Misc. Ramblings

Okay. So just because everyone in the known world seems to be doing one is not a good reason to start my own day-notes type diary. But then, WTF not?

Consequently, this will be an ongoing experiment. I may like doing this or just chuck it and do something more interesting with my (and your) time.

I don't pretend to be a professional writer. As such, expect to see all kinds of grammatical errors. If you let me know what they are, I will gladly throw your email into the circular file.

Everything set forth herein are my own Miscellaneous Ramblings (R&T or Car and Driver, I can never remember which).

And so, on with it then.

My wife and I (She Who Can Not Be Disobeyed - henceforth known as SWCNBD) returned from our two-week vacation in San Francisco and Las Vegas last week. The weather in EssEff was anything but an Indian Summer. Day temps. in the mid 60s. Mostly clear in the city but sometimes light fog.

Stayed at the SF Hilton. Passable as a seminar barn ("Now you too can make big bucks by over charging companies like Sun to come to motivational meetings 99!"). But the darned noisy, vibrating A/C in the room would obviate the need for magic fingers in the bed if it were not for the fact that your back was sore due to sleeping on a lumpy mattress. Then there was the slight problem that the room was just down from the elevators...

We had dinner atop the main tower in a restaurant called CityScapes or some such. 46 floors above this city by the bay ("Live Nude Girls!"). Other than the fact that all of the food was sauted in wine (is there a winery near SF or something?) it was a pretty good place to eat. And the view wasn't bad either (did I mention "Live Nude Girls" already?).

Oh, I almost forgot. We flew United Airlines on all legs of our trip - HNL to SFO to LAS to LAX back to HNL (see here for those not in the know). And therein lies a story best told by others. Suffice it to say that United deserves everything that is signified by it's ranking (number 5 out of the worst 10) on the U.S. Dept. of Transportation Consumer Complaints listing. Hawaiian Airlines here we come.

Vegas was less than overwhelming. I had not been there in over 10 years and I guess the reality is much less than the hype. Yes, the Venetian, Bellagio, and Paris hotels show you where every one of the billions of dollars were spent in their construction. But still, it's Vegas. A one or two mile strip of sun baked dust in the middle of a desert. Here it is October and the temperatures were still in the mid-90s.

By the way. We stayed at the Luxor hotel. The East Wing. You know, take the underground service tunnel heading in a northerly direction to the hotel tower that looks like any other tinted glass building in Anytown, USA. I guess the rooms in the pyramid are for "high rollers" only. The rest of us hovel in rooms with a view of the next hotel down the road. Actually, all was not bad, the bathroom was very spacious. It had a separate shower big enough for two large sized Hawaiians (or five regular sized Egyptians). The tub, while large, loses marks for not having the equivalent of magic fingers. And polished brass everywhere...But the towels were thread-worn and had holes in them!

I was glad to get back home. Even if its now raining something awful (damn the torpedos, full speed ahead!)...

More when I feel like saying more...

I haven't checked yet, but I doubt that anyone has hit this page yet. And that is probably just as well as I get used to doing this and try to find what is sometimes referred to as a "voice." So far, of the people I read often, Brian comes closest to what I would want this place to be. So, if this looks reeeealy like one of Brian's pages, it's because it is! Thanks Brian. Hope it's OK with you.

On the other hand, I find that Bob's place becomes a bit too polemic for me. Talk about theological discussions. On the other hand, he has great experience in computers and therefore is definetly worth a look see. But you have been warned. [OK. I was wrong. He doesn't usually argue just to argue (usually). But sometimes he does. So be prepared. And I'll say it again, I was wrong - updated 12/20/99].

Of course, my hero is Dr. Jerry Pournelle. Chaos Manor indeed. He does all these strange and wonderful things so we won't have to. Recommended.

And then there is Dr. Keyboard. How does one describe the smell of freshly baked bread? Or the sound of paws impatiently scraping the door in the hopes of a walk through the vines? His diary is what writing is all about. Check it out not only for his knowledge of computers, but also of wine, automobiles, and food (not necessarily in that order).

