Ho Hum. Another Monday. Two more SirCam infected emails and who knows how many worm scans. Fortunately, the Norton Anti-Virus software I use detected the infected emails (not that I would open an email with an attachment) and my firewall at home and the hardware firewall at work kept the scans at the perimeter. Since you're reading this, why don't you go right now and update whichever software you are using?
Business Tip of the Day. I've talked before about the Hawai'i company involved in providing Internet access to Asian countries via satellite connections (see my post here). But for those who are looking for the Next Big Thing, think about this. Many analysts are saying that by the year 2003 or 2004, there will be more people on the Internet in Asia than in the US. There is a business opportunity there. Put on your thinking caps. What will they need if that prediction were to be correct? What infrastructure? What services? The people who choose wisely may well be the next wave of dot.com millionaires.
Dog Days of Summer. You ever wonder what bowser was really trying to say when she was barking at 3:00am in the morning? Well, Infoworld has an article (see it here) about a device which they say may be able to tell you.
The "Bowlingual" device consists of a terminal with a liquid crystal display and a separate wireless compact microphone. The microphone, which is placed on a dog's collar, will pick up and send out its bark to the terminal. The terminal will then analyze its voiceprint and categorize it into one of the six feelings: frustration, menace, insistence, fun, sorrow, and desires, the companies said.The collected data is used in two ways. One is to be immediately translated into words, which are randomly picked from a 200-word dictionary. For example, when the voice data is categorized as fun, expressions such as "it's fun", "I'm happy," and "cool!" are available. The device can either display them on the screen or voice them from the speaker.
The other way is that the data can be stored and analyzed over a longer term and come out as the dog's journal or the dog's mood scale for a day. The companies are also developing a Bowlingual e-mail service so that the owner can see what the dog is saying while being away from home.
It's slated to go on sale early next year for a little over $100. Should we start thinking about a Dalmation Daynotes site? Or perhaps Pekinese Posters? Labrador Loggers? [Quick, someone stop him before he hurts himself! Oh the horror! The horror! - ed.]
From John Dominik: Barking Bloggers. I rest my case. Certifiable I say. Certifiable. <G>
Aloha!
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Tuesday - 14 August 2001
Three Letter Words. Dr. Jerry Pournelle's post for yesterday (see it here) got my heart jump started. He talked about having to take an EKG. This is not the kind of news you want to hear.
Although we appear to be from different sides of the political aisle, all that kind of stuff falls by the wayside when it comes to one's health. I hope all is well. Thoughts and prayers everyone (and don't forget the situation in Israel while you're at it).
Possible SPAM Warning. I got an email saying it was from "Caldera" with a subject of "Special Invitation - Forum 2001." Since I use Caldera's OpenLinux 2.4, and have registered with them, I didn't think much of it. So I clicked on the email. Part of the body of the email is apparently some kind of Shockwave animation. I don't know for sure, because I have ActiveX and scripting disabled.
I thought it strange though, that the first paragraph of the email started off with a link to Caldera's privacy statement. Below is the entire text of the email:
Your privacy is important to us. For more information, please review our privacy notice at: http://www.calderasystems.com/company/privacy/If you click on the link, or if you have ActiveX and scripting enabled, you are taken to ads.pop-ad.com. Hmmm. Now what would a company called ads.pop-ad.com do for a living? And why would you code an HTML link to include the users email address? Hmmm. Let me see, so you could collect information as to which email addresses are active and can then be sold or SPAMed?If the rich media presentation below has not appeared in 15 seconds, please click here [link deleted].
You are receiving this email because you have opted to receive periodic information about Caldera and its products. To unsubscribe, please click here:
http://www.caldera.com/company/rcc/unsubscribe.html
By the way, the email includes a 1X1 web bug gif (see the link here from the Privacy Foundation for what a web bug is). Why would anyone use a clear gif that is one pixel by one pixel? Because they want to monitor you.
I may be a little paranoid, but if I were you, and you get one of these emails, I would just delete it (to be fair, I've sent an email to Caldera asking them for comment. As of this date, they have not responded).
Plumbing 1: Dan 0. We live downstairs of a two-story house. The upstairs was where my late father-in-law lived. He passed away three years ago of leukemia. Since then, SWMBO has done her best never to go upstairs, so upstairs stayed exactly as it was when her dad died. And I mean that literally.
