Misc. Ramblings

End of the road for IE? C|net has a story here that says Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6, SP1, is the last in the line of stand alone browsers from MS. The article quotes MS IE Program Manager Brain Countryman as saying:

As part of the OS (operating system), IE will continue to evolve, but there will be no future stand alone installations. IE6 SP1 is the final stand alone installation,"

I don't know if IE will continue as a stand alone application but if it doesn't, one has to wonder what that means as far as updates. That is, will you have to wait for the next version of Windows to get a browser with significant changes?

Further, with the browser integrated within the OS, what affect does that have on security? IE has not been the most secure browser so it may be reason for alarm to give it hooks directly into the OS.

Obviously, all of this is speculation but one wonders why the change?

Salam Pax Outed? The UK Guardian has an article here that says they have tracked down the "Baghdad Blogger" known as Salam Pax who blogged under the "Where is Raed" banner.

The Soldier is the Network This link here shows what the well dressed soldier of the future could be wearing. The uniform, called the scorpion ensemble, would make the soldier part of the network of battlefield data sources. Part of a collective, ummm, hive, if you will, where everyone is interconnected. No word yet if Microsoft will get involved or if Bill Gates himself will head the effort.

Aloha!

Getting my work done is my bottom line. So I'm not into religious wars. At least, not when they are about technology. When it comes to that, I'm a pragmatist. That is, whatever works best is what I use. Whether "best" is an operating system or browser or music compression algorithm.

While I don't profess to be an engineer or scientist, I like to think I try to choose what I use in a rational way. I especially admire the process of problem solving that educator John Dewey came up with in the early 1900s.

1. Operationally define the problem.
2. Generate alternative solutions.
3. Establish objective criteria to rate the alternatives.
4. Decide on a solution that best fits each criterion.
5. Implement the solution.
6. Evaluate how well the solution met the criteria.

In the end, following a process that is rational is, I think, the most efficient use of my time. Others like to base decisions on values which, in many cases, is a Good Thing. But not always.

For example, the wars between what is called OpenSource and commercial software. Many, but not all, OpenSoftware proponents strongly feel that regardless of how well OpenSource software works, it should be chosen over commercial software because of, among other things, the values of open standards, freedom to choose, and team building embodied in the OpenSource movement.

Proponents of commercial software note that the competitive environment keeps companies focused on building robust products that serve a purpose people are willing to pay money for.

Yes, my characterization of things can be viewed as a simplification of a complex phenomenon. But what's important in this discussion is to understand that each has its niche in the marketplace of ideas and what I like to do is to take what is best from each so that I can get my work done.

Aloha!

I forgot to mention thatWil Wheaton was interviewed on a local TV station over the weekend. As you may know, Wheaton and the gang are in Hawai'i for one for one of the CruiseTrek "expeditions" (see it here). They are scheduled to cruise between the islands (and Fanning Island, Republic of Kiribati, thanks to US laws concerning non-US flag ships sailing between US ports) of O'ahu, the Big Island, Maui, and Kaua'i.

The interview wasn't very long but Wheaton came across pretty much like his website: sincere, funny, and an all-round likable guy next door (if you lived next door to a starship ensign).

I came upon this link here while surfing Dan Gillmor's eJournal site. The link took me to Bill Moyers' reflections on Memorial Day. Below are a few paragraphs that I think focus on what democracy should be, but often is not, about.

Every Memorial Day I think about what these men did and what we owe them. They didn't go through hell so Kenny Boy Lay could betray his investors and workers at Enron, or for a political system built on legal bribery. It wasn't for corporate tax havens in Bermuda, or an economic system driven by the law of the jungle, or so a handful of media buccaneers could turn the public airwaves into private sewers.

Sure, to paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, freedom makes it possible for people to be crooks, but so does communism, and fascism, and monarchy. Democracy is about doing better. It's about fairness, justice, human rights, and yes, it's about equality, too; look it up.

I was never called on to do what soldiers do; I'll never know if I might have had their courage. But a journalist can help keep the record straight, on their behalf. They thought democracy was worth fighting for, even dying for. The least we can do is to help make democracy worthy of them.

