Monday - December 27, 1999

Flash! The mysterious Dr. Keyboard is unmasked. OK, maybe not unmasked. Perhaps revealed. Err. Maybe revealed is not quite the correct term. Hmmm. Let me see, what would be a good word for pictures from Chez Keyboard's Christmas debauchery party? Oh well, just go here [Sorry. Dr. Keyboard has moved his site and I do not know if/where he has moved the pictures to - Ed.] to see the evidence, I mean pictures.

Santa brought a Plextor 8X4X32Ai (ATAPI) CD burner to the Seto's grass shack. The hardware installation went well for a change. The only problem is that they didn't include the cable to go from the drive to the SoundBlaster card. Why is it always the cables? Otherwise, everything installed just fine and since it's ATAPI, no need to worry about assigning numbers or termination.

OTOH, the software installation is a lesson on how not to write a manual. Of course, perhaps it just me, but I assume when Plextor includes their own utilities, as well as some from Adaptec, that each should be able to stand alone. Wrong! If you install the Plextor utilities, be ready for error messages during the install AND execution. The errors refer to invalid pointers. But these errors disappear if you subsequently install the Adaptec software. But no where in the manual is this fact made known. On the upside, the email I sent to Plextor support late Thursday afternoon HST, Dec. 24th, was answered within a couple of hours. As soon as I print out the 80-something page manual [this is a slight exaggeration because it is a multi lingual manual so you don't need to print the whole thing out. - ed.], in pdf format, from the CD-ROM I'll see if I can create some CD-ROMs. More later.

For me, Christmas has always been about family. Family in the sense of getting together to visit with relatives who I may or may not have seen during the prior year. At times, the number of relatives present numbered as many as 40 or 50 people. This year, due to some moving to mainland and others taking trips to other places, the number was down to about 15 or 20. But still, it's nice to see people you don't get to see that often. And this year added some new relatives due to marriages into the family.

Ooops. Sorry. No time for a noon update. Too busy figuring out where in the world is Shawn and why are our emails are bouncing around the ether (Matt is saying they explode when they hit the screen. With the resulting released electrons being in a higher state of excitation and therefore causing the melt down of his hard drive. Injuneer indeed).

Aloha!

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Tuesday - December 28, 1999

E-mail is the lingua franca of the Internet. And while estimates as to how much of the available bandwidth is now taken up with email varies, it wasn't that long ago when it was generally accepted that email was in the majority.

This is as background to the Daynoters continuing email problems. Intermittently, mail is bouncing back as "550 unable to relay". Why that is happening is the question for the week. Engineers are hard at work trying to determine what the problem(s) is/are. And while I am not pointing fingers in any direction (since the problem could very well be with my ISP!), I am not the only one having problems. Below are some exchanges between Matt "The Tux" Beland with the last at the bottom [we are sorry to hear that Matt's wife's employment, through no fault of her own, terminated yesterday due to incredibly inept management practices. Have faith that it will lead to a better position somewhere else. Our condolences to her and Matt - ed.]

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Seto
Sent: Monday, December 27, 1999 2:14 PM
To: mbeland
Subject: Fw: Undeliverable Mail Error

Both Sjon and Tom suggested I forward this to you. Essentially, mail going to my address mail@seto.org gets there fine. Mail, intermittently, during the last couple of days to gang at daynotes dot com has been bouncing back to senders.

Your mission, should you accept it, is to track down the problems and then find out what happened to Wallbridge. This email will self-destruct in 30 seconds. Good luck.

----- Original Message -----
From: Matt Beland
To: Dan Seto
Sent: Monday, December 27, 1999 11:23 AM
Subject: RE: Undeliverable Mail Error

Well, now what am I supposed to do? The damn email exploded and scattered letters across the screen, the hard drive is MELTING, and I don't know if I can take much more of this...

<sniff>

On a more serious note - well, as serious as I can get - the official diagnosis from the development team is "it's not working right." Which doesn't inspire me with confidence, but beats the usual response.

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Seto
Sent: Monday, December 27, 1999 2:37 PM
To: Matt Beland
Subject: Re: Undeliverable Mail Error

Well, it beats "The dog ate my email." And of course, we ALL know that hard drives don't melt. What happens is that the heads beat themselves senseless against the inside of the case. This causes the loss of memory due to amnesia. EVERYONE knows this so don't try to fool me fella'. I are a college graduate.<G>

----- Original Message -----
From: Matt Beland
To: Dan Seto
Sent: Monday, December 27, 1999 11:43 AM
Subject: RE: Undeliverable Mail Error

They melt when your bloody self-destructing email message explodes. <G>

And I are a graduate two, and I ain't got no bad English. So there.