Recently, with our decision to move to the back house (if we have any money left after paying for all the termite repairs), we've had to go upstairs and clean up. I'm sure this have not been an easy thing, emotionally speaking, for her. And it hasn't been easy for me either (but not for the same reason, as I will now explain).
First, dealing with a refrigerator full of three-year-old food does not rank high on my list of things labeled "fun" (I told you things were left exactly as they were). Bad as that may be, that's not my story for today.
My story, as all good stories, begins innocently enough in the bathroom [huh? - ed.]. If you don't flush a toilet for three years (heck, in some climates probably three days would do it), the water in the bowl dries up. Now, that water serves a couple of purposes. I'm sure you can guess what the main one is but the other purpose is to provide a barrier against methane gas, from the sewer, entering the house. So it seemed kind of important, at the time, to get some water in there.
So I'm in the bathroom cleaning up and decide to flush the toilet to get some water in the bowl. I hit the handle and the water begins to flow. And flow. Hmmm. Applying standard plumbing procedures, I jiggle the handle - to no effect.
Okay. So I figure the valve in the toilet tank isn't working (although why it worked for three years and now decides to stop working now I don't know). I take the cover off of the tank and stare blankly, but hopefully, at the valve. I don't see anything obviously wrong so I jiggle the valve body, but to no avail.
So I get down on my knees and reach around back, near the wall for the cut-off valve that should stop the flow of water to the tank itself. You guessed it, tightening the valve as hard as I can does not stop the flow of water either. I figure jiggling the valve would not help so I move on.
No problem, I'll just go out to the front yard and close the main valve to the house. Of course, first, I have to find the valve. You know, this is the one conveniently buried under a foot of dirt somewhere in the general vicinity of the corner of the lot. So I start scrapping away dirt like a crazed Hawaiian trying to save his house from flooding (which happens to be uncomfortably close to being accurate, but I digress).
I won't go into the gory details (it involves sticking my hands into mud filled with white, fat, slimy larva of some kind, and hundreds of bugs that sort of look like small roaches). I turn the handle until it stops. But the water is still flowing. Hmmm. So I look for a plumbers helper, i.e., a piece of wood that I can use to give the handle a whack or two (because, everyone together now, jiggling the handle didn't help). Applying the persuader gets the handle turned some more but the water is still flowing, at a lower rate perhaps, but flowing nonetheless. A couple more good whacks though, and the Niagara flow of water stops.
All of this digging and whacking took about 30 minutes, in the sun. A very hot sun. So I take a short break and then head over to our local Ace Hardware store, which thank goodness was still open, so I was able to buy the twiddly bits I needed to replace the cut-off valve, in the bathroom behind the toilet. I installed that (remember to use teflon (tm) tape on the threads), went back downstairs to the yard to open the main valve, and then raced upstairs to check for leaks. Everything looked fine. But no, I don't plan to change the valve in the toilet tank just yet. I'm too disgusted right now.
But it was interesting to take a look at the old cut-off valve that I had replaced. There is a rubber o-ring that acts as a seal. Apparently, the ring had cracked and part of it broke off. That's why it didn't stop the flow of water. When it broke off is hard to tell because it was probably never needed or used until this weekend. My guess is there is a similar rubber seal in the toilet tank valve. And I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a similar break. I pray there isn't a similar rubber seal in the main cut-off valve in the yard...
Now if that wasn't bad enough, we got a call from our contractor yesterday. The second support beam, at the front of the house, that I told you about last week, is also infested with subterranean termites. This too will need to be replaced. We are hopeful (Lord, what fools these mortals be!) that this repair will not take as long as the other beam (going on one week) and that we can have a house that is inhabitable again Real Soon Now. Although, the light we saw at the end of the tunnel was in fact a train heading our way and all this uproar is getting on our nerves.
The Good News for Modern Man (tm). Being rational is a Good Thing. Reliance on the scientific method has brought us many benefits - better health care, the wonders of the universe, and planes that carry us around the world in relative safety. But sometimes, when dealing with humans, you have to take a chance. Sometimes you just have to take that leap of faith (use the Force, Luke. Use the Force - ed.) and look past the rational thing and see the potential in people.
So it's three years ago and you are the coach of the University of Hawai'i Wahine Volleyball team. You're on a scouting trip on the mainland to look at promising young high school players. If it's Tuesday, this must be Simi Valley, California. The trip has been long and grinding but it's part of the job and it gives you a chance to see prospects that you may want to recruit when the time comes.