Its been apparent for some time that the labels "Republican" and "Democrat" are not as useful as they once were. For example, how does a Republican stand for less government but then turn around and give to government sweeping police powers designed to crush the Constitution under its polished boots? How does a Republican hold that competition is good but then ram through sweeping changes in FCC rules that would do just the opposite?

Conversely, how does a Democrat say they are for the environment but then do everything they can to erode the beaches by building illegal sea walls so that they can increase the size of the pricey ocean-front mansions? Or how does a Democrat support public education but send their children to exclusive private schools?

Others, more perspicacious than I, have taken up the challenge. For example, fellow Daynoter Dr. Jerry Pournelle (see it here and rationalist Steven Den Beste (see it here) have tried to create new ways of describing the political arena.

Perhaps these are the first steps to a more descriptive language when speaking about politics. But I'm struck more by the contradictions in the new labels than by what they cover. In either case, we need new ways of describing ourselves and these are two efforts at starting the ball rolling.

I talked a little about the changing justification(s) for Gulf War II earlier. But I need to add one important point. The Bush Administration may have been wrong. Be aware that the discussion that follows refers to the Bush Administration and not the US military or their dependents.

Yes, I know, some people are now saying it wasn't about weapons of mass destruction, it was about regime change (ask the people of many African nations about the need for regime change). It was about saving the Iraqi people from there own leader. To that I can only say you are gravely mistaken.

Remember back when the debate was centered on how one nation could attack another without first being fired upon? The sole ethical argument that could be made for this is to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the other nation had the means and the intent to harm you first.

Note, both conditions must exist otherwise the justification fails. In other words, if I see you coming towards me I am not justified to shoot you dead. If I see that you have a gun in a holster, the threat level increases but I am still not justified in shooting you. If you are coming towards me yelling and screaming at me for sleeping with your wife the threat level increase even more, but I am still not justified in shooting you. If as you come within range you pull the gun out, point it at me, and say you are going to shoot me, I am now fully justified to try to shoot you first.

In this case, the Bush Administration tried to make the case that Iraq not only possessed weapons of mass destruction but also had immediate plans to use such weapons on us. That is, if we didn't shoot first, they surely would.

If that were true, and only if that were true as far as I can see, would there be case for a preemptive attack against another nation.

At this point, I can't say for sure whether Iraq possessed such weapons and was about to use them on us. But I can tell you this, if they are not found, it doesn't matter what kind of spin the Bush Administration wants to use and it doesn't matter if the Iraqis would have used such weapons had they possessed them - if they didn't possess them there would be no justification to preemptively attack them. And even if they did have them, you must still show that they intended to use them first.

I sincerely hope these weapons are found because if they aren't, all the Bush Administration will have done is created a thousand Osama bin Ladens.

----- o0o -----

I have our graduate school presentation before the Board of Trustees and Administration of the Hawai'i public Employees' Retirement System this morning so I gotta' go.

Aloha!

I picked up my grades for this last semester. To be more accurate, I logged in to check my grades as paper is no longer sent to students. In either case, I got an "A" for the final capstone project. My cumulative grade point average, on a scale from zero to four where the worst grade is zero and the best is 4.0, is 3.9. Out of all of the classes I took in graduate school, I had one "B".

Still, it's a lot better than my GPA in undergraduate school. During that time, just graduating was an accomplishment. My GPA then was something like 2.9 or 3.0. Not bad but not great. Or as one person put it, getting a "B" means either you are a "C" level person working very hard, or an "A" level person not working hard enough. I guess I was the latter.

In either case, the presentation went well yesterday. With that presentation, the only thing left to do is attend a debriefing with the other capstone projects to reflect on the experience and give suggestions on how the class could be organized better.

I don't know if I have anything that will help classes that follow us other than to let them know that conflict among group members is to be expected, but should not rewarded.

Graduates students have to have large egos. If we didn't we wouldn't be there in the first place.

