Misc. Ramblings

The PCs are here! The PCs are here! The five additional PCs we ordered came in late yesterday so I will be spending time installing our software. So I gotta go (I think he means he has to install the software - ed.).

Aloha!

Going Gold. Mozilla 1.4 and Netscape Navigator 7.1 recently went on the wire. Check them out here. Firebird is still holding at 0.6 and appears to be delayed, as compared to their road map but it is still my choice of browser right now.

Gold Plated. The US Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA)FALCON program (see it here) is designed to "develop technologies and demonstrate capabilities that will enable transformational changes in global, time critical strike missions." Translated into hardware it would be a "...Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle (HCV). This autonomous aircraft would be capable of taking off from a conventional military runway and striking targets 9,000 nautical miles distant in less than two hours. It could carry a 12,000-pound payload consisting of Common Aero Vehicles (CAVs), cruise missiles, small diameter bombs or other munitions."

The BBC has nice rendering of the vehicle here.

I wonder how much a thermo-nuclear device (TND) would weigh and whether Superior Hyper-Intelligence Technology would be incorporated into the design?

Gold Mine. Ever buy something from an Internet site and read the privacy statement saying how they will never sell or give away your private information for any purpose? If so, read this story here here about how that does not mean they can't rent or lease the information to others. Don't you just love these businesses that are in the business of getting your private information? Actually selling something is not where they make their money. It's in creating a list of people who are willing to buy stuff over the 'Net. There's big bucks in that business and some are trying to cash in.

I don't know what the solution is but the first step in solving it is in realizing that there is a problem.

Aloha!

I 've talked before about the Hawking Technology Blackhawk FR24 Dual WAN firewall router. The intent of this box is to route two incoming broadband connections to one network. The reason for two connections is to act either as a backup, or if the connections are from the same ISP, split the load across two pipes.

As you may remember, I had problems getting the second connection to automatically come online. But recently, Dr. Pournelle's Byte column talked about how he was able to do this very thing with his FR24 (I wonder where he heard of it).

I figured if it works for him there must be a way of getting it to work for me. So I decided to do some experimenting. But first, the problem I seemed to have was with the DHCP of the FR24. If I manually released the IP addresses it would switch to the backup input. But what I wanted was the FR24 to switch automatically.

I reckoned if I tried changing over to using static internal IP address this might solve the problem. So I manually assigned addresses to the three PCs we have at the Seto Shack, disabled the DHCP in the FR24, noted in the FR24 that these were addresses to let through, rebooted everything, including the FR24, and Bob's your uncle, it worked!

Now, anythime the primary connection fails, the secondary automatically comes online (the FR24 checks the connections about every 30 seconds so it takes about that long for the change over to occur).

Life is sweet.

Tomorrow is an US holiday (Independence Day) so I will not have a post up. I hope you have a safe, but Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

Step into IT. Microsoft has a DVD with a series of demos for Windows XP (see it here). Included is a movie that Dr. Pournelle talks about in his column. The title of the movie is "Step Into Liquid" and is a step above your usual surf movie. You can download the trailer, among others including a clip from "Terminator 2", directly from MS (see it here) or order the DVD (although it doesn't include the Terminator clip) for the cost of shipping charges (sorry, North America only).

Note these clips are in high definition and require 2.5 to 3.0 GHz processors and 4X AGP video cards to display their content (or just play them on your 60-inch HD plasma screen TV).

A wise huckster public relations person once said "Control how a situation is defined and you have won more than half the battle." Such is the case when the media bought into the use of the word "piracy" when it comes to possible copyright infringement.

Once the problem is framed as such, it is but one short step to a solution: online activation. Microsoft was the first major player to require this and now comes Adobe. Information Week (see the article here) is reporting Adobe is testing activation for Photoshop 7 in Australia. The article goes on to say Adobe, barring a revolt from their pirates honest customers, will roll out the requirement next in the US.

While you still have a choice, you may want to start looking for alternatives that don't treat you as a criminal.

Turnabout is Fair Play. A couple of people at MIT have put together a website (see it here) designed to gather as much information as possible about government organizations/corporations/individuals. They figure if the government has the right to spy on its own citizens, it should be okay for those same citizens to spy on their government.

There are some deep questions that are being asked and I'm a little uncomfortable about anyone collecting unedited, unchecked information but I guess what's good for the goose should be good for the gander. Only, if it isn't good for the goose, should the gander do it anyway? You decide.

Aloha!

