C-Span Is In the House

That's great news, will have my eyes on C-Span's schedule, so I can vicariously attend this year's convention, thru their coverage and also the live-blogging that is sure to be good.  Hope it is both fun and productive for all.  Son muy suertudos, so please, make the most of it!

Si somos americanos, seremos buenos vecinos;
compartiremos el trigo,seremos buenos hermanos -- canción de Rolando Alarcón

Todos somos americanos.-- Barack Obama

Where will the picture/video galleries be posted?

Meeting some Austin fiedhands ,activists, and sitting at a table chatting with Bill Conroy was amazing. The energy was flowing  full blast like the fans blowing gale-force mist into the hot air.The excitement was palapable being around real critical thinkers, and of course finally meeting Al.

Thanks to The Field and those fantastic Texas activists from Burnt Orange Report for a really wonderful nite!

Most of us have probably received, from friends or family that are taveling, a postcard , or nowadays an e-mail, saying "Wish you were here."

Well, this is my sadly stated, "Wish I was there."

Have a great time.

I would love to be there.  And if I think this envy is bad, I'd better brace myself for how I'll feel when you and other Fieldhands are gathering in Denver.  I love the states that folks have chosen for these events.  It makes so much sense to put them states that are not yet blue.  What good did it do the party to have the conventions in LA and Boston the last two times?  This was made clear to me in watching the local San Diego news clip you put up from La Raza.  This stuff garners free press in key states.

I'm still smiling over the June numbers.  Yee-haw!  I bet July numbers are even better.

I wish Booman had been allowed to stay. I would have enjoyed reading about the Lurkers.

Did they cover  things like the best ways to Lurk (sit on your hands while reading)

Sounds like you and all the Fieldhands are having a wonderful time.

Enjoy and thanks for the updates.

Narcosphere was the first blog I ever belonged to and I hold it and its offspring, The Field, close to my heart. I am thrilled that we are there making Netroots history as usual. Wish I could be there, but health says otherwise.

This has been like watching a child grow up.  Go get 'em Al.

Glad to hear another MacBook found a home... of course, it must have a name, yeah? A friend once stopped me in the midst of my eloquence about my then new Mac Powerbook, and said "Mac owners don't have computers, they have pets!" Looking forward to more from the Mac of which I, and other FieldHands have vicarious ownership! Smile... And, like others have noted... "Wish I was there!" 

Happy Mac Al, I hope you LOVE it and get great pleasure running around Denver with DNC credentials around your neck, and a new MacBook under your arm. Can't imagine it being in better hands - and think it's wonderful you're "home" where you belong and are so, so, so appreciated - The narcosphere!

You've helped all the Field Hands learn that sometimes those 'bumps in the road' really do lead us in a better direction!

YES WE CAN!

Kathleen, Suzy: Of course I had to be really really mean and walk through the convention center (heading to an important meeting, supposedly) with my shiny Mac store bag and new Macbook box. Here at this Geek-a-palooza people wanted to know if they were giving free Macbooks to all the speakers. "Just the best ones," I said.

Not that any of these people are lacking for laptops. They're all over the place, in the rooms, on the hallway floors, typing away... probably having conversations with the person in front of them... via Internet chat.

I prefer the smokers' decks, personally.

well, yeah.... and how lucky for us to be represented by the best... speaker and laptop! I'm sure you'l both kick butt!

Al, I specifically gave you money for beer and tacos--not a freak'in Mac Book!  LOL

I am totally jealous since teenagers broke into my place and mashed mine.

Anyway, enjoy.  Mac doesn't crash near as often as to MS based systems--and you can do lots of great photo and blog stuff on it too.

Please do fill us in on any above average types of beer you might happen upon while in Austin.

By the way, I reconnected with the Obama campaign office here in Orlando today.  Yes, I will be getting back into get-out-the-vote and registration activities after a pause.

Met a college girl from Colombia. We had quite a discussion, Al, because she has been weened on US corporate and Colombian rightwing koolaid.

Of course I kept it friendly--so as not a appear as being from Mars. LOL

Overall, a nice bunch of fellows.  The Orlando office is ramping up--compared with a couple of months ago.

If we were another blog that could be the name :-)

I'm happy to hear that all is going well and that the new Mac is up and running after being deservedly admired.