In addition, it takes a lot of self-confidence and stamina to stay the course for three years. Students are pulled in different directions by the needs of your spouse, families, friends, and work.

To put everything aside and stay focused on school requires commitment. To graduate requires a rearranging of priorities to make school the top of the pile.

But when you put a group of such people together, you will have problems. This is further reinforced by classes that teach us to be leaders, not followers. Classes that say we are special and are being groomed for roles of responsibility and power. Classes that reinforce individualism, not working together.

Hence, if there is anything that I would say to the classes to follow it is this: Know your strengths and weakness, know your group members' strengths and weaknesses and try to arrange things so the strengths of each is put to use and the weaknesses are covered by others. In the end, if you can't work together as a group, you will never reach your goals - in school, work, and in life.

Aloha!

It occurred to me that yesterday's post on Iraq did not spend enough time on the question of regime change. First, be clear that invading Iraq will have some positive outcomes. Eventually. Perhaps in a year or two. Right now, the majority of Iraqi people are enduring a lower standard of living that they had before the war. This should not be a surprise to people. I'm sure the same thing occurred to the Japanese and Germans after World War II. But things will get better and I am thankful for that.

But lets be clear about one thing, we didn't invade Iraq to make things better for the Iraqi people and we surely didn't cross into sovereign territory to save the trees. While those things might be happy unintended consequences of our action, it wasn't why we went in. We went in, I hope, because we felt it was in our own best interests to do so.

Let me repeat that. We invaded a sovereign country because we felt it was in our best interests to do so. If this were only about regime change we would be in Rwanda, or Sudan, or Ivory Coast, or Zimbabwe. Those nations, if I can use that term, are hell holes. Millions of their citizens have been slaughtered like cattle. Literally. Yet, the U.S. does nothing.

Why? Because we don't see these African countries as threats to us and they don't have that much in resources that we feel are strategic to our country. I'm not going to get dragged into a discussion about oil so I will leave that to others. But my first point, being a threat to us is what my post from yesterday was about.

Either Hussein was an imminent threat to us or he wasn't. Hence, if you are President Bush, it seems to me you have two options. Use spin control and say it really wasn't about weapons of mass destruction at all: It was about regime change and saving the trees. Or, you can race around the desert trying to find the weapons (and Hussein).

I surfed over the the StarWars.com site yesterday and found, to my knowledge, the first pay site for a movie. That is, if you want to view any of the "premium" content on the official George Lucas Star Wars movie site you have to pay. Yes, there is some stuff available for free (after you register). But if you want the good stuff that used to be free, you gots to pay.

I guess it had to happen but paying to learn about a movie? I dunno about that. Given the disappointing Episodes I and II, I'm not sure I'm going to pay anyone to learn about a movie that won't be out until the summer of 2005 (Episode III). Further, it seems to me, the point of most movie sites is to get people to know about the movie and then want to go see it. To do that, most sites do their best to make it easy for people to come in and be persuaded. Putting up a door and charging an entrance fee sure seems like a strange way of welcoming your prospective guests. But then, they're rolling in dough and I'm just a poor <oxymoron>government servant</oxymoron>.

As to the site, the only thing I want to know is when will Episode IV: A New Hope, the original Star Wars come out on DVD? As far as I'm concerned, everything went down hill from there anyway so who cares about Episode III?

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

Three interesting computer related problems at work this week. The first two had to do with hard drives. Both PCs gave errors saying the hard drives did not exist. For the first, which is running Windows 2000 Pro, the solution was running the recovery console (boot off of the install CD and choose a recovery) and running chkdsk. Why that allowed the drive to boot I'll never know but apparently that is what did it.

The second PC did not even show that the BIOS was recognizing there was a drive plugged in. So opened the case up and fiddled with the power lead to the drive. Shaking the lead back and forth would bring the sound of a drive spooling up so I reckoned the problem was intermittent contact. I pulled that plug and put in one of the spares hanging from the power supply and all was well.

