Monday - 7 Aug 2000
May the Force Be With You. Sir Alec Guinness, known to many as Star Wars Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, died over the weekend. Even though the Star Wars role made him famous with baby boomers, he obviously had a much greater breadth of talent than that. The earliest role I can remember him in was "The Bridge on the River Kwai." For which he earned an Academy Award. Sir Alec, dead at the age of 86.
We are not Alone. The International Astronomical Union (see their homepage here) is meeting today in Manchester, UK. Some of the papers to be presented at the Symposium 202 include the discovery of multiple planets around various stars (see the abstracts from Geoff Marcy, et. al., of the University of California at Berkeley here and Stephane Udry, et. al., of the Geneva Observatory here).
Sister Cities. Honolulu shares a sister city relationship with Hiroshima, Japan. And 55 years ago yesterday, August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on their city. I know various revisionist historians would say that the dropping of the bombs were not necessary, and who knows for sure at this point, but I don't want to get into that debate. Suffice it to say that a lot of people, on both sides, died during the war. And I am happy that atomic weapons have not been used since.
Thought for the Day. I don't know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. - Albert Einstein
Daynotes Update. Please welcome our newest member, Al Hedstrom. He loves teaching people the ins and outs of using Excel, among other things. Give his site a look see when you get a chance. Welcome, Al.
***** Noon Update *****
Spyware II. InfoWorld's Ed Foster adds to the growing list of programs that either include spyware, or have disclosure issues that need to be clarified (see the article here). The programs he lists are:
PKZip
The Carmen Sandiego series
Family Tree Maker
Print Shop
Reader Rabbit
I quote from his column the following:
Software that surreptitiously "phones home" to the software publisher to relay information about the user is becoming ever more commonplace. Virtually every day The Gripe Line gets another complaint from a reader who has discovered a program that appears to be up to no good. Even when the publisher's intent turns out to be not quite so dastardly as at first expected, business customers in particular are slow to forgive after dealing with the problems intrusive software can cause on their systems.
Some of the spyware has been removed due to a "good faith" effort by the manufacturer (although my wife's PC at home has the DSSAgent, which I will be removing as soon as I get home. I knew of its existence only because it causes the PC to hang every time she went to shut it down). But the breadth of software that include these insidious cancers is amazing. You decide what you want to do. But ignoring the problem will not make it go away. And if this is any indication, there are a lot more of these things out there. And more coming everyday.
Aloha! Top / Home / Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday
Tuesday - 8 August 2000
Phone Home II. First, let me say flat out that I am not a lawyer. So I don't know if having a program on your personal property (i.e., your PC), that runs without your knowledge or consent, and sends information surreptitiously back to the manufacturer of that program is illegal or not. Nor do I know if, embedded in an End-User License Agreement (EULA), their telling you that their program is doing this evades any legal consequences (e.g. if someone says they are going to steal from you, their warning you does not make the act legal).
But this type of behavior should give you pause. And whether you find this type of behavior occurring on your PC or not (see a partial list here at Steve Gibson's site), you should read the EULA very carefully before you press the "I Accept" button. And if you don't accept, make sure you contact the manufacturer and let them know. And then use someone elses software that doesn't do this kind of thing. Or don't. It's up to you (see mail below).
Mail Call
From: J. H. RICKETSON
To: Dan Seto
Subject: Big Hole in Netscape
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 02:24:23 -0700Dan -
You may have picked up on this already. If not, an excellent reason to abandon Netscape at:
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,38087,00.html
I may be forced to convert to the One True Faith (Opera) yet!<BG>
Regards,
JHR
--
--
J. H. RICKETSON
[JHR@WarlockLltd.com]
08/08/2000 2:20:56 AM----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Seto
To: J. H. RICKETSON
Subject: Re: Big Hole in Netscape
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 06:42:02 -1000JHR,
What a way to start the day! Thanks for the heads-up. I did not know of this one. And, according to the article, it was discovered
two years ago[this was misread by Dan and is apparently not the case - Ed.]. Hmmm.As far as Opera, YMMV. It is not perfect. And of course, it COST MONEY!. But I use it when I can. When I can't, because someone has coded a page optimized for a particular browser, then I use that browser (or forget about that page and move on).
Good to hear from you.
Aloha - Dan
From: Tom Syroid
To: Dan Seto
Sent: Monday, August 07, 2000 5:03 PM
Subject: ET Phone HomeAdd CuteFTP to your 'dasterdly' list.
I caught the latest version "phoning home" yesterday, looking for who knows what.