Vacation Part II. While in SF, we visited the Exploratorium (is that how it's spelled?). I had been there once before at least 10 years ago when visiting a cousin of mine who works for, as the Register calls it, Chipzilla (aka Intel). I was not impressed with it (the Exploratorium, not Intel) then, and I'm not much impressed with it now. Maybe you have to be about 10 years old to appreciate what they have. But I think they need to update some of their exhibits and make sure all of the ones they have on display are working (many had signs saying they were in need of repairs). If you are ever in SF, and you have children, by all means go.

Otherwise, perhaps a trip to the SF Museum of Modern Art would be in order. I think the first Tuesday of each month is when they let everyone in for free and by chance, that was the day we visited. Its multi-leveled and full of the regular, and some not so regular artists that one expects to see in a museum of this size. The main exhibit while we were there was photographs from the NASA Apollo missions to the moon. Terrific stuff that. Makes you wonder why we haven't gone back to the moon since.

The bus can take you to most places in SF and I encourage you to use it. They have day passes that you can use to take any bus anywhere all day. Otherwise parking is expensive when you can find it. Recommended. 'nuf for now.

It's Aloha Friday and the weather is clearing. The roof of our garage, which also acts as a second floor deck, has been leaking for the last six months. I almost got up enough energy, not to mention money, to buy enough roofing sealers and deck top-coats to re-do the roof after getting back from vacation. I say almost because sanity prevailed and I figured the rain would stop. And sure 'nuf, it did!

Vacation Part III This is starting to look like a Bruce Willis series, "Vacation Part XVII, the Vengeance Returns!" See Bruce and his trusty aide Will Smith, kick the butts of Asians/Latinos/Germans/midgets who are bent on stealing all of the money held in the casinos. But I digress. The Las Vegas Hilton has an attraction called "Star Trek, The Experience." As far as I can see, its one of those flight simulators in which you don't actually go anywhere, but due to visual and other special effects, you think you are flying though space. On the advice of the cab driver that took us over there, I decided not to go on the ride but to only check out the "Star Trek, The Experience Shops." There you can purchase everything from communicators to leather jackets with the United Federation of Planets logos on them (I lusted after one of those but $270US was a bit much). I did get a polo shirt, three baseball caps, a key chain, and pin. All for the low, low price of $75US. Such a bargain.

Rumors of a shipping strike continue to circulate here. Voting by longshoremen (as opposed to shortshorewomen?) ends today. So at any point thereafter there could be a shortage of just about everything. There are disadvantages of living on an island two thousand miles from any large land mass. Namely, everything from toilet paper to building materials comes by ship. And since only union members can unload those ships, when they stop work, everyone else eventually stops working.

On the other hand, Hawaii was the first state to have a TV station broadcasting a digital signal. Part of this signal will soon be broadcasting directly to your PC. Welcome to the information age.

More on Monday. Aloha!

Top of the morning to you! Another lost weekend. I went to CompUSA to take a look at a 4X 4X 24X CD-RW drive advertised in the Sunday paper for $129US. Only thing is that by the time I got to the store (around 12:30pm) they were already out of the drive. In fact, the last one was held securely in the arms of a teenager still wearing braces just as I was getting to the empty shelf. Sigh. Well, I guess I'll just have to spend my money in some other meaningful way.

Vacation IV: The Ending OK, so you are probably sick of my ramblings about my vacation. Let it never be said that I don't listen to my tens of readers. End of vacation story.

I need to update some proposed legislation. It will probably be introduced in January when the next session of the Legislature convenes but it needs to be worked on now. It went all the way to conference committee last year but died there. Hence, things may be a bit sparse around these parts this week.

This just in. The shipping strike mentioned last week has been averted by the combined efforts of the longshoremen and the shipping companies (pay raises come easier when profits are up 30% over last year...). So I guess we didn't need those 50 roles of toilet paper after all.

Spent most of yesterday updating a couple of tables which show what the other 49 states are doing in relation to the subject matter of the legislation. Sorry I can't say what the subject is until the package of bills are finalized. But there is nothing I can think more frustrating (except maybe trying to install Win98SE onto a clean disk when you only have the upgrade version to work with) then trying to compare statutes across states. Each state, as is its right, creates there own system of laws. However, trying to identify the similarities and differences between those laws is fraught with much difficulty. It almost makes you want to look at federal laws, which usually are the same for all states.