The third problem was WordPerfect related. Yes, there are offices that still use WP, especially in the legal profession. The symptom was you could not print. If you tried, two error messages would come up saying program files were missing. Strangely, if you clicked on a file, via Explorer, to print first, rather than starting WP and then opening the file, it would print just fine. A quick search of the drive found both "missing" files so that did not appear to be the problem. I checked the Corel WP site and found that one of the files needed to copied to the "Startup" folder so that it would be running before printing was commenced. And all was well.

I love it when problems get solved on the first try.

Another busy, if short week. I have a meeting tomorrow to get ready for. Wednesday is a state holiday ( Kamehameha Day. As a side note, the building in back of the statue is where I work). And Thursday I have an appointment with my doctor for an annual physical. In between all of that I start painting the interior of our front house. We tried to get the painters who did the upstairs interior but they gave us three different start dates and never showed up for any of them so we'll save $2,000US by doing it ourselves.

Is that a terahertz in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? There's a write-up here that says the next time you get x-rayed, you might actually be t-rayed. T-rays, as in terahertz rays, is being touted as the next big thing in imaging technology. Like x-rays, t-rays can pass through many substances, thus giving you a look at the insides of things. But, according to the article, they are less dangerous to us than x-rays. thanks to BoingBoing for the link.

Public Service Announcement. This one (see it here from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin) made it national so I guess I'll mention it also. Do not buy food from road side vendors who do not have health department permits. This seems kind of obvious but I guess not to everyone. It seems enterprising people are selling fish, pork, and other perishable foods from their vehicles parked along side the road. What is interesting is that people are buying these foods either not caring or not knowing that the food requires proper preparation and storage to be safely edible.

Aloha!

Sorry but no post today. I've been busy from the time I got up until now. I'm putting some workload numbers together at work and it is the kind of stuff that you have to get right. Otherwise, people can loose their jobs for nothing. So, I have to get it right the first time because that's the only chance you get.

As noted earlier, tomorrow is a state holiday so probably no post.

Aloha!

If this story doesn't make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end you must be dead. See the story here of the Internet worm called "Slammer" and how within three minutes of entering the wild the number of infected servers was doubling every 8.5 seconds. Thanks to Dan Gillmor for the link.

Good Night David.

Aloha!

I don't know what to make of this number one: The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting (see it here) that

Emperor Hirohito considered making an astonishing personal apology for the Second World War in which he was to express "deep shame at my immorality," according to a newly discovered document.

I really don't know what all this means, especially since the apology was never made. While it might be interesting to know such a document was drafted, assuming here that is is valid, I don't know that it's more than a contingency plan that was never executed. I guess the historians will have some writing to do to explain this one.

I don't know what to make of this number two: The Honolulu Star-Bulletin is reporting (see it here) of an airlines that wasn't. An airlines, that is. Even though it alleged it could fly you from Los Angeles to Honolulu for $89, it appears this was a deal that was too good to be true.

The airlines, excuse me, the "tour operator", an 18-year-old student in Massachusetts offered flights, excuse me, "seats" at fares lower than anywhere else. Hundreds of people flocked to his website and paid money for tickets, excuse me, "vouchers" that could be exchanged for flights starting next month. The problem is the student had no agreements with any charters, no agreements or permits with the FAA, airports, baggage handlers, ticket agents, or any of the other groups you have to work with if you actually want to provide this service.

Hence, both the Hawai'i and Massachusetts courts have gotten involved issuing restraining orders against this operation. Now, I don't know if this is just a business college case study that got out of hand or if criminal intent was involved here. But in either case, the student is in a world of trouble right now.

I don't know what to make of this three: What's with these people who love Ghambian rats or prairie rodents as pets? Is there something wrong with a dog? Why do people think it is a good idea to buy rodents, regardless of where they come from? Do these people have brains? Do they not understand disease vectors? Do they not understand dying from leaking lesions full of puss covering your body? By the way, there is no cure. If you are infected, you have a one-in-ten chance of dying. See the Centers for Disease Control site here. Oh, and have a nice day.

Aloha!

Not much going on over in the Seto Shack lately. I'm still in the front house doing some prep work before I actually start painting. I have to take down the blinds, mask the windows, patch the holes from where we hung our artwork, and replace molding that were removed during the renovations.

