approach (buy? are you kidding - its absolutely free!). Simply download a copy and save the file to your Windows desktop. Burn this file onto a CD. Use this CD to boot into Ubuntu Linux and operate it completely and fully without disturbing anything on your hard drive.
Ubuntu looks a little different than Windows, but I found everything I needed within 5 minutes of exploring. It includes a complete office suite - just like Microsoft Office - audio and video software, email, browser, even games and utilities that look and act just like their Windows cousins.
Because there are few viruses written for Linux, like Apple's OS X, there is no need for anti-virus, ad-ware, or anti-spyware protection. And FAST! Ubuntu is fast unlike any other operating system I've ever run. There is no computer lag time ... on my six year old former PC. After two days of playing with Ubuntu, I made the plunge and did a complete instillation, making me Microsoft free once and for all.
If you want to learn more about Ubuntu, or to download a CD copy, go to: http://www.ubuntu.com/ Whatever your choice is for the future, I'd encourage you to join me in going Microsoft free. You'll be glad you did.
Tell me what you think!
Blessed week, everyone! See you in church, 9:30am Sunday morning!
Pastor Todd
Disclaimer: these personal views are the private, personal opinion of Todd R. Goddard. They are not the opinions of the parish, conference or the United Methodist Church. These opinions are offered only to foster cooperative, fruitful, and respectful discussion.