Aloha, Earthlings. NASA ISS Science Officer Ed Lu is aboard the International Space Station and blogging his experiences here. There's also a link to a photo gallery here which is where the image below comes from. The pic shows what appears to be an IBM laptop running Windows and Godzilla about to eat Asia. Wait! Godzilla? Asia? Run! Run for your lives!

Earth to Lingle. The governor of Hawai'i, Linda Lingle released a press statement yesterday saying she won't be vetoing part of the Judiciary's budget after all. The reason? Because her Attorney General let her know that the Hawai'i Constitution embodies the concept of separation of powers.

As such, the Governor does not run the Judiciary. Neither does she control the Judiciary's budget. Obviously, this was news to her. One can but only wonder at what else she is unaware of. What else doesn't she know about the very basic foundations of our constitution? The mind boggles. Is this the type of change she said she was bringing to government?

FR24 Update. I forgot to mention I had additional problems with the Hawking Technology FR24 Dual WAN Router I've been using. I thought all my problems were solved by disabling their DHCP and using static internal IP addresses. But no. There's more. Even with that change, the router got into a fault state that even unplugging it did not help. I don't know what happened as all was going well until the WAN1 input, the RoadRunner modem went down (this is not unusual, which is why I have the backup, but slower Verizon ADSL). Instead of automatically switching to WAN2, the status light glowed red. I was not able to reset the router because it would not respond to any input while in this state.

The problem persisted until WAN1 came back up. All I can say is when it works, it works well. But when it doesn't, it doesn't at all. Still Not Recommended. I guess I'll have to save my pennies and buy the Nexland.

Step Into Liquid Update. I forgot to mention one of the comments of an interviewee in the surfing movie clip mentioned yesterday. Paraphrasing from memory: "Hang out with old guys and you are going to look good [in comparison to them]." ;) In addition, fellow Daynoter Phil Hough mentioned MS wasn't kidding when they said what the minimum system requirements were for viewing the clips. And finally, I noticed on the DVD sampler I got from MS that the content expires in 60 days. Sigh. I assume MS Mediaplayer will enforce the digital rights of the content. I'll let you know in 59 days.

Aloha!

FR24 Update Part Deux. Fellow Daynoter Dave Markowitz (see his site here) commented yesterday on my trouble with the Hawking Tech FR24 about a Linux-based solution found here. As with many Linux solutions, it does require getting your hands dirty and recompiling the kernel, editing configuration files, and creating scripts but hey, that's half the fun right? [It must be time to readjust Dan's meds again - ed.].

In either case, when I can get the needed hardware together and do a RedHat minimum developmental install I see if I can get this thing running. Be aware, however, it may be awhile as I still have a bunch of things to do, like finish painting our front house, changing the shower head and vanity faucet in the back house guest bathroom, refinish the coffee table and end tables, and finding a good over-under to fling some shot at the proverbial partridge in a pear tree.

A big mahalo to Dave for the link!

Wall-to-Wall. With a new, larger flat-panel LCD monitor at work, I need to get higher resolution wallpapers. One of my favorite spots is the Hubble telescope gallery (see it here). They have wallpapers to 1280X1024 (which is what I'm running). If you're interested in astronomy, or awesome images of the universe, and haven't been there before take a look. If you have your own sites that have great wallpapers let me know and I'll try to make a list.

Aloha!

Search Me? Our new Dell PCs came with Windows XP Pro. While XP is very similar to Windows 2000 Pro, there are differences.

One of those differences is how long it takes to access other servers via Network Places. Clicking on "Add a network place" in "My Network Places" starts up a wizard that eventually asks for the Internet or network address of the server. If you use the browse button to search for the server, the Novell Netware servers pop up almost instantly. But to browse the list of Microsoft servers takes over 20 seconds just for the list to appear. Then you wait another 20 seconds while you select a particular server. And then another 20 seconds while you wait to log in. You probably spent less time reading this then it would take to get to the server and login.

Some solutions can be found at the Practically Networked site here. As with all changes to the registry, if you don't know what you are doing, don't do it. If you do, make a backup of everything before you attempt to edit the registry. You have been warned. I've tried only one of the suggestion (disabling the search for scheduled tasks) but that doesn't seem to have solved my problem. At some point, I assume MS will get around to fixing this, but until then, XP Pro really sucks pregnant dust bunnies through a collapsed straw when it comes to discovering MS servers on the network.

Does Size Matter? Awhile back there was a TV commercial in which a man is seen driving home from the electronics store with the newest Whizbang 6 computer in the backseat. The man is proudly looking around showing off his new purchase when he sees a billboard advertising the newer Whizbang 7.