I probably won't get to painting until later this week. In the meantime, in our back house, I have to hang the artwork that we took down. SWMBO and I went through our stuff last night and decided where everything would go. Now I have to get a bunch of picture hanging nails and get to it.

Aloha!

I can understand the move, in other states, to outsource all of Information Technology (IT), especially since when any problems come up the typical response is to call in help from outside.

Internet access, here at work, has always been less than reliable. If it isn't the DNS, it's the firewall. If it isn't the firewall it's the gateway. If it isn't the gateway it's the router. If it isn't the router it's something else. All of which was installed and configured by consultants because our IT is not qualified and, what may be worse, doesn't seem to want to learn.

Moreover, literally every time we've requested information from the databases they run we get these long lists of reasons why we don't want to use their data. They give all kinds of reasons about how that data are not captured, or if it is captured it isn't reliable. Their solution? We should sit in court and gather our own data.

Sometimes, even if it ain't broke, you have to fix it. That is, if there is a department that should embrace change it is IT. The computer revolution is about nothing, if it isn't about change. Change in how we work. Change in how we play. Change in how we interact with one another. But as a user, I can say the common response from them is we don't want to change anything because we don't know how it works.

Not anticipating change is not an option. If you are in IT you must be proactive and boldly go where no one has gone before. You must test new technologies while they are still in beta so you will be ready when the time comes to decide whether to go or not go. You must become the experts so you can do the job of supporting the people that depend on you.

If IT isn't adding value greater than its costs, what is it good for? I wish I could say our IT people were the salt of the earth. And maybe I shouldn't complain because I don't know what conditions they have to work under. But what good is all the Internet hardware if they don't know how to run and maintain them? What good are the databases if we can't get reliable information out of them? How valuable are people who aren't ready for change and instead are major obstacles to moving forward? Think about it.

Aloha!

As with many questions, the answer is it depends. See the numbers from the (US) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, National Center for Statistics and Analysis here.

Physics can be your friend or your enemy. Compared to passenger cars, light trucks (which include SUVs) were 11.5 percent less likely to be involved in a fatality (47.4 percent versus 35.8). On the other hand, fatalities due to roll-overs were 15.7 percent for passenger cars vs. an average of 23.3 percent for light trucks. Thus, being in a light truck lowers the probability of fatality overall but dramatically increases the probability of fatality due to rollover.

In addition, light trucks are involved in injury crashes an average of 6.35 percent of the time versus 3.4 percent for passenger cars. Further, light trucks are involved in property damage only crashes on average of 1.65 percent of the time versus 0.9 percent for passenger cars.

But looking at the rates based on vehicle miles driven (which is one way of normalizing the data), fatalities in passenger cars are 1.73 versus 2.13 for light trucks (as compared to motorcycles are at 34.1). For the rate per 100,000 registered vehicles (another way of normalizing the data), the numbers are 21.31 for passenger cars and 26.23 for light trucks.

So, while overall there are fewer fatalities in light trucks, when you normalize the data, being in a light truck appears to be more dangerous. Some have theorized that this is caused by the higher rollover rates, which if true, indicates drivers of light trucks need to understand their vehicles have higher centers of gravity and therefore must be driven differently from passenger vehicles.

In either case, these are the numbers and I'm no expert so you decide. YMMV.

Sorry for the late posting yesterday but our Internet access was down. Really. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Aloha!

You don't have to work in government to know medical costs are rising. Hence, it was not unreasonable that the Hawai'i legislature, looking for a way to cuts costs (since it didn't want to raise taxes), recently eliminated one of two medical plans available to state employees.

Up until now, the state had one health plan and the public employee unions had another. It was up to public employees to choose which they wanted but the cost to the employee was the same whichever plan they chose. The unions, having an incentive to provide the best plan for their members as possible, negotiated with providers to do just that. Conversely, the state, not concerned with anything other than cost, negotiated one low on cost and therefore low on benefits.