Of course, I'm also an engineering graduate, so maybe you wouldn't be too surprised by that statement...

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Seto
Sent: Monday, December 27, 1999 2:52 PM
To: Matt Beland
Subject: Re: Undeliverable Mail Error

"Four yirs agao, U culdn't evn spill Injuneer and now U are one."

And don't try too fool me you young whipper snapper! Showing my age...<g>

----- Original Message -----
From: Matt Beland
To: Dan Seto
Sent: Monday, December 27, 1999 12:00 PM
Subject: RE: Undeliverable Mail Error

When I started looking for jobs, they looked at my professionally-done resume, the papers I had published on various design aspects, and the documentation I had written on X-33 engine tests, and decided I could never be a good engineer, for I could communicate too well with non-engineers. So I became a sysadmin.

Sysadmin? No wonder! Here I thought he was a god (small "g") come down from Mt. Olympus to show us heathens how many engineers it takes to change a light bulb. Who would've thunk? Well, there's yir problem right there, eh.<g>

As the false millennium looms, the largest local bank decided to run their payroll before the end of the year just in case there are any Y2K problems. Thus, they can at least give their employees their checks. This of course begs the question of what happens when people try to cash the checks. If things are so screwed up that they can't run the job to print the checks, what makes them think their computers will be able to clear the checks when they come in? By the way, the state also decided to print their payroll checks early. Only, they're printing both pay days for the month of January now. This is something like 55,000 checks for each run. Left unsaid is what happens to those who have direct deposit. Virtual checks? If so, then I'll do virtual work. <g>

The Plextor CD-R/W drive is operating smoothly. I made a back-up copy of the Plextor CD in about four minutes at 8X (including two minutes of testing the platter). Feeling bold, I then tried creating a music CD by taking 20 songs from 20 different CDs. In test mode, this took a LOT longer because the software ran it at 2X. In fact, since the testing took 30 minutes and the actual burn took 30 minutes at 2X, the total effective speed was 1X. I need to experiment more with burning at a higher speed. More when I know more.

***** Noon Update *****
I need to go up to the University of Hawai'i Hamilton Library to read a journal called Canadian Public Administration (Administration publique du Canada). I hope it's not in French because if it is, it will be a very long day there. In either case, there is an article entitled "Integrated Justice: Privatizing the Fundamentals" by Carl Baar. Dr. Baar describes how four provincial governments entered into public-private partnerships in which the upfront cost of automation is borne by a private contractor who is compensated out of a "benefit pool of future savings and revenue". Hmmm. An interesting way of funding your technology needs. But does it work? Stay tuned.

A belated congratulations to University of Hawai'i football coach June Jones and the team. They beat Oregon State, 23-17 in the O'ahu Bowl on Christmas day in front of over 40,000 screaming fans. If you were channel surfing, you may have caught some of it on ESPN. The Rainbow Warriors ended their season with a 9 and 4 record. Well done.

Fireworks lead-off the morning newspaper. The literal kind. For those not in the know, Hawai'i allows the discharge of firecrackers, but not aerial displays during certain hours on New Years Eve. The popping of firecrackers is an isle tradition probably inherited from the Chinese. But O'ahu now has a population of almost one million people and it seems each has to pop at least 10,000 of those red things to scare off the evil spirits. This leads to very thick smoke conditions. So thick, that at its height (around midnight), it is impossible to drive safely due to lack of visibility. The smoke also causes problems with everyone who has any breathing problems. Such as my wife who has asthma. We are dreading this eve more than any in the past.

Aloha!

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Hump Day Wednesday - December 29, 1999

The Bastard Operator From Hell column will be picked up by The Register next month (story here). Until then, feel free to catch up with his old columns here. Those who are offended by hard language or who can't take a joke should not go there. Go here instead.

Just when you think you are winning the war the rats get smarter. The latest CERT (don't ask what the letters mean) advisory CA-99-17 talks about a new utility hackers are using called Tribe FloodNet 2K (TFN2K). Tribe FloodNet is described in http://www.cert.org/incident_notes/IN-99-07.html#tfn. It's a denial of service attack tool that affects ALL systems including UNIX, "UNIX-like", and NT. The tools include IP spoofing and the sending of malformed packets which can cause system instability. You have been warned.

Speaking of rats, the morning paper talks about how the state placed the order for more automobile safety inspection stickers late. While that is bad enough (you can get a ticket for operating a vehicle without the inspection sticker on your bumper), the real story is that when the administrator in charge of this fiasco was asked why it happened he said; "I don't know that that's [an explanation] necessary. I've given you the information that's pertinent to the people." Well, Excuuuse me. I'm the people and it's this kind of attitude that gives the rest of us a bad name. Sheesh.

