Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

Upgrading Intrepid (Asus UL80J)

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Back in 2011 I picked up a refurbished Asus UL80J notebook as a secondary machine. I christened it ‘Intrepid,’ and overall it’s been a perfectly fine. It did have one annoying flaw . . . its Atheros wireless card was pretty flaky. It would periodically drop connections and would not restore them until I either reset the wireless card or put the machine to sleep and woke it back up. Apparently this is a common problem with this particular Atheros card, and might be caused by a driver conflict.

I tried a number of recommended solutions, but none seemed to work. Updating to the newest Atheros drivers just made things worse, causing the whole computer to freeze up when the connections dropped.

Well it turns out that most newer notebooks have modular wifi cards that can be removed and replaced, so I bought an Intel PCIe half-height wireless card for less than ten dollars and swapped it in. So far, no dropped connections. While I was at it I also replaced the hard drive with a new 128 gigabyte OCZ solid-state drive and did a brand new, clean install of Windows. So for about one hundred dollars total, I have a faster, more reliable, and cooler-running notebook. And, for the first time, I have some notebook surgery under my belt. Some photos of the operation are below.

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United Nations Recognizes Palestine

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Palestinian National Authority

The United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly has voted by an overwhelming margin to recognize the Palestinian National Authority as a ‘non-member observer state,’ essentially granting it recognition as a sovereign, independent country. Previously the U.N. had recognized the Palestinian government only as a ‘non-member observer entity.’

The General Assembly is a body in which all U.N. member nations are equally represented. It is responsible for managing the U.N. budget, appointing non-permanent members to the U.N. Security Council, and passing resolutions that are, essentially, non-binding recommendations. Only the Security Council has authority to pass binding resolutions which may be enforced with military action.

138 General Assembly delegates voted to recognize Palestine, nine voted against, and forty-one abstained. The United States and Israel both opposed the Palestinian recognition bid, despite ostensibly supporting Palestinian statehood and a ‘two-state solution’ to the middle east conflict.

Although this General Assembly resolution is not binding, it does mark an important symbolic victory for the Palestinian National Authority, especially considering the overwhelming margin of votes in favor of recognition. It is, however, unclear what action the U.N. will now take regarding the Palestinian government’s continuing support of terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians, which is a serious violation of the norms of international relations between states.

Chris Knight Fries a Turkey

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For Thanksgiving this year, my sister Kristen hosted the Bradford get-together in Roanoke, Virginia. It was her first time as Thanksgiving host, and I think it went well. A good time was had by all. Kristen’s boyfriend, Chris Knight, graciously provided the main course—a deep-fried turkey. It was very good. Thankfully there were no Shatner-style mishaps.

I took some video, which is included below. Unfortunately you can’t smell or taste the turkey over YouTube . . . but you’re welcome to try. People have done stranger things (like venturing to a mall on ‘black Friday’). Happy Thanksgiving!

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Posted in: Life, Videos

Election Analysis: A Mandate for Compromise

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On November 6, 2012, the American people went to the polls and seemingly lent their endorsement to the status quo.

The Democratic Party did make gains in Congress, undoing some of the Republican Party’s shakiest 2010 wins, but the balance of power in Washington is largely unchanged. President Barack Obama (D) gets another four years in the White House, the Democratic Party gets another two years leading the Senate, and the Republican Party gets another two years running the House of Representatives. It’s safe to say that there won’t be any large partisan initiatives coming through any time soon; our government will only be able to act on new legislation when there is at least some cross-party support. As I’ve said before, I think that this kind of gridlock is a good thing.

I suspect that many voters remember what one-party rule was like in the first two years of the Obama presidency . . . and, before that, most of the first six years of the George W. Bush (R) presidency. Generally speaking, the worst policies come about when a single party runs the show.

When Obama was elected president in 2008, he received nearly fifty-three percent of the popular vote and won the electoral college vote in a 365-173 landslide. Although this was a solid win, it did not come with a resounding mandate for sweeping public policy changes except in the economic area—an area where he actually ended up making no significant changes whatsoever. This time around, he has won reelection by a narrower margin—less than fifty-one percent in the popular vote, and a smaller (though still impressive) 332-206 margin in the electoral college. This smaller margin is more notable than it may sound. Obama is the first president in modern history to win reelection with fewer votes than he earned when first elected. Uniquely among two-term presidents, he comes into his second term with a lesser mandate than the one he had in the beginning. He lost more supporters than he gained during his first term, and has further polarized an already-polarized electorate.

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I, Pencil

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The Competitive Enterprise Institute has produced an excellent short video called I, Pencil, which is adapted from a 1958 essay by Leonard E. Read. Additional related videos are available at ipencilmovie.org.

The video is a succinct illustration of how millions of people are involved, directly or indirectly, in the production of something as simple as a pencil. And this massive effort comes about through the voluntary cooperation of individuals making economic choices, not through the dictation of some central planning office.

It’s well worth six-and-a-half minutes of your time.

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.