On the court tonight is a girl, lets call her Melody - all six feet four-inches of her. If this were basketball, she would be known as a wide-body. Not because she is overweight or anything, but because her presence is bigger than her stature would otherwise indicate. That is, just being at the volleyball net forces opponents to change their hitting patterns and thus reduces their effectiveness.
Yes, she is very raw and not yet ready for college play, but then, she's only a junior in high school. And you aren't the only one there scouting her. Melody has been attracting attention from all of the major volleyball powers.
But tonight wasn't going to be Melody's night. The "pop" she hears as she lands after blocking a attempted spike is the sound of her anterior cruciate ligament, in her left knee, blowing out. And with it, her dreams for not only high school play, but as she was soon to see, perhaps college as well. For all of those scouts crossed Melody off their lists that night knowing that the surgery and post operative physical therapy would be long and arduous, while at the same time not guaranteeing full recover.
All that is, except one coach. A coach that has led his team to 681 wins versus 135 losses - including one year in which they went 31 and 1. The University of Hawai'i coach - Dave Shoji. Dave sees the potential in Melody beyond where she is physically in her recovery. As the old basketball saying goes; You can teach a person to shoot the ball, you can teach her to dribble, pass, and do layups. But you can't teach a player to be six feet four inches-tall. So Dave pencils her name in his short list of prospects to continue to watch.
It's now two painful, agonizing years later and the only kind of acceptance letters Melody is getting in the mail is from schools who are no longer interested in "damaged goods." And who can blame them? She's hasn't played for two years, missing her Junior and Senior years. Why take a chance? So her spirit grows a little darker with every "Dear Melody" letter thanking her for applying but due to various reasons, there just isn't a place for her on their team.
But then one day, a letter arrives from far off Hawai'i. And even though you don't want to get your hopes up, just to have them dashed again, there flickers a still small flame. You tear open the envelope, your hands shaking a little as you read the hand written letter from Coach Shoji telling you have a shot at joining the Western Athletic Conference Champion University of Hawai'i Women's Volleyball team.
No one can say for sure what the future holds for Melody. Maybe she will do well and maybe she won't. But at least she has a chance to find out, thanks to someone who believes in the potential of people, sometimes more than the rational statistics. And sometimes, Aloha means "Hello", and not "Goodbye". Aloha Melody, welcome to Hawai'i.
Aloha!
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Hump Day Wednesday - 15 August 2001
Late Again. Well, I warned you that KDE had not exactly been keeping to its announced ship dates for version 2.2. And sure enough, the latest deadline (Monday) came and went. While they do indicate they had problems with their ftp site (the hard drive ate their homework), that does not mean they couldn't have used mirror sites. Remember, this is the Internet. You are supposed to be able to route around problems. And being professionals, they did have back ups. Right?
Today's announcement says KDE 2.2 shipped today and to check your local mirror sites. Well, I checked five sites (the US ones and Australia and Japan) and was not able to find 2.2. Bottom line, I'm sorry but I don't know how far I can trust the people who are running KDE. I'm sure they will release version 2.2 someday, I just don't know when. Sigh.
Hurrah! Some good news. Our ceiling is still open, but the majority of the braces and plastic sheeting in our house has been removed. At least now we can use our kitchen and living room again. Thank goodness.
Unfortunately, yesterday the carpenters removed the sliding door, the frame around the door, and replaced the support beam (4-inches wide, eight-feet long, and 12-inches high) above the door. When they replaced the door, it was, of course, out of alignment so it is binding in its tracks.
The carpenters will now go to the left of the door and follow some termites tracks to see where they lead. My guess is they will find additional beams to replace. On the other hand, if everything is okay, the carpenters start work on the upstairs master bath where termites have been eating the doorway and who knows what else. Will this never end? Stay tuned for more updates in the continuing saga of "As the Termites Eat."
Aloha!
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Thursday - 16 August 2001
Tired and Sore. Yesterday was about stuffing a queen-sized mattress and boxsprings into a dumpster one size too small. So what I ended up doing was cutting the mattress in half, using a utility knife. I used a tree-trimming saw to cut the box springs. Did I mention I was tired and sore? SWMBO and I filled the dumpster with that and other flotsam, jetsam, and other detritus. We figure we can fill one or two more loads over and above the one we did yesterday. Luckily, we have Friday off since it's a state holiday (Admissions Day. Anything anyone want to admit?). As usual, since it is a holiday, expect any update I do to be later than usual.
