Monday - 23 October 2000
The need for speed. Got a spare $420,000 laying around? IBM will gladly exchange that for one of their new eServer pSeries 680s. Features include:
6-to-24-way 64-bit SMP server with state-of-the-art copper and silicon-on-insulator technologies.
Up to 96GB of memory, 16MB L2 cache, 56 PCI slots, 48 hot-swappable disk bays, and 873.6GB of internal disk capacity. Availability is set for November 17.
Speaking of Speed. It was almost anti-climatic, but Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher ended the F1 season with yet another win in the Malaysian Grand Prix, making it nine wins for the season. Schumacher had clinched the driver's title two weeks ago. But yesterday's win also gave the constructors championship to Ferrari. The first time since 1979 that Ferrari won both the driver and constructor's championships (with Jody Scheckter).
Yanks in Five. It appears that Mets baseball player Benny Agbayani may have the numbers right, but the team name wrong. If the first two games of the baseball world series are any indication, the New York Yankees will beat the New York Mets.
Surfs Up! The first large sets of the winter season rolled in to the North shore this weekend. Consistent 10-to-12 footers, with some larger sets marked the beginning of the silly season. Pipeline and Sunset Beaches were pumping out the perfect tubes surfers from all over the world look for.
Speaking of surf. Hawai'i resident Sonny Garcia won the world surfing title in Brazil yesterday. Well done Sonny!
I'm still working on my paper for class tomorrow as well as one for work so I need to get around to it real soon now - Aloha!
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Tuesday - 24 October 2000
The Need for Speed II. I was looking over my local PC parts supplier site and noticed the prices on the AMD Athlon 1GHz socket-A chips have fallen to $319.95 (see the list here)! Let me repeat that, 1GHz for $319.95! Add a $200 motherboard and you have the makings of a hot PC (pun intended). If I'm lucky, Santa may drop one of those chips down the Seto Shack chimney this year [memo to Santa, Dan doesn't have a chimney - Ed.].
On the other hand, they don't even list an Intel part at that speed. And what they do have, a 933 Pentium III, is selling for $599. I hope you don't have a lot of Intel stock in your portfolio [memo to the SEC, Dan was only joking - Ed.].
Linux-3, Dan-2. I talked with one of our IT people yesterday about my problems with the DHCP client not picking up the DNS server addresses. He mentioned that it is not a problem with the DHCP client. Rather, the Judiciary's DHCP server is configured to only give out the PC's IP address. Everything else (DNS and gateway) must be manually typed in on the client's PC. Sigh. What's worse, I kind of knew that since I've set-up a few Windows PCs. Age. It will get you every time.
This still doesn't completely, ahem, resolve my problem because the Linux DHCP client appears to automatically erase any information in the /etc/resolv.conf file at the time of initialization. If anyone knows of a way of overriding this behavior I would appreciate knowing about it.
I also checked in with Caldera support regarding access to Novell 4.x servers. They have a Netware client (get it here), but it is compiled under 2.0.x. So, I asked them if the source is available so I can compile under 2.2.16 (which is the kernel I am currently using). Or if there is some other way of using the client without having to downgrade from 2.2.16 to 2.0.x. They said they are currently working on an update, until then, you have to use the 2.0.x kernel. Well, no thanks. I guess I'll wait.
Unclear on the Concept. As part of my Masters in Public Administration class, we are reviewing the budget proposals from the two presidential candidates. I find it interesting that the Bush proposal is full of graphs. So, what's so interesting about that? Well, none of the graphs can be read. When you print them out, or look at them on screen, it appears to be graphic file, saved at a very low resolution. So low, that you can't read it. You can sort of guess what some of it is, but most of the numbers are dithered to a point as to be unreadable. Perhaps this is a good metaphor for George Dubyah. See the proposal here (WARNING! It's a 2MB pdf file).
I'm still going over the differences, but so far, it looks like Gore would like to use part of the surplus to pay down the national debt (to be paid off by 2012), part to stabilize the Social Security and Medicare funds, and part to be put aside for what I would call a rainy day fund (what Gore calls a Surplus Reserve). Seems like a good plan to me. When I finish looking at the Bush plan, which appears to be based on giving your tax dollars to the top one percent, income/assets wise, of the population, I will have a few more comments. Think about it. YMMV.
