The Holly and the Ivy

I've made a (simple) Lilypond version of The Holly and the Ivy available on Mutopia. Mutopia-2005/12/23-644

Ubuntu Is Here!

Just a quick note to anyone who's interested... the Ubuntu CDs have arrived, so let me know if you want one! I've got 8 left for PC, 2 for PPC (that's Macintosh) and 3 for 64-bit PC.

A Disassociation

I've been thinking a lot, lately, about politics and community and such. I had originally intended to write a nice long post about it. But, I think I'll just try to summarize my points briefly.

First, I'm tired of the Left. They don't get it much better than the Right does, and, frankly, they spend their time trying to correct wrongs (that's good) using the same techniques that created those wrongs in the first place, or at least perpetuate them (that's bad). So I'm leaving the Left. It was fun, we had some good times, but it's not working out.

Don't think that I'm giving up on what I think is right, though. And don't think I'm joining the Right or Center. Not really my style, either.

Second, I don't remember ever stating that I was a Black Ally. I remember possibly saying that I was a genderqueer ally. I could be wrong, and there might be more things that I've allied myself with in the past. No more. I formally dissolve my allied status with any groups that I've been allied with. The recent discussion (see below) about what an ally should and should not do have proven to me that I don't want to associate with a group of people (the allies) that would behave in that manner. Particularly with respect to a group I don't remember allying myself with in the first place.

I'm still going to argue/demonstrate/whatever for equality and such. But I'm not going to argue for an equality that excludes me because I'm white and male and (perceived) heterosexual. Or, perhaps more particularly, because they disagree with me. Those who wish to join me are free to do so, if they desire.

Third, I've decided that there's no use in arguing with someone who misunderstands what you write or chooses to focus on aspects not relevant to the topic. They will never understand because they are unwilling to try. People like that only serve to waste time, energy and distract the issue even further. I suppose it's lucky that this blog has approximately zero readers (give or take a few).

So, there you have it. I am no one's ally any longer. I belong to the groups I belong to, but that's it.

Don't force me into your group. I don't force you into mine.

Articles for reading

Helios over at Lobby4Linux talks about his experiences as a streetcorner bum and Linux (to put it simply).

Looks like the folks at Microsoft, Norton and Symantec knew about the Sony rootkit months before the scandal hit. (Here's an article about the rootkit fiasco, for those of you who were unaware.)

Steve, Kyle and I have been discussing starting a newsletter/magazine/rag thing for publishing and distributing on campus. Myself, I have grander plans, but it could be a start.

I'm adding groklaw and the blog of Helios to the sidebar.

Postfix + Mailman

I have been attempting to set up an email listserver for a couple days now, and I finally fixed the problem. It was:

|/usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman post list"@domain.tld>
(expanded from ): unknown user:
"|/usr/local/mailman/mail/mailman post list"

The solution, when it came, was simple. What had happened was the aliases were being mapped to the virtual list, and so it wouldn't handle the external command execution properly. The solution? Just make sure that virtual_alias_maps doesn't have $alias_maps as one of its values. :-D