Monday - November 8, 1999
Monday Sports Update: The University of Hawai'i Rainbow Warrior Football team won their game this weekend against San Jose State 62 to 41. The score looks more lopsided than it was. Going into the third quarter it was something like 34 to 7. Obviously, a lot of scoring took place in the last quarter. On both sides. The next game, against Fresno State could determine who is the WAC champion. Stay tuned.
Not doing as well is the Hawaii America's Cup Team Abracadabra2000. In the second round, they are 9th out of 11 teams with a 4 and 8 record overall. Prada is still number 1 with a perfect 12 and zero record.
So the Judge has spoken. And while I can hear the Libertarians out there (you know who you are, all ten of you) saying; "Woe is me, woe is me. The government has gotten it wrong again." I would respectfully disagree. The Judge got it exactly right.
The problem, as I see, it is that once a company gets into a monopoly position it's too late to do anything constructive. It's hard to see how the breakup of the telephone, oil, or transportation companies helped consumers. Service is lower while costs are higher. Benefit analysis would call that a losing position.
One can only hope that there will be a last ditch effort to settle (not a high probability) out of court. If that fails, then it comes down to what "remedy" the court comes up with. I'm not going to try to predict what that would be, but whatever it is, it will probably result in higher prices (sigh).
As background, monopolies are a natural progression for companies because it maximizes profits. That is, if you control the supply, you can charge whatever you want. Hence, we should not get all evangelical about it when it happens. It happened in this case, and it will happen in others (e.g. cable companies). The question is, what role, if anything, does government have in these situations?
As a Democrat, I would say the role is to maximize competition where it makes sense. Obviously, there are some advantages to an environment dominated by one company. There tends to be stability since everyone knows what standard to write programs to. Conversely, a dynamic environment in which things are constantly changing tends to create outcomes that are creative and more in tune with what people want.
So, where is that line between stability and change as it relates to Microsoft? Well, as I said above, it probably too late to do something constructive that will foster true competition while as the same time not destroy a company that has created some programs that are good enough for the rest of us. So I would say, separate IE5.0 from Windows. Separate Windows from DOS. And we would be close to where we were before Win95 came out.
The question is, is that better than where we are now? That, you'll have to decide.
This email is dated Thursday, but I didn't get it until today (really, I'm not kidding. Maybe not enough postage or something).
Dan:
I've enjoyed reading your "Misc. Ramblings" for some time and enjoy your style but had not chosen to send you any comments until now. I very much enjoyed reading your thoughts on what a Christian is and find myself agreeing with you. I thought it was a well written description with appropriate bible verses. I'm sorry Brian was put off by the quotes from the Bible but how can you describe what Christians are without quoting from the Bible? I found your site through Brian's and enjoy reading his site but don't agree with his opinion here. Of course that is what makes this interesting, the free exchange of ideas which you don't have to agree with.
It does make for some variety.
Keep up the good work, I'll keep checking in. May God bless you richly.
My response back was:
Thanks Jim. All words of encouragement are gratefully accepted. All others are sent to the appropriate garbage can (grin). But seriously, I'm just doing the best that I can and I am sorry if I offend anyone. But I do have certain beliefs, and I will not hide those beliefs. That does not mean I will hit people over the head and try to convert everyone. On the other hand, I'm not going to hide who I am either.
Thanks again for the kind words.
Aloha
I think that pretty much says it all so I will probably not bring this subject up again. At least in the near future anyway.
I wrote my thoughts above on the Microsoft findings of fact before going over to Byte to read Dr. Pournelle's and Byte Editor Paul Schindler's comments on the decision. After which, I re-read my thoughts and decided to leave them as is. I would note that both commentators seem to begrudgingly admit that, yes Virginia, Microsoft is a monopoly. I guess their concern is how the Judge came to that conclusion and what that means in the future. In that, I share their concern.
Have a good Monday!
Tuesday - November 9, 1999
I now have digital email certificates from Verisign, Inc. for my mail accounts. From now on, if you get email that appears to be from me, but it does not contain a verified certificate, it is probably not from me. Unfortunately, if your email program (e.g. Eudora Lite) does not know what to do with the certificate it will consider it as an attachment and save it to your drive. It won't do either of us much good if that happens so all I can say is perhaps you can use another program for you email. Outlook Express, which is what I use for an email client is compatible with the certificates and unless you have another program that is compatible, I suggest you use that.
On the America's Cup front, the Hawai'i Team Abracadabr2000, won a great race against Team Dennis Conner (TDC) in Stars and Stripes. TDC was ahead at the start and the first four marks. From that point to the end, the Hawai'i team dueled it out with the TDC team winning by a razor slim three seconds. Unfortunately, Hawai'i in an earlier match against Nippon lost by a whopping three minutes 29 seconds. Hawai'i lost the start and never was in a position to challenge Nippon.
