Misc. Ramblings

Week of 26 February through 2 March 2001
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Debian GNU/Linux. InfoWorld's Nicholas Petreley dives into the deep end of the pool by saying the standard distribution of Linux should be based on Debian. His column is here. Mostly it comes down to the ease of updating your distribution. This is half of the story. The other half is having the newest apps ready of updating. That is, Debian must have the latest version of software ready for those who want to upgrade. Having an easy way of upgrading, but not the applications that you want to upgrade to, doesn't serve <g> any useful purpose.

Rio Roundup. The New York Times has an article (see it here) on a Brazilian security firm called Módulo Security Solutions. While, like most security firms, their job is to keep the bad buys out, they also like to show their expertise by hacking into systems. So, for the last two years they've accepted the challenge of hacking into the test servers that the Sans Institute put up for their annual conference. The first time it took less than three minutes. Last year, it took all of eight minutes. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Before I forget, no, your eyes are not fooling you. If you're using Windows, the font that this page is displayed in changed from Times to Verdana. I hope that makes it a little easier to read. For those using other operating systems (you know who you are), there shouldn't be any change. [Actually, everyone may well see a change. - Ed]

As usual, I have hundreds of pages to read for tomorrow night's class (a new section on administrative policy and rule making) so I gotta go - Aloha!

Mai Tais Anyone? <G>It does the heart good to read that Landon Syroid, son of fellow Daynoter Tom Syroid got released from his cast of torture ;) this past weekend. One hopes this type of incident does not befall anyone else anytime soon.

Also, a Big Mahalo (thank you) to Brian Bilbrey for his hard work and to the Gang for their generous support of Tom and family.

Pop Update. I bought a replacement power supply, over the weekend, for one of my PCs. As you may remember, the original blew up in a puff of smoke and flying capacitors. So on advice of the Daynoters, I got an Antec 300W. Unfortunately, as I had feared, when the original power supply went, it damaged other things as well. What exactly I can't say.

After I installed the new power supply, the fans started whirring, the drives spun up to speed, the NIC LED came on, but nothing else happened. No POST, no beeps, no video, no nothing. At this point, I figure its time to take a look at prices for a new motherboard and CPU. I've been trying to get a response from a local PC parts supplier but it's like they don't want my money. I've called and left messages twice, and even faxed them with what I wanted, but no response other than to say they would work on it. Hmmm.

I guess their business plan assumes they have a monopoly. Unfortunately for them, they don't. I checked Egghead.com and they have everything I want in stock. And even including shipping, I would save over $100USD over local prices. You have to wonder about business that act as if we have no other alternatives. That service does not matter. That you don't need to keep the customers that you have because the next ~~sucker~~ customer is just around the corner. [A late update, they eventually called back with a quote.]

Mau'i no ka oi. I forgot to mention in addition to the upgrade to the IBM supercomputer at the Maui High Performance Computing Center (see my post last week about upgrading to 2,000 CPUs here), the Center is also getting a 512-processor, 478 billion operations per second, Linux machine. Until one at the University of Illinois comes on-line, Maui will apparently have the most powerful Linux system around (see the article here).

Speaking of Power. I've decided to get an Intel 933 MHz CPU and Intel 815EEAAL motherboard. Add to that an IBM Deskstar 7200rpm 30 GB hard drive and I'll be set. Or at least until the next power supply blows up.

Misc. Links. Here are a few miscellaneous links found while going hither and yon (well, if RBT can dither, I can go hither and yon).

For those C programmers who need to review how to write proper ANSI C code please take a look at the 15th International Obfuscated C Code Contest results here.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, protecting rights and promoting freedom in the electronic frontier (see it here).

Administrative Law and the Regulation of Business. We've talked already about situations where it is appropriate for governmental intervention in the economy. Now we'll take a look at the agencies or commissions that are tasked with implementing the regulations, and by doing so, transferred the regulatory power from the states to the federal government.

Background and History. There are three points of view as to the genesis of administrative agencies (e.g., the ICC, SEC, FAA, EPA, etc.) According to L. Friedman, in History of American Law; "The administrative agency was the child of necessity." In the late 1800's came monopolies involving banks, insurance, oil, and railroads. These monopolies were huge and so were their political powers. In the face of those powers, "Traditional agencies of government could not regulate big business or keep the infrastructure tame." And so the conflict model was postulated.

It is not coincidental then, that the most important sectors of the economy first came to be regulated. For example, the national currency had been in a chronic state of disrepair before the Civil War. In fact, after Jackson, it could be said that there was no national banking system at all. That is, the states regulated currency and banking. But this resulted in a multitude of confusing, contradictory, and/or generally ineffective regulations.

The strain of the Civil War made clear the need for central control over fiscal and monetary systems. In response, Congress established, in 1863, a national banking system. The national bank notes provided far more uniformity, certainty, and stability in currency than was possible under the prior system of either no, or relatively weak, state regulation.