The program is gone from my HD, never to return.
/tom
From: Dan Seto
To: Tom Syroid
Subject: Re: ET Phone Home
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 06:36:44 -1000Tom,
You are right. I think Steve Gibson called that one.
I felt violated yesterday when I realized that DSSAgent [part of Print Shop, see yesterday's post - Ed.], that had been giving my wife's PC at home fits (locking up the PC periodically) was in fact phoning home to Broderbund (according to InfoWorld). You better believe I removed that one (running from the Registry) when I got home! I really wonder about these businesses. Do they think they own our PCs? Even if they include a statement in their EULA, it still gives me the creeps to think they have this kind of program running.
Aloha - Dan
From: Tom Syroid
To: Dan Seto
Subject: RE: ET Phone Home
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 10:58:04 -0600[tms] I've been ranting about this for over a year now, although my focus to date has been primarily aimed at MS$. Every time a new version of an Office app ships, someone in Redmond has taken the "initiative" to anticipate how *I* will use a given "feature'. As Pournelle notes, this wouldn't be so bad if MS actually tested and listened to the people who use their product every day, but they don't. When a new version is released to early beta, almost all elements are already locked down.
The only way we're going to get around this sad fact of life is to stop buying/using products that claim to know better than we do. And educate other users to do the same.
A Big Amen to that! Informed choice. That's the ticket.
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Hump Day Wednesday - 9 August 2000
Late Update. Sorry for the late update. There's two reasons for this. First, my wife had an appointment to have a follow-up test done at the hospital (based on the prior CAT scan which found a couple of things they wanted to check on). It was at 8:45 am this morning and I forgot to mention that I would be off today due to this.
The second is that the Road Runner service here has been intermittent. So even when I tried to connect and post something this afternoon, I was not able to do so until now.
Having said that, all that I'm going to do is post a couple of emails. I will be back at work tomorrow and should be able to do a regular post.
Mail Call
From: J. H. RICKETSON
To: Dan Seto
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2000 00:30:40 -0700
Subject: Paid vs. FreeDan,
Re Opera: "And of course, it COST MONEY!."
Nothing wrong with that atall. It has been my experience that "free" things are worth just about what they cost. I was one of the few that actually bought a license for Netscape 'way back when. Ant that's why I automatically avoid "Free!" stuff, unless I have overwhelming reason to use it (such as some very useful free utilities, Irfan View for example).
They catch feral hogs in Appalachia by finding a hog trail, and then dropping a couple ears of corn on it. Same thing next day. Then they drive a few posts off to one side, still dropping the daily offering of corn. Then some more posts on the other side of the trail - but still not blocking the trail. Then barb wire woven in among the posts on either side, and hidden by the kudzu.
Finally, in the late fall, when the hogs' natural provender is at its ebb, and they are relying on the Free! corn - two swing-down gates are built at either end of the pen, and a watch set on the pen. When the hogs have assembled and are feeding, the gates are dropped, and the hogs are trapped - to be used by the Free! corn providers. A lot of good ham & bacon there, very cheaply.
Same technique works for humans, too - and the market droids are well aware of it.
POINT: One way or another - you pay a price for "Free!".
Regards,
JHR
--
J. H. RICKETSON
[JHR@WarlockLltd.com]
09/08/2000 12:10:57 AM
To: JHR
FROM: Dan Seto
Subject: Re: Paid vs. Free
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2000 13:50:19 -1000This is true. Thanks for the good analogy.
From: Jan Swijsen
To: Dan Seto
Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2000 1:42 AM
Subject: calling home(e.g. if someone says they are going to steal from you, their warning you does not make the act legal).
OTOH when you buy a house and in the contract there is a rule like "you accept that we will come in the house you are buying and will take away any television set" and you sign it for acceptance, is it still 'stealing' ?
One thing with products that phone-home (or phone-somewhere_else, you can't be sure they call home) is that we will see more of them. Basically the whole ASP (Application Service Provider, also known as Automatic sucking Pests) business is going to depend on phone-back activity. And the MS .NET thing. Now it is uncommon for our boxes to call out unasked (by us) so any app that does is easily spotted. Once the .NET and ASP things become commonplace all kinds of programs will be calling in and out of our boxes unasked so users will get used to it.
As a sideline, With ASP and .NET the asymmetry that crept into communications (V90, ADSL, cable) is going to be put to question.
