Lincolnite: Lincoln's Online Community

Crap Keyboard

May 30, 2005 at 6:11pm By: Mr. T Posted in The Lincolnite Blog

I just purchased a Targus Universal IR Keyboard for my palm pilot. This is a piece of shit.

Why?
1) The key placement is really awkward and particularly the space keys.
2) There are no up or down keys and instead there is a mini-mouse that really just acts as a scroller. To move the cursor you have to use your stylus. So instead of typing, be prepared to hold you stylus in your mouth (seriously) because if you want to move around a lot in your text you’ll have to stop typing and use the stylus instead. Very annoying.
3) It holds your PDA very delicately with these three thin plastic holders. I haven’t taken this on a plane yet (but intend to for an upcoming trip) and I am worried that the movement of the plane will shake the PDA out of the holders and onto the floor.

The only good thing about is that its portable.

I’ll use it more and see if my attitude about this piece of crap changes, but one thing is for sure - first impression is that this was not a good buy (there are very mixed reviews on amazon and other sites).

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Deuel: “Lookin’ Good”

May 27, 2005 at 1:25am By: Mr. T Posted in The Lincolnite Blog

Lincolnite.com’s resident mascot and inspirational tour de force Pat Deuel is still on a roll.  Now that summer has arrived, we hope that Pat will take advantage of the good weather and continue to exercise and lose more weight.  Pat - if you are reading this - please know that our Deuel Watch research staff has your back buddy!

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Bolton: The End Nears

May 26, 2005 at 1:01am By: Mr. T Posted in The Lincolnite Blog

I will be the first to admit that in the past few months, I have become obsessed with the debate over John Bolton’s confirmation as UN ambassador.* After this deal over federal court appointees, it looks likely that Bolton will get through to the post. Today, George Voinovich broke down into tears in an emotional episode emphasizing his opposition to the placement.

Tomorrow, more debate is to occur, and possibly even a vote, although the Dems are now trying to tie things up procedurally. Damn, why watch reality TV when the Bolton hearings have been ten times more exciting? Its better than Lost!

*Yes, I know it is pathetic.

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How very mature of you.

May 19, 2005 at 2:58am By: Mr. T Posted in The Lincolnite Blog

As reported today in the LJS:

Ten days after the May 3 election, the chairman of the Lancaster County Republican Party sent an e-mail to ousted City Councilman Terry Werner in which he taunted Werner for losing his council seat and said “having a private eye follow you was a joy.”

Haga’s e-mail read, in part: “Let this be a wakeup call to you. The voters of Lincoln wisely rejected your socialist agenda. If needed, we could have addressed your driving record (having a private eye follow you was a joy), . . . and more. Had you been a good Democrat and not a socialist, you might have been re-elected.”

He later told a Journal Star editor that he didn’t hire a private investigator.

What an idiot.

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Wow.

May 14, 2005 at 3:13am By: Mr. T Posted in The Lincolnite Blog

Released today out of Chancellor Perlman’s office:

Colleagues:

Today we are distributing to deans and directors the guidelines for
implementing salary and wage increases for the coming fiscal year for UNL
faculty and staff. We are working with an anticipated allocation that will
allow for increases in salaries and wages for all University of Nebraska
employees of 3.95% for faculty and 3.0% for staff. This is, of course
contingent on the state’s approval of the University’s budget. While we may
face very difficult budget decisions given the shortfall in tuition, we
feel that we still must put a high priority on salaries in order to attract
and retain the best possible talent.

The instructions to department heads and directors indicate funds should be
distributed with an emphasis on performance. Therefore, individual salary
increases for employees will vary, with some employees receiving more or
less.

I’m curious to know what the thinking was behind sending this out to thousands of UNL faculty and staff today (Friday afternoon), although I have a few ideas. Any coincidence that this was sent out while a lot of faculty are out of office and taking their post-finals, end of the academic year vacations? The state budget proposal only got through the intial hoop…

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U.S. Bases to Close; Some Nebraska Bases Implicated

May 13, 2005 at 4:32pm By: Mr. Wilson Posted in The Lincolnite Blog

Donald Rumsfeld has released his list of proposed base closings. The list includes five facilities in Nebraska:

• Army National Guard Reserve Center, Columbus
• Army National Guard Reserve Center, Grand Island
• Army National Guard Reserve Center, Kearny
• Naval Recruiting District Headquarters, Omaha
• Navy Reserve Center, Lincoln

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Grand Island Under Water

May 13, 2005 at 4:22pm By: Mr. Wilson Posted in The Lincolnite Blog

I received this slideshow from a cousin out in Grand Island. Things have been just a little bit wet out that direction.