So imagine the chagrin of someone who just installed the megabucks 60-inch (~1.52m) plasma display TV from LG Electronics when s/he finds out LG has released a 71-inch (~1.8m) model (see it here). Of course, if you have the money to buy a 60-incher you probably can afford the 71. By the way, it may not be a coincidence that the 71 is one inch larger than the 70-inch model rival Samsung recently announced.

Aloha!

I've used most of the time I have to write this post searching the Internet for MovableType templates I might want switch to. Unfortunately, I can find a lot of examples for other content managers but not so much for MT. If anyone knows of any repositories of MT templates please leave a comment. Thanks in advance.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

The first law of bureaucracies is never, ever, voluntarily downsize. Indeed, some would say the primary mission of bureaucracies is to grow larger, regardless of the why the bureaucracy was created and regardless of whether growing larger would have any positive effect.

Thus, when victory against Cold War communism was declared and you had a bunch of billion dollar Trident submarines with no mission the question was never how to decommission the subs. Rather, the military (which may be the most expensive government bureaucracy of all) went looking for a mission the submarines could do, regardless of whether it made economic sense to do it.

While the missions found for these subs (covert insertion of forces, intelligence gathering, and Tomahawk missile platform) may be critical to the safety of the nation, one must wonder if the Trident-class submarine is the most efficient way of doing it?

In either case, see this glowing article here about the conversion of four Trident submarines to the above missions.

While I was working on my Masters, access to the Internet was not just a Good Thing, it was critical to our success. If it weren't for e-mail, we would not have been able to shuttle drafts for our paper back and forth as easily. If it wasn't for the sources on the Internet, it wouldn't have been possible to do research as efficiently.

Hence, I was willing to pay for redundant broadband sources - one being the Road Runner cable modem from our cable TV provider and the other being ADSL from Verizon, our phone service provider. I did this so that if one went down, I had access through the other. And I'm glad I did because several times during the last six months having that backup saved me from a lot of extra work.

However, now that I've graduated, the need for redundant Internet access is decreased. While access is still important, it does not rise to being critical to my professional success. So this past weekend I decided to terminate one of the services.

Which to terminate was a difficult choice. Road Runner was clearly faster than ADSL. Using real world download speeds, the cable modem would typically clock 1.5MB/sec while the ADSL would strain to reach 700K/sec. On the other hand, Road Runner at about $45USD/month was about $10 more (now that Verizon has dropped their rates to about $35/month).

But in the end, the paramount criterion was reliability. For it matters not how fast a theoretical connection is if it's not working at all. Therefore, I terminated the Road Runner because it had service outages on a daily basis. Sometimes, more than once a day. Further, when I would call support to get help, it would take two weeks before someone could be scheduled to come out and check the connection.

So, I reluctantly traded speed for reliability. I am hopeful that someday Road Runner will become more reliable or that Verizon will provide faster speed, but I guess I'm not holding my breath.

Aloha!

Hawai'i Governor Linda "What? Me Spin a Story?" Lingle is at it again. She got 30 minutes of free TV time from a local station to broadcast what was a political campaign speech in the guise of news. All of the other stations declined to carry the speech. Perhaps not totally coincidentally, that same TV station then got a free trip to Japan with the Governor, paid by tax payer dollars, to cover her efforts to get more visitors to come to Hawai'i.

Neither the Governor nor the TV station see anything wrong with this picture. Neither see the co-opting of the adversarial relationship between the press and politicians as a Bad Thing. Heck, one hand washes the other, right? So what's the big deal about a business and government partnering to get the word out about the good works the Governor is doing?

Surely, you wouldn't suggest that the TV station might shade the reporting just a tad knowing that the bills are being paid by someone else? Surely, they wouldn't produce a puff piece about how spending taxpayer money on a junket is fine but funding for anti-child abuse safety programs should be line-item vetoed (which is what the Governor did just moments before going on her trip)?

Even better, the Governor used her classic response to those questioning her judgment by attacking the questioners and accusing them of not covering enough of the things she does purely out of the goodness of her heart. Why aren't all the TV stations giving her free time for campaign speeches? Why aren't all of the TV stations covering every carefully crafted press release? Why does she have so much trouble with these pesky questions while the Big Things she does for the state go unnoticed?

"Where is the justice?"; she asks. Indeed.

Just Googling. Search on "weapons of mass destruction" and you may get this. Search on "French military victories" and you might get this.

Aloha!

Leapin' Lizards. I don't know what to make of yesterday's announcement that AOL would cut Mozilla loose and give $2 million USD over the next two years as start-up funding to a foundation (see the press release here). The foundation would be tasked with developing Mozilla. Left unsaid is what happens after the funding is used up.