So, is there a way of installing Win98SE onto a clean disk when all you have is the upgrade version from MS? I understand that the retail upgrade version can be used to install but I'm not sure the version I got directly from MS is the same as the retail. I tried all kinds of switches to get setup to run but it always said that I needed to run it under Windows (which of course, had not been installed yet).

Ally McBeal (sp?) was on last night. Sometimes that is the coolest show on TV. And sometimes, it just sucks. Last night sucked. If their goal is to make all of their characters as unlikeable as possible, they are doing a bang-up job. Many of the lawyers here already hate it, if the writers keep this up, I may also.

What with meetings and continuing research and updating of the statutes I will be a busy person this week. Hope your week is better than mine is looking like...

Sports Night last night was a good one. If they keep it up, it may become my new, favorite show on TV (after Ally). The writing and acting are excellent. Which of course means it will be cancelled.

Work on the legislation I am revising is progressing slowly. I've checked 20 states so far. 30 to go! Unfortunately, this morning will be eaten by meetings on the budget and to finalize what will be included in our legislative package.

Saw on InfoWorld that MS has confirmed a February 17 launch date for Win2000. As soon as I can get my hands on a copy I will load it on one of my PCs (Right now I have three. None of which are exactly state of the art but they do what I need them to do).

I will, of course, have to upgrade the target PC first. But I have time to do that. I figure a Pentium III running at 500MHz should be enough. 256MB of RAM. 10GB drive. DVD. And as Dr.Keyboard would say, "All the twiddly bits."

Tomorrow I'll give a run down of what I am using at home. Today, I'll tell you about the Dell OptiPlex GX1 at work. It's about a year old and is a Pentium II - 333MHz. 128MB of RAM. 6.2GB drive. CD-ROM and built-in Crystal Sound card and ATI Rage Pro video (8MB). I have Win98SE on it. The only problem I've had so far was when my Maxtor HD started to make very bad noises. It would sound like the heads were trying to bash their way out of the case. Dell sent out a Wang technician and he swapped the drive.

While I do recommend Dell PCs, I have a bone to pick with their "On-Site" service. It isn't. At least, they try mightily to do everything except provide on-site service. They will talk to you on the phone for hours, but send someone out to service your PC? Only if the problem appears to be in the box itself and you are unwilling to open it and replace the suspected part yourself. If you have a bad monitor or keyboard they will express to you a new one. But you then have to box up the old and ship it back to them (otherwise they charge you for the new part).

This level of "service" may be OK for people who are comfortable with PCs. But what of the great majority of Dell's customers that are not? Of course, I doubt the other manufacturers are any better but perhaps there can be levels of service, each with a different cost structure. "Regular" service like they have now. "Premium" service for those who are willing to pay a couple of hundred dollars extra per year for real on-site service. That is, you call and tell them the suspected problem, and they come out within four hours to diagnose and fix it.

More tomorrow on what kind of PCs I have at home. See 'ya.

As promised, a quick run down of the PCs at home. I don't have names for the PCs since none of them are networked (that will come some time in the future) so I will refer to them as Mo'opuna (grandchild), Keiki (child), Kane (man).

Mo'opuna isn't being used much now. It, as well as Keiki have Shuttle motherboards (HOT-555 I think). It has a Pentium 120MHz. If I remember right, a Fujitsu 800MB HD, 32MB of RAM and runs Win95/Office97. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this. Either rip the guts out of it and replace the mobo/CPU, HD, and RAM or maybe use it to experiment with Linux (Caldera 2.2).

Keiki is used by SWCNBD (she who can not be denied). Up until last night, it was the PC I was using to experiment with Linux (more on that another day). As of last night, its running Win98SE. It has a Pentium 166 MHz, 64MB of RAM, a 2GB Maxtor HD, SB AWE64 sound card, and a Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 video card. She will be using it for making her monthly calendars with PrintShop Premier Edition. Later, I'll add Office2000 so she can do her letters and stuff.