Not surprisingly, those employees who belonged to unions tended to choose the union plan. But as the cost of health care skyrocketed over the last few years, the state decided it had to do something. That something was to eliminate the union plan.

Whether this was fair or moral or right is not the focus of this essay. Those values would be Good Things to have in government but in these tough economic times perhaps it is too much to expect of our elected officials.

But having made the decision to eliminate the union plan, the department responsible for transferring something like 90,000 people from one plan to another got into gear. Unfortunately, it appears it was "reverse" gear instead of forward.

It appears the planning for the transfer was not up to the task. The period of employees to make the choice (state plan or nothing) was one month long. After that, the department had one month to key-in all the changes before the July 1st deadline. The changes were submitted on a four page form full of data items.

It does not take a psychic to guess that 90,000 such forms would take time to input. It turns out it will take more than one month. It may take as long as two or three. If this occurs, all of the people whose forms have not yet been inputed will, for purpose of eligibility and billing, be shown as not having any medical/dental/optical coverage at all.

This means if I go to the doctor, dentist, or optician they have a choice to make: turn me away or take the chance that I have coverage even though the computer system will say I don't. This is a difficult position to put a provider. Not only because of the immediate economic liability, but even if I do have coverage, government systems being what they are, who is to say the current computer system can handle back-dated invoices? I can imagine all kinds of technical problems that will keep providers from getting paid. Should this happen, my guess is I will end up paying the provider directly and it will be up to me to try to get reimbursement from the state.

Having worked for the state for almost 20 years, the probability of getting reimbursement is about equal to a frozen di-hydrogen monoxide sphere in Hades.

Aloha!

California Legislative Assembly Votes Down Privacy Bill. Group legally releases the Social Security Numbers of those who voted against the bill. Hilarity ensues. See the story here. Thanks to Fark for the link.

Mobs Take Manhattan. Please. Feeling left out? Felling the need to congregate with a mass of people? Well, ever wanted to be in a mob? Nows your chance. Join the mob movement. See the story here.

[T]he Mob Project, an e-mail-driven experiment in organizing groups of people who suddenly materialize in public places, interact with others according to a loose script and then dissipate just as suddenly as they appeared.

The GIF is Dead, Long Live the GIF.

On Friday, 20th June 2003, the death knell sounds for US patent number 4,558,302. Having benefitted its owner, the Unisys Corporation for 20 years, the contents of the patent are entered into the Public Domain and may be used absolutely freely by anyone.

Officially titled "High speed data compression and decompression apparatus and method", it is more commonly known as the LZW patent or Unisys's GIF tax.

Thanks to Kuro5hin for the link.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

Wow Wie! There's an old golf saying about "You drive for show but you putt for dough." Well, if 13-year-old amateur Michelle Wie were a pro, she would be rolling in dough right now. The ninth-grader-to-be won the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links in Florida yesterday (see the story here).

Wie, the youngest to ever win the title is known for her 300 yard (~275m) plus drives. Her weakness, if there is one, was her putting. But she seemed to have nerves of steel yesterday as she rammed home putts from every direction and distance.

Congratulations to the Punahou Putter.

Turkeys, white elephants and dodos. That's how some are describing the equipment the British military are forced to use. The article here tells especially of the problems with their Phoenix drone which wags have nicknamed the "Bugger Off" because it never seems to come back (or perhaps they don't want it to).

The Smell of Napalm in the Morning In something out of the movie Apocalypse Now, US forces attacked Iraqi strong holds yesterday to the sound of Wagner's Die Walküre. No word yet when the special edition DVD will be released.

Aloha!

Fed Up with FedEx. Readers of this site will remember my ongoing problems with UPS and FedEx. While one must but marvel at companies that can move hundreds of thousands of packages from point A to point B in such a short time, for which they are to be applauded, there is a problem.

My problem is their business model that seems to artificially place Hawai'i at a disadvantage. On the mainland, shippers have several different ways of conveying your packages: long-haul jet, short-haul jet, train, truck, and vans. Hence, a business model can be rationalized that charges more for the faster modes of transportation versus the slower ones.