And Steven, I suspect that the party  yesterday included at least Beer if not also Taco's

for the very best Al!  You are going to love your Mac.  They are very user friendly, don't get very cranky, and the only computer you will ever want to own ever again. 

PS, when you get a chance have some fun with Garageband, it is just an awesome program for the musician in you :)

I don't know, Al... I hear only elitists use Macs...

Al,  You'll Love it.  I've been using Apple/Mac since my first SE20 in 1989 -and that 'hard drive' (all 2 1/4 lbs of it) is my favorite doorstop!  Wish I knew how to use all the bells & whistles, but no patience for learning - yet.  Maybe we can have a Field Hands Techy course - now that Christi can do 'links' - and Pam is a Petition Maven.(who has 30 people already registered for her Platform meeting!) Go Field Hands.

Will Pam's Petition still be given to Dean/Pelosi???

Enjoy all the 'smoke filled' roooms - a completely different sense than they used to have.  As Kathleeen said:  Kick Major butt!!!

It was a really impressive turnout. That place was packed!

That whole idea makes me laugh. I wish I could get a run down on what was discussed, but since those guys never comment, I don't think I will.

Darn!

 Thanks for filling us in on all the happenings around you. Cannot wait to hear more about the Latino bloggers caucus. So glad you got your new mac and are there gaining knowledge for us all.

I am being reacquainted with the Disney channel this week and am watching "Chicken Little" with my granddaughter, didn't know that cute guy was in a movie. Hope someone takes somes pictures at Netroots of Al, Nate & Markos.

our basic human right to cold beer and great food.

I'm pretty sure that is in the Constitution too.

Seriously I'm very glad you have some new hardware. This is no time for tweaking and jerryrigging older technology. That would just get in the way of your work.

[Al has already been using Macs, so he knows all this stuff. Ditto Narco News.]

For all of you with brand-new Intel MacBooks or MacBook Pros.

Do the following at a bare minimum:

Open System Preferences under the Apple Menu upper left:

System Preferences --> Security --> [If lock lower right is locked, click and enter your Login password to open.] --> Firewall

Select Set Access for specific services and applications

Choose Advanced tab lower right

Select: Enable Firewall Logging and Enable Stealth Mode

Click OK.

Now click on General tab in Security preference panel

Security --> General

Select the following at a bare minimum:

Disable automatic login

Require password to unlock each System Preferences pane

Use secure virtual memory

Click the Red Go-Away ball (upper left) and you're done.

=================================

Do These:

Buy Macaroni from AtomicBird for automated scheduled UNIX Daily, Weekly, and Monthly maintenance. About $8. You need this little program unless you know how to do Unix maintenance yourself. Or you can haul your MacBook into a dealer in eight months and have them charge you $100 to do the same.

And for those who use their Macs for mission critical info, be sure to purchase DiskWarrior and use it every three months min. (supposed to use it one a week, but you know...) Made by Alsoft. DiskWarrior fixed my Mac running Tiger with a screen that flashed with a blinking folder for 30 seconds then died. I was told I would need a new logic board, and a drive. No. Just DiskWarrior. There is no other but DiskWarrior. There is nothing like DiskWarrior in the WIN world. Zippo. Zilch. It's your jungle savior god.

Now you're safe and covered. There are a couple of others, but this will keep you safe at a minimum on your home network and when out and about. (If you're still using Tiger, remember that the Firewall if off by default, so you have to turn it on. For Leopard Firewall, follow the steps above.)

It seems that you are having a good time hanging out with all those netroots geeks!

I thought you were coo already but now that you own a MacBook your coolness factor has gone up! ;-)

I'm looking forward to reading more on the Latino blogger caucus.

Thanks for the Mac tips, Alexa.  I've had a Mac since about 1989 and just recently upgraded from 9.6 to Leopard.  So different.

 Let's send Karl Rove to jail. It is important he is held accountable!

Perhaps Alexa's tips already cover this, but Scroogle is a site that performs a Google search for you while covering your tracks. You enter your search into their Scroogle search window, and they trash Google's cookie, issue you a new cookie with a new ID, and send you the first 100 results in a file that's deleted in an hour. They also have an SSL search option that encrypts your search terms.

What exactly that means I don't know, but the goal is to prevent Google from tracking your identity and then turn the info over to the gubbinment. There are other proxy search sites out there but I haven't researched whether any of them, including Scroogle, are actually deleting your identity...

Done.

amk