Monday - 4 December 2000
Sports Roundup Congratulations to Hawai'i Pacific University's womens volleyball team. They won the NCAA Division II title over the weekend. Let's hope the University of Hawai'i Na Wahine can do the same in Division I.
Na Wahine beat the Utah Utes in straight sets this weekend and have Long Beach next to open the NCAA Western finals. Long Beach is the only team to have beat Na Wahine this year so it should be a good match.
The UH Warriors football (yes, it is American style) team lost their last game of the season against UNLV. Here's to having a better season next year.
What has 50,000 feet, 1.9 million cups, 125,000 pounds (56,700 kg) of ice cubes, 10 acres (4 hectares) of tents, 465 portable toilets, 180 medical cots, and a 150-ft. (45.7 metres) Bailey Tank Bridge? The Honolulu Marathon of course! The race is the third largest in the US with 24,815 registered runners/walkers/crawlers and is set for this Sunday.
For the first time this year, the runners will be wearing timing chips. The chips will automatically trip electronic timers at the start, 10K, half-marathon, 30K, and finish lines. The chips should produce more accurate times and not penalize people at the back of the start line since their times do not start until they cross the start line.
What was that you said? Did I ever run a marathon? Well, yes and no. I ran the first half, the last half I walked. Step by step. Inch by miserable inch. But I finished. In six and a-half hours. But I finished. That was back in 1984. Now-a-days, I'm lucky if I drive 26 miles, much less run it...
I have another paper due for class tomorrow so I gotta go - Aloha!
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Tuesday - 5 December 2000
Dune. I see that I'm not the only who watched the first two episodes of Frank Herbert's Dune Trilogy on TV. The third of three is tonight but I have to go to class so I may miss it (yes I have a VCR, two actually, but I don't have the time to watch taped programs so why bother...).
Dueling Drives. I added a second hard drive to my PC at work recently. It already had a Maxtor 90645D3 (6.4 GB), which I had earlier dual booted between Linux and Windows 98SE. But when I got around to adding Win2K, I took the drive to bare metal but did not install Linux. What I did was to add a second drive. This drive, a Maxtor 51536H3 (15 GB), has a full kitchen sink install of Caldera's OpenLinux eDesktop 2.4, and nothing else.
I recommend the full install because otherwise, when you try to actually do some work, you will find stuff that you need are missing. So you may as well get it over with, at the start, and have everything there in the first place. Having the second drive also makes me feel safer since I don't have two operating systems on one drive. This way, if something goes horribly wrong, I only lose one side, not both.
The extra drive also gives Linux a lot more space to play in. Whoever said Linux didn't require a lot of horsepower or space never had to do any work in a desktop environment. Perhaps, if you never venture from the command prompt, using that old 486 with 16MB of RAM will do the trick. But if you are actually going to use KDE, or Gnome, or whatever, and then run a word processor, and spreadsheet, and maybe a few other applications, then you need at least as strong a PC as you would for Windows98. Otherwise, you will spend a lot of time waiting. And waiting.
Switch Hitting. I had to replace my SMC 8-port switch this weekend. Now yes, a switch, in the Seto Shack is probably overkill. I could probably get along just fine with a lowly hub. But it is just so kWeL to have a switch, that the $10 or 20$ price difference didn't phase me at all. But I digress.
I have never had problems with SMC hardware. So I was surprised when I began to have problems with my network. Packets would get lost. Download times would increase. Web access was so slow I would just give up. At first, I thought it was my cable modem service. But the problems got to a point at which I could not ping my gateway.
Figuring it was problems with cables I switched (no pun intended) things around with different cables to no joy. I then decided to take the switch out and just run one PC out to the net. And lo and behold, no problems. The speed was back to normal and I could reach everything as before. Hmmm.
So off I went to CompUSA to get a new switch. Since I was burned once, I figured I would get a different brand of switch. Truth be told, if I had the money, I would have gotten a 3Com. 3Com (along with Intel or Cisco) are the Cadillacs of network equipment. But alas, a D-Link eight-port switch could be had for the cost of a four-port 3Com, and a simple cost-benefit analysis said buy the D-Link. So I got the D-Link. So far, access is back to normal and all the lights on the switch go blinky just like their supposed to. If there hadn't been another brand of switch, I probably would had gotten another SMC, which probably would be just as good.