Good stuff over at Dr. Pournelle's site re:Microsoft Monopoly. Both in the view as well as the mail. Since most of you will probably be sick of the subject, I figured I would talk about something that Dr. Pournelle mentioned in passing. Namely, the early PCs. No I'm not talking about the IBM PC. I'm talking about the Atari, Amiga, or Apple II. This was in the mid-to-late 1970s, years before the first IBM PC came out. The first PC I ever used was an Apple II. I think it had something less than 64K of RAM and an external 5 and 1/4 floppy drive (no hard drive). The monitor was a 13-inch TV from Radio Shack. The printer was some unknown company that used a roll of silver coated paper and heat to form the letters (well, at least you never had to change a ribbon).
The first PC I ever owned, was an Atari. It had about 64K of RAM, with the keyboard built into the case and a game cartridge port in the top. Again no hard drive and actually came with a cassette interface so you could store your programs on cassette tapes. Eventually I got a floppy drive for it since I got tired really fast of trying to use cassettes. I also had a state-of-the-art YELLOW monochrome monitor!
And remember, at that time, there were no bulletin boards or internet to download programs from so the main source of utilities and such was magazines. That is, you would type in row after row of long lines of gibberish. Then see if your checksum matched the authors. If so, you would then run a translation program which would create the executable. Yikes! Talk about the dark days of PC computing.
Of course, once the IBM PC came out in the early 1980s, everything changed. On one hand, the industry was able to standardized on one architecture. And this was good. But on the other hand, the industry standardized on one architecture. And this was bad. But there was no looking back and I traveled to Los Angeles and bought a 8086 clone (I think it was an NEC chip if I remember right). This one had about 256K of RAM, and 5MB hard drive, a 5 and 1/4 floppy. The video card was a Hercules compatible monochrome output. From then on, its been one Intel chip after another. From the original 8086, to the 80286, 80386, 80486, Pentium, and now Pentium II. I think I'll skip the Pentium III and go for the next generation after that. But what memories...
Quick Notes:
Dr. Pournelle
has a link to Dan
Bricklin's Log. Once there, there's a subsection
of the log on the Microsoft trial. It's worth a quick look.
Especially interesting to me was the "Ethical
Issues" section which attempts to trace our current laws
back 1500 years! Recommended (as long as you are not offended
by quotes from the Talmud).
The UK Register has a hands on review of the "Chipzilla" CuMine Chip. As always, its worth a quick look at their site. They always have interesting things to say across the pond.
In all the hubbub about the MS trial I forgot to mention a small item about certain builds of Caldera Linux 2.2. There is a small security hole. The default install creates a user called "Help." This user has root access and no password. Let me say that again. It creates a user with root access and no password. This allows even the dullest NT hacker to come in and do all sorts of mischief. Caldera's 2.2 was one of the more popular distributions out there and I bet more than a few of them still have the "Help" account active. Makes you want to switch to OpenBSD Unix doesn't it? OK. Maybe not.
Hump Day Wednesday - November 10, 1999
It's Wednesday! And tomorrow is Veteran's Day so I'm off (OK, no jokes about being "off" all the time - this means you Brian) tomorrow. Remember to honor all veterans everywhere. They do what they do so that the rest of us can live free. And for that, we owe them our eternal thanks.
Things are a little slow around here. I'm currently working on reviewing what is being done nationally on Trial Court Performance Standards and Measurement Systems. There are two standards out there. One is from the American Bar Association and the other is from the US Department of Justice through the National Center for State Courts. Not the thing kind of thing that most people get excited about but it does relate to how fast, or perhaps more accurately, how slow cases progress through the courts.
Last night was the end of MTV's Real World Hawai'i. I probably wouldn't have watched the show except for the fact that is was filmed in Hawai'i. In fact, the house was located on the beach where I usually go when I go for a swim. But who would watch this show? I know it was the most highly rated of any of the Real World series but really, who wants to watch seven maladjusted twenty-somethings acting up? I guess I just don't get the point. Must be age...
The Honolulu Advertiser this morning published some of the notes and cards being left as sort of a memorial in front of the Xerox building. Below is a poem by Trina Adaro entitled "Sharing a Smile." It refers to Ford Kanehira, Xerox employee and husband of Lorna Kanehira, employee of the Hawai'i Judiciary (as I am).
Always a smile on your face,
Always a smile on your face
When responding to our service call.
You never knew my name
But, it didn't matter to me at all
For the nine years I've known you
As the "Xerox Man" or "Ford,"
It gives me great comfort to know that
You are with the Lord.
I'll always remember you
Looking like a doctor performing surgery
On our mega, monster machine.
Working...oh...so diligently.
Always a smile on your face
Even if for only a little while
It was gift from you to me
And I thank you for sharing that smile.
The Xerox seven were: Jason Balatico, Ford Kanehira, Ron Kataoka, Ronald Kawamae, Melvin Lee, Peter Mark, and John Sakamoto.
Quick Notes:
I see that Svenson is having fun installing and running Caldera Linux 2.2. It's hilarious. Take a look. This is typical of what happens when even an obviously experienced and knowledgable person jumps in and tries to use Linux. Imagine the problems when Ma and Pa average tries to install it...Yikes!