But, there is only one way to the islands and that is via long-haul jet. Hence, no matter which level of service you pay for, all packages will be arriving via the same mode and at the same time. This poses a problem to these businesses because how can you charge more to one customer when lower paying customers would otherwise get their package at the same time?

The answer is to hold packages at their warehouse. This artificially creates a multi-tier system in which some packages will be delivered before others, even though all arrive in Hawai'i at the same time.

Such is the case with the first of six Dell computers we ordered last month. Below is the tracking information from FedEx:

Scan Activity                   Date/Time        Scan Exceptions
-------------                 ----------------   ---------------
Package status HONOLULU HI    06/20/2003 11:32 Package in FedEx location
Package status HONOLULU HI    06/20/2003 11:32 Package not due for delivery
On FedEx vehicle for delivery 06/20/2003 11:05 
On FedEx vehicle for delivery 06/20/2003 10:58 
Arr at FedEx Dest HNL HI      06/20/2003 09:23 
Package status HONOLULU HI    06/20/2003 07:04 Package in FedEx location
Arrived at FedEx Ramp HNL     06/20/2003 07:04 
Left FedEx Sort Fac MEMPHIS   06/20/2003 03:31 
Held at Sort Facility MEMPHIS 06/19/2003 14:50 
Held at Sort Facility MEMPHIS 06/19/2003 14:45 
Arrived at Sort Fac MEMPHIS   06/19/2003 13:29 
Left FedEx Ramp AUSTIN TX     06/19/2003 07:02

Notice the top four lines. The package was put on the truck for delivery last Friday at about 11:00am. It was then pulled off the truck at 11:30 because "Package not due for delivery". This is not the first time this has happened. But usually, they catch the error before they load the truck and all I see is a notation that the package is held at their warehouse for later delivery.

I guess this system is better than charging everyone the highest price but I have to wonder if there isn't a better way?

Ring My Dell. So the first of six Dell OptiPlex 260D PCs arrived yesterday afternoon. It has a Pentium IV 2.66GHz CPU, 512MB of RAM, 40GB hard drive, DVD/CDROM burner, and a lovely 17-inch flat panel LCD monitor. I think I like it. ;=>

Riding Wide. See this site here to see what it would like to run a flight simulator in front of 12 monitors.

Aloha!

I'm still busy working on getting my new PC set-up so this will be short. After playing around with it for awhile, I got to the serious business of wiping the drive clean, deleting the partitions Dell has (including a hidden one where I think they install their diagnostics) and setting it up how I like.

This being the wonderful world of Windows, it came formatted in NTFS. This means your handy Windows98 boot disk with FDISK on it can't do a whole lot (since it boots into DOS, which doesn't recognize NTFS). So I used the install CD to do all the changes to the partitions creating two to replace it. The first partition is NTFS and will be where all my applications go. The second partition is FAT32 and will be for my data.

I do this for two reasons, first, having a partition with just data on it makes it a whole lot easier to backup what I want to backup; that is, the data. I don't care about applications because I have the CDs they originally came on so I can always re-install them. The data, on the other hand, is what I need to backup.

Secondly, God forbid I should have some kind of drive failure, but if I do, I may be able to access the drive by booting from a DOS floppy disk. If I do, DOS will recognize the FAT32 partition and I may be able to copy stuff off the drive that way. Of course, there are drive failures that even booting from a diskette will not be able to help, but at least I'm giving myself another option, one that has saved my bacon more than once. YMMV.

Aloha!

LRP is Dead. Long live the LRP. Anyone who has gone over to the Linux Router Project site in the last six months could have told you it was dead or at least dying. But it is with a heavy heart that I point to the official announcement of its demise here. For a long time I used an LRP-based firewall/router and never had a problem with it. I am sorry there will be no further development of this worthy project.

I note that many people talk about the OpenSource movement and how it is done without commercial inducement. But in the end, if any non-trivial project is to mature and prosper, money will have to come from somewhere. You can't eat code. You can't pay the rent with it. So if you can't find a way of getting people to give you money for it, you will stop working on it and instead work on something that does pay the bills (unless you are already independently wealthy).