Virus Alert.
A new worm virus is making the rounds. Based on the number of recent infections, McAfee upgraded its warning from medium to high, on 1 December. It comes in via an email with the subject line "A great shockwave flash movie." The email contains an attachment that when executed, sends a copy of itself to all addresses in your Outlook address book.
"The worm does not destroy files on a user's computer, but renames all files of the .jpeg and .zip type and moves them to the PC's root directory, said Patrick Nolan, a virus researcher with McAfee's Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team (AVERT)." See the full story here from InfoWorld.
I have to finish my paper for tonight so I gotta go - Aloha!
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Hump Day Wednesday - 6 December 2000
'tis the Season. The season for shopping that is. Last year, Intel's microscope, that attached to a PC, was a hit. Others, seeing the success of Intel, have chimed in this year with their own "smart" toys. From Tonka comes the Dig'n Rigs CD-ROM Playset. "The Tonka Dig'n Rigs CD-ROM Playset lets little hands work the controls of six of the biggest construction vehicles in all of Tonka Town.
"Kids can steer their favorite rig to the job site and get right to work swinging the wrecking ball, picking up materials, digging holes, bulldozing, loading and lifting. Pull the levers, rev the diesel engine and let loose on the horn! Tonka Dig'n Rigs makes it easy to have fun...and get the job done!"
Over at Intel, there's the IntelPlay Me2Cam. "Kids have always wanted to see themselves play inside a computer game, and now they can with the Me2Cam* Computer Video Camera and Fun Fair™ CD-ROM! "The Me2Cam* and Fun Fair™ CD-ROM is a revolutionary new system of play that lets kids go inside the computer game and interact with a virtual world. No mouse is needed since kids will use their bodies to make things happen inside the games."
For LEGO lovers (you know who you are), there's the LEGO Studios Steven Spielberg MovieMaker Set. This one includes a video camera, movie editing software and 433-piece LEGO set with props for making movies. Cut! Print!
Spin Doctors. I mentioned earlier about how if the ballot situation in Florida were turned around, each of the parties would be saying the opposite of what they are saying. Well, now we have an example of just that.
Previously, the Republicans have been saying it is the rule of law that we must listen to above all else. In other words, if the law says they don't have to include certain types of ballots (for example, from strong Democratic areas) then why count them? The Democrats counter saying the main point is to count all of the votes (for example, from strong Democratic areas), regardless of what the law may say.
So now comes the Seminole County case (see the story here from the Los Angeles Times). A case in which, it is alleged, Republican officials wrote in required serial numbers on the ballot envelopes of Republican voters, but failed to do so for Democratic voters. As I understand it, all of the envelopes were supposed to have computer generated serial numbers, as an anti-fraud auditing tool. However, by some unexplained "computer error", at least 15,000 envelopes did not have these numbers.
The Republicans are now saying what's important is the intent of the voters, not the rule of law. They say just because these may be questionable ballots (remember, no serial numbers = possible fraud), just because only Republican ballots with no serial numbers were written in and included and all Democratic ballots with no serial numbers were not written in and therefore were disqualified, does not mean that the intent of the voters should not be included. Hmmm. Who said people can't talk out of both sides of their mouths at the same time? A pox on both their houses.
I rest my case. I have one more paper for this semester. It's due tomorrow so I gotta go - Aloha!
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Thursday - 7 December 2000 "Pearl Harbor Day"
A day which will live in infamy. As the people who were actually there slowly pass away, it becomes more and more important to remember the lessons of World War II. I'll leave it to you to decide what those lessons are.
What I wanted to talk about is the lesson learned yesterday. 14 Pearl Harbor survivors met three men. These three men are Japanese. Pilots. Specifically, bomber pilots. At least, that's what they were on December 7, 1941. After all these years, they met for the first time, on the deck (where WWII ended) of the battleship USS Missouri moored in Pearl Harbor.
