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Monday - 29 October 2001

Imperial Entanglements. I don't know for sure, but I assume most states have legal provision for certain "emergency" powers that the governor of that state may exercise once a declaration is executed. I would think the emergency referred to here would be natural, that is, flood; fire; hurricane; earth quake; etc.

As I've noted earlier, the Hawai'i Legislature is now in special session. The governor, who is a Democrat, in his finite [yes, Dan and Don, he means finite - ed.] wisdom, introduced a bill which would expand the definition of emergency to include "economic" ones and would expand the power of the governor to include, among other things, the following:

(2) Empowered to suspend any statute, rule, or order and to adopt rules to provide immediate relief to facilitate continuity of business activity and services, minimize employee layoffs, and prevent endangerment of public health, safety, or welfare;

(3) Empowered to suspend, waive, defer, or modify contract obligations owed to the State;

(4) Authorized to waive landing fees and airport system support charges;

These powers would, of course, be temporary. Unless they were extended, which would make them no longer temporary, but I digress.

As the loyal Republican opposition correctly points out, this is probably unconstitutional (although this never stopped a governor or legislature before). Further, if passed, there wouldn't be a need for the legislature as the governor would have the authority to run things without them. While this would certainly reduce the size of government, I don't think most people, with any common sense, would want to dissolve the legislature and replace it with an imperial governor.

Misc. Observations. The "war" in Afghanisnam continues without a declaration of war nor a debate on what the objectives of this war are. While the war has not been running for very long, certain things are becoming clear:

1. The Taliban will not fall just because we have started bombing (especially when we bomb hospitals and Red Cross warehouses). Any Taliban that are killed will be replaced by hundreds of fanatics from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, etc.

2. The "Northern Alliance", which all during this bombing, has not captured one square inch of new land, will not move until after US troops have done the fighting for them. From the Northern Alliance point of view, why should they die for their country when the US is willing to do the dying for them?

3. Pakistan, and its nuclear weapons, is in peril of falling to fanatics. Should these fanatics take over, expect the use of atomics there, in Israel, and the US.

4. bin Laden will probably escape, if he hasn't already, to any number of countries where he is not only welcome, but considered a hero.

I hope you are having a nice Monday also...

Aloha!

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Tuesday - 30 October 2001

BOFH 28. Society of Hardware and Information Technology Helpers, Executive Administration Division. Need I say more?

One Born Every Minute. What may end up in the "Too good to Be True" file, PC Mags. John Dvorak (see the article here) is touting something called Lindows. Lindows supposedly runs either Linux or Windows applications on the same platform, with all Windows app "menus, dialog boxes and features operate in an expected manner and at a comparable speed." As you may know, there are efforts (see WINE) to run various Windows applications on Linux. If the apps run at all, they run VERY slowly, and usually crash even more regularly than on native Windows.

Obviously, if Lindows can provide a stable, fast environment for the running of Windows programs, they will make a bundle of money. On the other hand, others have been working on this problem for a long time and frankly, you are more likely to see Microsoft port Office to Linux before Lindows can run native Office on Linux as well as Office runs under Windows. YMMV.

Aloha!

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Hump Day Wednesday - 31 October 2001

Links R Us. Yesterday was a very good links day. From Brother Brian's velvety greens came the link to Wil Wheaton's (cast member of Star Trek: The Next Generation) interview over at /. From there it was to Mr . Wheaton's site itself (see it here). As in many sites, there is some good, insightful stuff and a lot of nothing. Pick through the nothing and find the good stuff. If you have some time to spare, check it out. YMMV.

And then on to Doc Jim's and the link to the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases' Medical Management of Biological Casualties Handbook (see it here here). Talk about relevant reading. I downloaded the 1.7MB MS Word version with embedded hyperlinks.

As an aside, a lot of people said not to worry about an anthrax attack because, they said, it was not easy to spread as a weapon of mass destruction. Well, I think these people need to take a class in thinking outside the box because anthrax hasn't, so far, been used that way. Instead, it's being used as a weapon of terror. Yes, many more people die of vehicle collisions every day. But that also misses the point.

The point is to engender terror, to paralyze a culture, to change your behavior/attitude towards something. And if we are honest with ourselves, you would have to say the terrorists are doing pretty good on that front right now. No, that doesn't mean they will be able to continue to do their evil deeds, or that they will win the war (although they could - see the "war" on drugs), but it does mean we need to be vigilant, but not over react.

So let's start thinking outside the box and be aware that anthrax can be delivered in more destructive ways than by mail. Lets be aware that there are other destructive biologics out there. Let's be aware that our infrastructure: electrical grid, transportation, and communications are all at risk and let's figure out ways to harden them to the extent possible. Then go out and live your life.

Planting Seeds, Good News for Modern Man. Christine, a Hawai'i arborist for The Outdoor Circle (see their site here), was returning from a national urban forestry conference held on the East Coast recently. As she gazed out the window of the plane bringing her home, I'm sure she was fascinated by all the different variety of trees passing below. Hawai'i doesn't have the variety of old growth trees that many on the mainland take for granted, so it must have been a treat for her.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, lets talk a little about her life. Christine was born and raised in a small town on the Windward side of the island of O'ahu. It's the kind of place where everyone knows everyone and community is not just a word in the dictionary.

As in many Pacific islands with trade winds, the Windward side gets a lot more rain than the drier Leeward side so the vegetation grows lush and green. To this day, when I drive up the Pali Highway and come through the tunnel to that side of the island the difference in greenery is stunning.

I guess it is no wonder then, as Christine grew up and graduated from the public school there that she decided she wanted to be an arborist - to work with trees and to ensure their spread, to as many areas as possible, was her passion. From all indications, she was good at her chosen profession, but she wanted to be even better. So she went to a conference on the mainland to learn even more. While there, her small town friendliness, and passion for her work impressed all who her met her. When the conference ended, many had become her friend and promised to keep in touch.