This is reality. I'm not saying it's good or bad. It just is. If you want to start an OpenSource project as a hobby, be my guest. Otherwise, think long and hard about what your priorities are and what you want to get out of it.

Another One Bites the Dust. When it comes to politicians, it is always wise to watch what they do, not what they say. For example, our Republican governor, when campaigning for office, praised the work of the Legislative Auditor for rooting out waste and pointing an accusing finger at public programs that were not running well. In fact, one of the Governor's main blanks while running for governor was restoring trust in government. Now that she is in office, and is the target of these very same audits, the Governor wants to weaken the Auditor's Office and vetoed two bills designed to give the Auditor more funding authority and flexibility.

Ever the master of spin, our Governor said cutting the funding for the Auditor's Office would strengthen the office by reducing "waste." I am willing to give the Governor the benefit of the doubt, but I must ask Governor Lingle, how does this restore trust in government by reducing the number of audits?

Aloha!

As you might expect, the new US Federal Trade Commission site (see it here) for creating a list of people who don't want to be called by telemarketers is overwhelmed by the thundering herds trying to get on the list. Telemarketers are then supposed to check the list before they call and if they find your number, they are prohibited from calling you.

Of course, no federal law would be complete without loopholes:

1. The list is for home phone numbers only, not businesses. It's okay to spam you at work.

2. The registration lasts for five years, after that you have to reregister. It's assumed you want to get back on the list so they give you the opportunity for that to happen every five years.

3. If, for whatever reason, you temporarily disconnect your phone service, then reconnect, you must reregister. It's assumed that you want to receive spam so they want to make it as easy as possible for that to happen.

4. The prohibition against calls does not include "political organizations, charities, telephone surveyors, the business of insurance (to the extent that it is regulated by state law), or companies with which you have an existing business relationship." It's assumed that you want to hear from these organizations. Even if you don't, they don't care because they have a strong lobby in Congress. The way these things work, expect more and more organizations to be added to the list as they pay-off urge Congress to remove this onerous intrusion on business rights (as usual, no one cares about your rights - ed.).

For more information, check out the FTC here. This being a government agency, some of the links on their page do not work (like their employees - ed.)

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

Cat's Meow. Having problems with the cats jumping on your computer keyboard? Worse yet, are the cats really into instant messaging? Well, have I got the program for you. Pawsense (see the site here) is designed to "quickly detect and block cat typing..." I kid you not. It monitors and analyzes "keypress timings and combinations to distinguish cat typing from human typing. PawSense normally recognizes a cat on the keyboard within one or two pawsteps."

Acme Engineering. Now, in one place, see all of the engineering feats of this premiere engineering firm (see it here). All have been tested in the desert southwest heat (PETA warning, one animal was repeatedly, over and over, harmed). From adding machines to X-rays, it's all there.

Trying Times. The Army Times, not exactly a bastion of liberal thought, blasts Republican President Bush and Republican controlled Congress for talking about supporting our troops but not backing it up with action (see the story here).

Taken piecemeal, all these corner-cutting moves might be viewed as mere flesh wounds. But even flesh wounds are fatal if you suffer enough of them. It adds up to a troubling pattern that eventually will hurt morale — especially if the current breakneck operations tempo also rolls on unchecked and the tense situations in Iraq and Afghanistan do not ease.

Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas, who notes that the House passed a resolution in March pledging “unequivocal support” to service members and their families, puts it this way: “American military men and women don’t deserve to be saluted with our words and insulted by our actions.”

Translation: Money talks — and we all know what walks.

Much A Do About Much A Do. There has been a simmering revolt against Really Simple Syndication (RSS) (if you don't know or care what RSS is join the club. Otherwise, follow this link here for the explanation). But it apparently erupted into public view like the puss from a pimple (eeeewww - ed.). InfoWorld's columnist Jon Udell has probably as good as commentary on what it's about as any (see it here). Sometimes, out of chaos and pain comes order and lightness. But most times, it's just more chaos and pain.

Aloha!