Much to do and not much time to do it - Aloha!
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Hump Day Wednesday - 25 October 2000
Rent-a-Scan. [sound of a phone ringing] Ring. Ring. Hello, Hotel Reservations. May I help you? Yes sir, we have rooms available. Will that be a single or a double? Ocean view or mountain? Electronic beam tomography or non-smoking?
Electronic beam tomography? Yes EBT. The Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel recently opened a health and wellness center called Holistica. The center piece of which is the US$2 million EBT scanner. The scan, which costs $495, gives you a state-of-the-art look at what's going on inside your heart (among other organs).
For a listing of hotel related health spas, see this article from the Chicago Tribune here.
The Oracle of Honolulu. The Oracle Applications Users Group is in town for a convention (see it here). They seem to like the new convention center. The center is wired with CAT-5 and fiber so high speed connections are not a problem. Not to mention state-of-the-art audio and video services.
People from all over the world are here to update themselves on the latest information on Oracle systems. In fact, a local TV station interviewed one person who came all the way from Belgium to attend the convention!
--- I finished my paper for class last night and emailed it to my professor. I also have a second draft of my paperless office paper done. So all I need to do is read a couple of hundred pages for class tomorrow night and complete two presentations for next week. What? Me worry? - Aloha!
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Thursday - 26 October 2000
Short Shrift Mode. (TM- Pournelle) I got a late start this morning so I'm running a little late. And on top of that, SWMBO TM-Rumpole is not feeling well today, and there is always hell to pay when that happens...
I will try to do a noon update but, who knows...
***** Noon Update *****
The Shadows Does. Or at least KDE. As Brian Bilbrey noted earlier, the latest version of KDE is out. The only thing is, the thundering herds are there also. So maybe you should wait awhile until not so many people are at the trough.
Taxing Times. California's sales tax will be going down a quarter of a cent next year. A quarter of a cent? Don't ask me, Kalifornians, oops - been reading too much KDE stuff, do things differently. But any tax reduction, even if temporary, is helpful when you consider they have some of the higher tax rates, if not the highest, in the nation. Local and state sales taxes vary from 7.25 to 8.5 percent. And they say Hawai'i is a tax hell (we have 4.0 percent tax)! See the Los Angeles Times article here.
Lies, damnable lies, and Presidential Preference Polls. How can we trust preference polls when the results seem to change so much? Sometimes on a daily basis. One poll says Bush is ahead, another says Gore, and yet another says it's a tie.
Well, there's no sure way to completely trust any poll. But if you are willing to do a little work, you can maybe weed out the ones that are clearly biased, one way or the other. The place to start is here.
The article is a little long (it is spread out over several links), but if you really want to cast a critical eye upon these polls, you have to do some work. I realize most people won't spend the time, but you're not most people. Right?
Aloha!
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Aloha Friday - 27 October 2000
5-0. Well, he had the number right, but the wrong team won. Congratulations to the baseball champion New York Yankees. Maybe next year. Go Mets!
McPlate Lunch. Or, you want rice with that? McDonalds takes pride in trying to accommodate local tastes wherever they sell their McRubbish. Whether it's wine in France, bratwurst in Milwaukee, or nori sprinkled fries in Japan, McDonalds tries to integrate indigenous foods into their menu.
So it should be no surprise that the local McDonalds is testing a Hawai'i favorite, the plate lunch. Now if you've never been here and had a plate lunch, well you're missing a lot. A lot of cholesterol that is <G>. What it consists of are two scoops of brown gravy covered white rice, a scoop of macaroni salad, and your hot entree (chicken, fish, or burger).
MSN Explorer. Microsoft is touting its new
MSN Explorer (see it here) as an
all-in-one stop for your Internet experience. To me, it
looks like a modified version of IE customized to
assimilate (resistance is futile) integrate with their
MSN portal. While it is always dangerous to not take MS
seriously about what it wants to do, right now, all I can
say is - hawk, spit. Phasers on full. Rotate frequencies.
Load photon torpedoes. Aim for the main cube. Fire for
effect!
I did get around to doing a noon update yesterday (okay, it might have been a 1:00pm update). So if you didn't see it, feel free to take a look above. Or not.
Have a great weekend everyone - Aloha!
© 2000 Daniel K. Seto. All rights reserved.