Yes, on September 11th, she was on the United flight 93, from Newark to S.F., that went down in a Pennsylvania field. But that's not the important part. As a tribute to her life, rather than to her untimely death, several trees have been planted here in her memory. In fact, in November, 70 trees will be planted in a park here and dedicated in her name. But what I think is really neat is that other states are also now joining in and planting trees in her name. So far, her new found friends in Arizona, Colorado, and California have added a bit of greenery to memorialize her life. Perhaps, some good can come from her loss. So the next time you see a mighty oak or redwood tree, providing shelter to animals and delight to the eyes of all who see them, think about the little girl from the Windward side and how the effects of her life ripple out and touch others, everywhere.

Aloha!

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Thursday - 01 November 2001

Ho Hum. Not much going on today. I had planned on doing a short piece on the different phases of change but I forgot to bring my class notes so that will have to wait anon.

Themes R Us. One of the eye candy bits of Windows has been the use of themes. In order to use them, you essentially had to buy the MS Plus! package (see the latest version here from Microsoft for everything except Win2KPro. You can also download one of the free theme managers but I don't know anything about them so you are on your own). But if you're using Windows 2000 Pro, you're out of luck because Big Brother MS felt Win2K Pro was for businesses, so why bother. But wait, there is hope.

If you take a look in /winnt/system32 you'll find a file named themes.exe. Click on it and up will come the themes manager. If you plan to play around with some themes downloaded from the net, I would first save your default theme. To do this, fire up themes.exe. Once that's up, click on the Save As... and give it a descriptive name like Your Default Theme.

Once you've done that, use Windows Explorer to create a new directory: c:\Program Files\Plus!\Themes for example. This is the default directory for Plus! users and most automated install programs assume that's where you want things to go. After you've got the directory set go forth and surf the net looking for that perfect set of wallpaper, icons, sounds, and colors for you personal computer. Usually, the download will be a zip file, which you will want to unzip in a subdirectory of \Themes. If you don't use a subdirectory, you will overwrite any existing files that have the same name.

Note that some themes come as executables with their own install programs built in. If they do, you are on your own because Win2KPro is not the same as Window98 so the install could blowup and scatter its bits all over your desktop. So be wary of those kinds of themes. YMMV.

After unzipping the file, start up themes.exe and click on the theme: drop down box. From there, navigate to the directory where you unzipped your files. You should see a file with an extension of .theme, click on it. That text file tells Windows what icons/wallpaper/sounds/etc the theme has. You should now be back at the theme manager window and you can decide whether you want to replace all of your defaults (assuming the theme you downloaded includes all of them) or just the ones you choose. Most of the time, all I change are the icons, mouse pointers, and maybe the wallpaper, but you can decide how far you want to go. Click on Apply and you're there.

If "there" isn't where you want to be, just click on the theme drop down window, navigate back to where you saved your default .theme and hey presto, things are back to normal.

Aloha!

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Aloha Friday - 02 November 2001

Variation on a Theme. Seeing as I was talking about Windows themes yesterday, I should have included a pic of what the my current default theme is. So here you go. And no, I'm not using XP, it's just a theme based on the look and feel of XP, including some snazzy "3-D" pointers/cursors. [50kb, 1024X768]

Farked Up. Wil Wheaton's site had a link to something called Fark.com. As far as I can see, it's a news portal that gathers articles from all over the spectrum. For example:

An ABC news report (see it here) that the "Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones" movie trailer was sneak previewed in L.A. this past weekend. Included in the article, but not the trailer, are rumors that Queen Amadala displays her, ahem, royal charms, as it were.

Some weird report (see it here) that Russia will provide up to 250,000 troops to fight beside the U.S. and U.K. ground forces in Afghanisnam.

And how someone hacked the control language for Sony's Aibo robot dog and had it doing unnatural acts (see it here). Okay, so what do you call a robot dog doing a disco dance?

So, you get the idea. There's a little something for everyone. For me, I'm going to check out the stupid PC trick. Which one? The one where you play digital strip poker (see it here).

The Paradoxical Commandments of Leadership (Kent M. Keith)

1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.

2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.

3. If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.

4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.

5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.

6. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.

7. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few undergods anyway.

8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.

9. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway.

10. Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.

I would add that if you do these things, despite the evidence to the contrary, you will need the help of a good therapist because you might be neurotic. Or a hero. One of the two.

Speaking of Things You Might Be.

You might be an engineer if ...
...choosing to buy flowers for your girlfriend or upgrading your RAM is a moral dilemma.
...you take a cruise so you can go on a personal tour of the engine room.
...in college you thought Spring Break was metal fatigue failure.
...the sales people at the local computer store can't answer any of your questions
...at an air show you know how fast the skydivers are falling 
...you bought your wife a new CD-ROM drive for her birthday.
...you can quote scenes from any Monty Python movie.
...you can type 70 words per minute but can't read your own handwriting.
...you comment to your wife/husband that their straight hair is nice and parallel.
...you sit backwards on the Disneyland rides to see how they do the special effects.
...you have saved every power cord from all your broken appliances.
...you have more friends on the Internet than in real life.
...you know what "http" stands for.
...you look forward to Christmas so you can put the kids' toys together.
...you see a good design and still have to change it.
...you spent more on your calculator than you did on your wedding ring.
...you still own a slide rule and know how to use it.
...you think that people yawning around you are sleep deprived.
...you window shop at Radio Shack
...your laptop computer costs more than your car.
...your wife/husband hasn't the foggiest idea of what you do at work.
...you've already calculated how much you make per second.
...you've tried to repair a $5 radio.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

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