Saturday, November 29, 2008

I worked for it, why shouldn't you?

I am in a conversation with a liberal friend about helping a young woman who has earned her BS nursing degree by waitressing for a number of years but now is having difficulty finding a position.

We are all rallying around, but I made a comment about our location (New England) to the effect that despite the reputation for liberalism there are a number of people here who nevertheless appreciate and will support young people who want to really earn their own way. My liberal friend says he inherited his money, while I say I worked my way up on my own:

> you seem to be saying that people that work for a living should
> naturally be conservative, and people that inherit money should
> naturally be liberal. Is that true?

Mmmm. Not sure about the words should naturally be. Perhaps substitute tend to be.

Conjecture is one thing, empirical fact is another: it is what it is; if the shoe fits, wear it...

:-)

In my case (certainly not speaking for all conservatives) I find it really offensive for someone else to give away my money. It's my money because I earned it and *I* shall decide where and how to spend it or give it.

Of course my plan doesn't work for some liberals because I will likely spend my money on my family and my grandchildren and my church, helping grow more people like me.

Liberals have this obscene delusion that they are somehow supernaturally omniscient and therefore own all the assets in the world and shall decide on their own basis how to distribute those assets.

Obscene.

Omigod. If everyone had the right do spend their money as they wish then what would happen to all these poor people who don't want to work?

So the liberals have devised, and through political correctness and brow beating, achieved an income redistribution system to take my money and give it to people who won't lift a finger.

At its base it is letting the people with the work ethic do all the work, some of them misguidedly investing in the stock market to make those non-workers rich, and then paying the rest in taxes to be given to the rest of the people who do not want to work.

In the past those of us workers who were smart enough just moved the money to Switzerland. But that is getting harder to do, and besides I'm living hand to mouth, so don't have money to spare to send to Switzerland.

So if the liberals do this enough then I just stop working.

Not a recipe for national prosperity.

In general you have to look at the marginal tax rate: as that approaches 100% you have then completely removed any incentive, other than altruistic, to work any further. And, as I have already shortlisted, I'm rather short on altruism.

An anecdote from my earlier years:

I was the operations officer of the ship, another fellow was the engineer. I was practicing prudent management, saving the requisitions that the crew had submitted that were not time- or mission-critical (like, replacing foul weather jackets) until the end of the quarter, while approving those that were needed now: e.g., radar magnetrons. I had already learned that you never give back money, but also believed that I could make sure the money was spent responsibly by waiting until all the cards were on the table, i.e., approaching the end of the quarter.

The engineer was not so assiduous. He raced through his money and then asked the captain for more. The captain, instead of chastising him, took my money. Needless to say I protested loudly, but the captain had done his deed.

So I then quickly learned to invest in durable goods and stockpile early in the quarter. The next time the engineer came begging all he found was radar magnetrons and CPR kits and foul weather jackets, which he could not use or trade in for cash. I knew that eventually we would need these things so it was not wasteful, just husbanding my resources.

So I have stayed in durable goods and out of the market ever since. As a result I am completely untouched by this so called Great Depression II that no one can see except Wall Streeters. See Peggy Noonan:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122773612620961005.html

Now in the ship case, it really was not "my" money, rather more so the captain's, and indeed far more so the Navy's and the taxpayers'. But it was not prudent, fair, or in any way correct to take that which I had husbanded and give it to a profligate.

I didn't invent that idea, Jesus did, with the story of the prodigal son, and his was based on 3000 years of society at large as a precedent thereto. It is just plain wrong.

Now as in that story, perhaps I shall receive rewards in heaven and surely my life is far better than most, but I DESERVE IT AND HAVE WORKED FOR IT. So it really irritates me in a most profane way when others get GIVEN that for which I have WORKED, and ESPECIALLY when it it taken FROM ME to give to them.

Yet another: I turned 65 this year. I went from $37 a month military medical insurance to Medicare. The base rate for medicare is $97. But I get to pay $300 because I make too much money!!

So, thanks to all the liberals in the government, my medical payments have increased TEN FOLD for the simple sin of turning 65. And they are TAKING IT FROM ME TO GIVE TO SOMEONE ELSE.

So, NO. Anyone of that bent is just plain wrong and I shall and will fight them any way I can legally and morally.