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Sorry Bolton

May 12, 2005 at 5:00pm By: Mr. T Posted in The Lincolnite Blog

Oh man - Voinovich is gonna catch hell for this… Listen live at cspan.  Defeat for George W.

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Pop Culture Justifies Torture

May 7, 2005 at 12:40am By: Mr. Wilson Posted in The Lincolnite Blog

Well, that’s what Cal Thomas thinks, anyway.

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And Now to the Important Election

May 5, 2005 at 1:48am By: Mr. T Posted in The Lincolnite Blog

The Brits will be voting tomorrow in a battle pitting euroskeptics against the pro-EU crowd, privatization issues over the national health service, and an ugly campaign about immigration policy. My prediction: Blair will win, but leftist seats of the labour party and moderate seats of the tories will lose minor ground to the Liberal Democrats. Michael Howard will be the big loser and the conservatives will later opt for a new leader, and Charles Kennedy’s gut will explode from overeating haggis.

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Another ‘Wal-Mart Sucks’ Article

May 4, 2005 at 2:43pm By: Mr. Wilson Posted in The Lincolnite Blog

The New York Times is good for a ‘Wal-Mart Sucks’ article every month or so.

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Werner Walloped

May 4, 2005 at 2:37pm By: Mr. Wilson Posted in The Lincolnite Blog

Well holy cow, Terry Werner got the boot. So much for my prediction powers.

I really thought Terry was bullet-proof. Not because he’s a great politician, mind you. He isn’t. In fact, as a politician I think he’s pretty poor. No, I thought he was bullet-proof because I thought he had a fairly substantial core base of supporters. Either those supporters stayed home yesterday, or Werner’s core has disintegrated much more substantially than I thought.

Werner himself blames the attack ads that came out against him. It’s natural for him to blame the ads, but to blame them too much is to fail to recognize just how quirky Terry Werner really is. The ads may have broken the camel’s back, but the camel was already under a pretty hefty load long before the ads came out.

Besides, how can one blame the attack ads for Werner’s loss while still explaining the fact that Dan Marvin won? Marvin was attacked as well. Granted, the attacks against Marvin had a much flimsier basis, but they were still pretty potent.

And what’s the deal with Robin Eschliman being elected? I’ll repeat what I asked yesterday: Does anybody know what she stands for? Then again, not like anybody knows what Mark Koller or Shaun Traudt stand for, either, so with Werner going down at least one of those three had to win. It may as well have been Eschliman.

Congratulations to Ken Svoboda, Robin Eschliman, and Dan Marvin. And so long to crazy ol’ Terry Werner. The big question now is: will anything actually change?

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Extreme Indifference

May 3, 2005 at 2:35pm By: Mr. Wilson Posted in The Lincolnite Blog

Lincolnites go to the polls today. Well, a few of them will. Despite all the bitching about city government, don’t expect a record voter turnout today. A rundown of the top four City Council candidates:

• Ken Svoboda Somehow this guy avoided taking any direct hits during the campaign. It’s not like he is blameless or anything, but he has managed to avoid having a target painted on his chest. That’s good and bad, I suppose. On the one hand it means nobody hates him. On the other, it means his name hasn’t been splashed around the media as much. Nevertheless, expect Ken to walk into another term on the council.
• Terry Werner Often called “Lincoln’s Ernie Chambers,” Terry is a favorite punching bag for the political right in Lincoln. A fan of mass transit (yay!) and clogging council meetings with pointless discussions of national politics (boo!), he knows how to make friends and enemies. Despite—or perhaps because of—his quirks, Terry will waltz into another term on the council.
• Robin Eschliman Ms. Eschliman has run a reasonable campaign, but she has a weakness: nobody really knows what she stands for. Well, we all know she stands for “families” and “community” and b.s. like that. But her core stances have been lost in the shuffle, in part because nobody hated her enough to challenge her directly.
• Dan Marvin Dan will benefit greatly from becoming the target of the Nebraska Republican Party. For some reason the Nebraska GOPers thought it would be a great idea to make a series of ridiculous attacks against a guy who, left alone, would have finished solidly in fourth place tod ay. Instead, Marvin will receive a healthy dose of voter pity and he’ll squeak into the third and final council seat. Expect Marvin to make a toast to the Nebraska GOP during his acceptance speech tonight.

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