The great advantage of Open Source stuff is that unauthorized calling home gets weeded out pretty soon, typically before the program leaves the beta stage. Very few hackers tolerate that and with O.S. they can actually intervene. Calling 'home' (btw what is home for an opensource app?) will still be happening but it won't be done 'under the covers'.
--
Svenson.From: Dan Seto
To: Jan Swijsen
Subject: Re: calling home
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2000 13:59:34 -1000There you go again, always being right. <g>
But of course, first, you must know of and be in agreement with the "taking." If either of these conditions is NOT true, then it may or may not be theft. For example, if you know but do not agree, then it is theft. But if you do not know, but subsequently agree, then it is not. And if you neither know, nor subsequently agree, then it is also theft.
It comes down to informed consent.
Aloha - Dan
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Thursday - 10 August 2000
Making Your Own Band. Much of Hawai'i has been watching the reality series "Making the Band" (shown here on ABC on Friday nights) due to one of the members being from here.
But now that Ikaika Kaho'ano has apparently left the band, gasp, he is apparently trying to create his own band with former cast members who did not make the final cut. Hmmm. Does anyone care? Stay tuned.
Kiwis Take Kenwood 2000 Sailing Cup. This time yesterday it seemed Australia had all but wrapped-up the biennial Kenwood Cup yacht race held here. In fact, New Zealand, in second place at the time, would have to have its three top boats beat Australia's top three boats in the last race of the series in order to win said series. A feat no one except the Kiwis thought they could do.
But do it they did! Thus snatching the cup from their arch rivals the Aussies. Yes, there was some business about correcting the times due to some of the boats stopping to come to the aid of a floundering US boat which was in danger of being ship wrecked off the island of Moloka'i. But after all of the protests were heard and the times corrected, the Kiwis had done it.
Firestone. I see that the Firestone Tire Company has decided to do a recall of their ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT model tires (see the story here from the Los Angeles Times).
In 1978, I had a new Chevrolet Z-28 Camaro. Equipped with Firestone 500 tires. The Camaro is considered to be a performance car and it required tires that could make use of that performance. Unfortunately, the Firestone 500s were not built very well and three of the four on my car were defective. Defective in the sense that the tread separated from the underlying belts. Firestone subsequently recalled those tires. A move that is reported to have cost them $150 USD million.
Fortunately, I discovered the problem before there was a catastrophic failure of the tires and replaced them with Goodyear Eagle GT performance tires. Since then, I've never bought another Firestone (buying only Goodyear, Pirelli, or Michelin). I guess Firestone did not learn from its experience with the 500. But I sure did.
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Aloha Friday - 11 August 2000
It's Friday!
I'm leaving work early today to take SWCNBD to the hospital for further tests so this will be a short posting.
Bunny Money. Or Bunnygate. Either smells as fetid. Anyone who says Republicans (or Libertarians for that matter) have a lock on hypocrisy need only look to this example to see that the Democrats know how to speak out of both sides of their mouths just like their brethren in the Grand Old Party.
The Los Angeles Times (see the story here) tells of how California Representative (D) Loretta Sanchez is having a sold-out fund raiser for the Hispanic Unity, USA. Now let me say I have no idea what this Hispanic Unity, USA is. That is not the problem.
The problem is that the fund raiser is scheduled to be held at Hugh Heffner's Playboy Mansion. And this is not politically correct. It does not project the kind of image (and having oral sex with an intern does?) that the Democratic Party wants to project.
Hence, Sanchez, who was scheduled to speak at the Democratic National Convention, and is the party's general co-chair, will not speak. And may be stripped, ahem, removed from that post (general co-chair, that is).
Oh. By the way, Gore accepted a $1,000 campaign contribution last year from Heffner, and $500 this year from his daughter. How much do you want to bet that both checks were cashed?
Mail Call
From: Dan Seto
To: Bo Leuf
Subject: Re: Wellness
Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2000 09:57:30 -1000By the way, salem may be interested in the following from MSNBC. It talks about MeowMail.com and Paw held Data Appliances (PDAs).
http://www.msnbc.com/news/443367.asp
From: salem s [salem@leuf.com]
Organization: world domination in 5
To: Dan Seto
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2000 13:08:01 +0200
Subject: Re: Wellnessthank you for the tip, friend of the islands, the site was truly an excellent resource for us of the feline persuasion, albeit somewhat overwhelmed by the response engendered by the news article -- it took many minutes to get in -- and in places a tad tabloid-sensationalist in style, surely human editors at work. -- salem
Have a Great Weekend Everyone! Aloha
© 2000 Daniel K. Seto. All rights reserved.