And I will help and support young people who seem to be smart enough to figure things out the way I have. There is little or no hope of changing the minds of the liberals, but perhaps we can grow enough conservatives to outvote them.

"I WORKED for it, why shouldn't you?"

Friday, November 14, 2008

SyncML works for E90 and KDEPIM

I have tried and tried to get this to render correctly by font, but it is late and it won't do what I tell it to do, so sorry it didn't work out. I give up.

To quote my favorite popmail server...

But if you don't need it to be perfectly pretty, here it is:

Guess what.

SyncML works.

It exists in the Nokia phone in the +Menu +Tools +Sync function.

http://ruslylove.blogspot.com/2007/10/nokia-e-series-sync-with-evolution-via.html
gives a howto for Ubuntu.

http://en.opensuse.org/OpenSync/SyncML-OBEX-Client
exposes the SyncML OBEX Client, which has an extensive list of commands. This article explains accessing the phone databases, but does not indicate how to address a program on the PC.

The documentation states that the Evolution plugin does not work. This problem does not exist for the kdepim plugin, so we concentrated our efforts there, since that is where we wanted to be anyhow. (Nevermind the couple of days we spent trying to make it work before finding the comment in the source code... but whatevah.)

It Turns Out That (ITOT) the kdepim plugin works just fine. So we have now not only fired Microsoft in general, but also fired Outlook in particular. We can sync the phone to the KDE PIM flawlessly.

So. There.

SuSE HowTo
1. Install the required software
{{{
libopensync-plugin-*
libopensync0
opensyncutils
msynctool
mulstisync-qad
bluez-passkey-gnome
bluez-gnome
}}}
2. Check the plugins
{{{
p1610:~ # msynctool --listplugins
Available plugins:
gpe-sync
sunbird-sync
file-sync
evo2-sync
kdepim-sync
gnokii-sync
google-calendar
opie-sync
syncml-http-server
syncml-obex-client
palm-sync
}}}
3. Create msynctool groups and add members
{{{
msynctool --addgroup nokia
msynctool --addmember nokia kdepim-sync
msynctool --addmember nokia syncml-obex-client
}}}
This creates the nokia group, adds the PIM connector as the first member and adds the phone (syncml-obex) connector as the second member.
4. Configure the members
Configure the PIM Connector
{{{
p1610:~ # msynctool --configure nokia 1
This plugin has no options and does not need to be configured
}}}
Configure the SyncML-obex client (phone connection)
The default resides at
file:///usr/share/opensync/defaults/syncml-obex-client
while the current settings are at
file:///home/(localusername)/.opensync/group2/2/syncml-obex-client.conf
{{{
msynctool --configure nokia 2
}}}
This brings up a very long list of items.
For brevity let's look at its values like this:
{{{
00:1A:89:C4:F7:FF
10
0
PC Suite
1
1


2
1
0
0
65000
65000
Contacts
Calendar
Notes
}}}
Note that the values are case-sensitive!!!
Check the configuration

{{{
p1610:~ # msynctool --showgroup nokia
Groupname: nokia
Member 2: syncml-obex-client
...
Member 1: kdepim-sync
No Configuration found: This member has no configuration options
}}}
5. Experiment
{{{
msynctool --sync nokia
}}}

There are a few gotchas:

* The authors freely admit this is clearly alpha-ware.

* Kontact, KAddressbook, KOrganizer, in general ALL the KDE PIM elements have to be closed, like turned off, not even just in the task bar. Otherwise the process hangs.

* It takes a very long while, especially when you sync the first time. Be patient, let it run its course. As long as you are seeing the disk thrashing icon and top says it is alive, let it run. After several syncs things shall be much faster.

* Watch for the conflict choices. If it finds a conflict it shall ask; the answer is not trivial. Initially you shall find choices between real entries and trash. This may be an artifact of earlier attempts. After several syncs you may find choices being offered between, say, contacts and calendar events. There is not always a clear choice. You can choose a number or Newest. Newest is generally a good choice except where that choice is trash. So pay attention.

* Once it has settled out, pay particular attention to Korganizer. You will click on a particular day, but depending on what event you have selected you may end up at the initiation day or some other day, rather than the day you used to enter the edit.

But all these things are part of paying attention to detail, which is always a good thing to do. "Trust me" almost never works.