I have a Samsung A500 which uses SprintPC's 3G service.

I bought off of eBay a special USB cable that connects it to my computer and then bought a program called Snapdialer from fututerdial which uses my cell phone as a wireless internet access point.

It gets about 256K/sec which is quite fine for browsing the net. I used it a great deal this week (been traveling on business).

If you have a SprintPCS phone, I highly recommend getting set up on this kind of thing.

Object Desktop is Stardock''s whole ball of wax. If you want to customize Windows to the nth degree and get the kinds of features that may be in the next version of Windows, Object Desktop is the way to go.

After all, Object Desktop users in 2000 were enjoying shell integrated ZIP supoprt, GUI skinning, folder customization, etc. long before Windows XP was a beta. And now Object Desktop''s DesktopX features, WindowFX compositing, WindowBlinds progress screen changing, Keyboard LaunchPad''s Windows automation features are the kinds of things one might expect in say 2006/2007 in Windows Longhorn.

Link to the full story for all the details and how, if you don''t already have Object Desktop, you can get the best deal on getting it all.

Team deviantART are the returning champions to the GUI Olympics. In 2002, deviantART's team won more medals than any other team. The lead man behind the scenes at deviantART is Scott Jarkoff aka "Jark". He took some time out of his schedule to answer some questions on skinning, the community, and what lies ahead. 

Q: deviantART is the returning champion to the GUI Olympics. In the last GUI Olympics, your skinners dominated many of the contests. With  a little over a month left before judging even gets started, what strategies do you imagine your team going for this time?

Jark: In reality, while deviantART does have a skinning team, we are not putting together any master plan. The main purpose of the deviantART team this time around is to allow for "representation" for artists that want to participate in the GUI Olympics and "represent" deviantART. So, with that in mind, our team is really just going about creating their own ideas and running with said ideas on their own rather than having central leadership directing how things be done.

Q: In the past 2 years, deviantART has seen its popularity soar. Today,  deviantART is likely the world's most popular independent art site.  What do you contribute your success to?

Jark: The success of deviantART is attributed to a number of factors with the main one being that deviantART fills a niche that no other site does. Along with that we offer a unique set of features not found on other sites within the community and have a very easy barrier to entry.

Q: Skinning and customization in general has continued to get more and  more popular. deviantART's own skin section has continued to thrive  with high quality submissions in all kinds of areas and seen its download counts grow. What do you think makes people want to customize their computers so much?

Jark: Computers, like every other item that people use on a daily basis, are personal. I firmly believe that people that customize their computers are much happier using their systems than those that do not, because they are capable of creating an atmosphere that is more enjoyable.

We "customize" our cars, our houses, our rooms and many other things in life. Customization of ones computer is merely a natural extension to that simple theory.

Q: What do you think will happen with customization in the next 2 years? Where do you see skinning going?

Jark: I see skinning becoming more mainstream in that there will be more and more companies embracing the idea behind the ability to have their software customized. With that I believe we will see a lot more artists getting "employed" by these companies to produce skins for their software and, generally, the masses will slowly begin to see that there is more to Windows than blue, olive and silver.

Q: What feature of deviantART are you most proud of?

Jark: This is a tough question because there are so many features to be proud of. deviantART, itself, is a work of art and as an artist I do not think I really like one particular feature better than any other. It is the sum of all features that makes deviantART an enjoyable experience.

Q: Because of how popular deviantART is, it must be incredibly  expensive to run. Some people argue that advertising is enough to pay  for it. But given how bandwidth intensive deviantART is, I imagine ads don't pay the bill. What keeps deviantART going?

Jark: The advertising model is not effective for a site as large as deviantART. In fact, it costs more for advertising companies like Doubleclick to run campaigns on deviantART than revenue would be generate by said campaigns.

We have created a number of revenue generation models that help keep deviantART going. Our most popular at deviantART are subscriptions, which offer a number of exciting features that free accounts do not have. On top of subscriptions we offer a printing service which allows people to purchase prints of the digital art that artists submit. Our last form of revenue generation is selling advertising space to companies that we believe our users are interested in.

