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We need to consider that there were Muslims killed in the Charlie Hebdo attack. One was a police officer and the other a copy editor on the staff of Charlie Hebdo, named Mustapha Ourrad. Along with the trending hashtag of "#JeSuisCharlie", there's a "#JeSuisAhmed" to show that a Muslim died in the attack. There's also a "#JeSuisMustapha" but it's not getting as much love as the "#JeSuisAhmed" hashtag. The point is that Muslims also kill Muslims, although #JeSuisAhmed is delivered with an explanation that a Muslim died trying to protect people who ridiculed his faith. Fair enough. If you want …

Words have power. Or so we're told. It's an old expression and with the passage of time, the expression must have increased in value so that it is now undeniably true, having, with said passage of time, acquired some amount of wisdom along the way.  In much the same way that dirt builds up on your car as you drive it.   Words have power. One of the reasons we are reminded of this wisdom has to do with a word's power to harm. It's not so much the "I love you's" and "you're the best's" that we're concerned with; it's …

I picked up an ASUS ME176C MeMO Pad 16GB Android tablet for my son at the local Future Shop. It's a great little tablet and awesome value at $149 with a beautiful screen and super peppy performance courtesy of the new Intel Atom BayTrail-T Z3745 Quad Core processor with 1GB RAM. Overall, I think it's awesome and yet, I'm not 100% happy, even it it *his tablet*. That's because I want *all* my devices rooted. Aside from the geek factor, there are just too many useful things that require a rooted tablet. These include a decent file manager, a better …

I took a break from my morning work to stretch and add a few steps to my FitBit (have to get those 10,000 steps in, you know). I picked up my Android tablet, fired up my Kobo eBook reader app, and started walking around the house, going up and down steps, and searching for some enlightenment, or maybe just entertainment, as I walked. I am currently reading a book called "OPEN", by David Price. It's about the new way we learn, the new way we live, and the new way business operate, or will operate in an open future. Those …

Over the last few days, I've made fun of Target for its policy to allow open-carry gun owners to parade the store while simultaneously driving away a few mothers protesting outside their locations. Apparently, Target was right to fear the Moms more than the gun owners and has now officially asked guns owners to keep their guns out (see this Business Week article for more on the subject). Kudos to Target for this decision which, it must be stated, came after a petition drew 400,000 signatures against carrying guns inside the store. From the article, "Target recognized that moms are …

It seems obvious that I just can't commit. I just can't commit to a single Linux distribution. I run different flavors on different systems, but even on my desktop, relationships are short-lived. Most recently, I was running OpenSUSE and you know, it was going along pretty good. We seemed like a good fit. And then, one day, I find myself looking at other desktops. And then, without really thinking about it much, I'm downloading an ISO image, burning it to a disk, and almost absentmindedly slipping it into the DVD drive.  I keep my home files on a separate partition. …

As we head into a provincial election, I hear once again the voices of people saying they are tired of their politicians and because of that, there is no point in voting. Some claim that spoiling a ballot is a powerful message to those in power. Others will just stay home, suggesting that nothing changes anyhow.   Here's the thing. If you don't make a choice, a choice will be made for you. If you don't vote, you don't have a voice.   If you can't vote for, the vote against. Find the one candidate you hate less than all …

A couple of years ago, I decided that I was going to get in shape. I wasn't in what I'd call terrible shape, but I wasn't 25 years old anymore either. People in my family tend to be long-lived, regardless of how we live it seems, but only if we manage to avoid heart attacks. Heart attacks are bad. And so, the thought that I might be getting a little to heavy and spending too much time just sitting clicked one day. My life tends to be a little stressful (maybe a lot) and I was now over 50 with …