Perhaps as an indication of what is in store for the lizard is this article here that says "...AOL has cut or will cut the remaining team working on Mozilla in a mass firing and are dismantling what was left of Netscape (they've even pulled the logos off the buildings). Some will remain working on Mozilla during the transition, and will move to other jobs within AOL."

Perhaps these are just two sides of the same coin but I hope Mozilla has a business plan that can take it into the future because I respect and value the fine work they are doing. Having said that, they must find another source of funding or this effort too will fade.

The computer revolution, to a great extent, has passed by the very people who need it the most. Namely, those in offices who could be more productive but are unable to grasp the power of the PC.

Note the power I'm referring to is not just the speed of processing in a PC. If it were that easy, all you would have to do is buy a faster PC and you would become smarter.

But it doesn't work that way. Bringing automation to the office environment is at least worthless, and possibly counter-productive, if you don't modify how you do things to take advantage of the leverage found in PCs.

Making electronic a process you do on paper may decrease the time needed to move the paper. But unless you rethink the process and how it could be integrated into an electronic environment, you are missing more than half the power of the PC.

But how can you modify your processes until you are trained in using PCs? For example, I recently configured and installed six new Dell Pentium 4 PCs. Part of the process is transferring the data and configuration files from the old PCs to the new. These files include word processing documents, spreadsheets, Internet Explorer favorites/Netscape bookmarks, email, and macros.

So I tell our people they need to copy off such files because,obviously, the new PCs will not have them. But all I get are blank stares.

Q: What do you mean they won't be on the new ones?
Q: Files? What are files?
A: Those are the documents, spreadsheets, or e-mails that you've created over the last four years with the applications you have.

Q:What are applications?
A: Those are the word processing, spreadsheet, and email programs you use to create documents.

Q: Where are these files?
A: They may be on your hard drive or you may have saved them to floppies.

Q: What's a hard drive?
A: It's a device that stores information that you want to keep until such time you erase it.

Q: Okay, why don't my files show up in the new PC?
A: Because you have to copy them from the old to the new as they will not automatically do so by themselves.

Q: Will I have to load Windows Explorer on the new PC?
A: No, that's part of Windows and has been so for years.

Q: Oh. Well, what about my UltraTurbo PDA sync software that I downloaded from the Internet?
A: That you'll have to install yourself. All I'm doing is setting up the office standard suite of programs. Anything beyond that you are responsible.

Once the new PCs were on their desks they looked confused.

Q: I thought you installed Microsoft Office.
A: Yes, I did.

Q: Well, where is the picture thingy on the screen that I click on to start Word?
A: Office does not place icons on the desktop. If you want to, you may right-click and drag these from the Start menu/programs listing.

Apparently, this was not explanation enough as several re-installed programs because they did not see the "picture thingy" on their screen (which they proceeded to clutter their desktop with because programs do not exist unless they can see it on their desktop). Even though these programs were already installed and configured. They then wondered why the programs weren't working right, seeing that they had just written over the configuration files with the new install. Sigh.

These are some of the questions asked by people here. These are not uneducated people. They are all people who have Ph.Ds and MAs. Two were even teachers. But these are people who clearly do not understand even the most simple of concepts regarding PCs. How then are we to become productive using devices we have no understanding of? How then can we be productive when we actively resist going to a new PC because we would have to learn a new way of doing something? Something that has taken us four years to become comfortable with?

Aloha!

As I understand it, fellow Daynoter Sjon comments below seems to be saying the answer to yesterday's problem with getting people to understand PCs is to not have any. That is, the answer is apparently to go back to using thin clients and centralized computers running, storing, and controlling all applications and its data.

There is much to be said for this approach. There is no need to install new software on each PC and the data is all stored on a central server. The need for user support can be reduced since everything is centralized and controlled by people who are trained to do so. In addition, using thin clients allows the creation of a virtual desktop in which you can login from any terminal anywhere on the network and see the same suite of applications and data that you have sitting at your desk. It's already being done as many people are using Microsoft's services: Hotmail and .Net.

So the answer is not necessarily a choice between one or the other. There is value in both.

But for me, they can take my PC when they pry it from my cold dead fingers. With all due respect to the people who toil everyday trying to support users who are dangerous with the tools they already have, the answer to ignorance is not more ignorance.

The power of personal computing is a distributed power. It is democratic. It is entrusting the user to understand better what they need to do their jobs than a well-intentioned technician in an office two towers away. It is a realization that centralized planning, for the most part, has not and does not work. It gives voice to the user in a time where the opportunity for conversation is in mortal danger.