I'm not going to say all of the pain, anger, and hurt of the Pearl Harbor survivors were swept away in one meeting. Life doesn't work that way. Usually. But I think it would be fair to say that each side understood that they were soldiers carrying out the mission they were ordered to do and now, 59 years later, it's time to let the those emotions ebb away. Like the leis and flowers dropped into the oily waters above the USS Arizona, where one could say, WWII began.
Opera 5.0 is Free! Well, sort of. Opera, based in Oslo, released it's latest version of their browser mere months after releasing version 4.0. The new version is free, but has banner advertising if you do not register (and pay a fee).
Even though I have licenses for the two copies I use (one at home and one at home), I don't think I'll upgrade just yet. I want to let things settle down first. While I'm trying not to be paranoid, when someone uses banners, I start looking for features like phoning home.
Having said that, up to know, I've felt Opera has the best, state-of-the-art, standards compliant browser out there. I use it both in the Windows environment and in Linux (beta 3 was recently released, with no ads).
Virus spotted. I got email from a reader in the Bay area who reports he received the virus noted in Tuesday's post above. Let's be careful out there folks. These things do exist and if you get one, it's easier to delete it then to recover from its affects. Thanks, Jim for writing in. See you in Hilo sometime, brah.
I have a class tonight, and one on Saturday. The paper is finished, but I have lots of stuff to do at work so I gotta go - Aloha!
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Aloha Friday - 8 December 2000
It's Friday!
Linux 1, Dan 1. Well, at least it's a tie. I've been struggling to attach to our Novell servers via Linux. The Netware client that Caldera has is pre-compiled. It works only with specific kernels (depending on which client you can find). It does not work with the 2.2.17. But using what is available in OpenLinux 2.4, I can now attach and login to one of our servers. But I haven't figured out how to mount the volumes, I guess life wouldn't be interesting if everything were easy. But every time nkfs.o (the Non-Kernel File System) executes, the screen is filled with errors of all kinds. I've downloaded the latest source files so we'll see if I can get that corrected by recompiling.
0900 UPDATE I compiled the source files and installed. And faster than you can say; Hey Presto!, it worked. NKFS automatically mounts the volumes I have rights to on the Novell servers. So now I can access my data and such there. <SFX:THWUMP!> Excuse me while I duck the snowballs from Hades that are flying around today.
Na Wahine Hit the Beach. I said the volleyball match between the University of Hawai'i and Long Beach would be a good match. And so it was. Five sets and three hours later, the UH women are going to the NCAA Western Final against the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Brain in a Box. What is 7-inches-square, covered in silver-foil-printed pseudo-metal frames and rivets, and has a 3-D photograph of a human brain floating in bubbly liquid? Need more? Okay, it also has a 200-page hard-bound book, designed in the style of Big Little Books of the '40s/'50s. Give up? Well, it's Rhino Records Brain in a Box. Huh? It's a 5-CD boxed set with 113 tracks of movie and TV sound tracks, scores, and assorted beeps from Sci-Fi classics. From Music to Watch Space Girls By to Them! It's all here. The perfect present for those who just have to have it all.
Mail Call.
From: Jan Swijsen
To: Dan Seto
Sent: Friday, December 08, 2000 3:26 AM
Subject: wwii>above the USS Arizona, where one could say, WWII began.
You mean where WW II began for the US. Poland, Belgium, The Netherlands, France and others were already in it. Deep.
--
Svenson.----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Seto
To: Jan Swijsen
Subject: Re: wwii
Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2000 06:35:06 -1000You are right (there you go again). I should have said, as you put it, hostilities relating to WWII began, for the US, at Pearl Harbor.
But we also left out China. There was a war going on in the Pacific which very few people heard about. Four years before Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Army killed 200,000 to 300,000 people in Nanking. Over the period of the war, it is estimated 15-30 million were killed in China. Off hand, I don't know what the casualties in all of Europe was, but if it's much more than that, I would be surprised.
Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!
© 2000 Daniel K. Seto. All rights reserved.