Kane is mine. It has an Abit BX-6 Rev. 2 motherboard with a 400MHz Celeron, 128MB of RAM, 6.2GB Maxtor HD, 3D Blaster Riva TNT 16MB AGP video, and SB Live! audio. This one also runs Win98SE and will have NT2000 installed on February 17, 2000.

Friday will have the tales of Linux and other horror stories. Just in time for All Saints' Day

But first, this message. I've been following the America's Cup (or follow the link here) races via the web since no one seems to be televising anything on TV about it yet. Even more frustrating is that the Hawaii team Abracadabra2000 is not doing well. They are 8th out of 11 at the end of the first round with a record of 4 wins and 6 loses. The Italian team, Prada Challenge, is a perfect 10 and 0. If things don't change soon, it may be a New Zealand vs. Italy cup race! Unfortunately, the only thing that would be proven by such a race is that them who has the money, wins...

And now, this. You may have noticed the new email address link at the top of the page. It took me two days to get it going (an eternity in Internet time) so feel free to start sending those cards and letters in. Replies, albeit not necessarily prompt, are guaranteed. Your mileage may vary. Objects are larger than the appear. The door is ajar. The dog ate my diskette. And now my first official email (Brian was actually the first but that doesn't count *grin*). This in from John Doucette. He writes in reply from my question about installing Win98SE onto a clean drive if you don't have the retail version to install from. He writes:

Hi Dan

Got the link to your page from Brian. I have only read the current week so far but looks good to me.

I also saw Sports Night this week and thought it was one of the best written episodes of any show I have seen in a very long time.

I am as I write this working on an install of Win98 Upgrade. You can use the Win3.1 disks as an upgrade product. As I recall Win95 only wanted to see Disk 1 of Win 3.1 but Win98 just asked me for disks 1,2,4, and 5. Too bad Win98 isn't like Dos upgrades which if you use the /g switch acts like full version of Dos.

John Doucette

Thanks John for the information and the kind words. I think that Sports Night may be one of the better, if not the best written series this season. It seems to me that Frasier lost its edge last year and has not regained it yet. And Ally can go off into the deep end sometimes while exploring her psychological problems.

As to the install, what I ended up doing was using a copy of the commercial version of the original Win98 (is there a term now for this version - First Edition?) first, then used the upgrade to get to Win98SE. And as DrKeyboard has said, MS is getting ridiculous in the length of the product keys now-a-days. They are long and prone to miskeying (is that a word?).

And now my children, gather round while I begin the scary tale of how I installed Linux and learned to love the bomb. But to those who are wise, RUN! Run for you lives!

Not being one to scare easily, I figured I would see what all of the hubbub was about and bought a copy of Caldera's Linux 2.2 on the advice of several reviews which said that it was the easiest distribution to install. And I guess that (the install) could be true if the hardware you have matches what is on the very small compatibility list. Unfortunately, if you have a video card less than 5 years old the GUI-based install won't work. Which is still OK, its just not as easy.

On the other hand, if you were planning on using Linux as a desktop operating system as a replacement for Windows, think again. Because you need to get KDE up and running so that you can use the StarOffice office suite or WordPerfect. Either of which you would need to have to actually do some work on. So, the first problem is hardware compatibility.

The second problem is that if you can't get the GUI running, everything else becomes long and sleepless nights learning how to change configuration files. Many of which are hidden from you so you won't change them. And in the case of one of the communications programs (which actually runs under KDE), a file needs to be there, but it has to be empty...

If you do get the GUI running, which I did eventually after playing email tag with Caldera support for a couple of weeks (they no longer talk to me because their "free" support structure literally includes a ceiling on questions) then you get to see all of the bugs in programs designed to run under Linux. Bugs? you say. Yes bugs. These programs that run under Linux are FULL of bugs. While the Linux kernel may be rock solid, almost everything else looks like it was written by a six year old.

Over and above the bugs is the fact the even when the software runs, its not as easy nor as powerful as what runs under Windows. Say what you will about MS Office, but I can't find anything better. And MS Office stands way above StarOffice 5.1.

So the moral of the story my children is that you can fool some of the people all of time, and all of the people some of the time, but Linux, as a replacement for Windows, has no clothes.

Have a Happy and Safe Halloween! See you Monday.