No, the answer to yesterday's problem is not to take away the very tools needed to do our jobs. The answer is education. Teach people how to use PCs. Then teach them to think about the processes they apply during the workday and reflect on how they could be modified/deleted to leverage the power of the PC. In other words, how to become not only faster in processing what they do, but doing it in a smarter way. A way that streamlines or totally eliminates steps.

For example, cases filed in court used to be registered by writing their names in a ledger. If anyone wanted to know what was filed, you had to consult the ledger. When mainframes came along, applications were written to computerize this so that everyone who had access to the mainframe had access to this database. While this certainly was a Good Thing, productivity did not rise very much because all that was being done was transferring the process from one medium to another.

But productivity really soared when people had PCs on their desks and could use them to download the data and then fold, spindle and staple it into information that could be used. Where they could take data collecting dust and use it as fuel to power the engine of change. Where ad hoc queries could be done instantly rather than requiring a SQL programmer to code a request and return the result sometime later that year. All of sudden, information that could be used to make good decisions became available. But only by those who had the tools and the knowledge to use them.

In summary, there are applications and data that make sense to be on a centralized server. But at the same time, there are other applications and data that allow productivity gains only when located on a personal computer. What is needed is the knowledge, and perhaps some wisdom, to the determine which belongs where and how best to use it.

Aloha!

Two-Faced Two-Step. Would President Bush's administration break the law and breach national security to keep the truth from being told? Perhaps. In a world where the ends justify the means, I could see how easily this could happen. One hopes, however, and perhaps I am being naive, that it has not.

A writer for The Nation (see the column here) says the Bush administration may have blown the cover of a CIA operative in order to punish the operative and her husband. The husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV, went to Niger to run down the source of the now infamous Iraqi nuclear weapons program buy.

The Ambassador came back and indicated the report of the buy was probably not true. Of course, the Bush Administration already reeling from the lack of evidence pointing to weapons of mass destruction, did not look kindly on the report. And if you believe The Nation, decided to make sure no one else got the bright idea of telling the truth by outing the Ambassador's wife. Of course, no one is confirming or denying she works for the CIA but the Ambassador is quoted as saying:

Naming her this way would have compromised every operation, every relationship, every network with which she had been associated in her entire career. This is the stuff of Kim Philby and Aldrich Ames.

This story has more twists and turns than Mulholland Drive. But, as the saying goes in Washington, it has traction. And it is growing, regardless of these efforts to make it go away, or perhaps because of it.

Voo Doo Two. Let me tell you a secret: There is no free lunch. One wonders how much longer the Bush administration can last. I mean, how long can you continue to cut taxes while increasing spending but say, with a straight face, that the increasing deficit has nothing to do with this (see this article here on this and other Bush administration flim flam)? What part of Economics 101 did these people fail to understand? Cutting taxes and increasing spending works only in an expanding economy. One in which tax revenues are increasing through increased economic activity.

Note, and this is the critical point, the economy must already be expanding when you cut the taxes. If it is not, doing these things will guarantee deficits and no, cutting taxes will not lead to economic expansion so much as it will lead to greater deficits. Forget not the results of the Reagan administration's dalliance with this wrong-headed policy. Huge deficits. Inflation. Unemployment. Will we never learn?

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

Competition is Good. If readers of this site remember nothing else, remember this: Competition is Good. Alternatives that are different are good. Big Business hates competition and loves monopolies because they can maximize profits where there is no competition.

Consider then this site here that notes that we live within a window of opportunity [no pun intended]. Browser Wars I may have been won by Microsoft's Internet Explorer but that doesn't mean there aren't worthy competitors out there. And if history is any indicator, the dominant application today can easily turn into tomorrow's has been.

So, consider the alternatives and determine whether Mozilla, Opera, Apple's Safari, or one of the other alternatives here are better for your use than IE. Consider whether the alternatives provide a competitive advantage to you and your business. If they do, switch to them. If not, don't.

But I think if you do, you'll be better off in the long run.

Making the Leap. A lot of people talk about trust but few actually do. This site here tells the story of Ralph. Ralph sells coffee and donuts in New York city. He has one of those little carts the city that never sleeps is known for. But he operates it a little differently from his competitors. He trusts his customers. Read the story and you'll understand how by doing so, he makes more money than the other guys.

I will be busy through the end of the week so things will be a bit spotty around here. While I think I'll have time to do a post tomorrow and maybe Thursday and Friday, I can't say for sure. I also won't have the time to read e-mail so don't expect timely replies. Check in when you can and see if there's anything to see. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Aloha!

Sorry, nothing here to see. Move along folks, move along.