Klickety-Klack. Microsoft introduced a YAK (Yet Another Keyboard) recently. This one is tied to Office XP (see the keyboard here). A couple of the changes are an improved, according to MS, numeric keypad and a scroll wheel. The scroll wheel might be nice (although I have one on my MS Intellimouse Explorer mouse now). Take a look and decide if you need another keyboard to clutter your desk.
Having a Ball. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this already but SWMBO was complaining that her wrist was getting sore using the MS Intellimouse Explorer she has. The main complaint being there was not enough room to mouse around so she was constantly picking the mouse up and moving it back. Given that we probably won't have more desktop space, I decided to get her a MS Trackball Explorer (see it here). The use of a trackball means no longer having to move the mouse all over the place. The trackball does, however, take some getting used to. I have to use two fingers on the ball - one to move it and the other to steady it when I'm over what I want to click on or highlight. Still, I think I could get to like using one. YMMV.
Talkin' Trash. The Morning Paper (tm) has a short article on the language teenagers are using. As most people know, teenagers create a language unto themselves as a sort of code. That way they can communicate in the open without fear of mom or pop understanding what they are saying. As a public service, I will rip the veil of secrecy away and decode the most popular words (and I'm not making any of these up):
agros (n.) - tension boosy (adj.) - out of style cabbage (adj.) - when something is no good anymore creeper (n.) - a problem/situation that creeps up on you dawn patrol (v.) - when you stay up until the wee hours of the morning dope (adj.) - cool; good eye candy (n.) - a good-looking person you like to look at feti (n.) - money hamburger (adj.) - when a person has a lot of cuts and scrapes. hella (adv.) - very ripper (n.) - a good surfer/bodyboarder shibby (adj.) - hot; used to describe females whack (adj.) - messed up; awesome yoink (v.) - steal zesty (adj.) - hot; used to describe females
And last, but not least: hootchy mama (adj.) - what parents do not want their shibby/zesty teenage daughter to be described as.
Have a whack day - Aloha!
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Aloha Friday - 17 August 2001
It's Friday!
If you are reading this, I haven't done a "real" post for Friday yet. I'm doing a preliminary post in case I don't get a chance to do a regular one. Check back around noon Hawai'i time to see if I updated things. Thanks.
KDE Hits the Mirrors. Version 2.2 has finally hit the ftp servers (see the announcement here). I plan to wait for 2.2.1, scheduled for release sometime next month.
For those who want to give it a go, improvements include:
up to 50% improvement in application startup time on GNU/Linux systems using an experimental object file pre-linking method;
increased stability and capabilities of HTML rendering and JavaScript;
the addition of IMAP support (including SSL and TLS) to KDE's mail client KMail;
a new plugin-based print architecture with integrated filter and page layout capabilities (currently supports LPR, CUPS, RLPR, external command, generic LPD and pseudo-printers such as print-to-fax or print-to-email gateways);
enhanced startup speed and user feedback;
a number of new plugins for Konqueror, including a Babelfish translator, an image gallery generator, an HTML validator and a web archiver;
native iCalendar support in KOrganizer, KDE's PIM tool; and
a new personalization wizard.
Throwing in the Towel. As suspected, the carpenters found additional extensive damage to our house. And that's just the first floor. They haven't even started tearing open the second floor, or the back house for that matter. Did I mention earlier the front house is seven years old and the back house is only four?
Our original plan was to do some minor renovations in the front house and then do more extensive changes in the back. We would then move to the back house and rent out the front. Well, no one told those pesky termites about our plans because most of the money we had budgeted will instead be used to fix termite damage (and the preliminary work we had done such as replacing the water line, doing a survey, and termite fumigation/Sentricon). So far the bills total over $20,000 US. Needless to say, we are very disappointed that we will not be able to move. We realize the work has to be done, but we wonder how these termites seem to be able to eat right through pressure treated wood - even the fumigation didn't slow them down.
I guess we should be grateful we have a home (even if it's on the verge of falling over)...But it is very difficult to sleep through the night when we worry about how much more all this will cost. Sigh.
Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!
© 2001 Daniel K. Seto. All rights reserved.