Colin Hill's Blog

Download: Thunderbird 2.0 binary RPM

Thomas Chung over at FedoraNews.org has a spiffy RPM Spec file he’s been updating for each release of thunderbird through 1.5. As it turns out the only change needed to update for version 2.0 is incrementing the version line in the file. Download the spec file and update line 2 such that it reflect the version you’re packaging.

You’ll also need the Desktop/Menuitem metadata file, the Thunderbird Icon and of course, the Thunderbird binary package from Mozilla.org.

Follow Thomas Chung’s detailed instructions and even the most novice Linux user should be able to build a Thunderbird RPM. I’ve been using this method for every Thunderbird release since 0.7 to bridge the gap between the release and the date the Fedora project updates their RPM repositories. With this 2.0 release, I’m quite impressed at the noticeable performance improvement I’m seeing. I highly recommend building a Thunderbird RPM using this method and possibly sticking with it rather than moving to the fedora RPM even when it becomes available.

Reporters without Borders has released this years Worldwide Press Freedom Index
 report.

"Each year new
countries in less-developed parts of the world move up the Index to
positions above some European countries or the United States. This is
good news and shows once again that, even though very poor, countries
can be very observant of freedom of expression. Meanwhile the steady
erosion of press freedom in the United States, France and Japan is
extremely alarming,� Reporters Without Borders said.

The Bush administration continues to damage not only their relations with the press but the underlying freedom of the press in the United States.

Thomas Chung over at FedoraNews.org has a spiffy RPM Spec file he’s been updating for each release of firefox through 1.5.0.1. As it turns out the only change needed to update for version 2.0 is incrementing the version line in the file. Download the spec file and update line 2 from:

Version : 1.5.0.1
To
Version : 2.0

You’ll also need the Desktop/Menuitem metadata file, the Firefox Icon and of course, the Firefox binary package from Mozilla.org.

Follow Thomas Chung’s detailed instructions and even the most novice Linux user should be able to build a Firefox RPM. I’ve been using this method for every firefox release since 1.0.7 to bridge the gap between the release and the date the Fedora project updates their RPM repositories. Recently though, as of 1.5+ I’ve found that the method above yields a more reliable Firefox installation that that offered in the Fedora RPM repositories – the latter displaying strange GUI behaviors and periodic odd crashes so I’ve moved away from the Fedora-provided Firefox RPMs entirely.

HANS GREIMEL

Associated Press

NODA, Japan – The
teachings of Grand Master Masaaki Hatsumi echo through my head as he
entreats me to attack a blackbelted disciple with a practice sword.
“Always be able to kill your students,” he says.

Chilling words from a shockingly fit 76-year-old man who bills
himself as the world’s last ninja and stocks his training chamber with
weapons such as throwing stars and nunchucks. Especially to a neophyte
whose closest brush with martial arts was watching Bruce Lee matinees
as a kid.

As I cautiously raise the sword with a taut two-handed samurai grip,
my sparring partner gingerly points to Hatsumi. I avert my eyes for a
split second – and WHAM! The next thing I know, I’m staring at the
rafters.

Keeping your focus is just one of the lessons thumped out on the
mats of the Bujinkan Dojo, a cramped school outside Tokyo that is a
pilgrimage site for 100,000 worldwide followers. They revere Hatsumi as
the last living master of ninjutsu – the mysterious Japanese art of war
practiced by black-masked assassins of yesteryear.

“He’s unlimited in body, mind and spirit,” says Richard VanDonk, who
flew in from California to practice body throws in the dojo’s warm glow
of rice-paper screens and flickering votive candles. “He’s a master of
change.”

Hatsumi is the only living student of the last “fighting ninja,”
Toshitsugu Takamatsu, the so-called 33rd Grand Master who was a
bodyguard to officials in Japanese-occupied Manchuria before World War
II and fought – and won – 12 fights to the death. Legend says that
during one battle, Takamatsu snatched an eyeball from a would-be
Chinese bandit.

RECORDS SOUGHT IN U.S. QUEST TO REVIVE PORN LAW

The Bush administration on Wednesday asked a federal judge to order
Google to turn over a broad range of material from its closely guarded
databases.

Judges on Surveillance Court To Be Briefed on Spy Program
The presiding judge of a secret court that oversees government surveillance in espionage and terrorism cases is arranging a classified briefing for her fellow judges to address their concerns about the legality of President Bush’s domestic spying program, according to several intelligence and government sources.

Several members of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said in interviews that they want to know why the administration believed secretly listening in on telephone calls and reading e-mails of U.S. citizens without court authorization was legal. Some of the judges said they are particularly concerned that information gleaned from the president’s eavesdropping program may have been improperly used to gain authorized wiretaps from their court.

. . . unlimited? – Commentary – The Washington Times, America’s Newspaper
According to President George W. Bush, being president in wartime means never having to concede co-equal branches of government have a role when it comes to hidden encroachments on civil liberties.
Last Saturday, he thus aggressively defended the constitutionality of his secret order to the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on the international communications of Americans whom the executive branch speculates might be tied to terrorists. Authorized after the September 11, 2001 abominations, the eavesdropping clashes with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), excludes judicial or legislative oversight, and circumvented public accountability for four years until disclosed by the New York Times last Friday. Mr. Bush’s defense generally echoed previous outlandish assertions that the commander in chief enjoys inherent constitutional power to ignore customary congressional, judicial or public checks on executive tyranny under the banner of defeating international terrorism, for example, defying treaty or statutory prohibitions on torture or indefinitely detaining United States citizens as illegal combatants on the president’s say-so.

Unclaimed Territory – by Glenn Greenwald: Bush’s unchecked Executive power v. the Founding principles of the U.S.
Underlying all of the excesses and abuses of executive power claimed by the Bush Administration is a theory of absolute, unchecked power vested in the Presidency which literally could not be any more at odds with the central, founding principles of this country.

MercuryNews.com | 12/12/2005 | Tool helps you find stuff that you didn’t know you were looking for
Tool helps you find stuff that you didn’t know you were looking for

Capitol Hill Blue: Bush on the Constitution: ‘It’s just a goddamned piece of paper’
ast month, Republican Congressional leaders filed into the Oval Office to meet with President George W. Bush and talk about renewing the controversial USA Patriot Act.

Several provisions of the act, passed in the shell shocked period immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, caused enough anger that liberal groups like the American Civil Liberties Union had joined forces with prominent conservatives like Phyllis Schlafly and Bob Barr to oppose renewal.

GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the act could further alienate conservatives still mad at the President from his botched attempt to nominate White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.

“I don’t give a goddamn,� Bush retorted. “I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.�

“Mr. President,� one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.�

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,� Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!