Revolution OS

The rise of the Open Source software movement captured in film...... a bit dated, but an interesting look at the mindset behind the braintrust of GNU and Linux.

The Path to Properity, Part II

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan: “We can no longer let politicians in Washington deny the danger to Medicare — the danger is all too real, and the health of our nation’s seniors is far too important. We have to save Medicare to avoid disruptions in benefits for current seniors, and to strengthen the program for future generations. House Republicans have put forward a plan to do just that. Democratic leaders in Congress have failed to produce a plan — it has been 755 days since Senate Democrats even passed a budget. Meanwhile, the President’s plan would empower a panel of 15 unelected bureaucrats to cut Medicare for current seniors, while failing to save the program for future retirees.

“This video lays out the clear choice our nation faces on Medicare: Will Medicare become a program in which a board of bureaucrats manages its bankruptcy by denying care to seniors? Or will leaders work together to save and strengthen Medicare by empowering seniors to choose health care plans that work best for them, with less support for the wealthy and more help for the poor and the sick? House Republicans have advanced solutions to save Medicare. Instead of working with us, the leaders of the Democratic Party have opted to play politics with the health security of America’s seniors.”

The Grouch: The Mediscare tactics on both sides of the aisle need to stop. It's time for some true statesmanship to tackle the government's spending addiction before the country becomes a banana republic with a currency that is worth next to nothing. But it appears we have very few statesmen in Washington a the moment, and just a bunch of knee-jerk politicians looking to save their own skin and reward their donors and cronies. If even Bill Clinton knows we have a problem, then we definitely have a problem.

What a 22 Year-old Needs to Know About Social Security

Prof. Antony Davies [Duquesne University] analyzes Social Security in the United States through the lens of a typical 22 year old American. Assuming that Social Security is completely solvent, the expected return on investment (ROI) of Social Security is far lower than the expected ROI of a private account. Further, if an individual could hypothetically opt out of Social Security payments and invest the funds entirely in Treasury Bills, the Treasury bills would even yield a greater ROI.

Free or Equal: A Sneak Peak at a New PBS Program

Free or Equal from Free To Choose Network on Vimeo.

Free or Equal, hosted by Johan Norberg, lets you walk in Milton Friedman's footsteps around the world and consider his legacy thirty-plus years after the airing of the original Free To Choose. This one-hour documentary will be the perfect conversation starter for your group and a great way to celebrate the man whose ideas have had such a transformative effect on humanity.

The Goal is 200 Million Ubuntu Linux Users in 4 Years

Mark Shuttleworth Keynote at Ubuntu Developer Summit(UDS)



As many know who read this blog, I'm an enthusiastic Linux user, and my distros of choice are Ubuntu and Ubuntu derivatives such as Mint and Pinguy. This past weekend I upgraded all of my computers to the 11.04 release. One of the controversial elements of 11.04 is the Unity interface. After several days of using Unity, I made the decision to roll the user interface back to Gnome 2.x. I did not find Unity to be buggy, but it was unattractive to the eye and awkward to use in terms of the number of clicks, keystrokes etc. I had to enter to launch programs. Unity may improve over time to become something I can live with, but it is not there yet. I encourage everyone to download a live Linux CD and give it a try. It is free and gives the user much more functionality out of the box than Windows or OS-X.

Legendary Value Investor Michael Price Makes the Case for Individual Stock Picking vs Indexing

Michael Price Says Goldman Sachs Is ‘Great’... by Bloomberg

In this fast paced interview, Michael Price, legendary value investor and former owner of the Mutual Series funds (cited by Bogle in The Little Book of Common Sense Investing as one of the three funds to beat the market long-term). He discusses his investing methodology, talks through his thinking on some specific stock, and briefly touches upon his opinions on indexing and commodities investing.

The Power of Words

Bollywood vs. Radical Islam