Q: If you had to describe deviantART in a single sentence, what would it be?

Jark: deviantART is the single-most exciting and compelling online digital art community that one will ever encounter.

Q:  What do you have planned for deviantART going into the future?

Jark: We are focusing development on features that are exciting for all deviantART users as well as helping secure our future. While it is a difficult line to walk we have plans that include enhancements to both free accounts and our subscription service.

Q: deviantPrints seems like a wonderful idea. Can you tell us a little bit more about it and how it works? How can artists get their works sold on it? How do users purchase artwork from it?

Jark: Artists that desire to sell their digital art on deviantPrints subscribe to our prints program, which entitles them to submit higher quality imagery and have that sold in print sizes that range between 4x6 and 20x30. Prices are completely set by the artist and based on their own desires and preferences.

Users interested in purchasing art from deviantPrints merely need to surf to http://www.deviantprints.com/ and browse it as if they were browsing deviantART. We offer a full range of purchasing options that range from online check to credit cards to paypal, with more services planned for the future.

Q: What do you think is the key ingredient in having a good, healthy  internet community?

Jark: The key ingredient is good leadership. Without good leadership, as in any community, it can not thrive. One of our most important mantra's is "lead by example" and by not following that idea it is hard for any community to continue. Internet communities are not all that different that real life communities. There needs to be a good balance between the freedoms offered and the policing of those freedoms and this is where leadership comes in.

There really is no single key ingredient however as, like any good recipe, there are a number of ingredient that, as a sun, offer a great tasting meal - in this instance, a wonderfully exciting and compelling community.
 

John Kerry keeps talking about "Internationalizing" the war in Iraq. In a speech he put it quite plainly: "The United States is bearing 90% of the military and financial burden in Iraq."  His assertion is that "Bush's go it alone policies" have created this situation.

And Kerry is wrong, the US is "only" bearing roughly 75% of the total burden militarily (I don't have the exact figure and the number changes by a few percent but if you add the UK + Poland + Japan + Ukraine + Australia, + Spanish + the others you get roughly 20% to 25% of the total personnel in Iraq).

The Bush administration lamely responds "I don't think it's right to discount the contributions of countries like Japan, Poland, Ukraine, Spain, UK, etc."   It's lame because it doesn't get to the heart of the matter.

Let's say a President Kerry were in office. What would be the difference? Let's say he got France and Germany and Belgium to love us again. And? We already have a taste of what utilitarianism's benefits are. Afghanistan. For all the "support" of the "world community" that we "squandered", that support didn't translate into much of a physical manifestation.

France provided some aircraft in Afghanistan. Aircraft that would refuse missions if their politicians objected to the mission. The number of French and German and Belgium troops on the ground was miniscule to say at best (the number in some cases may be 0 but I don't want to state that as an absolute).  A few hundred Canadian soldiers were involved in Afghanistan. In short, "international" support didn't exactly buy us much in Afghanistan in terms of feet on the ground.

Now, fast forward to Iraq 2006 with a President Kerry in charge and having kissed the butts of the UN so that they're all helping us in Iraq.  What does that materially buy us? We have ~150,000 American troops on the ground.  Is Kerry or any of his supporters arguing that the French would somehow send over 50,000 troops to help out and Germany an equal number?

Remember the first Gulf War? The one that had UN approval? The model of multilaterialism?  The US burden in the UN approved Gulf War was (according to CNN) (wait for it) >75%. Tthe French sacrifice included 2 combat deaths -- during the entire conflict.

The horse still lives so a few more whacks: Non-UN approval for current US policy in Iraq puts the US burden in Iraq at over 75%.  UN approval of US action would likely put the US burden in Iraq at...over 75%.

I'm not sure which is worse - Bush's poor response to Kerry's assertions that our problems in Iraq would be helped by "working with our allies better" or the very fact that Kerry either doesn't know or is lying about not realizing that "working with allies" would not materially change anything in Iraq.

