Bryan Strawser

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Essential Software

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I gotta work on my list 😉



My essential software — sorta.. I set up a new work computer a while back and was logging everything I installed on it. In order. Perhaps for a list of My Essential Software, with commentary. But then I forgot I was doing it. And so I’ve now installed a bunch more stuff. Of course, most of it isn’t essential. And now I’m just going to publish the list because I’ll never getting around to writing the commentary (except the first one), or even, hell, linking the titles.


The machine started was a 2.4 Ghz Dell tower with 512MB of RAM, running WinXP Pro. It came with Microsoft Works and a bunch of other free crap. Here are the first 25 programs I installed.


  • WS_FTP. Oddly, this was the first thing I installed. I didn’t consider it essential at all÷in fact, I don’t think I even have it on my other ‘puter. I usually use the command line. But I needed to see the progress of a great-big download, and the built-in FTPing in explorer was not working right.
  • Zinf.
  • Putty.
  • Trillian.
  • Microsoft Outlook 2002.
  • Cisco VPN 5000 client.
  • Adobe Acrobat Reader.
  • Nelson Email Organizer.
  • SpamAssasin Pro.
  • QuickTime.
  • Visual SlickEdit.
  • Java JDK 1.3.1.
  • Photoshop 5.5/ImageReady 2.0
  • HomeSite 4.0
  • AnalogX TSDropCopy
  • Photoshop 6.0/ImageReady 3.0
  • Microsoft Office 2000 Pro (sans Access, Word, and Outlook)
  • Microsoft ActiveSync (for Pocket PC)
  • Mozilla
  • Netscape 4.08
  • Cloudmark SpamNet
  • WinCVS
  • Opera
  • Netscape 6
  • CygWin
Fascinating, huh?! [evhead]

Bye Bye Dicky

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Gephardt was never a leader – that was obvious even to my libertarian ass.  It will be fascinating to see who the democrats select to replace him.



Minority. In the words of Green Day: I want to be the minority
I don’t need your authority
Down with the moral majority
‘Cause I want to be the minority
From the Sun:Gephardt to pass House leader post. Formal announcement expected tomorrow, aides say; Some Democrats have pressed for him to go; Pelosi or Frost likely successor [SunSpot.net News Headlines] Hasta la vista, Dick. I guess you couldn’t hack being the minority any more, eh? Voted to give the President a blank check on Iraq, and screwed us over at many other turns; you were truly the loyal opposition. Now, maybe Daschle’ll join you in the back row, given how narrowly his colleague from South Dakota seems to have squeaked by in this last election. [Sean Gallagher: the new dot-communist]

Geesh

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Two more years…. … of erosion of civil rights, strong arm international politics, and failure to respond intelligently to terrorism. Of course, we remember what happened the last time the Republicans controlled both houses, right? Biggest regrets so far:




  • Walter Mondale (and I hope Iâm wrong about his chances, but having a six point spread at 25% of the vote counted doesnât sound good)
  • Tara Sue Grubb. But hey, Iâm reading she polled almost 10% of the vote. It doesnâ’t get Coble out, but it puts her on the map.
[jarretthousenorth News]

Republicans Defeat..

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Understand that yesterday was a major victory for the Republicans – they have regained control of the Senate, defeated several key Democrats, and taken possession of some statehouses that they’ve lusted after for more than a decade, such as Maryland.


This is a victory for:




  • Pre-emptive military action


  • Lower Taxes


  • Conservative Values


  • Crime Control, not midnight basketball


  • Personal Responsiblity, not government handouts


  • Conservative Judicial Nominations


  • And many more..

I’m sure most of the folks here in Massachusetts believe that the anti-Christ is taking over the Senate, it’ll be entertaining to listen today.



Election 2002: Mr. Bush’s Big Night. Both political parties ran campaigns that huddled around the fuzzy middle, but Republican candidates in key states were able to hang onto the coattails of a popular president. [New York Times: Opinion]