It's Friday! And the living is easy. Spent the last four days on vacation at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Ali'i Tower in Waikiki. Nice ocean view room, king sized bed, nice sized bathroom with double sinks, big shower, and separate room for the toilet.

I'll have a little more complete post on Monday and hopefully some pics. See you then.

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!

SWMBO and I went on a short vacation last week. From Monday through Friday morning we were at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Ali'i Tower. Ali'i Tower, one of several hotels on the property, is on the beach facing Diamond Head. The Tower features it's own pool/sun deck, whirlpool, and business center. Each room includes a direct telephone line and dedicated fax line. The fax line is hooked up to an HP all-in-one fax/scanner/printer. Unfortunately, Internet access is either through your laptop hooked into the phone line or via their TV. Not exactly business friendly but at least there are ports on the side of the two phones in the bedroom (the phone in the bathroom does not have a port).

Diamond Head, or Leahi as it is known in Hawai'ian, can barely be seen in the distance. During the building boom of the 1960s to 70s, the state bird was (facetiously) the construction crane - being that so many hotels were built to accommodate the increased number of visitors with the coming of cheaper jet aircraft service. Fortunately, there is still some open areas - including this park in front of the Hale Koa Hotel (for the military) next door to the Hilton. Also nice is the wide white-sand beach fronting this part of the village. This is in contrast to those hotels in the heart of Waikiki which are almost right up to the water's edge - leaving precious little beach to walk on.

This is another shot of the park and gives a better sense of depth. With hotels being built so close to each other it is rare in Waikiki to have open space. It is one of the reasons we chose this hotel over some of the more luxurious ones. The park itself has shaded picnic benches and barbecues so anyone can spend a nice day at the beach without being run over by thousands of pink skinned visitors. Speaking of the beach, we were unfortunately there during the time of the month in which the box jelly fish come in (see one account of what happens each month here). So we were unable/unwilling to set foot in the water, at least, not until later in the week when the warning signs were taken down. By that time, we were at our next hotel, but I will save that for tomorrow's post.

One of the things we did while at the Hilton was take a submarine ride. The picture on the left is of the good ship "Discovery" as it docked in front of our hotel (as seen from our room on the 13th floor). The Discovery takes you out about a mile off Waikiki to one of three Atlantis submarines. The larger sub holds 64 and the smaller two, one of which we were on, holds 48. The Discovery pulls up next to the subs and transfers the passengers over in the open ocean. Needless to say, if there are big waves or high winds, this is not a Good Thing. Even on the day we went, with waves in the one to four foot range, it is not something you want to do unless you've taken sea sickness pills and you are sure of foot. In either case, once on board and the sub and has reached at least 20-feet below the surface things settle down nicely (at one point you reach about 120-ft. down).

This is looking forward, towards the captain, and out the huge 4-inch thick plexi-glass dome. There are ports along the side of the sub for each passenger to look out but since I was sitting directly behind the captain I spent as much time looking forward as to the side. Due to the last hurricane that came near the islands (about 10 years ago), the near-shore bottom was pretty much scraped clean of marine growth/coral. As a result, Atlantis spent a fair amount of time and money creating artificial reefs so as to attract fish and coral growth.

The first of the reefs is called "Pyramids" because of the shape of the concrete blocks. This is a Japanese design that creates a series of floors and ceilings that the smaller fish can hide in. Hiding is something smaller fish need to do to keep from getting eaten by larger predatory fish. Hence, if the bottom is clean of hiding spaces, you won't find many fish hanging around. Conversely, creating a multitude of spaces for small fish will result in fish congregating there. In addition, coral and other marine organisms will soon build their homes, thus creating even more places for small fish. And where there are small fish, the larger fish are soon to come. And where there are sea life to look at, people will follow.

This next artificial reef is a section of an airplane. Pictured is part of the fuselage but the entire plane was sunk. Over time, and with strong currents and storms, the plane has broken apart and is scattered in several places. The plane was from an inter-island airline that went bankrupt. Atlantis bought the plane, and after removing toxic materials, sank the plane to create a home for fish. The plane hasn't been underwater for that long so you don't see much marine growth, however, the fish do seem to like it.

This third reef is an old fishing boat that was no longer being used. As with the plane, it needed to be cleansed of all hazardous materials, including its fuel oil and reportedly took much time and effort to do so. The object in the center is a large turtle that has made the ship its temporary home. Be aware that the Hawai'ian green sea turtle is a protected species under state and federal law. Unfortunately, this has not stopped people from hunting these creatures almost to extinction. You can also see the beginning of coral heads, which is an indication that the ship has been there for at least 10 years.

