Dear Congressman: get this done, or you're fired

To all of the members of the Congress of the United States:

I will make this simple. I speak for millions of Americans when I say this. Please listen carefully. Your jobs depend on it.

We are sick and tired of watching all the posturing and politicking that is going on in Washington right now. Your playing around with this debt-ceiling issue has to stop. You must put aside your party affiliations and your power-grabbing maneuvering. If you cannot do this one thing - that is, work TOGETHER to resolve this issue - then NONE OF YOU DESERVE TO HOLD your current jobs.

And we, the people, WE WILL FIRE YOU. We will elect a completely new slate of Senators and Representatives, a group who can and will work together for the common good, who know when it is time to set aside their differences and come up with solutions to complex problems, solutions that ultimately will benefit their constituents and the country as a whole.

If you were in private industry, you would have been thrown out on your asses long ago. Private enterprise would never stand for your stubbornness, your grandstanding, your ultimatums and your refusal to cooperate with each other.

Get it?

If you can't do this one thing, then you are a pathetic waste of taxpayer dollars, no matter how many other noble deeds you have done while in office. Ordinary Americans' livelihoods, not to mention the national economy, hang in the balance here, and you're farting around playing politics.

None of us want to hear your excuses. And don't bother blaming it on the other guys. We want deeds, not words. Get it done, or get out of the way so somebody else can get it done.

Emma Watson can teach us all a thing or two about modesty

Check out the interview with Emma Watson at the Daily Mail, called "I Find Being Sexy Embarrassing, Reveals Emma Watson." The text of the article reveals more about the intelligent, confident, feet-on-the-ground woman we've all grown to love and admire. The pictures don't match the article at all -- they try to make her look as skanky as possible. I tip my hat to whoever wrote the words.

It's funny that the pictures should be so bad, because Ms. Watson has this to say about dressing modestly:

‘I find this whole thing about being 18 and everyone expecting me to be this object… I find the whole concept of being ‘sexy’ embarrassing and confusing. If I do a photo-shoot people desperately want to change me – dye my hair blonder, pluck my eyebrows, give me a fringe. Then there’s the choice of clothes. I know everyone wants a picture of me in a mini-skirt. But that’s not me. I feel uncomfortable. I’d never go out in a mini-skirt. It’s nothing to do with protecting the Hermione image. I wouldn’t do that.

‘Personally, I don’t actually think it’s even that sexy. What’s sexy about saying, “I’m here with my boobs out and a short skirt… have a look at everything I’ve got”? My idea of sexy is that less is more. The less you reveal the more people can wonder.’

I say, more power to her. And I wish that more girls today felt the way Miss Watson feels about it.

DraftSight: A Painless Upgrade, and a Touch of Class

Dassault Systèmes just published a notice about a DraftSight upgrade, and I performed the upgrade with some trepidation. Often, upgrades of free software are not clean or painless. To my delight, this upgrade was both clean and painless.

I did notice this one nice touch: The DS installer detected some programs I had running that used files it would need to interact with during the upgrade. It listed the programs and invited me to close them before continuing.

Some installers give you the "It is recommended that you close all running programs before you continue" warning, which is appreciated but sometimes a real annoyance. Other installers, really poorly-written ones, simply clobber the overlapping files without warning, irreversibly screwing up your computer. I've never encountered an installer with the philosophy of this DraftSight installer. I like it.

This is a major upgrade, by the way. The version numbering syntax changed with this upgrade. My old version was 11.3.1131. The new version is V1R1.2 (Version 1, Release 1.2).

DraftSight: a good deal for students and teachers

If you're a student or an educator, DraftSight has some special deals for you. These deals give you access to some goodies that the rest of us have to pay for.

Autodesk also offers some great student-and-educator deals on AutoCAD and other software. Over the years, Autodesk has built or acquired an impressive collection of high quality tools.

Either way, you can't go wrong.