There is no phantom military force that we could magically conjure up by kissing up to the UN.

update: According to the stats, Belgium, Germany, and France have around ~2,500 troops in Afghanistan. I'll leave it to others whether they agree with whether that is minuscule or not. I don't consider that number to be very significant in light of the fact NATO invoked article 5.

In addition, some have pointed out in the Gulf War that much of the cost was paid by allies. However, virtually all of that cost came from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. So it's disingenuous to make that argument unless one believes there is a credible scenario that Kuwait and Saudi Arabia might somehow pay a sizeable portion of the costs in Iraq today.

Alex Becherer writes that we are currently providing "88%" of the troops in Iraq. By contrast we "only" provided 76% in 1991. I don't think most Americans would consider that difference significant. Or at least, not significant enough to be worth the strings that the additional 12% of troops would come attached with.

I'm not sure which email made me decide to do it but at some point, a threshold was crossed.

I think it was when I saw the third or fourth reviewer ask me "Do you think your right-wing leanings are affecting the objectivity of The Political Machine?"

That question shouldn't even be asked. It's not appropriate in my opinion. Play the game should be the answer. And I find the question problematic on so many levels.

1) Those who think I'm "far right" need to back up that statement. I bet they cannot find a single opinion I hold that is far outside the mainstream. The closest opinion I have to being outside the mainstream is that I'm not religious -- and that would be a left of center position.

On the main issues I'm a bit left and a bit right.

a) I'm pro-choice which is a left of center position.

I am for fairly strict environemental regulation which is a left of center position.

c) I believe in government regulation of businesses which is a left of center position.

d) I am quite strongly in favor of what we are doing in Iraq. Sure, that' right of center but the largest plurality of Americans (if not an outright majority) agree with me.

e) I am strongly against higher taxes. But do favor a progressive tax system which puts me probably right in the middle.

f) I am very strongly in favor of the policy of premption which is right of center but hardly outside the mainstream.

g) I am against additional welfare programs but do not advocate eliminating any major welfare programs that we have today which is probably right in the middle.

I fully admit to overall leaning to the right because I am very much a believer in capitalism as the best way we have to making the lives of people better. And I believe strongly in personal responsibility.  But I'm hardly out there on any political issue.  But I get the distinct feeling that some people, particularly on the left, believe in liberal orthdoxy. This is the same treatment Bill O'Reilly gets. If you aren't PURELY left-wing on every issue, you're right wing. And if you aren't left-wing on the correct issues you're not just right wing, you're a right-wing kook.

Running a business is difficult and eye opening. Few business people I've ever met are liberal on domestic issues. That's because most business people are capitalists and they see the benefits capitalism brings to people. They also see, from first hand experience, how socialism creates misery.

2) At the end of the day, I'm a software developer. I'm not a politican. I'm not running for office. I don't run a PAC. I don't campaign for any political candidates. I'm like most other people around here who debate politics -- people who find the topics of the day interesting and like to discuss them.  Therefore:

a) I'm not going to risk my business in favor of some tauldry political agenda. I'm not an activist. I like to espouse my opinions just like many others. But anyone who thinks that my writings are designed to promote some agenda need to get a life.

I run a company with dozens of people employed by it. I don't want a situation where the hard work of our people is trivialized by someone thinking that one of our products and services is somehow tainted by political agendas.

3) It gets a bit annoying debating the war in Iraq with someone who thinks we're there as part of some vast right wing conspiracy to "get more oil" only to have them privately email me that they'll never buy products from us again.

As a result:

I'm not hiding the fact that Draginol = Brad Wardell. Just like I don't hide my handle on WinCustomize and other sites is Frogboy and those who are into this stuff know that is my handle.  But at the same time, I don't want some lurker who is just browsing to make an illinformed decision on our company's products and services because of my opinion on some issue.

Like I said - I'm a software developer. I make software. That's my job.  When I make a game, my job is to make it as fun as I can. So when we make The Political Machine, our goal is to make it fun and intelligent. That means whether you're a Republican or a Democrat or somewhere in between the issues and events seem both logical and fair.