I thought this was an interesting shot of a couple of dragon boats tied up along side the dock. We saw tourists going out in them but decided we would rather have an engine push us along rather than have to paddle this heavy thing! For those interested, you can follow the link above to the history of dragon boat racing and how it has become an international festival. As with many ancient rites, it is based on superstition but has become secularized into what it is today. In any case, the boats are colorful and are something to see when they are moving along at a fast clip. We've seen the races at Ala Moana park in which a rider sits on the head of the dragon and reaches for the flag at the finish line. Even if you cross the finish line first, you must still have the flag grasped in your hands. So it is possible for a slower boat to win if the flag-person is not good with their hands.

From dragons to birds. In this case, some flamingoes and a lone black swan. Long-time readers of this column will remember my run-in with a black swan last year on Maui. It seems the swans are rather territorial and will charge towards you if they think you are encroaching on their turf (or water, as the case may be). However, this particular one seemed tamer and would let people touch it. Being that as it may, the village grounds had water fowl of various kinds populating the many artificial lagoons and rivers. But, they are not pets. Hence, do not think you can treat them as such unless you want to be called "Lefty."

Most people think of penguins in cold climates. But from what I understand, there are more warm weather species than cold. I don't know the particular species these are from but they have a little habitat on the grounds of the village and draw quite a crowd during the twice-daily feeding times (8:00am and 3:00pm). It is during these times that the penguins are most active so if you want to see them doing something other than sleeping, those two times are when you want to be there. It is kind of cute how then line up during feeding and wait their turns to get their daily fish. I didn't have my camera with me but they all line up and are fed one-by-one. Although, there was one penguin that got tired of waiting and cut in to the front of the line. But as far as I could see, there was no retaliation by any of the others waiting. [G]

I'm out of time and this will have to be posted later than normal because I have to get to work. Tomorrow I will have a short post on the hotel we went to on Friday.

Aloha!

The First Lady of Waikiki. The Sheraton Moana Surfrider was the first hotel in Waikiki (circa 1901). As such, it is unique in many ways. I'm talking about being the location from which the original radio show "Hawaii Calls" came from in the 1930's. I'm talking about the old world little things that separate the great hotels from the also rans like changing the floor mats in the elevators, each with a greeting for good morning, afternoon, and evening. I'm talking about having high tea on the veranda in the afternoon. I'm talking about a grand piano in the lounge and an opera trained singer to go with it. I'm talking about a host giving you a lei as you check in.

The Moana is where we stayed last Friday. It was a gift to celebrate our wedding anniversary from my step-daughter. But be aware that since the hotel is old, and if you stay in the original Banyan Tower as we did, you have to understand what that means. It means the rooms, while larger than a standard hotel room, were not designed for modern conveniences like electricity. So don't be surprised to see electrical conduit running along the baseboards. And don't be surprised to smell a certain mustiness in a room older than some countries. And don't be surprised if the wooden floors of the lanai creak a little when you walk on them.

Still, if you want to experience things from a bygone era, this is the place to stay.

Danger Will Robinson. Feel to skip this as it will be your standard rant about ThePhoneCompany. In this case, it's Verizon. Both in its incarnation as a wireless and also as an Internet provider.

First the wireless. I've had problems using their on-line automatic bill paying from the start. It took them months and numerous phone calls before they got their act together and started automatic payments from my credit card. But eventually things settled down and all was well.

That is, until they decided to switch their billing company. That's when things went down hill again. Out-of-the blue, I get a notice that I've not paid my wireless bill. Hmmm. That should be impossible being that I have automatic payment of the bill. But leave it to the phone company to get that wrong.

So I call the number on the bill for these types of questions and speak to someone who says they have no information regarding any automatic payments for my account. Hmmmm. Since I've been doing this for over a year, that seems improbable, if not impossible. So he transfer's me to Finance and someone named "Crystal".

Crystal tells me about a recent change in billing company and how a mere handful of customers had problems - me being one of them. But don't worry, all I have to do is make the June payment and the July one will be automatically deducted as before. She suggests I go to their website and make the payment via credit card. Which I do. At least, I go to their website and try to find a way of paying a single payment via credit card as I am already signed-up for automatic monthly payments. I seem to find a way of doing so but decided to check back the next day to make sure the payment was made.

The next day I check, and sure enough, no payment. Sigh. In addition, my automatic payment plan has now been deleted and no payments are being made. Further, there does not appear to be a way of reinstating the automatic payments. The only options available are "On Demand" payments, which means I have to log-in each month and go through this system that is not working. Sigh.

