… so when do I take their side? Why, when they’re attacked by homophobic fundamentalist Christians, of course!

You can’t make stuff like this up (any emphasis is mine):

A black conservative Christian pastor of an evangelical megachurch has vowed to take over Microsoft by packing it with new shareholders who will vote against the company’s policy of championing gay rights.

He told Microsoft executives at a shareholders’ meeting last week that he would be their “worst nightmare” if they continued to defy him.

Antioch Bible Church attracts around 3,500 worshippers for its services and Mr Hutcherson is a powerful figure in the Christian conservative movement.

And…

An advocate of a “biblical stance” against divorce and homosexuality, Mr Hutcherson, 55, is asking millions of evangelical activists, as well as Orthodox Jewish and other allies, to buy up Microsoft shares and demand a return to traditional values.

Microsoft, he declares, will be just the first company targeted in an escalation of the culture wars between evangelicals and corporate America.

“There are 256 Fortune 500 companies alone pouring millions upon millions of dollars into pushing the homosexual agenda,” he told The Daily Telegraph.

“I consider myself a warrior for Christ. Microsoft don’t scare me. I got God with me.

Not to mention, of course…

“I told them that you need to work with me or we will put a firestorm on you like you have never seen in you life because I am your worst nightmare. I am a black man with a righteous cause with a whole host of powerful white people behind me.”

Mr Hutcherson’s office is decorated with the heads of deer, elk and a buffalo – “when I run into animals, I kill them and bring them home and eat them” – as well as invitations to the White House and signed pictures of himself with President George W. Bush.

It boggles the mind. Any sane mind, that is. I’m sure there are those out there to whom this is perfectly normal…

This year, I’ll be brief:

(With thanks to Non Credo Deus)

• Planeta Asterisco is now PrintScreen (or Prt.Sc). I like the new look a lot, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to convince them to make the post titles clickable. The Tlog is proud (well, I am; the blog isn’t sentient, at least not yet…) to be aggregated there.
• Bill Gates denies the Wii’s existence. Loved this one: “No, that’s not it. You can’t pick up your tennis racket. And swing it.”. Uh, Bill…
• Top 10 underrated WordPress plugins. No need to say more, really.
• Could you pass 8th grade Science? I haven’t done the test yet, but it’s on my to-do list for today. Looks quite nice.
• Fórum Arte de Blogar, a companion forum to my Arte de Blogar blog, in Portuguese. It’s about blogging, SEO, website marketing, and so on. Still relatively empty, but it’s up to you to change that.

As of now, I’m looking for a job in the area of Lisbon, Portugal. Sorry to any non-Portuguese readers / potential employers, but I am not ready to move abroad at this time of my life.

My ideal job, at the moment, would be a senior sysadmin / junior PHP programmer “hybrid”, but I’m open to alternatives.

As I’ve said here before: no outsourcing, no MS stuff, no helpdesk. I don’t see this as “arrogance” on my part, but simply as not wanting to waste both sides’ time.

For more details (in Portuguese), and the full CV, please visit www.pedrotimoteo.com/cv . Thank you.

A little offtopic for this blog, but what the hell.

I’m not American, so I won’t be voting, of course, but nothing prevents me from taking the test anyway. So here are my results:

1. Theoretical Ideal Candidate (100%)
2. Dennis Kucinich (78%)
3. Barack Obama (75%)
4. Al Gore (71%)
5. Wesley Clark (69%)
6. Joseph Biden (68%)
7. Hillary Clinton (67%)
8. Christopher Dodd (65%)
9. John Edwards (62%)
10. Kent McManigal (61%)
11. Ron Paul (59%)
12. Bill Richardson (59%)
13. Mike Gravel (53%)
14. John McCain (46%)
15. Rudolph Giuliani (46%)
16. Chuck Hagel (35%)
17. Mitt Romney (35%)
18. Newt Gingrich (32%)
19. Elaine Brown (30%)
20. Tommy Thompson (26%)
21. Fred Thompson (24%)
22. Sam Brownback (22%)
23. Mike Huckabee (22%)
24. Tom Tancredo (19%)
25. Jim Gilmore (14%)
26. Duncan Hunter (12%)

Source: 2008 Presidential Candidate Selector.

Sorry about the offtopic post, but I really have to write about this, here.

While way too many people were too self-centered (“this doesn’t concern me, so I won’t move my ass”) to do anything at all (only about 40% of the population actually voted), still, the results were positive: the “don’t send women to prison anymore” side won. It shows that the Portuguese people are slowly, but surely, leaving the Middle Ages.

Today’s referendum, no matter what the fundies said, wasn’t about “saving lives” (anyone who really needs to have an abortion, will almost surely get one — even if it involves falling down a flight of stairs –, and who is concerned about their lives?). It was, instead, a choice between those who believe people should be free to decide things for themselves, and those who feel they have the “right” to control other people’s lives, to impose their own morality upon the rest.

Fortunately, and while the result isn’t “binding” (due to the low turnout), the former group won. It’s great to feel proud of my country, for a change.

I know, I know, Twitter is last week‘s news, so I’m late. Sue me.

Twitter is a system where you can tell, easily and quickly (for instance, by instant messaging, or cell phone), what you’re doing. You can also “follow” other users.

Anyway, I just joined. My username is “Dehumanizer”; feel free to add me (I like to convince myself that people are actually interested ).

Twitter, at first glance, looks a little fun (it’s a new thing, after all), but completely useless, and even a bit self-masturbatory. However, looking at how other people use it, I’ve found that it’s not just for telling the world about useless stuff like “I’m going to the toilet”. People are using it as a mini-blog of sorts – with quick 1-2 line posts. Unlike a “normal” blog post, a Twitter post is so short that you can simply write something you’ve just thought or done, without interrupting your normal flow.

It’s also a way to, in a way, keep in touch with people, even if you don’t usually talk to each other, such as former co-workers.

Anyway, we’ll see if I keep using it or not. I probably will, but not “religiously”.

Every so often, you find an article that you really wish you’d written yourself. I’ve found that Steve Pavlina has written a lot of them, and the most recent one, which I’ll just have to send to a lot of relatives and friends , is 10 Reasons to Develop Your Technical Skills.

Steve’s list of reasons is:

1. Enjoy significantly higher paying work
2. Save money
3. Save time
4. Prevent problems
5. Reduce frustration
6. Make intelligent technology purchases
7. Empower yourself
8. Access information efficiently
9. Earn money online
10. Feel more confident and comfortable with technology

For instance, 7 is:

I remember thinking how great it was in high school when I began using a decent word processor while many other students were still using typewriters. Editing was certainly much easier, so I got more done in less time.

Today it’s almost ridiculous how much technology can do. You can use your computer to manage your whole life now, including your finances, your calendar, and your entertainment. Knowing how to use technology can add tremendous richness to your life. But if you lack the technical skills, you’ll probably find it way too complicated to extract this value in a reasonable amount of time.

Sometimes, I wish I lived in Finland or something. Right now, it’s unbearable outside, and even inside it’s quite unpleasant. I’m not a beach fanatic like, seemingly, everyone else in Portugal. I don’t have air conditioning (I hope to get some before next summer, though). What’s a guy to do?