I see that Dr. Keyboard has updated his daynotes. Jolly good show or some rot. How a Limey enjoys living in France I'll never know but I would like to try it myself some time.
Have a good day!
Veteran's Day
Aloha Friday - November 12, 1999
Sorry today's log is late. I took me awhile to answer all the mail from my ten's of readers (it's amazing that so much mail can be generated by so few people!). But as always, I will answer all email. Your mileage may vary. Objects are larger than they appear. The door is ajar. I did not have sex with that women, Monica Lewinsky(sp?). The dog ate my diskette.
This in from Dan Bowman, who is obviously an athletic supporter (grin) of the Fresno Bulldog college football team.
...I found out if our quarterback made the plane.
But now that I have, good luck to you, June Jones and the team; you'll likely need it!
For the local take: http://www.fresnobee.com/sports/wac/index/
later,
Dan Bowman
(writing from work; please reply to home)
And below is my reply:
Dan,
I'll make sure June Jones and the team gets the link to the Fresno Bee (I love the name, it fits the place so well...grin). I think it will help motivate them...Its just the kind of headlines that get people focused!
Aloha,
Dan
ps I just emailed your link to the UH. I'm sure they will
find it helpful.
And now this from Svenson:
who wants to watch seven maladjusted
twenty-somethings acting up? I guess I just don't get the
point. Must be age...
It most certainly is, nothing funny at twenty-somethings
acting up, they are way too old to do that sort of thing.
Must be the age indeed.
I see that Svenson is having fun
installing and running Caldera Linux 2.2. It's hilarious.
Take a look. This is typical of what happens when even an
obviously experienced person jumps in and tries to use
Linux.
Some points, but how did you know all that ?
1. I am indeed doing this for fun. Once everything works I wouldn't know what to do with the box. Other then ripping it out and starting fresh.
2. I am indeed hilarious most of the time (except when I try to)
3. Sometimes I am obvious, mostly however ...
4. I am indeed experienced, I have about 18 years experience in breaking computers (and cars and ... other breakable and unbreakable things)
(serious) You did put a link to my current week. Thanks for putting up that. But ... (I always have a but, just ask Tom). That link will not point to the intended page after the weekend. (except that I am having upload problems at the moment) So either you must change the link later or hope the visitors will be diligent enough to check back. This applies to all the daynoters (I include you as well, 'cause I think you deserve to enter the list, but beware of the ritual :-) ). I don't know how the others do things but I have the 'thisweek.html' page mirrored (simple copy) in a 'weekxx.html' page and this last remains fixed when the week is over so you can best use that as anchor for links. In this case it would be sjonsvenson.com/cal/week44.html, or even sjonsvenson.com/cal/week44.html#sat to point directly to saturday. (/serious)
Imagine the problems when Ma and Pa
average tries to install it...Yikes!
They typically take the 'easy' approach of installing Win98.
But they might be surprised. I did not succeed in installing
that on Yaku (Cyrix 166, 64MB) and on Pa (Cyrix 200, 64MB)
and that I needed several tries to get it working on Cindy
(Celeron 400, 96MB) where it falls over often. But then I do
break things often.
Regards,
Svenson
And my response back:
Svenson,
Thanks for the email and visiting the site! While I hope that someday I may reach such heights as being a daynoter, I can only dream for now. I hope my description of your experiences with Linux were not taken the wrong way. I was happy that I wasn't the only one having fun getting Linux running. And to show how hilarious I am, I think I will try installing OpenBSD Unix next (Oh, excuse me, "I'll be right there Doctor to take my medicine"...it's a little hard to type with your arms in restraints...grin). But I hope no offense was taken because none was intended.
As far as the link, you are right. I need to note to my readers that the link will change at the end of the week. I've done that in the past but neglected to do so this time. Thanks for the reminder! [The link has been changed-Ed.]
As I was telling my friend Brian earlier, yesterday was one of those drop-dead gorgeous days that seem to occur this time of the year. Its like Mother Nature decides to take a break, and by doing so, creates an atmosphere that is so razor sharp and clear that it almost hurts the unfiltered eye. My wife (She Who Can Not Be Disobeyed) and I cruised through Waikiki and watched some beach volleyball, of the female kind (nudge nudge, wink wink - sand does indeed get everywhere when the players are wearing thongs).
Lunch was at the local Red Lobster. I had the Cajun Chicken on linguine in a white sauce and SWCNBD had the Shrimp version of the same. We both had to be carried out because we ate so much.
There did not appear to be much worth watching on TV so we both retired early.
Saturday is the football game between the University of Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors and the Fresno Bulldogs. Don't the team names tell you a little bit about where the teams are from (this means you DB)? If we win, we tie for the lead in the Western Athletic Conference. If they win, they pretty much wrap-up the championship. Go Bows!
Sunday is the funeral for Ford Kanehira, one of the Xerox seven and husband of one of our employees. I will say no more.
Have a good, and safe weekend everyone - Aloha!