I wait one more day and sure enough, all the options are back. So I change my "no payments" to automatic payment via charge card. This morning, I get an email from Verizon saying I can not change to automatic payments because I already have another type of payment plan in place. It does not say what type of plan in place, only that I can't change it. But as far as I can see, the plan I have is no payments at all as none are occurring.

I should mention that all during this time I'm getting bills in the mail saying I am past due and they will terminate service. If these cell phones weren't for my mother and wife I would terminate their f*#king service and switch to someone else (which I may do anyway). As it is, my own service is through AT&T. Say what you will about them, but at least they get the billing right.

And now for the land-line side of the story. I get Internet access through Verizon ADSL. The posted speed is 768 down/128 up, or at least, that's what used to be posted. Verizon recently made some changes and their website no longer indicates what the residential speed is. All they say is they are much faster than dial-up. They also used to say how they were faster than cable modems but they no longer say that either (which is a good thing because 768 down is about half of what I got via RoadRunner cable service. In fact, at times, I got between 2 and 3mb/sec. Once you've experienced that kind of speed, dropping down to 768 seems like running in molasses).

In any case, Verizon recently lowered the price of this service, and according to the Verizon person I talked to on the phone, they also increased the speed to 1.5mb/sec. Hmmm. I know that's what they said, but I'm still barely getting 700kb/sec. So the person checks to see if my line is qualified for 1.5/sec and after a short delay, the answer is yes, it is. So why aren't I getting 1.5 or something close to it? They can't tell me, but will gladly transfer me to customer service so I can find out.

As many of you know, customer service is seen as a cost center and thus, something that must be minimized. Hence, while I got a sales representative in under three rings, I am put on hold when I need to speak to customer service. And hold I am for five minutes before I give up.

When will a company realize that I would be willing to pay a little more if they acted as if the money I pay to them runs their business? That I would loyally stick with a company that acts as if the customer is not a disruption to their business plan, but rather is the most important piece?

I am sick and tired of being treated like rubbish. I am the customer. My money pays their inflated salaries. I refuse to bend over and say thank you to service that isn't even of minimal quality.

Aloha!

Firebird 0.6.1 Mozilla released what they describe as a "minor bug-fix release" recently. Fixed are: The auto-complete crash bug, the DOM security restriction bug that broke many bookmarklets, contentEditable support, brushed up default theme, including updated toolbar icons, and a new application icon. If any of these bugs have bit you, you may want to visit their site here.

Inductive Reasoning The Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories site has an interesting page on something they call iGlassware (see it here). It is based on the following:

Since restaurants often make much of their profits on drinks, it is critical for servers to offer refills in a timely fashion. We propose wireless liquid level sensing glassware to aid in this task. Specially instrumented glassware detects fluid levels via a high-resolution capacitance measurement. A coil embedded in the table inductively couples power to the glasses, and provides a path for data exchange. Our prototype glass uses a standard microprocessor and a small number of passive components, making it extremely inexpensive.

Don't ask me if this is for real or a very well done hoax, but it's interesting nonetheless.

I've got a busy day ahead so I gotta go.

Aloha!

I seem to have a never ending battle with our IT people. Right now, two things are bothering me, both involving e-mail.

The first is the smaller of the two and involves how the Lotus Notes server is setup. Currently, we have to use the proprietary (read that expensive) Lotus Notes client to access the server. Although the server can be setup to use the widely accepted POP3 and SMTP protocols, our IT people would rather tie us to the proprietary software from Lotus. While this does allow us to use the "features" of Notes, such as calendaring and such, it comes at a very large cost (about $100US per license vs. no cost for any POP3/SMTP mail client and, of course, about $50,000 for the Notes server license). In these times of economic downturn, one has to wonder which is more important, calendaring or saving tens of thousands of dollars per year?

The other thing relates to domain names. Our current domain is courts.state.hi.us. As far as I know, it is compliant with the standard naming conventions for non-federal (US) governmental agencies. While all government entities in the US, through about 1994, used the .GOV top-level domain, I think it changed to having only US federal agencies to use .GOV and all other government agencies to use the .US domain. This is based on RFC 1581.

I don't know if things have changed since then, but as far as I know, it hasn't. If it hasn't, I have to wonder why we are beginning the process to change from .US to .GOV? I contacted the head of our IT division and he said we are just following the Hawai'i Executive Branch which has already changed over. When I asked him what RFC or other Internet standard this was based on he said he did not know and referred my to the Executive Branch person in charge of that change.

If anyone can point to anything that says, one way or the other, which domain state government agencies are to use I would appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

Aloha!