And then there were the railroads. On the one hand, railroads created far-off markets, made towns sprout-up like weeds along the right-of-way, lured farmers into planting particular crops, enticed settlers from one place to another. But on the other hand, they were corrupt, overloaded with debt, controlled by out-of-state interests, and monopolistic. They manipulated governments, and cheated each other, their contractors, and their stockholders. The response, up-to-then, had been the same hodgepodge-type of ineffective (except perhaps for the Granger movement) state regulations that had plagued the banking industry.

In 1887, came the Interstate Commerce Commission Act. The act was a result of a confluence between the public, who demanded a response to the abuses of the railroad barons, and the industry itself, which saw this as an opportunity to curb competition and to set guaranteed fixed high rates. With such a divided mission, and with the help of a compliant US Supreme Court, the Commission itself soon became as ineffective as the state commissions that had come before it. But I'm getting ahead of myself. More tomorrow when we'll look at the conspiracy and capture models.

I don't have a lot of time this morning so this post will be a little shorter than I would otherwise want it to be. To recap, our class is looking at administrative rule making and public policy. Yesterday, I covered the Conflict Model. Today I'll briefly go over the Conspiracy and Capture Models.

The Conspiracy Model of Administrative Agencies. This model looks critically at the genesis of administrative agencies and the groups (and their interests) that pushed for them. According to this theory, the agencies came about not from groups of people coalescing to deal with a long-term problem. Rather, it reflects corporations wanting to keep competition out of their industries.

The evidence for this are the regulations these agencies promulgate. Regulations which appear to keep competition out, prices high, and existing big corporations happy. In addition, a look at the people who head these agencies also show the close relationship between the regulators and the regulated. Most agency chairs are former members of the corporations that they are supposed to regulate. The opposite also occurs. Namely, former members of these agencies soon find themselves working for the same organizations they were regulating. And getting access to decision makers (their former co-workers) that would not occur otherwise.

The Capture Model - The Life Cycle of Regulatory Commissions. According to M. Bernstein, in Regulating Business by Independent Commission, "The life cycle of an independent commission can be divided into four periods: gestation, youth, maturity, and old age." The length of each phase may vary by commission, and it is possible for a phase to be very short, or even skipped entirely.

This model combines elements of the two other theories and tries to explain the slow ossification of agencies by using the metaphor of a human life. In the beginning, the agencies are uncertain as to their role in society. The enabling legislation typically is vague in what is to be accomplished and how to do it. But it is understood that they are to solve a long-standing problem by reigning in the abuses of an industry. In other words, the agency sees itself as in conflict with the regulated industry.

The agency then moves into the next phase where it begins to see the direction it is to take and moves with vigor, if not insight, towards that goal, while still in conflict with industry.

The agency, over time, transitions to a state in which less and less new regulation is done and the main thrust, if there is one, is to maintain the status quo. This is where an even closer relationship with industry begins to occur. The revolving door syndrome (staffers leaving to work for the regulated industry) begins take a toll. The best and the brightest leave and those that came from industry in the first place, return to the private sector.

Thus begins the last phase. By this time, the agency is, for the most part, co-opted by the industry they are supposed to regulate. The agency now sees its mission as being one of facilitating, not regulating. Of trying to promote the interests of the industry, not policing it. Or worse, trying to do both (for example, the FAA). In other words, it has been fully captured by the industry it was to regulate.

Earth to ISS. Little Sacred Hearts Academy, three or four blocks away from where I live, is apparently the only high school in the US qualified to operate telebridge connections for NASA's ARISS program. This allows the Academy to contact the International Space Station via ham radio, which they did yesterday. See the story here with links to all kinds of related information.

Speaking of Communications. Hawaii is rapidly becoming a network hub for the Internet to parts East. Two companies, Transvision International and Vision Accomplished will be constructing eight satellite dish stations on Oahu (at a teleport slated for 34 such dishes with eight already up and running) for Internet access to Asian countries. These countries either do not have land lines, or in numbers insufficient to handle the traffic, and may not have such for some time. Hence, the use of satellite transmission. The Internet "cloud" lands here in the form of fiber optic links from the mainland. The signals are then up-linked to satellites, and from there down to China, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and India.

Going Ape, Hawaiian Style. The remake of the movie "Planet of the Apes" is set to start filming on the Big Island later this month [They've already done most of their filming on the mainland. With a Summer release slated, one assumes the Hawai'i segment must be their last. - Ed]. About 250 people will be involved in the shoot, including star Mark Wahlberg. The last major movie filmed there was "Waterworld" with Kevin Costner. Lets hope this one is more successful than that (although one wonders why you would want to remake "Planet of the Apes", classic though it may be, of all movies).

Speaking of Big Apes. University of Hawai'i football coach (American style you Limeys) Junes Jones has been upgraded to "satisfactory" condition. As you may remember, his car crashed into a highway support beam last week. For one who had three inches (~7.5 cm) of his aorta replaced he is doing very well. Best wishes to the Coach and his family.