***** Noon Update *****
The Plextor CD-R/W drive continues to strut its stuff. With the Adaptec software calibrated to use the drive and system I have, the default recording speed changed from 2x to 8X. So instead of taking one hour to make an audio CD with 70 minutes of music, it now takes NINE minutes! Yes! Next thing to do is a backup of the important files on my drive to CD.

Face à l'intérêt que présente l'automatisation des liens entre les éléments du système de justice, quatre gouvernements provinciaux ont décidé d'envisager des partenariats avec le secteur privé, l'entrepreneur privé devant défrayer le coût initial des initiatives d'automatisation mais recevant en contrepartie les retombées positives provenant des économies et des revenus qui en découleront.

Ummm. No, I did not take up French as a third language. However, I thought it might be an interesting lead-in to the article I talked about yesterday from the Canadian Public Administration journal (Administration Publique du Canada). Fellow Daynoter John Doucette and I had a short to and from on this subject and I reckon it's easier to just include it here rather than rewrite it.

From: John Doucette
To: Dan Seto
Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 1999 6:07 AM
Subject: public-private partnerships

I have heard of some of our provinces looking into public-private partnerships but don't recall any of them actually being implemented. In most cases I recall a private firm wanted to build a new road or highway a carry the cost of construction, then would be re-reimbursed over a 20 year period by the government.

John

----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Seto
To: John Doucette
Subject: Re: public-private partnerships
Date: Wed, 29 Dec 1999 10:43:59 -1000

John,

I've finished reading the article and to a great extent, you are right. There appears to have been several aborted efforts to create public-private partnerships in Canada. Most have fallen apart under the realization that any benefits from the partnership appear to be far in the future, while any costs are here right now. Hence, private firms are finding it difficult to create a business model that will work.

In the example I sent earlier, Ontario did indeed choose IBM's proposal to integrate its justice related computer systems. However, they were unable to come to an agreement and another vendor, SHL Systemhouse and its partners, took its place. Even then, contract negotiations apparently took a year to complete. The cost to the private sector is C$150 million and C$39 million to the public. This does not include C$75 million in required upgrades to court hardware so that the new system will be able to run on it (guess who gets to pay that).

On the other hand, Nova Scotia's Dept. of Justice, Courts and Registries Div. contracted with Anderson Consulting to implement a for fee online business registration filing and inquiry system. Anderson put up the C$3 million upfront money to design and implement the system. In turn, all of the upfront costs would be repaid though any savings or additional revenue generated by this project. Further, once the original costs were recovered, Anderson would receive 50% of any future said savings or additional revenue in the next five years. This arrangement apparently worked for both parties and each appears to be satisfied with the results.

The author of the article, Professor Carl Baar, is not optimistic about the chances of a successful completion of Ontario's project. Indeed, he is not optimistic about the process of public-private partnerships in toto for the reasons noted earlier. But he does admit that it is too early in the process to determine if there is no hope at all for public-private partnerships.

----------------

My email problems may or may not be resolved (pun intended).

Memo to Matt and Tom:
Email sucks dead dust bunnies.
Thank you.

Aloha!

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Thursday - December 30, 1999

Houston, the clock is rolling. Or something like that. Our IT Division will be meeting the Y2K experience by pulling the plug on *ALL* outside connectivity from last night through Monday morning (which is why this posting is late. Sorry. No access at all). And all internal routers and gateways will be pulled off-line. On Saturday, they will be running tests on the IBM mainframes, RISC/6000s and AS/400s. However, there won't be any testing of PCs other than servers. The PC-based servers will be shutdown from tomorrow though Saturday morning (sorry about being kind of vague on some of this but security comes first don'tcha know). Here's to hoping that everything comes back up OK.

Part-time isle resident George Harrison is in stable condition after being stabbed by a male assailant. Harrison was in residence in the UK at the time of the attack. Very few details are available at this time, although he apparently gave as good as he got [Actually, as it turns out, it was she who may have been the one that gave - ed.], but here's to hoping for a quick and complete recovery.

As the end of the year comes to a close, we are naturally drawn to thoughts of things past and future. The past century is testament to the increasing pace of change. And the future holds wonders, both good and bad, that we can not imagine. But in the end, certain things like who we are are and who our true friends are remain constant. Hold on to what is true, and discard the rest.

I will try to have a post up tomorrow but if that darn'd cat doesn't release control of the keyboard that may not be possible. If not, Happy New Year FDØh!

Aloha!

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Aloha Friday - December 31, 1999

Happy New Year FDØh!