Misc. Ramblings

Week of 5 February through 9 February 2001
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High Tech Hawai'i. The long running PBS series the Computer Chronicles ran the first of a two-part story on high tech industries in Hawai'i. Yes, I know, most people equate Hawai'i with palm trees, not Palm Pilots. But believe it or not, there are high tech companies in Hawai'i.

The first episode included a U.S. Air Force wide-field near-space tracking telescope atop the extinct volcano Haleakala on Mau'i used for the identification and tracking of near-Earth orbit objects. In other words, all of the space junk left behind by hundreds of space flights by various countries. The high tech part of the system is the software and hardware used to sharpen and enhance the images. Some of the more powerful computers in the world (based on Mau'i at the Maui High Performance Computing Center) are used to run algorithms which can pick out details from blobs of white against the black of space. One of the examples was an image of the space shuttle taken while in flight hundreds of miles above Mau'i. They ran the original image through their program and out popped a picture so sharp you could almost read the lettering along the fuselage above the wing. One assumes that they are able to create even sharper images but do not display such due to national security concerns.

Another segment involved the Natural Energy Lab of Hawaii, which among another things, is generating electricity through the temperature difference between surface and deep sea water. The process, called Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) involves:

PBS stations around the country tend to have their own scheduling so you will need to check your local stations for show times.

I have to work on more testimony for a hearing on Wednesday so I gotta go - Aloha!

Better Late then Never. This is being posted a little late because I'm working on finishing the testimony for tomorrow's legislative hearing on raising the fee jurors get when they serve.

It is interesting that some states pay a lower fee for the first few days of a trial (something like 98% of the trials end within 10 days) and then pay a higher fee thereafter. For those who are curious:

Meeting Destiny. The critical Destiny module of the International Space Station is set for lift-off atop the Space Shuttle Atlantis today (scheduled lift-off time is about 1:11pm HST). The 16-ton, $1.38 billion (USD) section of the space station is the center pin of the entire structure. If anything should go wrong, heaven forbid, the entire program would be set back several years. See the New York Times article here.

New vs. Old. Interface guru Jakob Nielsen concentrates on testing the usability of websites with naive (in the sense of people who have not been to the tested site) people. But A-Clue.com's Dana Blankenhorn tells us of a report that says you should not forget the loyal, return user. This is based on a report by Catalyst Group Design (see the 556K pdf file here) which indicates designing for only new users (as Nielsen seems to emphasize) can alienate the return customer. Which in business, is the kiss of death (anyone want a bunch of high tech stocks for companies no longer in business?). I'm not going to get caught in the middle of this debate but Nielsen fires back that while most users are not stupid, you have to make it easy for them to find what they want, or they won't turn into loyal return customers in the first place. Sounds like the two of them are talking about two-sides of the same coin...

Picture This. I finally got around to putting up some pictures from our class outing last December to the Ka'ala Cultural Learning Center. Click on this link to go to the page. Once there, click on any image you want see a bigger version of. Be aware that some of the larger files are in the 700K range so don't view the larger images unless you have a lot of time or a fast connection.

The legislative hearing on increasing juror fees is this morning so I gotta go - Aloha!

Internet access is dead this morning so this will get posted when it gets posted. Sorry, but the dog ate my T-1.

VMWare 2: Dan 1. I finally got around to trying to install the Linux version of VMWare I got in December. Unfortunately, I probably should have just saved my money because there are major problems in getting it to work in a token-ring environment.

As background, VMWare sells a program that purports to create a virtual machine, in Linux, into which you can install Windows and any application that runs under that OS. Once VMWare is installed, and you've installed Windows, you are supposed to be able to have KDE running in one window, and Windows 2000 (or another version of Linux) in another.

My main reason for installing VMWare was I could then run my Lotus cc:Mail client for Windows (there isn't a version for Linux and there probably will never be one since Lotus has terminated support for cc:Mail) and access our mail server. I get the feeling that I won't be able to do that but I'm getting ahead of myself.

<911 Turbo Rant
    Mode="on">

The first problem is that the default install is set for Ethernet. Yes, I know, most of you use Ethernet and not token ring but somehow Windows can figure out what I have and install the correct driver. Why do I have to search the VMWare web site to find instructions for token ring (www.vmware.com/support/reference/linux/tr_linux/)? And when I do find the instructions, why, if they say they support Caldera OpenLinux eDesktop 2.4, their instructions don't say how to install it for token ring? Why do I have to manually download, install, and edit configuration files designed for Red Hat 6.x? Why do I have to install and configure IP chains and IP masquerading (without a bit of help from VMWare)? Why can't the install do this for me?

Well, part of the problem is that there is no standardization in the location of files. I'm not going to belabor a point I've talked about earlier. Suffice it to say one of the configuration files that VMWare thoughtfully has for downloading needs to be edited to point to where certain utilities are located (which are different from what they have in the file). But having done that, the script still doesn't run. Yes, the permissions are set for execution. So I tried copying the text from the file and saved it into a new file. That cured that problem. But when it executed it gave me four instances of :file not found. I don't have the time for this. Sigh.

Further, they have something called VMware Tools. It has a graphics driver (their own proprietary version of XFree86 X-server) and a background application for changing configuration settings. If you don't read the instructions very well, you automatically start to follow the Linux-based instructions (fool that I am) instead of skipping the page and following the Windows instructions. Who knew? Of course you follow the Windows instructions when you are using Linux. Intuitive isn't it?</sarcasm>

Don't get me wrong, I'll keep trying, for awhile anyway. But even if I get Internet access going, I doubt that I will be able to get Netware access (where our cc:Mail server is located). And if I can't get that, then VMWare is just so much wasted time and money.

</911 Turbo
    Mode="off">

The Naked Truth. Now, understand that I've not been to the nakednews.com site but I hear that you can watch a streamed version of a news cast. And so, what is so interesting about that? The "news caster" strips her clothes off and does it in the nude. You Neanderthals out there may want to go there. The others of you can go to the Martha Stewart Does Queens site. You decide.

Spicy Porsche. I've been trying to hunt down a photo of the new Porsche Cayenne SUV. There's supposed to be one at the Chicago Auto Show which opens today but no luck so far. So why is Porsche planning to market an SUV? Well, so Dr. Keyboard can pick up the groceries, doing a 100 mph, watching the scenery go by. Backwards.

Sorry for the late posting yesterday but our connectivity went dead and did not come back up until the early evening. I hope this one makes it up to the net but who knows. In either case, have a Great Weekend Everyone! (and Happy Birthday Oggii!) - Aloha!